PAISLEY, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 25: Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson during a William Hill Premiership match between St Mirren and Celtic at the SMiSA Stadium, on August 25, 2024, in Paisley, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Paul John Dykes has admitted that he was absolutely seething when he left last week’s meeting between the Celtic executives and a selection of supporter groups.
Almost a month after an open letter from the Green Brigade/North Curve went viral supporter reps were invited to speak with the club.
Between the letter being published online and the meeting the Celtic Fans Collective has been formed.
SPARKING THE COLLECTIVE
Over 400 supporter groups and fan media outlets backed the questions. Calling for answers and accountability from the club.
Along the way The Sun published concerns from senior figures at the club about Brendan Rodgers. The next day Celtic published a 1030 word statement that seemed to ignite the concerns of supporters.
Dykes hosts the popular ACSOM podcast which goes out at 12.30 every weekday. With 35,000 subscribers it reaches a large number of Celtic fans on a daily basis.
Last Monday he was one of the six Collective members that met up with Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay.
It took until 5pm on Thursday to publish the Minutes of the meeting. Fans were shocked at the attitude of the executives, the contempt and discontent with supporters.
Dykes had to hold fire on the detail when he hosted ACSOM last week, with the minutes out the handbrake on emotions is off.
8 minutes 50 seconds
I need to keep saying this and highlighting it. The Minutes don’t tell the full story. They are not a verbatim account of what happened in the two and a half hours of that particular meeting.
If anybody is reading through those Minutes and thinking ‘WOW, look at the contempt from the board’. It doesn’t even touch the sides.
I’m telling you, being in that room . It was unbelievable, it was palpable the contempt which those individuals have for us Celtic supporters.
I read yesterday that there was a concession revealed in an email in relation to the Europa League single tickets. That was something raised at the meeting.
The response on the night was completely inadequate, it was raised. The clone just kept going back to Max Headroom mode, it was just dis-functioning. He just kept repeating himself ‘Yes, but we are the cheapest package for a UK team in the Europa League’. He just kept saying it.
I’m sitting thinking ‘does this work normally when you are in a room of people?’ Probably not going by your transfer record and how much money you pay for players, or not as the case may be.
But I need to underline that, being in the room, if you read those Minutes and think that there is discontent, or that we’re not on the same page, we’re not singing from the same hymn sheet or whatever it may be.
It was nowhere near the reality of it (the Minutes), nowhere near. I came out of that room absolutely seething with anger in relation to how far removed their vision of the club, the culture of those at the football club is from us as supporters.
Almost every answer from the club seemed to alarm supporters.
Nicholson restated his claims about the world class ambitions of the club highlighting being in European group stage football in 19 of the last 20 seasons.
He had no intention of investigating a report in The Sun which Rodgers had described as cowardly. The manager expects whoever is involved to be sacked over it.
When the club CEO was quizzed on what Rodgers meant by club signings Nicholson shrugged his shoulders!
That reaction is included in the agreed joint Minutes from the meeting.
Maybe that just further confirms what many of us [?] think:
that the current Board members have neither the aptitude – nor the will – to address the
concerns of the paying punters.
[And it doesn’t even matter if our concerns are valid or not:
it’s the Board’s job to deal with stakeholders’ concerns.]
Looks like there is no ‘middle ground’ to be found with this particular Board…?
This is where the Board have it easy. Sports of all types have it easy. Fans/customers are emotionally attached to their club. They aren’t going to take their business elsewhere, at worst they will stop going.
This Board have repeatedly shown that they are incapable of self analysis or critique. There is no emphasis on continual improvement, of honing what works well and improving what has not reached the levels set. But then again if you have no benchmarks then everything always seems to be working perfectly. The only benchmarks we seem to have is on the business side: driving up costs and margins. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any on the playing side whether that is in recruitment or the timeliness of it.
The annual bonuses is a disgrace. The only way anyone at Celtic should get a bonus is if the team wins a Treble. That should be the starting point. Qualification for the Champions League should be the next level. Progress from the group to the knock out game is another level. In this way mind’s on the Board may be concentrated on the playing squad.
Anything other than that is a licence for this Board to print money for themselves.
Editor: Tomorrow they will get a bit of a jolt with the new exciting Adidas launch. Merch is a big earner, Adidas aren’t a charity.
Their bonuses and lack of spending are not mutually exclusive, they are intrinsically linked. The more money on the spreadsheet, the more they can justify their end of year payout. They’re at it, every one of them.
I have Long Suspect That there is a Connection??
5WA prevents Celtic from leaving Sevco behind as an also ran.
Plain & simple.
It has to be Bhoy4life given the sabotage we’ve seen from ‘Daddy’ ‘Lucan’ and ‘Sly’ this summer !
The meeting answered one question, it is now obvious why he is gagged and confined to quarters.
Michael “Captain Smirk” Nicholson didn’t need to set his phaser to stun in order to neutralize the Celtic Collective, his tone of voice, illogical answers and that patronising statement confirmed his main aim is to last long and prosper. The Enterprise is to boldly earn what no man has earned before as a Celtic CEO and remain in the final front tier of the directors box.
The claim that he expects to produce Champions League level players from the current B team is laughable. He shows no ambition to progress Celtic to the next level.
Instead of disciplining the large gas giant, Peter “Ming the Merciless” Lawwell for misconduct, he declared the dark matter closed. Ming’s beef with Luck Rodgers moved him to create the big bang.
Relativity speaking, the aroma bore a malice circulating from the Sun didn’t have much effect on Celtic’s mission control centre, where no in-house man has gone before.
Captain Smirk’s less than stellar exploration to identify the suspect, is shown by calling his crew to action stations, commanding them to keep their hatches shut and for Ming to plug his leaking black hole.
It’s time for Captain Smirk to enter the transporter, beam him out Dermot!
As the song went back in the 80’s….” there’sssss…..Klingons on the Celtic board, Celtic board, Celtic board, there’s Klingons on the Celtic board….shake em off Tims!!
You not think there should be 1-2 people reporting on the meeting or any meetings we are going to do with that board, as soon as the meeting finished we had individual snippets of the meeting coming online, you went in as a group but individuals wanted to be first to inform the fans. It should have been one collective response the day after or couple of days. Board thinking it’s just individuals if they can’t keep together we don’t need to bother.
Editor: It will be kept together, don’t worry. Every action from Nicholson and his boss ensures that.
What’s the chances of live streaming these meetings?
Opens them up to a much wider audience, and we can all see their disdain for ourselves.