Recently I’ve been watching footballing documentary Ronaldo: El Presidente on DAZN, a show that follows Brazilian legend Ronaldo in his journey after becoming majority shareholder in Spanish club Real Valladolid CF. Now I’m not here to give a critical review on the show (it’s definitely worth watching though), or discuss if getting a big name celebrity could be beneficial to Celtic.
The reason I’m mentioning it at all is because of one specific moment in the show. It’s when Valladolid are coming to the end of the winter transfer window, they are hovering just above the relegation zone mainly due to a lack of goals in their team. Their manager ex-Spain international Sergio, who spent over ten years as a player for Deportivo La Coruna is desperate for a striker who knows how to put the ball in the net.
At this point we don’t actually see much footage of the manager at all. The search for a striker is being discussed by the director of football, Miguel Angel Gomez, his Scouts and Chief Executive Matthieu Fenaert. They have revealed that Hatem Ben Arfa is the player they are going to go all out to get.
Watching the footage it seems to be the Chief Executive Fenaert who is pushing for the signing most. Fenaert is not a footballing man. He was previously executive director of a leading sports and entertainment agency. He was hired by Valladolid only as a commercial director but was then promoted to Chief Executive. He comes across as a total fan boy when talking about Ben Arfa, partly due to the fact they are both French and he waxes lyrically about how Ben Arfa was a footballing prodigy with a big name and would attract loads of attention to the club.
In the footage it is Fenaert who meets and greets Ben Arfa. He states he doesn’t usually get involved in this type of stuff but wanted to take the lead on this. We only see the player meet the director of football just before signing. We later see Ben Arfa meet the coach and not even know who he is, meaning they hadn’t spoke previously.
The signing is an utter disaster. Ben Arfa hasn’t played for 6 months, is out of shape, looks completely disinterested. Anyone with any degree of knowledge of his recent history knows he is well past his best and not worth a punt on. He makes absolutely zero impact on the team. A wasted, and no doubt costly, signing.
What’s this got to do with Celtic I hear you ask? Well watching it gave me a terrible feeling about the type of stuff that goes on behind the scenes at our club. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for our sanity) as fans we aren’t privy to this information. On the other hand we can look at some of our signings, hear what our manager says about them, see how he utilises them and clearly come to a conclusion that the manager was maybe as much in the dark about the signing as we are.
A prime example of this of course is under Brendan Rodgers when Marian Shved was signed. Rodgers, a coach regarded as being right at the upper echelons of the game, had this player thrust upon him with seemingly no input at all. If they can do it to Brendan Rodgers what hope does Ange Postecoglou have?
Something that has always annoyed me over the years has been our Irish signings. As an Irish man myself you would think I would be delighted with our club picking up fellow countrymen but there is just something not right about it. Look at the two we got this year. Are you telling me Ange Postecoglou came straight over from Japan with his fantastic knowledge of that league, as well as the Australian league and said to someone ‘been watching a lot of League of Ireland football lately and we just have to get Liam Scales’. Ange had no say in this one.
Then we go on to James McCarthy. I don’t want to totally jump the gun on this one but this has a ‘Ben Arfa’ feel all over it. Injury prone, potentially past it, supposedly a big name (due to having played in the over-hyped EPL). Luckily for them Valladolid only gave their man a 6 month deal. We have signed McCarthy up for 4 years! Totally unsuited to Ange’s style of play. We are playing a high press, quick attack style which McCarthy has never played his whole career. Not a chance Ange was involved in this signing.
I could go on to past signings before Ange got involved like Duffy etc but I don’t want to ruin my weekend.
These types of signings scream out Dermot Desmond. You just know he’s involved. This man should have absolutely nothing to do with the footballing side of things. Nothing. Could this be a reason Dom McKay found it so difficult to operate as Chief Executive? I imagine Peter Lawwell was happy to appease every one of Dermot’s whims with a smile on his face thinking about how much his next bonus would be worth.
With Dom McKay now gone was he our last hope of meaningful change? Lets be honest here we all know ‘team player’ Michael Nicholson is going to be just like his old pal Lawwell and nod his head and agree with anything Dermot says. Another ‘yes’ man added to a board already littered with them. The more time passes the more I look at our club with Dermot Desmond and his rag tag mob of ‘money men’ placed on our board and think we would be better off without the whole lot of them.
Desmond is a billionaire who invests nothing in the club. I imagine his grand vision is to get Celtic into the English leagues or some sort of European super League, see our share price go through the roof and cash in. Until then though he is happy for our club to be his play-thing. The stale-pale-male suits on our board are no better. Ian Bankier must be one of the most pointless Chairmen in football.
Roger Mitchell is right. Our strategy is atrocious and our club could be truly massive if was run correctly. If only we had people with his foresight running our club instead of the unimaginative bunch who currently reside on the board.
Conall McGinty
Keep up to date on Twitter @HarryHoodBook
Most billionaires are just anonymous old men men with a big bag of money.
Its why they buy football clubs
Who would know they were billionaires otherwise?
Desmond has never put a coin into Celtic without securing a respectable ROI
Celtic will go nowhere while he has control.
Great article. Bang on the money!