The search to resolve our defensive problems this season stretch back before the departure of Virgil van Dijk in August. Dedryck Boyata and Efe Ambrose have struggled with form, which our big summer signing, Jozo Simunovic, has endured two lengthy injury lay-offs.
Defensive stats have been revolutionised since the January arrival of Erik Sviatchenk, who was voted the Danish Superliga’s Player of the Year last night. We have achieved six clean-sheets in his nine starts, losing only a solitary goal each game the defence was breached. It took 20 games to record six clean-sheets before the Dane arrived.
We are far from the finished article at the back. The clean-sheets mask perennial failures to defend corner kicks, which have recently resulted good chances, instead of goals conceded. But, progress has been clear. Jozo’s been out of the team since the week before Erik’s arrival.
One of the things we need between now and the end of the season is these two paired up and tested. You win things (and qualify for things) when you stop conceding goals.
I remember the days I’d pour over Oldco Rangers’ accounts for insights into the future and comparisons with our own business model. I’d a cursory look at The Rangers Football Club’s accounts this morning. There is little of comparative relevance for us, or indeed, probably for Newco’s short-term future, should they gain promotion this season.
The one area that offers comparison is the cost of running a football business in a stadium which occasionally caters for crowds of 50,000 or more. With first team wages (I assume this refers to professional players employed) stripped out, expenses during the paired-down Easdale-led season was just north of £17m.
This is a useful guide of what it costs to pay your rates, electricity , insurance and the million other bills when you need to occasionally cater for 50,000-ish crowds, although many costs, like police, will reflect a lower tariff due to the lack of actual footfall. We don’t get as clear a picture of this cost from Celtic, who don’t separate player wages from non-playing staff. My hunch is that Celtic’s paried-down figure will be a few million higher (the silver polish bill alone….).
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SOAL-welcome back HH
TSOAL
The Irish Blackpool will trump it’s English namesake this weekend, I’m sure.
Muse gone all Van Halen on us. Listening now.
Peace and Love
Shane McGowan
DD…
For once I got in early and got the flights cheap.
I’ll keep an eye on the blog if any of you stay sober enough to post.HH
From thecelticblog.
Financial Crisis Swirls Around Ibrox Again, But Where Is The SFA?
Date: 22nd March 2016 at 9:02 pm
Written by: James Forrest | Comments (0)
32826-scottish-fa-chief-executive-stewart-regan
Much of the discussion over on Facebook and elsewhere on the article I posted earlier revolves around the SFA and what they are doing about the unfolding crisis at Ibrox.
Before I get to that, I think it’s important to point something out; the Bampots are not saying that a collapse of Sevco is imminent.
If they can keep securing loans from directors they could go on and on and on as long as the people giving them the money are still solvent or until they decide they no longer want to. How long will that take? How long is a piece of string?
What we are saying is that it’s inevitable … whether it happens tomorrow or a month from now or midway through the season; it is certain.
The only thing we’re speculating on is the timeframe.
The actual fact of it is guaranteed.
You don’t have to be a financial genius or some kind of psychic seer to be able to call this either; a simply grasp of numbers, of basic math, is all that’s required. As I said in the previous piece, fixed costs are around £17 million per annum. You can trim the fat but that number is essentially locked in place.
That money has to be spent or there’s no club.
It’s the consequence of trying to run a club with a 50,000 all seater stadium.
Our fixed costs are roughly the same, but the difference is that we’ve got the income to handle it.
Remember, all that is before a single member of staff is paid.
It’s before “rainy day” requirements, of which, at Ibrox, there are always plenty.
It’s before loan repayments and there will be plenty of those too.
Right now, income is about £1 million above their fixed costs.
It’s not impossible that the club could improve on that by a factor of ten; even then staff costs alone swallow up every single penny, and leave them needing more. Increase the wage bill – which they certainly have to if they want an SPL standard team, which can challenge for a European place – and those costs rise in direct proportion to that.
Finding a balance? Forget it.
This club will continue losing money for years to come, if they last that long, and the odds are against it.
Without a bank overdraft, without day to day credit facilities, when the directors stop carrying the debts that’s the ball game, and it’ll happen.
The chances of getting a bank to take them on when they constantly post losses like this is zero.
None of this is a secret. How can it be?
They post their accounts for everyone to see, and they can be spun but the numbers in them don’t change.
The club will be in around £40 million of debt when next season starts.
To give you some idea of how bad that is, the debt was £30 million in 2009 when Lloyds took over their account and told them to start making immediate cuts.
