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am I first?
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Not sure I want all our opponents reading this, but it is a good insight into the work that WGS is doing.
Really looking forward to Saturday!
HAIL HAIL!
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Let them live in fear!!!!
Glad to see the positive vibes coming from the playmaker...
Bring on Saturday!!!
Hail Hail
SPC
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It might all be a cunning plan and we will play totally differently on Saturday.Cant wait.God,its only Monday.
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From the BBC wesite:
Henrik Larsson believes that Celtic missed an opportunity by not investing more money in players after his exit.
Larsson left Celtic for Barcelona 18 months ago but wishes that his former club had shown more conviction in the transfer market, for greater rewards.
"Maybe they should have built on two years ago when we reached a European final.
"We had a team able to compete at that level. With a few more players we could have gone on like that for more years."
The Swede believes that Celtic instead took a risk on the existing squad that did not ultimately pay off in the European context.
"For whatever reason they decided not to build and instead took a gamble on the players they had, that they would be able to achieve something similar.
"Was that lack of money? I don't know, I can't see it. Wherever you go there are Celtic fans. There is a full house at every home game. The money must be there somewhere.
"The club should be attracting more quality players than they did and the way to do that is pay big money and good salaries. Celtic are a huge club."
Ardoch.
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Because there are Celtic fans everywhere you go, it doesn't follow that we will have millions of pounds in spare cash available to spend as we please. Henrik seems to have forgotten the old adage you cant spend what you don’t have. And he has a nerve to talk about us as being miserly, considering the millions we gave him over the years. Coming back to Parkhead and scoring against us for Barcelona was bad enough Henrik, please no more dodgy interviews.
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its nice to our japanese boy talking simply but effectively.. but also intelligently.......
a high work ethic!!!! coupled with intelligence,playing things simple but always looking to be effective!!!
NOW THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR!!!!!
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OH an my 1 wish would have been for henrik to have played just a handful of games with the japanese boy, he wouldnt have left IMO
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Great to see an article that looks at tactics and systems, I wonder if the Scottish press will pick-up on it or does it not contain enough clichés.
I wonder what his role is if McGeady isn’t playing?
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Paul, is this a good idea giving ourrivals an insight to some of our tactics. Would it have been better to keep it to yourself and just told us that NAKA is loving it ere. I see the SFA have agreed to pay us 250,000 for JFK's wages.
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Ardoch, that is stunning from Larsson. I have the greatest respect for him as player and man, but I cannot believe that he of all people has said this.
If he cannot see that lack of money he should look in two places; the Celtic accounts, which detail it clearly and his own bank balance, which is where the largest slice of our money ended up.
Celtic were paying wages at a level beyond where the clubs income could service them.
“The money must be there somewhere”. It sure is Henrik – in your bank.
Fleet45, I also agree; what was he thinking giving this kind of quote to the media. He should know better.
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No doubt if a stink is kicked up, he will have been misquoted. There was me thinking he spoke perfect english too. We should have money but maybe not in the quantities he was speaking of.
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How does one download a putfile?
(not so net literate Big Liam)
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Did Henrik actually say what has been attributed to him? The bit about trying to build the team I can imagine him discussing but the stuff about 'where is all the money" seems utterly out of character.
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Nakamura isn't giving away any secrets, he's only pointing out what is obvious from the team's performances - that they work very hard on the training ground.
I am also sure that McGeady is told to tuck in on the left and play more defensively when Naka has the ball on the right.
Great to see him talking about adjusting to the different styles of the forwards; this is one very clever player.
Good also to see him talk of "promises" he and Telfer give each other. I'd see that as a form of words used by Strachan to appeal to the Japanese player's sense of honesty and honour.
The terrifying thing for opponents isn't that we are working hard on teamwork but that Naka feels we can get a lot better.
Starting with this Saturday, I hope!
;-) JohBhoy
(http://celticfcblog.blogspot.com)
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Paul
you need to read the whole article.
It was in the Scottish Sunday times.
I alluded to on here last night
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we may well have paid henrik a lot of money for his services,but i think he was good value for it.
the question of where did all the money go is one that stretches back to the jock stein era but i think it is a proven principle in football that you strengthen the team when you are doing well to ensure continuity of success.
seville was a great experience.we had been saying for years what a great club we were and finally had a chance to prove it.i can't help thinking that in some ways after seville turned out to be a missed opportunity
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mmm what is wrong with henrik stating what most of the uneducated celtic fans!!!!!! think?? uneducated by way of knowledge of finances btw!!! we are supposed to be a global brand.
his wages where no better than what he deserved, he could have made a fortune playing in england.. but it wasnt all money with him!!! surely even the dim on here can see that!!
we should have superstores worldwide, man utd do it, why cant we????? look at our superstore in edinburgh, that really sums up how we are run..... and that is why we will always be the underachievers in world football.... go on the interenet, place an order?? nah bugger that says the majority, just go to donnay/sportsnsoccer instead!!! at least we will have our tops on time!!!
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Hi Paul,
Celticbhoy 11.52 You bring up a very interesting point, reporting standards in Scotland, what appears to be a well thought out and intelligent interview on current football style and tactics would in most Scottish papers e covered with a pic of Mr Nakamura eating sushi and some dreadful pun, then a quick list of banalities and clichés. Carefull Paul or you will give reporting a good name.
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Ardoch/Paul67. The article was published in yesterday's Sunday Times or Scotland on Sunday (read both, but can't remember which ran with it). The interview was extensive and the point about Celtic re-investing was a very small part.
HL was reluctant to criticise the club and made this clear, but felt they should have attracted top talent by paying higher wages.
Like you Paul, I suspect he'd forgotten to check his bank account or talk to some of his well paid team mates before commenting!
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does anyone think that Henke's comments have been manipulated by the interviewing media?
always good to get a negative spin on things before a Rangers game.
Is this the best they can do?
Do i sound a little bitter and paranoid?
Come on folks, the man is far too candid to come out with that rot
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do you really think the rest of scotland couldnt figure out what mr naka and co are doing?
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I read the article yeterday on Henrik and it was one scentence from a good article. The BBC have choosen to put some BBC spin on it to generate negative press.
In my mind Henrik was saying "maybe" the club should have gone for it but they stuck with the same guys. It was caveated by the man and I wasn't offended.
And as Paul said Herik benefited enormously from Martin's use of the budget.
However......I thought the article on the balance was more about Barcelona and how he was pleased to see Celtic rebuilding an exciting team and could noise up Gio.
On the whole nothing that we really need to get our scants ina twist about bhoys.
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hey most of you guys have dhanged your tune three months ago you were all agreeing with henke i guess he doesnt log into CQN
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agree with Marty - read this yesterday, and it was a very very small part of an extensive article. He made it clear he wasn't criticising, and to be honest, we all know that they management and board elected to go with the players that were there instead of buying big names in - he's not exactly saying anything contraversial, is he?
Nice spin for the pre derby hype though....
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Good to see that the team spirit is positive and all the bhoys are getting along nicely.
Making promises and all that.
Especially after the rangers game when all the players were giving each other big hugs.aaaaaawwwwwww.
They went through a tough time to begin their Celtic career's however, slowly but surely, and without a fuss, crept back to the top of the league.
Nakamura is adamant they will not become complacent and that it only matters if they are at the top in May.This is easy enough to say but it is vital that we don't witness a repeat of last season:(
Also on Mr Telfer, it appears that he and Nakamura have spent a long time in training to forge a decent relationship on the right side.So simply punting Telfer and bringing someone else in isn't really feesable at the moment.
p.s Don't tell them too much Naka!;)
Sean
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BelfastBhoy, BalantyreKev and all other fans of silly adaptations of songs to suit our purposes. This ones quite topical given the debate on the media going on here.
To the tune of Dirty Laundry by Don Henley I give you Lazy Journos.
I make my living off the red-top news
Just give me something-something I can use
we make up all the phoned in views,
We’re the Lazy journos
Well, I coulda told the truth, but I wound up here
It just has to sound good, It don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give them Lazy journos
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em all around
We got big Traynor who’s
renowned for his size,
and Andy Cameron
he tells nothing but lies,
Crack the Celtic crest in Two
Give them Lazy journos
Is David Murray in Trouble?
have we got the proof?
Well we don’t care
we’ve got Neil Lennon to hoof!,
Hang him from the nearest roof!
We’re the Lazy journos
Daryl Broadfoot in the Herald
he’ll go far,
He said Franny Jeffers was a World Superstar,
Now the fans are bricking big Eck’s car
He’s a Lazy journo
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re stiff
Kick ’em all around
Will it be Hitzfeld for the Rangers Job?
We’ll talk him up big time for the baying mob
It’s more likely to be Williamson Bob!
They love Lazy journos
We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When it’s said and done we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that crap is king
Give them Lazy journos!
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Sam
Pure Poetry.
That is all
Sean
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EdwardUrsus
Thanks for your reply, this is something which we in the UK are lacking in the main, analysis of system and tactics in the press. I read the introduction to Andy Gray’s book on football tactics when Malcom Alison ( of all people) complained that the press in the UK where only interested in who was getting a better contract than whom and that the fan in the UK was being short changed when if came to analysis of football and we were thus less well informed than fans in other countries. He used his experience in Spain to contrast the UK press with the Spanish press who asked detailed questions as to system and players usage within those systems.
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What kind of analysis do you think the press would give on the Rangers system of play at the moment.You really couldnt call it football now could you????
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theres not a lot of football being played in Scotland at the moment so whats to analyse
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I think maybe the fans are being short changed on the football and not the analysis
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The beeb's standards have deteriorated badly over the past four or five years. Not only that, but I detected a distinct change of spin being applied around three or so years ago. was there a change in editorial staff at that time?
A post CL match interview with Petrov went some thing like this:
Reporter: "can you win the group now?"
Petrov: "Well, we will try to win all of our games"
Later, these comments were spun as something like "Petrov says 2nd in group not good enough for Celts".
Look at the number of semi-literate hacks the beeb employs. Also, we don't know which of their staff is writing their web site articles as there is never a name attached. This could have been Chic Young, or it could just have been lifted straight from a tabloid rag for all we know.
