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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canalamar- I think the crowds would come back if there was competition; it might cause a few scratchy ole days on here but I would love Aberdeen to take the season down to the wire, like in the ole days.
Sammi missed a crucial pk against the mankies at mordor, a coupla seasons or so ago.
Paul
Great news about the GB.
And some good questions from yourself, and heartening comments from JPT. sounds like we could have a good guy there.
thanks.
M
A wee question, the club said the held talks with the representatives if section 111, who was representing the non-GB members of the section ?
glendalystonsils
13:04 on 23 August, 2013
I’ve seen a lot of penalty kicks scored by going right down the middle but I’ve never seen a keeper stay in the middle of his goal in anticipation of one being hit straight at him.
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agreed it is very rare to have them saved but
watch the video link posted at 13.03
forward to 4 min mark.
HH
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400756/Forget-Emirates-Etihad-stadiums-Cigg-e-arena-Welsh-football-club-signing-60-000-deal-e-cigarette-firm.html
Celtic say:
“Celtic has engaged with the Glasgow City Council Safety Advisory Group regarding this matter and they have noted these assurances.”
Ok celtic – show us the threat that we have received from GCC.
I am having a fun day Winging it
Hail Hail.
Messi at Ross Hall. MMmmmmmmmmmmmm!!
marti sandino supports wee oscar
13:00 on 23 August, 2013
Paul67
I was only thinking that the other night. Kris invariably hits them down the middle. He has some strike on him but if the keeper stands still he is gonna save it. It will be interesting to see what happens if we do get a peno.
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Roy Aitken hit them down the middle,made no secret of it.
Jim Leighton stood up to him,stood his ground,ended up in the back of the net with the ball.
Aye,The Bear had some strike on him!
I just know the skeptics and conspiracy theory skelpers amongst you mob are not going to believe this but it’s true as, honest.
I was walking past Brady’s today, thought to myself ‘I’ll just skip in for a swift hauf and a hauf. Really good boozer this, all inclusive and very cosmo like. Anyway I rap the bar an’ ask the barman for my usual, and just as I do I get this tap on my shoulder with attitude.
So thinking to myself ‘cool lad, if the worst comes to the worst, go for the knee-caps’.
Anyway, big gulp of air, exhale and I turn around and feck me, there, resplendent in their new home Celtic strips are two Yeti, a Unicorn and Lord Lucan, and in unison they asked…
“Have you seen oor striker?”
I’m not spoofing you either.
Doctor what for
As I said I wish him all the. Very best and good luck to him it was his choice I don’t know the guy, he walked, could have been a knee jerk reaction though and if he that passionate then he prob. Sorry he made that decision but! That’s the way it goes, as I said his choice.
Summa- game against the Undead, at Minas Morgul.
Did he not miss with about 5 minutes left, when it was 0-0?
It’ll be really interesting to see what lennie does with JF. JF imho having a difficult second season/a slight dip in form/not being supported properly by his team. Lennie transformed sammi, mulgrew, got brown into his most effective position, stuck with hooper and got the goals, now what will hr do with jf ?
DBBIA
See my post about 5 minutes ago.
Keep up man!
8-)
Dontbrattbakkinanger
13:10 on
23 August, 2013
glendalytonsils- it was the game at CP against the Russians in the oel CL groups last year.
I like to see my penalties placed neatly and firmly in the corner- that takes practice.
Me too, and a player who can send the keeper the wrong way while doing so, is maybe the ideal penalty. In a crunch game like the Russian game ,or on Wednesday, such a penalty takes not only practice but nerves of steel.
BMCUWP- game against the Undead, at CP , midweek
They got 2 players sent off, but we could only draw 1-1. Big Roy had pen saved, after a very, very long delay.
Hit it straight down the middle, goalie stood still.
ICT game fast approaching it’ll be interesting to see what team we put out..
Also saw some mention to converting the South Stand into a standing area something I would be unhappy at having been sitting there even before the year in Hampden. …and many of the faces around me have been there as long as I can remember I’m sure wouldn’t be happy either.
Roll on Wednesday night I live in hope of getting through
HAIL HAIL
dbbia,
We need to reduce the quality then, looks like the board are blazing a trail on that front, personally I’d like to see us hump every team 5-0 and use Europe for the challenge.
Man when Celtic fans start talking penalties. You know your in a bad place. We dont sound too hopeful do we ?
The gambling culture of optimising your winnings by increasing the risk factor to being a baw hair away from a knockout blow is slowly becoming the acceptable new Celtic way @GGT
And its all so exciting and completely unpredictable …if your an out and out moron of course.
Vmahn sorry to read the character assassination on you earlier …but hey Ho thats what CQN has become.
