When you and I discussed Kelechi Iheanacho on Thursday, I suggested “to retain a player who was not trusted to start games would be an admission of failure on the part of the recruitment and management staff.” It would be an admission that we do not have the resources to replace a player who by our own standards was not good enough to start games last season.
One day later, Celtic signed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Alex turns 33 next month. He did not make it off the bench in any of our last four league games (unlike Kelechi, who made crucial contributions) and he came on for a 15 minute cameo against Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup Final.
It does not worry me that Alex is our only signing so far this window, better to get it right than get it early, but it is enormously concerning that the recruitment team is so clearly unprepared to kick on from last season’s squad, that we have signed a player who was deemed not good enough to come off the bench during the fraught final few fixtures of the season.
This is a huge red flag but it is not a surprise. Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham were only added to the management team a week before Alex was signed. Martin O’Neill was in place earlier, but no one was in place to make the necessary decisions. We now have to hope we can play catch-up.
I don’t know the nature of Alex’s deal. It might involve a significant pay-as-you-play element, or some other circumstance that makes this a palatable decision. But what I do know is how to communicate a vision to the Celtic support. The vision we are being offered is not attractive.
Fifa
Not since the Heysel Disaster have I felt as concerned about the future of football than when I heard Fifa bowed to political pressure to reinstate suspended USA player Balogun.
Fifa has long been corrupt, but it largely conducted illicit matters behind closed doors. The game held its nose as Fifa awarded a ridiculous Peace Prize last year. Other sides did nothing when Iran was denied sporting equality at the World Cup.
If the body which appoints referees can act in this manner, the outcome of the tournament itself is invalid. The greatest tournament in sport has been reduced to a choreographed wrestling bout.
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Shoot
Goal ⚽️
Sad to hear about that red card being suspended. Maybe the USA might do the honourable thing and not pick the player concerned.
P67 is late to the party… our club is ‘led’ by utter dunderheids, completely incapable of performing the roles for which they are massively overcompensated relative to ability. They’ve made a roaring arse of literally everything in living memory, so no grounds for optimism for the future.
I know, I know, Brendan Rodgers…. etc.
Totally concur re FIFA. What a comment on the modern world Infamous Infantino is.
Paul67
What’s that you say Skip ……… Celtic might not be doing everything right after all
A club like no other
🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
US social media saying they think the red card reversed and the shocking refereeing in the France game is a ploy to get USA to the final…so the refereeing in tonight’s game will be interesting
I hope England appeal their red card
COMMUNICATTE ……A word missing from our clowns on the board.
Engels £25 million
The Ox £ zero
There’s your replacement 👍
Economics Celtic style…
I was willing to extend benefit of the doubt over Nancy’s appointment. It was a mistake but it was at least a forward-thinking mistake. We now have no sign that the last 6 months has been used wisely to put in place a recruitment team. Even the appointment of MON shows there was no strategy to bring in a younger modern coach as part of a wider recruitment strategy. The portents are not good. We need to get behind MON, Shaun and Fozzy, but a potentially defining league victory, offering the chance to bury our rivals, has not been capitalised on. Utterly baffling.
I would say FIFA are more corrupt now than under the stewardship of Blatter!
Taurangabhoy @ 6:02 am,
“Great games to watch Chairbhoy. Blood and guts at times but you could probably say quality came out on top in both games. I am enjoying the World Cup, viewing times not to bad either.”
Yes, saw some of the delayed live England game – England looked like they really stepped up… so fair do’s…
Glad you are enjoying it – some great football, and brilliant to see some nations rising to the occasion.
Aff ooot
Hail Hail
It’s not the board’s fault . Their inability to function is down to PTSD all caused by that Bete Noir, Brendan Rodgers .
Paul sounds like he’s had his “ But the Emperor has nothing at all on” moment!
9 months post Rodger’s departure as well, during which time we’ve seen the Head of Football depart to the dole queue, Head of Recruitment depart to Swansea, Head of Analysis go to Saudi, one manager bulleted in Nancy, one interim manager appointed for another year after a whole Robbie Keane hokey-cokey, MON’s backroom staff only being appointed the day before pre-season starts, our Chairman resign, and no movement on replacing or recruiting to any of those roles.
We have no Chairman of the Board and MON and his coaches having to do everything on the football side. There are lower league clubs with better set-ups than we have at the minute and the Board have sat on their hands for months instead of resolving it!
“but it is enormously concerning that the recruitment team is so clearly unprepared to kick on from last season’s squad”
Genuine question.
Who are the recruitment team?
Literally …
Who are the named individuals currently driving and contributing to recruitment?
“The vision we are being offered is not attractive.”
————————
There is no vision! – not beyond the old firm at least. Most seem quite content with that though, so why change anything?
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full on 6th July 2026 12:47 pm
“but it is enormously concerning that the recruitment team is so clearly unprepared to kick on from last season’s squad”
Genuine question.
Who are the recruitment team?
Literally …
Who are the named individuals currently driving and contributing to recruitment?
In fairness to Paul – he has asked this several times this summer.
I would disagree wit a few saying that Paul seems to have just had his emperor’s new clothes moment – he has had several leaders making a lot of all the issues we are aware of. Unfortunately, he all to often also had a pop at Brendan in those articles (didn’t say the issues were Brendan’s fault – and indeed has quite clearly said a number of times that the appointment was the mistake and therefore those who made the appointment were at fault). Too many on here though just hone in on Paul mentioning Brendan again and focus on that.