I wouldn't be surprised if Henrik's real comments have been manipulated.
If the quotes are geniune, then as other bloggers have said, if you want to know where the money went look in the bank accounts of Larsson, Thompson, Sutton, Hartson, Lennon, Hedman etc.
Senor Pablo Diablo
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The Nakamura quotes are just great and an insight into the way our team is coached. "Common sense" say the usual critics! Henriks comments do show the world from the footballer`s point of view. To think that success is that simple. He forgot to add, buy low sell high!
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The football reporters in this country frequently complain that the standard of football in Scotland is poor compared to Europe. If they were to look abroad they would see we have the journalism to match.
I think it was William MacIlvanney that said we no longer have football reporters in this country we have gossip columnists.
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Martinobhoy
That is classic mate.....I'd love to hear the question put to Traynor, Keevins et al then wait for the answer and reply with
"so standard of football is as good as the standard of journalism.....pure mince!"
That would get Fat DJ dinging his bell alright!!!
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Re Henrik, as people are saying, it was a small part of a bigger interview.
Secondly, he's only acknowledging what we all know to be true...for that period to have been capitalised on, we should have been investing after Seville. The time to do such things is when you're on a high, not when things are starting to go wrong.
How many times has this discussion come up amongst us 'normal' fans too, and most people agree. Perhaps the thoughts come from a man who is now in a fan's perspective.
Regarding the money in his bank account, he earned every penny as far as I'm concerned.
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Does anyone think that players from abroad expect Celtic to pay higher wages than other clubs of similar size?
It seems that if Celtic are interested in a player their wage demands suddenly rise even if they have not proven themselves on the big stage. For instance, I'm pretty sure that when Agathe came from Hibs his wages doubled, why is this? Why should he get more at Celtic than he does at Hibs? Should the lure of playing for a bigger club and maybe a good wage increase not be enough? The same with Zurawski - I'd bet my mortgage (if I had one) that the wages Zurawski would be on if he went to Besiktas or whoever it was who was interested in him would be a fraction of what they are playing for Celtic. Surely, if all things in the contract were the same most people would choose Celtic over Besiktas!
I know a lot of this has to do with playing in Scotland and having to give that extra incentive for coming (apart from the guarentee of a chance at European football every year); but I think the reputation the club has is also a problem. Hopefully this is beginning to chance and wages are slowly coming down, no longer will we see mediocore players being paid superstar wages.
I suspect Larsson's interview has had considerible spin applied but Celtic pay massive amounts in wages, it would not be possible to pay anymore than we already do.
I can see problems coming from the amount that Thompson, Sutton, Hartson and the likes are being paid. Apart from probably raising the wage of new players it makes it harder to satisfy exsisting players signing new contracts.
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Big Liam,
Here's how ye download a putfile :
From a putfile web page :
e.g. http://media.putfile.com/celticvrangers/640
right click on this web page and click view source.
In the source filethat pops up, just do a search for "wmv",
ye should then see something like :
http://x100.putfile.com/videos/d7-31217133957.wmv
This link lets ye play the video on windows media player
(and not on yer browser). From the windows media player
ye can do a "save media as....."
There ye go……Cheers. /GerryR
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As said by many already, the time to invest was after Seville but we could only invest what we had.
MoN made decision to invest in what he already head, i.e improved contracts, instead of new faces.
That was the choice made which turned out not to work. Not saying it was wrong it just didn't work. He could've gone out a bought a couple of high profile names (if they would have come in the first place) without any guarantee that would have brought us anymore fortune.
As for Henrik he's expressing a view, he is surely entitled to that.
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Sorry Paul, my posting appears to have stolen some of your thunder from an interesting article.
CelticHowl, you really need to get out more! :o)
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Henriks comments are only in keeping with what many if not the vast majority of fans believe.
Regarding his wages, taking most of the wage bill RUBBISH. The King was worth every penny he earned, even if the supporters were fleeced (emotionaly) by the board into paying him 1 million pounds on his departure.
A clause that was in all probability inserted in his last contract. Does this mean the board new they were going to fleece the fans a few years down the line?.
If a guy like the King is saying what the fans already know that there was indeed LACK OF INVESTMENT after Seville then I for one believe there to be truth in his words.
I have logged onto this site for some while now and it beggars belief that first MON is the brunt of criticism (watch MON the early years to see free flowing football},and now the King for speaking the truth.
MON took us to the heights of trebles and Seville, WGS has done NOTHING to-date.
No dont be suckered, we all KNOW that the investment after Seville was lacking. It is the board who run the show and it them that have saddled us with the debt.
Remember the share issues, money for this money for that and still we are in debt, a company that runs on a loss is a badly run company no matter which way you look at it, but hey no doubt that will be the fans fault too.
To add champions league monies into your budgets when there is a chance no such monies would be forthcoming is to say the least FOLLY.
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all i can say is read henke's complete interview b4 posting.
we all do/did and are still wondering why we did not get better after seville. u could go on 4 pages on that alone. however lets just bask in the glory that ghord is bringing us now as we seem to be back on the right path again. as for the scottish hacks, dont make me laugh my self into insanity, when do we ever get a fair crack of the quill. this week for instance is only going to get murkier. (see weekend papers re: majik etc. now henkes spin story, wonder what itll be tomorrow.) lets just look forward to hammering the sons of satin on saturday lunchtime setting us all up for a lovely weekend.
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Cheers Martybhoy. Agree with your comment at 12:28 regarding Henrik. You could read it as how dare he question where the money has gone when a large amount went to him. Or you could read it the way I read it (and it looks like you did too) that he recognises that we had a choice of investing in new players or rewarding the ones we had and we chose the second option.
I also think he is saying that as a global club we should be making more money from our global fan base rather than the 60,000 punters at Celtic Park every week. And again I dont think anyone can argue with him there.
The whole article was actually about Barcelona and only a very small part was about Celtic although he did say some very complimentary things about us. As you said nothing for us all to get upset about. Again we've allowed the press in Scotland to get us in a twist by choosing a few select sentences and putting their own unique spin on it. Will we never learn?
Which brings me back to my original point about gossip columnists rather than football reporters.
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Well, the cat has just been thrown amongst the proverbial pigeons. The referee for saturday, one Dougie McDonald. Sit back and enjoy the show.
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I don't think that Martin O'Neill failed us after Seville. After all we did get to the Uefa Cup Quarter Final (after beating FC Barcelona)
only to be put out to Villareal(who are quite good ,you know).
We also blitzed the league with 25 wins in a row.Not an easy feat.
Maybe after that season, was the time to revamp the team, albeit with hindsight.
Anyhoo, better times are just around the corner.....
Saturday actually.
Sean
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Al Obundy
You said that it was the board that saddled us with debt.
How did they do this if they didn't invest? Where did the debt come from?
How could they possibly run up the debt without spending money?
The board gave MON money to spend. MON decided to reward the players who had done so well with increased contract terms, instead of buying new players.
The board dared not interfere with what was the football manager's decision to spend the football budget as he saw fit.
Larsson was worth every penny. Some of the others, I'm not so sure.
However, Larsson is a footballer (and a total hero to me), not a financier.
Senor Pablo Diablo
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Henrik rightly points out that we have two big pieces of the money puzzle: a large stadium and a big global following.
Unfortunately a key piece is missing from our particular jigsaw: significant TV revenue.
Gate receipts and merchandising revenue can keep us going, but what seperates us from the moneymaking clubs of Europe is that TV deal.
And we might never have that particular pot of gold, so it's encouraging to hear BQ talk about exploring 'other revenue streams'. I for one get the feeling that the golden age of the silly-money TV deals might be over.
I'd like to see us using our driving position in the SPL to push for more re-sale packages of Celtic coverage. A shared TV broadcast deal with the other clubs, but a seperate rights deal for re-sale of Celtic matches/highlights via newer channels like foreign TV/internet/phone etc.
Paul, what are our current offerings in this department?
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the last time tactics were discussed in any depth in the media
was when j.barnes had us playing 4-2-2-2-2'just like brazil'
otherwise the bogpapers are only interested in transfer stories,many of which are cooked up by agents with the full collusion of the hacks.
a canadian sword swallower has died after trying to eat an umbrella.
why does it always rain on me...
there's a rumour going round that the russians are willing to sell the radar off the ballistic missile launcher.that should be able to pick up setanta
gale 8 increasing severe gale 9
imminent
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I don't think the big-money TV deals are coming to an end. The broadcasters must be making (or should be making) moeny out of the deals so why would they end? The French league have just got a massive TV deal (bigger than the EPL?) so why would things chance.
On a different note, it's no wonder viewing numbers are down with SKY, have you seen some of the teams they put on, especially mid-week? What is the point in airing two teams with a total following of maybe 50,000?
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The most notable tactics i have noticed from celtic this season is on the left side.
MoCamara bombing up the left flank allowing the player in front of him a lot more freedom.
Simple but effective.
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Supercelt
True and very noticible. The nice thing is, teams know about it and there really isn't much they can do except have their wingers track back to cover which puts them on the backfoot even more.
The same thing happened when Wallace came on, it gives the likes of Maloney much more time and space. He has to option to cut inside, go outside or play the through ball.
Simple and very effective.
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I went to the zoo the other day.
But there was only a dog.
It was a shitzu.
I'll get my coat....'cos it's freeeezing!
Sean
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EKBhoy, it did cross my mind that I might want to keep this info to myself. I omitted the crucial info – that sometimes they like to play the ball long to Hartson, as this is just too commercially sensitive.
Celticbhoy/Edward/martinobhoy/martybhoy, I agree; there is a deficit on sports journalism in Scotland. The English get much better coverage, and even then could do better.
As always, the solution (and therefore blame) rests with the consumer.
Yashin, at the moment Celtic can resell games on the Internet to non-UK residents (not sure about Ireland). I think Nakamura has changed how many look at our TV rights, as before him there was very little scope to sell our games.
They believe that selling video to mobile phones in Japan will be a significant opportunity.
