News that we are after a second Dundee United midfield player will prove popular, Stuart Armstrong has been tipped for progress for a couple of years. He is another Ronny Deila-type player, a strong runner who can get up and down the field. As usual, I’ll reserve judgement until we sign him, and I’ve had a chance to watch him properly.
You have to admire his balls. Dave King assertion that a conviction for tax fraud is a “favourable settlement” goes beyond parody. I’m unsure if some PR flop put those words in his head or if he concocted the notion by himself, but just as you cannot shine a turd, it is impossible to spin an undisputed criminal conviction. He was convicted of criminal offenses. If this is your measure of favourable, your standards are truly deplorable.
I fail to see why King even is discussing such matters with the media, unless he’s currying favour with the Daily Record. These assertions will make no difference whatsoever to the stock market, or any reputable nominated adviser, nor will it hold sway with the SFA. It is also a futile battleground. In the event King gains control of newco Rangers, he doesn’t need to be a director to exercise de facto control, Paul Murray has been his man for years. Mike Ashley is not a director, and he owns less than 9% of the club, but he appears to be able to dictate play quite comfortably.
Without a trace of irony, King told the Record: “The enthusiasm that this board adopts to ‘media management’ and its failure to act in the interest of shareholders and other stakeholders is exactly why they should be jettisoned”.
Trying hard to avoid the merest whiff of media management himself, King then added, “History will judge this board as one of the worst the club has ever had. There is not one individual who puts the club above personal interest.”
There you have it folks, our pal Dave is a man you can trust.
Just as the Newco board didn’t have enough on their plate, interim manager Kenny McDowell tendered his notice, although in true ‘Rangers’ tradition, he’s not going without a pay-off. It’s an added vote of no confidence the regime could do without. They now face the embarrassing prospect of allowing an interim to remain in control as a lame duck, or put a second manager on gardening leave.
Mike Ashley’s prospects of a successful turnaround look bleak in the face of such uniform and orchestrated antagonism. I wonder if he’s the kind of man who takes manipulation lightly? If not, the manipulators are playing with fire.
CQN11 St Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance is on Friday 13 March, at the Kerrydale Suite, Celtic Park. The focus of an excellent night’s entertainment will be funding the construction of a kitchen at Chibwata Primary School in Malawi, for Mary’s Meals.
Email me if you would like to reserve a ticket, celticquicknews@gmail.com or book directly via the links at the bottom of this page.
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Phil’s latest….
The Sevco experiment
4 Replies
By the time the RIFC EGM takes place Big Mike could be Sevco’s banker.
He could also have finessed the deal with Rangers Retail Limited.
This expedition across Hadrian’s Wall does seem to be more hassle than it is worth.
So why bother?
The numbers are involved are, for Ashley, still within the realm of petty cash.
One business analyst has been advancing the theory-and this all that it is-that Big Mike just might have a cunning plan.
He believes that what Big Mike is about in Scotland is conducting a dry run in Scotland for something much bigger.
Here is the scenario that he put to me:
“There are at least ten clubs in the English Championship that are financially struggling. If Ashley can move in and lend to them then he can separate the profitable bits of the operation from the loss making parts.
“If he can disconnect the merchandising operation in a discrete entity then those profits will not disappear down the black club in the club’s finances.
“He could end up running the retail side of several clubs doing a kit deal and controlling the advertising space without actually owning any of these clubs.
“That way he would not fall foul of the FA’s regulations.
“Rangers might just be a way for him to test this out in Scotland to see if it works.”
His scenario made a lot of sense and the available evidence fitted it rather well. Big Mike is already involved with Oldham Athletic.
The mighty Glasgow Sevco allows him an opportunity to finesse this business plan with a bigger customer base.
Essentially Big Mike would be happy for emotionally committed chaps to run thee messy loss making parts of the operation “the club” while he hived off the profitable body parts “the company”.
This, in essence, is what rangers Retail Limited is all about.
Of course, it will now have been made aware to his guys in the Blue Room that the Ibrox clientele are revolting.
However the Sports Direct magnate does appear to have been rather successful in business by utterly ignoring the feelings of others!
Moreover Toon Army sources tell me that, heretofore, the Govan chaps have not mustered anything like the numbers that have been marshalled on the Tyne against Big Mike.
For the avoidance of doubt Ashley and his generals at St James’ Park completely ignored the disaffected fans.
Of course The People have now invested all of their hope in the possibility that one day soon Mr David Cunningham King and the Park Consortium will be as one in harmony in the Blue Room.
The delicious irony is that the chaps in the Light Blue corner are squaring up to a billionaire with wealth off the radar.
The optics are important in all of this and we have seen the extravagant gesture made (EGM) by the brogue consortium.
However, if Big Mike does lend Sevco that £10m and it is secured against the stadium then regardless of who is in the Blue Room he would be the lender of last retort.
There will always be players who slip through the net.
We let go of Andrew Robertson. I know somebody who was his coach at Queens Park and he told me nobody thought he would be an SPL player nevermind a Scotland international.
