Dermot Desmond has been talking to CelticTV about the club, what’s gone before them and what his plans are for the future.
The majority shareholder took part in a controlled in-house interview where he tackled a number of subjects from the past, present and future.
Speaking about the recruitment of our manager, the Irishman revealed what happened from his perspective and who was responsible for bringing Ange to the club.
As we’ve reported on several times, it was not in fact Dom McKay, but Peter Lawwell.
Dermot spoke about how since the early 00’s he and Peter have always had a working list of five managers at any given time to look at and interview for the job when it comes up.
Dermot confirmed his first choice pulled out and couldn’t take the job for personal reasons and was honest enough to admit he didn’t know how to say Ange’s full name, never mind know what he’s all about.
It was Peter who pushed the issue.
Speaking to CelticTV:
“Peter an I have always had a list of five managers
“In this case, we had a list of five. Ange was on the list, I didn’t know who Ange was, I couldn’t pronounce his name.
“Peter was insisting he was the person we put on the list.
“We pursued another manager [Eddie Howe], a man of huge integrity, who unfortunate couldn’t take the role for personal reasons.
“I got the call at 12:30pm on a Thursday [From Eddie], I made arrangements to speak to Ange at 5pm UK Time. He was in Japan, in between that time, I researched quite a bit about Ange and what he had achieved.
“I watched that Craig Forster interview several times. It showed me he was a man of determination, integrity, passion, individualism and he was a leader.“
At the time, there was real panic among the Celtic support that the club had dropped the ball over Eddie Howe and were now grasping for any manager they could find. The name dropped onto social media and even we were in state of shock that the Hoops were pulling a manager we’d not heard of from Japan.
But like Dermot, we and most Celtic fans started doing our homework and quickly realised Ange was no consolation prize.
It took Ange about three minutes on his first day doing pressers for most fans to see he was a manager not to be trifled with.
The Australian came in with no hesitations despite the size of the rebuild needed. As we sit here now, it looks like a tremendous piece of business for the club and Eddie Howe’s rejection set the wheels in motion for what we’re seeing now.
A League Cup in the bag, a league title in our own hands with six games to go and in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.
