 Sunday, June 24, 2007
Japanese commercial opportunity for Celtic and Nakamura
I see that Shunsuke Nakamura is one of only two foreign based players in the 30-man provisional Japan squad for the Asian Cup. Despite a healthy number of Japanese players earning the money in European leagues, coach Ivica Osim has elected to go to next month’s tournament with players he has been able to watch week in week out.
This is a great compliment to Nakamura, and to Eintracht Frankfurt’s Naohiro Takahara, and underlines the marketing opportunity Celtic have in Japan.
The requirement to play a Champions League qualifying round this season curtailed Celtic’s preseason globetrotting, otherwise I am sure a return visit to Japan would have taken place.
Japan is the second largest market in the world; one where Shunsuke is a major commercial property, advertising Toyota, among other brands. Another successful Asian Cup performance (he was voted Most Valuable Player in the 2004 tournament), will sell a whole lot of green and white merchandise a long way from Glasgow.
111 Comments:
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Only place where the hun's rising.
Sack Duffield.
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......er......sun
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We're back in action.
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The articles just keep coming..... No gardening duties for you, Paul?
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weeron
The weather is not conducive to gardening duties. Rain and high winds here in G83.
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Yes the rain is off, get out there!
If the club play in Japan again I would hope that they would do better than last year.
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blog working again?
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over the last few days posters have been asking why no departures from cp i think moves away will be nearer the end of the window ,the teams that go for miller,jj,tg bobo will be taking more of a gamble with these players as there not at the top of there form ,and will be after more high profile targets but if they dont get them will come in for our players,just the way we in previous years have signed players very late in the day
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peat would it be ok for me to contact by e-mail regarding the same reason as tttt will not do so until you give the ok cheers
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The wee man, fire away.
TTTT, youve got mail.
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what pussy broke the blog?
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Derek Dougan RIP
Arthur Lee -
it was probably some Fanni
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Paul67
All dis satisfaction wi' da Board...we canny allow tae continue!
It's agin da Grain! It's quite Insane!
As Kojo says,
"It simply isnae... Inyou!
We canny afford tae let der recent Shrewdness,
Tae Blin' us tae der Innate... SCROOGENESS!
Hiv ye hid a Deck at der latest Ploy?... if ye hivnae, den listen this...
A' ye Tim Malloy!
Dey hiv hid da cheek, tae increase da Price o' Da EXECUTIVE SEATS!
An' did they no Under- Dae it!
Dey hiv slapped a Twenty Seeven Per Cent,oan tae da Annual Rent!
Things wur Too Guid tae Last!
We jist KNEW IT!
"Noo,Us Poor Rich Guys, wull hivtae gie up, oor Hauf Time Pies!"
An' if DAT, wiz no Bad Enuff...
Dey ur considerin' tae prohibit...
Oor wee Sly Puff!
My, things aroon' Here...
Ur sure gettin Michty Tuff!
Well...Whit kin we dae?
Quit Foallowin' da Bhoys??
Nae WAY!
We'll jist show oor Discontent...
Wi' a HUFF!
collie.
Tail's Awaggin', Awaggin'
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paul67
on this subject are you surprised we have not looked to bring in a korean or chinese player to further exploit the far east market this year, or do u think mcdonald and killen were players brought in with oceana market in mind
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wg
has Fanni had a mention on your cooking blog?
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Paul,
Do we have any estimate on merchandise related earnings thus far in Japan since our friend Nakamura signed?
I suspect he already paid for his transfer with his free kick against Man Utd, but maybe he has paid for himself 2 or 3 times over on mechandise?
Thom
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AL -
you'll need to ask Chef, are you going to the Teser later ?
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watching the Dubs just know and having a few beers.
will let u know shortly
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As it's the Birthday of John the Baptist I'm expecting the Dance of the Seven Veils in the smoking quarter of the Herodian palace which is The Teser. Salome will be serving up copious amount of real ale (£1.55 on the Sabbath)and if we don't get headless we're sure to get legless.
Half my kingdom anyone ?
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Apologies to all for problems with the blog earlier. I tried to fix it for ages, and then it burst into life when I was away.
Ciao Weeron, you are clearly living thousands of miles from ‘home’. On my way out this morning I thought. ‘Holiday next week, so I better get the grass cut.” Some hope, the weather is decidedly inclement.
Collie, 27% tax on the ‘rich’, hmmm. The board reveal their Trotsky tendencies!
Antsman, recruiting from Asia is a tricky business. Naka worked, but we found him in Italy.
Thom Maley, great to see that family name on the blog.
Naka paid for his transfer with the trip to Japan last year. I cannot give you any more accurate that that, but he is a positive earner for the club.
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Right ghuys and ghals, my passport is due for renewal so it's time to fight the foty-machine in ML2 Morrison's. £4 a go. I've budgeted for £36, that's 9 goes for the arithmetically challenged.
Wish me luck.
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Paul67
Dis is a day fur Non Sequiturs!
So forgive me Paul... fur here comes anither, tae endure!
Da Boss, Kojo an' Mabel... went tae da Boxin'.. as in Match..
Dey went tae see da HITMAN....naturally,
NATCH!
Da Boss wiz bustin' wi' pride,
as Ricky thumped his Opponent an' took him tae School...
My, Hatton hiz put pit a wee bit o' Fat On....
