With one week before Champions League qualification gets underway, Celtic play their third and final warm-up game against Swiss’ St Gallen tonight. Three games is not sufficient to get players anywhere near peak fitness, but next week’s opponents, Sarajevo, have played only twice since their season ended in May, their final game, a defeat on Sunday.
While we may be well below peak condition, at least we should be better prepared than the other guys.
There is always some trepidation when an unknown helicopters in to buy a football club, but most Hibs fans will be happy that Rod Petrie has been emptied out of the club today as he and Sir Tom Farmer sold their shares to a Peruvian – surely the only man from Peru called Ronald Gordon.
Hibs were the last club to win a trophy before the Celtic monopoly began. They are now debt free, have a suitable stadium and competent backroom team. They are also not Hearts, so have a great deal going for them.
What is not clear is why a Peruvian has bought into Scottish football or what he intends to do with Hibernian. Putting a challenge into Celtic will be difficult, but if he can work the South American market successfully, Hibs could be in the mix for the celebrated Best of the Rest title. Which would be fun to watch.
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CELTIC40ME
It’s the ‘net’ spend brigade I’m dreading, they are busy shifting the goalposts from ‘predicted’
spend
Heaven help the heated driveway owners, and down with £7M CB’s
@CELTIC40ME on 2ND JULY 2019 11:00 PM
“They judge themselves against their nearest rivals in their national league.”
Not sure that is the case. Bayern, PSG and Juventus have been judging themselves on a European scale as of late such is the lack of competition in their domestic leagues (Juventus won their league before we won ours). Now, Celtic cannot win the CL but I don’t think it is unfair to engage in the same exercise and compare how we fair to Ajax, Anderlecht, Basel, Salzburg etc.
On your second point. Well you are engaging in old firm-ism. Rangers died (I hope we can agree on that). The new entity is seven years old. It is run on shareholders loans and has posted a turnover of under £30m to date. It’s a pretty low standard to set for our ambitions if we are aiming to just be better than a club that has only been in the top division for three years. Plus, if you set the bar that low, the quality is only gong one way (as it shouldn’t take a lot to best such a dysfunctional club as Sevco)- down!
Paul has recently talked of the generation of domination and how our club is lightyears ahead of Sevco. You cannot believe in that sentiment while simultaneously pegging our expectations and comparing our performance to theirs; we are supposed to have risen above the old firm BS when they died and set our sights a little higher. It also begs the question, why pay a CEO £3m to just be better than Sevco?
“You didn’t have a basic understanding of Ajax’s model and finances”
I’m afraid I don’t recall it that way, but you do have a very modest opinion of yourself.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 2ND JULY 2019 11:15 PM
Who would win a fight between the net spend brigade and the cash pile shopper?
Glendalys
Is that the actual reason we wont see more of Gutman – visa issues?
I heard that but wasn’t sure if it was true
….meanwhile……..
..in a small virtual galaxy, far, far away…
…angrycelts.org…….
……a WhatsApp group
for the determinedly belligerent……………are just…….. &%%%$£….ANGRY!
Bhoys, these games are all about fitness, even if they were on your ST @CP I wouldn’t waste my petrol doing a 100+ mile round trip to see it?
So Rod Petrie is available on a Bosman, he has no club,so why should he still be head mason/blazer?
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 2ND JULY 2019 11:24 PM
@CELTIC40ME on 2ND JULY 2019 11:00 PM
“They judge themselves against their nearest rivals in their national league.”
Not sure that is the case. Bayern, PSG and Juventus have been judging themselves on a European scale as of late such is the lack of competition in their domestic leagues
PSG are a terrible example – they’re funded by a gulf state and are still about to get their collar felt again for cheating the system. It’s an entirely unlevel (is that a word?) playing field, Lyon and Marseille can never hope to have access to the sort of income PSG do. It’s another over-simplistic reading of something more complicated (although not much).
On your second point. Well you are engaging in old firm-ism
No I’m not I’m comparing Celtic to our nearest donestuc rival. Our nearest rival has, and always has had access to exactly the same opportunities as we have, more given the help they’ve received from the authorities. Before they died, and since their rebirth. We’ve outperformed them off the pitch because we’ve done things properly while they’ve messed up at every opportunity. But that’s not because they’ve not had the same chances as us.
What advantages have we had over the last twenty years that have meant we shouldn’t be judged against them?
Everything that’s happened to them has been of their own making, they could, should be much closer to us than they are but they aren’t, because we’ve done everything much better than them for a long time. From a relatively similar base 20 years ago they’ve totally ruined themselves while, comparatively, we have done everything right. If we’d made the same decisions they did and vice-versus we’d be in their place now, probably worse given the helping hand they got
It’s not an old-firm thing at all. It’s us against our local rivals.
I’m afraid I don’t recall it that way, but you do have a very modest opinion of yourself.
