As we enter the Acceptance stage of the Kübler-Ross Grief Program, I had a think back to how this all accumulated in 13 players and staff being missing for the latest “must win” game.
Its not pretty reading and I know I will have missed loads of fuck up items so feel free to add in your additions below.
Regards
Desi
The Scunnered Timeline
August 9 2018
John McGinn joins Aston Villa. This is despite personally meeting with Brendan Rodgers and discussing his proposed key role in the “new team”. Rodgers confirms to Lawwell the deal is good to go and leaves it to the CEO to conclude the deal, Lawwell decides not to act.
This along with other signing targets “ignored” by Lawwell will be a factor that ultimately helps to result in:
26 February 2019
Brendan Rodgers leaves Celtic along with all his main staff bar John Kennedy and Stevie Woods. Celtic fans rage whilst talk is Club received £9m in compensation from Leicester.
27 February 2019
Neil Lennon is appointed an interim Manager until 31st May to help steer club through remainder of a possible Treble Treble season. Kennedy is appointed Number 2 and Damien Duff promoted to coach. Lennon is not allowed to bring in any staff members of his own choosing.
When asked about the future, Lennon states:
‘NOT EVEN THINKING’ ABOUT EXTENDED STAY
Do you want to stay beyond the end of the season?
Neil Lennon: “Not up to me and I am not even thinking about that. The club comes first. It is not about me, it is not about Brendan leaving.
“It is about the club and the players. They are the most important aspect of my job at the moment, making sure everything is right.
“This is a club decision and come the summer it will be another club decision. What the board thinks is best for the club going forward.”
That night, Celtic defeat Hearts at Tynecastle thanks to a late Edouard winner.
4 May 2019
Celtic win their eighth consecutive title and 50th overall after a 3–0 win over Aberdeen.
12th May 2019
Rangers secure back to back victories for first time over Celtic with a 2-0 win
16th May 2019
Lennon slams “entitled fans” who dont want him getting the job full time – “So maybe there is a sense of entitlement among the younger fans that we never had before.”
25 May 2019 – (circa 16:45pm)
Celtic defeat Hearts 2-1 to win the Scottish Cup and secure the historical Treble Treble.
25 May 2019 – (circa 17:30pm)
Most fans are stunned when it is announced that Neil Lennon has just been offered the Celtic job on a permanent basis.
Peter Lawwell reveals the offer came in the Shower area at Hampden Park.
“I’m delighted to announce that after today’s event we’ve offered Neil Lennon the job of being the permanent Celtic manager,” Lawwell said.
“It has been a fantastic day, fantastic achievement – probably never to be repeated. Neil Lennon in our moment of need stepped up to the plate. He’s done a fantastic job in difficult circumstances. He’s a Celtic man and is made for Celtic and he’s a winner.
“Over the next few days we will work out the details. Today was a big occasion for him, but Neil would still have been the manager, no matter what happened. He didn’t know that before the game.”
On other candidates. Lawwell said “We had approaches from many, many agents, many representatives of managers across the board. We put them in the file, just left it and kept our word to Neil, really. We had a mini board meeting right after the game. Dermot’s here. Dermot, myself, the chairman (Ian Bankier) and Tom Allison decided what to do.”
When asked if handling the pressure of chasing nine and 10 in a row was a factor in the decision, Lawwell acknowledged Lennon’s experience and immersion in Celtic was vital. He said: “I think that’s the point. He knows the club inside out, he knows the city, he knows what’s required.”
June-july 2019
Celtic sign Christoper Jullien for £5.4m and Boli Bolingoli for over £3m
3 August 2019
Celtic start the season beating St Johnstone 7-0 at Celtic Park.
8th August 2019
Kieran Tierney joins Arsenal for £25m
22-31st August 2019
Celtic sign Mohammed Elyounoousi and Fraser Forster on loan from Southampton. Celtic also take Moritz Bauer from Stoke on loan.
