We asked the team for a summary of their thoughts on the actions of Celtic during the summer transfer window – two were so non-plussed they didn’t raise enough energy to respond and instead asked to be reawakened once the current Celtic board have been replaced by something called an ambitious group of leaders. For those of a squeamish disposition or who believe the present incumbents are a bunch of forward thinking men with vision for Celtic, look away now.

Bedford Falls -
The transfer machinations of the Celtic board and management borders on lunacy. I will temper that statement by saying that perhaps, just maybe, Mowbray has seen enough in the reserves to give him confidence enough to allow O'Dea, Donati and Brown to leave for permanent or temp moves; bear in mind that Ben Hutchison and Simon Ferry had already gone to Swindon on loan. I actually have no issue with the moves as all five players were peripheral figures at the end of last season, but where I do have a problem is in the players coming in behind them. N'Guemo has impressed, as has Fox. Zaluska is a Polish Mark Brown and Fortune has work to do to justify the 3.8m spent on him.

The signing of Zheng Zhi could be a good move, I have been impressed with him, but I'd generally use the good old Scots' phrase of 'no bad' as opposed to some more positive statement on his abilities. In short, it's a glass half empty signing. Meanwhile, they sign a French international winger!

The best thing to come out of the window is who we didn't lose (Brown, McGeady, Boruc and McDonald) rather than those we gained. Once again, we have been let down and at best have stood still.

Desi Mond –
Another transfer window where hopeful Celtic fans found their faith in the Celtic board to be totally without justification. Despite protestations from various entities that it’s all about balancing books and sailing the SS Celtic through these troubled financial times, questions must be asked of the Celtic Board. They may feel they have helped the new Manager but not anywhere near enough. Anyone can see our team is crying out for one thing, QUALITY. Last years squad was mediocre and in urgent need of improvement and the same Board watched as Celtic’s title challenge disappeared quicker than Jim Traynor up Sir David Murray's backside. Last years squad had Nakamura, Donati and JVOH. All 3 might be cited as let downs at times but all had clear Quality. This year all have gone. In their place we have journeymen and now 'utility' players who were released 2 months ago. When will we sign a player who ADDs something to our first team and doesn't bolster the squad? Arguably the last one was Andreas Hinkel. It’s still too early to tell if Danny Fox is good enough and Landry N'Guemo is only a loan deal. When was the last time we signed a player who made us think 'NO WAY, have we?' in mouth watering anticipation or had the opposition fans grimace and worry?

Really, take your time and think about it?
 
Questions can also be levied at the Manager. Why spend so much on a non striking striker? Why have no challenge to Scott McDonald? Why not get the Caldwell situation sorted once and for all? Couldn't he have been punted and O'Dea kept? Why didn’t Tony Mowbray sign the Chinese captain back in June when he became available?
 
The big question for me though is can Celtic survive another season of dire mediocrity? The worms are turning and their voice is getting louder despite the Boards advocates citing prudence and patience. Jesus we are being told to wait a few years to see the real benefit of Mowbray's signings. Get a grip! Slowly more and more despondent fans are realising that something is wrong at Celtic Park and I fear we are heading into the dark 'Sack the Board' days. If you think that's over the top, fair enough but ask yourself this. When did supporting Celtic become all about asset management?

Che Timvara –
Another window slams shut, another door slams closed on the fans. In our face, actually. Another occasion where we were promised much yet got little in return. Good people I know have looked at what happened during this window and said "Ahh but we brought in a good striker, solved the left back problem, got some decent backup for the keeper, replaced the aging Paul Hartley with genuine quality and now we've got ourselves a new attacking midfielder, with an Asian wonderkid on the way in January ...... what's wrong with that?" Well ........ plenty, as it happens.

Where is the 30 goal striker we're crying out for? Where is the replacement for Nakamura, perhaps the most pressing position of all? And why are we letting our best central defender go out on loan, and retaining the services of Stephen McManus? In fact, why the Hell are we letting ANYONE go from the centre of defence when that's one of the position some of us wanted to see strengthened instead?

Our chief executive certainty talks a good game. He talks about us "doing another Seville" but hasn't given the manager the funds which he needs to get us there. Peter Lawwell can talk a good game all he likes but he has two responsibilities; the first is to find the money to back the manager. If it isn't there, that's his fault. And we KNOW it's his fault, because his failure to buy quality in January cost us the Champions League cash. His other responsibility is to see the manager is properly funded. In making such a mess of the first, he has blown the second.

When managers fail they are fired. He won't be, because the books will look good. That would be fine if we were a Fortune 500, but what counts is trophies, title wins, quality on the park. And the last time I checked, there was a big empty space where our championship trophy used to be.

