Frank McAvennie talks so much rubbish most of the time that it is barely worth listening when he occasionally stumbles onto something sensible.
The other day, he suggested that we should sign Nico Raskin, and that is exactly the kind of moment where you want to close your ears and tune the guy out completely. Then, not long afterwards, he commented on Dermot Desmond.
It is astonishing to me that one person can be so wrong about one thing and then so right about another within the space of a single conversation.
His comments on Raskin were absurd.
His comments on Desmond, however, were as sound as a pound. In fact, he got to the heart of the Desmond issue in a way nobody in the mainstream media has managed. They are all content to dance around it. McAvennie went straight at it. He understands that Desmond has done himself long-term damage here.
This has been a curious month for the two Dermot Desmond’s.
There is the Dermot Desmond Willie Haughey thinks deserves a statue in the car park, the man some people still talk about as though he were some kind of genius without whom Celtic would have crumbled into dust.
Then there is the Dermot Desmond the rest of us can see clearly enough, the chaos agent who is largely responsible for the nightmare Celtic finds itself in right now.
Some people think his judgement has gone.
That certainly appears to be the case. My own view is a little different. There are people, and Desmond is one of them, who are very comfortable when things are calm. They are very comfortable when the waters are still and the ship is cruising. Put them in a crisis and you find out what they are really made of.
What we are seeing from Desmond is a man who may be effective within his own business sphere, in areas where he knows the ground, but in football terms is hopelessly out of his depth.
There is a famous story about a journalist asking him about Celtic some years back, and Desmond responding by badgering the guy with trivia questions about the club.
I would have found that deeply unimpressive had I been in the journalist’s shoes.
Anyone can answer trivia questions. Anyone can do a pub quiz. Desmond has never really subjected himself to proper questioning about his role at Celtic or about what his vision for the club actually is. That is almost certainly for the best, because if he were ever asked serious questions, I doubt he could answer many of them.
This year has permanently damaged his reputation at Celtic. Football fans are fickle. They do not care about some supposed brilliance from years ago. What football fans care about is simple: what have you done for us lately?
Those of us who have looked at this properly know Desmond has done nothing for Celtic in any real sense. He may once have been a useful salesman for the club. He may once have had value in that narrow regard.
But his input has always been limited. So, when people talk about what he has done for Celtic lately, lately may as well mean the last fifteen years.
And what has he done for us in that time?
He has allowed other men to run the operation on his behalf, even when they were plainly not competent enough to do it.
The reason he does not hire strong, competent people is obvious.
Strong, competent people may not agree with how he thinks things should be done.
That is why I sometimes wonder why he does not just send over his son to take the CEO job.
He could hardly be worse than Michael Nicholson.
But I don’t think Dermot Desmond knows what he wants to do with Celtic.
What is remarkable is that McAvennie seems to recognise this.
He understands that Desmond is out of control. He understands that Desmond no longer seems to know what he wants to do. It has become obvious even to someone like Frank McAvennie that Desmond is no longer operating on the right frequency.
If the likes of McAvennie have turned, then plenty of other ex-Celts will eventually end up in the same place.
As Paulina wrote earlier, there is no shortage of questions Desmond would be asked if we could.
Instead he rules through proxies and little glove puppets. But there is one thing he knows already.
Nobody trusts his judgement anymore.
Everyone can see that he is no longer capable of making sound strategic decisions. And when even Frank McAvennie can see everything you are doing wrong, that is when the writing is truly on the wall.
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