Amido, Dave King-gap too big to bridge

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A meaningless win is always better than a meaningless defeat, but in the larger scheme of things, yesterday’s game against Liverpool is no more significant than last month’s games in Germany.  They are about building fitness and, if necessary, trying new things.

Amido Balde was the winner yesterday.  Some were already writing the player off, not because of any performance inadequacy, but because he was not being deployed competitively.  Victor Wanyama joined two years ago but spent the first six months of this stay warming the bench with Brown, Ledley and Kayal ahead of him.

Five months ago Rangers International FC PLC released their interim accounts, noting that their recurring operating expenses of £2.371m, were £1m per month more than their income.

£1m per month!!  To a club which has no bank borrowing facility!  Yet the alarm bells didn’t ring everywhere.  Roll on five months, 34,000 fans have been separated from their cash in return for season tickets, and now the alarms are ringing all over the place, not just the Celtic online media.

This is not news to anyone reading Celtic Quick News but in life, it’s often not so much the message as the messenger that’s significant.  That the mainstream media feel it’s appropriate to ‘tell it as it is’ about Rangers International’s finances, is a measure of how acute the situation is.

As we’ve been saying here for years, it takes close to £20m p.a., before you employ a footballer or coach, to run a football club which can accommodate circa 40,000 spectators on a regular basis.  Add your football budget onto that £20m and you have an idea of the cash needed to be a ‘top’ Scottish club.

Rangers International’s interim revenue for seven months was £9.5m which annualised up would be £16.3m.  There is a huge structural gap which no one has been able to even remotely suggest a way to bridge.

Now Dave King has told the Herald what we’ve been saying for a while, “Celtic are building reserves by selling top players that they won’t need until Rangers are back (sic) competing with them. The way our finances are being run we could end up with a gap that is too large to bridge.”

It takes hundreds of employees to run a football club at a busy Ibrox Stadium.  There are policing, rates, utility, insurance and stewarding costs, which you can’t do anything about.  Even if they double income, they’re still going to be left with a fraction of Celtic’s football budget.

As Dave King suggests, this is not a short and medium term problem, the gap is already too large to bridge.  King is wrong on one factor, Celtic will not store reserves awaiting a challenge from Rangers International (or a successor club), they are managing player assets as part of an on-going Champions League development strategy.

The other lot are finished, I tells ya’, finished! This is Private Fraser doing his Dave King impersonation:

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824 Comments

  1. Afternoon Timland, hot and hun free in the mountain valley, sheer bliss.

     

     

    shimmies33

     

     

    Agree 100%.

     

     

    We have eight players off the wage bill as well, must be in the region 30k a week at a conservative estimate saved there.

     

     

    We have already spent approx 6 mill, so 14 mill slushing around in the pot, and the CL money is safe.

     

     

    As for wages, as has been explained, wages are an ongoing expence, fill the stadium with quality players and they will come.

     

     

    HH

  2. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    BAMBOO 1109

     

     

    Correct. Just ask any Aberdeen fan,or Michael Watt.

     

     

    In any other league….

  3. They say young players play without fear and you could certainly say this about Celtic side on Saturday. Thought young Tony Watt was victim of a dangerous stamp on his leg while on the ground by a Liverpool player could have been seriously injured.

  4. Joost in tae say…

     

     

    Derek McInnes will turn the dons intae a team that will gie us a fright this season ! imo

     

     

    Next season DM wull turn the Dons intae a team that’ll gie us an even bigger fright ! imo

     

     

    The following season – DM wull be the manager of Sevco 3(?) imo

     

     

    Only saying – Hail Hail – Off oot.

  5. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    OHITS 1112

     

     

    I went to a funeral for a good friend of mine a few years back.

     

     

    It lasted longer than a Catholic Wedding,buried with full honours from The Masonic Lodge,The Orange Order,and The Apprenticeboys of Derry.

     

     

    Not Londonderry,strangely,but heyho…

     

     

    “Guid tae see ye here”, says one of the lads over a beer later. “Nice of you to turn out,mate” said another one.

     

     

    I just looked at them-in The Orange Club in Kilwinning-and asked when the next one was.

     

     

    Still got my kneecaps,Lord knows how….

  6. Delaneys Dunky on

    Dobbo…. Whilst I totally agree with you regarding the aquisition of a first choice striker, I feel that Mouyokolo along with Ambrose, Lustig and Mulgrew with Van Dyke and Fraser to return from injury, we have enough cover at centre back. Young Irvine and Fisher are ready to step up in midfield IMHO

  7. Minceyheidman @ 11;27,

     

     

    Can’t agree I’m’afraid.

     

     

    Izzie had Downing and Glen Johnstone to deal with, two top notch players both on thright flank.

     

     

    Once Izzie went off the young lhad did great but time after time Liverpool got into the left of the Celtic Box, leading to some frantic defending.

