We’ve often talked about the only real danger to a football club: internecine strife:
Internecine, def: pertaining to conflict within a group, mutually destructive.
In football, your enemies can’t inflict permanent harm, that can only come from within. This morning’s media cover threats from Sevconians to boycott (clearly in homage to Irish tradition) club/company products. More power to their elbows, they should boycott every piece of tat Newco’s disparate IP rights holders churn out, apart from the occasional novelty duck.
Here’s the thing, before you turn the tanks inwards, you’d better be sure you’ve got the ‘What happens next?’ question sorted. If you don’t, you’re playing a real life version of Lemmings.
Threatening Mike Ashley? Aye sure, that’ll work, knock yourself out. I’m sure Ashley’s known as a big pussy, he hasn’t got the money to face down the malcontents, either. I bet he’s already writing his capitulation letter, “Dear Sevconians, by noticing that I can’t handle conflict you’ve outsmarted me. The game’s up.”
What was it Charles Green told John Brown he would do to Ibrox? Hmmm.
Blame the SFA, SPL, BBC, Celtic, Her Majesty’s lawyers, the Daily Record and Raith Rovers but you need to be on the inside to wreak havoc like this.
Interesting front opened by the English Premier League today on the copycat use of pyrotechnics at football games. “Someone could get killed”, said policing minister Damian Green. You’re 20 years out of date, Mr Green.
Here’s the problem: it’s possible to discharge one of these devices in a crowded area without accepting the safety/reputational/fine consequences. Enormously invasive searches of unconnected people would be required to prevent pyros being taken into a stadium which is just not possible, eradication requires everyone to decide not to participate.
The only practical method I can see of stopping the use of pyrotechnics in Scottish football is to give Sports Direct exclusive distribution rights. Who’d buy them then?
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livibhoy – god bless wee oscar
09:31 on 4 December, 2013
LB, are you actually PL?
Seriously, a very well argued post on the difficulties facing CEOs in the business world today. I personally think PLhas been superb for Celtic and worth every penny he earns. Yes. He makes mistakes from time to time – show me the man who doesn’t but on the whole I think he is fantastic for Celtic. He also loves us and that comes across if you ever have a face to face with him.
Does a lot that the supporters don’t hear about because that’s the Celtic way.
A proper Celt is our Peter.
Livibhoy.
I turned up an hour late for a CST meeting thinking it started at 7pm.
PL was there answering questions. He eventually left at 7.20 saying over the last 20 mins he needed to go. He needed to go because his wife was waiting for him in the car park.
Now I call keeping the wife waiting 20 mins whilst I talk football, dedication over and above the call of duty.
Much of Celtic’s problems in terms of how supporters perceive them is the fractured nature of communications and the bottle neck that PL unwittingly has been, because he wants to protect the club. This means small issues can become big ones if missed.
That should improve somewhat with the appointment of JPT as Support Liaison Officer and he is certainly interested in exploring ways to make the support more informed and involved because the club are learning to value the vast resource in terms of experience that exists amongst the support.
It is all part of the increased capacity building that Celtic now find themselves in a position to embark on because a cheating rival ( whom bizarrely some folk think Celtic would welcome back) are not around to cheat us out of the footballing success our probity would have delivered otherwise.
When you consider how Tim argued with Tim and blamed the Board and PL whilst our rivals pulled every trick in the book and laughed at us when doing it (Dallas, Honest Mistakes, Traynor at the DR ffs) these are truly jelly and ice cream days at Celtic and PL is Mr Whippy driving the van to the chimes of We Just Cant Get Enough.
Teuchter ár lá @ 10.47 hrs.
Hope it was fake, it would have taken mega hamsters to make her coat, especially if it was a dwarf Hamster coat.
HH, Always in Celtic.
PS: Did you buy it when you were in Hamsterdam.
LiviBhoy
Great post, my mhan.
Kayal 33
As you said, we’ve been linked with so and so etc. By who? The MSM’s sole function is to upset the Celtic support by spouting any rubbish an agent or PR person prepares for them. We know from experience that our best transfer business as been done under the radar of the press. Some of those strikers being touted are in the Wayne Biggins mould.
Kev j,
Did livibhoy hit a couple of nerves there?
Although I don’t agree with all of lb’s post, a lot of it I found to be on the mark.
As with your post, you make some valid points as well, maybe not as eloquently.
Hope you find your dummy while your off oot. HH
Auldheid 11:00
Excellent post ! Couldn’t agree more
ger57
11:03 on 4 December, 2013
In fairness Lenny has been at Huddersfield’s last two games so he’s obviously interested in Vaughan.