1 Sept 2019
Celtic comfortably beat Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox
2nd Sept 2019
Celtic sign Greg Taylor for £1m from Kilmarnock
3rd Sept 2019
Celtic sign Jeremie Frimpong from Man City
24 Nov 2019
John Kennedy rejects chance of Managers job at Hibs. Lennon glad to keep his “number 2 and a half as hes that close to me!”
8 Dec 2019
Fraser Forster has game of his life as Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 to win League Cup. The Quadruple Treble is on.
29 Dec 2019
Rangers beat Celtic 2-1 at Celtic Park
14 January 2020
Young Polish striker Patrik Klimala signs for Celtic
28 January 2020
Ismalia Soro signs for Celtic for a reported £2m
13 March 2020
League suspended due to COVID
18 May 2020
League leaders Celtic are declared Champions with no more games to be played due to COVID and European places needing to be confirmed by SPFL/SFA.
June 2020
Johnny Hayes leaves to join Aberdeen.
Centre half Jozo Simunovic leaves the club as a free agent.
As Fraser Forster officially returns to Southampton, the club conclude talks with Craig Gordon who leaves to join Hearts. Youth player Conor Hazard promoted to Goalkeeping squad aside Scott Bain.
Daniel Arzani returns to Man CIty.
Maryan Schved goes on loan to Mechelen.
Jack Hendry continues his tour of the world and moves from Australia to Belgium on loan.
Long term wannabee benchwarmers Eboue Kouassi and Vakoun Bayo depart on loan to clubs in Belgium and France.
Kundi Benyu and Calvin Miller leave for lower clubs in England
13th June 2020
First team coach Damien Duff leaves Celtic citing family reasons and takes up role with Irish National Team.
30th June 2020
Mohammed Elyounoussi loan extention confirmed..
July 9th 2020
Celtic Park Season books are Sold Out despite no fans allowed in stadium due to COVID. Celtic promise “added value”.
July 14th 2020
Transfer window opens
27th July 2020
Luca Connell impresses in a friendly against Hibs. He will never be seen again in any real respect to first team.
July 30th 2020
Greek goalkeeper Vasilios Barkas signs from AEK Athens for £4.5m transfer fee with the club citing his Champions League epxerience as a major factor. He cannot speak English.
2nd August 2020
Celtic begin season with 5-1 defeat of Hamilton.
3-5th August 2020
Despite Covid Quarantine rules, Bolin Bolingoli takes a secret trip to Spain. Bolingoli returns for midweek training but tells no-one at the Club of his trip abroad.
9th August 2020
Celtic draw with Kilmarnock. Bolingoli plays part of the game instead of self isolating as per Covid Quarantine rules.
10th August 2020
The Bolingoli story breaks in the press. Lennon is furious, citing the player already had had previous warnings about his travelling issues.
13 Aug 2020
Switzerland striker Albian Ajeti signs for Celtic in a £4.5m transfer from West Ham United where he was out of favour.
18 August 2020
Celtic beat KR Reykjavík 6-0 to go through Champion League first round qualifier.
26 August 2020
Celtic exit Champions League at 2nd Qualifer Round after defeat at home to Ferencváros of Hungary.
Neil Lennon hints that some of his players dont want to be there and should leave the club before the window closes. “ ‘If there are players who don’t want to be here, just leave’ ”
27th August 2020
David Turnbull joins from Motherwell, a year after previous deal and medical showed issues.
2nd September 2020
Celtic sign Shane Duffy on loan from Brighton where he was out of favour. The loan is for a rumoured £2m fee plus wages. Neil Lennon states
“He is leader and he’s a warrior – someone with real ability and who will also give us that great physical presence. I know too he is a player who will add great personality to the dressing room. This is a real coup for the club.”
4th Sept 2020
Tom Rogic set to leave for Club in Qatar in £3.5m move
7th Sept 2020
Tom Rogic’s move to Qatar collapses as the Celtic midfielder fails to agree personal terms with the unnamed club
13th Sept 2020
Boli Bolingoli joins Turkish champions İstanbul Başakşehir on loan. He will go onto play in Champions League against Manchester United, Leipzig and PSG.
