It would be safe to say that Ross Desmond is not a popular figure among Celtic fans after his statement at the recent AGM, which had to be called off after merely 25 minutes. The club seem to be intent on pushing the idea that the dissatisfaction being shown is coming from a small section of the support. It does not feel like so.
Just go and open any post made by Celtic on social media. The comment section is overwhelmingly negative.
Or just check how the ticket sales have been doing for the club this season. There is a reason that the club have to put out multiple announcements and reminders. There were 14,000 empty seats for their home opener in the Europa League. For context, there were almost 55,000 in attendance for their dead rubber game against Real Betis in 2021, the last time they were in the competition.
Of course, the board have admitted that they have made mistakes. But then, admitting them is no good if they are not doing something to make sure that it is not repeated in the future.
Ross Desmond handed reality check about Celtic situation
As reported by CeltsAreHere, Stephen McGowan said regarding the situation at Celtic on the Press Box podcast:
"The board, as you said, are a cautious, conservative body of risk-averse custodians, who now seem to regard and speak in terms of European football being a lost cause. And I think people look at clubs like Bodo Glimt, they look at Club Brugge, they look at Midtjylland and they say, hang on a minute, they’re not as big as Celtic, but they’ve got a structure and they have a system which allows them to punch above their weight in Europe. Celtic speak and Ross Desmond spoke of trying to put that in place.
“The problem is at the moment, there’s absolutely no evidence that they’ve done anything to react to the transfer window that we saw there. "
That is the biggest issue at hand here. What are Celtic doing right now to take the club forward? From the outside looking in, it just looks like they are happy to remain in this position, winning consistently at the domestic level while not going anywhere in Europe.
Then again, the Rangers have new ownership in place and are now spending more than Celtic. So, the Hoops need to be careful. Otherwise, the Ibrox club could close down the gap quickly and they won't be ready for that scenario.
Those are also some great examples of clubs that have worked on a smaller budget than Celtic and delivered on the European level. Clearly, the Hoops need to have a better and more modern structure in place. They need to make the necessary changes and not allow themselves to become stagnant.