An Open Letter to Dermot Desmond…
Dermot it would be great if you would come off the golf course or leave your hideout in the Sandy Lane Resort Barbados, and let us know what your plans are for our club going forward. As the chief shareholder of the club you need to step up and sort out the current mess. If you have lost interest in the day to day running of the club and are just interested in your financial rewards then let us know.
We know you are seventy now and probably thinking about retirement. If that is the case then get one of your sons Brett or Ross to take a more active roll and take charge of the club. At least there would be someone in Glasgow with their finger on the pulse of the club and supporters, after all there is no club without the fans. No doubt you would say I employ a CEO to do that job. Well I have to tell you that the CEO is getting more toxic by the day. He is becoming more hated by the fans than The Kellys and that is saying something. I cant understand how you can let this mess continue, unless you have plans to sell your shares.
Out of the Champions League, out of the Europa League (seeded and still finished bottom of their group) out of League Cup, blew the Ten-in-a-Row, 19 points behind theRangers, 2 Glasgow Derby defeats all before the end of 2020, and all that after squandering over £30,000,000 during the summer on players that are not fit for purpose and have contributed nothing on the pitch – a complete waste of money.
I also think its disgraceful that in the time of a major epidemic that you have sanctioned a trip for the team to Dubai, For what purpose? The team has very little to play for now until the end of the season.
I have seen in one of the Scottish rags that you have given your backing to Lennon which I find incredible.
I think that your first job is to get rid of Peter Lawwell, Neil Lennon and the whole back room team, freshen up the board and get rid of Ian Bankier he had the audacity to go and join his fellow Tories and have high tea with Theresa May in 10 Downing Street, hardly a Celtic tradition .Brother Walfrid would be turning in his grave at that.
He started Celtic Football Club for the people of Glasgow he certainly didn’t expect the club to be a limited company with customers. If you changed the whole board it would not worry the support.
This is the board and CEO that put up the barricades around Celtic Park. Hardly a great image for the club Open to All. The fans had every right to protest after having to watch a complete mess on the pitch with just 2 wins out of 12 games.
Surely it is time to get some people from the Celtic Trust on to the board? Or maybe its time for some more protests aimed at the Men Behind the Wire and we will promise not to interrupt the directors while they are having their free lunch in the No 7 Suite.
I don’t think PL or NFL should be allowed anywhere near this transfer window except to sell players. I am sure Lawwell will love that as it will probably increase his departing bonus This man has already taken nearly £20,000,000 out of the club in salary and bonuses over his years in charge. He has also persisted in handing over money each week to the owner of Parks Coaches who is a major shareholder at Ibrox.
Every home game the rags turn up to cover the game and are all invited in for hospitality, these are the same people who go out and print absolute rubbish about our club, don’t forget these people need us to buy their rags to stay in existence . They should be chased out of our ground and let them buy their tickets to watch our team until they at least show some respect to our club. How many of the rags congratulated the club on achieving the quadruple treble?
As chief executive Peter Lawwell has not stood up for fans, players or the club in general. That includes not standing up to to SFA /SPFL / The men in Black (corrupt refs)/ The Res 12 issue /The 5 Way Agreement. Just some of the issues he failed to deliver on. Our Players had to run a gauntlet of disgraceful sectarian assault at Ibrox last week while the police and stewards looked on but made no attempt to make even one arrest. So much for No to Racism, and not a peep out of our CEO until he was confronted with the images from social media.
This is also the man that lost us John McGinn with his penny pinching and also one of the most exciting young strikers in England, Ivan Toney. Ivan said he would walk to Glasgow to join Celtic but again Lawwell went for Ajeti instead. Where is The Bonnet when you need him? He had integrity and feared no one, he certainly wasn’t an absentee landlord.
Dermot, thank Neil Lennon for the memories but he has taken the club as far as he can, same as the last time he was manager. Fans have been screaming all season to play two up front and give Turnbull and Soro a chance to show what they could do, but he wouldn’t be convinced. Now in the last few weeks he tells us that they are fantastic, but the thing is they have been available for selection since September.
Dermot if you intend to keep Lennon for a while he should be instructed to give our youth players a chance. It is not likely they are going to loss us the League or the League Cup, and let’s see what we have in the squad. Players including Demble/Henderson/Oxoflex/ Connell/ Walsh and any other young players that could be first team squad players in the future. You should also instruct the CEO to return Elyonoussi and Duffy to their clubs and see if we can catch some club who fight buy Barkas, Ajeti and Klimala – no way are they Celtic quality.
Time Dermot to go and look for a new manager. It was you who got Rodgers but he couldn’t work with the Director of Football Mr Lawwell. No modern self respecting manager would accept this interference from the Puppet Master as was the case with Rodgers. If you don’t get control of this situation you can keep the covers over the seats as we will be back to Ronny Delia days with a half empty stadium.
OVER TO YOU DERMOT!
Derry Bhoy
Derry Bhoy is a Celtic Star reader. This site is open to all Celtic Supporters. You can post your comments after any of our articles – including this one – and if you would like to have your say via writing an article for the site then simply email your contribution over to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll do the rest.
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I have just read the open letter to Dermot Desmond. I found it difficult to disagree with any of the topics Derry Bhoy made to our leader, except for one.
