When Ibrox legend Walter Smith issued a statement in June 2012 saying, “We wish the new Rangers Football Club every good fortune”, he no doubt hoped that one day the club would win a major trophy. That happened yesterday, when Celtic lost only their second domestic trophy since 2016 and their first league in a decade.
Credit where it’s due, “new Rangers Football Club” have yet to lose a league game this season and are worthy winners. Like old Rangers, they chose to play Casino Football, accumulating £86m in operational losses in their 8-year of financial history, while, as ever, Celtic live within their means. There is not a hope in hell they would have won the league this season otherwise.
Notwithstanding this, Celtic can reflect on a season of unmitigated failure, and the feeling that they never asked a question of a team who famously bottled every opportunity to win a prize against full time opposition. Had we got our act together, even as late as January, the outcome may have been different.
Today, the consequences of failure are ours. We will explore the reasons at the end of the season, none is insurmountable. The consequences of playing Casio Football are structural and also for a later date. We got many things wrong this season but trying to live without our means is not one of them.
In January 2005, When Martin O’Neill’s Celtic were sliding below the water line before our eyes, I told you we were 5 years into a Generation of Domination (I was mocked and abused thoroughly for my trouble). How spectacularly correct that turned out. It was not a gambler’s hunch; it was the inevitable outcome of how Celtic and Oldco were corporately managed.
I know it’s difficult to step back and look beyond today’s pain, but this is not Self-Flagellation Quick News, I’ll leave that to others. What was overwhelmingly evident in January 2005 remains so today. 21 years in, we are now in our second successive Generation of Domination (cue 2005’s blind reaction). All that has changed is the weather, not the climate, so forgive me a lack of panic.
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Moi
SD @ 11.37
DD is only interested in his bank balance.
He bought into us at SPL money — he wants to sell out at EPL money.
This is not his first rodeo — he has been here 3 times before?
To get us into the EPL — I don’t want to go — he needs a matched pair.
That is us and a functioning / credible TFOD2.
That is all that matters — titles don’t matter to him.
The go slow in 2009 in 2010 makes sense if they needed to win the league to stay solvent.
As noted — an appalling vista right enough.
And now we are at a place where if they can hang on until the CL group stages in Sept 2021 they might be a solvent unit after all.
DD wants into the EPL.
If he needs a credible / solvent TFOD2 to get there …
Then guess what — he will work towards a solvent / credible TFOD2 no matter the cost to us.
The only other reason for this season was a TFOD2 betting scam.
“Despite the coronavirus regulations and the prohibition of gatherings, our officers were faced with a very difficult set of circumstances as many thousands of supporters gathered to celebrate across a number of different venues
“Our priority was public safety and this included reducing the risk of disorder, road safety and effective crowd management among the complexities of a vociferous crowd. This included established crowd control measures to prevent serious disorder in multiple areas and protect the public.
“An appropriate policing response was in place throughout the day and officers continually engaged and encouraged compliance with coronavirus regulations.”
Summary – we bowed to the mob.
Apparently the Huns behaviour is number one topic at the daily covid briefing
DAVID66 on 8TH MARCH 2021 12:07 PM
Gorbalstam- Exactly.
When pointed out that people could loose their lifes he retorted “yeez are just jealous” 😂
I ended up leaving the group chat as I then got told by my good lady to watch what I’m posting as to not upset him as he has been in trouble before.😂 Incidentally I left after giving him a piece of my mind the TWAT.
I still have 3 staff off with a similar incident a few weeks ago and 1 is serious.
My wife works in a school and everyone else has to mix with these morons in their workplaces.
Hunbeilavable
D :)
Peter Lawwell and co. gave them the oxygen to survive. This is totally and utterly our own fault.
How they choose to use this ‘second chance’ is completely down to themselves, hopefully we will shortly see history repeating itself……….but never ever forget who gave them that chance in the first place.
HRVATSKI JIM on 8TH MARCH 2021 12:04 PM
——–
Can the police not call in the Army to disperse crowds during a pandemic and whilst against the law to gather in large crowds.
