Hearing that some dodgy concrete has been found in the Copland Road…

Over a month on from the announcement that Ibrox won’t be ready for the start of the 24/25 season there has been absolutely no update on the cause of the problem in the Copland Road Stand.

Executive Chairman John Bennett was shamed into an update that provided no update as the plans to switch two SPFL matches to Hampden were being finalised, inbetween times a strangely informative opinion piece by Keith Jackson in the Daily Record mentioned Hampden for the foreseeable with Ibrox reopening in October in a best case scenario. Jackson did tellingly mention that there was no concrete news…

In the absence of information speculation has been rife about what is going on. Images taken inside the stadium show a skeleton workforce progressing at snails pace, a good chunk of the penalty box is undercover as the Copland Crane shuffles along with all the urgency of Cyriel Dessers presented with a half chance.

An army of experts has surfaced covering all areas of construction with warnings over Asbestos and Subsidence going unchallenged while Season Ticket holders dread relocation details behind both goals at Hampden.

The club has promised comparable seats for every loyal bear- as in ‘my new seat is miles worse than the one I’ve sat in for 40 years in the Copland Road Stand’.

At the time of the original announcement media messengers were alerted that the closure would be for August only and that a club employee had been sacked because of the delay. Strangely no person has been identified or cause given for their dismissal, it seems similar to instructing messengers that a future owner is a billionaire and no one deciding to check out some basic facts.

The dodgy concrete story is as deserving as any other theory. The Copland Road Stand was opened in August 1979 with Alan Sneddon netting the opening goal quickly followed by a Tom McAdam equaliser as 10 man Celtic earned a point in front of 36,000 fans with the away support suffering in half of the Enclosure.

Forty-five years later it could be that there are issues with the concrete used in the Copland Road Stand, perhaps 20 plus years of Doing The Bouncy has had some unfortunate consequences.

Bennett has promised a personal explanation before July is out which should clear James Bisgrove who has been the fall guy for the Daily Record.

Work to install 600 additional seats started on May 15 with the departure of the former CEO announced on May 30, presumably the club had been informed before then with the building work on the Copland Road stand the priority project.

It is difficult to imagine Bisgrove getting heavily involved in that, getting new sponsors on the shirt, striking deals with Castore Sport and others is more his scene than a construction project that doesn’t involve hospitality suites or fine dining.

A competent Chairman would surely have checked up on progress on the Copland Stand but it was three weeks later, after much social media speculation, that the closure of Ibrox was announced.

The entire job had a tight timeframe, Phil Clement’s side have a home match on August 10 which provided less than three months to get the seats in place.

Bennett chose to wait three weeks to confirm that the building work wouldn’t be completed and more than a month before be explains what has caused the problems.

It could be dodgy concrete or any other theory being put forward, without any solid evidence it seems that there is no more than a 50-50 chance that Celtic will be first footing Ibrox on January 2, as ever social media appears the most reliable source of news and updates.

CLICK HERE for the many faces of James Succulent Traynor.

CLICK HERE for Ibrox closure announcement.