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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Thursday is getting closer
Massive game for the bhoys
Hopefully a big crowd and a good performance/victory.
After Aberdeen game I still think our defence is long way off being settled and steady .
Clean sheet would be great to see.
Quiet night on the blog. The calm before the fireworks?? So good that we’re having our own fireworks tomorrow night. Never been into that” burning a good Tim on the bonfire” stuff.
Can’t wait to be in CP tomorrow night. Taking my youngest daughter this time – it’s her first real game (going to the Petrov game to see a One Direction guy doesn’t count!!). What a night it will be for her. The elder siblings are being farmed out to the JS stand to let her bring her friends. Carlsberg don’t do 15year old birthday parties, but if they did…..
Of course I want Celtic to hammer this lot tomorrow but no matter what the score is, it won’t change my support for Ronny. Right man, right place.
HH and a good day to all on here
Like no other
iPhone 5s problems
Not CQN related but worth a go.. A lot of YouTube videos I’am getting a this video is not available message
Anyone else have this problem ?
Good morning friends from a less foggy than yesterday but damp and drizzly East Kilbride.
Juan Merzleap
Jobo
Ha ha ha. Almost looked him up on google.
Liking the cut of Nir Bittons jib in the scotsman.
Not an exact quote and I won’t c &up , in fact can’t on a iPad but the gist of it is.
I see my future at Celtic. maybe one day I’ll move to a higher level, if not a bigger club because their aren’t many bigger than Celtic but for now I want to have success at Celtic , build myself and make the fans happy and proud.
Works for me Nir.
2 more sleeps.
Just off nightshift
HH
Good morning from an overcast but dry Costa Del Sol.
Ahead of the tax case judgement here is a wee analogy that helps me understand what is under judgement.
If you think of an ebt being the vehicle by which payments were made to players, then in the case of the early DOS ebts of wee tax case fame (they had side letters too) the vehicle was a stolen car. Guilty but never charged by football for the theft, nor was the tax owed paid.
In the case of the ebts of Big Tax case fame the vehicle was the equivalent of a car borrowed until the owner dies to be returned in that event.
The first is clearly theft the other is not if the owner agreed to the loan and HMRC are arguing the tax payer is the owner and never meant a loan deal under legislation whilst RFC advocates are arguing the owner will get his car back.
Yup dead sneaky.
Morning all.
Dull and damp down here.
Auldheid, dead sneaky, as you say. Aren’t they always?
Having missed the Aberdeen game, still not sure if I’ll make the big one tomorrow night. Glad to see our support are getting behind our manager. Hope there is good reason(s) for the Ronny Roar about 8pm tomorrow night.
RWE 11.32
I hope Jackson doesn’t read that. To rewrite a DR main article, or should I say rip it apart, while actually stating fact? That’s just not on.
The Daily Ranger has done some damage and more so let’s not waken them up to it. Lies, spin, cloud, fudge, blame, fairy tales, untruths and more lies. The gormless punch-drunk sevcodger still buying it. Smsm and the Rangers , a marriage made in heaven, ending soon in the loony bin.
Nice work btw.
I posted on here after the Molde away game saying it was time for Ronny to go on account of his poor record in European competition.
To be fair he has done well in steadying the ship in the three domestic matches since.
He talks a very good game as witnessed by his outstanding performance at last Friday’s press conference when he concisely and cuttingly told the msm a few home truths. Also judging by posts on here last night regarding the meet the fans event, he seems to speak well and gets the club.
He also seems to be brave in his decision making for example giving Tierney a chance in big matches. And not afraid to admit when he has it wrong – see his reinstatement of Griffiths and Bitton into the team.
This is all very good but he really needs to deliver on the European stage. Our record under him in Europe has, on balance, been abject and he needs to show that he can be entrusted with next season’s campaign. Two wins v molde and Ajax are vital.
The fixture list has been unkind in that molde’s league season finishes this weekend. They will not be match sharp in matchday 5 or 6 and must be therefore more likely than not to come out of these matches with 0 points, handing a big advantage to Ajax and fenerbahce.
Molde will be very aware of this and will turn up at Celtic park looking to seal qualification and take the disadvantages caused by their lack of match sharpness in matchdays 5 and 6 out of the equation.
It won’t be easy but we can and must win. It should be a cracking game featuring two teams giving it everything they’ve got. I think we’ll win on the night. Hope Ajax and fenerbahce draw again too, that would be ideal.
There is a diffference between saying someone “talks well about the club and the game”, and saying that he “talks a good game”.
One indicates a grounded football man: the other suggests he is an impostor who has learned some jargon.
We should try to use the one that conveys the meaning we intend to convey.