Penalties. Fuxaches. Canny wait.
Errrm should I watch ???
HH
BOBBY 13:23
:)
I seen ole Jim Leighton somewhere on the telly recently, with my mind being uninterested in that subject, I can’t fathom out where he was.
Feed the Bear, feed Him. For me, those were halcyon days, The Jungle, right in the middle of it, with an amazing view of the game, squashed to f**k but the space suddenly happened when the goals went in. :))))
Big Roy and the Maestro, amazing memories.
canamalar prays oscar can do it again
If they are adults then pretty sure they can talk for themselves.
time for change
13:28 on 23 August, 2013
ICT game fast approaching it’ll be interesting to see what team we put out..
Also saw some mention to converting the South Stand into a standing area something I would be unhappy at having been sitting there even before the year in Hampden. …and many of the faces around me have been there as long as I can remember I’m sure wouldn’t be happy either.
Love it :oD))))
Maybe you should change your moniker if your going to make statements like that, time for change but no too much eh :oD)))
Hail Hail
Big Jock wd have banned players talking abt the Shak game. The next game is the ICT one and they are flying just now.
Keep your eye on the ball Celtic. H H
Very interesting debate on The Scottish Football Monitor this week about what decent Rangers fans can do to make sure their new club, or their new new club if it comes to that, is a club for them, the decent ones.
There was a good discussion at the end of Today on Radio 4 this morning on company turnarounds. John Kay of the FT started this off with a piece he wrote the other day arguing that we just have to accept that companies, sometimes, reach the end of their natural life and should just be left to die. Asked on the radio about the ones who do come back from the brink, he said that what they have in common is that they have a competitive advantage that they manage to transfer to new territory. He gave IBM as an example for facing oblivion in the making of computers but successfully reinventing itself as a business services company based on its name and its knowledge.
This brings me back to Sevco. It has a competitive advantage because it was able to indulge fans of the deady bears that their dreams lived again in the new club, so it has had a much bigger support than any of its immediate rivals, and would possibly still have if it managed to work its way up the leagues. However, that competitive advantage is, it seems to me, at odds with the decent supporters of Rangers. There may be more of them than I realise (and if there are they are a very quiet bunch indeed), but I feel certain that if Sevco is to keep its competitive advantage and successfully carry off the trick of being perceived as a reinvented Rangers, the ‘decent supporters’ dream dies. The competitive advantage is Rangersness, and that’s not a good thing.
Lol, discussing penalty’s is a no no, ? Jesus Christ, NOW that’s funny!
petec. He was in the dug out last week.
DBBIA
Thankfully,I canny recall that one!
As I was almost defo at the game,I can only assume that a good sesh in The Horseshoe or Wenches dulled the pain.
No excuse apart from that,other than….
Do we have the worst history of missing penalties in football?
I honestly stopped watching them when I was about twelve.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon 12:32 on 23 August, 2013
Fantasy football takes on a whole new meaning this evening in Airdrie.
The fixture list shows Airdrionians v Rangers.
What it should say is Former Clydebank v Sevco Scotland.
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The liquidation derby! Need a catchy name for it – El Credito?
Asonofdan,
My point was, who else was invited ?
Aye they could talk for themselves, if they were consulted, no ?
Are the board still making the GB responsible for the whole section ?
The GB can only be responsible for themselves those that issue the tickets are responsible for who ever else they let into the section.
time for change
13:28 on
23 August, 2013
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The irony of your moniker and your post content is really funny mate.
I’ve 2 season books in the South Stand…………I have my price, I can be bought out ;-)
I went to the theatre at the weekend, honest, I’m well submerged in all that opera and classics, anyway… Richard III was on, he didn’t look too bad for his age, but there’s one part that sticks in my memory more than any other, it’s the part where he bursts into floods of tears and laments convincingly…
Powerful stuff guys, I kid you not; well it got me thinking anyway.
ICT to kick the bucking fejeezus out of Celtic and the mibs to have a few kicks anaw our board to enjoy it ..the kicks. Draw or narrow win for Celtic. Scotland prepares for Europe.
BMCUWP -could be the ole scrambled synapses again but I think that game was the prelude to the Janefield St ‘riot’.
The timing would be right, mid 80s, lots of coppers used to charging into the pickets during the miners strike.
You could well have heard the ole commotion from the Horseshoe.
I posted this last night but this guy is so amazing and his choice of songs are so incredible that it deserves a re-post:
http://billynowell.com/2013/08/22/desert-island-tims-with-morrissey-the-23rd/
a one season deal for Anelka if we progress…anyone?
Non, merci.
Celtic Board gonna enjoy ICT kicking lumps out of Celtic players, well I can honestly say I have seen it all now, breathtaking :(