But, his Punchin' Wiz Deadly an' COOL!
Although, ah didnae go,ah still hid an interest, ye know!....
Fur ah pit a Gambler's Nickel, oan da Winnah!
But much tae ma despair, dat Devious Pair....
Hiv noo, Demanded Ah tak dem Tae Dinnah!
As Mabel is ever da Lady.... she nevah wid day anything Sae Shady!
But, bein' da guid dug dat ah am...
Besides, ah am fed up wi' Kibbles an' SPAM!!!!!...
Ah'll jist show ma Class, fur she is a guid Lass...
an' Invite Her as well, tae da Dinnah!
collie.
Tail's Awaggin', Awaggin'
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WidelenseGuy
i will bring another £40 just in case
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From last thread.
TTTT @15.43 :- I honestly (though I could be mistaken) that there is nothing to the story, firstly I can't see us spending that amount on a single player, and much as it hurts me to say it I can't see what would be in it for the player.
GG @ 15.47 :- I'm very rarely on the Follow Follow site I prefer the GersForum, it does seem to be a bit more balanced and has no rules against Celtic fans posting as long as they are open about it. As far as reaction goes it ranges from hopeful to disgust at the way we have fallen behind in the finance stakes.
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Collie, on the pugilistic theme…
Martin (42) gave me an Official Programme to copy today..
Benny Lynch v Jim Warnock (Belfast)
2 June 1937, Celtic Park, Glasgow.
Times have changed in Glasgow in the last 7 years.
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Celtic make a major signing and lo an behold the compliant, willfully
ignorant laptop loyal churn out a piece to deflect from the Emperor with no clothes.
How many Fanni stories can we take in one weekend?
The True Picture
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Paul67
Noo, ye've goan an done it!
Benny da Lynch?
Here is a Wee Johnny McGrory...Ah hiv a Million o' dem...at a Pinch!
Ma Uncle's Faither, wiz a Middle Weight Champ... but mair interesting dan dat, he an Benny wur wee Rascals an' Scamps!
Der used tae be a Graveyerd in Caledonia Road....dat wiz in da Glasgow, Gorbals... in da C.5. Code!
Ma Gramps, he an' Benny wur caught Hivin' Fun...
Dey wur Pushin' ower GraveStanes!..it wiz pure Havoc dey Done!
Alang came a Polis, an' arrested da Twaw...
Dey wur taken tae Court...tae da Affront o' der Maw!
Da Sheriff he sentenced dem sternly dat day.....
He prescribed DA DREADED, BIRCH.....
14 Lashes...He say!
Noo, dat wiz in da Auld Days dat SOME o' Us ca' Da Good!
An' ma Gramps later thanked da Sheriff... fur it sure chinged his Attitude!
collie.
Tail's Awaggin',Awaggin'
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Peat - you're a gent, sir. I'll have a go at that during the week.
My, that's a Tim name you've got....and why not?!
Where did "Peat" come from? Anything to do with the land across the sea or maybe a particular type of malt?
EDB - does Glasgow really have a code as high as G83? It's no' the BarL is it?!
Paul - reading between the tabloid lines, the scouting & asset management philosophy is starting to bear some exciting fruit. If Massimo and Skoosh fulfill their promise, then what pricetags will they have in two years? Maceo and the "French defender" - two more great prospects?
I'll live with the asset management, as long as I'm watching fast-flowing, on the carpet footie next season and beyond. 3-in-a-row and last 8 CL wouldn't be too greedy either, eh?!
TTTT
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R.I.P Derek Dougan. A visionary during the dark days of the recent Irish troubles.
He was villified for advocating an all Ireland football team in the early seventies. Not a bad idea for our small island. Also a bustling centre forward with Wolves who had a fine scoring record. Another fine character from yesteryear departs. Hail hail!
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Collie ah did a bit a boxing masel had to give it up... Hand trouble
The referee kept standing on them.
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Terry - when you were younger, did your folks not give you the boxing gloves for another reason?!
See they Freeman's catalogues....
TTTT
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bhoys and ghirls - here's where some of your season ticket money is going.
Right into our very own fields of dreams
Thanks to the Randalstown Hoops and celticminded.
TTTT
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TTTT ah fell oot the bed wan time in those days an smashed ma pyjamas.
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I notice the Scottish Sunday's have been very low key about our new signing from Italy. Imagine what the headlines would have been like if it had been our 'friends' from across the city who had signed him.
Bhoy are they hurting !!
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TO'N 20.18
teeheehee.......
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In case I forget later, a wee link for awalkacrosstherooftops
Terry :-))))
Some of the funniest conversations I've had with my mates involves them telling their own humiliating versions of being "outed" by a family member at that stage in their lives.
Thank God we didnae have t'internet back then, or our growth would have been stunted!
TTTT
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TerryO
Dis is a true storee, which your remarks dey hiv triggered...
when ah tell it to you....
you will say.."Whoda figgured?"
De guys an' da gals were listenin' tae da Radio.....
It wiz a Boxin' Match, dat wiz wiz takin' place..der wisnae any VIDEO!
De Commentator, he did enthuse as wan Boaxer wiz gettin a Soakin'!
Dis poor guy wiz battered, he wiz mollicated... de Doer wiz Ropa Dopin'!
When suddenly, da Commentator said.... " My word, Bugsy is in Trouble.....he hiz drapped HIS GLOVES, da fight is oan da Bubble!
