Very pleased to hear Nir Bitton has signed a contract until 2020. Five years is an astonishing extension for a player who is clearly heading in the right direction. It gives Celtic assurance that they don’t need to worry about a key player’s contract running down for the foreseeable future.
Nir was the first manifestation of Ronny Deila’s player-improvement work. At the start of last year he was little more than a squad addition, a bit like Leigh Griffiths, but he’s since excelled in domestic and European football, as well as for Israel in the Euro qualifiers.
Let’s see if he can continue to improve.
I note the media going ‘a bit Tonto’ over Sports Direct’s insistence that the Rangers Former Players Benevolent Fund stop using trademarks they own. I know this will make many people swallow hard, but’s be clear, if the Celtic Former Players Association were selling merchandise bearing the Celtic crest the club would be saying “Cease and Desist that right now, Joe”. Same is true if you are a fan selling T-shirts or street vendor selling scarves.
Without making moral judgements, football clubs earn money from licensing their logos, you want to use it, you pay. You don’t pay, the club cannot discriminate between who they pursue and who they don’t, as such discriminatory behaviour would be a legitimate defence in law by a transgressor.
Sports Direct own thousands of logos and brands. They will have a department sweeping for infringements and they don’t strike me as the kind of company who let any slip through without action. I’d be amazed if Mike Ashley, or any senior SD staff, were even aware of the action. Cease instructions will come out from the legal team without a second thought.
What remains galling to some is the fact that Newco have to take instructions from Sports Direct on use of logos and other IP. This, on top of the whole Fifa 2016 indignity, could be ended by repaying the Sports Direct £5m loan.
Why wouldn’t they stop the embarrassment and just pay Mike his money? He’s not going to cut a new deal, no positive accommodation is ever going to happen, all that lies ahead is more embarrassment, and the risk of Ashley taking genuinely draconic action to recover his loan. I’m sure they money’s there to repay, right?
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Caught the BBC TV sports news and ‘ coverage ‘ of the Molde game. Utterly blatant, undiluted dislike of Celtic, whom they more or less contended the entire season revolves around whether or not Celtic beat Molde.
What happened to ‘undisputed kings of Scotland’ and ‘domestic dominance’ – did that die as well?
winning captains
Appreciate all your efforts in sorting this issue. I can’t access CQN from my phone at work and as a result I can’t contribute to most of the debates, some would say this is a good thing though :)
Another player who may be knocking on the door shortly
Aiden Nesbitt ?
Could he replace James ?
Just came to my mind as I was heading off ooot :-)
WC thanks for the update.
Appreciate the effort being put in.
bournesouprecipe on 3rd November 2015 10:58 pm
Despicable that they are running with ‘Biton wanted to leave” and ‘Celtic MUST beat Molde according to Sutton’ on their website with Ronny Manager of the Month somewhere in the background. With the Glib one on the ropes, it will only get worse.
The Tim Reaper
The thing about guys like Forrest is they can influence games just by being on the pitch.
——
Did he borrow Warbs magic hat :-)
Cowiebhoy on 3rd November 2015 11:01 pm
Saw him play last week. Looks an excellent prospect but needs to develop physically as nowhere near the level required. Also watched Allan in the same match and was very impressed!
Clashcitybhoy on 3rd November 2015 11:06 pm
That only works against Plumbers & Mechanics apparently…
Thetimreaper
the Bitton coverage is another prime example, of the twisted h@nnish mind that can change Celtic positive, to Celtic negative.
It’s an SMSM hobby
CONEYBHOY-very true mate
jude-it was Houston from SoS who was given airtime on Snyde,same guy who had a secterian tweet printed a few weeks back,allegedly…
Hat tip to @BarcaBhoy for unearthing Dave King contempt of court in South Africa.Truth being outed slowly but surely https://t.co/1VR0VMXiRA
I think it interesting how Celtic liquidate or write off assets
Boeriggter never got a chance to shine and is written off
Balde had some chances but I assume he was cheap and we liquidated
Pukki got a chance and failed. I think we broke even
Scepovic did nothing wrong when he played. To write him off would be a failure against Ronny
I can see both players having a career but why not with us? We spent the money so make it work!
B B
Oh right ta for that. Didnt see that tweet maybe cos i canny tweet o)
New Years Day playing in the pub in Dublin where my modest intake without dinner is taking hold. The devil is on me shoulder ;-)
Coneybhoy
Boeriggter never got the chance?
He’s been here since a year before NFL left and never played two games in a row, without being injured, or not good simply not good enough to be re selected, primarily the former.