     

     

    Izzie had stopped tha happening – didn’t want to come off either.

     

     

    Great Job.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  8. BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS

     

    The lengths some folk will go to to get to one of your shinndigs:))

     

     

    Just had the hospital on the phone rearranging my colonoscopy, hope you realise the effort we put in up here :))

  9. shimmies33 11:03, I’m doubtful as to whether anyone we sign in the next week would make the difference between getting into the CL or remaining in the Europa League. While we might need another striker and possibly a replacement for Wanyama, I think we’re otherwise in strong shape, especially given the new signings and young players coming through, e.g. Van Dijk, Mouyokolo, Fisher. If Celtic are to spend money beyond those two positions I’d prefer to see it spent on the Celtic Triangle or something else non-football i.e. a reliable investment. There will be tough times ahead and we’ve learned what happens when you outspend your means. R*angers certainly ‘speculated to accumulate’. Calls for Lawell to spend big sound leave me unconvinced. As I see it, the model is working and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

  10. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    FESS19 1132

     

     

    “Charlie Green

     

    Amateur golfer of a bygone era, not to be confused with obscure Yorkshireman currently involved in ‘bitter clash’ over control of once-great Scottish institution. He no’ fancy Ally McLad”

     

     

    I reckon CHARLIEBHOY has hot an alternative source of income,you know.

     

     

    And it’s not to be sneezed at.

     

     

    I was in Santander earlier,and Rory McIlroy was promoting their new credit card.

     

     

    Emblazoned with the name….

     

     

    C GREEN

     

     

    Now,that kinda endorsement disnae come cheap.

  11. Delaneys Dunky

     

     

    You may be right about centre back.

     

     

    I would like a replacement for Victor – i think we are looking at a Swiss player who was released by Man City but i have heard nothing on that for a while.

  12. traditionalist88 on

    Paul67:

     

    ‘Amido Balde was the winner yesterday. Some were already writing the player off, not because of any performance inadequacy, but because he was not being deployed competitively’

     

    ================

     

    ==================

     

     

    I suggested because he wasn’t being deployed competitively(5 games to date) that he wasn’t the direct/suitable replacement for Hooper.

     

     

    Our attempts to sign at least one, maybe 2, additional strikers in the coming weeks support this.

     

     

    I at no stage wrote Balde off. Others did, quite brutally! But it was me who suggested that him not being used competitively suggested he was not THE replacement for Hooper and that the clock was ticking on getting others in, with the next CL round in mind.

     

     

    And I stand by all the comments I made on that one. I think you may have confused my reasoning with others writing the player off after a few friendlies.

     

     

    Balde was superb on Saturday I thought.

     

     

    HH

  13. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    LEFTCLICKTIC

     

     

    Indeed I do,and I am both suitably humbled and grateful.

     

     

    However….

     

     

    Phone them and cancel it,bud.

     

     

    There will be plenty of people getting the s… ripped outa them that day,we’ll save the NHS a fortune!

     

     

    And,if I may say so,you can answer us back-try doing that to a surgeon….

  14. surprised at this last line from a DR reporter ……

     

     

     

    “But it turns out you can spray all the deodorant you like on a human landfill site, you’ll never get rid of the stink.”

     

    ………………..

     

    thoughts…

  15. From TSFM on the subject of Brian Stockbriges claim that he paid £50k electricity bill Sevco,Yes he paid one aswell as Malcom Murray :)))

     

    ——————————————–

     

     

    My heart was bleeding for Mr Stockbridge at the thought of him parting with £50K for the sake of R*ng*rs. And then I remembered something about a £50K loan he made mentioned in the AIM Prospectus.

     

     

    THE LOAN WAS FOR ONE DAY:

     

     

    28. Related Party Transactions

     

    ‘On 6 August 2012, Brian Stockbridge, a director of RFCL provided a loan of £50,000 to RFCL. No

     

    interest accrued on this balance which was repaid on 7 August 2012.

     

     

    Brian Stockbridge also received a payment of £30,000 for the period from 14 June 2014 to 31 August 2012 with respect to his consultancy services as a director.’

     

     

    So again we see what a p*ss poor SMSM we have – why didn’t the journo ask how long the loan was for

     

     

    Still I see that Stockbridge consultancy rates are far higher than Green’s measly £1,000 per month

  16. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    DOBBO

     

     

    Easy mistake. Not the most Norwegian name on the planet.

  17. Twitter.

     

     

    Blue Knights inciting hatred of Charles Green via Keith Jackson. A dog-whistling bid to oust him on-the-cheap by making Glasgow unlivable.

  18. Delaneys Dunky on

    Dobbo…. I am very excited at the potential coming through from the youth squad. Unless we are signing an established/experienced midfielder, I think the home reared youngsters should be given their chance. Especially in the SPFL.