When Oor Tuesday Gal...cried out in her dismay...
"Quick, stop the Fight.... that is simply not right!
Can't you see it's Unfair?
Let him put Them back on, without them he's helpless.... Don't you Guys have a care?"
So help my Boab, dis tale is true...
It is a story, we always tell tae any visitin' Boxer...
an' noo ah've passed it oan tae you!
collie.
Tail's Awaggin', Awaggin'
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Maradona Was Rubbish.....
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Maradona wisnae very good.....
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Collie
SPAM!!!!!...
Is there a meaning behind this?
Hope you don't mind me asking!
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That's it......I'm going home....
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celticbhoy
Spam is a magical woid... but to read anythin' in my use o' it...
Could be delvin' intae da Absoid!
Neverdaless and neverdamore,it kin conjure up a picture,
o' a Defensive Back, one who is no a Hack...
But could become a Permanent Fixture!
As ah hiv mentioned in da past ..Pierre must next find a Celtic Defense Mender!...
Pierre's noo concentratin' oan bringin' in... a toap qualiteee Defender!
Noo da Name dat is being bandied da Day,
Although, has an Amusin' Lilt.....
Ah hiv nevah heard o' Celtic hivin' an interest in him,
O' eether his Hair or Hilt!
collie.
Tail's Awaggin', Awaggin'
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maradona was/is a football genius.
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Tin Soldiers-
Couldny trap a bag of cement.....
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TTTT all ah can say its just as well a didnt smoke as well shouls have been like ma big brother.
It Pays to live A Wholesome life.
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noel,
Decent skills from the boy Maradona but, let's face it - he's no Alan Hutton...
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Dick-
He's no Sebo either.......
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noel
thank you. i've just been reminded of genius. so few and far between....
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That's true, Noel, but then very few of us are.
PRAISE THE LORD
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I don't really approve of vitalfootball but full marks for the headline...
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Noell
I think Sebo would be a popular signing. He seemed to get a good welcome at celtic Park!
seboooooo!
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Some things in life are great
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Hello been off line for a wee while anything exciting happen!!! I picked up the papers in the shodp this morning and its obvious we ahve not signed anyone but our neighbours are geting a french guy for £4m when the team he plays for knocked back £6m in January...and here's me thinking the sales are usually in January.
TTTT in dying to know Peats name now if yo uare calling it a tim name. As your name fits right into the local lodges president board... not....
Anyway the Manics are on so life is good.
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There was something in one of the Sunday rags today about TFOD being linked with a guy called Rat!
No Noel, it wasn't Roland.
Anyone heard anything about this guy?
Terry - this might be the cause of the problem that WGS has previously referred to! The youths are too wee. Nuff said.
TTTT
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Collie,
Wouldn't be going dutch for defender would we?
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Collie :- Re your caledonian graveyard story, back in the late 50s we stayed across the road from it at the same time an uncle was gravedigger there and used to come in for dinner at times. As I'm sure many will remember at that time almost every house had either a holy picture or a picture of King Billy on the wall, in my house it was KB. My uncle Bill was on the RC side of the family and one day as he sat down the pic of KB fell from the wall on to his head. From thyat day on it was a frequently told anecdote in the family that grew in the teling to at the end up the pic was jumping from the wall, taking aim and the clattering him. On reflection not that funny but your tale (singular) brought it back.
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This has been lifted from Celticminded where it had been lifted from CQN when James posted it last year... Where is James now.
Very intersting reading. I will post it in 3 bits
At 2:24 AM, James Forrest said…
Ahh ......... stories of succulent lamb .........
I have spent the past ten or so minutes going over old internet archives for Rangers feel-good tales and am now utterly convinced that the media in this country are absolutely out of their nuts.
Some people think I have an obsession with what the media in this country write. Maybe I have. It comes from being a student of the subject, I suppose, and wondering how it's possible to be paid for writing some of this kind of nonsense.
"Succulent Lamb", which one of the lads reproduced yesterday, is probably THE most sycophantic piece of meladromatic clap-trap it has been my misfortune to read outside of Philip Gould's tome on New Labour, The Unfinished Revolution.
Honestly, if that article had not been written by a man about a man in the context of football, I would have sworn the interview had been conducted by candlelight.
The sensational investment story, which was ALSO re-printed yesterday, is even more staggering. The most obvious thing about it, of course, is that much of what was promised never came to pass. More interesting for me, though, is the position within that story of Dave King, the Man Who.
For those unfamiliar with the Dave King story, this is a man who came from Castlemilk and moved to South Africa as a young man and whilst there built a vast business empire worth hundreds of millions.
I remember the day Dave King gave Rangers £20 million quid. I was working in Glasgow City Council at that time, cutting grass. I was on the way home and stopped to buy an Evening Times, and there was this absolutely INCREDIBLE story, all over the front page, inside pages, back pages, the lot.
Dave King - local boy come good invests in football club. How could that NOT be a big story?
As it happens, I was due to go out for a few pints that night, and I duly did, down to the Gallowgate with a friend of mine. We were joined by some other guys after the first pint and somewhere along the line someone mentioned Dave King and The Times.
"What do you make of that?" my mate asked me. "Anything strike you as funny about it?"
"There's NOTHING funny about it." I said. "Nothing at all."
"Really?" he said. "Not like you."
