Tensions are bubbling between the board and the diehards despite a positive start to the league season
Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond could step in to “take a lead” in the fan row between fans and the board.
That is according to Hugh Keevins – with tensions bubbling between the Hoops’ diehards and the decision-makers going into the Premier Sports Cup clash with Partick Thistle.
Celtic fans have been left furious with the board over a lack of spending in the summer window.
The delay in bringing in the likes of winger Sebastian Tounekti from Hammarby before the crucial Champions League playoff with Kairat Almaty – which saw the club crash out of Europe’s elite competition on penalties – has led to some supporters calling for big changes at the top of the club.
Fan groups have led protests against the hierarchy in recent weeks – while Brendan Rodgers’ side continued their positive start to the Premiership campaign with against Kilmarnock.
And the man in the dugout was less that pleased with an unnamed Parkheard powerbroker – branding them “cowardly” after claiming Rodgers was attempting to manoeuvre for a Celtic exit.
And Keevins reckons that the supremo could take the pressure off his fellow board members by going public.
Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Keevins said: “Dermot is always referred to as an absentee landlord, and he doesn’t come here very often.
“It was normally on Champions League nights, and there are none of those to come.
“You can’t have this situation where the manager is being briefed against in a newspaper, where the manager comes out and says it was a cowardly act and whoever did it should resign, and supporters are arranging demonstrations at Rugby Park.
“Dermot Desmond has been wonderful for Celtic, for 13 years he put money into the club and been wildly successful.
“But there are a lot of things going on at the moment that are deeply unsatisfactory.
“And I don’t think it would be beyond imagination for Dermot Desmond to come here and take a lead and speak to the fans.”
It would be the first time in three years that Desmond has spoken openly in a wide-ranging interview if he was to speak directly with the punters.
There was a very different feeling around the Premiership champions when he made a rare appearance on Celtic’s club TV with Ange Postecoglou on the brink of a first title in Glasgow.
However, escalating tensions could trigger a change in tact from Desmond.
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