The football FX business, hounding a manager, Road to Lisbon

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On Tuesday we covered the financial benefit Celtic experienced after Brexit due to the fall in the value of the pound against the euro – the currency Champions League payments are denominated in. Today Manchester United revealed a different aspect to the same economic calamity.

Much of Manchester United’s debt is denominated in US dollars. As a consequence of Brexit, the pound also collapsed against the dollar; this alone added an astonishing £88m to the club’s debt figure.

I see Newco fans are busying themselves debating who should replace Warburton as their next manager. Fans do this, it’s a Pavlovian response to unfulfilled expectations. Many feel it’s a right and appropriate discourse, but watching from the outside you can see how destructive it is.

When fans emotionally move on from a manager it is difficult to back his team when it needs it most. Should Morton [Celtic development FC] have the temerity to open the scoring at Ibrox this weekend all of this managerial window-shopping will fuel exactly what the home team don’t need.

There are few things we can learn from that lot, mostly ‘what not to do’ related items like this.

The Road to Lisbon May 2017 Cycle

The Road to Lisbon

I am genuinely in awe of the fans who will cycle from Celtic Park to Estadio Nacional, Lisbon, in May to raise money for your Foundation, Solving Kids Cancer and Children in Crossfire. It is an incredible personal undertaking by each of them, which will bring aid and comfort to many in need.

The project is being driven by one of our own, Mouldy67 – who is a role model to us all. This is from his MyDonate page:

My name is Paul Muldoon, I am delighted to be part of a group of 28 Celts, who plan to cycle from Celtic Park to Lisbon. Each of our group will be funding the cost of the professional support company, accommodation, food and travel by themselves.

We aim to raise thousands of pounds to support three charities close to our hearts; The Celtic Foundation, Solving Kids Cancer and Children in crossfire.

The plan is to depart Celtic Park on Thursday May 11, 2017 and will include 13 cycling days, spread over 14 days. We hope to arrive in Lisbon on May 25, 2017.

This project moves a level beyond mere respect, please do what you can to support here.

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  1. VFR800 is now a Monster 821 on

    A mixed bag today, but full respect to those cycling to Lisbon!

     

     

    Me, I’m going to behave today. 😇

     

     

     

    KTF

  2. James Traynor pre Level 5!

     

     

    November 19, 1998

     

     

    SECRET FEAR THAT DRIVES ME TO WIN;

     

     

    10 IN A ROW: Rangers chairman David Murray opens up on the

     

    highs and lows of his decade in charge of Rangers and

     

    promises that the best is still to come

     

    Exclusive James Traynor

     

     

     

    RANGERS owner David Murray doesn’t often allow his true

     

    feelings to surface, but currently he is finding it difficult to

     

    disguise a pain which has been gnawing away inside since the

     

    end of last season.

     

     

    After a period of almost total dominance of Scottish football

     

    during which Rangers racked up 17 trophies the club met with

     

    failure.

     

     

    Celtic won the championship and the League Cup and Hearts

     

    beat Rangers in the Tennents Scottish Cup final, leaving Murray

     

    with nothing to show for a massive investment in time and

     

    money.

     

     

    Even now he winces when he thinks of that season, but it is the

     

    vivid memory, and the pain of defeat with which he now suffers,

     

    that combine to drive him on.

     

     

    Last night as he looked back on a decade as Rangers’ owner –

     

    come this Sunday, the 22nd, it will be 10 years since he paid

     

    Lawrence Marlborough pounds 6million for the club – Murray’s

     

    desire to avoid the miseries of another barren season could not

     

    be disputed.

     

     

    To hear him speak was to listen to a man who believes himself

     

    to be charged with some kind of great and mighty mission.

     

     

    Murray, who chose to talk only to the Record about his dreams

     

    and ambitions for Rangers, said:

     

    “No one should doubt that Rangers are the biggest club in the country, but I know that talk is

     

    cheap in this business and that we will have to prove just how

     

    big we are.

     

    “That doesn’t really bother me because as long as I am able to

     

    influence this club we will be the biggest and we will be the best.

     

    “I have spent 10 years of my life, and I know that sometimes I

     

    gave up too much of myself to Rangers, but I am not about to

     

    give up now.

