"Easy excuse": Celtic icon gives brutally honest verdict on growing fan-board tensions at Parkhead

Paul Lambert has warned Celtic players not to use fan protests against the club’s board as an “easy excuse” for their poor form, even if the off-field issues are having a “detrimental effect” on Brendan Rodgers’s team.

The reigning Scottish Premiership champions have experienced a turbulent start to the 2025-26 campaign both on and off the pitch, marked by several lacklustre performances and growing dissatisfaction among supporters.

Celtic, who were unable to qualify for the Champions League in August, have won only one of their last five matches across all competitions and have made a winless start to their Europa League campaign, drawing 1-1 with Red Star Belgrade and losing 2-0 at home to Braga.

Rodgers’s side have also slipped five points behind Hearts at the Premiership summit after suffering a disappointing 2-0 away defeat to Dundee last weekend - their first loss at Dens Park since 1988.

Celtic supporters delayed the start of the match with a protest against the club's board, throwing a variety of balls from the away stand onto the pitch while directing "sack the board" chants to under-fire chiefs Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell.

Hoops fans have staged several protests against the board this season following the club's underwhelming summer transfer window, and Lambert reckons the off-field unrest is having a "negative effect on everything" at the club.

Celtic fan protest are “definitely having a negative effect of everything”, says Lambert

However, Lambert believes that the Celtic players should also “look at themselves” following a recent poor run of form, as off-field matters “should be the furthest thing from your mind as a player”.

Lambert, 56, spent eight years as a Celtic player between 1997 and 2005, winning eight major honours, before managing nine different clubs over a 16-year period including Norwich City, Aston Villa, Wolves and, most recently, Ipswich Town.

“I think it’s definitely having a negative effect of everything,” Lambert told Sports Mole. “The fans have obviously got their reasons for doing it.

“Sometimes it’s an easy excuse to hide behind, but as a player when you step onto that field it shouldn’t be in your makeup because you can’t influence anything like that. All you can concentrate on is winning games.

“The players have to look at themselves as well. They’re not getting results at this moment in time. You can only hide behind transfers and things like that for long enough.

“Detrimental” fan protests “should be the furthest thing from your mind as a player”

“It’s very unlike the Celtic fans, I have to say, because they are really loyal to the club and the team. But I think with what’s happening, the players are getting affected by it a little bit, but that shouldn’t really come into play. It should be about getting the job done and whatever happens off the field happens.

“So is it having a detrimental effect? I think it is yes. But these things should be the furthest thing from your mind as a player.

“The delays in the game against Dundee with fans throwing things on the pitch, that is an easy excuse to hide behind as well. That’s the beauty of being a Celtic player, you have to hit the standard that fans expect. When you win, that will blow over, but because they got beat it almost becomes a crisis.

“If the team sat down in the dressing room and spoke about what’s going on, they would know themselves that they’re not performing to the level that a Celtic player should.”

Important period ahead on the pitch for out-of-sorts Celtic

Celtic are now preparing for two home matches in their next three across all competitions, starting with Thursday’s Europa League clash with Austrian outfit Sturm Graz, who beat Old Firm rivals Rangers 2-1 at the beginning of this month.

The Hoops will then travel to Tynecastle for an important Premiership showdown with leaders Hearts on Sunday, and will conclude October with a home game against newly-promoted Falkirk four days later, before locking horns with Rangers in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals at Hampden Park on November 2.

Paul Lambert was speaking to Sports Mole on behalf of Betway.