Major Celtic Exit is No Big Deal – Pundit Claims

“Is it really such big news that Dom McKay’s time at Celtic has been kicked into touch?”

Charlie Nicholas has went on a full character assassination of Dom McKay after his Celtic departure. The former Celtic player branded it no big deal and even called McKay a glove puppet.

Given McKay has likely left the building early on due to differences in direction between the board – I can’t see why Charlie has come to that assumption. To make such assertions when he’s most likely never spoken to Dom is pretty poor and does speak to his shock jock style of punditry. It’s as if Charlie feels compelled to be as forthright as possible so he can keep his name on the column pages.

The former Sky Sports man did get one thing right when he wrote, as cited by RecordSport, that Celtic had been run by an accountant and an absent majority shareholder for too long.

“The chief executive revealed he was stepping down for ‘personal reasons’ last Friday, after barely a couple of months in the job.

“But it is not the dramatic story it has been made out to be.

“Some of the comments from pundits have been ridiculously over the top but that’s because a lot of those people don’t understand the fabric of Celtic.

“For years, the club has been run by an accountant and an owner who isn’t there very often.

“They possess all the power and all the money. Even when Celtic floundered on the pitch last season, Rangers were still playing catch-up to their Old Firm rivals off it.

“So I don’t see why McKay stepping down is a big issue in the grand scheme of things. What did people think he was going to do that was anything radically different to his predecessor Peter Lawwell?

“Let’s tell it like it is. McKay was a glove puppet who had come in on Lawwell’s recommendation, and it was an appointment that majority shareholder Dermot Desmond was more than happy enough to go along with.

“From what I have seen and heard, I don’t think McKay had much influence at all on key decisions at the club.

“If that wasn’t already apparent, then it should have been after Postecoglou’s telling weekend remarks of, ‘We have to be careful with the narrative of who brought me to the club’.

Nicholas cites transfer dealings as proof Dom McKay wasn’t in charge because he wouldn’t have known about some of the players brought in. I think Charlie is getting confused because a chief executive is not there to be a scout.

“A dozen players were brought in by Celtic over the summer transfer window on McKay’s watch but does anyone really think he knew much about Kyogo Furuhashi or Cameron Carter-Vickers?

“Come on, this guy was previously involved with Scottish Rugby.”

“Lawwell had too much influence on recruitment during his reign.

“But you could argue Postecoglou had to be given more influence than he should have due to McKay’s lack of football expertise.

“Celtic failed to come through the Champions League qualifiers this season and, because of that, the club might have been forced to give in to the Aussie manager’s demands more than they wanted to.

“So this McKay story is not dramatic news.”

It is dramatic news in the fashion things went down on Friday. There were people at the club who found out Dom was leaving at the same time as supporters. Having only spent 72 days in the role with the promise of modernisation – Dom’s exit raises a lot of questions on the overall direction of the club.

Now we have a lawyer in charge of proceedings who has a hotline to Peter Lawwell.

Ange Postecoglou has again done well to shelter the players from outside noises and keeps them focused at the task in hand.

The bhoys won 3-0 at the weekend against Ross County less than 24 hours after the announced departure. They now look to go spring a surprise in Spain against Real Betis.