Dermot Desmond held his hands up in an interview with club media, acknowledging mistakes that led to the collapse this season “without qualification”. In reality, there is usually a myriad of reasons why any project fails but ownership of mistakes is the first step in putting things right.
He challenged “conjecture coming from some journalists, commentators and pundits that they foresaw the outcome of this season”. In my preview ahead of the new season starting in August, I put our chances of winning the league at 70%, up from my estimate for the previous season of 50%. I doubt anyone expected the abruptness of the collapse, but many of us are not totally surprised to be in second place.
The interview discusses managerial recruitment, “process is underway and is taking place privately” and acknowledges the high turnover in playing squad ahead this summer and a commitment to learn from mistakes made.
I get that Dermot Desmond is reluctant to take a higher profile role at the club, the hostility fired the board’s way, even during the quadruple treble era, was unrelenting. Remoteness is not always a friend, though. Dermot might feel the same frustrations and disappointments as the rest of us, but if he never shares these feelings, a sense of aloofness builds in the vacuum.
The board overwhelmingly present to the fans through the chief executive, with the chairman on his feet one day a year and signing the odd statement, and the major shareholder a largely unknown figure. It is unbalanced; it does not serve the board and therefore the club well.
Dermot, in your statement you said, “football is not an exact science”, which is correct. It is as much an art, theatre for the millions. You need to put on the greasepaint more often.
Hearts, ha! Knocked Newco Rangers out of the Scottish Cup last season, lost to Brora Rangers this season, who have played only one game since Hearts brave but futile attempt to stop our record fourth consecutive triumph. Not that it made me worry about Falkirk…………..
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Just looked at PP manager odds and there’s a padlock on Roy Keane’s name at number one. What does this mean?
Please announce a manager that isn’t Keane soon…..this is killing me.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 24TH MARCH 2021 8:07 PM
Correct. Funnily enough, he played for Marseille in the EC final against his old club Red Star Belgrade who beat Marseille on penalties.
Had he stayed at Red Star one more season, he’d have won a EC too. I remember that Red Star team being incredibly talented – thumped Rangers on the way to the final.
GEEBEE1978 on 24TH MARCH 2021 8:22 PM
Indeed
Stojkovic’s successor in the RSB midfleld was of course our other old pal R Prosinecki, in the days before the civil war.
Nicky butt
That’s all we need another one too make an arse of it
I’ll get ma coat
HH
Tell a lie,tell it big and tell it often.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-reveal-150-year-anniversary-23789500?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
I think the hun protesteth too much…
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 24TH MARCH 2021 7:49 PM
How come we won with Neil Lennon the first time?
Well, as I said, we had little competition. Given our financial advantage it shouldn’t even have been close. That financial advantage and the long period of domination it gave us allowed us to plan ahead for European qualification and the league but we never did. Sooner or later we would pay the price and once we faced a team with some resources and a decent coaching setup we lost when they got going. So having Neil Lennon as coach was decisive in losing the second time he was in charge because his weaknesses were exposed and this eventually outweighed having better individual players. These weaknesses were known beforehand and many pointed them out.
This was not a self-fulfilling prophecy since the people who fulfilled this prophecy were not those making it. Those who fulfilled it were those in charge who told us he was the only man for the job.
Yes, there are certain circumstances that were against us this year and keeping players who didn’t want to be here was a big factor but we should have been aware of this and planned for it. That we didn’t is another example of poor planning.
The weaknesses we have had previously led to the appointment of someone who was supposed to be an assistant. Rodgers left at least partially perhaps because of the management set up. Maybe he would have left anyway but while he was here he covered up for the failures of those above, which – to repeat myself – was also covered up by our financial advantage.
After 9 years of dominance that should have built a cumulative advantage we are without a permanent manager for months; a CEO on the way out and many players following him, requiring an enormous rebuild. We all know that this is an enormous fall from grace and as I have said before – responsibility for this lies with those in a position of responsibility. That’s their job description and if it was all out of their control and they could do nothing about it they should be getting paid a lot less than what I think they are.
SD- I’ll be surprised if Serbia don’t score from a Tadic corner….
I really hated trebles 3 and 4, cos I knew the minute they appointed a redhead in the sauna, just cos he delivered a league and a cup, I knew it would all go wrong ,
and on and on and on .
BRAYSTREET on 24TH MARCH 2021 8:45 PM
Some good points. Thing is, Lennon was appointed to win 10IAR, not nine. He got half-way there.
I think many on here fancied him to get 9 but not 10. Me and my dad had that exact conversation after the cup-final when the Lennon announcement took the wind out of many peoples’ sails.