That’s not very nice. I don’t mean to come over as immodest but I’m afraid you seem to me to be running down Celtics exceptional achievements over the last 8 years and also trying to hold Celtic to an ever-higher standard that will allow you to indulge yourself forever in the criticism of the club we all love. It grinds my gears.
So
Ajax
Bayern Munich
Juventus
PSG
Who else should we be looking to emulate?
The hands can’t hit
“but I don’t think it is unfair to engage in the same exercise and compare how we fair to Ajax, Anderlecht, Basel, Salzburg etc.”
Remove Ajax from the group and specify who is in the etc; and I think you have a point. Ajax and Benfica have enjoyed a much more regular diet of European success across decades when we were also rans in our own league- never mined Europe. If you wanted Dutch comparators, Feyenoord and PSV are closer to us but both of them have won 3 and 2 times more trophies in Europe than we have.
Putting ourselves in Ajax’s orbit is delusional- an occasional win against them does not change that.
Bayern-PSG-Juventus-Ajax-Anderlecht-Basel-Salzburg-Rangers-Sevco-Lyon-Marseille…
all mentioned on this page…
and Celtic too, of course…
Is that a new world record?
Pity we couldn’t get Auchinleck Talbot as well…oops! Just did…
St Columbkille’s Boys Guild…mentioned in with the top dogs…
Benfica-Feyenoord-PSV have now turned up…
There’s one thing consistent with assimilated tims, they panty wet like huns.
Good morning CQN from a beautifully sunny Garden of God (Garngad)
Panty wetting or no panty wetting, we had better get the finger oot regarding LB, RB, another CB, Midfielder and another CF, because if and I say if we let KT and Cal Mac go we are short in these positions and quality. If we think that Hayes and Ralston, Henderson, Johnston will get us into CL and win 9IAR then some people are deluded. Feck even if KT stays we need back up at LB.
Someone said last night that Eduard is no target man, totally agree, his talent is wasted playing out and out target man. He is a great player but likes to wander and pick up the ball and run at defenders, so a target man centre forward to play along side him would be good. I have not seen much of Bayo, maybe Lenny has and he can fill that roll.
Anyway the real stuff begins on Tuesday, and we should have enough with current squad to get past This round.
Right 2 days left of work before I stop to the 23 July.???
Hahn
D. :)
That last post was for the panty wetting, people who get annoyed at the so called panty wetters expressing an opinion…
D. :)
D66 – Forget the full-on wetters, the game was surely uncomfy viewing for the mild soilers among this cohort.
Even tho a ‘bounce’, St Gallen had decent shape and wur provisional Sarajevo 11 looked all too disjointed.
Agree our flanks remain vulnerable. Good application cannot mask when a player isn’t of the right quality.
Will big Nir partner big Ajer if big Jozo’s red card activates immediately?
Cant believe it if the proper LB – the hungry Mr Gutman – cant appear due to visa issues; as crazy as buying a drag racer you cant register for highway use!
Oh, and if we’re looking for new LB chants, what about Sam the Sham’s classic “Wooly Bully’…uno, dos, one, two three, quatro…
‘Boli Boli – Bolingoli
Boli-Boli, Boli-Boli
He’s Ma Bombo!’
For those who havent heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6P7g_qz2OU
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/50/02/75/discoinhalte.pdf
Pages 24-25
Match suspensions in relation to an expulsion pronounced on a player outside of a competition (separate match[es]) or not served during the competition for which they were intended (elimination or the last match in the competition) are carried over as follows: friendly matches: carried over to the representative team’s next friendly match.
So the player who got a red card is suspended for the next friendly match.
KT is staying.
We are signing Mbomba not because he’s a replacement. We needed another LB and he’s the best available
I was resigned to the `fact` that KT would be leaving this window. Now, I am edging towards MWD`s opinion that a Club wouldn`t pay 25 million + for an injured player.
JJ
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE
Hi mate,hope your well
Imo Ajax are not a comparison.
We own our stadium,and cover the cost of of its upkeep/maintenance by paying for it with honest Celtic £pounds
Ajax do nnt hav that.they pay a peppercorn rent as tenant hence more money for player budgets and not capital
:-)
HH
Lovely warm, slightly breezy, morning in the Chilterns…
ST TAMS @ 9:43 PM,
“The only thing that I am supprised about, is that people are supprised at the state of the team. I’m afraid that it’s not going to end well
That’s an interesting point. A few months ago in a descussion with SfTBs, I suggested we’d be in a rather sorry state in June 2019 – he suggested that with all the upheaval this summer would inevitably bring an assessment at the end of August would be fairer – I accepted his point. My expectations having been very much managed.