D :)
Paul, here’s a question, how many of the experienced squad do u expect to be there next year, I can think only really of Griff and I’m not sure he’s exactly captain material
NONE OF THE CURRENT 3 Keepers have out and out claimed the spot/got winning experience (really)
Of the current defence (if they can bd called that) I’d only really expect Welsh and Taylor to be there (again is that real experience)
In the midfield I only really expect MJ, Soro, Turnbull and poss forrest to stay
The forwards, who knows, still think we more game time to evaluate klim and Ajeti, but it’s really a clean sweep
Yeah. We just blew 10 in a row. Why panic? We’ll always have the consolation of living within our means.
Sturgeon not on TV to criticise the Huns – what a surprise
Swinney carrying the can
Now away you go.
And don’t do it again.
W**Kerry..
W***er..
P67,
aligned to your piece above, i was thinking yesterday about how The Rangers will go forward in the next 3 years.
We ended their 10 in a row charge in 98 with some shrewd purchase, a solid system and a hell of a lot of emotion. It was a blip and we did not build successfully on it despite spending some decent money in the next 2 years. we had not become much better than our opponents in that one season
The Rangers look to be a team and a squad at its peak; feeding off emotion. Not a lot of young talent about to come through.
I think they are favourites for the title next season but if they lose it, i can see us dominating again if we make good decisions this year
If they win next year and we have been too cautious with our re-build, we lose 3 in a row. In a close title race , we seldom win.
Good lead Paul
I am not too down either to be honest.
I believe DD made a statement in getting McKay in, I don’t think he would come in if he was going to get his reputation ruined with us.
Let’s see.
KLV
Just briefly on your article from Friday, Paul – probably worth mentioning that when Liverpool appoint a manager they don’t base the quality of the appointment on how well or badly Everton are doing. Six European cups would suggest that works pretty well!
Interesting looking back at our 2018 cup final lineup:
Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Ajer, Tierney, Ntcham, Brown, Forrest, Rogic, McGregor, Dembele. Subs Simunovic, Roberts, Griffiths, Sinclair, Armstrong, Bain, Kouassi (Edouard and Bitton injured).
Manager: Brendan Rodgers.
‘We can be better next year’ – Rodgers
“We can be better next year. We set out to win three trophies, but I need to push them even harder next year. There are improvements we can make. We’ll go away, recover and come back with big motivation in the summer.”
So, top team, top manager and looking to improve. Get our awful record in Europe fixed. Excellent! What could possibly go wrong?:
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/pay-4m-or-wait-171-days-for-mcginn-pre-contract
(no doubt we should be glad we are now a “well run club” and didn’t suggest that the manager should buy the player with his own money – Celtic’s idea of moving with the times!.)
And of course when an ambitious manager finds himself at a club lacking in ambition it was never going to last much longer.
Then we go and compound that error by appointing a manager who had been shown to be not nearly as effective as Kilmarnock’s manager. Now, no disrespect to Kilmarnock (and, indeed, all credit to them for showing ambition in their appointment), but if a club of their size is appointing a better manager than Celtic then something (or someone!) has gone badly wrong somewhere.
But with no Director of Football you can find yourself putting these tasks in the hands of people who simply don’t have the proper skillset or who might be more suited to other things:
http://etims.net/?p=15098
Anyway, let’s hope someone from our club has congratulated the new champions.
This guy would probably be just the man for the job, given his clear admiration for the entity:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/19823518
So, our run of consecutive titles ends at 23. Certainly blows Rosenborg’s 13 out of the water, but there’s no reason it couldn’t have gone to 30 or even beyond with some decent people running the club (heck, half-decent would be a big improvement!).
Whether it be 86, 88, 98, 2003, 2009 (Jan) or 2018, we simply never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Heck, you would almost think it was deliberate!
So, where now from here? Last time we were told that the best we could get was a manager who had “parted company” with Hibs, so presumably we will be looking at the likes of Paul Heckingbottom and Terry Butcher.
Or do we do the pretendy ambitious thing again and have a degree of success for a few years before realising we have got too far in front of our partner club and need to row the boat back to shore?
Or do we do what we should have done ages ago and abandon the failed old firm model, focus on improvement and aim to be successful in Europe?
Won’t hold my breath on that one.
I agree there’s no need to panic, but at the same time appreciate the magnitude of the rebuilding job ahead. This is fraught with risk – get a couple of key decisions wrong and it could be very costly indeed.