"Excuse me?" I asked. "What did I miss?"
"Take your time. It will come to you, a man involved in politics."
And it was THAT SIMPLE, so simple that I should have seen it a million miles off. And if my mate could see it, and I could see it, and some of the other boys in the pub could see it, WHY COULDN'T SCOTLAND'S EMMINENT JOURNOS SEE IT TOO???
Who in the Hell was making millions of pounds in 1980's South Africa during international sanctions, at the height of apartheid? Who except retired London gangsters like Charlie Richardson, in bed with the Broderbund and the Bueura for State Security, the diamond synidcates who partly funded the death squads of the AWB and the businessmen who ruthelssly exploited slave-labour and gave money to anti-apartheid parties in order to maintain the status-quo.
Local boy from Castlemilk went to South Africa and made millions PRECISELY HOW??? Was that question REALLY only being asked in one Gallowgate boozer that night?
Dave King, of course, is now largely ruined, facing jail, accussed of multiple counts of tax evasion, money laundering, foriegn currency fraud and racketeering. Yet, he remains a non-Executive director of Scotland's Second Biggest Institution Behind The Church (Copyright David Murray.)
I'm digressing a bit here, actually, because Dave King, for all his sins, and there are many, is only the tip of a very large iceberg, towards which the HMS Rangers is now heading at a very high speed.
Paul has promised us all a look at the Rangers accounts next week; they should make very interesting reading. More interesting still will be the Murray Group accounts, should they ever see the light of day, for they will be what determines whether or not Rangers, under Murray, can catch us in the next few years.
The articles I have been reading over make one thing quite clear; around five or six years ago, Rangers and their sycophants in the press were talking about being out of sight of Celtic by now as well as being a major force in Europe.
That none of this has come to pass has been quite incredible. If today passes without a Rangers signing of REAL SIGNIFICANCE this will be the FIRST TIME in well over TWO DECADES that we have GENUINELY stolen a march on them.
Say what you like about Murray, and we could all say PLENTY, this is a man who should have been presiding over a monarchial dynasty in Scottish football that would have made Paul's Generation of Dominance feel, for us, like a two week all-expenses Vegas Vacation.
Murray has BLOWN an opportunity that was absolutely gilt-edged, and he has blown it in tremendous style. I am firmly of the belief that as long as this ego-maniac, red-blooded, wine drinking, succulent-lamb eating, private jet owning man is in charge of our rivals that we will go on from strength to strength as they get weaker year on year.
Murray's ego is enormous. Likewise, the ego's he has built in his supporters are enormous. The pinch is being felt across town tonight as they realise that LeGuen is the absolute last throw of the dice.
This time last year it was my fervent hope that we could push them into one final insane, ultimately suicidal, spending spree. We have not. The sad truth, for Rangers, is that they do not have even THAT desperate move in them any longer, short of selling their stadium.
Tonight, this morning, as we are riding higher than we have for quite some considerable time, it is worth pondering on the state of affairs across town. There are no hidden millions stuffed in a mattress here, no fortunes resting in banks, no private jets loaded with ten pound notes ready to sweep off to Paris or Madrid or Milan.
Murray with his ego would simply not have allowed us to upstage him in this way if there was ANYTHING he could have done to prevent it.
I leave you with the man's very own words to that effect:
"Understand that I care passionately about what I'm doing with Rangers and believe that in 10 years time we will still be setting the pace."
"Too many of us have put too much into this club and we won't let someone come along and take it all away."
"What I'm saying here is that no matter who buys Celtic from Fergus, they will need to have the deepest of pockets imaginable."
"The fresh challenge would be good for the Scottish game and lift the profile, but Celtic's new owners had better be prepared to spend."
"In the past, Celtic's people maybe just haven't fancied trying to take Rangers on financially, but if I have to go in deeper to keep my club up there then I will. I have done it too many times to be frightened now."
He has done it once too many times. And there is simply no doing it again.
The revolution to rock Scottish football, which the tabloids assured us was coming in the summer, has happened alright. But it happened at Celtic.
As Gandalf himself might have said, if he wasn't a Tim, (I'm watching Return of the King here as I write this) "The darkness has come - there will be no dawn!"
A long, hot summer is about to end. A long, dark winter is about to start for our friends across town. And whilst we look forward to the Champions League they are wondering how it ever came to be this way.
Night all. Pleasant dreams. 22 hours of the transfer window left to go .............
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I think you you must all be kidding me about the Donnatti signing. I have searched, neigh scoured, the reliable tombs of Scottish sporting wisdom - the Herald that is published on a Sunday (so bourgiose it must be reliable) - but NO. NO word of a Seria A signing for the mighty 'tic.
Now given that we are the champions and may have just acquired a very useful player form the current European champions I would have thought this would have been slightly newsworthy.
So i'm sorry, if it is not in such an esteemed tablet of information it cannot possibly be true.
Damn you rogues and your wishful thinking - we must accept we are getting above the accpeted station we find ourselves at in Scottsih society. No Seria A signings for us.
But, yes, plenty of rumours of imminent signings of prospective French internationals - hunted by the top clubs of Europe - about to swear allegiance for the dark but ultimately superior force in Scottsh football.
Aye right !!!
Welcome to 21st century Scotland - just like the good old days.
