As Celtic prepare to appoint not just a manager but almost an entire backroom team, Newco dismissed chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell. Stewart took the Ibrox job with a remit of selling the club to a buyer who was prepared to fund their persistent annual deficit. Having achieved that in May, the new owners took six months to decide his forward plans were not right for the club.
Assumptions have been made that Thelwell’s poor performance in the transfer market led to his dismissal. Newco spent over £30m in the summer with little to show for it. That’s still less than Brendan Rodgers spent in summer 2024 on players he was unable to consistently keep in his first 11, but Newco’s finances cannot cope with such errors.
I’m far from convinced that’s the case. Their transfer market performance was acknowledged before they allowed the execs to appoint their second manager of the season. I’m also not convinced they have succumbed to fan demands. Newco’s annual bloodletting which has seen four managers sacked in three years surely does not need a top-up this early.
Chairman Andrew Cavenagh’s comments are worth reading, “We want people that align with the vision for the next chapter.” I would be amazed if that vision was to pump £20m into a Scottish football club every year to stem losses. Patrick Stewart’s remit to find a funder sounds ridiculous to me. Clubs need to be self-finding, casino football is unsustainable. That reality might have occurred to a few across the city.
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Indeed Paul!
HH
Interesting article, Paul.
Is Dallas going blind?
No small willie syndrome for him I suspect.
Oi!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOT SMOKED!!!!
You’re not allowed to say that on here!!!!!
Dontcha know
Any word on Nawrocki and Kwon, and when they are returning. . . . . . . .
” Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on 25th November 2025 11:42 am
Real power doesn’t just reside at the top.”
I don`t agree but I found your comment interesting nevertheless.
Philbhoy on 25th November 2025 12:08 pm
:-))))
Philbhoy@12.07
😂
He wouldn’t have seen that coming.
Celtic FC have agreed terms with Wilfried Nancy who will bring two of his most trusted lieutenants with him to Glasgow and be assisted by a third, most likely Shaun Maloney, appointed by the club
Nancy will get his first taste of Scottish football at the weekend when he will be in the Easter Road stands for the game against Hibs, for what will now likely be Martin O’Neill’s last game in the dugout
Celtic have been contemplating the possibility of keeping O’Neill in charge until the league cup final and given a chance to win the trophy as a “thank you” for stepping in and giving Nancy a start date of Monday, December 15 – this would also mean O’Neill being in the dugout for the top of the table clash with Hearts and vital Europa League home game against AS Roma.
However, that now seems unlikely with Nancy believed to be eager to get started and stamp his personality and style on the team right away.
He will likely be in the dugout for the first time against Dundee on Wednesday, December 3, followed by three MASSIVE games that will play a huge part in how the season looks in the New Year
After his first ten days they could be:
I thought it was a profile piece about our manager and staff but naw.
A whole article about two of yer pet hates, Paul.
The currant buns and, whisper it, Brendan.
His ghost still haunts you.
As Queen Elsa said; ‘Let It Go’.
HunsQuickNews
garygillespieshamstring on 25th November 2025 11:45 am
WBC@11.14
“Your post got me wondering if poppy cock was a new STD affecting male members of the loyalist persuasion.:)”
👍
A welcome bit of humour. We take ourselves a bit too seriously at times.
Quite why der hun will be shocked when austerity bites, beats me. Alas, I’m looking forward to the meltdown all the same.
Exactly as I predicted yesterday!
Be thankful for being a bit better than Basket Case FC.
Let’s not even think about aspiring to be something more.
Remember what Celtic are about.bring your tins
https://x.com/NCCeltic/status/1993280691497582755?t=K-VHbwP6geOiJqpkcrqpnA&s=19
HH
It’s all about them.
Do celtic not matter?
The Sevco owners clearly understand what we’ve forgotten recently – the only sensible way to run a football club is to have everyone pulling in the same direction. Same aims, same vision all that suddenly fashionable patter.
Paul67
What larks Paul, what larks
Alternative article
“ Wealthy owner sacks underperforming executives “
They blew their budget, that’s the real story and well you know it given your insistence for back covering and still bizarrely blaming a sacked weeks ago manager, funnily enough quoting the window before the last fiasco.