The fact the whole thing has come crashing down in such a short period of time whereby we need a new CEO, manager and first team is dreadful management. Hopefully many, many lessons will be learned about executive tenure and succession planning.
The pain is very real Paul and felt all the more acutely, as it was ENTIRELY avoidable………
Thats what hurts.
….and I would like to say thank you to the many rangers# fans who wore masks and kept their distance,and to those who did not follow in the guidance set down by my government…must do better.
John Swinney
Above is what he would like to have delivered.
STILL CELTIC
Madmitch
utter nonsense that DD is only interested in his bank balance when it comes to Celtic.
His time, money and attention would be better served at much easier ways to add to his £1billion empire.
DD may have legitimate criticism levelled regarding what may be a vanity project, but to suggest that his only concern is to turn a “quick” profit is naïve.
Swinney (Sturgeon seemingly ducking it ) told to get out there and front it up. Albeit he will be relying on his civil service briefing notes, he starts with a positive by congratulating the Sevs , and also their fans who stayed at home and adhered to Covid restrictions. Thereafter- to be fair – he made his point.
However, the situation should not have arisen and police and politicians need to accept responsibility.
More direct and powerful messages ahead of yesterday coupled with a proper policing strategy could have prevented this nonsense.
A lesson to be learned for many, including Nippy.
John Swinney …says naughty Huns but just truck on as if nothing has happened. What are they doing about it, nothing!
If there’s no a another spike in cases following mass gatherings this weekend de ye think thull let fans back inty fitba’ grounds?
So they spoke to Sevco in February and then as late on as Friday asking that they ask fans not to congregate but were blanked. For a Government that loves a statement why not come out on Friday and say that. Put everything on Sevco…..
We need a wow manager in now.
Steal their thunder.
Build for next year and the year after.
D :)
So wee Nic dodges the presser, coward and Swinney congratulates the Huns again . .
“ The deputy first minister turns to yesterday’s events in Glasgow.
Mr Swinney congratulates Rangers on their success and thanks all the fans who celebrated at home and followed the rules.”
My blood is boiling at those corrupt arseholes in Holyrood today.
Casio football is all well and good, but you can’t beat a game of the ol Casdon Soccer.
The Supply Teacher taking the daily briefing, absolute cowardice from Sturgeon, on the biggest breach of lockdown rules.The other political leaders probably won’t have the balls to confront the Klan.
So this season alters nothing, Mr 67 have you seen the results they are getting in Europe this past 2 seasons, good runs plenty victories developing a team startegy from discarded players from all over the place and built on a solid defensive unit and goalkeeper.
Celtic plc could have finished them competitively, chose not to, the 5WA the Nimmo Smith sham enquiry the EBTs the Wee Tax case, all accepted by Celtic plc, res12 now 11 kicked into touch, never mind we can sell 8000k tickets to them next season as that is what this board wanted and keeps the OF ticking along just perfectly.
MarkieBhoy
Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t been on Corona virus forum duty on a Monday or Friday for sometime, stop letting your irrational anti SNP bias cloud your judgement, John Swinney has just released a serious reprimand to The Rangers football club . Police Scotland didn’t cover themselves in glory but then again like SPFL referees their loyalties to certain section of the population have always been obvious.
Swinney talking pish.
Our old friend Peter Smith from STV, shielding the huns,what a surprise, he was the fud who asked MON about the IRA at a club promotional event back in the day.
BB
Was it not Lawwell when we announced New balance as a sponsor? Correct major sevcoite.
BB – I think PS likes the sound of his own voice too much.
Had he stopped after noting he’d observed drunken Huns staggering about wi kerryoots with polis watching them then he’d have made more of a pointed question.
NTB @ 12.36
Regarding DD and the club — what money / what time / what attention?
The last time he put his hand in his pocket was 2005 — to tidy up the mess MON left us in.
Nothing since then.
DESSYBHOY- New Balance was after MON time,Lawwell might have been there,but he asked Martin.
Douglas red card Ross….’ a small number of fans…’ the Club needs to get him removed from any games
MMCCARTNEY on 8TH MARCH 2021 12:44 PM
‘your irrational anti SNP bias’
###
There’s nothing irrational about distrusting the SNP.
They don’t even trust each other.
Douglas red card Ross , probably part of it.