When Dermot Desmond gave an interview some 12 years ago to Andrew Smith, then at the Celtic View, to promote the Celtic Opus he probably didn’t realise that we’d be looking back on what he had to say then to try to make some sense of what’s going on it the three way Zoom calls between the largest shareholder, Chief Executive and manager at Celtic in the difficult times for the club.
Smith dug out the recording of that rare interview – the Irish Billionaire has something of a disdain for the fourth estate – and published it this morning in The Scotsman. It is remarkable just how much we can take from what Desmond had to say back them when thinking about the current stand-off concerning Neil Lennon’s position as manager amid a run of just two wins in eleven, possibly twelve later this evening.
Celtic are available at odds of 10/1 to win this evening against AC Milan in the San Siro.
“The biggest contradiction about Celtic, and Celtic supporters, is from the minority. When those same supporters that sing about ‘being faithful through and through’ then boo those at the club that is a complete and utter desecration of that song,” Desmond told the then Celtic View man.
“I totally abhor anyone like that. Real support is when you are losing. Everybody gives me support when I don’t need it. I only want support when I need it. When we are winning matches here, when we are winning trophies or winning the league, there will be people that will come up to me at Celtic Park and give me a thumbs up, smile at me, and tell me ‘good man’. We lose a big match and I’m the greatest bollox on the earth. It’s all my fault, all the directors’ fault. But when we win it is down to the manager and team, not the directors. We are beneficiaries of abuse, we are never beneficiaries of praise.”
Even if a million fans demand a course of action the Irishman reckons that he’s still listen to himself if he thought he was right and the rest where wrong.
“If a million people told me to do something only a million and one, and I was the one and I didn’t feel that something was right, then I would take my own counsel. And they can shout, and they can exhort all they like, and I will not change my opinion if I think it is the right thing for this club.
“Everything that is done from this club from all the board members and the management, we all do it because it is in the right interests. We might not get it right all the time, but we genuinely act without self-interest. When Celtic are enjoying a period of success some people think that is a just cause, requirement, a need. It makes it more difficult to manage expectations. The difficulty is to produce a good team.
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“I have to contribute in a way that brings success. And success is not immediate, or guaranteed or continuous – no club has that right. But what we do is make a club people can be proud of. It is totally irrational to get involved in a football club. But you cannot build a club on irrationality; you must have structures, you must have a vision, and plan it out from A to Z. We want Celtic to be a showpiece for how football clubs should be run, without having thrown money at it. Every football club’s solutions to all their problems is to throw money at them.
“I see every Celtic match. I don’t have to wear a hooped jersey, I don’t have to spend 365 days in Celtic Park to be a good, faithful devotee of Celtic.
“It was not my ambition to be the controlling shareholder, it was not my ambition to be the major shareholder here because that carries responsibilities over and above just being a shareholder. And the most likely result of being a major shareholder at a football club is dog’s abuse. It is an absolutely no-win situation.”
