An open letter to Tony Mowbray

"It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty."

"Hold it the greatest sin to prefer existence to honour, and for the sake of life to lose the reasons for living."

Juvenal

Dear Tony,

I rarely like to call for a manager's head, especially one that is such a short time in a job. However, the time has come for you to make your most important contribution to Celtic to date.

Tomorrow morning, I would urge you to call for a meeting with Peter Lawwell. At that meeting you should hand him your letter of resignation, stating only your willingness to remain in position until such time as a replacement can take up his new post. You should also make it clear that you will not be swayed on your decision.

I bear you no ill will. I remember your playing days and, though they were largely unsuccessful, you were always a committed professional and a credit to Celtic. In fact, that has been true of your behaviour as a manager and, while I believe your position to be untenable, I would also insist that you should feel no shame in failing to produce even a competent Celtic team.

I suspect that you have been working with one hand tied. Despite your claims to have wanted to sign Zheng Zhi – a decent footballer who nevertheless rarely plays – it was remarkable how quickly the Celtic marketing people produced a Chinese language version of the club's website after he signed. It was also a surprise that he made his debut in the most televised game of the season – against Rangers – given that he had come from a radically different footballing environment and local culture.

Strangely, when we signed Ki – another talented player, mind – there was apparent disappointment that he was ineligible to make his debut against Rangers in the next most televised match.

Okay, I'll come out and say it: I don't believe you have full authority in recruitment or even in naming the team. I believe that Celtic have maintained Japanese, Chinese and Korean players largely for the purposes of brand exposure and that these factors have directly influenced team selection.

It has been widely rumoured that you were unaware that Celtic had agreed to sell your then captain Stephen McManus to Ipswich and it is abundantly clear that you had no part in the signing of Robbie Keane. Of all the club's recent signings, I believe Keane to be the best and I for one am happy to have him.

However, it would be naïve to believe that this particular deal was not made at the behest of Dermot Desmond, who is assuredly culturing very influential alliances that may be extremely useful to him in the future.

Apparently you did want to sign Danny Fox, who was then sold in record time to be replaced by a loan signing, Edson Braafheid. Had you ever seen Braafheid play? He is certainly talented but far from being an assured defender. Had you ever seen Rogne, Hooiveld or Rasmussen? I am not saying that any of these are bad players. However, as I am sure you are aware, there is more to building a team than collecting players.

Who is the leader? It appears to me that it has been years since we had one. Surely any manager realises the wisdom of having “old heads” to help younger players learn some game craft. A loose association of individuals rarely succeeds at anything.

You are not alone in facing this problem. Gordon Strachan had Marc Crosas, Roy Keane, Thomas Gravesen and Du Wei, among others, foisted upon him by a coalition of scouts and executives. It was clearly this he was referring to when he insisted that at Middlesbrough, he was certainly not going to sign players he had not seen. For that he has been scorned in some quarters for signing players from the likes of Hibernian and Dundee Utd.

There are some who believe that the role of manager is unimportant – that he should just make the best of the materials provided to him. Those who believe that are at best fools and at worst cynical elements who will damage our club.

But, for all my sympathy – and I believe you should protect your reputation by revealing this, if it is true, rather than signing a confidentiality agreement – you have to take a major portion of the blame. The last straw was the substitution of Robbie Keane with 20 minutes remaining against Aberdeen. You must have been the only person watching that match who believed the points were safe at that point.

You had only to look at the fact that Aberdeen had been allowed to score twice already - against an allegedly full-strength side – to conclude that there was a clear danger that they might do so again. Before that, I thought that you would never make a more bizarre decision than to replace Aiden McGeady with Lee Naylor. How little I knew!

You have consistently shown yourself incapable of putting out a team that can control a game at its most crucial moments. Brian Clough always said that a team is at it's most vulnerable either side of half-time and just after they had scored. Why have you consistently failed to realise this?

Who told you that Marc-Antoine Fortune – again a decent footballer who panics when he has time on the ball in the box – should be your main striker? Why do you change the few functioning areas of the team from one week to the next? And do you really think that it was wise to mention Alex Ferguson's five lean years at Manchester United? Perhaps you have forgotten that we expect to win the league every year – especially against a club that is so debt-ridden that it is unable to sign players.

There is much that is rotten at the heart of Celtic and I feel sorry that your period of tenure is being tainted by it. I also sympathise with your disappoinment and it is clear that the Scottish officials are conspiring as never before to further hamper your ambitions. You are worthy of better. But so are we.

It seems that you are incapable of fielding a team that can match flair with the most meagre form of expediency. The problem is that someone else could yet win this league, even given the absurd points differential accrued on your watch. That is why it is important that you go now, while there remains a faint flicker of hope.

I sincerely hope that you will do as I ask and, if you do, I will wish you well. Don't let the fans' disappointment turn to bitterness.





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