Martin O’Neill managed to call every issue wrongly in his post match media conference following the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.
That is something pretty spectacular- and worrying.
Since he started chatting with his new media buddies in pre-season O’Neill has added to the car crash impression about the club.
An image confirmed and accelerated by Michael Nicholson’s performance with the AICSC on July 4. O’Neill sat alongside the £17,000 a week CEO.
Nicholson’s confession that he can’t do his job was incredible.
So astonishing that O’Neill wasn’t put up to share gags and funny asides to preview the friendly with Middlesbrough.
Less than 10,000 Celtic fans turned up for the glorified training session with the Championship side.
The main topics of interest were the failures to sign Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi.
Naturally no-one in the invited audience asked about the minutes of the meeting with the AICSC.
Two players heavily involved in last season’s double success won’t be back. That wanted to return.
Celtic spent almost eight weeks in negotiations for both deals.
CELTIC CONTROLLING THE MESSAGE BUT NOT O’NEILL
When they fell through the club briefed their favourite messengers about ridiculous wage demands. Which were quickly destroyed with a brief look into financing in Turkish football.
Turning to the attendance against Middlesbrough we witnessed some classic verbal gymnastics from O’Neill:
QUESTION: Can you understand why a lot of fans stayed away?
O’NEILL:
In terms of people staying away, I’m delighted that the people who came, because first of all, it’s summertime for a start. Secondly, it is pretty expensive to come to football matches now.
We’ve got a game against AC Milan next week as well, so that’d be some people maybe coming to both games, that’s a lot of money, and then you have to buy a season ticket on top of that.
So no, life is changing, there’s no question about it. This is not 25 years ago when you would fill the stadium for a pre-season friendly. It’s not, life has changed.
Exactly a year ago 52,000 fans attended a home friendly against Newcastle United. Tickets were £25 as opposed to the £20 for the Middlesbrough match.
O’Neill knows the reasons for the low crowd. He just doesn’t want to conceded that anything in Dermot Desmond’s portfolio is less than wonderful.
Celtic fans face another week of speculative transfer activity followed by predictable failures and excuses.
Continuing his current trajectory more than half of the Celtic support could have given up on O’Neill before the SPFL opener against Dundee on August 3.
It’s not a car crash anymore, it’s now crashed & we’re in Intensive Care, I’ve said before on your site , we’ll not entertain new players ofreal quality up to the champions league play-off , then depending on how we do will determine who goes for big money & who is then brought in ( on the cheap ) we’ll be a club in serious trouble with in excess of £100m in the bank , you couldn’t script it , HH
Laughing stock , the odious Desmond is grinding the reputation and name of the club into the ground ,stop giving them your money or you are complicit in the destruction of our club
Out of tune
The current swell of opinion is that O’Neill has gone with a defensive line-up, settling on a tight formation shoulder to shoulder with his employers and parroting their prepared script for the gull-ible to swallow. Arrrgh Tim me lad, tis like this… and yeees can cackle and squawk as loud as you want.
He is staying with the press, hoping to form a defensive partnership, they know the score pass to each other, keep possession and don’t give the game away. Credit to the newspaper lads with a yo ho ho and bottle of fun we can control the tempo and not concede.
Whatever his pay, he will have no currency left with the Celtic support, you can’t buy back trust. Life might have changed in Uncle Tom’s cabin, but we’re left short.
Martin is at risk of becoming a figurehead that no one at Celtic Park will want to identify with any longer, he’ll become the tainted one not the sainted one.
If given enough rope Nicholson will hang himself, the noose is tightening. He has the energy of a sleeping labrador, he’s making heavy weather of recruitment the man couldn’t find water if he fell out of the boat. There’s a European Armada lying in wait and he’s sheltering in the Sound Asleep.
There’s a growing tide of resentment because excuses follow excuses.
Being Lord Haw-Haw to Dermot Despot’s Hitler is not a good look. We can all see through this act to the deep-seated contempt for the paying customer held by the people charged with running the club.