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Part two...posted on CQN by James Forrest
With the closure of the transfer window only a few hours away, I have decided to post an extended version of the latter half of what I wrote last night on the Rangers finances. Last night I got a little sidetracked, writing about Dave King. So, I’ll leave his background out of this discussion, saying only that anyone who wants to understand the present situation regarding King, a non-Executive director at Ibrox, should read what il postino posted earlier.
Hopefully, this post should provide a good companion piece to what Paul will write on the Rangers accounts later on. His article will lay out for us all exactly what the situation at Rangers is at present. What I want to do is look at what the situation at Rangers was, because I am of the firm belief that had Murray ran that club in a prudent way, in the way OUR DIRECTORS have run OUR club, we would have been far, far behind them at this point.
I am totally convinced of that. So much money has flowed both in and out of Ibrox in the last ten years that it is remarkable. At a time when the European transfer market prices were not even a third of what they are now, Rangers were spending mega-bucks on players as they chased a dream of winning the Champions League.
Stop laughing, now. Once upon a time, they REALLY BELIEVED IT!
(There you go. You’ve got ME laughing now too.)
And boy oh boy, how they blew it!
David Murray took over Rangers in 1989, buying the club for just £6 million pounds – the same money he recently gave Blackburn to bring Bazza back up to Scotland, and two million LESS than what we just received for Stan Petrov. In his first nine years in charge, things were all wine and roses – to say the very least. During that period, Celtic were, not to put too fine a point on it, absolutely stinking. We all remember that time, we all remember well the pain of seeing them win title after title, creeping ever closer to our magic number – and perhaps beyond.
In the process of trying, he spent plenty of money. Laudrup, Gazza and others arrived at Ibrox during that time. It was also during this period that Murray uttered his now famous phrase “for every fiver Celtic spend, I will spend ten”. This was easy to do when you consider that we were absolutely skint at the time.
But then came 1998, the glorious Year We Stopped The Ten. Wim Jansen came to Parkhead and things began to roll, due in no small part to the signing of a deadlocked Swedish dude who’s name eludes me for the time being …………………
Some statistics to consider, first:
In 1998, Murray had spent some £90 million pounds on players and some £50 million pounds on the stadium. The clubs overall debts at the time were hovering at or near the £18 million mark. This was after a decade in charge of the club.
Just two years previously, our own club had almost been closed down because of debts of just over £9 million. We had spent a few million at most in the ten years prior and were still, in fact, constructing our new stadium. This was expected to severely limit our ability to spend money in the coming years.
Think on that for a second. Severely limit our spending.
WHEN WE HADN’T REALLY BEEN SPENDING!!!!
But that year we spent around £8 million in the transfer market – of which only about £1.5 million was net spend after player sales - and it was enough to secure the SPL title. For all the riches Rangers had spent in the years prior, their squad was not good enough to grab the prize they had been chasing for the better part of a decade.
Rangers had an ageing squad, much like we did last year. They had also brought in a new manager, just like we did last year. Unlike us, however, Rangers had gone out and gotten in a proven name. He was Dick Advocaat.
It was around this time that Murray had his now infamous sit-down with Jim Traynor. We have come to know it as the “succulent lamb” interview. During that interview, he talked about his first ten years in charge of the club, and he said a number of very telling things, things we should examine in order to fully understand the nature of the man at the helm over at Ibrox, things which would reveal the way his club would head in the years to come.
“Understand that I care passionately about what I'm doing with Rangers and believe that in 10 years time we will still be setting the pace,” he said. “What I'm saying here is that no matter who buys Celtic from Fergus, they will need to have the deepest of pockets imaginable.”
Murray had never tasted defeat since taking over at the club. He was determined that he would never taste defeat again. (He preferred succulent lamb and the finest red, apparently.)
Murray’s intent was clear; he was aiming to outspend Celtic in every department, opening up a lead over us that would never be bridged. In Advocaat’s first season in charge, Murray handed him a total transfer kitty of almost £38 million pounds – unheard of money outside of the top leagues in Europe. Like an early day Abramovich, he was setting down a marker for us to follow.
The strategy has its roots in corporate practice, as well as in politics. The best example of it was in the collapse of the Soviet Union because of their efforts to keep apace with the Americans in the arms race, particularly Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative, Star Wars, where the Soviets were technologically and financially exhausted.
Rangers’ strategy was, at first, largely a failure, because Celtic lost Jansen, appointed Jo Venglos and decided NOT to chase the Murray millions with the spending of our own.
Typically, then, we did not build from a position of what some perceived as strength.
Let us be clear; it would NOT have been building from a position of strength. It would have been digging a big hole for ourselves ………
But oddly enough, in the year after THAT, someone in the financial department either dropped acid or went temporarily insane, because as Rangers strengthened further, spending ANOTHER £15 million plus on the team, we decided to try and play catch up.
That year has many different names. Some remember it as the Year of Barnes. Others recall it as the Year of Berkovic. It was the Year of Stan. The press will forever know it as the Year of Inverness Callie Thistle.
I remember it by a far more appropriate name; the Year of Scheidt.
Over fourteen million pounds was shelled out on players that year, most of it wasted. At Rangers they signed people like Mols and Reyna. It was time to Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, as it was quickly obvious to all that our “stars” were wasters not fit to wear the Hoops.
