AEK Athens are a far sterner test than Celtic or Rosenborg would want in the Champions League third qualification round. Last year they despatched Brugge 3-0 on aggregate from the Europa League qualifiers before drawing home and away against AC Milan. They left the tournament in the first knock out round on the away goals rule to Dynamo Kiev.
On the positive side, they are preseason and the third round will be their first competitive games since May. Although they are a famous European name, last season was their first domestic title in 24 years, when the interrupted Olympiacos’ domination of football in Greece.
Should we overcome Rosenborg, this would be a big task for Celtic. AEK will be favourites, no matter who they face.
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SPFL board changes:
IN: Peter Lawwell (Celtic), Alan Burrows (Motherwell), John Nelms (Dundee).
OUT: Stewart Robertson (Rangers), Ann Budge (Hearts) and Les Gray (Hamilton).
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 23RD JULY 2018 12:58 PM
Three factors that increase the risk of not qualifying over 4 x 180 separate opportunities to do so are:
1. Lack of match fitness.
2. Opposition being match fitter than us.
3. Having an unsettled side in our first few games.
Had Siminovic not been stupid I find it hard to accept BR has not done enough to address those risks.
As I recall we qualified last two seasons in spite of all 3 of above risks applying, which suggests BR knows the risks and has done his best to remove those he has control over.
What we don’t like is the lack of certainty but I’m always more worried going into games as favourites than underdogs. The latter, as all challenges in life, can bring out the best in us.
I hope we qualify and get access to EL after Christmas but if it’s not to be then what isnt is only what we make of it and that is a personal choice.
Chacun a son gout.
The defeatist attitude to the Champions league often echoed by this blog ,directors and management are not befitting of the history of Celtic.
Our forefathers who remained defiant against far greater odd’s would be appalled .
FAVOURITE UNCLE on 23RD JULY 2018 1:42 PM
changes at SFA.
——————————————————
Should that not have Nothing in front of it ?
BOURNESOUPRECIPE
A UFH coup??
Bournesouprecipe.
That is good news. Les Gray no friend of Celtic Robertson unlikey to be and 2 fingers to DK.
All we need now is removal of Dickson from any role in governance if not altogether as well as Johnston who is not fit and proper as matters stand.
A lion might just have roared.
If the courts jail DK that would be some hat trick.
Augurs well for sorting out the game.
Of course we want Celtic to play in the CL, and to perform well. If we qualify for the Group stage, 3rd place and EL after Christmas would be a positive outcome. We achieved this last season but we were bitterly disappointed at the heavy defeats to PSG.
IMO, it was our lack of tactical nous which led to those, not the lack of an umpteen million pound centre half. How many central defenders should we have in the squad? We are 2 down because of suspension and the world cup and yet we can still field 2 very capable lads there.
I reckon our current squad is capable of beating both Rosenborg and AEK. It’s ridiculous that teams of such calibre and tradition could be out of Europe before the end of August.
POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES ???♂️??? on
ZACTLY.
Pogmathon
Let’s just say it makes that less likely.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 23RD JULY 2018 1:44 PM
FF will be in meltdown?? Fenian conspiracy, a blow to Calvanism, Vatican taking control. Never mind Dave King will sort it out.
What time is the statement due?
Chacun a son gout.
AULDHEID.
TOMMY FARR CSC.
Sp , Calvinism
@AULDHEID
“The day someone can come up with a financial investment business case that shows the cost of players over a 3 year contract against the guaranteed benefits they will bring I’ll accept the argument of lack of ambition.”
Sorry Auldheid, but that is nonsensical. You can never provide a guarantee in any investment situation, nevermind football. The position will always be taken on the balance of probabilities.
Therefore, the question is: on the balance of probabilities, if we fail to invest in the team year on year, do our chances of reaching the champions league group stages increase or decrease? I would suggest they decrease (which has various knock-on effects as we are all aware).
Also, what are the risks you speak of (in relation to greater investment)? If Celtic over-invest in one window, they still have a plethora of assets they can unload? I hope you aren’t trying to suggest that if we spend money we will end up in the same situation as Sevco? After all, it was after decades of financial mismanagement and bare-faced corruption that Oldco entered liquidation; this is certainly unlikely to befall Celtic if we increase our running costs moderately.
POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES
“Sp , Calvinism”
Whit hiv ah done noo, ah just live here:)) Swiss Tims ya Calvi Bassas:))
Result bumping those three stickies off the board:))
Dundee‘s Fr John Nelms ???
AH @ 1.27
As a business if you don’t invest you will dimish, stagnate and then “die”.
Death for us at this moment in time would be the loss of the SPL.
The club is a business financed in the Main by its support directly.
