Analysis

Andy Walker column: Incompetence and arrogance at boardroom level central to Celtic's woes

Andy Walker: "It was lazy to appoint an out of work manager on a fraction of Brendan Rodgers' salary. They thought they were too strong, too powerful and too good for everyone else and that they’d keep winning. That will be their legacy."

Andy Walker

Football Expert & Columnist

Saturday 12 December 2020 20:16, UK

Celtic manager Neil Lennon was absolutely right to call out the person who thought it appropriate to hang a "Shoot the Board" banner outside Celtic Park in what is quickly escalating into very ugly and consistent protests at the club's recent results.

Even allowing for the fact that fans have been locked out of stadiums for almost nine months now; disgusting and threatening language on banners as well as illegal gatherings to shout vicious and vile abuse at various members of staff is simply an unacceptable form of protest.

No wonder the Celtic manager referred to the banner as "dangerous rhetoric". In a shameful episode for Scottish football in 2011, Lennon himself was shaken when a package containing a bullet was sent to him at the ground.

This was on the back of Lennon being attacked during a SPL game at Tynecastle as he managed, coached and instructed his players from the technical area. Can you imagine the outcry if Jose Mourinho or Jurgen Klopp were physically attacked in their place of work?

No one deserves to be on the receiving end of this extreme level of abuse and to hear and see it from so-called Celtic fans is inexcusable. Every decent Celtic fan stood behind Neil Lennon at that testing time and prayed that he would somehow come through that level of bitterness and resentment.

Thankfully he did but as Celtic stumble from one result to another in a season that was meant to reinforce their place in history with a 10th successive league title, it's absolutely right that the vast majority of reasonable, hard-working and caring Celtic supporters should be heard.

Lennon has been backed by the board twice in the space of a week and it's becoming increasingly clear to me that the focus of many Celtic supporters anger has turned from the manager and players and on to those who control a lot - but certainly not all - of the day-to-day decision making at the club, the Celtic board.

In my view, they have been set up to fail.

There has been no succession plan in place, no thought given to unforeseen circumstances and no back-up plan should things go wrong. At a club of Celtic's size, potential and ambition, it smacks of incompetence and arrogance.

Financial muscle? Rangers are nowhere near the level of spending power or potential wages that Celtic can afford for players to make a difference and yet recent signings look out of their depth.

Let's not forget that board members at Celtic thought John McGinn, currently starring in the English Premier League for Aston Villa and on the international stage for Scotland, would be a squad player for the champions in the Scottish Premiership.

That's arrogance in a nutshell.

On a daily basis, the mindset of someone on that Celtic board should be, what do we do if things go badly wrong? Poor results have brought things to a head and the truth is, everyone in the boardroom has been taken by surprise at the speed at which things have unravelled.

They did not see the team hitting a run of astonishingly poor form that they're in now, just two wins from 12 games. Nor did they envisage Rangers hitting a sparkling run of form and being consistently impressive.

Sometimes it's not results that bring about change. People in a position of authority can fall ill, resign unexpectedly, maybe a personal reason means they can't continue, or maybe they've just had enough.

It should be someone's job on the Celtic board to have identified options for potential managerial or coaching talent.

As much as they came to dislike Brendan Rodgers, it beggars belief that no one on the Celtic board recognised his style of coaching and managing. Did no one see the improvement in Ryan Christie, Calum McGregor, Odsonne Edouard and many others when Rodgers brought in a level of professionalism that is no longer there?

To set up to succeed, the Celtic board should have had as many as 6 potential men on a list that could've potentially taken over from Brendan Rodgers. Instead of offering their opinion on the likes of John McGinn and others, this was their most important task and they failed miserably.

Bringing in Neil Lennon was a debatable but possibly understandable choice when Rodgers left for Leicester City. But surely only until the end of the season? The identikit of a successful winning mentality that Rodgers brought to the club over three years should have continued in his successor.

Whatever magic Neil Lennon had in his previous successful spell as Celtic boss, I think you can see it's not working now.

It was lazy to appoint an out-of-work manager on a fraction of Rodgers' salary. They thought they were too strong, too powerful and too good for everyone else and that they'd keep winning.

That will be their legacy.