Celtic don’t need a funder the fans keep the lights on, that’s the mantra, no net spend – oh look be careful we could be a club that died in disguise.
WGAF CSC
Loving my annual daily dose of comedy
That’s still less than Brendan Rodgers spent in summer 2024 on players he was unable to consistently keep in his first 11
That the window that we didn’t even spend the Matt O’riley money aye? On three players that played in everyone of our CL games in our best euro campaign for 13 years. That what you are comparing with the Huns spend this summer.
Hilarious.
Good Afternoon Fholks…
Apologies for not getting back to those who responded to my comment yesterday – t’was otherwise engaged…
But many thanks…
Interesting lead… well apart from the “newco” stuff, not really my team, yet the Celtic stuff…
It seems the rumour of Celtic getting a new Manager with his own backroom staff is true.
Does that mean another great Peter Lawwell brain wave…. change the Manager but stick with the same Lennoxtown staff for consistency, has hit the wastepaper basket…
Less than ten years for that one – big Pedro is learning.
Brendan Rodgers spent 30 million on players in 2024…
Kuhn
Schmicheal
Sinisalo
Bernardo
Valle
Trusty
Idah
Engels
McCowan
Maybe not his best recruits but helped us to a great season in 2024/25.
Of course we needed to go again in2025 to bolstwr the team and the player transfer management was woeful, even by Celtic PLC standards.
Out of interest, Paul, do you have the amount that Brendan Rodgers took in from player sales?
Hoop hoop Hooray @ 12:48 pm,
It should be remembered that while Brendan Rodgers was here Celtic PLC sold 130 mn worth of players.
Hail Hail
GlassTwoThirdsFull @ 12:53 pm,
Oooops
Jumped tge gun there it was
130,000,000.00
A lot of money
Quite a bit of talent
A lot of goals too
Ach well
Hail Hail
Burnley78 on 24th November 2025 7:14 pm
TET
Would that be those disastrous windows which enable us to win 16/20 leagues. More than any in a 20 year period in our history by a distance.
The same 20 years when we beat Milan Barca Man U Benfica Lazio Leipzig etc.
Or maybe you are new to Celtic and don’t remember the 90s or the 50s. Or even late 70s through until late 90s.
Best Celtic domestic performance ever but hey if it doesn’t fit the narrative of blaming suits ……
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple of things B78
I have NO agenda, unlike your good self who is obsessed with BR, the self same who has delivered approx 20% for those baubles you keep harping on about, the others were delivered when our main rivals were in total disarray, and hopefully still are, the majority of the cash we have stashed away was generated in BR’s first tenure, or didn’t you notice that, does it not suit your narrative.
l aways praised the board when they have done well, but I won’t when they don’t deliver.
You mention a handful of teams we have beaten in the past couple of decades but for some reason omit the ones who we should have beaten who outweigh the handful by far, why would that be, does it not fit your agenda, those teams are the ones who I and many like me want to play on a regular basis, you use them as a stick to try and beat us down with, won’t work with me mi amigo.
For the record, I am probably older than you are so I well remember the days of yore, I also own shares in the club, so I have every right to have my say, even if I didn’t I would still have that right.
The difference between us is I have an open mind where Celtic are involved, while yours is closed, I am well capable of slagging the team and coaching staff, I have done so on many occasions, while you can not bring yourself to do likewise when it involves the board.
And since you run your own business, I would be willing to wager that you would not allow your staff to get away with some of the wasteful things our board are doing while there is no repercussions for them.
Best we just agree to disagree.
Take care
Chairbhoy
How many of those he sold for more money than he paid did he actually recruit ?
Yes exactly NONE.
Burnley78 @ 12:58 pm,
Think you are missing the point.
Celtic’s whole squad is not worth 130 mn.
How can you maintain a team with that level of sales an Mark Lawwell and Dr Tisdale doing the recruiting?
Remember the summer 2023 recruitment.
When Peter’s son Mark was in charge.
He was our very own Tony Bloom dontcha’ kno’ :)))))
Hail Hail
Presumably the new owners of Sevco read the past accounts.
Presumably, they did their due diligence, studied the books and knew exactly what they were buying.
