The Scotsman did an interesting article today on the fact that recent attendances at Celtic Park have fallen well short of the circa 46,000 paid for tickets, the majority of which are season tickets. It touches on several issues.
Suggestions that a league in which Celtic inevitably process to the title is less attractive to the spectating public than a league with a competitive challenge is not a surprise. It would be bizarre otherwise.
Still, many Celtic fans continue to support the club for a whole variety of reasons: we want to see it prosper, we enjoy going to games with our family and friends, and, unsurprisingly, we enjoy watching football.
Anyone who doubted that attendances would soften after Rangers were liquidated should have widened their survey sample. For most of us, this was a welcome change. The joys of beating Rangers were undeniable, but most of us have a deeper relationship with Celtic.
The Scotsman predict that in the event there was never a “team called Rangers in the top flight” Celtic would endure some serious downsizing. If we remained within the confines of Scottish league football this is undeniably true. So what? There would be little competition, less income, fewer signings and more promotion from the youth team.
In this scenario there would inevitably be fewer Champions League nights too, but in the big scheme of things, would we want it any other way? Of course not. Celtic will be there, in sunshine or in shadow, playing football and paying their bills. I’d sign up for this right now.
There is, of course, the question of how welcome our continued presence in Scottish football would be with the prospect of not just winning 10-in-a-row, which I hear our favourite Sevconian, Ally McCoist, is now discussing as a possibility, but the realisation that 10 would soon become 20, or 30-in-a-row.
All Celtic can do is continue to win football matches, pay their bills and see off all challengers. The game here is irrevocably broken; the consequences of this will continue to emerge in the months and years to come. All we know for sure is that Celtic will prevail, no matter which scenario plays out.
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Yes
Yesssss
Where is everyone? Is it Hogmanay in Scotland already?
Lassiebeattie….I hate you lol
Come on the Carlisle Celtic
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Hope everyone had a good Christmas.
As always at this time of year the rumours just keep on coming so here’s the latest updated version of Len’s list.
————————————————
Players in:
———–
Name Age Position Club Price
—-— ——– —-—–
Fridjonsson – 20 – Striker – Fram Reykjavik – £100K
Players out:
———–
Name Club Price
—-—- —–
Rumoured transfer in:
———————
Keepers
——-
Name Age Club Source Price
—-— —- —— —–
Forde – 33 – Millwall – STV – No fee mentioned (06/12)
McCarthy – 24 – Reading – Talkceltic – No fee mentioned (16/13)
Defenders
———
Name Age Club Source Price
—-— —- —— —–
Taylor-Sinclair – 22 – Partick – Various – £75K (30/11)
Taylor – 27 – Newcastle – Talkceltic – 6 mths loan (13/12)
Midfielders
———–
Name Age Club Source Price
—-— —- —— —–
Armstrong – 21 – Dundee Utd – Various – £500K (01/12)
Gauld – 18 – Dundee Utd – Celticrumours – £500K (01/12)
Guidetti – 21 – Man City – – Talkceltic – Loan until summer (09/12)
Bryson – 27 – Derby County – STV – No fee mentioned (12/12)
Toivonen – 27 – PSV – Talkceltic – No fee mentioned (13/12)
Yamada – 24 – Jubilo Iwata – Various – No fee mentioned (week long trial 17/12)
Norwood – 22 – Huddersfield – The Scottish Hun – No fee mentioned (17/12)
Eikrem – 23 – Hereenven – Various – No fee mentioned (21/12)
Henrikson – AZ Alkmaar – various – £2M (23/12)
Hassan – 19 – Al Ahly – Various – £2M (24/12)
Strikers
——–
Name Age Club Source Price
—-— —- —— —–
Parzyszek – 20 – De Graafschap – Polish press – £800K (30/11)
Vaughan – 25 – Norwich – Daily Mirror – No fee mentioned (03/12)
Ings – 21 – Burnley – The Scottish Hun – No fee mentioned (03/12)
May – 21 – St Johnstone – Northern Times – No fee mentioned (07/12)
McCormack – 27 – Leeds – SSB – No fee mentioned (07/12)
McKay – 24 – ICT – Daily Express – No fee mentioned (12/12)
Boyd – 22 – Rapid Wien – Talkspurt – £1M (13/12)
Damari – 24 – Hapoel Tel Aviv – SSN – No fee mentioned (14/12)
Assombalonga – 21 – Talkceltic – No fee mentioned (16/12)
Wells – 23 – Bradford City – Daily Rectum – No fee mentioned (16/12)
Ntep – 21 – Auxerre – Talkceltic – No fee mentioned (16/12)
Finnbogason – 24 – Heerenveen – Herald – £5M (17/12)
Mawuli – 24 – Hapoel Ashkelon – Herald – £750K (17/12)
Johannsson – 23 – AZ – Daily Mail – £2.5M (19/12)
Rumoured transfer out:
———————-
Name Source Price
—-—— —–
Foster – Various– £7M to Southampton/Sunderland/Everton/Benfica
Samaras – Various –£2M to Borussia Monchengladbach/Fiorentina/Lazio/Hull/Toronto
Ledley – Various – £1M to Carrdiff
van Djke – Dutch press – No teams mentioned
As always let me know if you’ve heard of anyone that isn’t here.