No other club in Scotland would be allowed to head into such dangerous waters without the SFA seeking guarantees about their viability as a business. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is a crisis that should be engaging the minds at Hampden, and that it hasn’t and isn’t, especially in light of what happened before, is absolutely outrageous.
They could have passed financial fair play regulations already and put a stop to this madness; that would have been beneficial to Scottish football and the club itself. Would they be top of the Scottish Championship? Probably not, but they wouldn’t be starting down into an open grave either.
Can it really be only four years ago that we were told how essential an Ibrox club was to Scottish football?
How can the SFA have been so lax that it’s come to this?
We could stand back and let it all collapse, of course, and at some point we’ll have to, but from now until then somebody, somewhere, has to put a plan in place that limits the damage the self-harming behaviour of the Ibrox custodians will do to the rest of the sport.
I know why the SFA won’t question King properly; it’s not that they’re worried he’ll lie. He lies constantly. They’re worried he’ll tell them the truth, and then they’ll have to choose between the good of that one club or the good of the game as a whole.
When he or someone else (I suspect the “someone else” part) finally does go to see them and tells them the size of the hole and that there’s no way to fill it, they better make the right decision.
They don’t even want to think about it, although they could, tomorrow, put in place a proper procedure for dealing with a club that crashes itself into the rocks and tries to dump debts and crawl out of the wreckage on the other side.
It’s not like it hasn’t happened before; what’s disturbing is that it changed nothing.
The regulations weren’t tightened or toughened up.
We’re the only football association in Europe that has a governing body but no actual governance.
Sevco’s directors should be asked what the plan is.
They should be told that until they can satisfy the SFA’s professional game board – and that of the SPFL – that they’re a viable business, a going concern, that they will not be permitted to enter the top flight next season.
Disruption to that league affects everything from European football to major commercial contracts; this is explicitly why UEFA requires all top flight teams to meet their own licensing criteria.
The awarding of a UEFA License to top flight clubs isn’t only about eligibility to play in their competitions; it’s about demonstrating the financial and structural viability of the clubs themselves, and therefore protecting the integrity of the leagues.
This is precisely why these regulations exist.
As we saw in 2012, financial calamity at Ibrox eventually affects every single club in the land.
It shouldn’t; a disaster there should unfold as it would anywhere else, with the governing bodies looking on and protecting the rest of the sport.
For those who ask “we do (you) care?” that’s the answer right there; don’t try to tell the rest of us that it’s none of our business.
This affects us all, and we have a stake in knowing this stuff.
We deserve these answers.
We require them.
So far, no-one seems even remotely interested in giving them to us.
During the weekend:))
Corkcelt and others.
First Paul was pointing at the squirrel labelled sevco accounts because he really doesn’t want us looking at the rather nasty Celtic board and their corruption. I am sure there will be a whole scurry of squirrels as time goes on (poor little fellas).
And there is only ONE reason that Celtic get invited to these tournaments and it ain’t PL or the board. It’s the good old Celtic support,
Mind them?
There the ones that the board criminalises, attacks at every turn (except when they want money from them).
So save the squirrels and wake up.
DD
The mighty Cleland 2003 hit the costa d Fylde this weekend to win the cup so we may here each other .
Heading to see James tomorrow in the BBC studios with the bhoy (first gig)
As i said heading to Dublin in April for something
Enjoy
Sipsini
Booked flight and hotel for my son and I for this weekend in Dublin, last August.
Prices have trebled since then.
Get in early! :)
HH
Bada Bing…………………….you dont happen to have a boat by any chance ??……
TSOAL
Remind Tim Booth that he is a Tim.
Tell him to drop this visiting Ibrox nonsense.
I love James live.
Enjoy
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on 22nd March 2016 8:38 pm – See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/paring-up-and-testing-17m-running-figure/comment-page-5/#comments
======================================================================================
That was one hell of a call-to-arms!
Hopefully, any shareholder who has not already realised the significance of Resolution 12, will now sign the mandate.
There really is not much time left for us to force a change, so everyone needs to make their share-holding count now!
HH
What are the chances of Celtic allowing BRHT to write an article for inclusion in a upcoming Celtic View? I ask this as I believe very few Celtic fans actually know about Res 12. I have 2 brothers who know that it’s out there but really don’t understand the issue and how it affects us. My 3 sisters haven’t got a clue about Res 12 and really aren’t that bothered about finding out about it.
If Res 12 is to succeed then it’s needs a wider audience, why not the Celtic View?
I’ve been busy for the last few days and have missed the mandate.
can anyone point me to where I can download to sign and return please.
