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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Hibs scouting policy for once let them down.
Our has Mr Park been keeping tabs on the Aflreo since his Hutchy Vale days.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/more-scottish-football/icelandic-hibernian-fan-alfred-finnbogason-cannot-wait-to-face-former-homeland-1.1059853
ps. did we not have a couple of Icelandic Finnbogasons on the books at one time ?
SOAL
Is the game on anywhere?
SPF
Or if you believe Charlie they “don’t want to” get into debt again. Their own choice. Aye right!
How bad was that hibs/hearts game they are the two worst teams I have ever seen to come from both clubs. HH
Bump
If you think that jurors and judges should declare membership of fraternal societies such as the Masons or OO read about public petition PE01491, “Secret society membership declaration by decision makers”, which is now open for support signatures/comments.
The petition can be summarised as seeking to have our decision makers (judges, juries, tax tribunal members) declare whether they are members of the Masons or similar fraternal societies which demand that their members treat fellow brethren differently from non-brethren.
Please read the details here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/gettinginvolved/petitions/judgesmasonregister
If you agree with the petition terms, consider supporting it, and passing on to anyone who might think they have, or could be, disadvantaged by rulings of tribunals that are tainted by the old-boy network.
I hope in light of the reviews of Jackson Irvine’s performance yesterday that he is kept at CP and not loaned out for this season
Keevins actually said that “Amido Balde is quintessential” but his editor was having none of it.
Green Lantern (((((0)))))
15:03 on
11 August, 2013
Doomed entombed marooned supported by poltroons and managed by a buffoon.
am off to read Puckoon.
hahahah
HT
I was going to say Fir Park
I am keeping an eye on this game as i need both teams to score for some johnny cash
Love
another good article Paul, sitting watching charity/community game with a megga grin on my face..it even looks wider than my staffys smile..mellon shaped.. you could fit a size 9 brown brogue in sidey ways and still feed me jelly an ice cream lol
hail hail to you and yours paul you know how to brighten up an ordinary day h.h
SOAL
:-))
Good luck!
Does anybody know who pays BDO’s invoices?
scotpatsfan
14:53 on 11 August, 2013
@Paul67/Anyone.
Financial question.
Why don’t SevcoFC/RIFC have a line of credit from a bank?
~SPF~
Because, banks will only lend to you, if you can prove you dont really need the money!
Simples!
HH
Is there a deadline for the group stages of the Champions League for us singing players?
If we do have healthy cash reserves and can’t strengthen the side significantly, I’d like to see some of the money used to lower ticket prices and invest in facilities at – and around – the stadium.
Check out these animals in Ingram street
http://instagram.com/p/c4Di-ch8Kf/
VP scores again.
Ha ha ha..
_________________
Hugh Keevins: Rangers pre-season training shows they have more money than they’re letting on
HUGH reckons Rangers are playing down their strength as Smith and McCoist look to combine just like the good old days at Ibrox.
Aplogy if already posted , from yesterdays Scotsman
____________________________________________________________________
Denial is a natural and convenient refuge whenever crisis invades the affairs of man, and nowhere in recent times has the phenomenon been more visible or more vehement than in the aftermath of the liquidation of Rangers Football Club.
Nobody could reasonably take exception to dedicated supporters fighting their team’s corner in the event of perceived attacks from numerous quarters, but when defiance spills over into delusion, the truly relevant and potentially most harmful fundamental problems tend to be neglected in the cause of impulsive and ill-conceived retaliation.
Hence the readiness of too many of the Ibrox club’s followers over the past few years not only to acclaim, but to go to war on behalf of a succession of extremely unreliable (and generally self-styled) “redeemers”, from David Murray through Craig Whyte to Charles Green and sundry other figures of dubious motives and character.
The most remarkable and unfathomable aspect of the support for the various liberty takers is that so many should rush to demonstrate such vociferous and frequently hostile allegiance to men whose “credentials” sprang mainly from hearsay, or, more often, from ill-informed media speculation.
Yet Murray, whose excesses initiated the economic devastation that made the club vulnerable to the predatory and plundering Whyte and Green, was allowed to enjoy without a murmur of suspicion from anyone connected to Ibrox 20 years of steady, but unrelieved, erosion of its finances.
When the former director, the late Hugh Adam, made his apocalyptic assessment of the Murray modus operandi, he was shouted down as merely a bitter ex-employee. As far as can be ascertained, none of his detractors so far has admitted that everything Adam predicted has come to pass.
At the first whisper from outside observers of Whyte’s potential for inflicting further damage on Rangers, there were marches in his defence on the BBC headquarters in Glasgow and, of course, the hundreds-strong protest outside the empty SFA offices at Hampden Park one gloriously comical Saturday morning.
Green was another hero originally the object of adulation and undying devotion on the grounds that he and his consortium had rescued the club from extinction by producing the funds to acquire its assets, while other supposed saviours simply made inconsequential noises.
Now, following his return in the decidedly nebulous role of “consultant”, Green appears to attract new levels of hissing from the faithful with each passing day. To borrow from Terry Jones in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, they were not Messiahs, they were very naughty boys.
All of this turmoil was bound to leave a support as broadly-based as that commanded by the Ibrox club as disarrayed as the institution itself, with internet forums throbbing with charge and counter-charge among fans who, ironically, share the primary wish of seeing their team achieve a new pre-eminence.
Yet, despite the cause and effect of the present chaos, there remains a puzzling insistence among the overwhelming majority of football reporters that Walter Smith remains “the only man the fans can trust.”
