Chris Sutton explains what Celtic fans want to see from board ahead of AGM
Eyes are now starting to turn to this year's Celtic AGM as the shareholders prepare to go head-to-head with the board in a rare opportunity to do so.
Last year's AGM was a disaster, and it was cut short after Ross Desmond upset supporters, and after a negative reaction, the board cut the meeting short.
Going into this year's AGM, fan shareholders have asked if Desmond Junior will apologise, but that request has already been rejected. The hope this year is that actual progress and dialogue can be achieved, and fan shareholders have stressed the importance of not giving the board any excuse to cut the meeting short.
Fans want the board to have to answer for their lack of strategy and poor recruitment, and they will not do that if the meeting is cut short.
The AGM will take place on December 1, and there is anticipation aplenty given the civil war between fans and the board, and given what happened last year.
Ahead of the event, Chris Sutton had discussed what Celtic fans are frustrated about ahead in his Daily Record column.
He said: "But the main issue with Celtic fans have been this repeated failure in Europe. It’s the big question – are Celtic the best version of the club they can be? The answers are pretty obvious. The best version of Celtic replaces players who have been sold in time for the games that matter. Like the Champions League qualifiers.
"It’s about having a proper recruitment model rather than waiting until the final days of the window and throwing in a raft of loan players. It’s about not just trying to be one point better off than Rangers – or Hearts – every season and then just being happy to turn up in any group stage of European competition. It boils down to ambition. That is where the frustration comes in for a lot of Celtic supporters.
"They see their club having money in the bank but going backwards at the same time. Hearts had an incredible season last time and Rangers were in the fight up until their bottle crashed. But you only need to look at the points total to see it was Celtic who came back to them rather than those clubs improving so much to catch up with the Parkhead side. Fans want to see progress – or at least a plan for progress."
