Celtic’s Larsson plan backfires with Seven Magnificent Questions fired back

Not even the release of a new range of Henrik Larsson merchandise could save the day for the hapless Celtic PR and marketing department.

Throughout the month the club has stumbled from one self inflicted mistake to another. On the 30th day of September the latest attempt to soften up supporters was quickly dismantled across social media.

As former players go Larsson is untouchable, the undisputed King of Kings, now a fairly distant figure who respects the relationship that he has with supporters of a club he left 21 years ago.

In the modern world fans know that there is a market for a HL range, no one is compelled to buy but if there is a demands for Larsson polo shirts and hoodies it would be silly not to produce those goods.

Timing is everything whether it is sport, politics or anything else.

Someone at Celtic, probably Kevin McQuillian, head of Marketing and Club Media probably judged that now was the time to press the Larsson button.

Whether tone deaf or failing to read the room the message across Twitter was fairly unanimous.

One reply stood out, Celtic loved to play on the Magnificent Seven theme tune, one fan on Twitter reminded the club that seven Significant Questions remain unanswered by a Club Like No Other.

The seven point open letter was published on September 3, within 48 hours it had the backing of more than 400 supporter groups from individual supporter clubs through to fan media outlets.

The open letter was published ahead of the PR weekend from hell, between McQuillan, Iain Jamieson and Sharon Lyons the club is implicated on two dangerous fronts.

Firstly senior figures at the club spoke to a friend of Roger Hannah with the allegations published in The Sun, The cowardly figure/s involved remain inside the club.

That was followed by a ranting statement that surpassed anything that James Traynor conjured up while he was running Communications at Ibrox.

Naturally no name was put to the statement which got so desperate that it brought in UEFA Financial Sustainability Rules to justify the summer transfer window which further weakened the first team squad.

Those two events galvanised the support as much as the stale Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty, within a week of the open letter a meeting attended to by over 80 fans in person was held, the Celtic Fans Collective was formed on the back of that.

Larsson is probably unaware of the social media backlash, it isn’t in any way personal, nothing will ever diminish the esteem that the King of King’s is held in.

The Swedish legend is smart enough not to be dragged into any media appearances to back up the inaction of the Celtic board, a quick phone call to Chris Sutton would put him straight on how things are standing.

There has been a mixed, mainly adverse reaction to the 12 minute silence at the start of the Hibs match, it remains to be seen how effective the silences against Braga and Motherwell are.

Further plans have still to be confirmed by the Collective, the club AGM should be held in November with another own goal due to be revealed in the next few weeks.

With the notice for the AGM comes a more detailed breakdown of the 24/25 finances such as the salary that Michael Nicholson collected, it would be a shock if it wasn’t in or around £1m.

That figure is an obvious target for action, any drop in commercial income can be put on the performance of the Celtic CEO, the more he remains silent the louder the calls for change will grow.

Faking phone messaging with Chris McKay just isn’t good enough.

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