Gaudd –
The club’s policy of fiscal austerity and manic obsession with zero debt has reached a ludicrous level, with Tony Mowbray incredibly allocated even less of a rebuilding budget on his arrival than Gordon Strachan. Strachan spent £7m net in his first summer, while Mowbray has been limited to £4.3m once the transfer of Donati is taken into account. Yes you read that right. Yet there is no acknowledgement from the club that reducing our transfer market to the flotsam and jetsam of the lower English leagues and the SPL will have any detrimental effect on the team’s competitiveness. Rather than an admission that the club policy will limit ambition in a major way, Peter Lawwell recently informed the media that the Europa aim was to achieve another “Seville run”.

Can you believe the deceit?

Celtic reached the UEFA Cup final in Seville after a gruelling, finger-nail biting series of tough challenges, and the team then contained the likes of Larsson, Sutton, Mjallby and Hartson.  With the team now a pale shade of the 2003 squad, to say the least, what makes Lawwell believe a repeat could be on the cards? Of course the cynic would suggest such a statement was simply made to help punt the overpriced Europa group tickets (the same price as the Champions League of yesteryear).

The club of course fondly imagines it could be a clever, successful selling club, an Arsenal of the North, does anyone seriously believe we have the talent and ability to pull this off?  The club’s aim is to buy cheap and young and sell the waifs on at a nice profit.  

Meanwhile while we’re waiting for this mythical era of astute entrepreneurial brilliance to arrive, we can welcome in the saviour of all things cheap and tatty with the arrival of Zheng Zhi. Now I may be doing the guy a disservice, but if he’s really a bigger Chinese wonder than the Great Wall, then why was he with Charlton in what used to be the English 3rd Division? Perhaps this insight from a Charlton blog may give us some kind of indication: “Since joining in 2006 Zheng played 70 matches and scored 11 goals and in my opinion only played well when it suited him which was far too infrequently! Unfortunately he was injured a lot last season and I don’t see the club wanting to risk such high wages on someone who may not play a whole season.”

Celtic’s whole signing policy seems to be based more around money generation than on-field success, and that is no way to run a football club, a business perhaps, but not a football club.

Hector Bandido –
We have ZERO DEBT. Who said that? An uppity Celtic supporter pissed off with the boards policy of spend as little as is possible or Dermot Desmond in conversation with a Dublin-based Radio station earlier this year? Yep, ten bonus points for guessing it was the Cork-born man with the diamond encrusted moustache.

What other football club in Europe has 60,000 supporters at most home games, while paying through the nose for it..........has a multi-million pound deal with Nike..........has issued a new away strip certain to be one of if not thee biggest sellers...........is guaranteed a minimum of £8-10m from European football income this season..............has an annual turnover of £70m and still spends in relative terms fcuk all on the football team?

And if you know your history…….In 2002/03 Celtic spent £33m on wages and this increased to in excess of £41m the following year. In June 2008 the figure was £39m…..By the way the figures shown covers all employees of the club not only football staff.

However, these figures don't paint the entire picture….If kept at the 2003 levels (420 employees) and passed on a relatively low pay increase of around 3% per year the salary for 2008 (with the now 500 staff working for the club) would be in excess of £46m.

Who says we haven’t been downsizing since Seville in 2003? If anyone denies this call them exactly what they are……..a lying bastard.

Let’s cut to the chase here, Tony Mowbray should have been allowed a minimum spend of £10m this summer to build his own team as this is debt that is easily manageable for a club of Celtic’s size. Instead 15 players were chased off the wage bill and replaced with 5 with all the savings on wages over the next 12 months pretty much making up Mogga’s budget. Our board really has no shame.

Martin O’Neill once famously commented on the return flight from Donetsk following a three goal drubbing in the autumn of 2004; "We'd better get used to life in the slow lane"..............sadly Celtic now sitting on the hard shoulder is a step beyond even what the great man once predicted.

Welcome to Celtic FC and the board of Peter Lawwell, Eric Riley and co who beckon to their masters every whim and treat the Celtic support with complete disdain. It’s about time they were dished out some of their own medicine…..so what are you going to do about it?

Monty Burns –

It's painful to admit but it really has become a case of Apathy Central at Burns' Towers. Maybe its years of a demonstrable lack of ambition, maybe it's the getting older, fatter, wiser, grumpier – whatever. Either way the transfer window was a decided non-event. Much the same as most windows previously and I'd guess most transfer windows to come.

There were a couple of minor things of note. The fact that Mowbray could operate in a transfer window and totally outfox the media on practically every signing was refreshing. The signing of the mythical left back was a shock. The removal of several of Strachan's key men from the wage bill was less so. Overall though a total anti-climax.

However, for me the startling lack of ambition from Celtic is tantamount to the reason we're in the Europa League. We have found our level. The Board have accepted this is Celtic's level with the odd shot at CL money a welcome bonus additional to the bottom line, not the footballing operation. While mitigation comes in the form of the SPL and the shambles of a local professional setup run by the SFA, the fact of the matter is Celtic is a huge club being run with parsimony and attention to the shareholder primary and paying customer – i.e. fans – satisfaction a distant second.

Somewhere, somewhere, some w@nk of a beancounter will try to convince you this is good for the Club.

Tell them to fcuk off.

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