Robert Snodgrass is from Parkhead and played well for Livingston against Celtic when he was a teenager.
It happens.
timaloy29
14:23 on 20 January, 2015
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Where is snodgrass now ? He go to hull or still at norwich.. havent heard him mentioned this season.
Some on here said his move to parkhead was a done deal.. would have been great to see.
McCarthay seemed to be a particularly unfortunate case – we had courted him for a long time and it looked like the boy wanted to come.
Unfortunately, if I recall correctly, the crunch came during the shambolic Tony Mowbray tenure when we seemed to think that getting a bunch of loanees in January was the answer to the honest mistakes.
proudbhoy
Snodgrass is at Hull City. Probably out for the season with a bad injury.
LB
To be fair, I did say circa last week that there was the possibility Michael might only be interested in his circa £7m per annum from the retail side, with a guaranteed £4.5m minimum return…….it does seem logical to conclude that he would be taking some risk assuming sevco were going to recover over the next 10 years, if ever……interesting times
Tim Malone Will Tell
14:30 on
20 January, 2015
McCarthay seemed to be a particularly unfortunate case – we had courted him for a long time and it looked like the boy wanted to come.
Unfortunately, if I recall correctly, the crunch came during the shambolic Tony Mowbray tenure when we seemed to think that getting a bunch of loanees in January was the answer to the honest mistakes.
———-
Don’t know if true, but I was told at the time that we’d agreed a fee with Hamilton, same fee as Wigan but couldn’t match their wages being offered.
McCarthy has also been on record as saying that he preferred a move to the EPL.
67 european cup winners
12:52 on 20 January, 2015
Its a pantomime at work today
A Sheffield Utd fan, a Leeds Utd fan and a Wolves fan (guys I work with)
Think I am taking the pi– when I tell them
The guy trying to take control of Rangers has a criminal record for avoiding tax
They say – didn’t they go bust for not paying tax
I say – yes
They say – but they wouldn’t let a guy who has not paid tax take over a team that went bust for not paying tax ??
I say – Oh yes they would
They say – they are Fu–ing idiots
I then start to tell them about the referee for semi final (being a self confessed SB holder at Ibrox) – they say Its not possible ??
I then say the President of the SFA was the Secretary of Rangers and knew about not paying tax – they say not possible UEFA would not allow
Seriously try explaining what’s happening in Glasgow – people cant comprehend
Its really funny – or is it??
67 ECW
############
hi mate . Entirely the reason I hope the Sunday herald statement reaches out with this country , and beyond . As an aside I can’t think of a football manager I dislike more than Mcinnes . Definitely the Rangers manager material . A scunnered of the highest order
Scunner not scunnered
My unfounded feeling about Mc.Carthy is that the boy was not prepared to submit to the treatment that Aiden was getting.
His recent controversial withdrawal from the Scotland v Rep game, may or may not substantiate that feeling.
The_Huddle –
That ties in with what I was told a few years back. Celtic were monitoring McCarthy’s progress at Accies and agreed to take a step back until he was ready for the step up. When that time came, Celtic agreed a fee with Accies but when Wigan came in, McCarthy jumped at the chance of moving to England.
proudbhoy
Snodgrass is at Hull. He’s out with a serious injury and no set return date I believe
Not getting caught up in any transfer talk.I will wait to see.Too many let downs in the past.I have hopes for this one because I am sure PL knows the riches awaiting CL qualifiers.
Someone said earlier,they did not fancy Biton,or words to that effect.Dearie dearie me.
On Martin O Neil suggesting Rangers have suffered enough.
An open letter to Martin O Neil
Dear Mr O Neil
You were a great Celtic manager and gave the Celtic support some wonderful memories.
Top of the memory list has to be the bitter sweet season of 2002/03 when you took Celtic to Seville but lost out on the SPL title to Rangers by a goal.
Rangers that season won the treble under Alex McLeish
I note your view that Rangers have been punished enough but I wonder if it is a view you would still hold if you knew that.
1. Ronald De Boer was paid for the first half of that season by an illegal ebt. Not an ebt that Rangers are still contesting with HMRC but one for which they accepted liability because they had lied to HMRC about the existence of the side letter to De Boer that was part of the tax arrangement they had with him since August 2000.
2. You were kept in the dark about the above because details of that side letter and why the ebt in question was illegal were kept from the SPL when they commissioned Lord Nimmo Smith to investigate the use of ebts and side letters at Rangers. How De Boer ‘ s ebt from August 2000 was treated as legal is something that the SPL have failed to answer.
There are punishments and there are consequences and what is happening to Rangers is a consequence first of their behaviour and second the ongoing consequence of avoiding the football punishment that would have to have happened had the nature of the De Boer ebt not been hidden from those charged with the investigation.
How much less hurtful would 2002/03 feel now if you knew it was a title you had lost by unfair means?
I am not suggesting that the 2003 title be stripped or awarded to Celtic but the truth behind it has to be told so that pronouncements such as yours are made based on the facts.
You and Celtic and our support were cheated. If you can forgive that then so can I, but let’s not pretend what Rangers indulged in from 2000 is anything but the total corruption of Scottish football of which Celtic were but one of the many victims.