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Senor Pablo Diablo (great name by the way) you can dress it up as much as something can be dressed up, those in charge of the purse strings wag the tail not the other way about. MON is a manager NOT an accountant. Any manager worth his salt will try and strenghthen his squad whether it be existing contracts or incoming players
The board have consitently run the club year on year at a loss. It is they who are accountable, no one else, unless Annie the tea lady had anything to do with the decisions.
Celtic had a budget year in year out that was inclusive of Champions league monies. Pure and utter follyberger, we should have cut our cloth long ago.
The champions league money should have been a bonus not an integral part of our budget. Hey we can always ask the punters to cough up some more, (and no doubt they will).
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Malone,
That is why i think Agathe might be a better option at RB (if he can get his head in the right place).
Could you imagine the havoc that would be caused on both flanks.
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well done paul for ignoring alobundy. there are only so many times you should have to spellout basic maths to fans too stupid/stubborn to learn. In every pub and at every fame there is an ill informed loudmouth like alobundy runing a day/night out for everyone
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Great to hear what's coming from Nakata. It shows the level of professionalism around the club at the moment, and the desire of the players to succeed. Something we all want at Celtic.
Looking through the drivel of the press in Scotland, there have been a couple of good interviews with Celtic players recently. Camara springs to mind. I'll bet WGS will have the excuses for journalists thinking twice about what they write. He dealt with the negative spin on McGeady's interview well, and seems to be making it clear to the squad how important it is to be clear when being questioned.
The thing that comes out of Nakamura's article is that the players are playing for each other, and taking a team responsibility for all that happens. Also they are keeping their feet firmly on the ground, as is Strachan, and it shows a level of intelligence and maturity that is encouraging, especially with so many top youngsters kicking around.
The one thing that strikes me at the stage of the season, that certainly didn't at the start of the season, is we seem to have a squad capable of causing anyone problems. I saw a post of a team made up of players who were not on the park last Wednesday and it looked pretty good, and they all seem to be following the same system(just look at how we've switched things about-injuries and suspensions- and kept a fluid shape ready to cope with changing demands)
All in all I am a very happy bhoy at the moment and can't wait to see what happens on Saturday.
Hail!Hail!
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Harsh words Jonathan
Al has contributed a lot on here if you disagree put a point across, don't abuse.
I don't agree with him but that doesn't mean I'm going to slag him off.
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Noticed that James Porteus in trhe Herald leaves Shaun out of a 'six of the best' list of Scottish youngsters! No harm to the other boys mentioned but I hope this is not a precursor to Shaun's treatment when he steps up for Scotland. The, press supported, exclusion of Celtic players from international honours was particularly bad in the 60's and 70's - the Lisbon Lions had nothing like the caps they should have had - Jimmy Johnstone terrified every defense on the planet but was somehow kept on the bench during Germany '74 whilst often losing out to the worthy but inferior talent of one Willie Henderson on numerous occassions. I hope we are not going to go there again with Shaun, Beattie and perhaps McManus, I really enjoy seeing our bhoys getting international honours especially when TFOD can supply no-one!
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supercelt
Your are right to say that most of what is happening is on our left hand side.
This is to my mind principally because Camara does get forward quicker than Telford on the right ( look out for how often Lennon moves to the out side right position).
The whole idea of playing a left footed player on the right and vice versa is to allow him to cut inside (on to his stronger foot) giving space to the fullback to overlap causing the opposition left/rightback to have to choose with either going with the runner or going with the player on the ball. Does he allow the player with the ball to be picked up by a central defender and cover the run or go with the ball hoping that his midfield player has tracked the run of the full back risking being totally out of position if the ball is cut outside him and the midfielder hasn’t made the tracking run, (for me Alan Hutton was being turned inside out with trying to chose which option to take and finding that he didn’t have the pace to cover which ever he choose).
This allows at times for us to play as WGS said a front 6.
This leads me to the question if we play either Pearson or Thompson on our left this system instead of McGeady we will not be as fluid and the system will falter. So if Sutton isn’t fit do we go with the same line up as Wednesday or look to alter things on the left with Camera staying more defensive? What do we do on the right, does Nakamura move more to the centre, if so where does this leave Petrov?
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Supercelt
I think the idea behind Telfer on the right may be because of Nakamura's defensive failings... however, if he can dig-in like he did against TFOD then maybe it wouldn't be a problem. Telfer does manage to get up and down the line all day and I haven't seen Agathe run at full pace since he came back from injury about a year ago. Although I do take your point about pace having an added bonus.
That's why I mentioned Steve Cherundolo. Still don't know the type of price tag he'd have.
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The broadcasters are certainly making money from the deals, but I imagine they're making considerably less than they were five years ago.
In the good old days, Sky was building a subscriber base and football was its biggest marketing tool. Football rights were the traditional domain of the BBC and ITV and they were detarmined that they dould hold onto them, so Sky had to blow them away each time the rights were offered. When they won the rights to the newly created Premiership they pulled off a huge marketing coup and milked it for all it was worth.
But things are different now. Sky TV uptake is near saturation point. ITV and BBC have learned to live with less live football (and can't afford to pay for them anyway), and that has meant that there is no real competition for broadcasting rights. The Premiership is old hat now, and increasingly uncompetitive.
By contrast, the SPL is becoming more attractive, but at the end of the day, it can never yield enough TV money to satisfy our demands.
Paul and others have alluded to a shake up in the Premiership/Champions League in order to rejuvenate the market, but so far it's business as usual...
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I was surprised to see that Nakamura is a more left-footed than right-footed player, I particulary like his passes with the outside of the left foot. He is able to flick balls into the front men at the edge of the box and makes himself available for the return pass. With Lennon as a Makelele type (or maybe Makelele is a Lennon type!!) in the background, to keep an eye on things, there is less chance of a killer counter attack against that. I can´t think of too many other players who have been similar to Naka. Tommy Burns perhaps? Those were different times.
Larsson is facing a lot more competition for a first team place at the moment, even though he can still do a turn for the Catalan giants. Their new sensation is front player Messi, who is more than a passing resemblance to Maradona. There are also two physically very strong forwards called Maxi Lopez and Santi Ezquerro. In a recent match Barcelona skelped Osasuna 5-0 and Osasuna are top of the Spanish League at the moment. However the achilles heel in the Barça team is getting flustered when things are not going their way. In a recent match against Malaga at home, no goals after about 80 minutes, Ronaldinho blatantly dived for a penalty. And got it. Thankfully that night in the Camp Nou J K was not penalised for a fair challenge on the buck-toothed one, the Brazilian had made a happy meal out of the defender´s fair challenge.
With Chelsea starting to look a bit predictable, albeit mighty strong, who can challenge Barcelona in Europe this year?
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rintimtim-
rangers?
...or is it time for me to lie down in the dark again
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rintimtim
I'm probably biased but I think AC Milan and Juve are both capable of beating Barcelona. However if they are both head to head in a tight race for Serie A then that would benefit Barca.
Anyway my dream for the European Cup this year is to see Barca win it with a certian Swedish striker scoring the winner. It's the least he deserves after his performance in Seville.
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It's refreshing to hear a player talk candidly about training and teamwork.
If the Scottish media don't pick up on this article, it'll be because there's no easy angle in there, no sign of unrest, no crticism of players/teams/manager, no cliched chat about living in Scotland.
Nope, it's just a collection of boring quotes wherein a gifted and intelligent player discusses the process of building a great football side. There's no place for that kind of thing in 'wur game'.
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Al Obundy
You seem to be saying that the board overspent, hence running up the debt and that this was a mistake - we should not have spent as much.
You also say that the board failed to invest after Seville. How do you square the circle? How do we spend less and invest more?
Are you saying is the board should have spent less in the run-up to Seville so that we could splash out immediately afterwards?
Great idea in theory, but if we'd spent less we might not have got to the UEFA Cup final in the first place. We might not have been able to purchase/keep the players we did. The manager may have walked due to not getting the funds he felt were needed for him to do the job properly. There would have been uproar about our board failing to support the manager, and all the old bicuit tin cliches would have been trotted out.
We may just have to agree to disagree, but I honestly feel that the board couldn't have given MON more money to spend than they did, without leading to financial difficulties a few years down the line.
If you're having a go at the board simply for spending too much money, it's hard to argue.
Apologies if I'm misunderstading the point you're making.
Senor Pablo
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Read the complete Henrik article and there's not much to argue with.
The Sunday Times November 13, 2005 Star wars
It doesn’t come any bigger than Real Madrid against Barcelona, and Henrik Larsson can’t wait, writes Ian Hawkey
Half an hour in, he felt something not quite right. He glanced down at his knee, located the acute pain and felt encouraged to see no signs of swelling. He looked up at the skyscraper grandstands, heard the throb of nearly 100,000 voices, a Nou Camp still jubilant at a goal moments earlier against their oldest foe. That was his adrenaline shot. He wasn’t going to quit Barcelona versus Real Madrid, the most fabled fixture in club football.
Henrik Larsson remembers the moment with the clarity of a slow-motion replay. “I did a few jumps and to my amazement I could jump, and felt okay,” he recalls. “Then I came in at half-time and I didn’t want to go back out. I knew there was something wrong. But, you know, it was the clasico.”
The sense of occasion worked like an anaesthetic. “I played another 15 minutes. Then, I tried to pass the ball and my knee just went. It was my turn to get injured again. That’s life.”
A life of more than 700 matches, for clubs in four different countries, which had already included a broken leg and a fractured jaw. And now this broken dream, cruciate ligament damage. For about 48 hours, Larsson feared that the gran clasico, his first Barca- Madrid game — his team won 3-0 — could also be the last match of his long, distinguished career. It ranks as a minor medical miracle that, exactly a year later, he will on Saturday participate again in Spain’s so-called superderby. He will do so in his 35th year, his injury healed, the goals restored. He may be obliged to start as a substitute, although Larsson’s impact as a replacement has lately been considerable. The Swede has scored twice in his last 14 minutes in a Barcelona shirt.