     

    “Neither am I willing to stand aside and allow another club to

     

    overtake Rangers. The failure of last season hurt me a lot and

     

    that pain was something I didn’t need nor want.

     

    “It is also a pain which I never want to suffer again, but by God

     

    that sort of thing just makes me even more determined to

     

    succeed. I am still as driven, still as enthusiastic and I will

     

    welcome the challenge of anyone out there.”

     

     

    Murray was referring not only to the Kenny Dalglish/Jim Kerr

     

    consortium who are stalking Celtic, but also the as yet

     

    uncovered groups who are bound to make bids to buy out

     

    Fergus McCann.

     

     

    If the past 10 years have taught Murray, who is one of Britain’s

     

    wealthiest individuals, anything it is how to win and he believes

     

    Rangers will continue to grow and prosper.

     

    “I look upon these last 10 years as a having been a great era, but

     

    it is over and Rangers are about to head on into a new era,” he

     

    said over a glass of the finest red.

     

     

    He was about to take in another mouthful of the most succulent

     

    lamb – anyone who knows Murray shouldn’t be surprised to learn

     

    he is a full-blooded, unashamed red meat eater – when he put

     

    down his knife and fork.

     

     

    It was like a statement of intent and looking directly across the

     

    table to make sure I hadn’t yet succumbed to the wine, he said:

     

    “Bring on the next 10 years, there’s more to come for Rangers.

     

    “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.”

     

     

    From anyone else such talk could be dismissed as no more

     

    than empty rhetoric, but with Murray you just feel it is more than

     

    bluster and besides, he does have a track record as a spender.

     

    There have been times in his 10 years when he has taken

     

    Rangers somewhere between £15m and pounds £20m

     

    into debt and he knows that if this season goes belly up like the

     

    last one he could be looking at a potential debt of £20m.

     

    However, having taken the value of Rangers from pounds 6m to

     

    approx £186m in 10 years he knows how far he

     

    can gamble in pursuit of success.

     

     

    This season alone he has allowed his new manager Dick

     

    Advocaat to spend almost £30m, but he refuses to lose

     

    any sleep over it.

     

    He said: “I don’t because I consider spending as much as

     

    pounds 5million on someone like Andrei Kanchelskis as a

     

    necessity. If a club like ours doesn’t do that then we fall by the

     

    wayside.

     

    “Look, I have many other businesses so I could find many other

     

    things to worry about, but I love sport and I want Rangers to be

     

    successful. I know this won’t be accepted by some people but

     

    this isn’t about making money.

     

    ” £56m has been invested in the stadium and in my time

     

    £200m has been turned over and after interest our trading

     

    profit is minimal. Perhaps as much as £60m has been

     

    spent on players and I have even paid in about pounds 1m in

     

    hospitality but never taken a salary from the place.

     

    “I get six complimentary tickets the same as everyone else and if

     

    I want extra I have to pay for them the same as everyone else.

     

    “There are no free lunches for David Murray at Ibrox and I have

     

    never taken part or been at the centre of any of the numerous

     

    victory celebrations we have had.”

     

     

    Murray disappears to celebrate success with a small group of

     

    close friends, leaving the roar of the crowd to wash over the

     

    players and management.

     

    “Supporters don’t want chairmen hanging around, even though

     

    they look to people like me to provide some kind of direction and

     

    the new ways to keep moving the club on,” he said.

     

    “I hope I can say that in my 10 years so far I’ve been fairly good at

     

    that, but the day I run out of ideas is the day I’ll know it’s over. I’m

     

    sure someone will tell me because I have good people around

     

    me, I always have.

     

    “But I’m not ready yet to step back and I see enough fresh

     

    challenges, staying ahead at home and winning a place at the

     

    European table, ahead in the next 10 years to keep my own

     

    adrenaline flowing.”

     

     

    He knows roughly how much it will cost him and he’s heard the

     

    rumours that ENIC, who have invested pounds 40m in Rangers,

     

    are uneasy at the club’s spending policies but Murray claims

     

    these backers have always been supportive of his methods.

     

    He said: “They could kick up a fuss but they don’t. Besides, I am

     

    the owner of the club and so far most people seem to like what

     

    I’ve done.”

  3. POR CIERTO on 9TH FEBRUARY 2017 1:02 PM

     

    Thank you for taking the trouble to bring that over.

