The most iconic phrase associated with Celtic over the last three decades was uttered by a director, Brian Dempsey, and addressed to a car park full of supporters on the night Fergus McCann took control of the club and saved it from going out of business.
“The battle is over, the rebels have won,” Dempsey said as the sky erupted with cheers from the thousands who had gathered there.
Meanwhile, the next Celtic manager will be a man nobody else wants.
We know this because, in the wake of the collapse in negotiations to bring Eddie Howe to the club, the person who is in “advanced talks” with Celtic has to possess certain attributes.
He can’t be sought after or there would be competition for him.
And he can be in Glasgow sooner rather than later in the hope of quelling the unrest caused by Howe’s rejection of the club.
As if.
To paraphrase Dempsey, “The battle is over, the rebels have been taken for mugs.”
Celtic actually had the audacity to issue season-ticket renewal correspondence on Wednesday while being unable to tell their customer base who would be managing the club in the forthcoming season. That’s the one which comes in the immediate aftermath of the campaign that was supposed to deliver 10 in a Row but only succeeded in providing a horror story of cinematic proportions.
Now Howe is past tense after months of talks and some other character from left field is in advanced talks within hours of that deal exploding. That’s the definition of panic from where I’m standing.
The people whose money allowed McCann to deliver on his plans for Celtic’s big rebuild, after Dempsey had made his eight-word declaration of independence from the family dynasty that threatened the club’s existence, have had their intelligence insulted.
Celtic have gone from a historically unprecedented position of quadruple Treble winners to a laughing stock in under 12 months. That’s quite a trick and the greatest implosion in the club’s history.
This has been caused by a failure of governance, a betrayal of the supporters and a business plan malfunction concerning the now uncertain financial backing from a fan base who have lost all faith in the guardians of the club.
These are self-inflicted wounds.
Celtic belittled themselves by waiting as long as they did for Howe to make his mind up in the first place.
They demonstrated no regard whatsoever for their own stature and reputation by their choice of candidate and their willingness to be strung along by him.
And they got what they deserved as a consequence.
They are now immersed in an absurdity of their own making which reeks of poor decision making along the lines of going to Dubai in the middle of a pandemic and signing a succession of talentless players on the way to a humiliation in the Premiership.
And the statement released by Celtic on Friday evening relating to the Howe affair hinted at a hierarchy who believe their fans are incapable of thinking for themselves.
It wasn’t the club’s fault and it wasn’t Eddie’s fault either that the deal to hire an unemployed man collapsed. It says here.
The inference was it might have been the fault of two coaches from Bournemouth who refused to join Howe in Glasgow.
Two coaches who couldn’t prevent Bournemouth from being relegated from England’s Premier League and couldn’t help them win promotion back from the Championship the season afterwards.
And these guys were the limit of Celtic’s ambition for months until “advanced talks” were hurriedly undertaken with a passer-by?
Mother of God doesn’t begin to cover it.
Whoever gets the manager’s job now is a patsy.
Celtic ’s grotesque governance means they have written off the immediate future.
How could it be any other way when there’s so much to be done regarding outgoing players and incoming signings and so little time in which to do business?
There is no default setting here.
This is an unmitigated, irrefutable failure of business practice.
Or, to put it into supporter terms, a monumental cock-up.
To paraphrase someone else recently put on the stand to talk about questionable governance, it is former Lisbon Lions led by donkeys.