They were welcome goals. Long absence even for a footballer as balanced and mature as Larsson can feed doubts. He was out of action for six months, although the initial diagnosis was for much longer, and on crutches for two. “I didn’t doubt I’d come back, but it’s a question of which level you’re going to reach,” he says. “Some days you wake up and don’t feel like doing anything. My goal, though I didn’t say it to anybody, was to be playing before the end of the season. After four months I started feeling there was a possibility.”
In late May, he returned, able to join Barca’s procession to their first Spanish league title in six years. The ovation he heard on his comeback would take him aback, and he readily admits it was out of proportion to his contribution to a season abbreviated by injury. He has achieved a sudden and surprising status among the Catalan club’s fans. “Unbelievable,” he reflects, “and I do appreciate that, because I didn’t play much last year. It’s nice, it’s one of the obstacles you have to cross.”
His popularity is not just audible, it’s recorded gleefully in Barcelona’s merchandising department. Only the names Ronaldinho and Eto’o have shifted more replica shirts in the past 18 months than the No 7, and they can’t all be on the backs of Swedish or Glaswegian tourists. He is recognised locally as reliable, courageous, determined, Barca’s Braveheart. Or as Larsson puts it:
“In the short time I was playing, they saw I was an honest player. By that I mean somebody who’s always working, always putting the team first. And they know I really want to play for Barcelona. It’s not about the money.”
Larsson has usually made his career choices for reasons beyond simple remuneration. His period at Celtic would make him the most prolific striker in British football for most of the last decade, and his stay in Glasgow could have been interrupted at almost any time in seven years there, in favour of the interest he attracted from clubs in stronger leagues than Scotland’s.
If there was a suspicion that last summer, approaching his 33rd birthday, he had left his move to Spain a little late, he did not share it. His performances also argued against the notion. He joined Barcelona on a free transfer, knew he would compete fiercely for a first-team place in the company of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and others, promptly scored on his home debut, then scored on his Champions League debut — at Celtic — and by the time of that match against Madrid had his position in a team capable of breathtaking fluency. “When we play at our best, sometimes you struggle to understand how it can seem so easy,” he says. “When everybody’s playing one or two touch, the ball’s moving quicker than the players.”
The lay-off had not blunted his edge, he sensed. “I don’t feel any different to when I was 28. I’ve been out twice with longer term injuries, a leg break and a broken jaw, so you could say I’ve missed two whole seasons in my career.” That’s two seasons of valuable recuperation, he suggests. “If you’re rested from that and you build your body up again, from scratch, you get the time back. The physios agree with that.”
For their part, Barca’s medical staff recognise in Larsson an athlete made for endurance, his best assets likely to be preserved into his mid-30s. “I’ve never been very fast over 40m or 50m,” he says. “My best metres are 10 to 20, that’s where I’m quick. I still have it.”
There had been other compensations to the rehabilitation months. “You spend more time with your family. My son was very happy when I was out, sad his dad was injured, but it was good for me to spend a little bit more quality time with them at the time they’d just moved out here.”
Jordan Larsson, approaching nine, joined us when I talked to Larsson, patiently knocking a football around in the corner of a suite at the Nou Camp stadium. He’s not a boy to be underestimated: his father once retired from international football for him. At the 2002 World Cup, Larsson Jr’s response to seeing Sweden qualify for the second round was to burst into tears. “He went out of the room when Anders Svensson scored against Argentina, saying ‘Daddy’s not coming home! ’” Larsson says. “Now, it’s different. He wants me to play for ever and ever.”
Thus Larsson will go to Germany in the summer. Between now and then, he’d like more minutes for Barca. Twelve months from the damaged knee, he finds himself in a squad with greater depth, and head coach Frank Rijkaard rotates his players with more confidence and frequency. But Rijkaard’s admiration for Larsson appears undiminished. Last month, the player and the club very quickly turned down a bid from Borussia Dortmund to take Larsson on loan.
He has a sense of what Rijkaard values: “Experience. It’s important to have experience in the group. There’s a lot of young players here, even though you have world champions like Ronaldinho and Edmilson. You need a few old heads when things are not going so well. And when they are going well to be there for assurances. I have loads and loads of experience. I don’t feel in any way I shouldn’t contribute.”
Assurance. It’s a good quality to bring to a club that can turn neurotic as readily as its current team can dazzle. Barcelona did look a naive side once or twice last season, most of all when they conceded three goals at Chelsea in the first-half of the second leg of their Champions League tie in London. The match had been a thrilling blizzard of entertainment, surrounded by issues such as Jose Mourinho’s allegations of inappropriate dialogue between referee Anders Frisk and Barca’s coaching staff and scuffles after the Stamford Bridge match. They are keenly remembered, and it can be reported with certainty that Barcelona’s focus on the European Cup, where they are already through to the second round, has been sharpened as a result.
“We’d obviously like to do better than we did last year, it’s a high priority,” says Larsson. “Against Chelsea, we were unlucky in the end because, as everybody knows, there was a foul on the goalkeeper. That’s history. But hopefully what we had against us last year will work in our favour.”
What, Mourinho’s antics? “That’s the way that manager works. He has a different style and you have to accept it. Everybody knows how he is.”
Larsson is not the type to nurse a grudge or turn especially wistful, but when he looks back over his working life, he views the Celtic era with great warmth. He’d have appreciated the outcome of their latest skirmish with Rangers — he and his close friend and colleague Giovanni van Bronckhorst, a former Ranger, often watch Old Firm games at one or the other’s homes on the coast just outside Barcelona.
“The Celtic fans haven’t got the European Cup football they’ve been used to in the past five or six years, and that’s a pity,” he notes, “but they have a good team.”
He does wonder if Celtic didn’t miss an opportunity, after making the 2003 Uefa Cup final, to have a better squad. “It’s a club that will always have a very special place in my heart so I can’t really say anything bad about it. What I can say is that maybe they should have built on two years ago. Instead they took a gamble on all the players they had, that they would be able to achieve something similar. Was that lack of money? I don’t know. I can’t see it. Wherever you go, there are Celtic supporters, there’s always a full house at home. The money must be there. It’s a club that should attract more quality players, and the way to do that is pay big money and good salaries.”
Point made, but it begged one question: could Celtic have persuaded their best footballer of the past decade to stay beyond the summer of 2004? “I don’t think so,” answers Larsson. “I was seven years in one club, which is a long time in today’s football, especially for a foreigner.”
So to the gran clasico, six days away, at the Bernabeu. Larsson was in Madrid last Monday, and chatted to Real’s David Beckham during a promotional shoot for a sponsor they share. These sorts of occasions used to bring Beckham and Larsson together as the highest-profile players in English and Scottish football.
Now they meet as honorary Castilian and adopted Catalan.
A single point separates their clubs going into Saturday’s collision, Barcelona second in La Liga, Madrid third. Form? Barca are winning the beauty contests at home and in Europe, boasting five wins in their past five, and 18 goals; Madrid have three victories from five, and a more modest seven goals.
More? “There’s the fact we are champions,” notes Larsson. “They want to beat you anyway because you’re Barcelona. As champions they want to beat you even more.”
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After reading that there is not exactly much that can be argued with or we need to get worried about. All that has happened is a typical Scottish slant has been attributed to one line in an article which covers a wide range of subjects.
Henrik is not an accountant and asks the same questions that 90% of Celtic fans still ask, even after taking one of Paul or blantyreKev's quick guides to amortisation or the workings of a P&L a/c.
Still miss him, though and wish he was lining up on Saturday against TFOD but unlike many I don't want him back now. I would rather remember the man as he was, and not risk possibly my memories of him being diluted.
Hail hail
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Paul67 sorry this is off topic but maybe of interest:
Taken from the Political Economy of Football website
HIGH COST OF FAILURE FOR GLAZERS - 6/11/2005
The Glazers' finely balanced business plan, initially described as 'potentially damaging' by the then United board, was based on a series of performance forecasts. These included an assumption that the team would reach the knockout stage of the Champions League every season and the quarter-finals every third year. This was not so different from the target set before the takeover, but that was at a time when the club was free of debt and more financially flexible. Glazer and his sons borrowed an initial £374m from the banks to acquire the club. If United do not get out of group D, they will not get the £1.1 million bonus given by Uefa to the last sixteen in the competition, nor will Old Trafford host any more lucrative clashes with European clubs this season. United would also earn less of the pool money allocated to participating clubs. It was also assumed that they would finish at least third in the Premiership each season. The nightmare scenario is if they fail to finish in the top four and miss qualification for the Champions League next season. This is not something United have faced since 1995 and it would cost the club in the region of £10 million. There is a risk of United's decline becoming a vicious cycle. Stars could go elsewhere and so could millions of United's foreign followers, taking their money with them. Fans in Shanghai are not necessarily aware that Manchester is an English city and their attachment to the club is fickle and success based. The consultancy FutureBrand has estimated that 30 per cent of non-European supporters follow a team because of certain players. United's money-raising tour of the Far East this summer was played out to surprisingly small crowds. Last month it officially ceased to be the world's richest club, after eight years on top, when Real Madrid reported its annual income had risen to €275.7m, driven largely by income from sponsors and merchandise. Questions are being asked about Coach Ferguson and his ability to build a third great United team, but the Glazers would be reluctant to sack him. Incidentally, they won't be at today's crucial match against Chelsea as another of their franchises is involved in an American football match.
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I agree with Henke - Celtic don't maximise income - given global support - consequently outgoings are limited. Fair comment. We should have rebuilt after reaching Euro final and didn't. Big mistake.
Gave Huns an in which they exploited, although it only delayed their inevitable decline.
I'd rather have smaller but more quality squad - so would sacrifice depth of squad (in fairness WGS took care of some of that in Summer!) for quality signings.
Naka sems happy, although I'm still looking for more 'end product' from him. He doesn't deliver what his poise, balane and touch suggests he is capable of. i guess he is acclimatising to the robust game in Scotland so I believe the best will come in the next season or two should he reamain.
Can't wait until Saturday!!
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Celtic's cult 11 now has a possible back 4, agree or disagree that is the question.....
www.thelordofthewing.blogspot.com
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Andy Roxburgh was spotted at Murray Park today. Why he was there - i don't know, possibly there in an advisory capacity regarding big Eck's replacement.
