I received an email from John Paul Taylor, Celtic’s recently appointed Supporter Relations’ Manager, asking for some help getting the message of his appointment out to the support, and explaining what he is there to do. This, for a guy whose inbox will never be empty, was a refreshingly proactive approach.
Here are the questions I put to John Paul, with his answers below:
So what is the scope of your Supporter Relations remit?
“The role is basically to provide a link between supporters and the Club. Since starting I’ve had a number of issues to deal with including the 5:15 Kick Off, Hearts away and what supporters should do in terms of submitting ticket applications given their current financial plight, supporter behaviour and specifically the Section 111 issue.
“I’ve also travelled to Sweden to provide information and assistance to supporters and officials of If Elfsborg at our UCL Qualifier and more recently I have been working with supporters who have been trying to obtain visas for Kazakhstan. In addition to this I have been working with colleagues relative to Stadium Catering and providing feedback in order that we can assess what happens next, so as you can see a wide and varied range of issues to work on.”
What will you be able to do if supporters come with issues around policing or stewarding?
“These are basically matters which come under the remit of the Operations Director, however there is a responsibility on my part to ensure that they are being addressed. Consequently any issues raised will be discussed and action appropriate action taken.
“Naturally any action has to be consistent and appropriate to the nature of the complaint. The issue of Policing of Celtic Supporters is very much to the fore at the moment and we welcome feedback and specific examples of inappropriate or unfair treatment.”
There are tens of thousands of contacts between supporters and the club, between getting entry to the ground, to buying a cola to using the toilets. Lots of these interactions don’t hit the mark, if you are successful in getting things done, you know it’s only a matter of time before you’re swamped, unless the supporter experience reaches legendary levels?
“I think this is a good point, however I think in the main supporters are generally satisfied with their match day experience. Quite clearly though there are some things that we could do better, equally there will be times where we just get it wrong. This is where the service aspect of my role comes into play and I would ask that on such occasions, supporters make me aware in order that we can provide a swift resolution through the relevant Departments.
“That is a particularly challenging aspect to the role but I believe that we are putting processes in place which are helping us turn around our complaint handling very quickly.”
Are there limits to what you can talk to fans about?
“Football and Finance are really areas where I can’t offer any real assistance. Although, like almost every football fan in the world I would consider myself to be a football expert its one area that there are people more qualified than me to speak about these things when it comes to Club matters “
Have the club established a route for you to get things done?
“I think because this is an entirely new role we are working on a ‘let’s see how it develops’ basis. Naturally I have KPI’s and specific projects that I need to complete but I am working for a lot of the time on my own initiative and providing feedback on the key issues of the day so it’s important to keep a handle on everything that’s going on with the support and what the main topics are.
“I think being close to supporters and having a wide circle of friends and family who are supporters is a real benefit in this respect.”
Final question, who are we going to sign?
“Ha, see the answer to question 4!!!”
I made the point to John Paul that if CQN is anything to go by, in many areas, satisfying one group of supporters is almost certainly going to compromise relations with another – the nature of a divergent club, open and tolerant of all from inception, perhaps, so this is not an easy shift.
That being said, news today suggests he’s off to a good start, which as Mo Bangura will tell you, is half the battle at Celtic.
CELTIC PAY THE PENALTY
I’m sure your mind has already cast ahead to Wednesday night. We will have plenty of possession inside the Shakhter box, which will increase the likelihood of being awarded a penalty kick.
Failure to properly prepare for penalty kicks has cost this football club more than I am prepared to recall in recent seasons, so we must be aware of the following:
There is a high probability we will be awarded a penalty.
Shakhter will know that Kris Commons is likely to hit any penalty.
Shakhter will know that Kris hit his last penalty straight down the middle.
We should prepare not just for a penalty kick competition, but for penalties during normal time.
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el madrigal,
Easily checked but not by me, I doubt very much there’s that much difference
A stor mo chroi.
Do you mean club or company when you say they don’t give a toss? I know its easy to tie yourself in knots when you are too easilly influenced by the msm. Kano foundation, overseas season tickets, me giving my season ticket to a friend who had to go back to full time education are just some of the ways that my club Celtic help the underprivileged.
If you can afford it, help these people you use to attack my club Celtic.
james forrest
I always looked out for your posts on here
and included you (and a few others who are also missing)as being influential posters
its a probably a loss to the celtic cause that a few of the best posters on the timternet didn’t get together to keep the focus on the huns issues alive
im more of a rant and rave type of guy, but we are not without very lucid posters in timland
Joe Hart said he had seen almost every Italian penalty ever
But he still fell for Pirlo’s oldest trick in the book.
Awe_naw, canamalar – sorry got pulled into an impromptu meeting there.