I would suggest whatever DB’ s problems are, we’re not because he wasn’t given a chance, he’s been outwith a serious chance of playing for Celtic for some considerable time, and sadly he’s even ungiveawayable.
!!Bada Bing!! on 3rd November 2015 11:19 pm – See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/bitton-deal-heres-an-idea-just-repay-mikes-loan/comment-page-7/#comment-2710334
It was Rededdie who first published this on Johnjames site, wonder who Rededdie is ;)
BMCUWP
Mmmmm. Not so sure about that transcript of the DR fluff piece being quite as honest as it could be.
“The club was relaunched as a new company now controlled by Dave King.”
The club is the same club in their world apparently.
The new company is fronted by Glibby right enough but it seems like unseen hands are actually controlling it.
They could have said that the new club is being run by a man with 43 convictions for fraud related offences in South Africa.
They could have said that having mounted a successful boardroom putsch that he has invested zero of his own money since then, and that the club, financially, are running on empty.
They could have said that although the case is connected to the former club and regime, the current regime do not have their own problems to seek and may not even be legal owners of the “deeds”.
They could have said that David Murray sold RFC for a quid, and in reality gave the club away to Craig Whyte just so he could avoid responsibility for the remnants of the mega debt that he ran up.
They could have said that had the former David Murray incarnation been run at all responsibly, there would have been no need to give the club away to a man with no money – and thus the subsequent liquidation would never have been a dot on the horizon.
On reflection, “DR and fairly honest” should have tipped me off and had me laughing…
Nice One
HH
Give James Forrest a 10 year contract
Well, we can’t have all our scapegoats leave at once.
Some of our punters might not turn up if they did not have someone to boo
https://johnjamessite.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/the-malevolent-stupidity-of-king/
“I’d bite your hand off if we got offered 5million for VVD”
The Internet.
Goodnight Timland
have enjoyed the blog tonight
HH
The Champions League is crap with no Celtic Park games in it.
G,night all.
BSR
Ref Bitton
Actually weighing up viable options before making serious decisions are clearly evidence of a man and club in crisis.
Openly admitting to this in an articulate endorsement of the final choice made would be regarded by most adults as responsible and praiseworthy behaviour.
I fear that other players across the football universe will now revise their previous strategy when making life defining career decisions. They will actually think things through.
It will be known as doing a “Bitton”.
“Come on son, sign on the line now. Don’t do a Bitton on me.”
Maybe John Barnes will not consider ever leaving his current employer and never have to do a Bitton himself.
In related news, I heard that Tom Rogic actually considered changing his car but couldn’t bring himself to getting rid of the old one.
Colin Welland RIP
Kescsc
James Forrest, long contract?
Yes please.
That is for the footballer, not the long winded CQNer.
He deserves an even longer contract:-)
!!BADA BING!!
That has been ruled out for lots of reasons, mostly because we are looking a few years ahead towards being the dominant Celtic media source to the absolute detriment of the MSM.
What everyone can do is support CQN by buying our new book, The Winds of Change. It is the continuing story of managing Celtic and covers the period 1991-2005, so plenty to talk about! If you bought Caesar & The Assassin and enjoyed it, you’ll want to read this one.
It’s not the only book we’ve just completed but we’re sworn to secrecy on that one for the moment.
Mick McCarthys Ipswich beat NFLs Bolton 2-0 tonight.
Bolton in bottom three on 10 pts, as are Charlton with Rotherham bottom on 9pts.
Next nearest team is on 14 pts.
Tony Watt played 90 mins for Charlton as they lost 1-0 to MK Dons.
In some ways the BTC case judgement has almost become irrelevant in “did they cheat “terms with the passage of history.
Even if the ebts used from 2002/03 are still deemed legal the ebts with side letters used from 1999 to 2002/03 were not. They amounted to tax evasion and as my previous post relating to SDM pointed out this tax has never been paid.
In football terms the illegal scheme was not open to other clubs to use and so gave RFC a sporting advantage in those seasons.
If it now transpires RFC were clever enough to switch to a tax avoidance system from 2003 that only went undiscovered in football terms because they failed to comply with football registration rules, a failing that Bryson was able to relegate to the status of administration error, then good on them for finding a way to pay players legally that no other club discovered.
But at what cost? A bunch of shysters who would risk anything to outdo their opposition and risk the entire clubs being on winning that legal bet.
They might get a favourable judgement in the courts but in life they lost big time where they have been shown to be crooks, spivs and gamblers playing with the reputation of our game for their own ends.