24th September 2020
James Forrest suffers a stress fracture of the ankle against Riga in Europa League Qualifier. He wont appear again this season (up to present day). Celtic have no other recognised right winger.
1 October 2020
Celtic progress into Europa League Group stage after defeating Sarajevo 1-0 away from home. They will face Lille, AC Milan and Sparta Prague
5th October 2020
Celtic sign AC Milan left back Diego Laxalt on loan deal as Transfer Window closes.
7th October
Odsonne Edouard contracts Covid whilst away with France U21’s. He is forced to quarantine in France.
Ryan Christie forced to self isolate after being near Covid positive Stuart Armstrong whilst on Scotland duty. Christie offers 2 negative tests but cannot play whilst fellow isolator Kieran Tierney given go-ahead to play in England.
Both Celts will miss the up coming game against Rangers.
16th October 2020
Neil Lennon rages at unknown Insider who is “doing us in.” as weakened Celtic Team leaked before Rangers match. .
17th October 2020
As leaked, Klimala and youngster Welsh start alongside new signing Laxalt who goes straight into first XI for match against Tangers.
Celtic are beaten 2-0 by Rangers at Celtic Park. Goals result of 2 set pieces, a factor that will impact Celtic all season.
Celtic have no shots on target against an opponent at Home and Rangers move 4 points clear at top of the table.
22 October 2020
Celtic are defeated 3-1 at home by AC Milan
25th October 2020
Celtic allow Aberdeen to come back in injury time to claim a 3-3 at Pittodrie.
Celtic fall 6 points behind Rangers with a game in hand.
26th October 2020
Celtic plc announce Profit before taxation was just £100,000 compared to last year’s £11.3m
29 October 2020
Celtic lose a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Lille away
5 November 2020
Celtic are hammered 4-1 at home by Sparta Prague who basically field a reserve team due to illness.
Media claim Celtic fans more annoyed at Mo Elyounoussi pictured in stands checking his phone. They are wrong.
21 November 2020
Laxalt scores late late equaliser for 2-2 draw against Hibs at Easter Road. Celtic now eight points behind leaders Rangers with a game in hand.
26 November 2020
Celtic lose 4-1 away to Sparta Prague despite having taken the lead.
They can no longer progress in the competition despite having 2 games remaining.
Celtic have won just twice in last nine matches and trail Rangers by 11 points in the Scottish Premiership – albeit with two games in hand
29 Nov 2020
Celtic roundly 2-0 defeated by Ross County at home to exit League Cup.
This ends Celtics domestic run of 35 Cup games without defeat.
Celtic have now won just two of their past 10 matches.
It is the first time Celtic have suffered four successive home defeats since January 1958.
Police stand guard as fans gather outside to protest.
30th Nov 2020
Hibs announce anger that Celtic Park game scheduled for January 9th 2021 has been moved without their consent to allow Celtic to take a break in Dubai.
3rd December 2020
Celtic throw away a 2 goal lead to lose 4-2 in Milan to AC in the Europa League.
4 December 2020
Celtic erect new fencing measures ahead of weekend fixtures to keep protesting fans away from stadium.
10 December 2020
Celtic defeat Lille 3-2 at Celtic Park. This win means they narrowly avoid being the worst team ever in the history of the Europa League Group stages.
Soro and Turnbull shine after months of fans demanding they get their chance. Young Keeper Hazard gets chance between the sticks after Bain and Barkas injured/failed to impress.
14 Dec 2020
Celtic plc hold a virtual AGM due to Covid. All Directors returned.
No live questions are allowed as Ian Bankier heralds Peter Lawwell as “a stand out”.
Res 11/12 is voted down by main shareholders.
20 December 2020
Celtic beat Championship side Hearts on penalties to win Scottish Cup and secure Quadruple Treble. Young Keeper Hazard saves 2 penalties to secure the trophy.
24 December 2020
Celtic defeat Ross county 2-0. Merry Christmas
26th December 2020
All of Scotland placed into Level 4 for severe Lockdown to help combat Covid
30th Dec 2020 3pm
Celtic defeat Dundee Utd 3-0 but Christopher Jullien collides with a post during a clearance and is stretched off. Initial reports suggest that he will be out for at least 4 months.