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Why do the Huns have more retail outlets in more places than us? Answers on a postcard to the usual address
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Senor Pablo - It is great to see that on this board people can agree to disagree without resorting to name calling or derogative remarks (most of the time). That is what in my opinion is great about this site, it is all about opinions and debate.
I do get your points about the finacial situation leading up to and after Seville. The decision was made to spend millions on wages rather than transfer fees. We are indeed having financial problems down the line, hence the need for cut backs and some may say a lesser qaulity of player on the park, {this team has acheived nothing to-date}. Whether we like it or not a club of our size has no decent training facilities, has no youth academy base, and is eventually in the process of modernising the scouting system. Why are these not all in place today. Why do the club have to go back to the support with yet another share issue.
Millions of pounds have been spent on upgrading the areas where major shareholders and celebrities gather. Millions have been spent on loan deals and players at the end of their shelflife and millions have been spent on holding onto players who basically played in the reserves.
After Seville what should have happened is what is happening now.
Many players should have been let go and our scouting attentions turned to the cheaper end of the market, as they are now. Untill we can compete with the big leagues in this world we have no choice, we cannot compete. Hindsight is a great thing but so is foresight, it is here that the board have failed they in my opinion acted 4 years later than they should have.
I am also of the opinion that the MON would have walked debate is totally unfounded no one knows whether he would have or not he had a plan and he stuck to it,as any good manger would .
If guys like Henrik are saying there was a lack of investment after Seville then there has to IMO be something to it.
My main beef is it would appear that all of a sudden it is Henrik who took all the money (look in his bank account was one statement), he earned no more than he could have at a middle of the table club in the EPL.
The club tried to keep up with south of the border and it backfired as soon as the Champions league money was not there. Who`s to blame, the manager, the players the board, as some would have it the customer?.
No for me the buck stops at the top, they sign the documents, they make the decisions, they take the can, we pay the bill.
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Pablophanque - because they have more supporters in Scotland. Why Celtic do not have an outlet in London is beyond me but there you go.
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Just found this on the Beeb to the tune of Pulp’s Common People.
Mildly amusing little ditty that I don't think has been posted on here yet.
He came from Greece he had a thirst for carnage,
Shaun studied football at Saint Martin's College,
so that's why, he kicked his thigh.
Eck told him that The Mint was loaded, He said "In that case I'll have a better contract."
Eck said "Fine." and then in thirty seconds time,
Soto said,
"I want to live like Celtic people,
I want to do whatever Celtic people do,
I want to drink with Celtic people,
I want to cheer with Celtic people, not you."
Well what else could Eck do -
He said "I'll see what I can do."
He took him down to super Parkhead,
We don't know why but he had to start it somewhere, so it started there.
Eck said pretend you hate Maloney,
He just laughed and said, "Oh you're so funny."
Eck said "yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else defending in here.
Are you sure?
You want to live like Celtic people,
you want to see whatever Celtic people see,
you want to drink with Celtic people,
you want to cheer with Celtic people, not me."
But he didn't understand, he just smiled and clapped his hands!
So will big Eck get the chop?
How can they help him keep his job?
Cut your hair and you'll look cool,
pretend you went to decent schools.
But still you'll never get it right,
Cos Stevie Thompson is sh*te,
Watching Stefan drop the ball,
if you call The Mint he could stop it all.
You'll never live like Celtic people,
you'll never do whatever Celtic people do,
you'll never win like Celtic people,
you'll never know why we're much better than you,
and if that's the best you can do,
Then you really are screwed.....
Sing along with the Celtic people,
sing along and it might just get you through, laugh along with the Celtic people,
laugh along even though they're laughing at you,
and the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that Prso is cool.
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Martinobhoy>
Absolutely - the Italian teams are looking more attack minded again . Milan have got such good players and are scoring a lot of goals. Meanwhile Capello has got the winning mentality going again at Delle Alpi , Del Piero is playing better than ever. And in general it´s possible that the standard in Spain has slipped enough over the last few years for the big Italian clubs to be top dogs again. Lyon and Bayern are also looking strong...think how close we were to them not so long ago.
don´tbratt - Rangers should miss out on UEFA, but they are so ugly that they might frighten the other teams away
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How about a song for Maloney to the tune of Sponge Bob:
He plays for the Celtic
And he’s very wee.
Shaun, Shaun Maloney
He score against Klos
And made him look like a t*t
Shaun,
Shaun
Maloney
Shaun,
Shaun
Maloney
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Happy days!
Murray has made a statement vis the huns website saying Big Eck will be staying....
CHAIRMAN David Murray has revealed that Alex McLeish will be given the chance to improve Rangers' fortunes.
The Ibrox men have been going through a difficult period with just two wins in the last 11 matches.
However, following a meeting today between Murray, McLeish and chief executive Martin Bain it was agreed that McLeish should be given the chance to lead Rangers out of their current predicament.
Murray indicated that McLeish deserved the chance to turn things around after all he had achieved for the club. However, he indicated that the situation will be reviewed at the beginning of next month.
The chairman said today: "After a return from a short break, Alex McLeish, Martin Bain and myself met today in Edinburgh to discuss the Club's current situation.
"Due to speculation it was important to clarify the outcome of the meeting. Although we fully recognise we are going through a difficult period, we collectively felt that The Manager should be given the opportunity to improve our overall current performance, given the success of his career thus far.
"We will review progress at the beginning of December and assess the Club's current situation at that time".
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Alobundy
London is probably too big to cover unless you had loads of stores. Even 1 store would be very expensive in terms of rent. Most sports stores I've been to that sell football kit give their Celtic stock a suitably prominent position.
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Al......
I can vouch for the fact that most sports shops in London sell Celtic kit alongside the big English clubs.
Oh and lets not forget our biggest sponsor Nike have several shops selling Celtic merchandise especially the one on the corner of Oxford and Regent Streets..
Hail Hail
In fact even my local shifty sports shop sells Celtic strips!!
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Al Obundy
I take your point about the training facilities, but the youth development system has already been modernised a great deal over the last few years. I agree that the scouting system was poor (£1.5m loan deals and last minute panicking at the end of the transfer window were insane), but I don't know if the final say on scouting was down to the board or the manager.
I'm of the opinion that living without bricks and mortar over the past few years hasn't done us that much harm (Maloney, McGeady, McManus, Kennedy, Marshall, Wallace) whereas Rangers had the facilities, but their coaches were so poor that the one geniune talent they had was released and has ended up rattling the goals in for Celtic.
We are now addressing the facilities issue, and I suppose the money has to come from somewhere. I agree that we aren't maximising out potential revenue streams and I think this is an immediate priority.
I don't think anyone can argue that money was wasted on squad players, but there is disagreement about whose responsibility that was.
You're right, there should have been turnover in the squad post-Seville, but I'm the first to admit I'd have been against it at the time due to lack of foresight on my part.
And I repeat, in my opinion Larsson is the exception and was worth every single penny.
The present team, has achieved nothing but let's wait at least until the end of the season before we make our judgements.
Senor Pablo Diablo
p.s. can I take this opportunity to congratulate our cuddly south-side chums? It's now a whopping NINE full days since they last dropped points in the SPL. Perhaps they've turned the corner? Well done Rangers! I reckon they could keep this run going at least until 2:15pm on Saturday!
:)
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rintimtim-that statement seems a bit uglist.
true,but uglist.
bit worried we may be overconfident for the game on saturday,as long as g.strachan and the team aren't.
how come bulgaria are playing on thursday when all the other friendlies are on wednesday?
channel light vessel
automatic
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Martybhoy
I can't see any argument with developing a Celtic store in London. It doesn't have to be in a prime site - true fans are prepared to travel. There are enough relatively 'low rent' options in and around the city which are also in areas with high 'Celtic' populations. Surely worth a go?
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What do you expect when you have a guy from 'What Every Woman Wants' running the show? I met him a few weeks ago, he was dressed head to toe in cheap and nasty clothing. Use cheap, get cheap.
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ardoch-g.strachan is the guy from w.e.w.w.?
blimey!
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Ardoch
I've no idea who you are slagging off.
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One of our 'esteemed' directors. The one put there by the silver spoon he acquired by way of having been adopted by a millionaire.
Not that i am envious or anything!
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Ardoch........chill out......I dont think Mr M Mcdonald has complete control over our shops etc
He is not a PLC director.
His family invested a few million pounds into Celtic.
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dick grayson aka'robin,the boy wonder'is on the board at celtic?
holy biscuit tins!
wait till word of this gets round the seafarers mission!
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Ardoch
I'm probably leading a sheltered life, but what are you going on about??
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Just a wee point with directors of CFAC rather than Celtic plc.
Does anyone know what they do as directors? They are Peter Lawwell, Eric Riley, John Keane, Micheal McDonald and Kevin Sweeney. They have a seat on the board of Celtic Football and Athletic Company Limited. Do they ever meet?
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Gerry if my had their money he would invest a few million too, but i wouldn't expect to get a job bringing money into the business when i clearly don't have the expertise. It is another example of Celtic settling for the cheap option. It does my head in.
Just as the huns use 'oven ready' we should use 'cheap'.
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Should have said if my dad had their money.
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Well well - two interesting news stories in one day - with the press spinning wherever they can.
1) Henrick - what a man - not only a legend but a very clever one at that. None of you will be surprised to know how much I agree with Henrick. My argument is that the failure to spend at all after Seville was shameful - the waste of a great opportunity. The fact that we didn't has led us into the downward financial spiral ever since - we downsized.
Of course the press spin on this is spectacular. Magic going out with a girl and Henrick lamanting a missed opportunity - must be the week before an old firm game - what a villanous lot our team are. Perhaps the press should concentrate on the sectarian conviction of a captian of a senior scottish football club - naw thought not.
2) The McLeish saga - the press have been lining up to say he should be given longer. Murray has been preparing the ground here to make himself look magnanimous. Of course the real story is that his targets have all turned him down - but the laptop loyal wont report that!!
Our best answer is simply to beat them again on Saturday.
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Ardoch.......I see your point but....do they have a job at Celtic? do they get paid?