This has been a bugbear of mine for decades. He complained about certain papers being feted on matchdays at Celtic park, the same rags that treat our club and fans with contempt, the same rags that rely on the clubs fans to buy their papers.
Well there’s only one way to discourage this so called impartial” journalism. DON’T BUY THEIR PAPERS OR LISTEN TO THEIR PHONE INS.
I have done neither since 1994.
Always keep our dignity. Hail Hail
Paul Shearin
I would just like to say what a fantastic open and true letter that was. Every fan be it Glasgow, Derry or Timbuktu are absolutely feeling the words written. We’ve lead the way for 9 years and to stutter so bad at the season we all cherished is unbelievable. The guy with the big tash needs to act now and start top to bottom, to move on the drivel.
Dermott as the major shareholder should be listen to the people who sustain and move the club….us the fans. It’s time to get the club moving top again. A major building job is on hand but we’ve seen it done before with great results, M’ON being an example. To all Celtic fans keep the faith the good times will come back!! Hail Hail the Celts are here!!
Arron Black
A disgruntled letter which was going fine until he got into politics and personal insults of people who work for the club. Then rounds it off in support of the people who demonstrated at Celtic Park in late December. He has some valid points but went too far.
The club does have a fantastic history and a unique inception that no other football can match. In today’s world it is also a global club with an array of diversity from fans to players to staff it is no longer just the east end of Glasgow. I’m afraid Mr Desmond Dermot will read Derry Bhoys letter in sincerity and take a few minutes to think before scrunching it up for the paper bin.
Just my opinion we all care for the club.
Hail Hail
Peter P
Never, ever disrespect Ronny Delia.
That is out of order.
All the rest I agree with.
Derry Bhoy is 100% correct in everything he said apart from the Ronnie Delia comments, Ronnie got the the job and did what it said on the tin win the title. He did so in both seasons he was in the hotseat and was denied a treble by the most shocking refereeing decision the games ever seen, the handball in the Inverness cup game. He’ll be remembered fondly but even although the club achieved nine in a row and a quadruple treble Desmond and Lawell will only be remembered for failing to win the Holy Grail of ten in a row. Their tenure at the club will be synonymous with failing to reach that landmark against a financially doped 8 year old club who are piss poor but well organised. They’ll also be remembered for the contempt they show the fans who plow millions into the club every year through merchandising and season ticket money, money we’ve paid upfront this season and we’re unlikely to set foot in the stadium unless it’s at the No.7 restaurant. There’s no long term business plan for the club, for the last 10 years we’ve did just enough to stay ahead of the rest instead of having a strategy that would see us targeting further progression in Europe without taking our eye off the domestic situation. Ajax are a comparable club to us but they bring youth through the ranks regularly and sell them on for a profit which is the business model we try to follow but the problem is we don’t bring enough youth players through which begs 2 questions 1) Are the youth players good enough? and 2) if not are the coaching and scouting staff good enough? If not replace them with people who are.
100% RIGHT
Well said brother HH🍀
No disrespect, but the writer of this column is an idiot!
How do you come to that conclusion
Talk about sickening the person who feeds you what an idiot
How does he feed us? 60,000 season tickets at £500 each feed Celtic…
Agree with all the above
What to actually say? The reason the table looks the way it does has in some small way to to with the numerous grumbles mentioned in the article, but few are so recent in occurrence to actually explain the massive turn around in the fortunes of the Glasgow rivals.
This season Celtic have lost their potency on the park because the extra momentum and believe the support give them is missing to them, whereas Rangers have got the monkey off their back.
The difference from having a stadium empty of joyous happy people cheering you on to a stadium devoid of the horrible pressure to win at any cost supporters, who stupidly believe it is their entitlement because “we are the people” is immeasurable.
Recognise the beauty and significance of being surrounded by love, respect and equality as against hatred, divide and ignorance and the effect that can have on how people preform and you’ll understand the reason the teams find themselves in reversal of their ability and quality.
Simples really. Hail, Hail.
Your comment about Toney I must disagree with. Watched the Spurs v Brentford game on tv last night and Toney was useless. If NL likes Toney he ranks alongside Ajeti, Klimala, Barkas, Duffy and Elyounnousi and should be nowhere near a half decent Celtic side.
The real,reason he’s backing NFL is because if they paid him off,well,that’d mean compensation for NFL’s contract being cut short ie.LOADSA MONEY
DD is, above all,a businessman,and I can see why he won’t change anything until the summer,it’s better that way as we may get a decent manager.DD knows that PL has a hand in signing players and that ANY DECENT manager does not want his interference with the signing process or day-to-day interactions with the playing staff.
There I’ll be plenty of season books available for next season,as I’d think over 30% AT LEAST will NOT RENEW due the recent disasters.NO WAITING LIST REQUIRED NO NEED NO CALL FOR IT.
Finally,DD has to either renovate board from top to bottom ensuring ANYONE with PL’s outlook goes during that clean up.IF DD doesnt do that HE SHOULD LEAVE AND SELL HIS SHARES…
Because he IS NOT CARING ENOUGH AND ITS REALLY SHOWING NOW.
HH🍀