My friends in Celtic, you and I have often said that losers get the chance to rip everything up and start again. Winners can be burdened with the belief that sticking with a successful plan is the best bet. As we gather in the afterglow of the most improbable title win of the modern era, it is our responsibility to acknowledge a few truths.
The Celtic team who won the SPFL title last season was the weakest side to take the trophy in the 21st century. I do not say that without appreciating that they found something when it mattered most. But we were eliminated from the Champions League by a side weaker than any of the several weak teams who have done so across the last 20 years. Our Europa League campaign fell short of the previous season’s results in the Champions League. And we were pushed to the last week of the campaign by a Newco side who were nine points behind and out of the race, having sacked their manager in October.
The transfer window of summer 2025 will go down in history as an abysmal wasted opportunity. Brendan Rodgers pursued Kasper Dolberg, then 27, for £10m. The player kept Celtic on the hook before opting for Ajax, where he scored three league goals in 22 league appearances since. Rodgers was unable to solicit a payoff and eventually walked in October. The club then made a remarkably wise decision to bring Martin O’Neill back after a 20-year absence. That wisdom was short-lived, as Martin was replaced by a man destined to be remembered as the worst manager in our history. So far.
I was slower than some to lose faith in Wilfried Nancy. I wanted the outside-the-box appointment to work. But even I could see after four games, the defeat at Dundee United, that he had to go. Celtic held on for another four games before deploying the hook. Martin returned again to produce a miracle, again.
The drama of those final weeks will live long. The 97th-minute Scottish Cup equaliser against Dundee came seven days before the 96th-minute league winner at Kilmarnock. Two goals down at Ibrox and playing truly terrible football, the players got off the canvas to secure a point in the 92nd minute. It felt like a win and proved to be crucial.
Late victories over Dundee and Hibs kept us on the coattails of those ahead. Then the final week of the season produced three unbelievable games. Behind against Newco, Motherwell and Hearts, Celtic rallied to score fantastic goals, win all three, and take the most dramatic title in world football last term. We gathered at Hampden a week later to decompress with some more silverware.
Paul Tisdale was escorted off the premises with his protégé Wilfried. He was not the worst Head of Football Operations Celtic have had, but he has a decent claim to the title. We currently do not have a Head of Football Operations. Recruitment is being done nonetheless, but this is a worrying sign.
Nor do we have a permanent chairman. Brian Wilson acts in an interim capacity, without the authority or knowledge to impose the oversight I would like. At least he stepped forward when no one else wanted the job. We are also short of non-executive directors. I am aware that approaches have been made, but the lack of appointment reflects how unattractive the role has become to anyone suitably qualified to be offered it.
Non-executives should be hands-off. They are there to decide strategy and hold executive directors to account. If the executives fail, or a significant event happens — and this includes the replacement of a manager — they step in. None should be involved in day-to-day operations or contract negotiations with coaching staff. Then there is the toxicity of being a Celtic director in recent years. We are never going to win more than we do. God knows how this sentiment changes, but it needs to, or we will fail to attract top talent.
Martin O’Neill is about to undertake an enormous physical and emotional challenge for a 74-year-old. He is more intelligent, experienced and probably fitter than you or me, but do not underestimate the enormity of what lies ahead. There were points dropped during his time last season, but all had mitigating factors apart from a single defeat at Tannadice. He never faced conflict among coaching staff, squad or supporters. It would be miraculous if that state continued for another 10 months.
He has also never recruited in the modern game. Martin watched players and bought them. The data model is not how he operated. He goes into a new way of working short of people whose job it is to prepare options for him. I hope we have signed well and continue to do so, but to paraphrase the old joke, if you want to have a great transfer window, I would not start from here.
My greatest concern about our board is their last two permanent managerial appointments, both of whom were disastrous. The Nancy appointment was (I believe) an attempt to find another Ange Postecoglou. Ange was a serial winner, Nancy won one Covid-era cup. The re-appointment of Brendan Rodgers defies belief. I know people at every level of the club who had to work with or deal with him during his first stay. It was unfathomable that he talked his way back into the job.
We are now in a process not just trying to recruit board members, but bring in new recruitment people to work on a shortlist for a permanent manager, to be appointed by largely the same people who brought you the Brendan and Wilfried Show.
The 21st century has been ours. We have enjoyed enormous privilege, watched our side win more trophies than anyone else in the world. This drove our oldest rivals into liquidation and has reset many facets of Scottish life. As a Celtic fan walking through the streets of Glasgow or Lanarkshire in the 1990s, you felt like you were living in a foreign land, we were so marginalised.
Never underestimate what has been achieved or fail to appreciate this privilege. We now have fans who did not walk those streets in the 90s, or did and no longer remember. The squad, which Martin got over the line in May with, requires a complete rebuild and we do not have a fully constituted recruitment team. I don’t want to bang on forever about the bringing Brendan back in 2023, but it was the most disturbing decision I have known Celtic to make this century. The bitterness of its ending was predicted on these pages and should have been predictable by all inside Celtic Park.
At halftime during the aforementioned draw at Ibrox I thought it was over. I expected Newco to win the league, income to fall, Celtic to respond by splurging ill-considered money on poorly-scouted players, our fans to turn inwards while Newco fans to unify behind the club. Celtic’s privileged position would have ended right there.
We have won five titles in a row, 14 out of 15, but all dominant empires fall for the same reason. A succession of poor decisions, are masked by times of plenty until it’s too late to stop the rot. I can see this happening in real time.