Cup winning keeper Hazard dropped as Lennon announces Barkas is Number 1 keeper and will play from now on where possible.
30th Dec 2020 7pm
American players Manny Perez and Andre Gutman end current loans to US based clubs. Neither yet qualify for a work permit.
Eboue Kouassi returns from Belgium and youth player Jonathan Afalabi returns from Dundee loan spell.
2nd January 2021 0:01am
Scottish Transfer Window opens
2nd January 2021 2pm
Rangers despite having no shots on target defeat Celtic 1-0 at Ibrox to move 19 points clear.
2nd January 2021 7pm
Celtic fly out to Dubai ( the UAE was on the government’s exemption list) despite Covid concerns. Celtic cite “elite sports” exemptions and state trip essential for team fitness and work exercises.
4th January 2021
Media covers many concerns regarding Celtic taking such a trip during a pandemic as “Burst bubble” pictures circulate of Celtic team and staff drinking around an open Pool area and in bar area of Hotel.
8th January 2021
Celtic return from Dubai
Damien Duff resigns from his role on Irelands Coaching Staff. No reason is given.
9th January 2021
John Kennedy admits “slip-ups” regards Social distancing but believes everyone remained within their “Bubbles” in Dubai.
10th January 2021
Celtic report 1 member of playing staff has tested positive for Covid-19
11th January 2021
Christopher Julien is identified as the player who is Covid positive.
Jullien despite being injured, had travelled on the plane journey covering over 7000 miles .
Pictures then circulate where Jullien is shown within the airport, whilst carrying his large bag, his CRUTCH and going down flights of stairs unaided!
13 first team members and Management are ordered to self isolate.
Gavin Strachan takes charge of the team for rescheduled match against Hibs.
Celtic have no recognised strikers as all self isolating due to COVID debacle.
Celtic struggle to make any impact in the game.
Club Wonder-kid Karamoko Dembele is given 15 minutes to help save the game. Its the first anyone has seen him all season.
David Turnbull makes and scores a free kick to give Celtic the lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Celtic reserve string concede an injury time equalizer from a set piece to draw 1-1 at home to Hibs as keeper Hazard, returning to side, who had been having a good game, then messes up at free kick to allow Hibs chance to score.
Celtic now sit 21 points behind Rangers with 3 games in hand.
Celtic will face next 2 games against in form Livingston with same depleted squad.
Great work! The scunnered days go back waaay longer than 2018. These are the significant failings that each of the “leaders” of Celtic stand accused of:
Peter Lawwell:
1. When we were 7 points clear in the 08-09 season, Lawwell tried to play clever with the key signing of Steven Fletcher. We end up with Willo Flood and second place instead.
2. The appointment of Tony Mowbray at the start of the 2009-10 season.
3. The appointment of Neil Lennon in Mowbray’s place. Were were on the verge of four-in-a-row for the Ibrox team before their financial collapse.
4. Implementing a “selling club” strategy which has resulted in us failing to retain our best players for more than two or three seasons at best, requiring constant rebuilding, replacing quality with project (i.e. high-risk gamble) players at significant loss to the club.
5. Overseeing a strict cap on player wages whilst rewarding himself with remuneration making him better rewarded than any other employee of the club and most EPL CEOs. Consequently, Celtic unable to compete for quality players available on Bosman or to retain our best players long enough to build a side capable of competing with our peers.
6. Appointing Ronnie Deila as manager, after originally sourcing him as an assistant.
7. Failing to recruit early in almost every transfer window. Consequently, club only successful in negotiating Champions League qualification five times in 17 years, despite having a free run for most of the last 10 years. Almost exclusively eliminated by clubs with far inferior resources.
8. The McGinn and Piccini transfer fiascos. The latter costing us our tier one manager, Brendan Rodgers.
9. Allowing significant sums of cash to accumulate when the playing staff patently required strengthening in several keys areas. At the same time squandering resources on “disco lights” installation.
