DERMOT DESMOND IS NO EMPEROR, HE CAN BE BEATEN
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
I must admit, I was a bit surprised when I saw numerous outlets carrying a “Daily Record Dermot Desmond interview” in which Celtic’s eternally absent major shareholder (not our owner), seemingly responding to his critics after Friday’s maddening AGM embarrassment.
I was disappointed, but in all honesty not surprised at all, to learn the Daily Record were reusing quotes from 17 years ago, to try and fashion a story. And worse yet, it wasn’t even an interview conducted with one of their own journalists.
The fact that so many were initially taken in by the obvious insinuation that the quotes were recent, speaks volumes, both about the state of Scottish sports journalism and about the utter intransigence of The Celtic Board.
Daily Record Recycled Dermot Desmond Quotes from 2008 Tell Their Own Story
The grimmest fact of all from this mess of an article is the fact that things have changed so little in the Celtic Boardroom since 2008, that so many casual readers initially assumed that this was something our largest shareholder (not our owner) said in the past few days.
There has been so little movement over the past 2 decades, so little change from Desmond, who hasn’t even bothered to show up to an AGM since 2006, that we all just assumed this is his current state of mind.
Because, lets be honest, it might as well be.
Back in 2008 he criticized the “lack of gratitude” shown by Celtic fans who criticized him and the board, and questioned the commitment of those same fans.
He then doubled down on this philosophy by saying “if I’m in a room of 100 people and 99 of them tell me I’m wrong, but I think I’m right, I’ll go with what my instincts tell me is right.”
He brandished that idea as if it was something to be proud of. Such willful ignorance, such utterly delusional arrogance is not befitting of any company director, let alone one who acts as if he is the owner (he isn’t by the way) of one of the world’s biggest football clubs.
The bitter rant he used Celtic’s own media platforms to hurl at our departing ex-manager, Brendan Rodgers, and then the absolute cowardice of getting his son, in an act of sheer, bare-faced nepotism, to sit alongside our Chairman and CEO, and read out a slanderous statement he had no right to make about Celtic supporters while he hides in on the golf course, says it all about his current mindset.
The man is a bully, a coward and has no idea of just how many people he has upset with his recent conduct, and indeed much of his conduct for the past 20 years.
Desmond will not change, that much is clear. He hasn’t changed since 2008, if anything he’s become even more tyrannical. He has said he has no intention of selling his shares, or of giving up his current stranglehold on the club.
However, as I and indeed numerous others have said before, this not a “sack the board” scenario like 1994. Fans had a clear financial objective then, because the board at that time had clear financial obligations that, if they didn’t meet, they’d face bankruptcy.
We were able to effectively starve them out. For a vulture capitalist like Desmond, his wealth and his arrogance are such that he can ignore all these fan protests indefinitely,
However, every man has his vulnerable point. With Desmond, it is his ego. We can't drive him out financially, but perhaps with enough negative publicity we could shame him into a reckless act that may see other board members finally motivated to remove him.
Lindsell Train's recent move to reduce their own stake in Celtic, shows that perhaps at least one Celtic institutional investor is getting tired of Desmond's pettiness and petulance.
Nonetheless, removing our wannabe emperor will require the collective, and coordinated actions of a lot of people far smarter than me. But, it can be done. Empires far larger than Desmond’s have risen and fallen. He is not our owner and he does not control our club. He exerts the power he does only because others (major shareholder) effectively allow him to do so.
We need to create enough pressure that if it becomes a case of siding with Desmond, who has shown consistently he will throw anyone under the bus without hesitation if it benefits him (just ask Brendan Rodgers), or a Celtic support, who, whilst volatile at times, ultimately have demands that aren’t that unreasonable or easy to meet.
How do we do this? I don’t know exactly. I have some ideas, but as I said a minute ago, it’ll need a collective of people far smarter than me to outflank someone as ruthless, insidiously influential and financially powerful as Dermot Desmond.
Still, I believe it can be done.