We play a competive sport looking to overcome challenges / win things and play good football on the park for our own benefit as spectators and for the accolades of others who might not be emotionally engaged but will offer plaudits if we do well.
We want to be in the mix at the highest level we possibly can.
EU football offers the way out at the moment to grow the club and improve the team.
A winning team, playing good football generates interest and expands our support base meaning more income for the club and more resources to improve the playing staff and the physical surroundings.
We are currently generating a surplus that we are not using at this moment.
Consequently we are taking money of the support and putting it in a bank.
Yes but as the board groupies explain — we are saving money for a rainy day even though the actual saving for a rainy day means that the rainy day is more likely to happen.
Then there is the number — is £20mill enough?
If not will £40 / £60mill be enough — Will there ever be a number that is big enough?
It begs the question that if I wanted to put money in the bank I could cut out the middleman — the club — and just put it in there myself.
Consequently what is our plan — what does the future hold for us? To me we are in a holding pattern with no direction beyond staying one step ahead of TFOD2.1 — might suit some but not me. We are bigger than them — let it go and find new challenges.
Their is no use in having money in the bank if we do not have a balanced squad or a poor team on the park. BR3.0 is looking very like BR2.0 with all the gaps and issues that we had 12 months ago — lessons have not been learned and we are in danger of missing out on the CL group stages because known weaknesses have not been addressed.
Why do we need large — and growing — amounts of money in the bank at the expense of a poorer product on the park? Just what are we saving up for — DD’s retirement party?
We are a poorly run business.
Our wage bill increases but the quality on the park diminishes.
We seem to be returning to the MON days of keeping your pals happy.
Might be acceptable if we were a progressive growing business with a long term plan to take us forward. It is not acceptable if we are in a holding pattern squeezing cash out the cow to build up a bank balance.
Every investment carries risk.
However you plan for the risk and you diminish the risk.
Watching a bank balance grow is not the way forward.
Getting into the CL group stages must be our target — this season and every season.
When did the quality on the park diminish ?
MADMITCH@2PM
Well said.
The Hand cant hit etc
Are you saying that Celtic haven’t invested this season? I thought we had paid £9m for Eduoard, and given an improved contract to Tom Rogic. If Boyata signs a new deal, that’s 3 important players tied down on long term contracts. Would you rather we spend that money elsewhere? Who would you buy? On what salaries?
mit
someone up there looking after you.
wife was in the same restaurant for lunch a couple of weeks ago.
Same old, same old. Every pre-season it is like a broken record. I’m sure Brendan is looking to strengthen the defence and the squad but if anybody half decent becomes available the they are snapped up for obscene money by some no-mark EPL club. Spending vast sums on one or two players, plus wages, guarantees you diddly squat.
As far as UEFA are concerned we might be a massive club but the population of the country will not fill their coffers from TV and advertising revenue so we are canon fodder for them. You just need to look at the numbers of pre-season qualifiers being played, especially in a World Cup year. When they introduce the competition draws and say “good luck to all the participating teams” it is just a euphemism for “thanks suckers for filling our bank account again.”
The Hands.
As you have called my point nonsense can you show me where the wage bill has gone down?
Can you quantify the risks of not qualifying over the 3 year costs of a player and how many players we would need to represent a meaningful investment in terms of paying more to get a better quality player as opposed to paying more to get no better than we have.
Name 1 to 3 players that would represent an investment to you with costs over 3 years and then we can debate whether I’m speaking nonsense.
BIG-CUP-WINNERS
At the same time that we didn’t have a winning team, expand the support or improve the physical surroundings.
Curtainsdrawn CSC
Glad that you missed this terrible incident Mike. It is sad that Toronto has had 2 such incidents in a few months.
Meanwhile, in Britain 3 people have been arrested for throwing acid in the face of a 3 year old boy in Worcester. No reason. Just random. It’s impossible to find words about this.
Por Cierto/ TH
Thanks guys. after posting, I spoke with my neighbour who owns a butcher shop on the Danforth (in fact, he is closed today as the shooter was apparently shot behind his store)…. if so, it was probably a kilometre away from where we would have been … sorry for being a bit of an alarmist. But, thanks for the concern.
TH .. if your wife was there, do you live near by? If so, we may be neighbours.
Big news about the SPFL. Was the deal that Celtic would do nothing about the past, in return for getting a larger say in what happens in the future? Although cleaning out scottish football is probably on a par with cleaning out the Augean stables.