Eddieinkirkmichael.
Hahahahahahananahahahahahahananaha……..deep breath.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Celtic allowing res 12 in the Celtic view. Now that is a cracker.
RODDYBHOY on 22ND MARCH 2016 10:07 PM
Bada Bing…………………….you dont happen to have a boat by any chance ??……
– See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/paring-up-and-testing-17m-running-figure/comment-page-6/#comment-2799355
Last spotted in Shit Creek…
Eddie. Do you think DD will sign the mandate?
Hehehehehanananananahahahahahahahahahaha…..
My sides………
Roddybhoy
Just the same as you, or as any other season ticket, share holder.
I was told outside the ground from an impeccable source that Celtic would say, and do nothing.
That was in 2012 and it could have amounted to a guess, but it turns out to have been a good guess.
They absolutely cheated everyone in Scottish Football and we Celtic, seem to have accepted it, including the same club myth, completely unchallenged. The size of the Celtic support may suffer because of cheating, but it’s a gamble the PLC so far appear happy to take.
Rory Bremner was a fudge CSC
Eddie
BRTH’s post earlier woke me up. Get it mainstream and it may wake a few more of us out our slumber. Powerful words. Thank you BRTH
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 22nd March 2016 9:33 pm
I know. I agree. Education beats religion every time.
connaire12 on 22nd March 2016 9:02 pm
Oh dear, it is thought by the organisers of the summer tournament that Celtic are a big name and should be invited to play with the big teams, and some on here are decrying it as a farce. For them it is PL finding a way to make money. Can we not see it as it is a recognition that this club has at times been among the greats and are still remembered for that?
*The Coronation cup was a one off trophy played between the “top” 4 clubs in Scotland and England.
Scottish Double winners the deid team, League runners up Hibs, Cup runners up Aberdeen and no not Dundee League Cup winners for the 2nd successive season (incidentally 2nd division Kilmarnock who finished 4th that year beat the double winners in the semis), nor was it East Fife who finished 3rd in the League and had already won the League Cup twice in the years prior.
No it was a team, that had finished eighth in the league winning a measly 11 games out of 30 and had a -3 goal difference, been eliminated at the group stage from the League Cup, and was beaten in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup.
We were only invited because of “the fighting mad Irish our loyal support”. We were just there tae bring in a crowd and make up the numbers.
“But alas to the hopes of the loyal true blues, Celts hammered the Arsenal and Manchester too, beat Hibs in the final and oh what a scene, all Hampden was covered in banners of green.”
The people in the game that count know who we are.
full version
Said Lizzie to Phillip as they sat down to dine,
I’ve just had a note from an old friend of mine,
His name is ‘Big Geordie’ he’s loyal and true,
And his dirty big nose is a light shade of blue.
He says that the Rangers are right on their game,
And ask for a trophy to add to their fame,
I’ll send up a cup that the Rangers can win,
Said Phillip to Liz watch the Celts don’t step in.
Said Lizzie to Phillip they don’t stand a chance,
I’ll send up my Gunners to lead them a dance,
With Celtic defeated the way will be clear,
A cup for the Rangers in my crowning year.
But alas for their hopes for the loyal true blues,
The Celts beat the Gunners and Manchester too,
Beat Hibs in the final and oh what a scene,
Sure Hampden was covered in banners of green.
Said Lizzie to Phillip when she heard the grim news,
A blow has been struck at our loyal true blues,
Oh tell me dear Phillip and you ought to know,
How to keep Glasgow Celtic defeated below.
Said Phillip to Lizzie there’s only one way,
I’ve known of their secret for many a day,
To keep the Celts down you will have to deport,
The whole Fenian army that gives them support.
NITOL CSC
Please sign and follow instructions on forwarding to email, plus paper copy to solicitors address
Please pass onto your Celtic Shareholding friends
Time to hold the SFA accountable
Just a note to shareholders who are inclined to support the aims and objectives of Res 12 that we are looking for mandates to send to the solicitors who have been corresponding with the SFA and Celtic PLC and who will be corresponding with UEFA.
The mandate will not mean you incurring legal fees or charges and only authorises the solicitors to write to the appropriate bodies on your behalf as a Celtic shareholder.