It all culminated, of course, in Viduka’s boots being thrown against a dressing room wall, Barnes being sacked and us taking the press on a Guided Tour of the Gallowgate. This, amazingly, provided us with the one truly entertaining moment of a wretched, stinking season; the sight of Hugh Keevins being booted out of the Celtic Club in London Road in full view of his colleagues by a big bruiser named Finbar O’Brannigan.
If Carlsberg did press conferences, that one would have been right up there with the one they did in Bairds! Oh how we laughed that fine day as a team of heavies clutching pints crowded around the Guidi’s and the Traynors, eyes burning holes in the back of their heads ………
Unfortunately, those were the ONLY days we really laughed that year. Even the League Cup gave us no cause for solace, as Rangers were already miles clear in the league and threatening to go on another long, long run of title wins.
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For me, the darkest hour came in the second Old Firm game at Ibrox Stadium, where I watched a Celtic side I had foolishly believed might “get something” that day be trounced 4-0 by a rampant Rangers who had already won the league by a country mile. Sitting on the roundabout outside the stadium after the match, inconsolable, I had to be helped to my feet by my mate John O’Kane who said, “Cheer up wee man. Things can only get better.”
Things can only get better. The manic-depressive’s catchall, that and The Only Way Is Up. A dreadful song, shamelessly misappropriated by New Labour in the most bizarre electoral slogan in years – not a message of genuine optimism but the dangerous fool’s way of saying “surely it can’t get any WORSE???”
In the week the season ended, Dick Advocaat got up at the Sports Writers Manager of the Year awards. The assorted media gave him a standing ovation as he took the stage, and were back on their feet almost to a man at the end of his speech when he held up the trophy, gave them a wave of his right hand and said “See you again next year.” After his side had wrapped things up, he went to the airport for his holidays, where he delighted in taunting a wee boy with a Celtic shirt with the words “21! 21! 21” in recognition of the margin of victory his side had managed to secure.
We were told by a breathless Scottish media that because of our negligent spending in trying to keep up with the Legend Who is Mr Murray, and because of the downright failure of that strategy, that we were “five years behind Rangers.”
Five years? ONLY five years??? That sounded like optimism.
It was in the final weeks of that season, that long, hard year which I will never fully forget, that Murray delivered what SHOULD have been the deadly, all-killing hammer blow. The one which should have put us on the mat, out of business, game over, thank you for playing.
Before moving on, some more stats to consider:
Rangers had spent just over £50 million in the first two years of Dick Advocaat’s reign. This was clearly not going to be sustainable, but it was largely offset by projects like the debenture system (imagine, for a second, the press reaction had WE tried selling our fans the RIGHT to buy a seat at a cost of hundreds of pounds. This, remember, is ON TOP of the cost of the season ticket itself.) and their “buy-a-brick” scheme for their proposed youth academy.
Let us not forget, either, that Hugh Adam, through the Rangers Pools and Lottery system, had improved the commercial projects side of Rangers immeasurably. Remember that name. We’ll be coming back to Mr Adam presently.
Rangers were still in bad shape. The debt was rumoured to be in the region of £36 million and rising. But this debt COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE been wiped out completely in what was to come.
In March 2000, only a few months before Celtic were to make their fourth managerial appointment in four years, David Murray gave an astonishing, and not a little bit frightening, interview to the renowned tabloid hack (sorry, that should read renowned fine journalist, what was I thinking?) Keith Jackson.
The Celtic fans have come to know him, of course, as Jingle Jangle.
Jangle ………… sorry, Jackson’s, article was syndicated to almost every newspaper in the Western world, but gained most widespread coverage in Scotland where, for around four months (until our manager was unveiled!) you could barely pick up the Sports Pages of any national daily without reading some variation of it. Written in a sycophantic style which would have had Mr Succulent Lamb Traynor himself drooling into his finest red wine, the main thrust of Jangle ……… sorry, JACKSON’S article was that Murray had secured £56 million pounds in cold hard cash for the club – enough to pay off the debt and hand Advocaat one final massive transfer kitty.
More than enough so that Celtic, the following season, would have been appointing manager number 5 for 5.
The money was coming from three different sources. First was a twenty million pound chunk of change from Dave King. Secondly, they were announcing a major shares issue, which would be underwritten by King, Murray and others and thirdly, they would shortly be announcing a major media deal which COULD take the final figure of investment up to around £80 million.
Points one and two first. Dave King DID indeed give them £20 million, and he, Murray and others raised some additional money from a rights issue. But this was largely a myth.
Once more, we looked to our friends in the Scottish media to do some background digging, not wishing to believe perhaps, but also because extravagant claims NEED to be thoroughly scrutinised.
An example from politics first, if I might.
A General Election was less than a year away, and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had recently announced a massive new investment in hospitals and schools. This “new money” would put BILLIONS in the coffers of our education and health care systems, bringing them into line with countries such as Germany and Canada. The European average, we were being told, was going to be shattered.
And it was nonsense. Brown and the Treasury had been doing their own version of pyramid mathematics, building the numbers on top of one another instead of folding one into the other. So, the spending for Year 1 was being ADDED to the spending for Year 2 and THAT number was being ADDED to the spending for Year 3, and so on.
It took the press only HOURS to discover the holes in the Chancellor’s budget, a document infinitely MORE COMPLEX than any Rangers shares prospectus.
And yet, when Murray did a similar thing with the Dave King money NO-ONE BATTED AN EYELID.