Bye for now fholks!
HH
/Bishop B
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Paul67
‘The game here is irrevocably broken; the consequences of this will continue to emerge in the months and years to come. All we know for sure is that Celtic will prevail, no matter which scenario plays out.’
How true and the mineshafters don’t see it, because we only keep winning.
We are suffering for their liquidation.
Happy Monday all.
Hope y’all made it through Christmas unscathed.
” All we know for sure is that Celtic will prevail, no matter which scenario plays out.”
Hear hear, or HH rather. True story.
It’s about getting bums on seats as Mr Sanderson used to say. You can do freebies or cheap seats for kids with paying adults but what happens to ST holders who already bought their kid a ST? Not fair to them. One thing is for sure – need to get the weans to the games. They are the future of the club.
Got to go- greetin’ wean. Best wishes to everyone for the New Year when it comes.
Back online now the dixiebhoy twins are 6 months old and I can get to a keyboard without fear of spilling milk on it! Can someone tell me what the world record is for a newly formed football club appearing live on TV? Everytime I switch on a sports channel I seem to be seeing zombies?
HH
Rye catcher – love you LOL
Tap 20 fur the bells???
SFTB-“Team lay-outs do not win matches.” Disagree. If we played more attacking against the opposition in this league,we would be much better to watch IMO.Playing Stokes up front on his own is a symptom of the predictable style of play.He drops deep,the defender doesn’t follow and we have nobody up front,cue side to side passing as we have no focal point to hit.HH
Ice Station Zebra then Mary Poppins on a BBC 2 ridiculous accents double starring Ernest Borgnine and Dick Van Dyjk.
PhilMacGiollaBhain says: (206)
December 30, 2013 at 2:15 pm
37 0 Rate This
Afternoon folks…
I understand that Super Ally may well have to adapt to having a much reduced backbroom team in January.
The Austerity Axe is about to fall.
This is from an excellent source with a good track record.
From previous article
TBB
I believe we do have players in our youth setup who could be part of a first 11 now. I also believe we have not included them often enough and hope this changes soon.
Do you agree?
Come on Celtic….
A cheeky wee bid of 250k for Lee Wallace.
It will keep the lights on for another 7 days at the Big Hoose.
7 more days of mirth and laughter please.
BSR
I’m not suffering for their liquidation! I love it.
Why can we not enjoy being the best we can be in this country?
I love the Champions League nights and hope to enjoy many more along with the titles and cup triumphs.
However as a veteran of the many nights like the recent Morton and Arbroath matches and many others before, as Paul says, I am, always will be a Celtic supporter and as long as I am able to, I will actively support Celtic by attending our matches.
The only exception being if our club refer to any future match against Sevco as an O.. f… fixture , which I would not attend.
EC67
DrinksontheterraceatsevenCSC
Does anyone remember a pub called the Barrowland Bar in Kent Street?
Must have been the only Hun pub that ever existed in the Calton.
Len Brennan.
For what it’s worth.——–
Lazio responded to the Retard linking them with Samaras -thus –
” We know who he is .The journalist who wrote the story appears to have a good imagination. ”
Nothing in the Italian media re Fiorentina being interested re Samaras . They are said to be very interested in Toivonen.
Paul67, so then comes the inevitable question.
What are we going to do about it?
The MSM would argue for Sevco being allowed entry to the top league, for our sake, not for Sevco’s, we need them dontcha know. My erchie, who needs a cheat in the league?
I would argue, let’s get into a better league, with a bigger market, a league in which the club can grow, a North Atlantic type league perhaps.
Maybe England?
I agree the club will survive, but I would like to see us prosper, and I think that means leaving Scotland.
Paul 67,
Even allowing for interesting attendance figures in the 70s and 80s, our core attendance figures in those days were 28 k to 35 k.
Since then, the population of our country has remained stable, and transport has improved, plus we have satellite TV, and, on average 250k viewers watching our games – a phenomena we didn’t have in 80s.
Perhaps we are just finding our “natural level”
I suggest the hootsman spends more time on its own viewing figures.
TBB (from previous thread)
The numbers you quote on the probability of success as a footballer vs other career options are difficult to argue against.
However I would add, as we have seen with sports such as UK cycling, Dutch football small countries can be successful and can transform their fortunes with proper infra- structure and resource.
I am no expert on the way that sports performance grants are dished out, but, they do seem to have led to a collective improvement in our results.
One interesting aspect in this whole debate, is does NL have any performance measures relating to the development of youngsters in his contract?
Is that a major disconnect – we put cash into youth development, but manager isn’t incentivised to play them
I suspect he doesn’t, and I don’t have a problem with that, but , I would suggest that if he was measured on a “young player game time measure” that we would see significant improvement.
