Unfair situation dragging Martin O'Neill deeper & deeper into Celtic vortex || Stephen McGowan "O’Neill has become a human shield for the men who really run the club. A pinata for supporters who never hear a word from the people who should be answering the pressing questions over recruitment, ambition and the lack of communication and engagement. "The only member of the Celtic management who ever raises his head above the parapet, the Northern Irishman could have gone another way on the Desmond issue. "A simple, ‘I’m here to talk about the football’ would have sent media colleagues veering off in search of a headline elsewhere. "Instead, the veteran boss harked back to sepia-tinged memories of a time when club and fanbase aligned in perfect sympatico. “'I don’t agree at all with what happened at St Andrews,' he said. 'That’s not Celtic. The days of having 80,000 people in Seville [at the UEFA Cup final in 2003] without an arrest – that’s Celtic to me.' "If Celtic were still competing in the latter stages of European competitions, there would be none of the unrest being seen now. They go to Benfica on Thursday night and, despite a much improved performance in Motherwell, supporters still expect to spend the game watching from behind a sofa. "Their record in UEFA club competitions – where they regularly lose to smaller clubs with lower budgets – is the reason so many are in a state of open revolt now. And O’Neill is being dragged deeper and deeper into a vortex not of his making." 👇 𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘯/𝘗𝘈 𝘞𝘪𝘳𝘦/𝘗𝘈 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴

Celtic and Dermot Desmond should reassess what brings 'shame' to club's name || Graeme McGarry "The statement that was released on the club’s official website over that protest by the Celtic Fans Collective was the stuff of fire and brimstone. In fact, it read like the stuff of a few too many clubhouse brandies. "It is a golden rule of journalism not to venture onto social media after 10pm on a Saturday evening, never mind slapping a statement on a club website that had the timbre of a divorced Da’s Facebook feed. Not only that, but it made the whole thing a bigger story than it otherwise would have been, the diametrically opposite aim of PR damage control. "One particularly stinging paragraph read: ‘Those responsible have brought shame upon the name of Celtic Football Club and upon a reputation which generations of Celtic supporters have spent more than a century building.’ "This is referencing the tennis balls, by the way, not the repeated failures to qualify for the Champions League, just for the avoidance of doubt." 👇 𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦/𝘚𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