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Scotland on Sunday 06/03/1994
FOOTBALL OPINION By Kevin McCarra
CELTIC must now adapt to normality.
It will be an eerie experience at a club where the bizarre has been routine for many years. If the new proprietor, Fergus McCann goes about his business effectively the average fan will be shorn of conversation. A stadium with added seats and a boardroom minus strife hardly provoke animated discussion.
McCann's plans will attract scrutiny, but attention must also now be spared for other aspects of the club. A life without excuses stretches before Celtic. It was hard to attack the funereal tone of the side when the club itself was dying. From now on, though, those mitigating circumstances have been removed. If the performances still lack panache the blame will lie with the players, some of whom were expensive purchases.
The relationship between team and manager is also certain to attract careful appraisal. It has so far proved impossible to pass any significant judgement regarding Lou Macari's work at Celtic Park. Given stable circumstances, however, his employers will expect progress. He, of course, was not Fergus McCann's appointment. Enquiries about Macari's job security met with neither an endorsement nor a threat, simply a cautious reply. ''That,'' said Brian Dempsey, ''doesn't come into the question at this time.''
McCann is also about to test the much-vaunted passion for the club which is said to permeate a vast but recently absent support. The all-important question is: just what numbers will turn up to cheer in future once the initial rapture is over?
The financial crisis which continues to face Celtic will only be resolved by the most intense degree of support from the paying public. The new director Dominic Keane estimates that as much as 40m of income, whether from investment, sponsorship or other activities, is required over the next two years to seriously begin the rebuilding of club, team and stadium. The Cambuslang project is certain to be ditched and Celtic will have to pursue the tiresome old routine of spending their own money to create a satisfactory ground. The club needs to boom if it is even to make satisfactory progress.
At present the turnover stands at 9m, less than half that of Rangers. McCann is peeved by the degree of decline and hinted that he blames the Bank of Scotland for delaying the action they belatedly took this week.
''They have been aware since November,'' he said, ''that our money was in place.
''I will be looking into this. We are going to have discussions with the bank and there are some hard decisions to be made.''
Keane fended off the suggestion that the Bank of Scotland had been guilty of no more than generosity to the previous regime: ''They have a duty not only to the directors but also to all shareholders.''
McCann seems aggrieved he had to abandon his previous policy and compensate directors to secure their removal. He argues that the ''shotgun situation'' which forced him to cut a deal as the bank threatened to put Celtic into receivership could have been avoided by earlier action.
McCann must marshall his forces as he confronts the many problems. The current board can only be an interim arrangement and there must, in particular, be questioning of Kevin Kelly's position as chairman. He did show a true devotion to the club by turning down some 500,000 from Gerald Weisfeld so that he could hold on to his shares and support McCann. Still there must be disquiet over a chairman who did not become aware of his club's true financial difficulties until the verge of bankruptcy was reached.
Despite the concerns a little jubilation still showed through McCann's jet-lag as he set out for Perth yesterday. The new chief executive demonstrated considerable courage in lavishing money on so debt-ridden a club. It remains to be seen whether he can elicit an equally fervent response from those supporters who are about to share some tricky times with him.