We have just appointed a commercial director to bring in new money.
we may never find out what they do..:-)
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I already know what he does gerry, that's why i am complaining.
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David Murray says: "We want to give McLeish time to turn this round. The situation will be reviewed at the start of December."
What he really means is: "We're too skint to sack him and too skint to get in a replacement, so we'll simply have to pray that he wins at least two of the next four games. Otherwise, our season will be over by Christmas and it's every man for himself. Stand by the lifeboats!"
The next few weeks could be historic... and hysterical!
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Al Obundy 4:43
I may have taken a different slant from you on Henrik, but I thought maybe he was talking about us choosing to re-invest in our existing players instead of a clear-out.
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My take on McLeish staying longer is a bit different from others on here.
It makes football sense to keep him for the next few games. Whoever comes in aint gonna turn things round overnight. The mint realises that no matter who comes in, they are likely to lose at Celtic Park, Porto and possibly Easter Road. He will therefore let Eck take the flack for losing or at best drawing those games then punt him. That way the new man has a few easier games to start winning.
If they change manager today, the new man would be under the cosh from day one.
Not as dramatic as everyone elses take, but probably closer to the real story.
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EdwardUrsus,
You said in your post last night "isn't it better to leave stories of personal lives to the usual suspects in the tabloids" - I agree with you 100% - but maybe you can let us know when they going to start dishing the dirt on Alex? After he stops being your manager perhaps? If this was a Celtic employee, I think the story would have been all over the rags ad nauseum, but someone working for FC Dignity has done an outstanding job burying this story.
To Paul67, EdwardUrsus and the rest of CQN, I would like to clarify my position on the above. I couldn't care less what the man does in his private life and I have genuinely no intention of lowering the tone of this site. However, I think you all know by now that I don't particularly like spin-doctors, hypocrites and suppressors of the truth and FC Dignity are currently masters of it (It wasn't always so - see previous posts). After Alex McLeish won his first championship in 2003, he spoke in one of their in-house editorials about how he gets away from the stresses of football by being a good family man (this included a vomit-inducing line about his wife, kids and wee scotty dog ! ). There are people out there who know different and it is pretty galling to hear blatant lies, half truths and blatant spin being reported as FACT by the scottish media. If Celtic were cut one-tenth of the slack FC Dignity are by the media I would be happy. But it appears to me that one club tries (badly) to tell the truth and is routinely portrayed as a liar, and another tries not to tell the truth (brilliantly) and its words are taken as gospel.
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Well said glasshalfull!!!
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Good evening Celtic fellows and fellow Celts ! Welcome to Monday night on the CQN quiz. Tonight's has a euro flavour and will bring back memories of dark nights, bright floodlights and smoke wafting from the main stand......the good old days, although these times ain't so bad just now - more of the same on Saturday please WGS !
Name 8 players who have been named european footballer of the year who have played a competitive match against Celtic at Parkhead.
Not neccesarily in the same season and no friendlies or testimonials.
Fire away !!!
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I also have acurious Jock Stein poem to print this week on Tues or Wed.
You'll see what I mean by curious when you read it. It's about his appointment as manager in 1965 and it's strangely entertaining.
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Two for starters St. Anthony:
Maldini and Cruyff
JonG
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st.anthony
I'll go for 2 recent winners, Shevchenko and Nedved.
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RHonaldino another St.Ant>
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st. anthony,
how about:
Luis Suarez (Barca early 60's)
Joseph Masopust (DUKLA '67)
Gianni Rivera (Milan '69)
Cruyff (Ajax early '70's)
Igor Belanov (Kiev '86)
Michael Owen (Liverpool '97)
Nedved (Juve '01)
Shevvhenko (Milan '04)
Possibly Oleg Blokhin (Kiev '75)?
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Matthias Sammer,St Ant>
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Hey Firsbyhoop:
Gees a loan ae that book!
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Jon G - right with Ctuyff (71, 73, 74), wrong with Maldini. Can't believe Paolo never won that award ! Ronaldinho hasn't won it either !
Martinobhoy - spot on with Nedved 92003) and Shevchenko (2004).
Firsbyhoop - correct with Masopust (62), Rivera (69), Belanov (860 and Owen (2001). Suarez and Blokhin incorrect.
Only one to go !
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Laudrup...
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Peter Lovestobottleit?
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Jon G - Sammer is incorrect.
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Laudrup - incorrect.
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St. Anthony,
Eusebio?
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St Ants-
Kevin Keegan with Hamburg .
The situation with rangers is getting very silly.
The manager who couldn,t get a win in a lucky bag is given a two week stay of execution "to turn things around".
His next three games are-
Away to the soon-to-be-European Champions-US !
Away to the former European Champions-Porto
Away to next seasons other Champions League qualifiers-Hibs.
Who is the mint trying to kid this time?
Nobody wants the worst job in football-how do you turn around a team of diddies without any cash ?
Or TIME ?
The rangers support are pretty demanding and fickle.
would you put your head in a lions gub ?
Singapore- Cheers !
J.Quinn67-well done sir.
Sean.zo-
" s h i t z u ".
-quality !
noel.
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Jon G
The wonders of internet search engines! Still can't work out the last one though.
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Paul,
I found Nakamura's comments fascinating. I also found the full article of Henrick's fascinating and quite different from the spin being put upon it by BBC Scotland. The only concern I have is that MacGeady seems to be the accepted left winger. I would like to think that for a wee while yet, Sutton would automatically walk back into the starting line up, as would Magic and Beattie before the young man, which perforce would mean someone else having those duties. Still, it's a nice problem to be grappling with.
One other thing, it takes me all my time to keep up with all the threads on here, I just wonder how Edward Ursus manages so well, since he presumably spends even more time scanning sites devoted to his benighted heroes. Is he a closet Tim, I ask myself?
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st. anthony,
Paolo Rossi (Juve '82)?
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The supreme Marco Van Basten.
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Yep Dick Bryne
Eusibeo.
Right, ants?
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FIRSBYHOOP:
Where i came from iv'e only just got my head round Deisel trains,and you want me to find search engines!
St. Anthony:
Paulo Rossi ?
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Eusebio, Rossi, Keegan, Van Basten - all incorrect.
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Stephen Gerrard?
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Jean-Pierre Papin
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Sure you are right on Eusibeo?
Didn't Jean Pierre Papin come on as a sub for PSG?
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I hope we can add ZiZou to the list next season. Real Madrid would have us on toast right now, but i'd love to be able to say i saw Zidane play in the flesh.
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Damn ! Eusebio is correct but still one more to go - apologies.
Not Gerard or Papin.
Clue ; 1960's.
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st anthony
long shot
Allan Simonsen (Borussia Mgbach '77)
Played for Ajax '82?
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How about Cruyff, Schevchenko, Nedved, Rhonaldino, Maldini, Jean Pierre Papin, Owen and Eusebio
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1968, against Dynamo Kiev, Lev Yachine.
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Just guessing now St. Anthony - did Florian Albert play against us for Ujpest?
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Noel;
One thing you can bet on is they most certainly will not be playing flowing attacking football.
A lost cause is a lost cause.
Big Eck can get them to fight,but he doesn't have enough time,and also it's the wrong type of oppositionfor them to face at this particular time.
The nerves of Rangers players are bound to be stretched to breaking point because the criticism is not only affecting the manager,it has spread right through the whole orgaisation.
At the first sign of organised presure they will fall like a pack of playing cards.
I can see bodies everywher,red cards,yellow cards,and mayhem in the press,as the rope tightens.
Can't wait personally!
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Ardoch-
do you think this bloke is a
thug ?
:P
noel.
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Simonsen, Yashin and Albert are incorrect. As I have to dash shortly it's only fair I reveal the final name.
George Best (Hibees). I know, I know it's a sneaky one but it was a competitive match.
More posers midweek.
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If you check out that "thug" link-
look at Keanes handshake-or lack of it -and Gary Neville-it was him Viera was having a go at-sneering back.
noel.
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Just as I was going to say George Best.
The complete list is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Footballer_of_the_Year
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This sounds like genius. Boston Celtic soccer team anyone????
Barça Follow Up On MLS Interest 14/11/05
Barcelona president Joan Laporta is again speaking of potential involvement in American soccer after meeting with league officials during his MLS Cup visit.
The La Liga kings had spoken of interest last year, and the subject arose as Laporta was invited to the final as a special guest.
“Our interest is in the future, starting an FC Barcelona team or obtaining a franchise in MLS," he said at halftime. "We are at the beginning of the process."
"We have to talk to MLS first and reach an agreement, but New York, Los Angeles, Dallas - you never know."
"It could be very interesting to have a presence here," Laporta continued. "We will be studying more in depth the system and I hope to be infused with the way of working here."
"There is no hurry, but I reiterate that we are very pleased with MLS for having invited us to this final and to have followed the conversations that we started a year ago."
The Barça chief was also impressed with the final contest, won in extra time by Los Angeles.
"The individual quality of players is very good," said Laporta. "Maybe it is a little different in tactics and the organization on the field, but I am enjoying the game."
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Well done, St. Anthony - another goodie!
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Neg Anon
I seem to have missed this storey.
Who was the captain of the Scottish side charged with sectarianism?
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I have so much hopes for this coming Saturday.
I am excited about the prospect of us winning .
I did not think that such hope would be reasonable under Mr Strachan.
We are only 1/2 way through the double header,but i hope to be able to post that Mr Strachan is proving me wrong and confirm that i have badly misjudged him.
Mr Strachan well done on the last win,and good luck for Saturday.
Please kill off all my fears .
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The hysteria re rangers and eck at the moment should be put into perspective.
1. FACT: rangers are at the same playing level they were in 1986, pre the mint’s Millions. I can remember thinking at the time ‘how can they keep paying Millions for and to these players without going bust’? Honest I did!
2. FACT: rangers are now worse off financially than in 1986 therefore, can’t buy their way out of trouble.
3. FACT: Despite the Millions spent, hence their current state, they never made any inroads in Europe – you have to laugh at the ‘equivalent of semi final of the CL’ in ’93 (only 8 teams in the competition) – if memory serves me right after they played Marseille away they lost and/or drew the next game at home and Marseille beat Brugge away from home winning the group easily.
