Celtic chief sends message to mutinous supporters and uses story of four fans as example

Wilson made the plea via an interview via the club’s own media channels ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup last-16 tie against Dundee, with thousands of supporters set to boycott the match in protest against the board, the running of the club and lack of communication from the very top.

Wilson took over from Peter Lawwell at the end of last year and says plans are afoot to speak to all of Celtic’s fan groups in the coming weeks. He said that those inside Parkhead need to get behind the team ahead of the season’s finale, with the club still fighting on three fronts - the Premiership, Scottish Cup and Europa League.

“I spoke [in a previous interview] about unity and I spoke specifically about unity within the stadium,” said Wilson on CelticTV. “I don’t expect the issues to go away suddenly but what I did ask for was to get unity behind the team.

“Let’s sort these issues. I am in no way dismissing them or marginalising them. We want to engage with them. But short term it is imperative to support the team and it’s up to each individual to make a decision on whether a boycott insider or outside of the stadium helps that.

“What I can say is that I do accept there hasn’t been enough engagement as I would have liked over the past month for a range of reasons, but mainly because of the focus of the transfer window. “What I can say is that we have reached out to all fan groups and we hope these meetings will take place over the next week.

“There is no reluctance on my part to engage and I hope that can be put that into practise soon. Unity in the ground is one thing. We won’t agree on everything to do with these issues but we can talk about them.

“But don’t let it distract from what’s going on inside the stadium. That’s all I’m asking for. What I want to see is a full Celtic Park with a great atmosphere and everyone getting behind the team.”

How to find common ground at Celtic

When asked by interviewer Gerry McCulloch if Celtic can find common ground and get back to having a full stadium, Wilson continued: “Let me tell you a wee story. I was in the centre of Glasgow last night. I bumped into four young guys who I guess would have been at the weekend standing up saying they hated the board.

“They recognised me. We had a good conversation. I explained some of our difficulties in addressing these issues. They listened. They put their point of view. At the end of the day, they said, ‘thanks for listening’, and I said, ‘thanks for talking to me’.

“I think if I could do that with every Celtic supporter inside the ground, we'd reach the same mutually respectful conclusion. That's not quite possible, but it's the kind of model I want to see. We focus a lot on particular groups of supporters, but there's tens of thousands of Celtic supporters inside the ground.

“As I expressed, many of them feel the same frustrations about communication, about having an input to the club, about knowing what's going on. The thing that comes up repeatedly is, we want to know what's going on. That's the channel I really want to develop over the next few weeks.

“Of course, deal with each individual group, but also deal with the broad mass of Celtic supporters and give them what they are totally reasonably asking for, which is information, understanding, and seeing a route back to where we should be, which is a full stadium, all behind the team. That's all I want. It's all I've ever wanted.”