Business Post journalist Barry J Whyte recently wrote a large feature article about Celtic’s disappointing season and how Dermot Desmond plans to react to the setback of losing out on ten in a row.
Desmond likes to live outside of the limelight and rarely discusses his plans for Celtic in the media. With that in mind, Barry J Whyte finished his piece by analyzing the Irishman’s historic involvement at the club, before noting that he had attempted to speak to Hoops’ majority shareholder. Despite his efforts, Desmond insisted on asking Whyte a few Celtic-related questions to ensure that he was qualified to conduct an interview with the Celtic chief.
Whyte stated: “When I rang him (Desmond) last week, he made it abundantly clear within seconds that he was not inclined to even entertain the questions, let alone answer them.
“When I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk about the club he replied with a flat ‘No’, adding: ‘I’m not going to talk about Celtic.’
“When I asked him why, he answered with another question: ‘Why do I need to talk about Celtic?'”
Whyte’s article explored the potential that Celtic has to grow inside Scotland, given that Dermot Desmond has reportedly gone off the idea of the club joining an Atlantic League. Therefore, he responded to the man who owns over 34% of shares in Celtic, by explaining that it would be helpful if he could answer a question that would set out the broad aim of the piece and also discuss the period of transition that awaits the club. However, his endeavour was cut short when the Irishman interjected and said: “Okay, I’ll ask you a question to see whether you’re qualified to ask me questions.”
Whyte reveals the following passage of conversation: “His first (question) was: ‘how many trophies have Celtic won in the last 20 years?’ I knew there were 16 league titles, but I had to concede that off the top of my head I couldn’t say how many other cups they might have won.
“He went on: ‘When did I first take a shareholding in Celtic?’ I answered 1994, which is of course wrong. It was 1995.
“‘When did I become the largest shareholder in Celtic?’ I answered 1998. It was 1999.
“I also fluffed the question of when Peter Lawwell first became chief executive and, by this stage, it was clear that Desmond had enough information to come to his own conclusions.
“‘You’ve failed the test,’ he said. ‘You have to know enough about Celtic to talk to me about Celtic. I’m not a great fan of journalists, as you well know.”
It remains to be seen what Dermot and the board have planned for the future direction of the club. Ange Postecoglou appears likely to take over as Manager next week, but there is no further news on the backroom team or a director of football being appointed yet. One thing’s for sure, if anyone wants to speak to Celtic’s majority shareholder about the situation, they must know their history!