1. GUYFAWKESAFOREVERHERO on 24TH MARCH 2021 7:33 PM
BrayStreet on 24th March 2021 6:42PM
DD’s prominence is due to being a person of significant control as declared at Companies House on the club pages. Without the existing waiver he has from the Board, he’d be a 100% owner potentially.
===============
I’m not sure I understand the full ramifications of what you have said but maybe it would be better if the Board did away with the waiver since he gets what he wants anyway.
From BadaBing’s link.
The Ibrox supremo said: “ Rangers are today delighted to unveil our 150th anniversary crest – the first major milestone as we count down to the celebrations of being the first major European club to reach such a landmark.“
Let’s just leave this here for consideration.
The “waiver” is a legal agreement that he did not have to make an offer for everybody elses shares once he breached a certain % of shares ownership , maybe 35%.
Seems Aberdeen have offered Scott Brown a 2 year,player/coach deal
My Great Granda was born in 1870, I think I am right in saying that makes me 152 years old next birthday
GeeBee @ 8:50,
My mate tells the story of the pub he was in going silent when Lennon got offered the job after the final.
He said the party atmosphere disappeared instantly and it was a noticeably strange experience from the place being so buzzing.
MAJESTIC HARTSON
Does he post on CQN?
Stivs @ 9.07
👍😁😁😁
Serbia now 3-1 up ☹️☹️☹️
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 24TH MARCH 2021 4:19 PM
Karl Marx foresaw and predicted the most recent recession because he was always predicting the inevitable colapse of Capitalism.
Many of the posters claiming foresihght on this season are using hte same blunderbuss technique.
evenabrokenclock csc
SFTB I’m one of those who claim ‘foresight’, not of the detailed disaster of this season, but that the appointment of Neil Lennon, in the well publicised circumstances, would prove to be foolhardy.
I was one of the many who stood, with tears in my eyes, listening to Labi Sifre’s “So Strong” all those years ago. I love Neil Lennon the man, the player and even the manager who did so much for us, despite his limitations as a modern manager.
There are 53000 season ticket holders who turn up and watch our club play at Celtic Park. I very much doubt if ANY of them (you and me included) could manage our club even in their wildest dreams, but that does not mean that they cannot see and understand what is happening in front of their eyes. You don’t go to match after match for year after year and fail to gain some understanding of the game and how it is played. Then there are the supporters who go further, who look at football being played elsewhere, even when those ‘elsewhere’ teams turn up at Celtic Park and show us something new/different/better, even clubs which we assume are ‘lesser’ then Celtic.
I think we, as football fans, even Celtic fans, can see developments in the game, can see playing systems and even players being coached differently. We can then see that there are alternative (better?) ways of progressing. Brendan Rodgers will never be my favourite past manager for the MANNER in which he left us, (even though I now have a better understanding of the circumstances in which he was being stymied) but he was a superior, modern manager and I appreciated that. My individual weakness of personality still allows me to enjoy his defeats in England, but my brain allows me to recognise his achievements this year with Leicester.
Put simply, he is a modern, very competent manager/coach. Also put quite simply, it is what I want for Celtic now and in the near future.
Neil Lennon, two years ago, was never going to be that man (IMO of course). Can I claim that as foresight? At the time he was appointed full time my worry was that he would continue to use Rodgers’ players/ systems/approach without adding to/developing the players, the system(s), the young/new players and as a result face a declining return as a result.. Was I wrong to hold those concerns then? Am I wrong to consider that I was right in holding those concerns? We don’t have to rehearse the calamitous mistakes he made and repeated this season. I don’t mean to down the guy, but his clear and obvious and repeated errors of judgement would, I suggest, mean that I, and how many others?, were right to hold those concerns.
Along with most/ many supporters, I now have concerns, on the basis of what our majority share holder has said/not said in his in-house interview that there is no discernible plan, that the apparent shambles of October/November, when many, many knowledgeable Celtic supporters foresaw the unfolding shitfest that was, AT THAT TIME still saveable, is still up and running at Celtic Park today!
Now THAT is scary. IMO of course.
Ave Ave
Celtic versus Falkirk 3rd April K.O. 7.30pm CP time
Saturday Night Fever CSC
Poor old Ireland – Unlucky
FT 3-2 to Serbia. At least we scored. 🇮🇪💚🇮🇪💚🇮🇪
Please keep Broony
https://the-shamrock.net/2014/11/22/doing-the-broony-the-story-of-a-celtic-celebration/
does anyone know what is happening regards Season Tickets this year
Who would win in a fight between another dead rubber and a Scottish Cup tie?
No project managers please.
A tried and tested manager:
Sean Dyche
Eddie Howe
How bleeding obvious can that we need to get in a ready made manager.