4. FACT: Pre the mint’s millions rangers had only won 2 league titles in over 20 years ’75 and ‘78
5. FACT: rangers are now in their natural position in Scottish Football. Can’t wait to see gates of 2,500 v Partick Thistle, on a Saturday again – I wonder how many of them were Thistle fans, after all it was a Glasgow Derby!
6. FACT: If Ayr Utd hadn’t knocked back the mint, they would never have won 1 never mind 9 in a Row.
All of the above would obviously be a lot worse if it weren’t for the old board at Parkhead!
Paul I’m with you on the period of Celtic domination.
CaltonTongues
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Noel
Regarding Murray and McLeish, I think Bertie Bogtrotter at 7.18 got it spot on.
Why bring in a new guy when your next 3 games are away to Celtic, Porto and Hibs? Far better to let McLeish take the flak for any failures in these 3 games, say "well I gave him a chance" then bring in someone new with a set of easier games to face.
Of course with Rangers' form at the moment is there such a thing as a run of easy games?
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Figo (sporting)? 1993
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St Anthony, did figo not get a game at Parkhead in 1993, he played in the away leg and was in the squad for the home match programme?
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The cost of sacking McLeish is estimated to be about £850 00 to Rangers.
The reward for qualification for the next stage of the Champions league is £1.1 million.
Is McLeish being asked to get the results that will finance his sacking? Just a thought :-)
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Seeing St Ants has buggered off for the evening.
Can anyone confirm that Jean Pierre Papin played for Bordeaux at Celtic Park in November 2000?
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Saw that ages ago Noel. At least Keane is an upfront thug i suppose, Viera is a sly sneaky sod.
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Tinytim
The captain of stranraer.
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Papin retired years ago surely. I definitely saw Van Bastin at Celtic park when he was a youngster, it might have been a friendly, but i thought he was in the squad when we beat them years ago.
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CaltonTongues, a kindred spirit.
The key detail about the Rangers progress between 1986 and 1993 (when they stopped progressing) was that it was done against an inflating transfer market.
Mistakes were made, but were sold quickly.
Murray failed to see the bubble burst. The policy which had served him well in the past, failed him when Dick Advocat spent all that money.
You have also noticed the ‘generational’ tide that these things seem to flow in (though they actually won 3 leagues during the previous 20 years).
As an aside – there was a steel price bubble building in recent years as the Chinese appetite was growing. Since the turn of the year prices have fallen. I wonder….
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Mcleish 25/1 For Job Saving Hat Trick
McLEISH 25/1 FOR JOB SAVING HAT TRICK.....With Rangers' boss Alex McLeish under pressure to produce three winni ng results to save his job as Rangers' boss, William Hill are offering 25/1 that Rangers can beat Celtic, Porto and Hibs in their next three matches
IT WOULD ALMOST MAKE YOU FEEL SORRY FOR HIM
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CaltonTongues
You forgot:
FACT: Rangers are currently closer to Falkirk in TENTH place in the SPL than they are to Hearts in 2nd.
Oh well, brings a wee smile to my face anyway!
Senor Pablo Diablo
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Negative Anon
We did spend after Seville, quite heavily I'd add.
Sorry for doing your job Paul!
If you have a grudge about that then it must be towards MON not the board.
You can't spend what you don't have...
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Paul
What year did I miss TFOD winning the league between 1966 and 1986?
Senor Pablo
Thank's for that, I was actually FACT OOT!
CaltonTongues
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Great tub thumping Caltontongues! Are you James Forrest in disguise?
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Calton Tongues.9.31pm-
Quality positive post
positive for us I mean.
MartinObhoy-
do you think that the bloke who put £60,000 on Le Guen to become manager of rangers was david murray
-not thinking that Mr.Le Guen would knock him back ?
:P
noel.
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Hi Paul,
Glasshalfull 7.29 :- I can't comment on the story involving Mr McLeish, I honestly know nothing about it. We both agree that the papers should be above this type of story, as far as I'm concerned as long as what someone is doing is legal, then although I may not like it, it's their right to do so in privacy, morality is a private matter, unfortunately the good folks of Britain seem addicted to a diet of salacious ramblings and gossip. Without inviting an argument as it's one I'd be in a minority of one of on this site, I hope you don't mind if I make a comment on your perception of press bias, the same view exists on the gersforum site except there the perception is of a pro Celtic bias. At least one Rangers site has a banner up calling for a boycott of the record due to this anti Rangers perception. I can't say I hold views one way or the other as I very rarely read them
Noel90 8.14 :- I agree the current events at Ibrox are silly to say the least, a chairman must know the correct time to act and in this case has failed in his responsibility to the club. On a lighter note, the other day I mentioned one day winning the C.L as was called delusional, you now claim the mantle *soon to be European champions, I hope you are proud of the fact that I have now to be released into care in the community as they need my bed for you ;)
Parkheadcumsalford 8.18 :- I'm retired on medical grounds, so I've to much spare time on my hands :)
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I was flicking through the recent annual report for Celtic when I came upon the Annual Performance Related Bonus Scheme
It includes a number of key objectives for executive directors. In the light of recent discussions on this site I think the text of the fifth key objective is of interest.
"Attracting, retaining and motivating highly talented individuals and competent journeymen whose skills and services will enable Celtic to meet its strategic objectives."
Well I only made up part of it! :)
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Supercelt-
are you seriously thinking we should feel sorry for this man
sorry Edward.
noel.
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TinyTim 9.25 :- I'm not sure of his name but he is captain of Stranraer, he was in court last week.
Caltontongues :- Sadly I find I can only argue with point number three, there were more than 8 teams in the competition, knock out rounds were held until the last 8 were reached and it then split into two league groups
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Hi all.
My interpretation of the Henrik interview is that he was expecting players to be moved on and new quality brought in.MON gave big contracts to players who had been successful for him and he rewarded them with contracts using up the budget.Who knows if we had even identified any players as potential replacements for those we would move on.
I cannot believe that the ref is MacDonald, he is the second worst to Underhill in my opinion.
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Calton Tongues,
Spot on Mate!
Rangers need to be put into perspective. My only real worry is that MIH are such financial trouble that they will be forced to sell assets ie RFC. Should this be the case, my then worry is that a business savvy consortium may take them over, turns them into a PLC and makes them sustainable (4th or better… they can’t get much worse…or can they)
That said, Murray’s ego will hopefully prevent this happening.
Long live the Mints ego!
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Tinytim,
Stranraer captain found guilty of sectarian abuse-shouting fenian b's at some people in a pub.
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newtagggsybhoy
Thanks, I had to get that off my chest, been trying to get on Radio Snide for ages to hit BFDJ wae that one. I couldn't print here what I was going to say to that wee traitor Walker with his 'I didn't think rangers were physical' in the last game.
Yours in domination (the fitba kind)
CaltonTongues
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4422458.stm
The story on the stranraer captain.
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supercelt-
if murray had put his£60,000 on that bet at 25/1.
He still wouldn,t have enough for o n e quality player.
noel.
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CaltonTongues, Rangers won the league in '75, '76 and '78.
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Noel, i said i almost feel soory for
THIS MAN
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Noel90
Always positive about the 'Tic.
Especially after watching the game again yesterday then 'It's A Wonderful Life' on Sky then to top it all off the tip I got for Cheltenham stoated in!
CaltonTongues
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Paul,
Thanks, I must have still been drunk from '75. The shock and all that! '79 is pretty fuzzy to apart from a certain 4-2.
CaltonTongues
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Calton Tongues
1975,76 & 78.
Your Facts are very interesting. Murray got in just before the football boom started. This coincided with the English clubs being banned from Europe. Where would Rangers have been without their English players in those days. If they'd been restricted to the Scottish market all the money in the world wouldn't have been as of much benefit as getting those players from England.
In 1986 they had in relative terms an outstanding stadium. They introduced season tickets for the masses. They had corporate hospitality way beyond anything else in Scotland. They had a dream, fostered by the media, that they could win the European Cup. Now all those things are gone or everyone else has them as well.
I just don't see where they can go from here to maintain their support. The shares issues have been ignored. Society & demographics are moving against them. A slow painful death.
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supercelt-
you talking about one of these men ?
noel.
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Caltontongues,
Respect !!
Lest we forget the "the SPL is not good enough for us to compete in Europe" excuse sandwiched between Dundee Utd and Celtics European cup finals. That period, the prime Murray years you could say also witnessed the utter demise of the Scottish national team. Rangers on the down? I wonder if we'll see a revival in the national teams prospects if Paul67 assertion of a dominant period for Celtic is realised.
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supercelt-
do you think this man should be replaced by this fat bloke?
noel.
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FrankieBhoy
'A Slow painful death' and have you seen the price of prescriptions noo days?
CaltonTongues
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Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
Agree 100%. Although brought up during the glory years, I think first and foremost we win the league every year as I attend every game home and away, bread and butter if you like. Hopefully, in time, we will catch up with the Barcelona's etc but, as has been noted here many times TV revenue rules. Until then, I'll enjoy scrappy one nil away wins every other week to win the league.
CaltonTongues
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Noel
The Le Guen story was a strange one. Darryl Broadfoot ran a bizarre story on Saturday in the Herald that Le Guen had been sold on Ibrox with the promise that he could take over from Wenger at Arsenal. Anyway Darryl seemed certain that Le Guen was on his way. Then on Sunday the Herald led with a story saying there was no way Le Geun was going to Ibrox.
Now I know that the Herald and Sunday Herald are two different papers but it does seem strange that on the Saturday one leads with Le Guen as a cert to be at Ibrox then on the Sunday leads with a story saying the exact opposite.
As for the £60,000 bet, maybe it was a very rich and mischievous Celtic supporter trying to get the Rangers' fans hopes up so that they could be dashed today?
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Edward,
This forum is for Irish people as well! Just so you word your future comments correctly!
