Every time I'm forced to watch Celtic play these days, and by forced I simply refer to the unavoidable feeling of treachery if I chose my preferred option which is to hide in a deep bunker until the all clear, one thought loops through my head in a manner as irritating as a Black Lace single; how did it come to this? Make no mistake about it, the team are a dysfunctional mess, a tortured shell bereft of spirit and belief.  In each and every game the lack of belief is as glaring as the paucity of actual ability to the point that there is the horrifying possibility that the league will be lost to a bankrupt team who have been unable to strengthen for 18 months.  A team mouldering in a state or torpor for three transfer windows. It doesn't bear thinking about really, but there it is. Just how did we get this bad? See, I told you that thought looped didn't I?

So how did we get this bad? Well contrary to the bizarre opinions formulated in the easy-scapegoat mindset of some, this shambles did not begin with  the arrival of Tony Mowbray. Since the bizarre summer of 2004  Celtic has engaged in a nose-dive of burning spitfire proportions as far as ability and talent are concerned. Gordon Strachan presided over a period of remarkable downsizing that only escaped its just desserts due to the lack of domestic competition, and it has to be said some remarkable last minute European escape acts. The board sycophants during this period demanded, insisted, that we should ignore the performances and simply bask in the end product, and there's no denying that Strachan amassed a nice collection of silverware. The problem with that mentality though it that deficiencies are not addressed, like some terrible Madoff scam the suckers strenuously ignore the warning signs, content to selectively focus on the immediate while the storm clouds gather.

No the problems aren't new, Celtic have been a terrible team to watch for years, stuffed full of mediocrities and managed by individuals chosen due to their willingness to work on a shoestring budget.  During the summer any ambitious candidate simply took one look at the job spec and found something better to do, such as managing Wigan. During all this plummeting descent into disastrous downsizing, we had to endure a  level of smug complacency from the club custodians that was quite frankly stomach churning. Leaving aside the abrasive and sneering tone adopted by Strachan when faced with criticism over wrist-slitting performances, the attitude adopted by the club reflected the deep-rooted aversion felt by club officials when it comes to the support. An aversion summed up by Dermot Desmond taking great care to publically announce his attempt to retain Strachan's services in the face of overwhelming unpopularity; in other words a GITRUY from the main suit.

When Strachan finally departed, having reduced the club from a team that would boast the likes of Petrov and Sutton to that which suffered Naylor and Samaras, he simply made way for another individual who would be relied upon to tow the line. Another cheap option. Now this in itself is no bad thing, if the playing environment results in reduced income then a manager experienced in running a tight ship is obviously required. The problem comes when that manager starts to look  inadequate even for this task, together with the additional problem that a lack of funds for team strengthening is not compensated by other measures such as investment in youth development and scouting. Celtic's much derided diamond-in-a-midden strategy is a manifest failure, and has absolutely no chance of success without the required investment. Again, everything on the cheap.

Celtic of course ignored the emptying stands as Strachan's assault on the club's reputation meandered its way through a repertoire of poor performances, preferring to denigrate those who dared voice criticism. "What about the results", we were told every time questions concerning the on-field atrocities were raised, and like a drunk running to avoid falling over, the present was acceptable as the pavement had yet to get a look in. Of course there comes the time when gravity defeats even the most determined running drunk but in true Celtic management style, that fateful day was ignored as long as the drunk's nose remained above the pavement. The drunk did inevitably hit the pavement though, and the reaction from some of the party cadres was a sight to behold, it was if the problems had all occurred overnight.

Let's get this right, Mowbray may not be the ideal Celtic manager, he may be bloody awful so far, but what do we expect? Celtic delve into the labour pool looking for a pliant manager willing to work on a shoestring budget, so do we really expect to land the likes of Guus Hiddink? The time when we could realistically approach such a character are well past, Celtic's downsizing results in limited managerial choices just as it limits the calibre of player the club can attract. So the football deteriorates and we end up with an unmotivated team of journeymen players most of whom would never have been allowed near a Celtic shirt in the past. The club acts as if none of this is happening, sky high prices are maintained and a disillusioned support looks at its monthly outgoings and decides attending matches is a corner worth cutting. Nobody wins.

So why is it happening? Why has Celtic downsized and deteriorated to the extent that teams with a fraction of our resources can compete on equal terms? Why is it that a Rangers team all wandering around with price tags on their ears look set to best us in the league? It takes chronic mismanagement to reduce a club to this level, a self-induced screw-up of titanic proportions. Yet the odious John Reid can sit at the AGM sneering away about the Rangers spendthrifts and dismissing all calls for greater spending with a patronising lecture on safeguarding the club's finances. Well I haven't seen the figures, but I wonder how much Celtic are losing with falling season ticket and match day ticket sales not to forget unsold merchandise and European failure. A few £million perhaps, now wouldn't it have been more productive to invest that in the team?