Dave King’s £20 million was PART of the share issue, NOT separate from it. Of course, we were never actually TOLD this, but some enterprising Tim’s did their own digging and found it all out anyway, running it in fanzines and online, doubtless to a limited audience which nevertheless MUST have included journalists. Did any of them write it? Nope, because by then they were all drooling over Murray’s success in parting at least ONE other company from its money in the process of the deal. We have come to know it as the “ENIC Agreement.” The company itself know it better as “The Big Goddamned Waste of Our Company’s Money Agreement.”
They paid some £40 million pounds for roughly 20% of Murray’s shareholding, and the word was that there was a whole lot more to come from them. The deal proved little more than there really IS one born every minute, the one, in that case, being the owner of ENIC, a man named Joe Lewis.
(Murray recently bought BACK those shares for a fraction of what Lewis paid – to widespread cheering from the Scottish media, who never bothered to ask why the buy-back price had crashed so much.)
Still, Murray had promised £80 million and delivered over sixty. No-one could be critical of him for that, especially as much of it was earmarked for the training complex which, as a measure of the man’s modesty, bears his name.
(Rumours that it was to contain a gigantic thirty-foot iron plated sculpture of his head are exaggerated.)
£80 million pounds. Rangers should have been ready to turn out our lights, forever and a day.
But Murray is unparalleled in his ability to let hubris interfere with his karma, and he tends to hoard cash with as much aplomb as he likes spending it sometimes. The media deal duly arrived. When the media giants NTL offered him fifteen million pounds for Rangers media rights, he bit off their hand and took the cash, as Celtic, rumoured to be skint, said “No thanks. We think that, in the media age with all its possibilities, that we’ll hold onto that one.” The press, of course, at the cutting edge of the media business, with their widespread knowledge of what those sort of rights were worth, loudly applauded Murray and said that Allan McDonald, our chief executive, was an absolute mug.
That is the kind of money Rangers were reputed to be sitting on ONLY SIX YEARS AGO.
But that was the Year of St Martin, and in order to keep up, Murray went on one final, suicidal, spending spree in order to save his own reputation and that of his man Advocaat. Barely eighteen months later, Big Dick (should that not have read The Little General?) was gone, and WITHOUT his third Manager of the Year award, and Murray was staring down a black hole of his own making.
Hugh Adam, the man who did much to make Rangers economically prosperous before Murray’s spending got out of control, has talked at length about that black hole, and a fine article detailing the extent of it is already online.
Murray tried to plug that black hole with their new “shares issue” a year or so ago, and are now claiming that they are back on good financial footing. And yet, despite having reputedly gotten their debt down to a level where it is BELOW our own, with only six hours left of the transfer window they are selling Nacho Novo to buy a defender no-one has ever heard of – their THIRD signing from a club ranked outside Europe’s top 150. They are also plugging the holes in their first team squad with on-loan Manchester United reserves.
Ourselves? You all know the answer to that.
Paul, this is the story of what WAS. This is a story of missed opportunity. Rangers are now claiming that the days of big spending are over, whilst Lawell and Co are talking about spending year on year on year on year. Murray Park is five years BEHIND our own youth set-up and Lennoxtown is not even up and running yet.
For the first time in TWO DECADES Celtic have a SIGNIFICANT edge over Rangers in all three key departments – the team on the park, the players coming through the ranks and in terms of money in the bank, available to spend.
Paul, what are the Rangers accounts HIDING? How did it EVER come to this?
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Tomorrow's Herald is backing off on the Faubert for Rangers story.
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EDB -
Anagram of "Faubert for Rangers"
Frog Barterer Snafu
Yrcul
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Anagram of EDB
Night night
Cyrul
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Noel
How about this clip, could be the Celtic Ladies 1st training session
celtic ladies
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There could be a few injuries.
Not one of them was wearing shin pads!
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Heraldo has returned. Welcome back!
Long time no post. Good trip?
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EDB
Based in Portsmouth mate. Not too bad.
Got a week off.
My pup goes into the animal hospital in glasgow for operation tomorrow.
Hope all goes well.
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Heraldo
Hope it goes well. I know how attached we get to them.
I'm on nights this week - murder.
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EDB
It's torture mate.
Here is photos of the wee man
lubo
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Heraldo
They're great. Normally I can't open anything in work.
I've got to head out. Hope to hear from you later in the week.
Cheers for now.
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GL2 - superb posts. Lost the thread as to what was yours and what was JF's.
Wow, it has been a journey. The past week's posts have alluded to it.
My lowest was when our Umbro strips were sponsored by... Umbro. The implications hung heavy.
As for Murray et al. I am oft reminded of that line from Angel Heart by Bobby de Niro...
'What good is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise?'
Truthfully, for the first time since Souness and his ilk, I have no interest in what the Govanites are doing. I do not care. Wim and Martin and Gordon have rid me of that psychosis.
This part of my Celtic journey is so enjoyable and memorable.
We kept the faith...
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Naka's Goals 2006/07
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Ulysses McGhee
Remember watching that film and not twigging to the end about the character name "Luis Cipher". D'oh!
Corpachbhoy
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Dixiedeanssideboards @20.17
Agree with regarding the Doog (R.I.P.).I believe he was the prime force in organizing the all Ireland team that played Brazil in Lansdowne Road ..result 4-3 for Brazil (I think).
