Lack of Collective movement – Victory for Celtic Chairman Brian Wilson?

The Celtic Fans Collective arrived at exactly the right moment.

Early momentum is easy. The board were rattled. Wins came. I backed them then. I back the principle now. But what have you done for me lately?

When Celtic lost a league game with a tennis ball protest live on Sky, Brendan Rodgers didn’t point fingers. He said the fans are the heartbeat of the club, it’s their life, and they want to see the club being the best it can be. Full stop.

Martin O’Neill? He said that anybody who thought the Stuttgart protest was a good idea needed their heads examining. One man understood who he was working for. The other told you exactly whose side he was on.

So what did the Collective do? They ran from it. Couldn’t claim it. Couldn’t stand behind the most effective act of direct action this movement has produced. Distanced themselves publicly while the board and their media allies hung it round their neck anyway.

They got the punishment without the conviction. And still apologised.

But that’s not really the point. Stuttgart was ours. Those were your people. Our protest.

COLLECTIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE?

Instead, the Collective drew a line between themselves and the support that actually acted.

Us and them. And they picked the wrong side.

Instead of hitting the board squarely in their weakest spot – their EGOs – on the big UEFA stage, knockout tie with the world watching, they picked a low-stakes game. Why? Because they were scared. That thread alone exposes the weakness, the lack of guts.

Prior to the Europa League match, they announced boycott of the Scottish Cup game against Dundee at home — after a lot of cuddling and soothing pats on the back, they have to protect the feelings of the wider Celtic family.

I know that Kerrydale Street is about 20 guys who write players off immediately and know it all but not really, they are a small sample of insufferable bell ends.

They exist in a snide wee echo chamber that should echo back – shut it and sit doon. These people moaned and moaned with mothers milk fresh on their breath, that it was outrageous to boycott the hoops on cold, February Saturday night cup game at home v Dundee, even some of ACSOM managed to keep their snouts out of the trough for that one.

— it was so easy an action it seemed, not really a choice. Guess what? The collective allowed it – each to their own was the message.

The Collective isn’t a protest movement, it’s more akin to an administration. A very slow one, becoming more useless with each passing day, you don’t care about engagement, 2 guys on the steering group look in the mirrors and see our CEO and CFO looking back, 4 of them are doing nothing of merit.

Hold on! I’ve seen this episode!

Seeing as he has time to appear on tv to discuss the issues in the Labour Party, hopefully Brian Wilson finds time to meet this week and move things forward with resolving the issues at Celtic.

— Michael V (@MikeMarino67) February 8, 2026

POLITICAL GAINS FOR BRIAN WILSON

If you type in the Fans Collective into Google search – one of your key activities is organising meetings!! It’s not just me that’s noticing the meetings bollocks.

Brian Wilson plays you like a fiddle. Surely people can see what I see here?

The collective cannot rely on intermediaries or politicking—action is the only lever that works.

Centrist moderation is counterproductive to the greater good. Weakness. Pliability. Malleability.

Also, The Green Brigade are needed — not in the stadium, but in the trenches. Activism. Advocacy. Justice seeking. Right side of history.

The Collective opened themselves to patter like, “this is a Green Brigade thing” or “this is ultras.” Weak messaging damages the whole thing. No colour, no urgency. No noise.

Soon it will be Summer transfer window. Board’s perfect window. Hope in the air, gullibility, naivety — they feast on it.

Now we are in a title run-in. Exciting. Chaotic. But it changes nothing. If we win the league, wonderful. Savour it. If not, makes no difference.

Everything rises or falls on CEO and CFO being emptied. The rest is distraction.

The Collective are going nowhere fast. Months wasted. Home games wasted. European stage games slipped away without a sniff except from the provisional wing of the protest. Collective have fear in the steering groups eyes. Opportunities squandered.

I no longer have my name in that shower of meeting makers.

They are Thelma and Louis, steering the group off a cliff.

CEO and CFO have got to go.

Disband the Collective.

Until then, the unpersons remain unpersons.

EDITOR:

This opinion piece is exactly that. The view of Trough Watcher, I disagree with it. In a very short time the Celtic Fans Collective has achieved an awful lot. Not everything that they would want but no one ever thought Celtic would be a quick fix.

To have brought together 400 different Celtic groupings is an awesome achievement. Losing the Affiliation and ACSOM is par for the course, these things happen.

It is a Collective, carrying a variety of viewpoints but all believing that Celtic should be in a far better place than they currently are. It requires a large amount of diplomacy to carry so many different groups. Going for real hard- line action so soon could lose a lot of backing.

NOT ANOTHER PENNY has been an outstanding success. It has hit the club in the only place that matters and forced board members into reluctantly meeting with anti-establishment fans. And it forced a free loading Chairman into retirement.

RELATED READING

• Boyd, Halliday and Ferguson form the Celtic pile-on
• Do Police Scotland decide on entry to Celtic Park?

Select Celtic365 as a “Preferred Source” on Google News for prompts to the independent news and opinions that you respect.