Fergus McCann could be forgiven for cursing the ingratitude of some Celtic supporters. Since saving the club from bankruptcy, he has performed a near miracle in the east end of Glasgow. Celtic have the largest all-seater stadium in Britain and have been crowned Scottish champions for the first time in a decade.
Yet some Celtic fans want to crucify him, along with the club's general manager Jock Brown. Both are blamed for the departure of team coach Wim Jansen 48 hours after the Dutchman had steered Celtic to their title victory. "Brown and McCann - Go now!" bellowed a banner outside the club's offices last week.
Still, the self-made man who has transformed Celtic's fortunes on the park with the personal fortune he accumulated in Canada, remains upbeat. McCann reminded his detractors in a newspaper interview last Sunday: "I am a Celtic supporter, but the difference with me is that I am a supporter with responsibility. I can't just do anything without contending with the consequences."
How much the Celtic chairman frets about possible repercussions was rather rudely brought home to Bertie Ahern a fortnight ago when he flew to Glasgow to see Celtic winning the league. Not only was no greeting extended to him over the tannoy system, but the Taoiseach did not get to congratulate the team afterwards.
McCann barred him from the dressing room because he was not an official club guest. But many suspect Bertie was snubbed because he was Prime Minister of the Irish Republic. They see this action as merely the latest evidence that Celtic is distancing itself from its Irish origins.
Celtic Football Club was founded in 1888 by Brother Walfrid, a member of the Marist religious order, to assist the poor in Glasgow's east end. Most recipients were Irish immigrants, mainly from Donegal, seeking work in the Second City of the Empire.
For a long time the Parkhead club provided a rare source of communal pride. In 1967, when Celtic became the first British side to win the European Cup, Scotland's Catholics were elated.
The recent league win was just as much of a morale-booster for a minority largely assimilated into Scottish society but still not fully persuaded the Protestant ascendancy is over - certainly not when Rangers looked set to notch up a record 10 in a row.
The spirit of the Lisbon Lions had long since evaporated, indeed Celtic were near liquidation four years ago, when McCann set about transorming the club which he fell in love with as a boy in Kilsyth.
Like many returning emigrants, Fergus McCann recoils from religious bigotry and realises sectarianism no longer makes financial sense. Just as Rangers abandoned its prohibition on Catholic players to pursue its pan-European ambitions and expand its potential supporter base, so McCann is determined to project Celtic as a Scottish club which happens to have strong Catholic Irish origins. He has no trouble honouring that tradition, but his neck-tie is peppered with thistles, not shamrocks. At his behest, Celtic introduced "The Bhoys against Bigotry" initiative. Fans are discouraged from chanting sectarian songs and they generally stick to their new song sheet.
Snubbing Bertie Ahern got McCann some negative press in Scotland, but as another leading Scottish sports commentator said: "It would have been even worse PR to have the premier of the Irish republic popping up in the dressing-room minutes after Celtic had won its first title in 10 years. It would have undermined all his attempts to brand Celtic as Scottish."
Public relations matters immensely to McCann, who learned all about the business side of sport in North America. He returned home with an appreciation of Celtic's potential to become a powerful brand with a global market. But to compete with Europe's finest he realised the club would have to adopt a more continental management model.
As live television and a new transfer system for players transforms European football, McCann also knows no ambitious club can put its proud ethnic origins before raw economic imperatives. In an age when soccer stars are increasingly global mercenaries, there is no time to seek out talent and encourage the local lad from St Teresa's Boys Club.
Some supporters find that change difficult to accept. But McCann has no time for those who accuse him of undermining 110 years of tradition by giving top posts to people such as Brown and PR supremo Peter McLean, who had no previous association with the club.
But, as he well knows, from growing up in the west of Scotland, it will take far longer to dispose of the sectarian baggage than it took him to demolish two cavernous terraces and the famous Jungle enclosure at Celtic Park.
The magnificent all-seater stadium will be a lasting monument to the £26 million cash injection he has administered. Yet McCann still has to cope with recurring accusations of meanness.
"It does strike me as an odd criticism," he told Scotland on Sunday last week. "For one thing, I've pulled £9 million from my own pocket for Celtic. And this season we've spent £12.5 million on new players for the side. Our wage bill has risen by an almost staggering 50 per cent and the stadium will be complete with seats for 60,000 people. Is all this being mean?"
McCann has made Celtic Scottish Champions again, but this success is not matched by stability in the dugout. He is searching for his fourth team manager in four years, perhaps indicating the elaborate managerial structure he has imposed works in theory rather than in practice.
Jansen could not stand to be in the same room as Brown. David Hay, who quit as chief scout last November, detested him even more. But McCann refuses to hear any criticism of Brown, a former television commentator and sports lawyer, described as his eyes, ears and mouthpiece.
Brown is likely to be elevated or to make a sharp exit when his patron departs from Parkhead in 12 months. McCann intends to leave as soon as he has implemented his five-year plan.
The struggle to succeed him seems already under way. The Taoiseach was invited to Celtic Park two weeks ago by Brian Dempsey, a builder who used to be a club director. Dempsey, believed to be keen to manoeuvre his way back into the Parkhead boardroom, talks a lot about the club's traditions and is said to resent some of the ways in which the character of Celtic Football Club has been altered.
In accepting Dempsey's invitation, Bertie Ahern may have unwittingly wandered into a power struggle equal to those he has fought or witnessed inside Fianna Fail.