If you are inlcined to provide a mandate then please print off the wording below, sign it where indicated and send it to:
Mean City Media
Suite 5
8 Sandyford Place
Glasgow
G3 7NB
I would aslo ask that you take a screenshot or copy of the signed mandate and send by e-mail to jjoe88@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks
———————————————————————————————————————————————————–
To BLM Solicitors
13 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 1HY
I —————————- residing at ——————————- being a registered shareholder in Celtic PLC hereby authorise Messrs BLM solicitors, 13 Bath Street Glasgow to act on my behalf and in my name by corresponding with Celtic PLC, The Scottish Football Association or any other body they see fit in relation to all matters concerning Resolution 12 which was formally placed on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting of Celtic PLC in November 2013 and which Resolution has been adjourned at each AGM thereafter. I further instruct and confirm, that you are hereby authorised to accept instructions on this matter from those shareholders who have already instructed you in this matter and with whom you have already been dealing with in relation to existing correspondence with Mr Andrew McKinlay of the SFA as they hold a mandate to instruct you on my behalf.
—————————————- Name
————————————— Address
________________________ Date
Sent from my iPad
tontinetim
well said.
10 subs each side in Barca game, 4 weeks after Copa American Final,the chances of seeing Messi,Saurez or Neymar are slim.
Mandate, sounds like something you do on a Pride weekend – I digress, completed, signed, scanned and e-mailed. Hard copy will be posted tomorrow.
With reference to James Forrest blog
The SFA are quite prepared to see the game they are meant to govern go down the tubes rather than see Sevco go down the tubes. That’s why they don’t confront them.
If in any doubt Regan has already said that Scottish football without the Rankers would lead to Armageddon and social disorder. An organisation who’s “rules” are bent to benefit one club.
You would think that people would learn from their mistakes. The problem for us (and the Scottish game as a whole) is when this new entity goes the way of its predecessor how do you “sell” Scottish football to sponsors given the criminal negligence that has occurred in its governance.
HH
Dear Celtic View Readers
It has recently (like last week. Honest! ) come to our attention that some Celtic supporters have been very naughty in the extreme trying to do our job for us. This group of misguided miscreants are unaware that we are the executives of this wonderful club and their behaviour is akin to spoiled children unaware that we signed the 5 way agreement in the spirit of brother Walfrid and Jock Stein. Let me remind you all that you are our customers..err..fans … and even though some of you managed to secure shares under the Fergus years you huv nae idea how much of a pittance that really is to how much our illustrious mustachioed benefactor has in comparison. So. Get a grip. Dont forget to come and support Celtic in the semi final against the other half of the Old Firm and dont forget to buy your season tickets else our CL campaign next year will be impacted.
Lovingly Yours
Lord of the Lies.
BRTH
Sorry Jim I was a Church thing and I’m just back on.
I got the impression from Papa John’s post that he was under the impression that Res 12 was a Trust proposal. Hence me pointing out that the proposal was the work of you and the others I mentioned and nothing to do with the Trust. I’m not sure how you can find that ‘daft’ as it’s entirely accurate to my knowledge.
However, as you go on to say, things have recently taken a turn where individuals and collective bodies are being asked to support the resolution by completing the mandate. I’d completely support that.
Currently, I’m only a shareholder by virtue of being a member of the Trust, however, I plan to address this tomorrow and will happily support your rallying call and complete the required email and mandate form.
Hail Hail
Charlie for me at centre back every time !
Why the way he was touch tight (give or take ten yards) with super fit super fast Kris Boyd twice in the first 15 minutes on Saturday speaks volumes about his defensive discipline.
Let’s give him a new eight year contract while we are at it.
Hail hail
I remember working for 6 weeks in 2009 in Ghent and Brussels and was amazed at how many 5’6” crates of Guinness were hovering from street to street like black mini “the day the earth stood still” miniatures. Creepy even then.
Do I actually believe Celtic would highlight Res 12 issue in their publication?
Do I think it is a question Res 12 guys should ask?
Answers on a postcard to ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Neggy, AGCR exposed you long ago for the f@ckwhit you are, now trot on and do one somewhere else.
Margaret McGill lol
Now now Eddie no need for that.
However please remind me how good old ACGR (and his, ahem, creepy acolyte, exposed me.
Look forward to the answer Eddie.
Bourn,
Many a year since i have heard (sung) that.
HH
bada bing
More than a few Barca players will also be playing in the Euros, and not just for Spain, a team that I think will go a fair way in the Tourno, the final being July 10.
BRTH, Hamiltontim, have sent email and in the process in posting on paperwork as requested, God only knows if we can achieve our goal, awl Nick and a few others are on SEVCO’S side unfortunately.
Awerabest PJ
Now now Eddie. You can’t call people names and just run away.
Let’s here it.
Neggy, your a D@ck. Deal with it