Yesterday @SwissRamble on Twitter dissected Celtic’s finances. His conclusions are as expected, “[Celtic] are in good shape financially… thanks to their sustainable approach, though this owes a lot to their player trading model. Champions League qualification is also important, so the expanded format should help future prospects.”
Player trading is worth exploring. We have had the Asset Management conversation on CQN since our early weeks (2004), “Manage your assets or fail to manage your assets”. Recently, when we wanted to transform our worst season in over a decade, we sold our top striker (Edouard) and our top defender (Ajer) and acquired Kyogo, Jota, Carter-Vickers and others. It’s hard to believe how controversial this was in the early days of CQN, now we have seen the evidence, everyone gets it.
There needs to be clear objectives, though, what are we managing assets for? There are two fundamental targets I think we can all agree on:
Win the league.
Qualify for the Champions League group stage.
The latter will sometimes be fulfilled by the former. After a few years in the Champions League wilderness you might have convinced yourself that this is enough. I read plenty of glowing comments from the “Just being there” brigade, reflecting in the glory of attacking against a vastly superior opponent who scored eight against us over two games.
This is not for me and I believe that it is not sustainable either. Two, maybe three, seasons of cannon fodder in the Champions League and you’ll never hear from the “Just being there” types again. We need to compete, have genuine hopes of reaching the knock out stages and I believe this is achievable.
Having lived through a quadruple treble and now two nine-in-a-rows, I don’t want to settle for a perennial nip-and-tuck title race. I don’t just want to win the league this season, I want to win the league every season. Giovanni van Bronckhorst got perilously close to delivering a European trophy for Newco. If there is any stasis around Celtic Park right now, we will soon lose our dominant position.
But how, how do we make the great leap? You can vary a few metrics around the edges, but player trading is where it’s at. This is the only route open to us, we need to be better at it (despite the plaudits from Swiss Ramble) and we need to do much more of it. Always be ready to trade, be ready to sell and have thoroughly assessed replacements lined up. Don’t wait until our top talent has one or two years left on a contract, then stalls on a new deal with an eye over the border, which is where we have been recently.
The Edouard/Ajer strategy is better than allowing players to leave on a free, or holding them on increasingly high contracts until their talents wither (see 2000-05), but it underachieves. At best, it allows stagnation, but it more commonly sees us decline.
If we want to be part of the Champions League story, if we want to go on another long run of league titles, we need to learn lessons, and you and I have had some painful lessons in recent seasons. Edouard should have been sold in 2019, two years before he actually left. Sure, there would have been distress on the comments pages here, but we kept a player who eventually became ineffective – too busy working on his next gig. We need to dare to dream big!
As well as our (now) excellent recruitment setup, Celtic need the vision and strength to up their game. Look at Ajax and Benfica, they are also trapped in small leagues, but sell players for multiples of the £24m we got for Kieran Tierney. Do this and like these clubs, we can shop for more expensive talent ourselves.
If you can think of a brilliant alternative strategy, I’m all ears, but for now, we are faced with two alternate futures: repeat the glories and inevitable decline of the O’Neill, Strachan and Rodgers eras, or increase the velocity of player trading to a level that demonstrates the courage required to be a competitive Champions League outfit.
When we embark on our Champions League campaign in September, I want to have genuine hopes of reaching the knockout stage. That will not happen without a radical overhaul of the current squad, which means selling for top money and buying more quality players. “Learning lessons” from this season’s campaign will never bridge the gap, anyone who supported Celtic through the 90s will testify to this, so let’s not pretend otherwise.
The work should be underway already, we have two transfer windows and the rare luxury of a commanding lead in the league. Celtic, you have a talented manager who works hand-in-glove with his scouting system. Aligned both to a level of ambition that would give lesser mortals a nose bleed. No more settling for “Just being there”.
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Seconds away from the NASA Artemis launch to the moon….Live on NASA TV
Rocket boosters jettisoned now three minutes into flight, now at over 5000 miles per hour
Good morning from a dry but still dark North Staffs
Just watched the lift of of Artemis rocket – am I the only one that wishes we would sort out earth’s problems first.
Now using four core stage engines, for the next few minutes, now at over 10,000 miles per hour
Hello again all you young rebels
From a cases fully packed and rerrin to go Melbourne.
PARK ROAD 67
We are sailing on the Grand Princess.
🎶 For it’s a grand old ship to sail on 🎶
Thought that was a cue for a song 🤣
H H. Mick
Incredible to watch the launch in darkness. . Setting controls for the heart of the Moon. Which is of course in full view from launch site. Unmanned of course, but future missions will be. Watch replay if you can.