At this point though I'm left contemplating the fact that writing on the state of the club now is sounding like a stuck record, after all for years we've been warning of the dangers of endless downsizing and the stupidity of underestimating the importance of European football; and by that I mean actually competing as opposed to just turning up. The lunacy is doubled, tripled and so on, when those engaged in devastating downsizing fail to price tickets accordingly. Celtic Park is emptying for good reasons. A D list product sold at A list prices isn't going to set bums on pews, rather the opposite. Yet the club custodians appear to be oblivious to the ongoing fiasco, smugly congratulating themselves on their cleverness while a mea culpa would be a wiser option.

You really do have to wonder about the mentality of those individuals running football clubs, why is it that successful people (and I'll exclude John Reid from that as nearly anyone can be a success if ass-licking is the main job requirement) suddenly become idiots when they enter this environment? How can it be that drunken buffoons like us can warn of impending train wrecks well in advance, then watch the scenario played out in front of our eyes? When the E-tims warned of an impending financial disaster at Rangers way back in the late 90s we were laughed at, not in the least by those Rangers supporters now leading the vengeful mob. David Murray infamously even declared that he earned more in a week than we did in a year so what the fck did we know? Yet who was right?

So why is it that the likes of Dermot Desmond can reduce the club to the current shambles, empty the stands and stock the team full of miseries that send the mind fondly revising that Anton Rogan wasn't that bad after all? Why is it that the E-tims predicted the vacant seats and the lost income years ago, and yet those running the club followed blindly down the path of self-destruction? It's not as if we are geniuses, far from it, well ok I am but the rest of the team are tubes. So do we take great delight in an "I told you so moment"? Nope, as we would rather it had never come to pass in the first place; being wrong sometimes is far preferable to being right.

Watching the match yesterday was as depressing and unpleasant as watching most Celtic games these past few seasons, it should not be like this. Even if money is tight then funds should be made available to enable measures that will allow Celtic to compete without the standard transfer market plundering.   Is zero debt to be our very own albatross round the neck?    An investment failure together with a retreat to the fag end of the transfer market, along with poor management,  and the failure to wisely spend the limited funds that have been made available has resulted in the current debacle. Celtic appear to have no answers and indeed if rumours are true, seem determined to continue further down the same destructive path. The club are of course notorious for their supercilious attitude to the support, so perhaps there is a Great Cunning Plan that will be revealed in due time, however in the meantime the image of a insanely one-dimensional strategy is difficult to dismiss.

So let's assume that there isn't anything furtively sneaking up on us, and instead resign ourselves to the fact that the future is as bleak as it looks, is there anything that can be done to stop the rot? Nothing comes to mind.  To turn things around the team requires investment, long term and short.  The players not pulling their weight have to be replaced, that simple, and if there are doubts regarding Mowbray then they'll just have to fester because its highly doubtful the club will stump up the compensation to see him jump into a taxi.  No one is demanding reckless excess that will have the baliffs at the door,  between the two excesses of Moonbeams Madness and Scrooge McDuck miseriliness a lot of middle ground can be found. 

As I said, short-term players have to be replaced, but as Lubo Moravcik made very clear, if a club is to try and compete at the level we expect on the budget allocated then its not going to happen.  If funds are limited stop bringing in journeymen and start scouting and laying  the foundations of future success:  "In my opinion it would be better to spend an extra £500,000 or £1m a year to bring through your own kids rather than give it to a player to come to Celtic who is only a squad player in the Premiership. Is there not more satisfaction in producing your own? Finding entertainers, stars who excite the supporters?"   Moravcik isn't simply talking about youth development, but also a comprehensive scouting network: "There are guys playing at a lower league level in countries all over Europe - in France, Slovakia, Czech Republic and other countries.To get these players you need a proper structure abroad."  Yet what's the club doing?

Its just a dream but having pondered the options thrown up I can't help viewing those clubs where supporters have a considerable input and growing a little green with envy.   Oh if only we, as a support, could offer to buy Desmond out, that's right us, the plebeians. We could ask Desmond to do a McCann, sell his shares to the support and exit stage left; only where McCann made a whacking profit, Desmond will take a hefty loss - you can stop to hold an onion to your eye at this point. Would be care though? With the demise of any possibility of relocating the playing environment Desmond has no chance at all of a McCann, would he then be willing to take the modest loss and depart? If the support failed to buy Desmond out then we would have no room for future complaints, after all we would have been given our chance.

We could then realise McCann's dream of a club owned by the supporters, and refashion Celtic in the image of those European clubs where the support is a genuine part of the whole and not merely wallet fodder.  Its not going to happen though, but we can all dream.  Regardless of such musings, Celtic will have to act in order to avoid the current disaster degenerating into a full-blown crisis.  Its not too late to turn it around, but a change in attitude by those running the club and a clear-out of the inadequates has to be happen and happen very soon. The alternative is staring into the abyss and hoping desperately that the final shove can be avoided.  I know what I prefer.