It was a genuine question not a dig.
I know it seems like I’m always picking up what you two say but there’s a reason for that. Usually when you get going you can both construct a decent argument, and you also do it without resorting to childish insults.
My one issue is that you’ll occasionally use quite sensationalist statements without any reference point and that’s a bit tabloid (I don’t mean that as an insult).
I don’t doubt PLs bonuses have totaled over $1M (or £1 for that matter). I can’t honestly say if they’re justified because I’ve no idea what his KPI’s are. Perhaps that’s the issue here, is the lack of clarity of what he receives them for. It’s never stated that he received £xxx in bonus for meeting sponsorship target etc.
I’d be unhappy as anybody if it was shown that his bonus was directly linked to profit from player trades, particularly if that was not itself linked to on field performance.
I have no strong feeling of being pro or anti board. I like to try and understand why they make the decisions they do and assume that whoever is making the decisions that they genuinely believe they’re doing what’s best for the club. The alternative can’t be contemplated.
20 mins knocked off my quickest time to the top today. Then 30 secs off my best mile time ( though its still too slow tae be telling ye what that time is:-)
Point is…..get aff the fags…..just back fae docs…BP is 127/78…. Pulse 58. This fae a bhoy who was averaging 190/120. Stroke levels. Pulse was regularly over 80 resting.
BMCUP,
have to admit, and im sure that it comes across this way, that I am much more, to use CQN parlance, happyclapper than mineshafter, and get less upset at the PL “issue” than many others.
I tend to be more lenient or forgiving or whatever/however you want to phrase it towards the alleged shortcomings laid at PL’s door.
Of course Im not happy that we dont have a striker in yet, especially given the prize of the CL, but had we won or drawn on tuesday i doubt the clamour for said striker would be of the same level as it is just now.
And for that I blame Lenny.
Now I deliberately avoided CQN the couple days after the SK game as i knew it would be carnage. However for me that game should have been relatively comfortable, but the tactics were wrong. Very wrong. And that issue does not lie at PL’s door. But at the door of the man I am and have been very supportive of.
Any striker we brought in would NOT have guaranteed CL football. Undoubtedly he might have helped get towards it……but so would have playing better against SK on Tues night.
Anyhooo Im digressing slightly. whats done is done. Just hope we can do it on Wed night, with or without that almost mythical striker!
As to the ruby, yes indeed I do fancy it….well the beers before it asre much more enticing, but the chance to watch Mr Asbetos gullet in action again would be good fun indeed. I already have the 28th Sept in the diary and am hoping that I shall be able to make, what sounds like a brilliant, but very busy evening!
All the best to you good sir!
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Carrigan
13:14 on 23 August, 2013
Big Tam used to whack them straight down the middle and the only save i can remember was at Tynecastle.
*keeper Jim Cruickshank didnae save it the ball bounced off his legs as he dived tae the side, so ferocious was the shot that it bounced out and by TG.
He missed one in a new years game at CP when he tried tae place it, the hun goalie had an easy save.
Didnae try that again.
Petec
Edication?
Whit’s That?
Look..
Thee is Book Larnin’ and there is.. Hivin’ Nae Book Learning..
Howevahhhh..
Native Intelligence, cums up Trumps.. Every Time.
And..
Pal..Let me tell You that YOU HIV IT,, in Abondanza..!
Intelligence, is the Soil.. in which the seed of Knowledge is Planted.
and the Mair Native the Intelligence ,the Richer the Soil.
and , By the Way,pal
Ah Dub thee , tae be..
an
EVANGELICAL CATHOLIC.
Those , are the Best Kind…
Me..?
An am A Former Lapsed, Catholic..
who, Lately, had hoid the Sound of Approachin’ Angel Feathers, Rustlin’,jist
afore Ah went tae Sleep!
so… Ah Decided that
It wiz Time Fur Kojo tae. Ankle doon tae Confession.. and get Squared Away wi the Big Guy.. fur Time wiz Runnin oot!
So, Kojo , did..
And Once More..Peace and Contentment reigns in KojoTown.
Kojo
Still,Laughin’
Wonder if there should be a haggis slaughter ritual before the Shakhter game?
60,000 haggis suppers being consumed before kick-off should do it.
Weeminger
Your learning.
500k was Peters wage last year. I believe he turned his bonus down. Still no excuse for sucking hun cock…oops I done it again ;-)
What about this year ?
Best paid man in Scottish Football
HG
The Honest Mistake:
How do you know I don’t?
James Forrest
Yes I do know you, you once sent me a draft of your book, you might have forgotten.
Do you remember your outrageous attack on Neil Lennon after the Ross County game… I do.