For me, Ronny is well versed in football, an experienced coach, has done really well in his management career and, like every other coach in the world, makes mistakes from time to time.
Oh! and he talks well about the game and our club.
TGBS
Celtic’s policy has been for some time to bring in players cheap then develop into Celtic first teamers.
That policy requires a guy who is good at it and over time (and time is the key) will gradually raise the level where Molde performances are a thing of the past.
So the idea that Celtic will remove him if the do not qualify for EL next stage and look for another manager with RD’S attributes that match their recruitment of players policy just does not stand up.
NL had a poor European record in first two years and Celtic stuck with him so unless we have complete meltdown v Molde at home on grass in hopefully dry conditions and repeat in the remaing games RD will be here for quite some time.
Gooooood morning CQN, from a wet Bannockburn
Proudbhoy,
Siady Janko – yes, there is another who looks like he could fit in :-)
Is he currently injured though ? Not been in squad last few weeks
Hail Hail
Auldheid
Did you note the word wet in my last post
Not convinced or hopeful, we will have a dry playing field tomorrow night :-)
Hail Hail, and keep up the great work
Back onto puffin browser as pop up took control again
I think it is when i move from 4g to 3g on the train or unto wi fi area that they seem to take over in safari
Sometimes when I’m scrolling down through the comments the page goes blank – just a white screen. Does anyone else get this? Don’t know if it’s my laptop which is new and has good spec.
Goooooooooooooooood morning all,
Bring on the Molde,theres a buzz abooooooot the place
re the big tax case
I will be astounded of forehead if any judgement goes against them in a Scottish court especially a “salt n sauce”one,
sftb 8.41am
Unfortunately for Ronny the mistakes that he has made from time to time have delivered a European record that, when Icelandic part time opposition is set aside, reads played 19, won 4, drawn 6, lost 7 with a record in 2 legged ties of played 5, won 1, lost 4.
Of the 19 matches, 14 were played against teams lower ranked than Celtic. It’s a run that features 4 goals lost in Warsaw and Zagreb, 3 lost in molde and 3 lost at home to Salzburg and inter. Defensive profligacy that has persisted throughout his managerial tenure in Europe to date rather than the occasional byproduct of intermittent mistakes.
Ronny himself in August 2014 asked to be judged one year from then, at which point we again failed to a lesser resourced team than us in Malmo at CL qualifying stages.
So as things stand im quite comfortable with my view that he talks a good game as far as celtic is concerned. Yes he has done remarkably well in winning the Norwegian league, Tony Mowbray also came with pedigree in getting WBA out of the championship and into the premiership but once you’re at Celtic it’s what you do here that matters.
For me, signs that Ronny can progress from talk the talk to walk the walk in Europe would be two home wins v Ajax and molde and a disciplined performance in Turkey leading to a narrow defeat, anything above that a bonus, followed up by CL qualification next summer.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on whether we get out of this Europa group as long as we reach 8 points and avoid a beating in Turkey, that in my view would, allied to league success, earn him the right to another crack at the CL next year.
Credit to him for steadying the ship post molde and delivering three excellent results in the league and league cup.
But for now and pending the results and performances in the next 3 European matches im entirely comfortable with my view that he talks a good game.
Lefty
Your starting message put me in mind of big Joe
I wonder how the big chap is fairing?
It’s only open after the match, there is a big conference which has been booked for some time which will be just finishing close to kick off. The 6pm start has gone against us on this.
Hope this helps
Lennybhoy and others
As MAH posted last night this is reply from JP re kerrydale suite
jimthetim53 on 4th November 2015 9:17 am
Sign on after a defeat and you will be very grateful for a blank comments page.
A very happy birthday to our Lurgan lovely Dena
Hail hail G
See you in BV tomorrow
HRVATSKI JIM
:)))))))))))))))
A
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooopy birthday Dena
your are spectacular example of what it is to follow our Club,
Hail Hail
have a special day G
Cowiebhoy
I think I read 2/3 games ago he picked up slight knock in training. Thought he would have been back by now.
Iv only seen him a few times but was impressed each time, would like to see him get few games.
HRVATSKI JIM, yes I noticed! :)
My hunch is that it will take the Supreme Court to resolve the BTC, I can’t see the Court of Session doing it.
Auldheid
When you say it takes time for managers to develop players long time so that performances such as in molde are eliminated;
Would you agree that the manager at Celtic is severely constrained by policies that result in the spine of the team being sold to England late in the summer transfer window leading to same players being distracted by speculation during European qualifiers? ( I believe Ronny alluded to this last night re Forster , van dijk and possibly also Johansen angling for a move last summer).
I accept that Celtic cannot retain players who wish to move but perhaps the smarter move is to move these players on in January, also bringing their replacements in in the same window, giving proper preparation for the summer’s European qualifiers?