Tomlin link is just revisiting who we tried to sign at the end of the last window.
The Gunning link is garbage, the zombies are after him as he’s available on a free in the summer, so the link with us is so they can run the inevitable zombies beat Celtic to signing story.
Livibhoy
Auldheid
Enjoyed reading some positive posts regarding PL. I think he does a great job which has it’s limitations due to where we ply our trade. I see Kevj has resorted to type, Groundhog Day.
Kikinthenakas
LIQUIDATE..
What ones have the Rangers taken to heart.
1= Pay,clear, discharge, honour, pay off, settle, Square.
2=dissolve, abolish, annul, cancel, terminate,.
3= convert to cash, cash, realize, sell off, sell up,.
4=kill, annihilate, blow away, bump off, (sl), destroy, dispatch, do away with, do in,(sl) , eliminate, exterminate ( I believe Dr Who is looking for them), finish off, get rid of (most of Scottish football want that), murder???, remove, wipe out( that’s the last move in chess,I think).that would be a good move.
Kev Jungle
See when you go aff oot do you take ages to walk up the road carrying that huge hod of resentment at a past that is not to your liking?
Do you bump into lamp posts because you are blinkered, uninformed and close minded?
Do you think guys like myself who can think for themselves unencumbered by hods or blinkers are easily led?
By all means spout your resentment at whatever has hurt you in life but do not think others are fools because they have laid aside theirs.
Mind the lamp post.
Greenpinta
Naw mate…….My wife is 3 inches tall :-)
pinata ….sorry
Morning All
Thought I would share some of the bile starting to rise again in our office,
One of the dead clubs avid followers sidles up to my desk this morning, leaning in and speaking in hushed tones, tells me how he has it on completely reliable authority from a bloke on the “inside” lol that…………..thems are now on a secure financial footing………………as…………………………….on the 19th December all of the spivs will be gone from the hallowed halls of sevco.
I said really ……. wow….. do tell whats the scoop………………………..well
Aparently
Some Bus driver from greenock has bought them all out and he will be investing heavily in team matters and world domination is now back on the agenda.
i was as you can imagine stunned…………………………………..
all i could think to say was
mwaaaaaaa hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
god wheres the imodium
so confident was he now that he stood at least a foot taller than recent months……….he then feeling a little bullish……………………………………….ventured……………………..
You need us,
Mhaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
your “Midden” he says is almost empty every week, your club is dying for lack of interest given that deid club are not in our league,
I did try to explain we had never had it so good and were really very contented with our position of dominance and european exclusivity and no we really did not not need them.
but such was his need to feel that old feeling of belonging he wisnae for listening lol.
I wondered afterwards……………………..
just how depressed will the bloke be feeling when December 19th comes and goes while the spivs live on.
might even ruin his christmas
shurely not
Mhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
HH
Mike
Kikinthenakas.
I’d like to praise Peter Lawell, he’s a very nice man to talk to,and good for the club.
Peter by the way I’m still looking for a couple of tickets for Barcelona,one’s that I don’t require an oxygen mask when I get up to the heights of the Camp Neu.
You’ll get more praise if I can sit beside you..
thomthethim,
I would class myself as being generally happy with most aspects of how Celtic are run but given what happened to our club during the early nineties, I think that it is very healthy indeed for many of us to keep a careful eye on probably everything that goes on at the club and some may view much of what goes one with a degree of scepticism. If we did not do this we may well not exist as a club at all.
We don’t have to look too far to see what happens when no-one asks any questions.
Hail Hail
AR
KevJungle
I was expecting it. It had to come. I could talk in depth about many people including Mr Cassidy. The old board were running the club similar to the 60’s and needed someone with modern business knowledge. Terry was out of his depth. It was never going to work out. Fergus couldn’t have worked with the old board. It needed new ownershiop the old board were incapable. I stated my opinion on everyone involved. I tried to keep it concise. You could write a book on it if you went into it in the required depth.
MON spent £18m on 3 players. Not many managers have had those types of funds. It was needed at the time and he bought wisely. What Rangers spent was irrelvant they spent crazy money on very average players. We could not compete with them financially and it is pretty clear what spending large done to them over the longer period. We as a club are looking at the long game.