Presumably, they agreed a transfer budget this year and had their projected cash flows done.
So nothing, absolutely nothing, in this year’s accounts will come as a surprise.
The new owners have put a lot of money in, to the point where the Huns now have £30 million in cash reserves.
After all this, I’m not surprised they’re quite ruthless at removing under performing execs. They want a return. They want a sustainable Club. Executive incompetence apparently won’t be tolerated.
I suspected they were on borrowed time when Thiewell gave his son a nice wee job. That was certainly not a good look and wasn’t the actions of a man looking after the Club’s best interests. More his own.
Burnley78…
Did you notice how much better our recruitment got when Peter Lawwell left as CEO?
Did you notice how much worse our recruitment got when Peter Lawwell became our Chairman?
Seeing a pattern yet…
Hail Hail
Here is our “aligned vision” we have been pursuing for 20 years…
“Our focus is on what matters: improving this club step-by-step, systematically, without ever risking its future. Improving recruitment, investing in data analytics, upgrading facilities, enhancing the stadium and trying to make Celtic stronger in every way.”
Here is The Vision that Midtjylland have been pursung for the last five years.
https://www.offthepitch.com/index.php/a/vision-accomplished-inside-fc-midtjyllands-ambitious-vision-2025-and-what-it-delivered
Spotted the smartest guys in the room yet?
HINT: They were not at a “AGM” on Friday;)
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy
Yes, a lot of goals and not replaced or not adequately replaced. And funnily enough we seem to be struggling to score goals!
GlassTwoThirdsFull @ 1:27 pm,
Yes, when the last manager was belly aching about that he was a nuisance.
Since Martin has said we need a rebuild and quality strikers we are in transition land…
Again…!!!!???
Hail Hail
The last mad deadline ‘ look at us we can spend money ‘ not looking too clever either.
BSR @ 1:43 pm,
Those pesky transfer dealine things…
Wish they’d abolish them.
Catch us out every year.
Hail Hail
Also out of interest, Paul, was the 2024 ‘big spend’ the window that was followed by our best run in the Champions League for over a decade?
GARYGILLESPIESHAMSTRING on 25TH NOVEMBER 2025 11:45 AM
WBC@11.14
Your post got me wondering if poppy cock was a new STD affecting male members of the loyalist persuasion.:)
………………..
Very funny
Huns like Celtic will have a worse year this year than last year. Results have ensured that in Europa league as well in current tournament where money is half of UCL. They have to budget for reducing turnover
Celtic have built a surplus to allow for reduced income Chris McKay stated we have budgeted £28m less than this season. Huns will have lost similar.
Not only that then only one Scottish team qualifys to play 3 qualifiers for UCL. For Europa none. Rest in Conference league qualifiers.
This is a massive downshift and most years there will be little or none European cash in future. League champions have only a 1 in 8 chance of UCL. With Conference league cash for others
On a serious note
O’riley kyogo khun and Idah scored 175 goals between them at Celtic.
We sold them for over 70m
Since they left they have scored 6 goals between them.
How bad is the spfl
Our days of fooling clubs into paying big fees could be over.
They have all become bit part squad players at their clubs.
And I didn’t even mention Jota.
If we continually benchmark against the spfl we may continue to win domestic trophies but the standard drops.
If we had a board with any ambition we would be benchmarking against similar European clubs. If we competed in Europe the domestic scene would by and large take care of itself. If we wish to maintain our cash and carry model we will need to perform
In Europe or no one will come shopping anymore.
But Ross Desmond at the AGM claimed our record in Europe was excellent since 2003. A time in which two different clubs from Ibrox have made euro finals and where we are being outstripped by smaller clubs with smaller resources. He also said Europe was unbridgeable.
Far easier to come down a grade to compete in spl than go up a grade to compete in Europe
Hoop hoop Hooray on 25th November 2025 2:17 pm
Totally agree. Our benchmark must be Europe.
Domestic football does not require the standard or financial investment of player we all want to see.
HH.
BIGBHOY
Its important that we dont talk ourselves into a worse situation than the one we’re in. The winners of the SPL title play a single playoff tie next season, it will be 18 months before we have to worry about 3 ties, and we know how quickly change can happen in football.