I expect I could count on one hand the number of games Celtic have played where the stated attendance was accurate.
This has been the case for years; figures have been kept artificially low to suit, and then artificially high to suit different circumstances.
They make it up as they go along.
Paul,
I don’t think that the fall in attendances has anything to do with the demise of Rangers. The press want this so badly that it hurts but I for one would like to never hear their bile again.
The issue that we have is in my opinion quite simple. The style of football that we play is utterly boring and ultra conservative.
We have not a single exciting midfielder or forward apart from Kris Commons. And zero prospect of turning up to see a youngster being given an opportunity. So week after week it is the same players way way too comfortable with their status.
For example Darnell Fisher has been excellent. A youngster breaking through, enthusiastic playing for the right to play in the team. However as soon as the favourites are 70% fit out goes the excellent youngster and in comes Adam Matthews and James Forrest. Now I know neither are old, but the message is wrong. To Fisher – no matter what you do I won’t keep you in the team. For Forrest – no matter how inconsistent you are you will get in, and I will shuffle the pack to make it happen.
Then there is Joe Ledley – almost certain to leave, playing like Casper and still in every week. We are 11 points clear with a game in hand. Time to find out how good the fringe players are – Rogic, Atajic, Balde to name 3 out of 10. If I heard that Atajic and Balde were stating upfront on Wednesday I would go. I am not interested in seeing Stokes up front on his own making daft runs to the left – if not offside trying to cut in and curl one in – ignoring the runs of other players.
The way to get the fans back is to recognise that we have as good a won the league and blood some young players.
All this talk of an influx is so predictable and boring. We won’t spend money, even if we did Lenny would stick by his favourites and the crowds will dwindle.
It’s nothing to do with Sevco / Rangers etc . It’s just that one up front, 2 holding midfielders , no wide players and 8 favourites is not putting bums on seats.
Seville67
Doc…
I hear what you say mate,but would there be an appetite for say Malmo v Celtic on a wet November Thursday night?
Re previous posts on Biton,wingers,formation etc.
For me the most striking features of our two best performances of the season (Hearts and Motherwell away) were :-
1.A move away from players carrying the ball to a pass and move at pace and with purpose style.
2.A much more fluid system which allowed players freedom to move outwith normal areas,particularly going forward from midfield.EG Brown and Ledley
3.The sheer effort and hard work the players put in to make the system work.Especially when we didn’t have the ball.
Sometimes you need to change things up a bit (like bringing on Forrest v Hearts at home to use width to break down a defence)
When you look at how the better teams and the better players play eg Barcelona,Bayern,Dortmund etc you are immediately struck with how,no matter how well or badly they are playing,every player works like mad for the team.
We have several players who don’t do that.
If it’s good enough for Xavi,Iniesta,Muller,Ribery and Lewandowski to work hard,why does it appear to be too much to ask of Samaras,Stokes and Forrest?
Not talking about skill or ability here,only about simple effort
CELTIC WILL PREVAIL!!
ChampionsOfEurope 1967
Drinks on the terrace at 7.00?
Whilst we’re 90 minutes into Ice Station Zebra
and Big Rock is just about to get the bhoys off
the train.
I can hear you purring with your season ticket,
and of course we’re not personally suffering
from Deidco/Sevco/Newco/WerderBremner’s
demise, but sadly it seems some mineshafters
are bored.
HappyClappers CSC
TET,
Many happy returns,
hope you have a good day on the mountain.
p.s. I hope the name seen on that portfolio wasn’t The Carlyle Group?
;))
Bigyinmilan
Sorry missed you earlier.
I was at St Mary’s Maryhill in 73/74 P6 & 74/75 P7. Sandbank St bhoy myself.
Ryecatcher, more than Ross County V Celtic?
ryecatcher @16 01.
I remember the Barrowland bar. Never had a drink in the place but used to pop in [ 67/68] to see a man who provided the necessary energy for the jiggin ‘
Paul 67,
“The game here is irrevocably broken”
————————————————————
I and many others agree.This I think is the most crucial phrase in one of your articles for many a time. Your article is spot on.
“the consequences of this will continue to emerge in the months and years to come”
—————————————————————————————————————–
Standing still and the status quo is not a desirable or feasible option IMO. The Celtic Nation scenario which was discussed on here last week seems too lowly an entry point to be viable. However there is rarely smoke without fire.
Almost definitely, PL et all will have anticipated our potential predicament well in advance, long before it becomes urgent and surely must have some sort of contingency plan. I have to believe that since ( or even before ) liquidation we have foreseen the consequences and have prepared.
Not to have foreseen or prepared is plain daft, and PL is certainly not daft. He may have errors in judgement at times, but most certainly he is not daft.
We must be vigilant to the sting in the tail of the dead club and ensure that they do not take us down to their level.
Scottish football is dying, we must escape or Irish league status ( No disrespect intended ) is what we can look forward to.
HH, always in Celtic.