As for the season ticket being reduced by £100. Can you not give credit where it is due? The country is in the middle of a recession. The club didn’t have to reduce season ticket prices but they did. Does it help people to afford to go to the games? Yes it does. Your comment smacks of negativity as does most of your post. You are anti board and anti Lawwell you can;t see any good in any of them. That makes you slightly anti Celtic to me. What do you want? What is the best way forward for the club? Can you offer us an alternative business plan that will generate more money for the club and provide us a team who will win multiple Champions League’s? Please share it with both the blog and the board. I’m sure they will take it on and change the make up of the club if you have a better master plan than they have.
Peter Lawwell would get much more money at Arsenal than he would at Celtic. He would also get much higher bonuses if he could generate money for Arsenal the way he has at Celtic. The club generates cash much higher than our TV revenues. If you do that in England you can compete with Manchester United financially. Peter Lawwell is at Celtic because it’s his dream job. He doesn’t have the skills to be manager. He clearly didn;t have the skills to be a player so in his field it is his dream job. He walks pased the statues of our greats every morning to take his seat in his office and do his best for Celtic.
As for pumping money into the club. Dearie me. What’s the alternative? Starve the club of cash? What good will that do?
I am proud that the money that is generated by the club is spent by the club. Whether is comes in by the fans or other means. We have a rich major shareholder but we don;t need him to bankroll the club. It’s not a viable financial model and it has been proved many times over.
I suspect you read the MSM far too much. As I said previously we get no praise. Celtic are the envy of many clubs across Europe for the way they manage themselves.
I despair at the coniued board bashing and name calling of our CEO. We are Celtic and we should support our club. Being constructive with criticism is fine and we all get frustrated and have a go at our men in charge but to say they are actively not doing what is best for the club is ridiculous. Celtic are playing the long game. Not for one season or two seasons but to ensure this club is always there as it always should be. Over the last twenty years Celtic have risen like not many other clubs in the world and in doing that have killed off their rivals. They hate us so much that they cut their own head off trying to keep up with us. Now that is mismanagement of the highest level but from your comments on here it is the sort of strategy you would like Celtic to adopt. Celtic have had to change so much and build a world class stadium in a short period of time and compete with a rival who were financially cheating. Don’t let that ever be forgotten. We got into a bit of a mess financially trying to keep up with a rival spending money that wasn’t theirs. If it had been a level playing field since 2000 no other club in this country would have won the league. That is a fact!
Don;t let your impatience get the better of you. Celtic are going places and will get stronger and stronger. If you are patient you may just enjoy some of it!
LB
Oops. Seem to have logged in during a PL love in :))
Everyone is entitled to their opinions
Mine. I think he has lost our club huge sums in income. His record getting us in CL before the Huns were dead was shocking
The huge sums that we have won over the last few years in CL shows up how much our club lost when he was not prepared to go that little bit extra
The ” wilo window”. Yes mentioning it again :))). Or is it :((((. Cost our club about 50m in lost income and kept the Huns going for 3 extra years
Peter lawell admitted it was his fault
Our striker , or lack of it can be laid at the door of PL salary cap
Auldheid 11.00
Class post particularly the last line.
Oldtim
You better no let BT hear you sookin’ in with Big Pete :-)
.
Think I have worked out why Lenny plays players on the Worong Wings..
Just tried on My New pair of Celtic Socks..
They have a Left and a Right.. WTF..?
Poor wee James Forrest Disnae Ken his right Fae his Left..;/)
Summa
auldheid
11:00 on 4 December, 2013
SPOT ON, AS EVER…!!!!!!!!
Mmmm,
The north and the south curva were closed for last weekend’s Rube V Udinese game . The closure was punishment for discriminatory /offensive chanting .
Rube decided to let 12,000 weans in for free { good public relations, catch them young, mask the half empty stadium , boost the atmosphere etc ]. Cue lots of those weans chanting ” Shit ” every time the Udinese keeper touched the ball. Cue the Italian Football Authority fining Rube 5,000 euros for repeated offensive chanting at an opposition player.
Old Tim- you told me you couldn’t get ‘high enough’ when you went to Barcelona.
It would be easier for WG Jnr to babysit Keith Richards.
a tipodeans red,
Of course vigilance is important.
However the negative hypothesis, presented as fact,that many apply to every word or action by the club goes way beyond vigilance.
“Bobos Gonnay Get ye”
He signed for Celtic on 21 July 2001,
He made 232 appearances (51 as a sub)
He scored 9 goals including three against rangers.
He won five League Title medals
He won three Scottish Cups medal
He won two Scottish League Cups
He played in 12 of Celtic’s 13 UEFA Cup games 2003–04 season.