Arf Arf
https://thecelticblog.com/2018/07/blogs/sevco-in-uproar-as-the-celtics-unseen-hand-tightens-its-grip-on-scottish-football/
@ GER57 on 23RD JULY 2018 2:06 PM
1. Conflicting reports on the fee for Edouard and it is certainly not £9m up front (if we are paying that at all).
We have received circa £15m by selling Armstrong, Sviatchenko and the VVD sell-on monies. We haven’t invested this yet. In addition, we have £30m+ in the bank as detailed in our accounts for 16/17 season and we have just had our most successful season in terms of finances last year.
I’m loathed to get to the situation where extending players’ contracts is recognised as a coup for the club in lieu of transfers. Why can’t we extend Rogic’s contract and shore up the defence?
MIKE IN TORONTO
Sad to read of such shootings in Canada, thank God you and your Mum changed your minds.
HH
HJ/SP
It was two years ago, we were at the Caribana parade, and were on our way to dinner when a guy (about 30 yards away, as I recall) pulls out a gun, and just starts shooting … the cops ran down and shot him dead.
I am starting to think that I should just stay home for dinner from now on.
sorry .. just reading that back … was meant as a comment on how the city is changing … but it comes across as a bit glib… and people were killed. apologies.
G57 @ 2.06
So far this season we have generated revenue from selling SA and we have received a bonus from a former player being sold on — VvD.
We are looking at £13 / 15mill coming in and we have so far spent money on OE. The headline figure was £9mill but the full cost is a manufactured figure based on a number of variables including our progress and his with the actual spend this year being in the region of £5mill from a number of sources.
Wages — Savings include SA plus loan fees for CM / PR / OE.
Increases — TR’s new deal, OE’s full time wage.
Consequently we are financially in a better position that we were in at the end of last season.
And that is without taking into account our cash position and the further instalments — in being bigger than out — from previous transactions.
Yet all we have at the moment is the JMcG ongoing saga.
All this while we have no real back up at LB, a very limited RB roster — and they are not all available at the moment — plus gaps at CB even after a recruitment campaign 7 months ago.
Not sure if ego is in play or stubbornness is a factor.
However if we do not reach the CL group stages then questions need to be asked.
Start at DD aka the Irish Raj.
Move onto PL and his bonus culture.
Then engage with BR to see if things are going to plan and he is growing as a manager.
The jury is out regarding EU football and the conditioning regime is in the spotlight after the number of tears and strains we seem to be plagued with every close season.
Hrhvatski;
I hope the judge ” finds the words” life,life and life and 30 years before you ask for parole.
MIT-glad to hear you and mum are safe, was thinking about you this morning. Incidentally I dropped our two visitors off at Danforth and Donlands last week; there but for the grace of God.
Slainte
Tony
Forgot about ES.
More money in plus a wage bill reduction.
MIKE IN TORONTO
that’s a sobering thought about how close u could have been to the shooting, I said earlier on the last article that my wife is getting a wee bit edgy about our trip to Toronto in October, as I said it could happen anywhere, glad to hear you decided to eat elsewhere anyway
@ Auldhied
Notwithstanding your comment regarding the wage bill (which I will come to), I stand by my original point that it is impossible to provide a guarantee in relation to any investment and I think it is misleading of you (someone with a prominent voice on this site) to suggest as such; and evidently you are unable to refute my point as you have not responded to it.
I can quantify that we will lose £40m in revenue (if not more) through failure to qualify for the Champions League. As of year end 30 June 2017, our revenue was £90.7m; our revenue would be reduced by almost half through failure to qualify. If I was on the board of Celtic that would be my most pressing worry.
As for your comment on the wage bill: our operating expenses increased by 33.3% between year end of 16 and 17; in the same period our revenue increased by 74.2%.
Looking like a perfect evening for (hopefully perfect) Football on Wednesday.
My first visit to Paradise this season. Heavenly I hope.
HH jamesgang
THC … @ 2.45
I think we are at £30mill gross from the CL for each of the past two seasons.
The net figure is quite a lot less as we seem to give a lot away in bonuses.
I think we are currently a £60mill T/O club at the moment outwith EU money.
BR has done his bit to put erses on seats and bulk up the merchandise spend.
At this figure we probably can afford a net spend of £5mill every season.
Or we should if the wage bill was correctly structured.
DB (2013/16) suggests that we are still a bit profligate when it comes to buying in EU duds on the basis that the SPL is a hard sell — not sure if this is the Scottish cringe or EPL envy.
On your main point I agree with you.
EU football is our main issue today and failure here needs to be investigated, understood and then sorted. I think we will get through but we do make it hard for ourselves.
The ghosts of BR’s Scouse past seem to catch up with him every July.
On another dimension the reserve / U20 squad should have players ready to step up — hopefully one at a time as 75% of the defence for a CL qualifier would be pushing it.
MJ seems to be the only candidate for breakthrough this season.
The numbers man in me thinks this is one too few.