Last season our preperations for our first away UCL Qualifier to Alashkert were good but Stuart Armstrong and Paddy Roberts had gone and we had three first team starters at the World Cup; Boyata, Lustig and Rogic, so we fielded a very weakened team to the one that concluded the double treble. Interestingly enough we may field a very similar team in Sarajevo…
Craig Gordon
Jack Hendry
Jozo Simunovic
Kristoffer Ajer
James Forrest
Scott Brown
Callum McGregor
Olivier Ntcham
Kieran Tierney
Odsonne Edouard
Moussa Dembele
Of course with Dembele, N’tcham and Tierney missing from last seasons depleted team (over 60M worth of talent) it is indeed interesting we have so many OpTIMistics and so few bedwetters;)
Hail Hail
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/revealed-how-arsenal-plan-to-sign-kieran-tierney-without-paying-the-full-25m-now-1-4958262
That’s according to Football Operations and Communications consultant Ian McGarry, who was speaking on Reach’s Transfer Window Podcast this week.
“I have been told Arsenal have made a renewed offer of £20m for Tierney,” he said. “The structure of the payment is crucial, because Arsenal’s transfer budget is limited.
“What I have been told is that Arsenal are going to pay £10m up front, for Tierney, and £10m a year from now which makes up Celtic’s initial valuation of £20m as a downpayment, plus £5m in add-ons which would be paid in years three, four and five of the contract which Arsenal have projected.
____
HAHAHAHA
The Scotsman will put anything out there. Ian McGarry’s livelihood is made up of telling lies about football transfers.
Nonsense.
KT is staying.
chairbhoy
“Of course with Dembele, N’tcham and Tierney missing from last seasons depleted team (over 60M worth of talent) it is indeed interesting we have so many OpTIMistics and so few bedwetters;)”
We won 6:0 on aggregate.
3:0 in both legs.
We have wiggle room for a deterioration in performance and result, without reaching for the adult diapers.
The St. Gallen performance would have convinced no-one of our Sarajevo result but, when we play the Bosnians, we will not have done double training sessions in the days before the game and our subs will not have played a 90 minute match earlier that day.
Even with Brendan at the helm, we lost 1:0 to a much weaker team at q.2 stage but we won the tie.
I don’t have any intention of managing your expectations but it is fair to wait till the end of August to evaluate the window and it is fair to wait until the season is 10-12 matches old before seeing how Celtic are shaping up in the league.
Work calls- catch your reply later
Feckin Ajax again.
What sort of comparison refuses to acknowledge small mitigating factors such as the fact they earn multiple times from TV than we do, they play in a country with a population about 3.5 times that of Scotland, their national league is ranked far higher than that of Scotland allowing them to charge much higher fees for their players (see De Ligt, De Jong), they don’t start CL qualifying games at beginning of July, and to top it all off they havent voted to leave the EU.
Apart from that we’re basically the same.
How come we’re no Ajax!
HH
HOTSMOKED
Ta
I remember Ian McGarry writing that Henrik would not be staying with Celtic.
The next day Henrik signed a new 2-year contract.
‘Kilmarnock have rejected a £500,000 bid from German Bundesliga 2 side Nurnberg for 21-year-old left-back Greg Taylor’
Corkcelt
Thanks for the heads up re Luca ‘tir’ Connell:-)
Kudos where its due.you were first with the tip. I hope he goes on and enjoys a successful career.hope your well my friend.
HH
It’s strange to think of Neil being a new manager, but that’s what he is. Normally we cut them some slack as they implement their own methods. With a treble to be won and now CL qualifiers imminent he hasn’t had that period of grace. With new players coming in it will be easier to shake off the parts of the BR regime he’s not comfortable with.
There are bound to be some ups and downs, Neil’s style is prone to that anyway, but I think he deserves the leeway that all new managers get. Reading back over the comments of a preseason friendly, thought it was a full moon.
SFTB
So it’s ok our squad is a shambles, with Ralston the only right back at our club because we should get through the first tie, jeez, that’s not the point.
This situation has been 4 poor Windows in the making with disastrous planning by the CEO you constantly defend.
Still clap away, we’re slightly better than the Huns.
If we fail again this year this is down to our highest paid employee, not Lenny or the players.
SID on 3RD JULY 2019 9:41 AM
Window is open for another 2 months pal.
SfTBs @ 8:57 AM,
Yes, there is no doubt we should be too strong for Sarajevo. It’s interesting how unpredictable this team is. I’d not be surprised with a hatful, nor surprised at a draw in Sarajevo.
As I said before, I’m happy the tie got switched, if we made a bad start at Celtic Park there would have been a lot of pressure in Sarajevo. As it stands we should be expecting a good performance over there and to finish the job at home.
Yet my point was more than that, having “wiggle room for a deterioration in performance” is all well in good but I’d like to see us vastly improving on where we were this time last year. I can’t see it at the moment.
Yet your right we have to let the execs, manager, coaches and players do their business and assess at the end of August.