10. Complicit in “five-way agreement” and then lying to club shareholders about never having seen the document in question.
11. Failing to properly engage with supporters’ genuine and reasonable concerns raised in the “Resolution 12” campaign.
12. Failing to publish report on the crowd congestion event at Celtic Park.
13. Wilfully dismissive of supporter desires in relation to player recruitment whilst at the same time alleged to interfere in recruitment against the wishes of the manager, such as the Schved signing.
14. Appointing Neil Lennon as manager on a second occasion, this time apparently as a knee-jerk reaction to a scrappy cup final win and announced in the aftermath of that game, thereby dampening the celebrations of much of the support. Bizarrely, by his own admission he had not carried out any due diligence of other candidates and announced the job offer before Lennon had accepted.
15. Routinely uncommunicative with the support.
16. Briefed against Rodgers to the press prior to a crucial European game.
17. Never defends club or support against external attacks. Never tackles bias in refereeing or press treatment.
Dermot Desmond:
1. Has never invested any funds into Celtic that I can see any evidence of, other than to accumulate shares.
2. According to Football Tax Havens withdraws 6% per annum from club tax-free as an effective interest rate (disguised as dividends on preference shares) on a perpetual (!) loan of £9m i.e. £500k+ per year.
3. Briefed against supporters to press, describing them as “entitled”.
4. Almost entirely absent. According to Phil Mac Giola Bhain, Desmond only stepped in regarding managerial position in response to personal offence taken following comments made to him by directors of Ibrox club post semi-final defeat during Deila’s tenure.
Ian Bankier:
1. Accused Celtic fans of “anti semitism” with absolutely no basis whatsoever.
2. Almost invisible in his role as Chairman. Never defends club or support against external attacks. Never tackles bias in refereeing or press treatment.
Anything else? As if this wasn’t enough! It’s only taken the Ibrox outfit three seasons in the top flight to assemble a team to out-perform us in Europe and a further season to have one out-perform us in domestic football. Our “leaders” are nothing but a shambles.
It’s past time for change. Let’s take our club back, right here, right now.
Brilliant, if gruesome, summation of events.
A couple of points:
PL12 The report was publish. A complete whitewash (“no one to blame”, “lessons learned” blah blah) but published nonetheless.
DD2 FTH is a Hun site so I wouldn’t use it for reference. The 6% Pref shares have been there from first offer 25 years ago. I and most fans have these but hopefully now take additional shares rather than money.
The total cost to the club is £½m (less any converted to shares) and Desi’s share is less than £200K.
His total shareholding is about £60m so it represents about 0.3% per year.
This is a guy who’s a billionaire, who bought London Airport for £20m and sold it for £800m and tossed off (fynarf fynarff) with a mate for £1m.
Although it seems fantastic sums to us, we are chicken feed to him and he’s really not in it for the money. If he was he’d been looking for £10m a year or £100m+ to buy him out.
Whatever we think of him, we are not his cash cow, never have been and never will be, we are just too small.
Great post
Indeed….i liked number 9…the disco lights.
D-I-S-C-O
Loads of key moments but listening to them against the Dons at the weekend (a world beating squad struggling to a single goal victory despite the prescribedpen/red card combo) and the panel purring at Johnny Hayes’ engine. Not the guy that’s going to always excel but dig, honesty and commitment and a face with a Peaky Blinders knuckleduster addiction – the type of guy who gets 3 points on a cold night in Perth.
9 in a row, four seasons of which were in a league with no team from Ibrox (our only domestic peer) three where they were a total mess, one where they collapsed financially and one where they collapsed half-way through. So the only one where they get their act together we crumble into dust. That’s a slender achievement. Making apologies for those that are destroying our club from the inside, repeating their “entitlement” slurs at us, the real supporters, is how we got here. You get a grip.
Desi,
Good research m8, i’ll tell you where i start with my own point here.
The day Peter Lawwell told the watching world ” If we were to pay the living wage, it would cost the ckub £500,000 per year “……that stuck with me & wasn’t forgotten.
