On the 11th of June, Celtic chairman Brian Wilson promised the Hoops support that the club would be ‘very active’ over the next few weeks.
As Celtic fans wait for the first addition of the summer, they have watched the club lose 11 players as loan deals ended, Kasper Schmeichel retired and guys like Luis Palma and Hayato Inamura were sold.
Wilson said one of the reasons for getting Martin O’Neill back was to help him build the squad and make Celtic stronger. And using his own words, the interim chairman’s promise is now empty.
You have one message for interim chairman Brian Wilson. What would it be?
Brian Wilson made promises Celtic have not matched
Wilson was speaking after Celtic made Martin O’Neill their permanent manager after he won a league and Scottish Cup double last season.
The interim chairman said at the time, “Well, absolutely. And and that is very much part of the the basis on which that he’s [Martin O’Neill] wanted to come back and we wanted him to to come back.
“It’s going to be a very active next few weeks and we must come out of it with a stronger squad. It’s worth mentioning maybe for all the criticisms last year that eight of our players are at the World Cup.
“You know, we have a lot of very, very good players. So we want to not only retain that strength but also to build on it.”
So far ‘very active’ is looking very passive and before Wilson knew it, the ‘next few weeks’ have come and gone and Celtic are now weaker than what they were when they beat Hearts on the final day of last season.
This is not the first transfer promise Wilson has broken
Indeed, this is not the first time Wilson promised Celtic fans that the summer window was going to be huge for the club.
Back in May as Martin O’Neill chased down Hearts for the league title, Wilson told the Celtic support, “Well, it’s going to be a big summer and you know everyone, I hope and expect, has learned lessons from things which influenced this season.
“And therefore everyone is up for that challenge and the work has gone on. The immediate focus is on getting to the end of this season in the best possible place.
“But after that there is a huge effort assured in the summer so that we face next season in the strongest possible position and everything else is secondary to what happens on the park.
“Therefore we have to have the best possible chance going into next season based on what transpires over the summer and that is the absolute commitment to supporters.”
O’Neill kept his side of the bargain and ensured Celtic ended the season as champions with a Scottish Cup added just for good measure.
For Wilson, it appears that the Celtic board have learned no lessons from past transfer windows and instead of being ‘very active’ the malaise around strengthening the squad and spending money continues as anger grows daily in the fans.
Wilson twice promised a big summer and twice raised expectations himself. Supporters are not judging this transfer window against rumours or media speculation.
They are critiquing it against the promises Celtic’s own chairman publicly made.
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