D :)
For those who have liking to repeating “stories” from Celtic News Now passing it as opinion.
This is 67 Hail Hail , sounds like supporter writing in the spare time maybe…
https://grv.media/about/
They are based im Cheshire. Spouting BS is their business. Click bait. Attention grabbing p%sh.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 24TH MARCH 2021 7:41 PM
Tuned in for Serbia Ireland game.
Serbia have a new coach after being papped oot Euros by Scotland.
Bhoys of a certain vintage may recall he was repeatedly linked with us throughout early 1990s until financial reality sunk in
Gentleman by the name of Dragan Stojkovic.
——————————————————————-
One of the greatest players of all time.
If not for injury, he would have been the ranked as the greatest European player of the mid 80s up to mid 90s.
You’ve gotta laff at some of the guff dished oot an’ lapped up on the fringes o’ t’internet………………………………………………………
…………………..some whoppers tellt by stoatirs!
:0
:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Jackanory!
DAVID66
Too right mate, and none of these SPL winning managers either.
Longish piece from earlier … I saw some of you mention the murder in Easterhouse.
Still too much of this stuff … who stands for us, eah?
Who takes the knee for us?
——–
In a week in which Scottish football stood up for one of its own, and people demanded action on racism in football, a familiar question hangs in the air, haunting us all; when does this country get serious about tackling its own peculiar brand of hate, the latent sectarianism which continues to blight us and which shows no sign at all of going away?
These are vintage years for the haters.
This a great time to be a nasty SOB.
When most of us heard that Polish Celtic supporter Kamil Charyszyn had been murdered by a crowd decked in Ibrox’s colours and Britain’s butchers flag, the general feeling was outrage.
The other main emotions were disgust and great sympathy for his loved ones.
Hardly anyone that I know was surprised.
Not even a little bit. Not even slightly.
Murder for wearing the wrong colours or pledging allegiance to the wrong club happens in this city.
It happens with a depressing regularity, and more often than not the victims are the ones decked in green.
Catholics still suffer sectarian abuse on a daily basis.
In July we allow haters and bigots to waltz down our streets.
The rest of the year, depending on the football results, they can literally paint the kerbstones red, white and blue and nobody utters a word.
In one part of the country, a place where even Southern US rednecks would take one look and declare it shit-kicker heaven, the park railings have to be pained a different colour than the rest of the nation, multi-national corporations change their logos and pander to the scumbags and even the traffic lights need grilles over that single flashing green light.
This is Scotland. This is Scotland in 2021.
This is why the outrage that a black footballer had something whispered in his ear during a match has caught some of us so completely by surprise; we never knew that this country gave a shit.
We’ve all heard our share of abuse; the difference is that hardly anybody bothers to whisper it around these parts.
If I made a check mark in a book every time I’ve been called a fenian b@stard or something else for just walking down the street in a scarf or with a hat on I’d have more written work than King, Grisham and Clancy combined.
I was smacked in the face one night whilst chatting to my mate’s girlfriend, by a cowardly guttersnipe who thought having his two pals with him would prevent a response, just because I had a pale green shirt on.
There was nothing to indicate that I was a Celtic fan … that shirt was all the excuse this halfwit needed. To him I was just a guy walking down the road with his lassie … and he took one look at the colour of my clothes and decided to have a go for free.
Of course, it turned out to be a bad decision.
What a shame he didn’t realise my own mates were 20 yards behind me.
See, most of us don’t even think about this stuff anymore; we just go about our lives with eyes in the back of our heads, watching everything, in case you have to react quickly.
It is commonplace enough that most of us have developed a radar for it, and there’s hardly one of us who doesn’t have a clear understanding about Glasgow’s informal dress code, and on what nights and in what parts of town it’s unsafe to go about in certain clothing.
You learn, above all, to handle yourself.
Because nobody stands for us. Nobody takes a knee on our behalf.
Nobody in Scotland anyway and people outside of this don’t even believe half of the stuff they hear about the places many of us come from, and why would they?
It sounds so ridiculous and backward and seventeenth century.
I remember going to London for a meeting about the blog a couple of years back, and telling an incredulous bunch of advertisers about how I’d left behind a city reeling from a full-blown sectarian riot.
It’s like something from the dark ages.
Remember, when UEFA first got the nod that sectarian songs were being belted out at every European tie at Ibrox they didn’t even know how to charge Rangers for it at first.
They had no frame of reference for what any of it meant.
They are used to dealing with straight up racism and right-wing hate.
They didn’t have a clue what any of this was; they actually asked the SFA to clear the matter up for them, and it was our august governing body that sent them the first paperwork on “unacceptable chants” which, UEFA will have noticed, they had never done anything about.
