Celtic’s football operations should be a concern
It doesn’t take a lot to work out that proceedings in the Celtic boardroom have been rather unclear for the Bhoys and their supporters over the last 18 or so months.
As the Hoops lost their stronghold on Scottish football last term, supporters protested outside Parkhead against the ownership for their lack of ambition.
Neil Lennon was leading a sinking ship but the Northern Irishman had to take matters into his own hand and left of his own accord rather than being sacked by Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell.
The latter has since left, retiring from his role and following Nick Hammond and Lennon through the exit door.
His replacement, Dominic McKay, has already taken his leave which has left Michael Nicholson as their acting CEO.
What Celtic have struggled to do, however, is bring in some with plenty of football expertise. It looked over the summer as though the Bhoys would bring in a director of football but a move for Fergal Harkin fell flat.
Judging by how some of Celtic’s summer signings have turned out, this issue is now all too apparent.
Speaking in a Q&A with The Athletic, reporter Kieran Devlin shared his own worries when debating the acquisition of James McCarthy on a free transfer.
He said: “I believe the board’s thinking on McCarthy is that on paper he offered the experience and cultural affinity to replace the leadership/Celtic connection gap left by Brown’s farewell, even if it hasn’t panned out like that so far.”
Devlin continued: “But this is where having executives make crucial football operations decisions is a potential issue, rather than someone with expertise and experience in that role like a sporting director or head of recruitment, who can step in and say ‘is this a rational sporting decision’?”
This should be a hugely concerning statement for Celtic supporters to read. After all, the addition of McCarthy to the side has hardly been helpful.
The Irishman should have offered plenty of experience in the middle of the park but the fact of the matter is that he’s been poor. Supporters have torn him apart and although the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi and Jota have been successful signings, proceedings won’t improve in the long run until Celtic appoint a proper director who can lead their recruitment.
Unfortunately for the Parkhead faithful, it doesn’t appear as though that model of working behind the scenes is going to be forthcoming with few updates on the matter in the last few months.
Consider Harkin’s prominent work at Manchester City where he was described as a transfer, and this would have been an inspired appointment. Instead, they are left to rue their mistakes of a few months ago.
AND in other news, Less touches than Hart: Celtic dud who made just 5 passes all game badly let Ange down…