The inability to appreciate the moral angle of their attitude is all the more reason for having robust governance and rules to protect our game from it.
Bada Bing
Brian Glover’s Booby Charlton homage during that schools football match is still great to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu-5LCr1kwg
Ken Loach has done some great stuff, now with Paul Lavery as script writer.
Night all
!!BADA BING!! on 3RD NOVEMBER 2015 6:04 PM
Ron D-those clowns Regan & Doncaster will currently be in their default position, hiding under their desks on Hampden’s 6th floor, with pencils up the nostrils and hankies on their heads.After the huns died, they said they would take a closer look at Club governance in all leagues, can Sevco see out the season? Could they prove this before the season started? Are they trading insolvent? Are they bringing in players while they are insolvent? That muppet Regan, had the brassneck, to call out Platini for transparency. HH
======
This from SFM touches on trading whilst insolvent and questions why clubs allow others to do it.
This one is mainly for The Hibees but applies to all supporters, and whilst the thought was prompted by Hugh Keevins on Superscoreboard I hope it’s source does not invalidate the following point:
In talking to a caller about who would win the Championship The Rangers or Hibs, HK was confident it would be TRFC. He made the point that just as Celtic would win the Premier because of their greater resources so too would TRFC win the Championship.
That got me thinking. What greater resources do TRFC have over their Championship rivals, particularly Hibs?
Are Hibs going begging around the world’s Wongas for high interest loan? What is Hibs wage bill compared to TRFC?
Would it be fair that a club operating on a sustainable financial basis lose the financial rewards of that policy to a club who continue to run on an unsustainable basis? Call it financial doping if TRFCs wage bill exceeds Hibs but TRFC’s wage bill is unaffordable using normal football income streams.
The problem here is that clubs operating on an unsustainable basis are only brought to footballing account in points deduction terms if they go into administration although I think the rule book term now is insolvency event.
A wee history of points deduction is perhaps apt here. Way back in days when Gary Lineker was involved in a consortium running and funding Leicester so that Leicester were going to be promoted, the manager of Sheffield Utd Neil Warnock complained in summary that the money coming into Leicester gave them an advantage over Sheffield Utd. The league looked at his point and as a deterrent brought in the points deduction rule triggered by an insolvency event.
It was in effect a crude version of UEFA FFP whose break even principles have now been adopted in the English Championship.
In Scotland there is no equivalent deterrent to a club operating (as many have in the past) on a financially unsustainable basis. It has to be an insolvency event that triggers the unfair play principle.
This is clearly nonsense waiting for such a trigger when there are plenty of indicators in a club’s accounts of a club operating on an unfair financial basis.
There is club licensing but it is toothless in sanction terms. In fact I reckon that Hearts who had an Entry level licence in the Finance category are actually in breach of the standard required of Premier clubs by the SPFL. (Of course Hearts are now heading up the standard scale so I’m not suggesting action against, but pointing out how useless the current football rules are in deterrent and corrective terms.)
The problem the game has is that to become more Draconian would at a stroke remove the supposedly financial advantage HK says TRFC have over Hibs.
In fact it would probably kill TRFC off as promotion contenders so is the reality of Scottish football that it has become so dependent on the big 2 club model it simply cannot conceive of another way to run the industry?
Are we and have we for years been living in a football illusion that sporting integrity ever existed and is it a forlorn dream or an illusion on our part to expect it ever will?
The challenge our game faces is to get real and that challenge is made harder by those media like Hugh Keevins who lived through the illusion and want it back.
Anyone who wears a duffel coat over their tutu is committing a crime against fashion.
Unless they are wearing Doc Martins.
Cheers to the bhoys who gave us some feedback from meet and greet with the manager. He has always talked a good talk, and no doubt he is very passionate about bringing success to Celtic.
All we can do is back him to the hilt and hope our board do the same.. Which as usual I don’t think they are.
On James Forrest a 1 year extension is all I would offer aswel , we have a habit of hanging onto some players too long so extend his contract and see how rest of season goes. 1 or 2 decent runs every game isn’t enough.
I’d like to see lustig and janko given a run on the right.
Duffel coats are crap, had a bad decision in 2004 when I bought one
Tutus are fun and always have their place despite the grinding of time and the fickleness of fashion
Doc Martins are no longer cool . They have patterns and little girls buy them
I can’t wait for Molde for 3 reasons
1. Revenge
2. A great performance
3. Being in Glasgow briefly. Means a lot to me. 24 years home, 22 away
Good OP Paul67
Big Mike doesn’t want the loan back, does he?