Hugh Keevins: The last to know. The first to react.

Peter Lawwell knows what's coming next.

Long before he was the chief suit at Celtic Park Peter was a lifelong supporter of the club, so he'll be well aware of the consequences to be suffered as a result of Rangers' crushing win over Ronny Deila's side at Hampden on Sunday.

The Celtic fans are always the last to know when there are problems affecting their side because they have been conditioned not to do analysis and size up difficulties for themselves.

But when self delusion is met with a watershed moment such as the Scottish Cup defeat to a side the fans assumed they would lord it over then those who are the last to know reserve the right to be the first to react.

Celtic Park will be much less than half full when Ross County go to play there on Sunday in the first of ther post-split series of matches which ought to form Celtic's triumphant path towards a fifth successive league title.

A skeletal crowd will be the official start of the disaffection process. The fans will only return in the kind of numbers Celtic need to run their business properly when a new manager has been appointed, and one who meets with their approval.

No more works in progress. No more vanity projects from the Benolux countries.

Deila's time is up. A line has been drawn in the sand and the manager's future isn't even worth debating.

No Celtic manager could survive the spineless display given by Sunday's team in an Old Firm match. A spectacle which looked very much like the start of the balance of power beginning to shift from Celtic Park to Ibrox.

Rangers now have a better manager than the one employed by Celtic. The Chief Executive now has to prove he understands that to be the case and show that he has the will to find a worthy opponent for Mark Warburton.

Speculation has linked Lawwell with the vacant Chief Executive's job at Sunderland, and the same post will shortly become available at Liverpool.

The Celtic fans, now that they've given up on self delusion, will turn their attention towards the Chief Executive because they've now made it known they've washed their hands of the hapless Deila.

Peter has to respond in the most positive fashion possible. And quickly.

Fans will shortly be asked to renew season ticket books. They will expect to see Deila gone and a manager of stature taking over. Rangers beat Celtic with three of their top players missing. Celtic simply went missing en masse at Hampden.

The captain, Scott Brown, is doing a convincing impersonation of a player whose best days are behind him. There are no central defenders worthy of the name. And Stefan Johansen has managed the impressive trick of going from Scotland's Player of the Year to an anonymous bystander who looks like he'd rather be somewhere, anywhere, else.

In other words, the squad needs a radical overhaul, a fresh team spirit injected into them and an introduction to the reality of the challenge facing them from Rangers.

Deila can't do that job because his team selection is suspect, his substitutions are questionable and when tension rises during games he has the look of a man who is confused.

The manager's European record is embarrassing and now, with three consecutive semi-final defeats in cup competition behind him, he has started to demonstrate a catastrophic inefficiency on the domestic front.

The Ronny Protection League, which has shielded him from criticism for nearly two years, has surely now been disbanded in the wake of a defeat from Rangers which highlighted glaring deficiencies on and off the park on Sunday.

When the Celtic fans turn militant crowds tumble, and when the reason for their militancy is the fear of Rangers ending their domination of the title race then the suits had better look lively.

The scatter gun has already been taken down from the shelf and shooting will be as indiscriminate as the name of the weapon suggests.

Warburton has done a remarkable job in a short space of time at Ibrox. The risk Rangers run is that the manager is so good he will be spirited away one day to a big club in England.

In the meantime he's Celtic's worst nightmare as they contemplate a squad that has gone backwards and a management team that doesn't know which direction to take.

It would be a start towards progress if Celtic appointed a manager their fans had heard of and in whom they could invest their faith and trust, not to mention their hard earned cash.

David Moyes?

If he's too expensive on a personal level and can't be satisfied in terms of budgetary requirements so far as the team is concerned then Celtic have a credibility problem.

They would have had more money to spend if the last two seasons hadn't ended in humiliating failure where qualification for the group stages of the Champions League was concerned. But that's another reason why Deila has to go and a new manager has to be brought in with a head for European heights.

It isn't rocket science. You just have to do your job properly, like Rangers have done with the appointment of Warburton.

Over to you, Peter.