CELTIC BOARD THROWS MARTIN O’NEILL UNDER THE BUS AS THEY COWER IN THE SHADOWS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
There’s been a bit of confusion, some anger, and certainly plenty of debate among Celtic fans about Martin O’Neill’s comments at his press conference yesterday. He said “I wonder what the great Jock Stein would have made of it all...” in reference to the Celtic Board’s decision to cancel yesterday’s AGM in the face of fan protests.
Whilst our manager was keen to focus on the difficult trip to Paisley to play St. Mirren this weekend, all anyone in the room wanted to talk about was the AGM, or rather the AGM that was supposed to happen but didn’t.
I can’t really blame the press for this one. Whatever you may think of the actions shareholders took yesterday, and the Celtic Board’s reaction to them, there’s no denying it was box office stuff from a journalistic point of view.
However, it’s also something that a football manager shouldn’t really be getting asked about. AGMs are when Chairmen, CEOs and other suits should be stepping forward. That is, after all, what they’re supposedly paid to do, isn’t it?
It’s Not Martin O’Neill’s Job to Run Damage Control for a Failing Celtic Board
Now, I think Martin O’Neill made perhaps his first major misstep in dealing with the press since his return to Celtic Park at yesterday’s conference. Invoking the sacred memory of Jock Stein, our greatest ever manager and a hero to so many, in reference to yesterday’s debacle was, I think, a bad move. It has provoked anger from some.
They see it (and to be honest I get where they’re coming from) as O’Neill siding with an incompetent and belligerent board, against the ordinary fans.
I personally don’t think that was Martin O’Neill’s intention, but, as I said, I totally get why some people see it that way. It was a poor choice of words. However, that choice was made thanks to him being thrust into a media firestorm that was in no way of his making, nor was it his job to clean it up.
Where was Michael Nicholson in all this? Hiding in the toilets? Crouched under his desk, paralyzed by fear, wondering if those big, bad men and women with the red cards and the angry faces had all gone away yet?
I don’t know, but he might as well have been for all the use he and Peter Lawwell were after the aborted AGM.
Yesterday demanded leadership, and poor word choices aside, Martin O’Neill remains perhaps the only person in the building at Celtic Park willing and capable to step forward and show any. Letting him face the press alone, while the real culprits hide in the board room, or on the golf course, was nothing short of disgraceful.
Think what you will about Martin O’Neill’s words yesterday, but I don’t blame him. I blame the incompetent buffoons running our club, and the nepobaby son of our largest shareholder (not our owner) who decided to throw a few gallons of napalm on what was already a blazing inferno with his needlessly antagonistic, slanderous speech towards fans.
They are a disgrace to Celtic. Yesterday only served to crystalize that opinion in my mind.
Martin O’Neill is and always shall be a Celtic legend.
I for one am furious that he may end up being dragged into this whole sorry mess, and suffering damage to his legacy, because the rest of them are too cowardly to face up to their own actions.
For me, the message is simple: Back the Manager, Sack the Board!