Smile
Ally McCoist
True Blue
12,087 posts
Gender:Male
Location:Scotland
Posted Today, 12:37 PM
Love Novo a great guy and always has time for the supporters, I have a great picture of Him and Beasley i took at a game when we won the League, somewhere.
Ha ha ha ha ha,bet thats a pic and a half.Straight out of Hammer House Of Horrors.
turkey…
Re Biton: this one flies!
Calm head, calm demeanour, head up, forward passes…
HH
https://twitter.com/celticnewsnow/status/557541017919168512
Good on ye, Auldheid .
Another halo slips.
timaloy29
14:53 on 20 January, 201
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Unfortunate.. good player and seems like a good tim going by tweets and stories on here.
auldheid
14:59 on 20 January, 2015
My letter to Martin would be a lot shorter…
” get a grip ae yursel, MON “
auldheid
14:59 on 20 January, 2015
You were, of course, and as usual, spot on in your letter to MON …. :)
Turkey
I love the calmness and ball retention skills that Nir brings to our midfield, alongside a good range of accurate passing. He gets stick esp from our home crowd that he does not challenge hard enough in 50/50 balls. A very Scottish attitude!
Brill….
https://twitter.com/stevestfler/status/448996080399552513
Dundee Utd denying any negotiations underway over Armstrong?
HH
auldheid
14:59 on 20 January, 2015
Well said sir.
Hail! Hail!
I know someone who was on the coaching staff at Hamilton at the time James McCarthy was beginning to be linked with us.
I met him one day and asked his opinion on the boy.
He told he was not an outstanding prospect but was ‘decent at everything’. Good athlete, could pass, tackle and worked hard.
The impression i had when i left him that day was that the boy had been in the right place at the right time to break through as young as he did and wouldn’t be worth us signing.
That was an opinion I still held after watching him play a few times for Hamilton.
Indeed, when he signed for Everton I was flabbergasted. I don’t dispute he is a decent player but i’m kind of at a loss as to what he brings to the party.
I was really looking forward to seeing how he got on against Broonie and Charlie in the recent Int’l. I’m not convinced he is any better than our captain.
The fact he has a higher value is a consequence of which league he plays in.
Auldheid….well said…im sick to death of this nonsense from exmanagers and explayers.,they should understand that statements like MON’s help foster the victim mentality in the sevco hordes,this victim mentality will imo , give thems all the excuse they need to bring carnage to Glasgow on the day of the L/C semi final……sick ot it…..
Pardon ….?
https://twitter.com/mattlindsayht/status/557501426692542464
Auldheid
Its all too easy for MON to be magnanimous to the huns as he has consigned it all to a bucket called “the past”.
Supporters of Celtic and other Scottish clubs understandably find it hard to be quite so forgiving given the financial and emotional investment we have in Scottish fitba – something that MON doesnt really share.
We have a limited number of signed copies of Caesar & The Assassin. This book has been a huge success for CQN and we have already sold 95% of our print run.
If you want a signed copy before they are all gone you can order at http://www.cqnbookstore.com – you will also receive a copy of the 2015 CQN Annual and a Celtic DVD.
guernica
15:17 on 20 January, 2015
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He could pass a ball at 17
Our captain still struggles to pass the ball
Well.
Mccarthy does the simple things similar to biton but gets stuck in abit more and also has bit more speed.
I think hes a great player if he has the right players around him.. he does at everton. Not so much with ireland sadly.
Auldheid
Are you going to make sure Martin O’Neil gets sight of your open letter?
MWD said AYE
Celtic have held talks with Darren Fletcher.
justafan
15:02 on
20 January, 2015
turkey…
Re Biton: this one flies!
Calm head, calm demeanour, head up, forward passes…
HH
Absolute class act.The object of retaining the ball seems to be lost on some.Brian Cloughs great statement”If you have the ball,then give it to the opposition,it was a waste of time having it in the 1st place”.
Tim Malone will tell
I agree. “Football people” quickly forget on which side their bread is buttered and who put the bread and butter on their table in the first place.
In that sense there is a disconnect which I think is responsible for the ongoing sense of grievance.
Cheating might be all part of the game to professionals who cannot draw the line between a blatant dive and going down following a nudge or even a Thiery hand ball, but to those who pay to watch fair play it is a no no.
As I said in the letter it’s ok to be forgiving but it is a precious gift not to be given lightly and certainly without full knowledge of the extent of the wrongdoing that is being forgiven.
lennon’s passion
15:40 on
20 January, 2015
Celtic have held talks with Darren Fletcher.
Great player.Alex Ferguson said he was the 1st player on his team sheet.Celtic mad,which helps.Has he still got it.WGS seems to think so,and he has played for Man U a few times this season.
Lets wait and see.
MWD
I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe cc to the guy bankrolling him.
Turkeybhoy
Unless Fletcher wants to take a huge drop in wages I don;t see the sense in this.
Loan deal may be an option. I would not pay him more than £20k a week though whether loan or buy.
LB