Celtic’s culture of risk aversion, of comfort, of self-satisfaction disguised as prudence | OneFootball

ARTICLE SEVEN OF EIGHT FROM NIALL J ON WHAT THE MINUTES FROM THE MONDAY NIGHT MEETING TELLS US AS CELTIC SUPPORTERS…

Celtic Park ahead of the match between Celtic and Motherwell on 26th December 2024. Picture by Mark Runnacles Shutterstock

Over the past few days we’ve covered in detail much of the meeting between the club representatives and those of the Celtic support and the minutes which followed on Thursday evening on The Celtic Star, and a pattern has emerged, one so consistent it now feels like part of the club’s DNA…

Celtic Park ahead of the match between Celtic and Motherwell on 26th December 2024. Picture by Mark Runnacles Shutterstock

Celtic talk often about ambition, values, and being world class in everything we do. But across strategy, transfer planning, communication, and engagement, those ideals repeatedly collapse under the weight of corporate distance and self-congratulation. The words sound polished. The actions rarely follow.

This isn’t just about football decisions or misjudged transfer windows. It’s about culture, the way the club sees itself, the way it communicates with those who sustain it, and the way it interprets challenge.

Every meeting, every exchange between the boardroom and the fan base, seems to follow the same pattern, question, deflection, review, repeat. In the absence of genuine accountability, the club’s tone becomes its truth, a soft power exercised through corporate language, carefully managed messaging, and a persistent avoidance of vulnerability.

Celtic Park ahead of the match between Celtic and Motherwell on 26th December 2024. Picture by Mark Runnacles Shutterstock

Celtic today feel less like a football club with a clear sense of community and more like a corporation that tolerates its supporters as stakeholders to be managed. That’s the disconnect, not just between board and fanbase, but also between rhetoric and reality.

When Celtic talk about stability, it’s often presented as a virtue. And to a point, it is. The club has remained financially secure, a rare achievement in an industry defined by chaos. But over time, that same stability has hardened into something else, a culture of risk aversion, of comfort, of self-satisfaction disguised as prudence.

The minutes from Question 7, which focused on board renewal and independence, tell the story clearly. The club insisted that Celtic’s board has a mix of experience and new ideas, pointing to the appointment of non-executive directors as evidence of balance. But to most supporters, that balance looks like an echo chamber. The same faces, the same voices, the same philosophy, repeated year after year, long after its effectiveness has waned.

Celtic Park ahead of the match between Celtic and Motherwell on 26th December 2024. Picture by Mark Runnacles Shutterstock

There’s no sense of succession, no sign of intellectual challenge within the boardroom. The chairman, the chief executive, and the long-serving non-execs speak often about collective responsibility, but collective responsibility without dissent is just consensus management. It protects the institution but rarely progresses it.

In modern football, the strongest clubs are those that evolve, not just on the pitch, but in governance, structure, and openness to external expertise. Celtic’s refusal to modernise their leadership model has become the defining reason they remain reactive rather than proactive, especially when competing in Europe. Stability, once a virtue, is now a straitjacket.

The club insists that its governance processes are robust, that decisions are made collaboratively, with checks and balances at every level. But when fans press for detail, those claims quickly unravel.

Transfers require board approval by email. Key roles are filled without open recruitment. Communication strategies depend on corporate filters rather than genuine dialogue. These are not hallmarks of modern oversight. They’re hallmarks of a closed system, one that fears scrutiny because it equates scrutiny with instability.

Michael Nicholson, Chief Executive Officer of Celtic, looks on from the stands ahead of the Premiership match between Celtic and St. Johnstone at Celtic Park on December 29, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

And this bleeds into the culture of the football department itself. A CEO who shrugs at questions about “club signings.” A manager who feels disconnected from the recruitment process. Supporters who hear about strategy only when it’s under fire. That’s not oversight, that’s control. The board doesn’t just manage risk, it manages perception, even when perception has already turned against it.

The irony is that the club often speaks of transparency. They launch surveys, commission reports, and do hold structured dialogues. But as the fan survey delay and the Fairhurst inquiry both showed, transparency at Celtic is a matter of timing and tone, not truth. Information is shared when it’s polished, not when it’s needed. And when supporters sense that curation, trust collapses.

At the heart of Celtic’s cultural problem lies a leadership team that confuses experience with credibility. Many of those in senior roles have been in post, or in proximity to power, for decades. That longevity brings knowledge, yes, but it also breeds insularity.

What’s missing is emotional intelligence. The ability to read the room, to recognise tone, to understand that communication is not just about words, but empathy. When Michael Nicholson rejects the premise of a fan question, he isn’t just disagreeing, he’s signalling hierarchy. When the club’s response to policing overreach feels subdued, it isn’t diplomacy, it’s detachment.

Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Christopher McKay watch on as Celtic draw 0-0 with Kairat at Celtic Park in the UEFA Champions League play-off match, worth over £40m to the winners.

Contrast that with Kevin McQuillan’s approach in the fan survey discussion. He acknowledged mistakes, outlined lessons learned, and treated supporters as adults. It wasn’t revolutionary, it was human. And the response was telling, fans welcomed it instantly, not because it solved everything, but because it sounded real.

That’s leadership. Not always having the answer but being willing to stand in the space between success and criticism and own the conversation. Celtic, for all their size and history, rarely occupy that space anymore. They talk at supporters, not with them.

Culture, more than any system or strategy, defines a football club’s trajectory. A healthy culture encourages self-awareness, agility, and humility. A stagnant one rewards conformity and deflects accountability.

Right now, Celtic’s culture feels closer to the latter. The club’s public tone, cautious, corporate, procedural, mirrors its internal one. Meetings that should be collaborative become defensive. Criticism is treated as disloyalty. And so the distance widens, not just between club and fans, but between Celtic’s potential and its reality.

The irony is that no amount of money, structure, or data can compensate for a broken culture. The club can expand Barrowfield, hire consultants, and talk endlessly about progress, but if its leadership can’t communicate trust, if it can’t welcome scrutiny, then the ceiling remains self-imposed.

New Barrowfields, image Celtic FC

It doesn’t have to stay this way. The club’s operational review, mentioned in the minutes, could yet be an opportunity, a moment to reset, to modernise not just departments but dynamics. That requires courage, and an acceptance that what once worked no longer does.

Celtic don’t need revolution. They need reflection. They need board members willing to challenge one another, executives who can admit when tone deafness has cost them credibility, and a leadership team that remembers its true constituency, the supporters.

For all the talk of global markets and strategic growth, the club’s strength has always come from something simpler, its people. Those who fill the stadium, fund the projects, and carry the history. Until that truth is restored to the heart of decision-making, Celtic will continue to look modern on paper, but hollow in practice.

And that, more than any transfer window or European exit, is the real measure of where the club stands today.

Niall J

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Celtic legend Danny McGrain is seen during the League Cup Final between Aberdeen and Celtic at Hampden Park on November 27, 2016. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star

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Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Photo: Celtic Star Books

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