Former Celtic striker Andy Walker has issued a reasonable take on the recent Q and A held by the club at a supporters' club.
It's no secret that there is a major standoff between the Celtic board and the club's supporters. Fans are not happy with how the club is being run, and the club are rarely willing to even explain their reasoning behind key decisions to fans.
Supporters feel they are due explanations for at least the key decisions based on the fact they pay hard-earned money to support the team through thick and thin, and that's a very fair request.
The board must make decisions based on the information they have and the experience they have in their role, but they would only do themselves favours by communicating the reasons behind some decisions to fans so that they can understand the situation rather than simply being left frustrated with the outcome.
The civil war of sorts is not likely to be resolved any time soon, but the club took a step in the right direction by holding a 150-minute Q and A with supporters in Greenock.
Celtic Q and A with fans is a positive
Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, former Hoops striker said: “My first thought was that I didn’t know anything about it. I think you welcome it, and if anyone at Celtic is prepared to get away from that arrogance and condescending tone that’s been evident for so long, that can only be a good step.
“It’s totally different [now]. In my day, the players went out and met the supporters and spoke to them. You kept them close and you tried your best. Now, the protests, almost at every game, the faces of certain individuals that are at every away game and a lot of home games… the supporters don’t seem to be able to get close to them.
“So if anyone on the Celtic board, or even the Celtic manager and the coaching staff, are prepared to go and meet supporters… great. They should be doing it more often. This stand-off is not the club that I knew.”
The Celtic Bhoys verdict
After Celtic held the meeting, we saw some fans say that the meeting wasn't good enough because there weren't minutes posted. But fans have to be careful getting into a situation where nothing Celtic do can be good enough.
There is an overall ideal, sure, but Celtic are so far from that ideal in how they deal with supporters that it's painful to see. It's going to take small improvements to get to that ideal, and you have to take the wins and look to build on them.
Celtic should be praised for holding the Q and A, so what you do next is ask for more, and then you ask for the minutes of those to be shared with supporters. It's about working towards something.
Not all of the reaction has been critical, but there has been a lot of reaction that it isn't good enough, that there should have been minutes and so on. That's focusing on the negative and it's only likely to put the club off from doing more.
That can be hard to do when one is as angry as Celtic fans currently are, and with good reason. But it's the sort of attitude fans must find a way to embrace if they are to achieve genuine progress with this stubborn board.
Add us as a preferred source on Google