Celtic reported an increase in turnover of 6.6% to £53.3m for the six months to 31 December 2019 (2018: £50.0m). Profit from trading was up slightly to £7.1m (2018: £6.2m), which the departure of Kieran Tierney saw profit from player transfers hit £23.0m (2018: £17.6m).
Money spent on player registrations for the period was £15.0m, up significantly from the £1.9m in the corresponding period last season. The Rainy Day Fund was sitting at £45.1m, that’s just £8m shy of the annual turnover of Scotland’s second highest turnover club.
Celtic have moved into a new financial space since 2016, not only have we won all domestic trophies, but we have a commercial operation that is now successful enough to cope (if not thrive) when Europa League football is all that is achieved.
Expenditure, particularly on wages and transfer fees, has grown with turnover. Transfer fees paid across both windows this season, at £22m, is the highest in our history. Wages will continue to creep north, despite a couple of high cost leavers over the last 12 months.
We are safe and we are expanding, which has resulted in domestic success. This is the kind of budget expansion I like, not the Casino Football we witnessed elsewhere a while back. The lack of Champions League football this season and last is the only blot; one that needs to be addressed during this summer’s preparations.
Getting the big strategic calls right in football is a difficult balancing act. I know the £45m bank balance is, ironically, not something any of us want to see, but it will enable us to push the transfer fees and wage boundaries further-still in the future.
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Good luck to the Celts today, hope we’re watching a break in the weather not the eye of a storm.
Well done Tony Ralston, playing his way to the Scottish Cup quarters with Saints yesterday. Been a good start to 2020 for him, 90 minutes in a win at Pittodrie as well.
Certainly, there should be more of our fringe players than Tony making Premiership level appearances.
Turkeybhoy
Showed my boys some his goals for us on YouTube, forgot some of his exploits like his 5 goals against the mini’s in Paradise.
Cracking wee striker, think he scored the last ever goal against Rangers, smashed it into the top bin from the edge of the box. McGregor was definitely in goal that day which is nice (can’t stand him).
HH
THEBHOYFROMU.N.C.L.E on 9TH FEBRUARY 2020 11:29 AM
Hopefully it will be the same Mikey.
———————-
I can’t see him being any other way. Enjoy his input which is generally intelligent, fair and balanced. Great to see him reinstated.
HH
Na Ceiltigh abú.
Hibs game on BBC 1
Came across this earlier…
THE news this week that Alfredo Morelos allegedly had to confront someone who followed him home after catching him tampering with his car was hugely troubling.
The specifics of the incident are still unknown, with the ‘best-case’ scenario being that this assailant was perhaps trying to place a tracking device onto Morelos’s Lamborghini as part of a plan to steal it at a later date. The worst-case scenario doesn’t bear thinking about.
If indeed, as social media quickly concluded, this was an attempt to tamper with the vehicle’s brakes and put the lives of Morelos and his pregnant wife at risk, then it is a spine-chilling reminder that no matter who you are, there is very little that can be done to protect you if some lunatic gets it into their head that they want to do you harm.
Now, we don’t know as yet if that was the case. Nevertheless, that someone could get so close to Morelos and his partner with such ease at their home is unsettling to say the least.
If this was an individual who wished to do physical harm to Morelos, it begs the question of who would be to blame for the fostering of such a warped mindset that would lead to such despicable actions?
Most would probably say the blame lies with the individual. There are bampots in this part of the world, as in all others, after all. But there will be plenty of others who will point to the way Morelos has been portrayed in the media and view this incident as the end result of a perceived campaign against the striker.
In the eyes of those fans, Morelos’s only apparent ‘crimes’ are being Colombian and a Rangers player, and he has suffered from a biased and negative portrayal of his character – and been a victim of racism, even – in the Scottish media as a result.
That may not make those who have reported on the striker directly responsible if someone takes it upon themselves to do harm to Morelos. The contention would be though that the demonisation of the player has been a contributory factor in someone arriving at a view of Morelos so twisted, they are prepared to do unspeakable things to him.
In football, there is always a pantomime villain. The sort of guy you hate playing against you but would love to have in your team. I am of the steadfast belief that the majority of stick Morelos gets from the terraces falls into that category. It was ever thus, from Barry Ferguson through to Scott Brown and now Morelos just in recent times.
Morelos’s problems with ill-discipline attract such attention, as does the fact he is rather good at sticking the ball in the pokey. His manager has discussed trying to eradicate the petty flashpoints that all-too often put Morelos firmly in the spotlight, and more importantly, in the stand when his team need him.
This season, his on-field behaviour was improving somewhat until a couple of recent lapses, but the red cards at both Fir Park and Celtic Park fall into the ‘daft’ category, more than anything else. Like Leigh Griffiths tossing his tape at a Kilmarnock fan, it was all a bit stupid, but nothing more than that.