     

    and people still wonder how they died:)))))))))))))))

     

    long may the smsm pull the wool over their orc eyes.

  4. EMERALDBEE\O/ STILL PROUD TO BE AN INTERNET BAMPOT on 9TH FEBRUARY 2017 12:45 PM

     

    The Green Man,

     

     

     

    They may, as you say, “get plenty back”, but that is their whole purpose: feed in some inflammable stuff , fan those flames and giggle and chuckle as various posters attempt the impossible, ie to get them to admit to being wrong or out of order. THAT would never, ever happen. The only way to deal with trolling is to ignore it, hard at times of course, but engaging with them is exactly what they want.

     

     

     

    We are going through some great times as Celtic fans – ask yourself this, then, why would genuine Celtic ghuys come on to the blog and sow discord just now? The answer is surely obvious.

  5. THECLUMPANY

     

     

    Very good point about Sevco playing week in week out against professionals, it’s easy to lord it over guys who have day jobs:)) And it true Sevvie Style they took that as a sign that they were in fact a good team. The signs were already there when Alistair, God Bless His Wee Trough, couldn’t get out of the Championship.

     

     

    I think this season will be a high tide for them as the more established clubs like Hearts and Aberdeen and StJohnstone draw upon the top six experience to wash away any lingering Sevvie hopes next season…

     

     

    HH

     

     

    And keep on Clumping or should I say Slumping!

  6. EMERALDBEE\O/ STILL PROUD TO BE AN INTERNET BAMPOT on 9TH FEBRUARY 2017

     

     

    Pep Warbiola is much loved in these parts. He must be doing something right.

  7. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    That John “next Barcelona manager” Hughes piece is so bizarre it must be a wind-up?

     

    I know the guy fancies himself a bit, but his team would give our current team a game?????

     

    He seems to forget that Ronny’s team were about to hand them a 5-0 thrashing until they decided to cheat and got away with it from some “honest mistake” officiating.

  8. starry plough

     

    they were good nights often the odd footballer or ‘celebrity’ would be in

     

    as they would be left alone.

  9. Tim Malone Will Tell on

    It’s a while since I read the ‘Succulent Lamb’ Traynor article – man, it’s an absolute corker.

     

     

    We should ‘crowd fund’ placing it as an ‘advertisement’ every year on Administration Day.

  10. Think that Jabba article with Minty was edited by the guy that brought the EBTs to Minty.

     

    Oooohh Matron.

  11. starry plough on 9th February 2017 1:36 pm

     

     

    DAVIDOPOULOS

     

     

    And still the search goes on for a Handsome Pun:))

     

     

    ———————————————————————-

     

     

    Oooh. There’s one.

  12. Big Peat should be turfed out. Howzzat for a pun. Mind you, an obvious sh1t-stirrer.

     

    Ignore it. Petec is obviously having hallucinations from time to time (which of us haven’t)–but 100 percent Tim. There’s a big difference in them.

  13. VFR800 is now a Monster 821 on

    Brought over from the last blog.

     

     

    I’ve been looking at the comparative league positions between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 so far. It’s quite interesting reading.

     

     

    Last season after 16 games, we were 7 points clear of Aberdeen, 8 clear of Hearts and 12 clear of St Johnstone with a GD of 29 (7, 12 and 8 respectively for the others). This season we were 11 points clear of Sevco, 18 clear of Aberdeen and Hearts with a GD of 33 (7, 12 and 10 respectively for the others). However, Sevco and Hearts had played 2 more games and Aberdeen 1 more game. 7 points and 4 goals better off this season.

     

     

    Last season after 20 games we were 3 points clear of Aberdeen, 9 points clear of Hearts and 15 points clear of St Johnstone with a GD of 32 (14, 12 and 4 respectively for the others); both Aberdeen and Hearts had played a game more. This season we were 19 points clear of Sevco, 21 points clear of Aberdeen and 27 points clear of Hearts with a GD of 40 (7, 16 and 12 respectively for the others). Hearts had played 1 game less. 12 points and 8 goals better off this season.

     

     

    Last season after 24 games we were 3 points clear of Aberdeen, 14 clear of Hearts and 22 clear of Ross County with a GD of 43 (17, 18 and 3 respectively for the others). This season we are 27 points clear of Aberdeen and Sevco and 33 points clear of Hearts with a GD of 49 (20, 6 and 14 respectively for the others). Aberdeen have played a game less. 15 points and 6 goals better off.

