The Deliberate Downgrading of Celtic

Celtic fans were given a frightening look into the future last night.

The Starting XI against Dundee was universally welcomed. Enjoy them while you can, especially Alistair Johnston and Arne Engels.

Modern football is about depth. Squad size, trying to ensure quality alongside quantity.

Top players get a three week summer break. Johnston and Auston Trusty played in the World Cup last month.

Bodo Glimt were involved in the Champions League until March 17. Kasper Hogh started the new Norwegian season on April 6.

With all of these factors involved Celtic need depth. They need capable substitutes. Players that will come on and make an impact on tiring opponents.

Underneath the Starting XI the Celtic bench was underwhelming. Game changers were thin on the ground.

Against Dundee Celtic finished with the following team on the park.

Sinisalo,
Donovan, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Johnston
McGregor, Engels, McCowan
Forrest, Hogh, Tounekti

Johnston and Engels could be sold before the match at Kilmarnock on Sunday. Or before the matches against LASK, maybe between the first and second legs.

Almost certainly before the end of the transfer window.

Apparently Martin O’Neill has a meeting planned with Michael Nicholson on Wednesday morning. We can anticipate the outcome. Working hard, making progress, pesky agents.

O’Neill should be in daily contact with the ineffective CEO.

AT CELTIC THE PROBLEMS AND ISSUES ARE WELL KNOWN- BUT NOBODY INSIDE CARES

At a meeting with fans in Cork, Nicholson admitted that he can’t cope with football agents.

When O’Neill was pushed on transfer plans and policy he replied that he was confident that Dermot Desmond would get deals over the line.

A Non Executive Director. A 78 year-old who plans his life around golf tee-off times. Who attends six or seven matches a season. A NED who hasn’t attended an AGM in 18 years.

The current state of the Celtic squad is solely on Nicholson.

At it’s best Ange Postecoglou could send on James Forrest, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda on the hour mark. Job done for Liel Abada, Kyogo Furuhashi and Jota.

Compare that to last night. The 35-year-old Forrest, Hogh on his debut and the one game in six impact sub that is Sebastian Tounekti.

Not only has Nicholson watched that downgrade he designed it.

It took the ‘leading sports lawyer’ 18 months to replace Kyogo. When Hogh arrived he had missed out on all four pre-season friendlies. No excuses, he wasn’t at the World Cup Finals, he wasn’t on holiday. He was available to join Celtic on day one of pre-season training on June 26.

It will take an incredible amount of work to turn around the Nicholson Tanker. Once it gets moving it is hard to stop.

Clearly Capt’ Mikey isn’t the man for the job. Four transfer windows in Celtic are heading for the rocks with no-one inside the club bothering.

The Directors clearly see the path that the club is on.

🇯🇵 Losing Maeda
💰 Faith in the board on transfers
💚 Restoring harmony
A ᴍᴜꜱᴛ-ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ with Martin O’Neill ahead of Celtic’s season opener against Dundee ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/0326B0SS4I
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) August 3, 2026

DO CELTIC REALLY WANT TO BE IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The Champions League draw provides Hobson’s Choice.

Do you qualify for the 36 team stage and take the most prolonged battering in the club’s history?

Or quietly sit back, take the failure for missing out eight times out of 10 knowing that you have those less demanding Europa League Thursday’s to cope with. As a bonus switching domestic matches to Sunday means less of those Irish fans travelling over and asking awkward questions.

Five years ago Celtic found themselves in a similar mess.

Created by Peter Lawwell, the man who groomed Nicholson for the job of being CEO of Celtic.

Lawwell took a back seat, three ambitious professionals stepped forward and Celtic were back on course.

Unfortunately there are no signs of a Dom McKay, Ange Postecoglou or Frank Trimboli waiting on the side-lines.

Performance driven individuals, who knew the value of team-work. Not in it for the freebies, jollies and boozy nights out on Bologna as another disastrous transfer window takes shape.

The tragedy is that McKay, Postecoglou and Trimboli only worked together for 72 days. In that time they provided the spine of five successive SPFL title. A lack of foresight, ambition and ability ensured no progress in Europe during the time since.

McKay left mysteriously soon after the transfer window that will forever be the benchmark was closed.

Think about it. Liel Abada, Carl Starfelt, Kyogo Furuhashi, Joe Hart, Josip Juranovic, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jota and Giorgos Giakoumakis.

Two years later Nicholson served up Kwon, Yang, Tilio, Palma, Lagerbielke, Nawrocki and Thiago-Holm.

Last summer £10m and two five year contracts were handed to Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha.

MARTIN O’NEILL 2000 V 2026

The team sheet against Dundee is the culmination of having an inept CEO backed by a spineless board taking instructions from a distant golf course.

Some players have been at Celtic too long. Some want away, others should never have been there is the first place.

And fronting it all is Martin O’Neill.

Back in 2000 the phrase ‘benchmark’ became his trademark.

He used that to describe Rangers every time he spoke in public. Behind the scenes, in the dressing room he worked on demolishing the Ibrox club. He did that with a treble in 2001, 11 years later the extent of his work was fulfilled and celebrated.

O’Neill 2026 is barely recognisable.

He is happy with the pace of recruitment and has faith in the Board delivering the players required.

Most of us have first hand experience of the regular Champions League failures. We know the signs, the excuses

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