Celtic and their media secrets

Josh McCafferty has been giving away some of the secrets of the deal between Celtic and their media partners.

The Herald reporter has been soft soaping the Celtic hierarchy over the last 10 days with coverage of the matches against Shelbourne and Sporting Lisbon.

Barely a critical question has been asked of Martin O’Neill as summer 2026 eclipses the shambles of 12 months ago.

Think Kairat Almaty.

That of course led to three changes in management, a shambles of an AGM and a Chairman quitting due to a seriously petted lip. And an angry rant from a Non Executive Director on the club website 20 minutes after announcing the resignation of Brendan Rodgers.

No lessons have been learned. The same people as in charge with the exception of Paul Tisdale.

Across fan websites, podcasts and social media Celtic fans are highlighting the issues and warning of the consequences.

CELTIC AND THEIR CHOSEN MESSENGERS

Out in the Algarve Celtic’s favourite media partners have been in action. The Herald, Sun and Daily Record.

All orchestrated, all handed the same content, all agreeing to publish at the same time. All obedient and on message and of course all giggling away at Martin O’Neill’s putdowns and asides. With absolutely no follow up questions.

When O’Neill says that the club is in talks over a new deal with Kelechi Iheanacho no-one asks what has caused the seven/eight week delay.

When O’Neill says that Iheanacho needs a good pre-season no one highlights that he has been missing since June 27 at Lennoxtown.

O’Neill has taken the blame for the delayed appointments of Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham. No one asks what his concerns were, did he have other candidates in mind.

Fotheringham was announced as part of the backroom staff at 8.30 on June 27. That morning Grant and Fotheringham were training together at Lennoxtown.

It’s been interesting seeing players after sessions because you speak to them after it very tired. We’ve spoke to a number of guys over the past number of weeks and some of their insights have been really intriguing.

There will be a lot of interviews probably going up over the next couple of weeks or so from players out here that have been held back.

Similarly with Martin O’Neil, not everything he said to us over the past week or so has been made public yet. So just keep your eye out for that. I’ll be going across the site and across my socials.

Dozens of questions remain unanswered.

Ten days in Ireland and Portugal have raised far more questions than answered given.

HOME TO FACE THE MUSIC

On Saturday Celtic host Middlesbrough with less than 10,000 home fans expected to attend. The visitors have already sold 9,000 tickets.

It seems like 40,000 Celtic Season Ticket holders have opted out of the first home match.

In the build up to that match the Herald (Glasgow Times and Celtic Way) will provide warm, positive, upbeat coverage of the circus inside Celtic. Exactly the same as the Sun and Daily Record.

Others outside that bubble will disagree and call out the shambles being led by Michael Nicholson.

The embargoed content being held by McCafferty and the others are unlikely to include a first ever interview with the £17,000 a week Celtic CEO.

So far, after five years in the job Nicholson has only faced the media once, alongside Brendan Rodgers and Peter Lawwell in June 2023.

After two December interviews for Celtic TV in December it is unlikely that he’ll be contacting Gerry McCulloch any time soon.