Journalist Stephen McGowan has turned the focus firmly onto Celtic’s board following the exits of Peter Lawwell and Tom Allison. McGowan framed the current situation as more than just change in personnel, pointing instead to how the club has been operating over a longer period.
McGowan’s comments tie the boardroom directly to what is happening on the pitch. Celtic are still competing domestically, but the step up in Europe has exposed gaps. When the pace increases and games become stretched, the squad has struggled to cope in the same way it does in Scotland.
For him, it all comes back to the boardroom. A club banking Champions League money should hold onto its core and add two starters who change games. Instead the cash sits still, the roof still needs work, and every autumn the same questions come back when the draw drops.
McGowan wrote: (The Herald), “For most of a dysfunctional season, Scotland’s champions have resembled an analogue club in a digital age.
“So long as the trophies rolled in, Celtic saw no need to fix the roof while the sun shone.
“The appointment of a no-nonsense troubleshooter willing to sweep in with a new broom and ask awkward questions is needed.
“Non-executive directors should be making a nuisance of themselves, challenging, rather than propping up, the groupthink.
“Any man or woman who serves on a board for more than nine years runs the risk of going native.
“Dermot Desmond’s stake of 34 per cent grants him 100 per cent of the say.
“The issue for supporters is the failure to turn all that Champions League money into a team capable of holding their own against Europe’s best.
“If the Ross Desmond theatre was a precursor to him being drafted on to the board, any hope of meaningful change will be as distant and remote as peace in the Middle East.”
McGowan’s argument is simple. Stay in the room too long and you defend your own record. That’s human. It also kills new ideas before they start.
Dermot Desmond’s 34 per cent decides the direction. When one voice carries the room, the rest have to push back. If they don’t, meetings become reports and the plan never gets tested.
If a new face does walk into that boardroom, they have to be more than a name for the AGM minutes. They need to walk into Lennoxtown, ask why the team fell apart for much of the season, and demand a plan that gets Callum McGregor help in midfield before the beginning of next season. Otherwise it’s just another suit in the stand while the same problems run onto the pitch.
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