The protests from the Celtic supporters won’t stop, even with someone like Martin O’Neill in the dugout.

Yes, O’Neill brought everyone together for Celtic’s post-split fixtures last season, but a leopard doesn’t change its spots, and that applies to those in the Parkhead boardroom.

Celtic’s comical way of going about transfer business under Martin O’Neill

Remember, Dermot Desmond had the cheek to call out Brendan Rodgers, who was simply telling the truth about how abjectly Celtic go about their work.

This is where O’Neill becomes unpopular with Celtic fans, because he needs to call this nonsense out, but he simply won’t do it.

Yet, Celtic will drown him by not replacing Arne Engels in the summer, and watching the club’s midfield continue to perform in an abject manner.

According to Joseph, it seems as though O’Neill is joined by Shaun Maloney, which is no surprise, Michael Nicholson, James Bell-Walker, who is a scout, and Brian Wilson in these meetings to discuss transfers.

“I think he is (O’Neill having a big say on transfers),” said Joseph. “In a way, more of a say if Celtic had a sporting director or head coach scenario.

“From my understanding is that the last few recruitment meetings, like mid-season, last season and through the summer, have generally just been a meeting of like Martin O’Neill, Shaun Maloney, James Bell-Walker (scout), Michael Nicholson and Brian Wilson.

“It’s more just a meeting. Coming together. Look, ‘This agent has come with this player. We have been looking at this player’ rather than proper structure to it, where you could have, for example, a sporting director. Manager-led.

“If you had a sporting director, who was already thinking of the next transfer window, those kinds of meetings would be just like, ‘Right, here is our target list. I am going to go for these ones, these ones and these ones.’ 

“Whereas I think it’s more just a very general meeting of equals. There should be a hierarchy in the meetings, as to who brings what to the table. You have Michael Nicholson, who isn’t a football person.

“For them to be a major player in that kind of discussion, it’s not great. When you ask, ‘Who is actually in control?’ I can’t really tell you who is in control because I don’t think anyone is actually in control.”

The proof is in the Celtic transfer pudding…

Bell-Walker was a senior scout at Chelsea, so it isn’t a surprise that Celtic signed Shim Mheuka and Landon Emenalo on deadline day.

It’s quite clear that they weren’t first choices, and it also won’t surprise anyone that they didn’t even make the matchday squad for Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock at the weekend.

But they weren’t the only ones. Haissem Hassan was also left out, alongside Oliver Sorensen, and has anyone seen Joel van den Berg?

Not forgetting that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is hardly playing, another player O’Neill brought to the club, while several loan signings from last January weren’t re-signed.

The proof is in the transfer pudding at Celtic Park. It’s a complete and utter mess, and how they are going about it reflects that.

No leadership, clear direction, authority, communication, structure, vision, planning, forward-thinking or reliability from these fools running Celtic’s transfer ship.