It is no way an excuse for supporters to racially abuse him, as is alleged to have happened recently. Some fans, as we know though, are great ones for dishing out abuse before suddenly coming over as little hot-house orchards when a player has a nibble back.
The issue many Rangers supporters have, is that while Griffiths for instance has elicited sympathy after his well-publicised mental health struggles, and has had a perceived ‘easy ride’ over his own indiscretions since within the media, Morelos is singled out and panned at every opportunity.
At least part of this suspicion comes from a section of the Rangers support who feel disenfranchised in present-day Scotland, believing the institutions that were once aligned to their own political beliefs and heritage – the press, the government – to not only now be opposed to their culture, but actively attacking it. That is a generalisation, with different political beliefs existing across the Rangers fanbase, but a glance at social media or message boards will tell you this isn’t a view held only by conspiracy theorists on the fringes.
I can’t speak for the SNP, but if there was a meeting within the Scottish media about how we can all hound this kid out of Scotland, I must have been left out.
There has undeniably been coverage of Morelos that has left a lot to be desired. Drug references simply because the player comes from Colombia perhaps, or attacks by pundits with affiliations to Celtic that have overstepped the mark and then some.
It all may seem harmless knockabout stuff, part of the Scottish football soap opera and the constant battle between Glasgow’s big two in particular. I have no doubt such examples were intended to feed into that, rather than victimise the player.
But as incidents such as the one that Morelos had to endure this week show, there is no harm in the media reflecting upon our own place in all of this, and indeed the harm that can be done as a result of such coverage. We too know, after all, that there are people out there who may take something they read in the papers or see in the news as justification for their own more sinister views, and altogether more serious intentions.
The responsibility on us all is to judge Morelos by what he does on the pitch. There has been plenty to praise, and a fair bit to criticise, by focusing simply on what has happened on the park. Like the Rangers fans, we’ll miss him when he’s gone.
Let’s just hope that when that time comes, it is because his talents have attracted suitors from elsewhere, rather than over fears for his family’s safety.
I take one of my grandsons to fun fours at Broadwood on a Saturday morning .
I don’t know why but it’s always freezing up there .
Btw…that was from the Herald.
WBC – Where do you even start with that.
D. :)
WBC
When was that written?
HH jg
I am not resident in Scotland, hence I do not know the in’s and outs of the Michael Stewart saga, but I kinda get the giste. I have always liked his honest approach along with that of Willie Miller. Would some kind person enlighten me as to why the BBC dumped Michael, although I cane imagine.
BBC and SKY won’t be happy until they get Barry Ferguson and Swally McCoist as pundits then for back up maybe Ian Paisley and pastror Jack Glass. It is so sad that the lannd of my birth has become such a horrible poisonous place , really sad, but looking back it was aLways thus.
Big score today
KINGLuBO
Apols……I missed out an important word…..
When was that pish written?
HH jg
Can only hope that wee prk Dodds,gets blown off the gantry👍
WBC
Looks like Jabba has called in a favour from a former colleague(s).
HH
WBC
Wow! Scatter gun journalism. Got all of their targets in.
Dangerous Hun Bastards.
Keep an eye oan that Herald, ah tell ye.
PSG pull one back against Hibs….
BSC score..
1-2
Bain; Bauer, Jullien, Ajer, Bolingoli; Brown, Ntcham, Christie; Forrest, Klimala, Elyonoussi
Subs: Forster, Taylor, Griffiths, Bayo, Soro, Hayes, Shved
Today’s official starting line up v Clyde ……
Bain; Bauer, Jullien, Ajer, Bolingoli; Forrest, Brown, Ntcham, Christie, Elyounoussi; Klimala,
Subs: Forster, Taylor, Hayes, Soro, Shved, Bayo, Griffiths
https://twitter.com/CelticFC/status/1226487212868538369?s=08
Polish Paddy starts
Good morning from a bleary eyed but calm eastern seaboard.
Any word on the game? Team?
The absence of Rogic in the squad is a worry. Good to see Klimala and Elyounoussi getting a start.
OK. Lots of changes.
Is Craig Gordon injured? Surprised that it’s Forster on the bench.
I notice Gordon doesn’t make the bench again. Has he downed tools?
AN DUN on 9TH FEBRUARY 2020 12:55 PM
Maybe , in view of his history of injury , Tom being used sparingly and NOT when the environment is `Nauld on a cold blustery day .
Team should be strong enough and hopefully get to see Paddy stick a couple in the onion bag.
Maybe get to see Soro as well.
D. :)
WBC,
Whatever floats yer boat I suppose
A lot of changes for a banana skin hmmm
Live updates are up