Quid Pro Quo

Quid Pro Quo

The emotional investment the average football supporter puts into his club often leads to some exaggerated reactions. The departure of Kieran Tierney to the riches of the English Premiership was a blow to those of us who want our club to retain the services of our best players and try to build a team to compete in Europe. Most wish Kieran well on the next stage of his career and thanked him for the effort, passion and skill he put into his Celtic career. Every time he wore that famous hooped shirt he was our representative on the pitch; the fan who got lucky, as Tommy Burns once said.

It doesn’t make Kieran any less of a Celtic fan that he wanted to test his mettle in one of the best leagues in the world. Nor is it wrong for a footballer to think of his future and to secure himself financially for the rest of his life. Arsenal’s reported £75,000 a week wage will do just that. It’s a short career and Kieran will no doubt have watched and conversed with the likes of Andy Robertson at Liverpool who has made a great success of his time in England. Most Celtic fans bear no ill will towards Kieran seeking a new challenge and wish him all the best. He was a fine player for Celtic who always had time for the fans and will hopefully show the ‘pub league’ brigade down south that Scotland can still produce good players.

Over the years watching Celtic we’ve had to deal with the reality that some of our favourite players will want to seek new challenges or more money in other leagues. Celtic was historically a relatively poor paying club compared to clubs of equal stature. Billy McNeill was once being paid less than the managers of Aberdeen, Dundee United, Rangers and St Mirren. David Hay tripled his wages when he joined Chelsea from Celtic in the early 1970s and others like Macari and Dalglish did likewise when they left Celtic. Players like McGrory, McGrain, McStay and Burns who stuck it out at Celtic Park may have sacrificed a lot financially but gained a status among the fans which will endure as long as Celtic exists.

Modern Celtic players are paid very well indeed compared to players in the past as finances in the game have changed so much. Fans are also paying much more to watch football than was the case and the commercial side of the game is now huge. Celtic’s top players will retire wealthy men so it isn’t all about chasing money in the modern era. Celtic fans have long known that being such a big club in such a small country holds back the development of the club overall. Relative revenues in Scotland and England mean mediocre teams in the lower reaches of the Premiership or even in the Championship in England can outspend a club like Celtic which has an average attendance of around 58,000. One report suggested that half the clubs in the English Premiership receive so much money from TV and other marketing schemes that they could survive with no fans whatsoever watching their matches!

The arrival of satellite TV and the financial bonanza it brought revolutionised English football and this coinciding with the Bosman ruling meant wages skyrocketed down south. Players at the end of their contracts could now simply leave and negotiate to join another club with no fee being paid to the club they were leaving. This probably cost Celtic a few million when Dedryk Boyata’s contract was allowed to run out last season and its one reason clubs like Celtic need to know when to sell players. Tierney was on a long term contract and didn’t need to be sold but if a player intimates that he wants to leave then it’s best to let him go and get the best possible deal done for Celtic.

Celtic will now face an expectant support who will rightly want much of the money received for Tierney to be invested in the team. Other clubs will no doubt inflate prices when the Hoops enquire about a given player but a bit of quality is required to meet challenges both at home and in Europe. Celtic’s policy in recent years has been to find talented young players and develop them with a view to selling at some point in the future but the club is in a unique position of financial strength at the moment and needs to capitalise on it. To the outside world the idea of Celtic reaching ten in a row is just another sign that there is a serious lack of competition in the SPFL. To Celtic fans sitting on 8 in a row this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-establish the club as record holders after Rangers equalled Jock Stein’s record in 1997. This is more than local bragging rights; this is Celtic regaining a piece of history.

The board would find the going very tough indeed if they did not invest from the position of strength they are currently in. It is absolutely imperative that they lay down a marker and state in concrete terms that they back Neil Lennon to deliver more success. Celtic has probably never held such a financial advantage over their competitors in Scotland and if they were to blow this opportunity of continuing their dominance in the domestic game then there would be repercussions. I remain hopeful those in charge of player recruitment at Celtic Park will see the need to replace quality with quality and give the fans a team to be even more proud of. The fans give their all for the club; they pay their hard earned money to watch the team, they get behind the Bhoys every game and many travel big distances each week to see the Celts play. All they ask for is quid pro quo; something in return. As another season gets under way Celtic hold all the aces; let’s hope they play them well.

Will Celtic miss Tierney? Well of course you will always miss a player of such boundless enthusiasm and skill. He was and remains a very good footballer but there is a school of thought that losing a left back, even a very good one, is less of a blow than losing a 30 goal a season striker or a natural leader like Scott Brown.

Players come and go but the fans remain and it is the fans that make Celtic great. They carp and complain sometimes but that’s just a symptom of how much they care about their team; it would be far worse if they quietly accepted mediocrity. They want the best for their club and will always make their voices heard on important issues. At the moment they expect significant investment in the first team and it is up to Celtic to deliver.

As for Kieran Tierney, he is a fan like the rest of us and will be no stranger to Celtic Park in the years ahead. The vast majority of Celtic fans wish him all the best and hope he succeeds in England. He was an excellent Celtic player and gave us some amazing memories.

Football is a fast changing game and the one club player is becoming rare. One aspect of Kieran Tierney leaving Celtic is a renewed appreciation of players like James Forrest who quietly go about their business and show no signs of wanting to jump ship. When the next match begins we’ll focus on the eleven players wearing those hoops and look to the future and not the past. It’s always about Celtic for us and it always will be.

The crest on the front of the shirt is always bigger than the name on the back.