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Caltontongues
Can't get Clyde that well in my neck of the woods and I only listen to Jim Traynor's show when I know TFOD are queueing up to entertain us. I'm sure the odd maeverick CQNer gets on to these lazy shows but their patience astounds me. The last thing these guys want is intelligent conversation.
Frankiebhoy, I remember a very insightful and chilling letter to The Herald circa 1990ish. It finished something like "Celtic, welcome to the wilderness years". Reading it, the odd Tommy Coyne or Dariusz Wdozcyk moment of magic excepted, the man was sadly prophetic (it wisnae you Edward was it?)
I agree with Frankiebhoy and Paul that the objective financial opportunity for hegemony is here. But the subjective factor is buying the right players and those players doing as they're told. Only if you have as much of a competitive advantage as Chelski does pure cash on its own buy success. Only when we are that far ahead of TFOD, (and why not for heavens sake?), will I gloat as confidently as the Rangers fan in the '90s. Remember when Rangers fans crowed that beating us was not meaningless but meaning less. Oh, changed days!
Singing Easy Easy the other night was great, and I indulged heartily, but only when we were 2 up with 5 mins to go. I always think singing Easy Easy motivates the other team too much and drops our guard. I'd rather bang in another goal than take the p*ss. Then take the p*ss. Then bang in another goal.
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Edward
Thanks for your reply in the wee small hours to our debate regarding Celtic and Rangers relative commercial/financial strengths.
I found your post very interesting and agreed with much of what you said - owners of football clubs do have a shelf life but it may be hard to tell them that and if you don't mind me saying it -telling David Murray he is past it at Ibrox may be near impossible.
You may have read Paul's article from last week in his interview with our Chairman Brian Quinn in which specific reference was made for the need to regularly re-energise the Celtic Board.I was interested and heartened by Mr Quinn's comment and firmly believe that large football instituitions need that re-energising to maintain a solid focus on things.
Your team may now be suffering from the lack of focus that comes from one man being in charge for too long.
I worked in Ayrshire back in the mid80's when DM first tried to buy his way in to football by striking a deal for Ayr Utd.
As you probably know better than I he is (or was)more of a Rugby follower but seen the opportunity that football might give him.
I am not in a position to reveal the story told to me but I knew someone very well who was at Ayr United at the time when DM made the bid and the reasons why the club repulsed him.
Soon after, the Football Gods presented him with an opportunity way beyond his wildest dreams and before he knew it he owned Rangers.
Within six months or so he went from trying and failing to buy Ayr United to being owner of RFC
To my mind the success came too quickly and too easily for him and that period 1986-1999 was a dominant one for Rangers as we and other teams grappled with some sreious re-structuring problems in the economics of football.
However when the regular diet of success stopped and a resurgent Celtic became a serious barrier to his ambitions the way to deal with this was to spend serious shekels in reclaiming that dominance.
Unfortunately now those shekels simply are no longer there and so a new tactic is required. However any new bold strategies require a huge amount of energy and time to see them through and I am not sure he has that available because he is running a major corporation outside of Rangers.
The problem is becoming more intractable - he doesn't have the time, he doesn't have the focus and he doesn't have the money.
Success in football (even in a relative backwater like Scotland) is no longer a simple recipe - it is much more complex now in 2005 than it was in the mid-80's when DM took over your club.
He himself may be wiser and more experienced but he is also nearly 20 years older and cannot commit the same energy as before.
Not sure how you get around this one but it seems to me that the lack of focus, uncertainty and serious loss of confidence is not only restricted to your team on the park, your coaches and manager but right through the organisation.
I don't mean this personally against you but long may it continue.
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MartinOBhoy-
thanks.
I think that is the nail-in-the-coffin of darryl broadfoot and he is now my nomination for " lazy journalist of the year ".
any other nominations?
-closing date anybody?
will we buy the winner a wee trophy ?
Paul could present it to him at a Celtic newsconference.
noel.whonominatesd.broadfootas
lazyjournooftheyear.
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Noel
I'll second your nomination for Darryl.
Cheers.
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Mark "Tim" Molloy
your 9:18 post is maybe a clue to one of the new ways Glazer thinks he can make money from Man Utd - perhaps a summer league made up mainly of reserves with star guest appearances during the European close season and during pre-seaon training (play-off time?) Celtic would certainly be invited to that party!
VertWolf
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Martinobhoy - I wouldn't underestimate them. There are a few decent names being linked to the job. The only saving grace is the more they spend on a manager the less they have to spend on players which is probably the Catch 22 Murray is facing just now. And the real reason for his reluctence to sack Eck.
Newtaggsybhoy - I share your unease at just how "easy, easy" this season is panning out. If last season taught us anything it was to take one game at a time!
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Shamrock Diary
surely a key factor in the winding down of the Murray mint is the drying up of the overseas supporters who had ill-gotten gains to invest on the promise of major returns - I am sure they still exist but no credible returns can now be envisaged
Fortunately our board seems to have put their finger on the real sources of sustainable income - noticed at Heathrow the other day that Celtic strips were one of only 3 or 4 from the UK on sale - it was a Nike shop but that is the profile we are looking for
VertWolf
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rintimtim
barca v malaga
the defender did not touch the ball at all - watch the replay
ronaldinho made the most of the challenge
technically a penalty whether he played for it or not
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Noel
I'll third your nomination for 'Sooty' Broadfoot.
EdwardUrsus
I have given you quite a hard time in the past but as usual you present your argument well even though I disagree with it. Could it be that the Rangers fans perception of the press is based on the fact that the press isn't totally in your pocket in the same way as it was in the period 5-10 years ago (I am thinking of pockets of resistence like Spiers, Gibbons and ... dare I say it .. McNee).
You and I run the risk of boring the rest of the contributors with this so let me just make the same promise to the CQN community as I have made to my Celtic supporting friends.
The day I see a special report (at least 4 pages) about your club featuring A BROKEN CREST and the headline banner "CLUB IN CRISIS" at the top of each page in a copy of the Daily Record is the day I will stop complaining permanently about media bias in this country.
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Vertwolf
You are right.
ENIC lost a fortune on their investment and wanted out so much that they were prepared to write down a lot of that cash.
The guy King from South Africa has ended up being caught up in some big investigation over there. Not sure if he has any direct involvement but his direct involvement in RFC is now distictly less valuable than it was and he has no time to sort that out with DM as he has to spend so much time back in South Africa.
These two examples will deter other investors and anyway the fact that DM owns over 80% of the organisation and his myriad other subsidiary companies are locked in to RFC will also make other investors wary.
let's face it - the City of London is always looking to put investment in to businesses and football is by any standards high risk but the rights issue last year was 99% underwritten by DM and MIH
If ever there was a sign that fans, investors and the City have little or no confidence in the product then that was it.
To my rather ignorant understanding of these things the fact that DM had to buy most of the rights issue last year further enhanced his hold on the club and by extension made it even more unpalatable for joint investors to place their money with an organisation that is absolutely in the control of one individual.
Not sure how many people are out there now willing to chuck £20m plus at an organisation in which they will have no say or real control.
To sell up part or all of RFC would mean DM/MIH taking a major hit of several millions or indeed tens of millions so given that he has little or no chance of getting his investment back he needs to soldier on or write it off.
Can he write it off? Until we see the stability of the MIH group we will not be in a position to judge but my feeling is that he is very unlikely to write off that investment and retire from the limelight - so he will carry on trying to re-organise and re-structure a huge organisation and with no money to do it.
As paul says we could if we focus very carefully take great strides in putting a distance between them and us over the next few years.
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Glass Half Full - It's easy to know whether someone is a Celtic or Rangers man as they put their own team first - it's natural.
Now the day the written media put Celtic's name first and Rangers second in normal alphabetical order in any article about the two clubs or put the Celtic badge above RFC is the day we should feel easy about buying a one of their rags.
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Malone - we did not spend after th Seville year - in fact it took us until this close season to spend reasonably again. The arguments about why they didn't are well rehearsed so I will not repeat.
It is indeed a fine line that divides ambition from madness.
On the sectarian Stranrear captain - what we see is a pattern of the press burying these stories or only telling half truths. Remember the case against the Ranger's fans who were racially abusing Bobo - and the 3 times the police didn't turn up? On the sectarian arrests last Wednesday around 90% were from the Ranger's end?
So is this country serious about tackling these issues? Answers on a postcard to.....
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I have a confession that I fear will go down like the proverbial pork pie at a Jewish wedding...
I look forward to Rangers improving and gaining their rightful place as Celtic's cheif competitors.
Why?
Firstly, from a purely personal perspective - I can't see me enjoying a rivalry with Hearts/Hibs in the way I do with the Huns. It's just not as intense - winning or losing, but especially winning.
Secondly, no other team has the capacity to raise the bar for Celtic that will allow them to improve in preparation for European competition.
Thirdly, The commercial streams are quite dependant on the established rivalry - frankly the TV companies won't fall over themselves to buy a Celtic Hearts battle in the way i'm sure they do for Old Firm games.
Lastly, what can be sweeter than aclose run thing with the Huns and beating them - which i'm sure will be the future of Scottish football and ultimately the ticket to EPL or beyond.
In summarry - I'm relishing their current predicament and would love to see a freefall, ideally with a relegation scare for good measure, but as far as long term goes - they need to resume their rightful place as Scotland's second best team. This will be for the long term good of Celtic.
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Interesting assessments of David Murray. He certainly did benefit from circumstances, including our own. He definately was good for them, I think he sold gazza for the same fee that he bought him. Effectively a free transfer.
I think his big problem is, as others have said, that he got too much, too easy. What he is facing is hard work and longer term strategies/solutions.
The biggest hurdle for him is his ego. Don't know how the press lets him away with it (ok, I do). Remember the end of the transfer window? Rangers sign loads of world class players, Fan Fan, Jeffers, etc. Murray said 'I promised the support 4 top class players, and I have delivered'.
These are the same players that have let McLeish down. I firmly believe that Murray selected players from France who, he thought, could become Boumsong signings.
The ego gets in the way. But the ego is no longer enough to carry the day.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there is a lot that is in place at Rangers. They have the stadium, the training facilities, the fan base. A new owner with 30 million to spend could turn that ship around.