I wish he would name the CEO and other execs as he has clearly been critical of the way Dermot Desmond and those running the club are “running” the club.
🇮🇪 We’re all off to Dublin in the green, in the green 🇮🇪
Where the ‘Helmets’ glisten in the sun 🤣
“better to get it right than get it early”
—
there’s no way P67 wrote that with a straight face.
Whilst there is questions over the employment of McGregor, Hatate, Engels, Bernardo, Maeda & Nygren I am happy to keep the Ox onboard as someone has to play in midfield.
A busy 4 weeks coming up.
Some of our best signings have been manager identification and signings.
Jansen knew, identified and signed Larsson
Dr Jo knew identified and signed lubo
Ange knew identified and signed kyogo and Daizen.
But when it came to Brendan all hands up in the air in shock, How dare he have an input. Thankfully he knew identified and signed Iheanacho when the rest of our tried and trusted structure failed disastrously.
As for having no one in place to make decisions. We all know the despot makes the big decisions. And a striker with 5 CL goals available for 2.5m will no doubt end up elsewhere as we still have two months dealing time to try and get the price down by 250k.
It’s an utter joke. But that’s Striplaunch FC for you.
B2B
thats what i’ve been thinking.
in addiiton to Messi’s non-booking, i think that they are doing as much as they can to have a USA v Messi final.
the france game was scandalous.
spain v portugal will be interesting too – the winners play winners of usa v the belgians – lets see how many yellows and reds in the spain game
From the Herald
Celtic have revealed a 99.5 per cent season ticket renewal rate ahead of the 2026/27 campaign.
The near-total retention of existing holders has resulted in a complete sell-out at Celtic Park, with fewer than 500 tickets made available to those on the waiting list.
In a statement on their website, the club said: “Following another successful Double-winning season, we saw an outstanding 99.5 per cent renewal rate from existing Season Ticket holders.
“Such was the incredible level of demand and commitment shown by supporters that fewer than 500 Season Tickets became available for supporters on the Season Ticket Waiting List.”
Celtic also reported significant engagement in their relocation window, with around 600 supporters opting to move seats within the stadium ahead of the new season.
The club added: “In addition, we were pleased to offer a relocation opportunity to Season Ticket holders, with approximately 600 Season Ticket holders choosing to move to a new location within Celtic Park.
“Thank you once again for your phenomenal support, which means that the Bhoys will return next season in a bid to retain their title in front of packed Paradise,” the statement continued.
Let’s hear who who’s running the recruitment infrastructure.
Let’s hear who is in charge of the signings.
I won’t hold my breath.
I think P67 has just realised that it’s not raining and that the Celtic board he loves has been pishing on his legs.
Better late than never.
Maybe now we’ll get articles that highlight where the problems lie.
HMV has gone long enough for the questions we all have to be aired in the leader…
With the board thanking us for the’phenomenal support’ I ‘m sure they’ll reciprocate by signing a good few gamechangers for Europe . Won’t they ?
P67
I think we’ve raised the white flag – a surrender of the incapables. To echo an earlier post we’ve known this since January- a complete lack of planning resulting in subsequent inaction.
If the ratio of new players in a squad of 30 is the same as the ratio of new season ticket holders this year (500/55,000), we will get 0.2727 of a new player, i.e. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
With due respect P67, today’s missive is a tad hyperbolic for my taste.
The “red flag” headline and your conclusions therein would perhaps have been appropriate if Celtic had retained both Ihenacho and AOC. The fact polar opposite decisions were made on each suggests to me an assessment was made on their respective abilities to make a meaningful contribution after a full preseason.
I suppose we’ll know for sure by the end of August.
Hrvatski Jim on 6th July 2026 1:26 pm
It would seem that there are many more discontents on CQN than there are in the general support.
HOT SMOKED,
You may well be right in your contention about the discontents. I wonder how many of those those on CQN in that category are also season ticket holders.
The renewal of tickets thing is simple.
You support Celtic, not those wanks on the board.
If you don’t renew then someone else gets your seat.
You renew and hope against hope for change.
I can assure any doubters that renewing does not mean support for the board.
I’d say that the majority of ST holders no longer support this board.
What happens next will decide how long the board can last.
Dontvthink it will be for very long.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HMigVmGXgAAad4z?format=jpg&name=small
While not one of the malcontents from last season. Like Paul67, I am one this summer.
We are much worse off than last season. There is an absence of decision makers. DD has not replaced Peter Lawwell or Tom Allison. Paul Tisdale has not been replaced either. Who has taken over their roles. Is it DD?
You might think that they were diddies and it is no loss, but no one has stepped in.
There after last season disruption we have not understood a thing. I think the phrase “Beggers Believe” is apt
I can only think DD is deliberately acting to consider how low we can slide and still win the league.
Is DD sabotaging his own team? It looks like he is.
MON worked wonders last season.
Not again
I hope England appeal their red card from last night.
Corrupt to the core. But what do you expect from Trump and Infantino.
Is it finally starting to sink in EVEN to Paul 67 ?!!!
What we’ve been saying now ( well most of the sensible ones) since some brightness two summers ago….even then overpaying because of procrastination!!!!
Since then…..shambles……I believe decent players HAVE been identified…I just believe they are not capable of getting these players for one reason or the other …probably tightfistedness
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2026/july/06/2026-27-season-tickets-sold-out/
The rags saying Duran incoming