The rest of your post I’m sorry, I’ll read it tomorrow and if I can be bothered ranting, I’ll try and work up the heart for it.
Hmmm … I remember getting pelters from some on here for suggesting that James Forrest should start his own blog …
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
16:36 on
23 August, 2013
You’re
:)
!!Bada Bing!!
16:09 on
23 August, 2013
9/2 Airdrie red card might be worth a cupla shillins
Surely you mean red card and resultant penalty>)
JAMES FORREST
I think you need to look at the last line of ASMC’s post.
Tongue in cheek,yet appreciative of your stuff.
As am I,as I alluded to in my earlier post- difference now being we can flick to it any time,rather than try to trace it in the morning.
James,you write good stuff.
Don’t undermine your well of support because you may have slightly misread a post.
Meantime-stick it to them!
Morrissey.
A good tip, If your parachute doesn’t open , cross your legs.
awe_naw_no_annoni_oan_anaw_noo
I think you’ll find Peter deferred taking his bonus. He did not give it back.
At least that’s what I recall from chat at the AGM.
canamalar…can’t see any odds re red cards but for scoring penalties Inverness are a 9/1 shot while we are only 7/2. Obviously we have the inside info that in Scotland it takes broken bones/leg chopped off for Celtic to be awarded a penalty. And even then we’d probably miss it.
Weeminger
I should have written yer
Will be interesting to see his Salary over the next two years. I fully expect him to recoup what he admirably turned down.
HH
GourockEmeraldBhoy “Supporting Wee Oscar the Warrior”
15:47 on 23 August, 2013
Dermid who taught music in St Columba’s in the 70’s and later?
What a shame
Sorry, you’re right. He taught art. I just always saw him playing guitar at the school youth club
Jimici
Aye spin spin spin is oot clubbug fat green tories that think they are better than us.
HH
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam):
Thanks for that fella, and I know what you mean. Yet, I don’t think the Celtic support has ever become as fragmented as the one across the way.
When we’re united in a task I think we’re pretty unstoppable. The last two years have proved it.
There was a period of about six months to a year in 2011 – 12 when I thought the bloggers were actually setting the agenda for the whole of Scottish football. Never before in the history of the game, either here or elsewhere, was a club’s future direction so clearly influenced by the supporters of its rival club … we absolutely drove the Rangers story, and made sure it was in wide circulation before the MSM. We made it news before it was news.
I think we failed in the end because there was a point beyond which ordinary fans couldn’t go, and we needed the clubs – our club in particular – to take the lead and finish the job. And they didn’t.
The resulting disillusionment has spread into other areas, and now a lot of people are wondering if its even worth their while any longer. Some of the guys who’ve left here are undoubtedly just fed up not being heard, having thought we were going to have a major influence on the future of the game, and doubtless other clubs forums have many fans just like them.
My own decision was different … but the same. There are personal reasons, and politics, involved, and I won’t go into either, and I know people understand that, but I’ll clarify one thing for anyone who’s got doubts; this is not about Paul, who I like and respect and have always had a good relationship with … indeed, a better one that many on here are aware.
If it seems like I’ve been critical of him at times on OFOG it’s because I believe this website sometimes speaks as the voice of the club, and whilst that is not a bad thing (indeed, during the Rangers crisis I think it was extremely clever and brought a lot of peace of mind to myself and others), I sometimes wonder if we’re in danger of trading the negative spin of the media for positive spin instead, when the truth often lies somewhere in between.
Yet Paul’s a bigger man than some of the people on here who’ve had wee digs at me for speaking for my mind, and he knows full well what I think of him on a personal level, and that hasn’t changed one iota from the first day I posted here, and that includes the period of time where I was in my self imposed exile after we had a very public argument on this very site.
The man is a class act. 100% fact.
No, my reasons are not about Paul. There are other posters on here, one in particular, who I can’t stomach and have never been able to – most people know who I’m referring to as many of them share my view – who make me feel like what I have to say would be better off said elsewhere.
Well, there you go. Said more than I intended to there, but it’s an answer.
Back to lurking for me.
A Stor Mo Chroi – can I just check that you were suggesting that we should offer a discount to the unemployed?
I’m not sure that’s very fair to be honest. I say that as having been unemployed and having a greater disposable than I did when I was earning minimum wage.
You’re right it’s not fair that folk that used to be able to go, now can’t afford to through no fault of their own, but that’s true of people that have been made unemployed and also those that have had to take reduced hours, or wage cuts (whether real or through wage freezes). Those that are not unemployed but can’t afford it are no less deserving.
My plan. Half price tickets on the day of the game, sold from 9am to 12pm at the TO (assuming 3pm KO). Sure some folks might hold off, but they’re taking a risk that they might not get one. And yes some games might sell out before then but at least it’ll make the possibility of getting to a game open to all.
