State of the Club report, Summer 2025

My friends in Celtic, last season we enjoyed our fourth consecutive league title, a League Cup win, and a disappointing end to the treble pursuit with a penalty defeat in the Scottish Cup Final.  That loss was only the sixth domestic trophy Celtic have failed to win in nine years, and three of those came amid the testing absence protocols Celtic observed impeccably in season 2020-21.

The season just finished also saw our successful participation in the first Champions League, league format, which we progressed from, before ultimately losing to an equaliser in Munich.  A repeat in Europe this term will be enormously difficult.

Since then, Nicolas Kuhn, our scorer that night in Munich, has left for Como, Greg Taylor went to PAOK,  while a number of fringe players also emptied their Lennoxtown lockers.

Kieran Tierney (28) returns to fill the left back slot vacated by Greg, and we have seen a welcome return to a strategy of investing in young players.  I am even happier that we have revived our Japan policy, with the arrival of striker Shin Yamada (25 but not long out of uni.) and left-side defender Hayato Inamura (23).

The arrival of striker Callum Osmand (19), from Fulham echoes the road travelled by Moussa Dembele in 2016.  The final notable arrival (so far) is Swedish winger Banjamin Nygren (23).  Let’s not burden him with the obvious comparison.  Past performance of talent sources does not guarantee anything, but we are entitled to be encouraged.

We are a month away from the transfer window closing and the I read that Chris Sutton thinks we are weaker now than at the end of last season.  Chris watched more of Kieran last season than I did, and perhaps he watched a lot of Japanese, Danish (Benji) and Fulham reserve football too.  If I can go out on a limb, though, this feels like an extraordinary claim without extraordinary evidence.  Doom sells more than “Nothing much to report yet”.

I spent much of last term flagging concerns that Brendan Rodgers had gone off-piste.  £26m on Idah, Engels and Trusty (not counting the rest) was an alarming venture into territory I hoped he left behind during his latter days at Leicester.  Therefore, I am delighted to see the manager back with what looks like a strategic fit.

Moreover, this looks like someone planning for the future, which was a concern I raised after last season’s business.

The window of course is not over and if we are to see off this season’s version of a domestic challenge with our customary manner (customary treble seems unnecessary), while reaching and performing in the Champions League, work needs to be done.

Past performances might again be useful.  Our most transformational transfer window in two decades was surely the summer of 2021.  Ange Postecoglou arrived and brought in Kyogo, Starfelt, Carter-Vickers, Abada, Juranovic, Jota, Giakoumakis and Joe Hart.

At the end of July 2021, however, only Kyogo, Abada and Giakoumakis had been signed.  Of course, we could have signed another central defender rather than wait for Cameron, and there was no reason to wait for Jota, Josip, Carl or Joe.  Alternatives were available well before their signing dates.

Fortunately, Celtic decisionmakers knew their targets and set about getting them.  A short-term hit wins today’s headlines, but honestly, do we really need short-term hits?  Is it perhaps better to get your plan right and follow it to the end, even if it means signing the likes of CCV and Jota on deadline day again?

I cannot believe you and I have this conversation every year.  People I know and like, clever people, forget so quickly how these things work.  How “Same old Celtic” actually means what we did previously, not what imaginary thing did not happen before.

We win more than anyone in world football – take this for granted and I don’t want to talk to you.  We achieve this while running a sustainable business model which is the envy of clubs everywhere.  We will continue to spend and strengthen the squad until the window closes (despite having competitive football before then, sellers often choose to wait until near the end).

Michael Nicholson is almost four years in the CEO job.  That period has seen our bank balance climb to levels many of us are uncomfortable with (that includes me!).  Michael carries the burden of spending that money on our behalf, which does not mean spending everything at once.

Do you want to look at past performance again?  Peter Lawwell spent every penny that came into the club over any multi-year period you care to mention.  [Gasp! What did the Romans ever do for us?]  My expectation is that Michael will do the same.  Anyone who thinks this is easy, or that there is complacency, or that they would boss the football industry, sits on a peak on the Dunning Kruger graph.

These are special years, the inheritance of work done by some of the aforementioned, by Martin, Fergus and the 10,000 who backed him.  By Jock and the Lions, who picked the club out of obscurity and taught us to aim high.  By those who carried Celtic during the dark decades before that, and by those who cleared the ground, when it was decided, “A football club will be formed…..”.

Enjoy the new season and always enjoy supporting Celtic.

Thank you to everyone who attended the CQN Golf Day at Aberdour in June.  Blantyrekev and Taggsybhoy recently dropped by at Spirit Aid to drop off the funds raised.  The golfers raised £1019.67 which will go to help the most needy in Scotland. Pictured also is Spirit Aid staff Mary Kavanagh and James Ridley (out of picture the indefatigable Patrick Rolink). Bernard Ponsonby (centre) was our fabulous guest speaker.  Spirit Aid are dedicated to improving the lives of young people.  They are worth of our support and your attention.  Celtic fans are always so inspiring.