There is no briefings from the board- Celtic specialist Stephen McGowan hits back at internet critics

Stephen McGowan believes that the toxic, febrile atmosphere around Celtic is making journalists wary of covering issues around the club.

McGowan has taken half a step back from the frontline since leaving the Daily Mail in February 2025.

No longer on the daily news beat he does write regularly for the Herald/Celtic Way, mainly with breaking news and exclusives.

For over 20 years McGowan, at the Daily Express and Daily Mail, developed a reputation as a the most reliable source of news of issues around Celtic.

Exclusive transfer deals, incoming and outgoing, have been a regular feature of McGowan’s coverage.

During this period the general media opinion was put around that Celtic were an incredibly efficient club, on top of matters in every area. Admired across European football.

TROUBLES GROW AT CELTIC PLC

Former CEO Peter Lawwell was portrayed as one of the movers and shakers in European football. A man of influence.

The truth was that that Lawwell was a committee member of the European Club Association. A pointless talking shop that gave of the impression of shaping UEFA policy.

Over a short period of time the champions of Scotland had to go from one qualifying tie to three to reach the Champions League.

The top four nations got four automatic places in the lucrative group stage of the Champions League.

On Wednesday McGowan joined Peter Martin and Hugh McDonald on PLZ Soccer to lament the current media environment:

It’s toxic, it’s toxic for us journalists as well actually. I was sitting with other journalists talking about this.

Because you are always wary of writing stuff these days because fans won’t want to hear it.

They don’t want to hear that ‘Celtic are working on’, ‘Celtic are exploring’, ‘Celtic are looking at’.

Everything is interpreted as ‘briefings from the board’ which they are not by the way, that is bo***cks, pardon my French.

Funnily enough, on Friday June 5 at 5pm in the Herald McGowan broke the exclusive news that Martin O’Neill had agreed a 12 month contract to manager Celtic. At exactly the same time as the Daily Record and Sun. Paul Cooney opened the Go Radio Phone In at 5pm with the same exclusive news.

The Herald. Record and Sun were the only media outlets to cover Celtic’s recent training trip to the Algarve where they were given more than one week of coverage. Martin O’Neill has made a few references to his nights out with the Albufeira Four.

But I mean, you know, it is always ‘the club getting their version out’, there is just such a lack of trust between the club and the supporters and we kind of get dragged into that.

And, it’s, a really, febrile situation. I don’t think I’ve known it to be as febrile as this.

We’re sat here, and I’ve said it often enough Peter, nothing seriously changes at Celtic until everything changes.

‘Till the ownership changes, ‘till the senior executive changes.

It should surprise no-one that the same behaviour comes from the same people year after year. Because, it looks like that is the corporate culture that they’ve got in place there.

And as I say, nothing is really going to change until there’s substantial change. I think that the biggest problem for supporters is from where we are sitting at the moment is that we don’t see any evidence of that.

A fundamentally cautious and conservative approach at board level. Which was expressed kind of by Ross Desmond in his AGM, in his infamous AGM address.

Ross Desmond isn’t a Celtic Director. He was invited to address shareholders by Chairman Lawwell. To be fair 21 November 2025 wasn’t the Chairman’s finest day, or hour.

Where he said they will not put the sustainability, or welfare of the club at risk in any way, shape or form. Effectively they need money for a rainy day, and that the European landscape is such that they couldn’t really compete with those big clubs anyway.

And what I think supporters see from that is a kind of defeatism, a fatalism, a lack of ambition.

Recommended behaviour for a PLC is to have Directors and CEO’s in place for between five and eight years.

Interim Chairman Brian Wilson has been a Non Executive Director since 2005, his recently retired colleague Tom Allison became a NED in 1999.

Celtic’s current policy was shaped and created by the 17 year reign of Peter Lawwell, notably CEO throughout 2012.

Lawwell became CEO in October 2003 then ‘stepped down’ in June 2021. He ‘returned’ as Chairman in January 2023 but ‘stepped down’ again, in December 2025 after an abysmal performance chairing the 2025 AGM.

Celtic last won a UEFA knock-out tie in March 2004.

Current CEO Michael Nicholson and CFO Chris McKay were brought to Celtic while Lawwell was CEO.