AS CELTIC GET SCHOOLED BY HEARTS TONY BLOOM SCHOOLS CELTIC BOARD
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
One of the most difficult things to do, for any sports fans, not just Celtic supporters, is to see the positives in a defeat and areas where your rivals deserve praise, acknowledgement and sometimes, even, emulation.
Watching the way Hearts’ Tony Bloom took genuine joy in watching his team beat Celtic yesterday, and then spending the next half hour or so embracing and engaging in prolonged, meaningful conversations with the overjoyed Hearts supporters, one thought crossed my mind which I could not process.
“When was the last time we saw anyone from Celtic’s board or major shareholders taking such genuine joy in one of our results, and sharing that joy with ordinary fans?”
Answers on a postcard please...
With Hearts, Tony Bloom Shows Us The Importance of Emotional Investment Alongside Financial Commitment
If you’ll indulge me, I’m going to use a movie metaphor to make my point here.
There’s a scene in Enter the Dragon, where Bruce Lee is training a young student. The student is competent, but clearly just going through the motions. Bruce Lee tells him. “No, we need emotional content”. The student then takes an enraged swing at Bruce Lee, to which the master responds “I said emotional content, not anger!”
That’s the difference between the Hearts boardroom and the Celtic boardroom at the moment. It’s also why one team is top of the league while the other appears to be in freefall. Tony Bloom isn’t just going through the motions; he’s clearly reveling in the challenge of breaking Scottish football’s historic duopoly. He has the "emotional content" behind his shrewd business moves.
Meanwhile, Celtic have a stale, out of date board, full of yes men and people so risk-averse, I’m frankly amazed they can muster the courage to get out of bed in the morning.
Imagine if Celtic fans, in celebration, approached Michael Nicholson, or Dermot Desmond, the way so many Hearts fans made a beeline for Tony Bloom at full-time yesterday. Would they have engaged the fans in conversation, posed for selfies, or hugged and embraced the people who make the football club what it is?
I highly doubt it. More than likely, they’d have screamed for security and the poor fans would have been ejected and banned from the stadium for daring to stand on an equal footing with their superiors.
Ok, I’m probably being a bit hyperbolic there but you get my point.
I just couldn’t get over the sheer, stark contrast of this, a major shareholder who doesn’t just interact with the fans, but actively takes pleasure in it, and sees it as part of the fun of being a big investor in a football club.
Dermot Desmond can’t even be bothered to drag himself away from the golf course for our AGM most of the time.
I don’t like Hearts, thanks largely to that minority, albeit an especially vocal and obnoxious minority in their support, who attach themselves to much of the same bigotry and hate as Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) and their successor club.
Still, one of my best mates in Tokyo is a Jambo, and he also has little time for that element of his own support.
So, for people like him, and people like Tony Bloom, who despite his extreme wealth still realizes how much football means to the ordinary fan, I am genuinely pleased for them today.
What I wouldn’t give to have someone bring a similar breath of fresh air to the Celtic Board room right now...