DERMOT DESMOND is a man who doesn’t like to talk to the media directly or give them soundbites and quotes for their publications.
The majority shareholder or people around him certainly know who to contact if they want to get a story out with ‘sources’ being the recipient.
Barry White of the Business Post wrote a very insightful and well researched piece on Celtic and the rebuild ahead. If only Barry had got his numbers right, he could have been giving plenty of Celtic supporters an exclusive from the man himself.
Notorious for blowing off journalists in the football industry, being part of the Business Post might have given Barry some confidence he could get a few lines out of Dermot. In the end, he did get some call time with the elusive billionaire but it was Dermot who asked the questions.
Read the excerpt below from Barry’s piece:
When I rang him last week, he made it abundantly clear within seconds that he was not inclined to even entertain the questions, let alone answer them.
When I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk about the club he replied with a flat ‘“No”, adding: “I’m not going to talk about Celtic.”
When I asked him why, he answered with another question: “Why do I need to talk about Celtic?”
He didn’t, of course, but I explained it would be helpful if he did. I proposed to ask a question that would set out the broad aim of the piece, and in particular the idea of how a period of transition can bedevil even the biggest clubs.
He stopped me short, saying: “Okay, I’ll ask you a question to see whether you’re qualified to ask me questions.”
His first was: how many trophies have Celtic won in the last 20 years?
I knew there were 16 league titles, but I had to concede that off the top of my head I couldn’t say how many other cups they might have won. (It’s 37 if you include the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup, incidentally.)
He went on: “When did I first take a shareholding in Celtic?”
I answered 1994, which is of course wrong. It was 1995.
“When did I become the largest shareholder in Celtic?”
I answered 1998; it was 1999.
I also fluffed the question of when Peter Lawwell first became chief executive and, by this stage, it was clear that Desmond had enough information to come to his own conclusions.
“You’ve failed the test,” he said. “You have to know enough about Celtic to talk to me about Celtic. I’m not a great fan of journalists, as you well know.” He then reminded me that “if there’s anything that’s litigious, I will certainly get my lawyers onto it”.
I tried to explain that I wasn’t trying to ascertain specific facts but, rather, to discover his perspective on Celtic. My plea fell on deaf ears.
Desmond told me that if he had anything to say about Celtic he would put it in the Celtic View, the club’s official magazine, or the Athletic, although he added that “it’s unlikely the Athletic will get it from me again”.
“There’s so many people interested in finding out my views on so many things, so join the queue,” he said. “And you’re a long way down the queue.”
An insight into the way Dermot deals with the baying mob.
In ordinary times, many Celtic fans would applaud Desmond for shunning the media. However, the support are crying out for answers and leadership and a salty majority shareholder telling people he doesn’t HAVE to answer questions surrounding the club is a tough pill to swallow.
Furthermore, he clearly doesn’t feel the need to say anything other than what’s been put out on the Celtic website. Desmond cites the Celtic View as somewhere he would go to put out information – I wonder if he even knows it’s in circulation at the moment? It does speak somewhat to his character that he’s only likely to talk about Celtic to a magazine owned by the club where he has complete control over what goes out and the tone it takes.
Celtic fans are in limbo, they’ve been asked to fork out money again this season with no guarantee they get back into the stadium.
We can only hope the flippant nature of the phone call from Barry to Dermot was more to do with his disdain for the press rather than his reluctance to be accountable for last season.
It would be fun if Dermot would talk to fan media though, the likelihood of ys passing his Celtic test would be a little bit better, but he could move the goalposts.
Needs to sell his shares and go.
The man is so arrogant he sounds as bad as one of the staunch. Frankly, I’m sick of us having to bow and scrape to this ersewipe. He might have the largest shareholding but it’s not large enough to give him control…so why do we behave as if it does?
I appreciate all of the success that has occurred during his time with the club but other than personally getting Rodgers to come to the club…what has he actually contributed? He’s not a sugar-daddy pumping money in, he’s not giving “soft loans” to ensure we go out and buy the best, or doing owt else but collecting a nice dividend every year – maybe he lets the club keep that but it’s not going to buy a top striker is it?. Regardless, there doesn’t seem to be any tangible benefit for the club by having him as a shareholder. I wish he’d sell to someone who’d be a bit more engaged with the club, the kind of person who’d ensure another Peter Lawwell never happens again. Lawwell’s “successes” have been brought about despite him rather than because of him. He has been very lucky but it had to end sometime…shame that end had to come during the 10IAR season.
Desmond can bolt, and he can take the rest of those tory leeches (and that twat Brian Bloody Wilson) with him.
The typical arrogance that comes from the rest of the board as well, none of them give a toss about the club and supporters.