This is a distinction that hardly squares with Smith’s own inconstancy since the descent towards liquidation began early last year. Having fronted a consortium said to have included the billionaire businessman, Jim McColl, in a late bid to foil the takeover by the Green group, and having followed this with an entreaty to fans not to buy season tickets on the grounds that the new owners could not be trusted, Smith was curiously happy to accept a non-executive directorship (reputedly for a substantial honorarium) when it was offered by Green.
By the time he accepted the invitation to assume the chairmanship three months ago, Smith had been strangely quiet throughout his time on the board, a silence that would continue after his elevation. Throughout the turbulence, he has demonstrated a propensity for shifting loyalties that seems unbecoming for an aspiring – and inspiring – leader.
Indeed, Smith’s rather fluid sense of loyalty and allegiance recalls a line from Robert Bolt’s play, A Man For All Seasons. Berating his son-in-law, Will Roper, over his changeable, on-off relationship with the church, Thomas More tells him: “We must just pray that when your head stops spinning, your face is to the front again.”
Despite his history of vacillation and being satisfyingly rewarded at Ibrox, when Smith quit this week (he had been Green’s enemy, then his ally, and now he’s reverted to enmity), he triggered an extraordinary series of eulogies. One newspaper article described his efforts on Rangers’ behalf in these hard times as “valiant” and “selfless”, adjectives that would sit more comfortably on aid workers in the world’s most dangerous places.
Another reminded us of Smith’s imperishable love of the club with the quite absurd claim that he had even relinquished his post as Scotland manager in 2007 to ride to Rangers’ rescue after the team’s slump while in the hands of the hapless Paul le Guen. In recording this act of heroic sacrifice, the author omitted the detail that Smith’s defection from Hampden may have been at least partly inspired by the assurance that he would more than triple his wages.
If there has been so much as implied criticism of Smith’s departure, it has concerned the likelihood that he has left his old ally, Ally, as an easy target for Green’s whimsy. This is as unwarranted as the fawning tributes that would have Smith recognised as a demi-god.
With a seemingly endless string of impulsive, ill-considered and ill-advised outbursts on a range of issues and events – in addition, of course, to too many embarrassing setbacks in competitions at home and in Europe – McCoist has proved perfectly capable of finding trouble on his own.
John Laurie from Dumfries.
Annan magistrate’s court to close.
DBBIA / SHangri la Quick News
Hootsman
Celtic look set to sign Icelandic striker Alfred Finnbogason just ahead of a Champions League signing deadline for £3.25m, while offering £2.5m for Wolves man Kevin Doyle.
The Glasgow club are keen to boost their attack after losing Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper over the summer, boss Neil Lennon could see Finnbogason as the man to fill the gap.
The 11pm deadline for new signings affects the squad going into the Champions League clash against Kazakhstan side Shakhter Karagandy, and Finnboagason is thought to have impressed Celtic scouts when he scored for Heerenveen in their 2-0 win over NAC Breda.
Lennon has reportedly been working hard to find the right targets to strengthen his squad, and the 24-year-old could provide the answer, along with Wolves man Kevin Doyle.
Lennon has made previous attempts to sign Doyle but without success, however a fresh £2.5m bid could convince the English side to let him go so they can lower their wage bill.
Tommy Gemmell on BBC2 right now.
what an all rounder.
Soal
Need both teams to score for some johnny cash
You up all night to get lucky ;).
Does anyone have info on the net profit CL group stages brings us in isolation? As in, after policing and transport and bonus payments and all other logistics?
And the actual income after tv, prize money, gates and pies?
Would imagine regular runs in Europe should significantly increase sponsorship earnings (if there aren’t already performance related payments) but that can’t really be factored in.
TBJ
I gave up @ 2.30
xx
Hibs are mingin, Pat to be sacked tomorrow?
nae tattoos – check.
nae stoopid haircut – check.
suits the colour green – check
most of all ………… looks like a footballer, eyes on the ball. balance and control.
i think we might be onto something here.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Alfre%C3%B0_Finnbogason.jpg
right – hurling about to start
Last season I had £200 on RVP to finish top scorer at 8/1.This year I got 4/1.Was a bit let down by the price,but watching him today,think next summers spending dosh is once again safe.Thats what a striker gets you.C,mon Peter give us Finbogasson.Pleeeeze.
Dublin about to Massacre Cork
Up de dubs
Whitecrook Tim… You may see a form of the zombie, groundsharing at Holm park, sometime soon. Sure the Yoker huns would support it :-)
come on cork
Mon the Rebels
Afternoon all
Good article and any sighting of Laurie, Lowe, Dunn et al is guaranteed to bring a smile to my lips.
The sighting of those crack troops brings to mind the ‘ Who’s in the House?’ montage which appeared shortly after Valentine’s Day 2012 interpresing shots if Fraser and Jones uttering their catchphrases with scenes from Ibrox on the day that Duff and Phelps entered our lives. Innocent days when the sight of middle aged men dancing to dance music beside their cars, a cartoon explaining economic reality to one of the Peepil and a very strange man with even strangers shoulders sat on his couch and played a strange song on a strange instrument. 18 months on I fear that farce may be about to be replayed as tragedy*
Jimbo
* Though I’ll still laugh when solids hit the air conditioning this time
Have been hearing for some time that THEY are died.
Would be more convinced if I saw THEM sending for hearse or even a priest.
Better still, offering me a cord.
hope your all upstanding
Charles and Stephbhoy
No chance
Dubs win easy
Go make yourselves a cup of tea and watch the racing
The hurling will be too painful for you
charles kickham
15:24 on
11 August, 2013
right – hurling about to start
————
me too mate, ive felt quesy all day.