I think we will struggle to appoint the non-execs we need. Our recruitment reputation will take years to rebuild and will only happen through rare and exceptional performance. Fans will absolutely turn inwards at any and every trophy loss; it is counter-productive, but try telling people that! We will spent plenty this window, but the trading model that has supported our success for so long has to be established again.
I am very pleased that Newco took a manager and two players from Hearts. They weakened the side who finished second to us last term, but brought in players with no developmental roadmap and a manager who is no more than a good SPFL boss. This is not the data-first response I expected from US sports investors.
Had Danny Rohl left sooner, they would surely have gone for Jens Berthel Askou, the prospect of which would have concerned me. Why we did not move for him is an inexplicable worry.
So, I expect us to win the league this season and make it six-in-a-row. If we do, I will celebrate as much as any of you. But, I have enjoyed being a Celtic fan this century too much, and disliked aspects of living in Scotland during the 90s enough, to let the big picture slip. I want the next 26 years to look like the last. We have work to do.
Enjoy the season. Paul67.
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SS- That’s why ,what you’ve posted….they might try and scan your ST when buying, to try and control it a bit,but no reason why the many get dictated to by the few
£7 a pint of Tennants at Kelvingrove Park.
Not too bad considering the event is free, lots of big screens, lots of bars, lots of food stalls, lots of seating, lots of children’s entertainment.
And free complimentary cans of coke zero.
Well done to the organisers.
Hertz fans singing their Radio Ga-Ga song.
I wonder what they’ll be singing when he’s wearing a hun shirt at the end of August😂
Greenpinata on 1st August 2026 4:18 pm
I can’t help thinking we are missing a trick, especially with a near 60k crowd at home games.
This was all put together at relatively short notice with massive input by Dominic Mckay.
Greenpinata, (and Bourne @ 4.40)
I often wonder, given his successes before his appointment at Celtic Park and his successes since) just how much Dom McKay would have done for us. The fact he was a Tim/Celtic mhan was neither here nor there for me – he was, and is, a very successful CEO.
The very, very strange way he suddenly left the Club leaves not just me puzzled, but I just wonder what new and better (?) paths we might have taken?
Ave Ave
Ghedjemis not in the Frosinone squad
Hertz 1 up.
Football will probably be outlawed after these 3 games. No wonder I take to the drink.
BRRB
Would you like a scone? They’ve got cocaine in them.
I mean raisins.
Mrs. Doyle CSC
Huns in for Scott McKenna
GGH
I would probably need several controlled substances to suffer these games. Dearie me.
Is it wrong to want the hertz du jambos to win?
Bada,
I always thought he was one that got away. Do Wiki know something we don’t:-
Full name
Scott Fraser McKenna[1]
Date of birth
12 November 1996 (age 29)
Place of birth
Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland
Height
6 ft 2 in (1.89 m)[2]
Position
Defender
Team information
Current team
Rangers football club
Number
26
Is there no end to this folly?🤔
A wee reminder, Monday is a 7.30 ko
GP- Never rated him,always injured as well
McKenna certainly looked the part in his only appearance at the world cup against Brazil.
They already have Soapy Soutter so hopefully they sign Grant Hanley as well for a quorum of Scotland centre backs😂
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 1st August 2026 6:35 pm
Who did look the part for Scotland?
Apart from the fans 🤣
HH.
That’s a fair point😂
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 1st August 2026 2:40 pm
Interesting table shown just there on Sky: Celtic led the league in ‘goals from open play’ with 56; the huns were a distant second with 47; and Hertz were SIXTH with 38.
———
And we’ve pinched their set piece coach.
Didn’t watch DU last night, but I have watched bits of today’s 2 games. Not much to get excited about that I have seen.
BT – Indeed.
Celtic, Hertz and huns scored a total of 73, 67 and 76 goals respectively.
If the Sky data is accurate, set-piece/penalty goals were 17, 29(!!) and 29(!!) respectively.
Dons have equalised!
Nice. The Sheepies equalise (maybe).
1-1 😃
Penalty for the Sheep!!
Red card for Finlay😂
ahhhh if buckie did the perfect weekend footie…….
Exciting ending at Pittodrie.
They’ve gone ahead
2-1: Hertz Hibs it again 😂
dons won 2 – 1
I wonder if they’ll dive onto the bus home with their kit on?
Celtic get penalty against herts. players were fighting to get to penalty spot to damage it. ABERDEEN get last min penalty and no herts player goes near penalty spot………………………………………Change of manager change of MORALS me thinks.
Would it be fair to say Hearts hibs it?
If the Sheep get a couple more players they could have a good season especially as they don’t have Europe to contend with.
Tell you the truth I’ve always quite likes Stephen Robinson.
Funny seeing Kevin Nisbett telling the Hearts fans to get doon the road.
Both teams worse than last season on this showing , although Hertz the better of the two . Taken into account with last night’s hoofba’ episode , If there’s any kind of title ‘race’ on this season it will be because Dermo has manipulated it .
Got the 2nd half of Sheep v Jambos , an appalling standard of football, massive spaces all over the pitch , neither team could string 2 passes together.
Jambos looked the better team but perhaps the luck they carried for the majority of last season has well and truly deserted them.
Early doors but both teams look terrible.
HH
Their Greek chap has appeared to have downed tools and Braga was anonymous (their 2 best players last season).
It would surprise me not if both rock up the huns at some point this month or at least head off to pastures new.
Either way, there’s no chance Hertz are repeating last season’s exploits.
Reports that Anderlecht have inquired about Will Ferry . We should get in there quick .