Celtic is a plutocracy, and Dermot Desmond will control the club's affairs until mortality intervenes, after which running the club passes to another Desmond family member, writes Hugh Keevins in his Mail Sport column.
A plutocracy is a regime where all power derives from wealth and the leading plutocrat can do whatever he wants because he is rich enough to do so. All resistance is useless unless a person or persons unknown makes a realistic offer for the business.
Desmond's managerial calls under scrutiny
The club's principal shareholder insisted on Martin O'Neill's return as Brendan Rodgers' successor a year ago this month and reverted to him after Wilfried Nancy's hiring was exposed as a grotesque error of judgment. Keevins says Desmond will need to take his share of the blame if the worst happens between now and the end of the month.
It was Desmond's call to avoid a change of direction at managerial level before O'Neill took time out to reflect on his position after awful results at home and in Europe prior to the international break.
O'Neill faces younger coaches in key fixtures
Over Celtic's next three Premiership games, O'Neill will face Alfred Johansson, Wouter Vrancken and Marink Reedijk in matches against Motherwell, Hearts and Hibs respectively. Johansson and Reedijk's ages combined still don't add up to O'Neill's 74 years, while Vrancken is Martin's junior by three decades.
Starting at noon today inside Fir Park, O'Neill faces a trio of fixtures that will be a barometer of the extent to which time has passed him by, or else frozen to accommodate the considerable demands placed on him.
Concerns over O'Neill's emotional response
Keevins's worry on Martin's behalf is that his emotional response to Celtic's recent problems is no longer the same as that of the supporters who originally empathised with him on everything. During his Celtic TV interview on Tuesday to confirm he would stay on as manager, O'Neill said two defeats in eight days from Rangers was not the "end of the world as it seemed to be described".
That soundbite about there being "determination within the team" begged one other question: where was that indefatigable spirit when Celtic were four goals up on aggregate against LASK in the Champions League qualifier with an hour to play and still found time to lose five in reply and go out of the competition?
It is now too late to ask why O'Neill chose to undertake another season in charge after winning a mesmerising league and Scottish Cup Double that offered the tantalising prospect of a Hollywood farewell, or question why he came back after publicly wondering about the legitimacy of staying on after the Old Firm embarrassments of last month. O'Neill's team not being on top of the table for the first time this season as a result of Rangers' win over Kilmarnock yesterday further complicates the start of the triangular test he faces against younger coaches duty bound not to respect his age.
Desmond will not comment either way and will, in all probability, be elsewhere when Celtic play in Motherwell, Glasgow and Edinburgh over the next three weekends. Such is the Irishman's way. Speaking of which, Martin, it's Benfica away on Thursday.
