Andrew Smith of the Scotsman unearthed a rare interview he managed to get with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond back in 2004 and Smith correctly writes what Dermot said during the interview is eerily similar to what’s going on at the club right now and how he’s handling things.
Speaking about supporters, the majority shareholder said he abhors the fans who turn on the team and the hierarchy when times are bad.
Desmond says all the board is there for is to be targets. When the club is doing well, the players and the manager get the plaudits but when things are going wrong, the board get put into the firing line.
We must stress these were comments made a few years back but they have to be the best insight into what Dermot is thinking and why he’s not bowed to pressure after the weekend”
“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 said.
“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.”
“If a million people told me to do something [in a body of] 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.
“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.”
These comments are so to the point you would think he said them recently. The protest at the club would have sparked the reaction which we have now seen from the majority shareholder. He’s purposely ignoring the support because he is quite happy to go along with what he’s doing.
Some fans who protested took it too far on the night but most people there were just standing, making it known they had seen enough of Celtic’s spiral and that change was needed.
If Desmond not happy move on. As for the songs. We are faithful through and through. But to the club , the song is not snout any individual who runs our club. We have kicked out directors and ceo before it will happen again.
Well said Dermot. That’s one of the reasons he is so successful. He will not be bullied.