His biography was entitled "The Sash I never Wore" which has a nice ring to it.
Also for some obscure reason he took to shaving his head at start of each season at a time when it was neither popular or profitable to do so as Flann O`Brien used to say.
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Corpachbhoy
Same here. I'm, a terribly gullable person when it comes to the flicks. I don't just suspend disbelief, I cryogenically freeze it.
My wife, her brother...?
Movie pests. Talk throughout films... Arghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Cases in point. In the first five minutes of a film that has since ceased to be memorable, my wife turned to me and whispered...
'Who are those people and what are they doing?'
??????????????
Seven or sorry, se7en... takes her brother along. you know the bit... he loudly, jokingly asks 'That's no the wife's heid is it?' Just before John Doe tells us it is indeed the wife's head.
But I lay the best at my wife's doorstep. Angel Heart - half way through...
'It's him.'
'Whit?'
'Johnny Angel, it's him.'
'Whit djye mean?'
'Mickey Rourke's searching for himself, he's Johnny Angel.'
'Well thank you very ******** much!'
Film pests. And another thing - Inspector Morse... They only watvhed the title sequence then decided on the killer and then switched over.
mental cases
U.
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News from the Concacaf Gold Cup Final.
USA comes from 1 behind to beat Mexico.
The news from a Scottish perspective.
With the US grimly holding on to their 2-1 lead, Rangers target DaMarcus Beasley was presented with an opportunity to make the game safe. With Mexico throwing the kitchen sink at Tim Howard's goal, Landon Donovan broke clear with no one between him and the goalie.
As the keeper advanced Donovan squared the ball to Beasley, who was faced with an empty GAPING goal.
The remarkable DaMarcus astonishingly hit the ball off the crossbar with a miserable effort.
No improvement on Sebo I'm happy to say.
'GG who only saw the last 10 minutes
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TTTT
If it's Rizvan Rat then he's a decent player - plays for Shaktar and is an attacking fullback. Unless he's out of contract I can't see Rangers getting him, Shaktar aren't exactly a cash strapped club who need to sell, unlike our friends from the dark side.
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Taken from the Evening Times:
"Rangers are already believed to be closing in on Kilmarnock starlet Stevie Naismith, Wigan's Lee McCulloch and Killie second-choice keeper Graeme Smith."
Second-choice keeper... now there's ambition!
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Derek Miller in the Herald tells us an afterthought in the last 2 paragraphs that.... ah here read it yourselves:
"Meanwhile, Celtic will sign Massimo Donati later this week subject to a medical. The 26-year-old midfielder will sign a four-year deal in a £3m move.
"We are delighted Massimo has signed," a club spokesman claimed. "He is a player of real quality who we're sure will be a great addition."
All after ramblings about Beasley, see above :-), Faubert and some kite flying over Ganni.
What have we done to the media that they are relegating our actual signings below mere speculation about what is going on southside?
Whatever it was they're not happy and that makes me happy.
'GG
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Greenlion2. Thanks for posting that. Good to read it again.....James Forrest where are you?
Bolshevik @ 23.07
Your post prompted me to compare and contrast Newsnow's Celtic and Rangers sites and their respective headlines. Interesting reading.
While reading I remembered someone recently asking Edward to suggest a 'grown up' Rangers website.
Well, some may consider this link a little less than fragrant...However....Stick with it...
Take a Journey to the Dark Side....It can be Enlightening
Do not worry it is a return ticket...
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PJB
It was myself. I remember Eddie had linked previously to a Rangers' blog which had seemed to present a less fundamentalist view of the news from Ibrox.
As a non sequitur. Weren't the last two days just perfect weatherwise?
'GG
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They were certainly were 'GG. Perfection.
Low 80's Monday and back into the 90's Tuesday....
Did you say you will be back home this summer..?
Going to my first baseball game on Thursday.
Mets against I do not know who..... If it is on TV I will be the confused looking guy scratching his head and wearing a Celtic shirt..... Oh aye and drinking beer.
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Too true PJB.
I'm off on Friday for 2 weeks.
Daughter, her husband and the light of my life who was baptised today, joining us.
Hectic couple of weeks with visit to holy place in G40, and 3 family functions lined up.
After she has been shown CP, my grand daughter will be introduced to all her aunts and great aunts who are numbered in double figures. We are a prolific lot and this promises to be a tiring and contentious exercise. "How come you went here before you came to me?"
I can't understand why family plan their weddings during the off season. Don't they know I want to see agame when I'm at home?
'GG
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Morning ghuys and ghals -
Faubert To Cost Gers £10m ?
In thast case......
Faubertaboudit
SD
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Ulysses at 00:50. I wish I could write like that all of its is James' work.
I cannae even count never mind write as well as that...(thats for the lurkers)
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Malone86@2.20-a case of a Rat joining a sinking ship?
On this day in 1876 General GACuster led his men of the 7th Cavalry in an attack on a large Native American encampment at the Little Bighorn River in Montana.
The Lakota,Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what became known to the Native Americans as the Battle of the Greasy Grass.
At the end of the ferocious fight which followed Custer's force had been obliterated.
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Morning winningemmell
I got this in an email this morning.
Is this the ML2 Parks Department?
CaltonTongues
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Bolshevik, not for the first time this week I can say, paranoid fools would wonder at the material available to them in our country.
Ciao Heraldo.
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