The fallout between Celtic supporters and the Parkhead board continues to intensify.
Fans have staged repeated protests in recent weeks, accusing chairman Peter Lawwell, CEO Michael Nicholson and majority shareholder Dermot Desmond of failing to back Brendan Rodgers properly in the transfer market.
Supporter groups argue the club is stagnating in Europe while sitting on record profits. Last month’s financial report showed £77m in cash reserves and a £33.9m post-tax profit, sparking fresh anger at what many see as a cautious, risk-averse hierarchy.
Late entries and silent protests have taken place at recent matches, with banners demanding change.
Now, former Sunderland executive Charlie Methven has weighed in, accusing the Celtic leadership of putting financial security ahead of ambition, describing cash reserves as “extraordinary”.
He tolf the Where’s The Money Gone Podcast:
“Celtic have been dominant for an awfully long time, and what they’ve done – much to their fans’ dismay and disgust – is instead of using that domestic dominance to push on and try to become an international force and be competitive in Europe, they basically just put the money in the bank.
“They’ve got an extraordinary amount of cash in the bank. I think it’s like £100 million or something like that, they just keep in the bank. Because they don’t need it to win in Scotland. They don’t need it to qualify for Europe. So why take the risk?
“I read a letter from the supporters and then a responding letter from the board to the supporters, and if you unpacked all the boring corporate language that was written in a pretty un-charming way,I have to say I didn’t rate it as a piece of communications at all.
“Basically, what it said was, ‘We are running this club in a sustainable way because we have no reason not to do so. We don’t need to put our chips on the table.
“‘We sell out every week, we qualify for Europe every year, we win the league more or less every year, so why wouldn’t we.’ So there’s a huge amount of discontent going on there.”
For many fans, his remarks echo frustrations already directed at the club’s custodians, who are being accused of prioritising balance sheets over progress on the pitch.
This summer saw tensions reach boiling point, but frustrations have been boiling away in the background for some time now.
The Celtic Fan Collective are demanding that Nicholson, Lawwell and McKay leave their positions on the Celtic board. That’s their starting point, and once they achieve that they will look at the other directors.
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