Celtic fans have nervously been watching a repeat of the ominous 2018/19 season highlighted by two transfer windows.
In case anyone in the Celtic boardroom required a reminder Brendan Rodgers stated the obvious during today’s media conference with a throwback to his first spell managing the club.
The summer of 2018 means one thing to most fans and that is John McGinn.
There are a number of variations on the story but the bottom line is that Celtic were unable to complete the transfer of the grandson of a former Chairman, a one time Celtic Season Ticket holder.
Rodgers seemed to put in the groundwork, McGinn was keen on the move but Peter Lawwell got distracted by an ego contest with Rod Petrie, once again the Celtic CEO lost out although a salary and bonus of over £3.5m on a decreased turnover of £83m will have cushioned the blow.
Instead of McGinn Rodgers was handed Youssuf Mulumbu, a free agent after a spell at Kilmarnock.
Rodgers had to fire fight with the agent of Dedryk Boyata, fresh from playing for a Belgian side that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia Boyata wanted a move, despite having a year left on his deal Rodgers refused to sanction a move while Lawwell wouldn’t sign a central defender until the last days of the window.
Surplus to requirements a year ago Emilio Izaguirre returned as back-up to Kieran Tierney, when Moussa Dembele was sold on the eve of the transfer window closing there was no replacement waiting in the wings, in January Vakoun Bayo arrived with Oli Burke, Timo Weah, Andrew Gutman, Manny Perez and Jeremy Toljan.
Rodgers quit for Leicester a month after Celtic were delighted to announce the signing of Marian Shved.
🔊 LISTEN: “I’ve been here before. I can deal with it better now. It doesn’t make me any less ambitious”.
🍀 Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers opens up on how he copes with frustrations in the transfer market with just one week to go until the deadline ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/zopdlfZ0hc
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) August 23, 2024
The decision making of that season left a lot to be desired but Lawwell managed to top it all by replacing Rodgers with his favourite caretaker, Neil Lennon. Back again on a permanent basis because he knew the city with the £3.5m man refusing to consider any other applicants.
Second time around it seems to be the lack of transfer activity that is causing Rodgers concern, after nodding through seven projects last summer he put the foot down in January having made it known that the squad required four first team ready arrivals.
Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah might be two of those players but with less than a week to go in the transfer window Michael Nicholson hasn’t provided Rodgers with an outfield player that he didn’t have last season.
It seems that the boardroom focus is on selling Matt O’Riley for a club record fee, as a bonus there are suggestions that Manchester City could be ready to offer £20m for Kyogo Furuhashi.
Meanwhile there is a Champions League campaign starting in four weeks. If two of the top talents from last season are sold off the quality left over in the squad will be spread even thinner. Two injuries and a relentless fixture list could easily result in the sort of slump witnessed last winter to open up the title race to the second manager of the season at Ibrox.
The first month of the season has been marked by messages and warnings to Nicholson about the expectations of his manager, when Celtic publish their accounts for the year to 30 June 2024 cash in the bank could well be around £100m, just short of turnover.
That will matter little if an undercooked Celtic is toiling to avoid the wooden spoon in the Champions League, with an unhappy manager sticking around to air his views, similar to those of disgruntled fans that have shelled out £200 for four Champions League ties on top of the £600 plus Season Tickets.
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6 Comments
by John
£3.5m wages from £83m turnover is disgusting. Lawwell has took,took,took,took and took again. Get the finger out tight hole
by Pan
Nicholson is an abject failure, as is Lawwell. We had a much better man in position with Dominic MacKay, who was removed because he was aligned with Ange and was prepared to back him. We will forever be a backward club with people like Nicholson and Lawwell at the club. Indeed, Lawwell seems to have an obscene obsession with money. Having money in the bank is fine, but businesses have to invest in order to improve, not to stay the same. This is certainly true in football and is not yet happening at Celtic. We are a big fish in a small pond and this idiotic board cannot see past themselves to help us go to the next level. If this all goes belly-up and we are not sufficiently prepared for the Champions League this time, by backing the manager, then the fans surely have to consider why they invest so much of the hard-earned cash and their time, with no obvious consideration of their feelings.
by Eugene McGeady
Abject failure from board. Weaker squad, injury to ccv McGregor or kyogo and in real trouble as no quality in squad depth. Happy clappers say look at rangers but European improvements are our ambition and this is last year of automatic champions league. Root cause is board as Brendan has stayed what he needs and if no deliverables of value then as a fan base we need to seek change
by Dan
In my 60 years following Celtic, this is for me is the worst ever period, winning in Scotland does not help as we have possibly the weakest ever opposition. It was hard living through Rangers 9 in a row a domination. It was hard watching the club nearly folding until Fergus saved the day, but not as hard as watching the club I love turn into a money oriented greed factory run like Amazon and Apple. Football is secondary to profit now which breaks this old heart. The soul of the club has been lost to greed.
by John mcghee
Nicholson and Lawwell need removed before they give sevco scotland fc 2012 our 4th title just like 10inarow title if they let they cheats won it i pity they Torie bastards and i hope the fans turn on them badly they are nothing but money grabbing bastards im gining celtic none of my money untill they are out of our club honest watch this kyogo and Hatate will be next to go they dont give a fuck about us celtic fans only our money fucking dirty RATS I HATE THEM SCUMBAGS…SELLING OUR BEST PLAYERS TO HELP THE BIGGEST CHEATS IN SCOTTISH FOOTBALL OLDCO AND NEWCO PLUS THERE FRIENDS AT HAMPDEN CORRUPT SFA.SPFL..
by Bryan Coyle
Deliberate sabotage by that fat bastard Lawwell he wants the huns to win the league this year for them to keep the lighs on.Won’t be inside Celtic Park again till that fat bastard and his motley crew are chased down London Road.