Fans express sympathy for Desmond
A Celtic fans group have expressed their sympathy for majority shareholder Dermot Desmond after his scathing attack on his critics.
The Irish tycoon has pledged to invest more of his vast fortune by underwriting the share issue to the tune of £10m (€14.8m) but some are still sceptical of his commitment.
He branded them “totally ignorant” and said: “When I hear fans question my commitment to the club I’d like to tell them to go jump into the biggest river they can find, because for one they don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
But Peter Rafferty, secretary of the Affiliation of Celtic Supporters’ Associations, believes the vast majority of Hoops fans are grateful for Desmond’s generosity and can understand his frustration over the criticism directed at him.
Rafferty told PA Sport: “The supporters are generally appreciative of the sums of money he has put into the club in previous years and recently with the share issue.
“I don’t think the supporters will feel his words have bad-mouthed them because he has made a major contribution to the club and these words have been aimed at the minority.
“Fans sometimes look at the vast fortunes that clubs elsewhere spend and look to him because of his wealth. I don’t think the supporters mean to upset him.
“They are not looking for huge sums of money to be invested but for some money to be spent wisely.
“Some of the bigger clubs in Europe seem to have some sort of personage to bail them out of trouble or to buy success.
“But we don’t want to be part of the growing financial problem and in all honesty it is just as important to have a good management team in place who get the best out of players.
“Celtic are a well renowned club all over the world and we see ourselves as a global football club but we still have aspirations to be as big as the other major clubs in Europe.”
Rafferty also had words of praise for manager Gordon Strachan whom believes is the right man for the job.
“I think he is the man to bring us success in the future,” he added.
“It was well documented that we didn’t get off to such a good start domestically and in Europe.
“We had some horrible results in Bratislava and in the league but he has turned that around quite comprehensively.
“We beat Rangers twice in 10 days and although we had a blip against Dunfermline when we didn’t play well at all, we came back comprehensively again to beat Aberdeen on Sunday.
“Gordon Strachan has quite a lot to offer and he is playing a style of football which the supporters appreciate.
“Things are going well at the moment and the supporters have the confidence we are going in the right direction.”
