It\u2019s hard not to engage in some of the online \u201cdebate\u201d around the direction of Celtic and where we go next as a club. Some of it is extremely well thought out, logical, based on fact and analysis and presents hypothesis that are hard to argue with. ‘The manager needs replaced’. ‘The club needs a complete overhaul’. ‘Restructure of all things football related’ etc. There\u2019s no doubt most of the points that are being aired are heartfelt and with what the individual perceives to be the best interests of the club he\/she is invested in. What is becoming more excruciatingly obvious though, is that most of the online sentiment has long since passed objective and become a focused, frenzied attack on the current Celtic manager. In some cases it looks almost personal. Stepping back from it, you have to wonder what is driving this vitriol.<\/p>\n
Before I start, this isn\u2019t an impassioned defence or attempt at justification of this most shambolic of seasons in the past two decades, nor a defence of a management and coaching setup that looks to be at best lost and at worst totally dysfunctional. But simply an attempt at wondering where the fcuk the entire edifice cracked and when it started crumbling. Many are arguing it was in the showers at Hampden when we won the 3rd<\/sup> consecutive treble. Analysis would suggest it was a lot earlier than that.<\/p>\n I’d argue our club has been stale for over a decade now, ironically at a time when domestic dominance has led to a second 9IAR. Some argue the managed decline commenced when we hired Ronny Deila in June 2014, a man who hit the jackpot and came in to the main role when he\u2019d interviewed for the number two role under Neil Lennon. A hardly stellar 50% win rate in domestic competitions partially masked a lack of tactical nous in European terms and an inability to manage a job the size of Celtic. By the mans\u2019 own admission he was having sleepless nights towards the end of his tenure. However, the thoroughly likeable Deila arguably wouldn\u2019t have been in the job had there been the natural cycle of turnover within the PLC and a natural turnover of footballing structure and personnel, along with ideas.<\/p>\n People talk of managed decline commencing with Deila\u2019s appointment, some argue it even started when Lennon took over from Mowbray (interestingly making a lot of the same observations he\u2019s making now on squad mentality etc). However a closer look at financial performance of the PLC would suggest Celtic simply hit a ceiling a decade ago and struggled to formulate a strategy that would actually see us participate in Europe and retain domestic dominance.<\/p>\n From a \u00a361.72M turnover in 2010 (Europa League year) to a \u00a364M turnover in 2014 (CL Season) to \u00a372M turnover in year past (Europa League) . Even allowing for COVID impacts and inflation that\u2019s nominal growth at best. \u00a328.27M stadium revenues in 2014 to \u00a336M 2019. Again, allowing for inflation it\u2019s hardly stellar.<\/p>\n The board, and PLC under Peter Lawwell\u2019s direction, perhaps spooked by both the power shift and financial risk profile of MON, appear to have taken a strategic position that both European and Domestic success were mutually exclusive. European participation was seen as the bonus territory and as such, financial prudence directed we wouldn’t bank on that level of participation, nor expend what was needed to get there. Seville was simply the outlier. The hangover financially far too painful. On reflection, the cycle of shifting from splurge to austerity and back again was simply a strategy to satisfy the masses. Feed them enough domestic cake, give them the odd \u2018red pantie night\u2019 in the CL, milk the tits off the \u2018best fans in the world\u2019 moniker and keep the show rolling. It appears we\u2019ve never truly attempted to get back to a European context post MON. We never structurally nor ambitiously reached for the second gold star, no matter how unlikely the journey ever would be. The slow lane that MON warned of was repackaged as methadone for the masses. Thing is though, cake and methadone both make for enduring nausea eventually.<\/p>\n The financial analysis suggests that, as well as the PLC has performed, we either ceiling’d out, or took a more prudent view and risk averse path than was open to us. Echoing all those frustrations that we aired at the time. No one wanted a splurge to take us to the brink of going bust. Just some fcuking ambition. Stepping away from the herd and looking at this in a wider than COVID lens, it’s clear the PLC under Peter Lawwell adopted a conservative approach beyond that which can in retrospect be argued was appropriate. And the contradiction again stands similar to a decline while in the midst of domestic dominance; we’ve been ran extremely well as a business while going backwards in our core business. There\u2019s a ton more analysis available here if you\u2019re into that sort of carry on.<\/p>\n