He was voted the Celtic Player of The Year for 2003 by the Celtic fans, in which 40,000 Celtic fans voted.
A very decent Roll of Honour for a very decent and popular Celtic Player. Not a silky ball player by any means, but Martin O Neill already had Lubo Moravcik and Henrik Larsson for that, Bobo was a no nonsense defender, who did what all good defenders did. He defended. He let the new signing from Leicester City do the thinking. Bobo was a mainstay of a Celtic defence who conceded a miserly 18 league goals in a season. The fact that fans voted him player of the year shows how highly he was thought of by the Celtic support who turned in 60,000 at a time for every home game.
Yet we all know football is all about opinions and despite being an integral part of the Seville side, Bobo had his critics, apparently, according to his detractors, big Bobo was “found out” against Porto in Seville. Even if you agree with them, which I don’t, it was not a bad level to get to, before being found out. I wonder how many of Celtic centre halves got to that level before being found out? Not too many in the past 125 years I suspect.
But Bobos detractors really got wound up and vociferous soon after he signed a new contract under MON in 2005 after Bobo refused to walk away from that contract when Peter Lawell decided that he was surplus to requirements. That contract was not the first contract that he signed with Celtic but it was the most lucrative contract, rumoured to be around 40,000 pounds per week. Martin O Neill was heavily criticised for giving Bobo that contract, but in reality Peter Lawell had arrived at Celtic with a brief to cut costs at Celtic and had already indicated that there was to be no more signings. Therefore if Bobo walked on a Bosman Celtic would have been without a centre half and may have needed to pay a transfer free for a decent centre half plus a decent salary. It cost Celtic 8 million quid to give Bobo a new four year contract. It may have cost them 4 million plus four years wages to replace him anyway.
We would do well to remember that at that time Celtic were a Club with high ambitions and a wage bill to match. The thought of letting a pivotal member of the Seville side walk out the door on a Bosman was not universally popular.
However players such as Thompson, Sutton MacNamara and eventually Hartson were soon on the way out at Celtic as part of that same cost cutting exercise, and despite having a new contract signed by Celtic safely in his hip pocket, Bobo was on the hitlist too.
Folk forget that Bobo balde, the man, had honoured and completed every contract that he ever had. Celtic expected to pay 90,000 pounds when they signed Balde, but Big Bobo challenged this explaining that he had completed his contract at Toulouse and Celtic got him free of charge. No transfer fee was paid. If he had a 3 year contract he stayed for 3 years.
Balde was then dropped from the Celtic first team in an effort to force him out the door. He was made to train with the reserves, then with the Under 19s in shameful attempts by Celtic to go back on their contract agreement.
Peter Lawwell, appeared to have met his match in Balde. When Birmingham City declared themselves ready to sign Balde and match his wages, Lawwell summoned Bobo to his office to convince him to accept. Balde though, refused to budge. “You,” he told Lawwell, “are chief executive of Celtic Football Club, I am the chief executive of Bobo Balde.”
Fans can debate who dropped Bobo Balde, if it was Gordon Strachan or Peter Lawell or both. Depending on what conclusion they come to, will probably influence their thoughts on whether Bobo was dropped for footballing or for financial reasons.
During this standoff period when Balde was dropped Bobo made his first start of the 2007/08 season exactly one year since his previous appearance, in a 2–0 away win to Dundee United. His presence also helped Celtic to their first away clean sheet in almost 15 months. He was awarded Man of the Match.
On 8 September 2013, Balde returned to Celtic to play for Celtic during their Stiliyan Petrov charity match.
“Bobos Gonnay Get ye, just ask Peter Lawell”
Top of the morning to you all from Fife on this glorious winter’s day.
8 years ago today Swede, Annie Börjesson was found dead on the beach at Prestwick.
There was no indication that she took her own life and there were other suspicious circumstances that her mother tried to have the authorities look at, to no avail.
Annie’s mother and her best friend Maria travelled back and forth from Sweden whenever they could staying in cheap lodging houses and hostels in Edinburgh and to this day have not given up their search for the true circumstances of Annie’s death.
The Scottish authorities have treated them shamefully. Petition 1501 in the Scottish Parliament looks to help such victims.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/thevictimslastright
Please sign it to show that not all Scots are uncaring.
Thank you in anticipation of your help.
Teuchter ár lá
Noted…. o))
Teuchter ar la.
