Celtic are living through their darkest days since Fergus McCann saved them from catastrophe - Kevin McKenna

Then, as now, Celtic were approaching the bottom of a downward spiral that seemed destined to end in Rangers eclipsing their sacred nine. They were making early exits from the Scottish Cup by clubs like Motherwell and Falkirk.

Twice inside five seasons Celtic failed to qualify for Europe and in one of the years they did make it they were hammered 5-1 by Neuchatel Xamax. In two decades of European football Celtic had faced the champions of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Yet, it was a Swiss team that handed them their worst aggregate defeat at this level and their fundaments to boot.

More critically, what was left of the relationship that existed between the supporters and the club’s custodians was now conducted in an atmosphere of mutual loathing. At this point Fergus McCann was hatching his audacious plan to wrest control away from the families who had run Celtic as their own personal medieval fiefdom. In response, the old Parkhead politburo grew increasingly desperate and appointed a PR agency owned and operated by Michael Kelly, a senior member of the board.

The civil strife for control of the club saw the emergence of three factions and became a propaganda war conducted on the front pages of the Scottish press. The damage that resulted from the old families’ desperate measures to retain control took five years; three managers and half of McCann’s fortune to heal.

You could argue that SFA malfeasance, long suspected and finally exposed when its President was forced to resign over the Jorge Cadete registration, added to Celtic’s challenges. Or that the Bank of Scotland was bank-rolling Rangers’ acquisition project while forcing Celtic to the brink of closure. But this comes nowhere near mitigating the incompetence of a group of men who had not an ounce of aptitude for running a multi-million-pound operation at the start of the Champions League era.

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Yet, those weaknesses – rendered more egregious by an ingrained sense of entitlement - are being surpassed by Celtic’s present custodians. This may seem harsh, considering that four successive trebles – a feat unlikely ever to be surpassed – were delivered by the current regime. Most of these trophies though, were won during a period when their greatest rivals were still dazed by the fall-out of their collapse in 2012.

The real measure of growth was provided by European competition, an arena which saw Celtic slump to their heaviest ever home and away defeats and failure to reach the Champions League stage at the hands of clubs such as AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros and now Midtjylland.

The old and still reviled pre-McCann board could point to the fact that they were in charge when Celtic rose to become one of the most feared clubs in world football. History will adjudge them simply to have been men out of time: corner-shop hustlers in a globalist age.

It’s doubtful if history will be as understanding of the current Celtic board. Unlike the Whites and Kellys who lurched and stumbled around the early 1990s, the present-day custodians have had a huge economic advantage over Rangers. And while previous Celtic executives also had to contend, in their day, with the magnificent Aberdeen and Dundee United teams of the Alex Ferguson/Jim McLean era, Celtic for the last ten years have only had to be better than a historically impoverished Rangers.

Ever since Celtic somehow managed to survive a League Cup final onslaught by Rangers in December 2019 it was becoming apparent to most Celtic supporters that their oldest rivals were beginning to awake from a seven-year slumber. This was a time for vision and leadership; to be alert to the renewed vigour of their main rivals. Instead, the Celtic directors decided that it was time for a nap.

So complacent had they become by the routine four and five-goal spankings handed out to Rangers; so pleased with themselves by the success of their smart business models that they really did consider themselves to be omnipotent and beyond criticism. This was becoming evident in the disdain and outright hostility of their chilly responses to supporters who dared to question their authority at AGMs.

Ian Bankier, a chairman who rose to the position without trace and whose tenure is proceeding in similar fashion actually began to troll supporters. The response of this whisky merchant to questions on why Celtic - founded to alleviate the poverty of these fans’ forbears - refused to pay the Living Wage to its least well-paid employees or to recognise a trade union was to question the motives of the complainers.

More recently, the Celtic Trust, formed to give ordinary shareholders and season-ticket holders a voice has been treated with contempt by a board which deems them to be unworthy of basic dialogue. When it was pointed out that their governances may be in breach of FSA guidelines they simply refused to respond, trusting that most ordinary fans would be less worried about this than the entropy that currently engulfs the team.

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Last night’s defeat to Midtjylland was the second time they’ve fallen to a Danish side in two years. The team that Ange Postecoglu was forced to field was perhaps the least prepared Celtic squad ever assembled at this level. The Celtic directors, entrusted with ensuring their coach is given the best possible chance to succeed, have failed in discharging this basic duty of their stewardship. Is there a director of football to assist the new manager? Is there a functioning, modern and well-resourced sports science department?

This has been flagged up for 20 months now, six of them without a manager in place. During this time there has been no statement of intent by the new chief executive and nothing from the chairman or major shareholder by means of an explanation or a roadmap out of the chaos.

Following last week’s 1-1 draw at Parkhead, Ange Postecoglu hinted that some people at the club didn’t appear to be listening to him. Following last night’s defeat (Celtic have now won only one of their last eight games in Europe) he said: “I haven’t done a good enough job convincing people we need to bring people in.”

Has any manager ever previously questioned the strategy of his new employers so publicly and so early in his tenure? And has any club fallen so steeply and so quickly from dominance?

Celtic are living through their darkest days since Fergus McCann saved them from catastrophe 27 years ago. And even if there was another saviour put there, they’d find this board more obstinate than those desiccated men who once held sway here.