Ross Desmond- Director of Football at Celtic?

Paul Larkin has claimed that Ross Desmond was/is being prepared for a hands on role at Celtic.

Whether his disastrous performance at the aborted 2025 AGM has put that idea on hold remains to be seen.

After the disastrous appointment of Mark Lawwell as Head of Recruitment and Scouting the arrival of Desmond Mini would create uproar.

Larkin has produced a couple of books and documentaries about the underside of Scottish football. The influence of the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association being a prime example.

Now Celtic fans are looking more and more in-house to view the problems facing the club.

While Celtic are technically a Public Limited Company it is very clear that major decisions, and perhaps minor ones too have to be approved by Dermot Desmond.

This season Brendan Rodgers and Martin O’Neill have both referenced the influence of the Non Executive Director.

DESMOND & DESMOND- THE FUTURE FOR CELTIC?

Desmond hasn’t appeared at a Celtic AGM since 2008.

The last match that he attended in person was the Europa League defeat from Romain December.

One of the eight games where Wilfried Nancy was in charge. Within a month Nancy and Paul Tisdale had left Celtic.

Digging under the surface at matters around the club, in his substack website Larkin reflects:

It was clear Brendan Rodgers wasn’t happy but I was constantly told it wasn’t down to Peter Lawwell this time and I found that hard to believe but it was true. Lawwell had been stood down by Dermot Desmond and his power allotted to Paul Tisdale (and we know how that worked out)

I won’t bore you with what you’ve already seen this season but the key moment was the AGM when Ross Desmond, the chosen son, read out statement berating the fans. Dermot has been laying the groundwork for years to have Ross take over even allowing Lawwell to give his boy the director of Fitba role to make it look like it was perfectly normal to have an under qualified nepo baby in such a huge role.

Since the heckling of the speech, Ross Desmond has been in “the big boys and girls won’t play with me” mode. He’s the one who watches the podcasts and insists to Pa Desmond that these fan media folk must not be seen again as they say bad words and don’t believe everything we say.

Anyone monitoring Celtic fan media will know that giving Ross a job would be as popular as making John Beaton CEO. Not that Beaton could do any more harm that Michael Nicholson.

There has been no follow up statement or comment from either of the Desmond’s following the AGM in November.

Fans anticipating a summer of change are likely to be disappointed with zero sign of anyone inside of Celtic taking responsibility for a horrific run that can be traced back to the decision to sell Kyogo in January 2025 with Shin Yamada the replacement declined by Rodgers.

CLICK HERE for Paul Larkin’s substack site.

The moment the AGM got a straight Red. #CelticAGM pic.twitter.com/8Ei4nzbfbn

— Glasgow Dave (@glasgowdave571) November 21, 2025