Dermot Desmond has been described as an "immovable object" at Celtic amid escalating tensions with the fan base, with a private sale of the club floated. The comments came from former Sunderland executive director Charlie Methven, who spoke publicly about the situation at Parkhead.
Fan relations and Champions League failure
Relations between the Celtic support and the board have declined rapidly over the last two seasons, with failure to make the 2025/26 Champions League becoming a breaking point for many supporters. The Hoops crashed out of the play-off round to Kairat Almaty amid a rollercoaster domestic campaign, with Martin O'Neill called in on two occasions to replace Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy, rescuing a double for the club.
The legendary 74-year-old stayed on in the dugout, but the club again suffered playoff humiliation as a collapse against LASK ended their bid for Europe's elite competition. Celtic were also knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup by Rangers, while O'Neill admitted he had considered his future after heading into the international break with a league loss to their rivals.
Tennis balls and AGM tensions
Last weekend, Desmond was targeted by tennis balls from fans in balaclavas while competing at a golf event at St Andrews, leading to furious statements from both the Scottish champions and fan groups. A formal date for the AGM is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, having traditionally taken place towards the end of November.
Last year, tensions boiled over with the summit called to an abrupt end after Ross Desmond, the son of Celtic's largest individual shareholder, delivered a controversial speech to the room. Methven, who featured heavily in the Netflix documentary series 'Sunderland Till I Die', said he has heard murmurs about this year's meeting being held online and would traditionally expect resignations amid the current backdrop.
Methven calls for private ownership
Speaking on the Business of Sport Podcast, Methven said: "There is the AGM coming up in six weeks time. If this were a responsible and respectable board, they would - and they will - come under challenge from their small shareholders on their performance."
He added: "Under those circumstances, the chairman would either be offering his own resignation or firing people and say 'we need a change of direction here'. Instead, what I am hearing about is they don't even want to hold that AGM in open session, they want to make it virtual online. These guys don't want questioned. They don't want anything challenged about what they do. There is a profound hubris and arrogance about it where they basically say 'we are not even going to engage with our shareholders, let alone the fans'. When you are a quoted company not engaging with your small shareholders is not a great look."
Methven, who was also CEO of Charlton Athletic between 2023 and 2025, reckons the only solution is to take the club private with Desmond selling up. However, he expects the principal shareholder "won't let himself seen to be beaten" in the eyes of the support.
He added: "Fundamentally what is going to need to happen is it should be taken private, it needs to be taken private. It's not acting like a proper public company. It's not realising value for it's shareholders. It's not making it's other stakeholders happy, it needs to be taken private."
Methven continued: "The suspicion is of a lot of Celtic fans is that Dermot Desmond just won't let himself seen to be beaten. Even though he himself would make a very healthy profit on his shares [if the club was taken private], it would still look like he'd been thrown out the club, effectively. And that's kind of the impasse we have got to, with this irresistible force - which is the Celtic fans and the shareholders - and you have got the immovable object."
He questioned: "Is it really viable that year after year, this is going to carry on like this? Are they going to keep re-appointing Martin O'Neill until Martin O'Neill is 95? Is this serious?"