I haven’t one of those gaelic keyboards, I know he gets a bit touchy when PLs name’s mentioned, that’s why I do it, but I really, really, really, like Peter Lawell, I need two tickets ten feet + of the ground at the Camp Neu.
new article posted.
oldtim
ask my da..
he and PL are like brothers, ask TBJ he will confirm that statement…
Livibhoy
Board haters an PL haters, will be here for life, but they are Celtic supporters in there own way ( not all of them, we have lurking Huns ) so I suppose it goes with the territory, but mostly I agree with your post, a lot of them are a bit OTT, to be honest, winning the Champions League wouldent make them happy it’s just that there are people like that, shame really.
Bobo Balde was a great player for the Hoops until someone told him he was a footballer.
SydneyTim
Peter Lawwell getting us in the CL? Dearie me. You would think the man played centre forward for Rangers.
Did Steven Fletcher want to sign for Celtic? I worked with his girlfriend at the time he went south and there was no way he weas signing for Celtic.
As for our striker situation. Hooper wanted away. Hooper as offered a contract many times. I doubt he would have signed it unless he got crazy money. We have not signed a decent replacement yet. That does deserve criticism but does Peter Lawwell pick the players? The scouts and the coaching team do and they have maybe not got it right this season. I have stated before that signing a player is not done in minutes for the most case. In some cases clubs talk to players and agents for months. Celtic have been used in the past by players and clubs to drive the price up for another suitor. I assume Peter Lawwell also gets the praise for the signings that have worked out well if he gets the flack for the ones that didn’t. If you see your glass half empty you will never see the good in anything. Take the blinkers off and ask yourself this. Who could do better? Do the club get more right than wrong?
It is a club not one man running the whole show. It’s a team and Lenny and Lawwell take the plaudits and the flack when it’s due. I think both men have got more right than wrong.
Look at the psitives with the club and think about where we are going. Celtic are not standing still. We are evloving and improving behind the scenes and on the pitch. Patience is the key. We will not wipe the floor with teams every season and we will not beat the best teams in the CL every season but we will compete and we will get stronger if we stand together.
The MSM want you to hate Peter Lawwell ask yourself why please!
LB
SydneyTim
11:18 on
4 December, 2013
I know it’s pedantic and semantics, but see if folk said “the willo window potentially cost us £50M” it would actually make the argument stronger and less easy to dismiss as being just another anti-board rant.
LiviBhoy – God bless wee Oscar
11:17 on 4 December, 2013
”Celtic are going places and will get stronger and stronger.”
###
Where exactly are we going?
We are weaker than we were this time last season. When do you reckon we’ll be as strong as we were 12 months ago?
Liv. Indeed Mon spent 18m on 3 players
3 players that remained 1st team regulars for 5 seasons
Now we seem to have spent about 10m on strikers over last few years and lucky if they make 20games
Livibhoy
I have no problems with the job Peter Lawwell does. I think he does it well. I have problems that he gets a massive bonus due to doing the job of a disinterested board. His first remit is to protect them. He protects their lack of interest and its a malaise that has existed since September 2003. I have problems with our lack of prescence within Scottish football. We have no voice. I dont like how powerful he has become within the club. He cannot do everything but as long as we are running at profit that is all he cares about. As a cost cutter he is exceptional. I would have preferred the ambitions of MON and WGS to have been attempted rather than given the bums rush due to continued unnecessary cost cutting. By extension that means the fans also. I fully expect Lenny to eventually fall at the sword of our continual rationalisation. He is without any shadow of a doubt a master of spin. Honesty and openness is not his forte. We have went from the Seville UC final to being proud to be a selling club and see that as our main aim. His words not mine. He got his bonus defferred after the Tony Mowbary debacle. He had NFL under his nose but still couldn’t make a decision. It was a fait au compli that we are where we are now. He got lucky. I also dont buy that we have improved under his tenure. Year upon year except for the bank balance. He is of course only following orders. The one order given to him ten years ago. I sometimes wonder if there has been any input from above since. I tell you what lets see what we do with the massive profits that we are now making ? Are we about to turn a corner ? I might change my mind.
HH
Dontbrattbakkinanger.
I may be driven to pot, but not if Peter Lawell comes up with the real goods, (tickets to you and me),I know that I’ve said it a couple of times already but I really,really, really like you Peter.
Went in for the Biopsy on Monday and it was a South Korean Doctor that I was to see. I met him and he said I see your going to Barcelona, I take it your going to the game, yes, said I, good say’s he , we’ll hold off until you come home, fine say’s I don’t wish you to spoil my good looks.