Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

John Lydon, 1978

Cast your minds back to December 2008. Celtic were Scottish champions and coasting to the SPL title. We played the R-word in January, establishing a 7-point lead in the SPL table. We were heading for a fourth title and bemoaning two title blips under Martin O'Neill that had spoiled what should have been a historic run of championships. All was right with the world, right?

Well, not quite. Few of us were actually fooled into thinking we had a good team. Complacency had appeared to set in at every level of the club.

Gordon Strachan had already submitted his notice (as suggested here), despite lies to the contrary. As with almost every man who knows he is marking time in a job, his demeanour changed. He was that bit less angry and more dismissive.

His ideas - when he appeared to have any – increasingly looked tired and predictable. The performances on the pitch were reflective of an attitude that everyone seemed to be guilty of – going through the motions in a slightly disinterested expectation of eventual success.

The team on the park was leaderless, gutless and lacking any spark of creativity or passion. The players turned up, regularly failed to win and went home, only to take the same approach week after week.

The fans were unhappy but there was little that could be recognised as a consensus. Some said the football was boring. Others said they were unrealistic and should be thankful of the inevitable title, however it was achieved. Some questioned the board's fiscal policy. Others told them they were the sort of people who brought Leeds Utd to financial ruin. Some feared for the future. Others told them the club was in the best hands but that average Celtic fans were too ignorant to understand the strides being made at boardroom level. Some were angry, some were bored and, frankly, some didn't seem to give a damn.

But we had one consolation. We were going to win the title because our nearest rivals were an abysmal team, almost totally bereft of talent, and in such a financial hole that there was damn all they could do about it.

Then came the long, cold January of 2009. It is a time that will live in ignominy in the history of Celtic. Rumours abounded that Celtic directors had reneged on promises to improve the team in the summer. The arrival of Willo Flood had all the impact of Neil and Christine Hamilton turning up at a charity event as surprise celebrity guests.

The rest is so much history – the title was lost, the manager vanished, he was replaced with someone who had just had his team relegated after the manager of Burnley turned us down (only to later be lured by the bright-lights-big-city of Bolton). And, yes, we were told lies about that too.

Well, the chickens have come home to roost. On this blog, I expressed concern about the sort of managers Celtic had approached, not even considering someone like Davie Moyes who was clearly interested. But, in truth, I suspected that they would get away with it.

I had a hunch that a new manager would see players more motivated, kick a few backsides, inject a few ideas and comfortably outclass the other teams in Scotland. Shouldn't have been too hard, should it? To outclass St Mirren? Or the Scottish champions who had actually got weaker than that side we were lolling past just 14 months ago?

For those of you who deplore the blame game, look away now. It's high time to indulge in recriminations with gusto.

I blame the Coolmore Mafia's Dermot Desmond, a man with an ethical business record that makes David Murray look like Richard Branson. Brian Quinn has not been forgotten.

I blame Dr John Reid, who spent a lifetime betraying and backstabbing political colleagues to get what he wanted, who had no qualms about killing children in an illegal war, yet has shown no stomach to fight for Celtic.

I blame Peter Lawwell and Eric Riley, partners in crime who have made huge sums of money while Celtic have declined.

I blame the players – nearly all of them – who have shown no sense of understanding that it is a privilege to play for Celtic.

I blame Tony Mowbray, who I urged to resign with dignity several weeks ago, and who appears to lack the most basic footballing intelligence.

I blame the Scottish football establishment and their friends in the media who perpetuate the myth that, just because we are playing badly, we are not entitled to impartial officiating, while another team that is playing badly is gifted points and has players let off scot-free after committing assaults just because of who they are.

I blame the Celtic supporters, who in five years under Martin O'Neill started to think of winning trophies as something that just happened.

I blame the insidious campaign of propaganda and disinformation masquerading as “independent” comment on a certain blog and I blame the adherents to that blog's “party line” who smugly derided fans who just wanted to adhere to Celtic's traditions, including trying to win things. They are perhaps the worst of all. They have embraced decline and declared themselves to be financial geniuses in doing so. Rest assured, the volunteer men who built the first Celtic Park with their bare hands did not do so for the likes of them.

A club and a support divided? So be it. Draw the battle lines, prepare for idealogical warfare. We must root them out, whatever the cost. We are not even serving in heaven, but in hell.

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New Celtic lies and spin can't mask abject failure

Wade through the euphemisms, the obscure language and the evasive waffle and Celtic's interim accounts, published yesterday, represent a total failure of the heralded strategy at Celtic Park.

So catastrophic has this been that, in any other company, the Chief Executive and chairman of the Board of Directors would be looking for new jobs.

Let's get one thing straight. Celtic chose not to invest adequately in the team during season 2008-10. Their rationale was this – that it would be in the club's financial interests to be “prudent”, to reduce debt and favour “banked cash”. Those of us who pointed to the fact that failure to invest in strengthening a defective squad would lead to us losing out on future revenues were decried as reckless or naïve.

The prevailing wisdom as espoused by that new breed inhabiting an increasingly notorious supporters' blog (it may be noted that an “independent” fan's site was able to publish the figures even before the official club website) was that this policy equated to wise stewardship of the club and it's much-vaunted pursuit of “zero debt”.

Well, while the accountants, the politicians, the spin merchants and their allies have been carrying on their programme of obfuscation, let's address some simple facts:

Debt increased from £0.97m to £3.13m
Turnover decreased by 22.8% to £36.11m

Perhaps it is time for someone at Celtic with the integrity, honesty or “moral courage” to confess that some of those fans who were so long taken for granted as fools, easily parted from their money, were right.

Celtic lost out on approximately £2m that would have been earned from the Peace Cup alone – due to the club's failure to win the SPL and automatic Champions League participation.

Celtic lost out on somewhere between £5m and £8 from Champions League participation.

The club also missed out on prize money that should have been attainable from the Scottish Cup and SPL title.

Now, while we await the accountants producing their boxes of tricks to tell us that around £10m in prize money and participation fees would not have wiped out £3.13m debts and left £6.87m over for player investment, let's look at the other elephant in the room.

Celtic plc – Dermond, Reid, Lawwell, Riley et al – calculated that they could pursue this policy and still expect Celtic fans to fund an approach that had abandoned the principles of competition, never mind the sporting traditions of Celtic. They were catastrophically wrong as attendances have shown.

They can point to the success of the away kit (conveniently overlooking the “international kit” that is unlikely to be needed any time soon) but more pertinent is the fact that increasingly the direction of Celtic resembles the flight of the bumblebee.

We are asked to believe that it is the “sustainable economic and business model” and financial stability” that “has delivered the continuing support of our kit manufacturer, Nike”.

And to think some of us thought that Nike invested in high-profile clubs with positive brand associations. We now know that they do not value a worldwide fan base and successful participation on the European stage but are instead keen to invest in businesses with the least radical accounting practices.

When the lies, selectively presented facts and evasion have passed. What will be left of Celtic?

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