Let’s not forget that the whole thing might forever have gone unchallenged, anywhere, were it not for two men; Martin O’Neill and Neil Lennon.
It was the abuse that the latter took at Ibrox, and O’Neill’s decision not to let the matter rest with the simple act of marching our captain towards the fans to take the applause of the support, going on to raise the issue of the “racist and sectarian chanting” during a press conference before the following week’s Champions League match with Juventus, that finally brought matters to a head and exposed the running sore Scottish football had tolerated for decades.
Nobody took a knee for Neil Lennon afterwards.
There was no rallying round our player any more than a protective arm was wrapped around him when, as manager, he was attacked on the touchline at Tynecastle.
A jury actually found the perpetrator Not Proven … although it happened live on the telly and the number of witnesses were in the tens of thousands.
When O’Neill made his statements about the abuse Lennon had taken at Ibrox that day, Scottish football barely trembled.
There were no summits, no new roles created at the SFA, the media barely blinked.
Not until the UEFA charges started and then a number of them swung into action, not praising the European governing body for their stance, for finally confronting Scotland’s obvious problem, but to ask when Celtic would be investigated as well.
Indeed, Gordon Smith, who was later appointed the chief executive at both Hampden and Ibrox, famously defended the Rangers fans and their songs on Radio Scotland, an act which appalled even Jim Traynor who asked him “What part of F the Pope do you not consider sectarian?”
Hatred and bigotry against Catholics, Irish and Celtic fans in general, was long since normalised.
It’s something we simply live with, in the way Gary Younge of The Guardian says black American males go about their lives knowing that even a random traffic stop could be a fatal encounter.
Those who get careless learn the hard way, like in the story he tells about how he, a black British man living in the States on assignment, didn’t know he couldn’t stop in rural Mississippi, in the 21st century, to ask an old white couple for directions.
They threatened to shoot him.
Even then he still thought it was funny, until he told his African American wife and her brother, both of whom knew that it wasn’t and who upbraided him for taking such a stupid risk … and for not taking the threat seriously.
I have friends who’ve been assaulted because they are Celtic fans.
I know at least two who have been stabbed in sectarian incidents, thankfully none of them seriously hurt.
I am notoriously intolerant of bigoted yahoos and I find it hard to stay silent around them; even I know there are times to bite my lip and keep my mouth shut, such as on the day I shared a 45-minute coach trip with a pack of utter eejits who sang every sectarian ditty in the book, and who were clearly just dying for someone to tell them to shut it.
Those are the days you thank God for the IPod and Bruce Springsteen played loud.
Because who would have mourned me outside of my family and friends?
Would someone have come to my aid had I stood up and told them to change the record?
Not likely.
Life would have gone on whether I was in it or not, and damn all would have changed because it never has no matter how many of our people get carried away in black plastic bags.
I repeat; nobody kneels for us.
Nobody stands, head bowed, in our honour or, to the eternal shame of all in this nation, ever says that “enough is enough.”
It is right that Scottish football rallies around Glen Kamara.
If he was racially abused, then he needs to know that he has the support of the game … it’s perfectly valid.
But I said at the weekend that ditching the knee was our way of saying that the deaths of black males at the hands of the police matters less to our national sport than a player suffering within it, and that stands and it’s never been more evident that the same standard applies to Celtic fans and we’ve long had to suffer living here.
Scotland couldn’t care less about the safety and wellbeing of some of its own citizens, and that has never been clearer than it is right now, when the kerb stones tell you who really rules the streets, where the police are scared to enforce the law and where somebody, somewhere, right now is probably out of their nut on vodka boasting about how they really are up to their knees in fenian blood.
This is Scotland. This is 2021.
And to look at the papers and the reaction of the civic institutions, even as another Celtic fan lies dead, nobody could care less if there were prizes on offer for Not Giving A Shit.
The waiver gives DD absolute power with minimum responsibility.
BSR @ 9:17,
He doesn’t. I’ve tried to get him on a few times – I even set up an account for him but no joy (so far).
He did help me come in 5th place in CRC’s Friday night quiz at the start of lockdown*. Does that count?
*I had to read the questions out though as we were running late and “all I’m seeing is adverts”
Nicky Butt said he quit as Man U Head of First Team Development, to try a new challenge………starting to worry now….why would you quit a job like that?
Martim1980,
Thanks for the reply re the lawyers the other day.
I appreciate it 👍🏼
Bada,
I think McLair would be a good shout as a DoF.
The Keane and Butt rumour though…🤢
TONTINE TIM
The Fraud .
Don’t get it