     

     

    Aberdeen have trailed off this season are 9 points worse off with a game less played; we can extrapolate that to being 6 points worse off if they win their game in hand against Motherwell. However, Aberdeen had beaten us twice last season by this stage; they have lost all games to us this season so that’s their 6 points less catered for. So on the whole, they are performing consistently in comparison to last year. Interestingly enough, the team in 3rd this season are the team newly promoted from the Championship. This is the same as 2015-2016 when Hearts, as the newly promoted team were in 3rd at this stage. Hearts were 2 points worse off at this stage last season but had played a game less; they won their game in hand against Ross County, putting them on 44 points after 24 games.

     

     

    So by and large, the teams in 2nd, 3rd and 4th this season are performing to a very similar level as those in 2nd 3rd and 4th last season.

     

     

    We went on to win the league by 15 points from Aberdeen, 21 from Hearts and 30 from St Johnstone with a GD of 62 (14, 19 and 3 respectively for the others).

     

     

    However, as we already know, Celtic are performing at a significantly higher level than they were last season. The gap is increasing because we are improving and distancing ourselves from the chasing pack, not because our nearest challengers are getting any worse.

     

     

    In the final 14 games of last season we picked up 31 points from 42 and increased our GD by 19. If we perform at least as well as last season we will amass over 100 points and have a GD of almost 70. All the signs are that we will do better than that.

     

     

    It’s already been a good season with records being broken. How many more can we actually manage before the end of May this year?

     

     

     

    KTF

  14. Paul 67 et al,

     

     

    I think you are at the “wind up” and are testing us. :-)))))))))

     

     

    Economic calamity, What economic calamity??????

     

     

    Anyway enough of that. I note we were discussing posters that are/ were missing. One name I see twittering away and should be posting is a certain TM from Rosyth neck of the woods.

     

     

    How about an amnesty for all posters, whether they voluntarily or involuntarily left the blog. ?

     

     

    Much, much more complex peace settlements on numerous issues have been successfully and civilly debated on the blog. Start afresh with basic self regulation guidelines in place.

     

     

    TGM / Big Peat from last blog. Thanks. How’s that for starters. !!!!!!!!!!!

     

     

    HH and mind the Chasm.

  15. Raymac on 9th February 2017 1:52 pm

     

     

    Big Peat should be turfed out. Howzzat for a pun. Mind you, an obvious sh1t-stirrer.

     

    ———————————————————————————————–

     

    sh*t stirring in a bog??? Apt.

  16. Apologies for a Celtic related post.

     

     

    Tom Rogic out for 2 months after ankle operation.

     

    And to think Hartley said O’Dea’s assault wasn’t even a free kick!

  17. GARY67

     

     

    One of the most skilful players in the game clugged out of it and a manager who can’t see that.

     

     

    Nothing much changes in Scottish Fitbaw:))

     

     

    Get well soon TR

  18. POR CIERTO on 9TH FEBRUARY 2017 2:04 PM

     

     

    Nice one. :-))))))))

     

     

    I love a good debate ( time willing ) but a civil debate.

     

     

    We love laughing at the Hun sites when posted on here. They display Hunnish language and behaviour, no surprise there.

     

     

    However : Many enemies of Celtic and disparagers of CQN will love to see us descend to their level. Do not give them the opportunity to gloat when reading extracts from our pages.

     

     

    On an ideal blog ; The moderators cards should not be necessary, but the distributed cards should not be treated as a Asbo. A badge of honour to some.

     

    http://www.yourofficecoach.com/topics/coworker_relationships/difficult_coworkers/how_to_deal_with_childish_adults.aspx

     

     

    Some good reading for all of us.

     

     

    HH and mind the Chasm.

  19. Someone posted hear a day or so ago that Big Tam had been seen with heavily strapped/plastered ankle and using crutches.

  20. BHOYJOEBELFAST on 9TH FEBRUARY 2017 1:56 PM

     

    Euro grand old team to play for. 1967 A year that hurts them.

     

     

    Posted a few times.

     

     

    It is the hurt and envy of of, and the quest for revenge for 67, that has led THEM to where THEY are.

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