A shameful statement from a guy who takes millions OUT the club!
What a complete moron^
The queue is from a couple of years ago, telling fans that even lennon couldn’t eff up the 10.
There should be at least some of us in the second queue as we know it could (would?) happen.
The 10 was undermined by the re-employment of a out of work manager who was not good enough for Hibs or Bolton.
Anyone who thought that it wasn’t clearly doesn’t understand how Football works.
Hibs had just won the Scottish Cup, a mere 104 years after last winning it.
They were on a high and promotion, without Hearts and the Huns to contend with, was a formality.
The 4th place finish was good but it quickly unravelled and they were hurtling to relegation before he was cut loose.
His replacement (Hig-something, totally unmemorable nonentity) quickly corrected things, with the same resources and almost made a Top 6 finish.
lennon also suffered a horrendous 9-0 home defeat to Gothenburg, which should have raised red flags, as it portended Cluj, Cope, Ferenc, Prag disasters to come.
“He didn’t do due diligence on Bolton”. Why is that unsurprising and sums up his unwillingness to do the hard work required of the job?
Incidentally, similar to Hibs, his successor came in, united the dressing room and results improved markedly.
The Treble Treble is Rodgers legacy, as the LC was won, the League was in the same position as last when it was called and the Scottish Cup was won by the individual brilliance of Eddy.
Getting out of the EL was good but we’re setup to be a CL team and he’s been a miserable failure in that (earliest ko in 15 years).
Even the mitigation of the EL was an almighty disaster this season.
There isn’t going to be another Treble (ended in November due to a home debacle against Ross County, who were on an appalling run that would see their manager sacked).
There isn’t going to be 10IAR, as he failed both before and after 9IAR, to make it so.
Would anyone of similar calibre, not called neil lennon, be given the Celtic job?
Would anyone called neil lennon be given a job of similar calibre?
We all know the answers to those questions and, as far as I’m concerned, that’s all that matters.
I want the best manager for the job, you want lennon.
His contributions were fine. Not brilliant. His contributions buttons have ceased and are now destructive, no one is immune to getting the bullet. Apart from Lenny that is, it can’t last now. Expect more covid breaking protests. This time they won’t be calling the protesters callow and full of youthful entitlement… There will be a cross selection of fans betting for the blood of everyone from Lawell down. Rubbing our noses in it having a jolly time buying rolexes in Dubai. “ Dubai to ten in a row”
Buttons Freudian slip. Beying not betting though the former may be fright
Lawwell has been there for 17 years apparently, an extraordinary long time in his post as CEO. (in most others industries/businesses the CEO stays typically 3-5 years?) He and Desmond know they are onto a good thing and will be very reluctant to break up their lucrative arrangement.
I gave my season book up 10 years ago, primarily fed up being frozen watching poor quality football by overpaid journeymen (before all the cheating and corruption came to light I may add) and I have never been back to CP, I refuse to give them another penny now. We still have a huge salary cost for many players who should be nowhere near a Celtic jersey but we are routinely humiliated in Europe by teams with budgets a fraction of ours.
We are an absolute joke of a club and It will be very interesting to see the reaction from the fans when the season book renewal notices come out in a couple of months, I would imagine Peter is already working on how to fool the fans again.
please dont ever come back, we dont need so called ” fans ” like you
“we”?
“It was good marriage, sure she went off the rails the last year and totally broke every vow but hey, 9 good years out of 10 eh,,,cant complain!”
Mr Milhouse CSC
The only time Lawwell wants to pay the right money or over the odds is when it’s his own bonus.
How in God’s name does a CEO at Celtic get to be the highest paid greedy sod in British football.
Five things that Rasputin and Peter have in common.
They both love Alexa.
They both love a bonus.
They are both sorcerers.
Supporters find it difficult to get rid.
They both failed to buy John McGinn.
Pish! You are Laurie from Denistoun and I claim my £5 and free lifetime subscription to ‘Dunning Kruger Monthly’.
whits lawells email address