GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 26: Peter Lawwell and Michael Nicholson before a cinch Premiership match between Celtic and St Johnstone at Celtic Park, on August 26, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic Quick News has finally admitted to being enormously concerned at the lack of recruitment from Celtic.
For more than two decades CQN has delivered blind obedience to the myth that Celtic are a brilliantly run club.
More than a few times the club has claimed to be admired across Europe while being reduced to also-rans in UEFA competitions.
Costly defeats from Malmo, Maribor, AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland and Kairat Almaty hasn’t distracted Paul Brennan from showering praise on his corporate heroes.
Whenever there has been any problems over the last decade Brendan Rodgers has copped the blame.
Forever the villain, the ex-Liverpool manager dared to lift Celtic’s ambitions above domestic matters.
For Brennan and his fellow members of the Balance Sheet Bhoys finishing above the 2012 Tribute Act from Ibrox will always be the ultimate achievement. The highest benchmark.
Whatever benchmark was set by Peter Lawwell was parroted across the pages of CQN.
The planned decline from Bayern Munich in February 2025 was an act of brilliance from Lawwell and Michael Nicholson as they saved the club from the consequences of being competent in European competition.
Alas Rodgers has now been out the building for eight months.
What he left behind is now exposed.
A club with no strategy, no vision and certainly no ambition. Crafted by Lawwell, now in the steady hands of Nicholson.
LAWWELL’S STRATEGY FINALLY COMES BACK TO HIT CELTIC HARD
Four weeks before the SPFL opener against Dundee Celtic are down two from the squad that won the double.
Without doubt CEO Nicholson will be working hard to sell Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda, Alistair Johnston, Ben Nygren and Auston Trusty.
With no attempt to bring in replacements CQN has rung the alarm bell for the happy clappers that lap up their daily content:
It does not worry me that Alex (Oxlade-Chamberlain) is our only signing so far this window, better to get it right than get it early, but it is enormously concerning that the recruitment team is so clearly unprepared to kick on from last season’s squad, that we have signed a player who was deemed not good enough to come off the bench during the fraught final few fixtures of the season.
This is a huge red flag but it is not a surprise. Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham were only added to the management team a week before Alex was signed. Martin O’Neill was in place earlier, but no one was in place to make the necessary decisions. We now have to hope we can play catch-up.
For decades CQN has preached that Celtic are brilliantly run. Perhaps compared to their O** F*** business partners but not against clubs like Copenhagen, Brugges, Sporting Lisbon or Benfica.
Other fans have known differently.
Since July 2012 corporate Celtic have given up on any European ambition.
Now without a strong manager like Ange Postecoglou or Rodgers the infrastructure of the club is laid bare. Badly lacking.
Lawwell employed mediocrity throughout the club. People grateful to big Peter for being in a job.
Now the spotlight is on the multitude of failings inside Celtic.
If CQN is enormously concerned there must be some very serious issues surfacing inside Celtic.
