This should have been a celebration in the Glasgow sunshine.
Celtic Park should have been packed with supporters still savouring last season’s success, excited by a new campaign, studying Martin O’Neill’s formation and getting their first proper look at a squad transformed by ambitious recruitment.
Instead, the stadium looked abandoned.
Around 12,000 people appeared to be inside a ground built to hold approximately 60,000. With thousands of Middlesbrough supporters reportedly making the journey north, the number of Celtic fans present was even more damning.
This was not a disappointing crowd. It was a public humiliation for Dermot Desmond, Michael Nicholson and every director who has allowed the club to reach this point.
They have taken one of the most passionate, loyal and dependable supports in world football and pushed thousands of them to stay at home.
That takes a special level of incompetence.
Season-ticket holders were asked to pay separately for this friendly, but the empty seats were not simply about the price of admission. Supporters have paid Celtic fortunes for decades. They have filled the stadium, travelled across Europe, bought merchandise and backed the club through every setback.
What they will no longer tolerate is being treated like walking cash machines by a board with no urgency, no imagination and apparently no understanding of the anger it has created.
The Not Another Penny campaign appears to be taking effect. Supporters are increasingly refusing to hand over extra money for tickets, merchandise, food and other non-essential spending.
Good.
Because polite criticism has achieved nothing. Supporters have complained, protested and pleaded for ambition, only to be met with silence, excuses and the same exhausted transfer routine.
Perhaps empty seats and lost revenue will finally penetrate the thick walls of the Celtic boardroom.
Dermot Desmond may rarely attend matches or face supporters, but this is the club his influence has helped reduce to a summer spectacle watched by rows of empty seats. Michael Nicholson may remain hidden from public scrutiny, but he cannot hide from the evidence inside Celtic Park.
The evidence was everywhere.
Empty stands. A flat atmosphere. A support drained of enthusiasm. A club weeks away from competitive football without the squad it should already have assembled.
Camilo Duran’s goal was the only genuine positive. It was excellent to see a new signing make an impact, and his finish offered a brief reminder of what fresh blood can bring.
But one goal cannot disguise the disgraceful lack of preparation surrounding him.
There are now only 16 days until Celtic begin the Premiership season against Dundee on August 3.
Sixteen days.
Celtic should be fine-tuning a settled team. Instead, supporters are still waiting for the reinforcements that should have arrived weeks ago. The club should be building momentum. Instead, Desmond and Nicholson have sucked the optimism out of the summer and replaced it with anger, dread and resignation.
This season should have begun with hope.
Instead, it increasingly looks like a disaster being assembled in slow motion by men who have been warned repeatedly and remain either unwilling or incapable of acting.
The empty seats were a message.
They said the support is no longer prepared to reward failure.
They said loyalty has limits.
And they said that the people destroying the energy around Celtic are not in the stands.
They are in the boardroom.
Unfortunately, by buying season tickets that’s exactly what the support are doing, rewarding ‘planned’ failure. This isn’t incompetence, and they don’t give a toss about the extra revenue, they have the season ticket cash banked, and all their wages covered.
They don’t care about the club, other than as a cash cow, and they care even less about the support. People like this only increase their contempt for you, with every season ticket you buy, no pain, no gain I’m afraid.