Lift of = lift off
gene
Not the only one, but space research and technology has over the years advanced those on and around earth. And, not only that have given us the perspective of the Earth from space, not just the moon but from distant space. Not sure that we have learned from that mind you.
Dixie Deans penalty from 1972 caught on camera….also en route to the moon
Celtic Mac
I watched the first moon landing in 69 – an incredible feat
Satellite technology has been a huge advance but space is now a junkyard
We’re also weaponising space
GENE/CELTIC MAC
Any Celtic supporters oan it going to Sydney ?
H H. Mick
Someone mentioned the return of Mickey Johnston next season – to date he’s only played in 7 out of 13 games – not exactly encouraging but we’ll see how he goes on for the rest of the season
Celtic Mac
I was behind the goal that night – we should have insisted on the toss of a coin.
Good morning cqn from a quite chilly Garngad
Off to my cousin Don’s funeral at St David’s in Plaines this morning.
Hail Hail
D :)
Melbourne Mick
Sadly Michael Collins passed away last year so not involved this time. But for now Orion is orbiting Earth so could be over Australia at some point at about 14000 mph. Just about to adjust that orbit, in a minute or so.
gene
Another thing to blame on Bob Kelly
Gene
Replay of Launch on NASA TV
R.I.P. DON.
YNWA.
TOM…
Excellent news about your Heath.
HH
CELTIC MAC
I’m certain they’ll be some fans waiting at the princess
highway trying to hitch a lift ☘️ 🤣
H H. Mick
MELBOURNE MICK on 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 6:58 AM
Hello again all you young rebels
From a cases fully packed and rerrin to go Melbourne.
PARK ROAD 67
We are sailing on the Grand Princess.
🎶 For it’s a grand old ship to sail on 🎶
Thought that was a cue for a song 🤣
H H. Mick
____
You’re travelling to the game by cruise ship from Melbourne to Sydney?! That’s amazing. A wee bit better than the bus from Perth, struth. I’ve seen a couple of celtic tv clips of the team there, one with Callum. Hopefully, more to follow. The players will love it out there. An amazing place.
Trans Lunar Injection Burn will occur at or around 8.15am our time, will last 18 minutes, and will take Orion out of Earth’s orbit and set the ship en route to the Moon. I always think of John F Kennedy in times like these and the inspirational, even now, speech he gave back in the early 1960s. Fifty years from the last moon landing, and Dixie’s penalty, Scotland’s first lunar mission. But remember, in both football and time and space, spacetime, that is not even a blink of an eye. Distant civilizations do not yet know Dixie is going to miss that penalty. Sadly for us, we do.
melbourne mick
That’s sound like a great journey to be part of Mick, look forward to you keeping us posted en route.
melbourne mick
Orion just off NW Australia coast
ZIGGYDOC 1
Cruise was planned well before the Celtic tour was announced.
It had already been cancelled because of Covid, but amazingly it’s
visit to Sydney on the Saturday before the Everton game let’s me enjoy
the pre game BBQ, entertainment etc , before going back to the ship
for the rest of our journey up to Queensland.
Meeting loads of our bhoys already up there so big party ahead.
H H. Mick
CELTIC MAC
I’ll go out and have a look, wave my scarf, see if it’ll fly
over ma hoose 🇮🇪 🤣
H H. Mick
MELBOURNE MICK on 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 8:16 AM
Cruise was planned well before the Celtic tour was announced…
—–
It was written in the stars. I’ve got family going to the games. Wish I was there😎. Maybe get back in the next few years.
ZIGGYDOC 1
Hope you definitely make it, so many Tim’s in Oz, can’t wait to
walk up to the top deck with the hoops on.
Wonder how many COYBIG’s I’ll get on first day.
H H. Mick
We signed Josip in 2021 on a 5 year contract but apparently talks have stalled on a new contract
melbourne mick
Better get a move on, travelling at 22,000 mph! Still in Earth’s orbit though, for about five minutes.
A good read back on CQN. Good contributions about how we can advance in Europe.
The question is do you think, if we win the league, is this squad going to be better in Europe next year?
(I did think that we were excellent apart from missed goal chances)
If yes keep them together… if no, then try and upgrade.
There was a book published about 10 years ago called the numbers game about data in football. One of the conclusions was that it was better to improve your worst players rather than spend lots of money on a star.
Would we want a Jota sold so that we could get a better forward or a couple of better defenders?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/24/numbers-game-everything-football-wrong
💫🪐🌏🗼🛰🚀
Lawwell must go
Good morning all from Govanhill.
Poor old Pete, still to blame for all our troubles
Melbourne Mick,aka Pirate Pete the scourge of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific. 😂
Next stop the Moon
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 15TH NOVEMBER 2022 5:55 PM
Great news, what a wonderful Christmas present.