Otherwise how about buy a child ticket, and the accompanying adult goes free. Again on the day of the game. Get the place full and get the young fans hooked.
Kojo,
Whit can a say, I’m not a great debater but sometimes I just wanna put music to the posts.
It is a Real Privelige to have Corinne as ma big Sister, I think this girl is right up there with CRC and MWD.
Games like tonight are why I might have to give up football. I’m in a no win situation. I want both of the scrofulous hillbilly bassas to lose. It’s not a diamond it’s a sash. Oh and while we are on the subject it’s not claret and amber it’s orange and purple.
What position does this guy Diligence play and is he any good?
Weeminger,
Sensationalism adds a wee bit colour and usually ups the stakes, you’ll have noticed I enjoy heated debate I find it educational and relaxing :o)
John O’Neil
16:25 on 23 August, 2013
Why do we have so many injuries? Sorry for such an unoriginal comment but it is very frustrating.
I happened across an interview on Talksport a few weeks ago between Danny Kelly and Dutch Coach Raymond Verheijen
Verheijen was previously Wales National Assistant Coach.
He was having a real go at the amateur hour coaching methods in EPL
I missed the beginning of the interview but he was having a real go at English coaching in general ,and Davie Moyes in particular.
Whilst acknowledging Moyes as a very good manager / tactician he pointed out that Everton began every season badly but usually finished well.
Mostly due to the number of players who were not available at teh start of the season due to injury.
The bulk of the injuries were picked up in pre season.
Man United were picking up pre season injuries under Moyes
Verheijen explained that a large part of coaching qualifications in Europe was about fitness.
When we think fitness here we imagine sand dunes , sprints pulling tractor tyres etc
He stated that English coaches had no understanding of how to get players fit , keep them fit and injury free, how to rest , when to rest , how long to rest etc
Some clubs have recognised the issue by getting fitness coaches in from other sports ( including ex sprinters)unfortunately this only makes things worse.
I hope we are closer to Dutch methods than Davie Moyes.
The Onlooker
.
Right CQN..I Have Had enough and Wont be back on Here till a CQN Poster Calls me a Excellent CQNer..
So if as Per.. No One Calls me a Excellent CQNer..l will Stay on HERE..
Thanks..
Summa
THE TOKEN TIM 1632
Pwshwaar,happy-clapper my arse.
You sound more like the “New and Rather Exclusive,Beat it,ya Scruff” MIDDLE-GROUNDERS as quorated by LEFTCLICKTIC et moi.
I’ll ask him what the script is wi new members.
Thing is,I want the best for the team,in the best of all possible ways.
Others want the best for the club.
And others want the best for the company.
Funnily enough,those most likely to want the best for themselves are the players-ironic,innit?
We all bitch about the best way to spend the money we invest into the team/club/company that we love,and the only people without any emotional attachment eff off with it.
And increasingly rarely without a backward glance.
newradbhoy @ 16:40
I’ve been watching fatal Sky dives on YouTube today. Probably not wise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBZzX8OWrc
http://www.livescience.com/16544-survive-falling-plane.html
I think that I am basically at the mercy of the experienced Sky diver.
Hugh Bonkle Fae Dallas,
“Oh and while we are on the subject it’s not claret and amber it’s orange and purple.”
Could not agree more. Flute bauns in the Fir park club on day of cup final v us, said it all.
One or two real murderwell supporters, but hunners more that have the orange and purple/red,white, blue reversible scarf!
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
.
Meant to Say..
Look at Moi..Look at Moi..=))
A Stor Mo Chroi:
I’m throughly sick of getting dug over my “outrageous attack on Neil Lennon” after that diabolical calamity of a performance.
I’ll break this down for you simply; that “outrageous attack” was not in a public forum but on my own sodding private Facebook page, and my feelings on Neil Lennon, the man, are well known. So well known, indeed, that he’s mentioned in the intro to one of my books as an inspiration.
But Neil Lennon the manager gets no special treatment. He’s paid to do a job, and when he fails at it he gets stick like anyone else would.
What I wrote – in private – wrote, by the way, and then deleted, isn’t getting used as a stick to beat me with. I bet you’ve said some pretty stupid things in private yourself. And in public.
Seriously, I am utterly pissed off here. Whatever your issue is, you could have taken up with me in private – as we seem to know each other so well. But for no reason at all that I can fathom you decided to have a public dig.
Cowardly and pathetic.
James Forrest your first mistake was answering that rocket…a stor mo…..don’t make the same mistake again, guys a tool.
Has anybody heard from the excellent CQN ‘er Summa of Sammi?