That aside though, and real though these constraints are, to be shipping 3 goals in molde over a year after shipping 4 in Zagreb and Warsaw does not suggest progress is being made in improving the players sufficiently. Would you want to see Ronny given more time if, for example, we finish the group on 4 or 5 points and ship 3 goals in Turkey?
I believe if we shift our transfer activity to January we give the manager a better chance in the European qualifiers and early group stage games.
However if 18 months into his tenure we are still making the same mistakes in Europe then I think it’s legitimate to consider whether a change in the dug out should also accompany a change in the timing of transfer activity.
I hope that Ronny and the team can finish on 8 points and turn in a competitive performance in Turkey. I think that is achievable and recent domestic performances give cause for encouragement.
But if not then I do think its legitimate to look at his European record in the round and think long and hard about what we do for 2016/17.
Good Morning All.
The latest Rangers Accounts show an operating loss for the year of £7.5 Million – admittedly less of a loss than last year – but only by about £600k as far as I can see.
However, before we get a whole load of spin on this, it means that effectively the club/company lost in excess of £600,000 per month over the last fiscal year.
Not only that, they did not make any necessary repairs to Ibrox which apparently needs some £18 – £24 Million worth of repairs. My rudimentary knowledge of working on building projects for clients – especially remedial works – leads me to the conclusion that any estimate is never quite enough and the final bill is always higer than the estimate.
In addition, The Rangers have very few players of any real value. The nature of their player buys and the terms of the contracts tells you that there are no Van Djiks, Forsters or Wanyamas in the ranks who can be sold for a pound or two.
In addition, the legal figts with Ashley and Green are going to eat up a further couple of million pounds which may well be classed as extraordinary items which will not be recurring year on year. In other words, those legal costs will have to be classed as additional expense for the current year, or to put it simply, to make the same loss for this year Rangers will have to make another couple of Million in clear cost free turnover to simply stand still in terms of losses.
King has no money.
The three bears will be very reluctant to put more money in.
Turnover at £16m or so is between 20 – 25% compared to that of Celtic in any given year at best.
Very very quick summation?
Things really aren’t good over Ibrox way!
Sorry that should be 25- 30%
Celtic need a shrewdy-savvy-uppitty-Tim-horses-for-courses-park-the-bus-if-need-be-cojones-to-take-on-the-mibs-non-puppet-strings-manager in the dugout….imho.
But, I’m afraid yeez are stuck wi Ronny.
Them’s the apples – CSC.
TGBS – Spot on analysis of the ‘state of play’ regarding our management team.
We are evidently getting less ‘bang for our (considerable) buck’. Football management is a results-driven business, as Macari, Venglos, Brady, Barnes and Mowbray, found out – Ronny can/will expect no different.
I honestly don’t see real improvement and/or consistency – yes, as you rightly say, our manager sometimes ‘talks the talk’, however, as with the talking-up of last season’s treble, the Ronny Roar and his latest ill-judged piece, ingratiation of the fan base off the field, is no substitute for solid progress on.
Ronny is a coach, maybe a very good one, BUT, at this pivotable time in our history and, with apparently the football world leaving us behind, we need a strong MANAGER.
In my opinion, David Moyes, if he can be persuaded, is the answer – he looks like a ‘Stein-like’ character and will know EXACTLY what the job entails.
Timing is always a key factor in bringing about change – in Klopp and now Gerrard, we see Liverpool taking bold decisions to redress their situation after their Ronny-like spell with Brendan Rodgers – we must act NOW, or let another CL opportunity slip next July.
All the best to our Lurgan Lady ;)
http://youtu.be/b_twSjZD7KU
HH
Blantyretiim 08:54
With all this puffin.safari, 3g and 4g. Think I’ll need the rosetta stone app to understand whit the hells going on. Is this a CQN. Clique message?
Hope you are ok and a belated hoopy birthday
If you want a laugh in the morning
http://rangers.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/AnnualReport2015.pdf
Auldheid.7.57.
Regarding ebt (loans).
What I don’t get is.
If you loan something to someone you agree a time to PAY it back.
If there is no timeline to pay back then it can’t be a loan?
It must be at the least a gift.
David Moyes ? Give me a break ………………..
Everton, Man U & Real Sociedad supporters will tell you all you need to know.
Anyway, we got a far better Manager at the helm already and he’ll be there for years to come. Some of the football played under Ronny is a delight, and once our two young CH’s get enough game time together we’ll cut out the sloppy mistakes.
Yes he’s made errors but I’m genuinely very optimistic about our future under his guidance. One or two more signings of genuine quality and we’ll be a real good side at home and also in Europe.
hoopy birthday….. Dena……. have a grand day
HH