Your Silence Really is Deafening, Michael – It’s Time to Talk

Hours later, on This is ACSOM, former Celtic director Willie Haughey echoed those very same themes.

Recorded before the press conference but broadcast afterwards, Haughey spoke plainly about the need to repair the relationship between board and support. Better communication, a firm commitment to Rodgers, and a smarter approach to transfer business, he argued, are key to bridging the growing gap.

According to Haughey, the questions from The Celtic Star, and the responses from the manager, the solution is staring the board in the face.

Hours later, on This is ACSOM, former director Willie Haughey echoed those very same themes. Recorded before the press conference but broadcast afterwards, Haughey spoke plainly about the need to repair the relationship between board and support. Better communication, a firm commitment to Rodgers, and a smarter approach to transfer business, he argued, are key to bridging the growing gap.

According to Willie Haughey, the questions from The Celtic Star, and the responses from the manager, the solution is staring the Celtic board in the face…

Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson has already admitted to supporter groups that he wants to improve communication, even, bizarrely, communicating his keeping a yellow post-it note on his office wall to remind him of the promise. Yet, for all the notes and apparent good intentions, the silence, it seems, from the club remains resolute.

Brendan Rodgers, still the only Celtic employee sent out to face the music, has repeatedly stressed the importance of clarity from the top. Haughey, who sat right behind Michael Nicholson at the game on Saturday, now says the same. Supporters’ associations and the Celtic Fans Collective have been making the case for weeks. The pattern then could not be more consistent or clearer, but still the boardroom remains stubbornly quiet.

That vacuum has allowed rumour to set the agenda. Whispers about chairman’s possible retirement circulate without challenge. Accusations of leaks to the press and speculation about who benefits from them grow legs with every passing day. Conspiracy theories about radio panelists with inside lines thrive in the absence of hard facts. None of these stories may be true, but when the club does not speak, gossip fills the void.

It should be noted silence is not harmless. A jittery support creates a jittery stadium, and a jittery stadium could in time unsettle players. With a crucial European tie against Sporting Braga on the horizon and a January transfer window that could define the season, Celtic cannot afford ongoing self-inflicted distractions that can be easily addressed.

If, as reported, new PR advisers have been engaged, their first lecture should be the most basic one of all, the problem is not that the fans misunderstand the message, it is that the message has been rejected.

Supporters are not demanding trade secrets or detailed transfer blueprints. They are asking for reassurance about ongoing communication, direction, ambition and governance. A single press conference or a structured Q&A could calm the waters and help begin to repair lost trust, or at the very least open communication channels. This is not about ceding control, it is about showing respect and recognising that the lifeblood of Celtic is not a balance sheet or a stock price but instead the supporters who fill the stands and fund the future.

The board really should resist the temptation to believe that their genius is merely misunderstood. It is not. The supporters understand perfectly well what their silence means, that they are not hearing the fans.

Brendan Rodgers has given them the blueprint, Willie Haughey has reinforced it and The Celtic Star has put it on record. The only question left is whether Michael Nicholson and his colleagues will act.

By now surely the PR team brought into, well, advise the PR team, will have highlighted to the hierarchy that communication is not weakness. It is leadership. And genuine leadership, right now, is the only thing standing between Celtic and a full-blown disconnect.

Time is of the essence, and it is time to talk.

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