Good morning to you from Western Australia where a few hours ago I was up in the middle of the night watching our latest Euro capitulation despite dominating the possession stats over the 95 minutes.

Caught with so-called sucker punches at the beginning of each half, showed a defence that we all knew was simply not good enough at this level and which if we had progressed to the group stages would have been torn to shreds at every turn.

This brings me to your article which I just read. We have run this race before, no investment in the team until the horse has bolted, the yearly qualifying round gamble and still it goes on. This year we were dealt the psychological blow of losing out on John McGinn and I believe that even though John would have been ineligible to play for us in the qualifiers, it has shocked our fans to the core and created a depression that needs to be lifted almost immediately.

John’s partner of nearly five years is my niece and together with her older sister, they have spent the past week here with me and my wife in Mandurah, even coming with me to watch the Hearts game on Saturday night at our CSC.

John McGinn was invited to visit Brendan at his home in May and did so, the two then kept in touch via phone messages and conversations until Celtic and Lawwell in particular, royally ballsed the entire thing up. It culminated in Lawwell or one of his lackeys calling the McGinn family directly to try to play an emotional joker but by this time the young man had become disillusioned with Celtic’s lack of intent and the deal with Aston Villa was done.

Brendan called John to wish him all the best but the outstanding young Scottish talent of the past two years was gone. On a personal note, I’m gutted, having met John at my sisters last year, I knew what a good fellow he was.

The failure to sign John McGinn is gross incompetence in my opinion, the failure to fix our defence is a gross dereliction of duty and added to the Ronny Deila fiasco and more pointedly the lack of any commentary on the ongoing Rangers cheating over 20 years, among many other issues, it is time to replace Lawwell at Celtic Park. We need someone who is going to lead and ensure that we remain at the forefront of the game in Scotland, last night’s result is just the culmination of many years of complacent commercial management of a footballing giant with a fan base that is all too often treated with utter contempt.

Make no mistake, if this was any business other than football, the past two or three weeks inabilities to have business concluded in a professional manner would result in people losing their jobs, and rightly so.

Hail Hail

Denis Doherty