However I’ve got to disagree in the 10-12 match assessment. If we don’t have a “gap” by then the 9iar bedwetting brigade will be at flood warning levels;)
Hail Hail
Timaloy
How does that help us get players bedded in to give us the best chance of making over 40M and giving us the prestige and publicity our fans deserve?
Posted by Auldheid.
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“Res 12”, as it became known, was taken from the resolution presented by a group of shareholders to the Celtic Board in Resolution 12 at the Celtic AGM held on 15 November 2013.
The resolution read as follows:
“This AGM requests the Board exercise the provision contained in the Procedural Rules Governing the UEFA Club Financial Control Body Article 10 with jurisdiction and investigation responsibilities identified in articles 3 & 11 (Note 1), by referring/bringing to the attention of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), the licensing administration practices of the Scottish Football Association (SFA), requesting the CFCB undertake a review and investigate the SFA’s implementation of UEFA & SFA license compliance requirements, with regard to qualification, administration and granting of licenses to compete in football competitions under both SFA and UEFA jurisdiction, since the implementation of the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations of 2010.”
In simple terms it requested that Celtic ask UEFA to review the SFA’s licensing processes to establish if they fully complied with the then current Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations.
The resolution does not mention Rangers, but the sentiment behind it came from a belief that there were serious doubts about the Club’s submissions and the SFA’s actions during the 2011/12 licensing round. If Rangers was only granted a UEFA Licence to play in the Champions League through their deliberate submission of inaccurate information, then Celtic , having finished second in the league, had effectively been denied a place in UEFA’s premier competition and any rewards that might have accrued from their participation.
In fact, those doubts had existed since August 2011, when Sheriff’s officers visited Ibrox seeking payment of an overdue tax liability. That event was first debated on blogs, message boards and other social media platforms, with the question
‘How could Rangers have complied with the UEFA regulations and monitoring requirements on Overdue Payables, if their financial position had deteriorated to the extent that necessitated a visit from Sheriff’s Officers?’
As we are all aware, Rangers well documented financial problems resulted in their entering administration on 14 February 2012 and then into liquidation on 31 October 2012. However, the original doubts about the licensing process were only confirmed when a number of leaked documents appeared in the public domain in the summer of 2013. The provenance of these documents may well be questioned, but their veracity and authenticity has not been and when presented to Celtic in that summer of 2013 the documents should have provided cause to refer the matter to UEFA, who had the authority to ask for the originals under CFCB rules. Why that never happened is a bit of a mystery to this day.
Exchanges between some Celtic small shareholders resulted in a decision to formally ask Celtic to intervene, by way of a resolution to the club’s AGM in November 2013, which was an approach that could not be ignored. It is necessary for such a resolution to have the support of 5% of the shares in issue. That threshold was reached by a mixture of e mails and hard ground work in time for what became Resolution 12 to be included on the Notice of Annual General Meeting sent out to all shareholders.
Based on the leaked documents and the understanding of Tax rules and UEFA FFP at the time it was initially believed that Rangers had probably lied in their submissions at the UEFA monitoring points at 30 June and 30 September 2011. However, documents that have subsequently been lawfully obtained suggest that such deceit extended to the original application for a licence pre 31 March 2011.
Conclusions
In the absence of concrete evidence to the contrary It can only be concluded that:
Whilst the SFA acted in good faith when granting the licence in 2011, that Rangers FC did not in both the documentation they did provide to the SFA and then what they failed to provide, in order to obtain and retain a UEFA licence that amounted to what is known in legal terms as a False Pretence
The SFA do however have questions to answer regarding:
2.1. How they handled the matter after 10 August 2011 when Sherriff Officers called at Ibrox to collect a £2.8 million tax overdue payable to HMRC.
2.2. The role the SFA played in the SPL investigation from March 2012 into the use by Rangers of Employee Benefit Trusts with side letters that led to the Lord Nimmo Smith Commission.
2.3. How the SFA dealt with enquiries from Celtic made on the behalf of their shareholders beginning in 2014 and subsequently from April 2015 to date in response to lawyers acting on behalf of the shareholders who raised Resolution 12, because of unsatisfactory responses to enquiries made on their behalf by Celtic in 2014.
The detail of events which support these views can be read in Two Timelines.
Timeline One relates to Conclusion 1 and 2.1 to 2.2 above covering the period 2010 to 2012 including the commissioning of Lord Nimmo Smith . It can be read consecutively beginning here, or in its constituent parts viz:
Part 1: The Wee Tax Case Timeline: What Story Does It Tell?
Part 2: 5 May 2011 – 6 June 2011:- The takeover and HMRC enforcement
Part 3: 30 June 2011 – 30 September 2011:- UEFA monitoring and HMRC lose patience
Part 4: 1 October 2011 – April 2012 :- Defending the indefensible and heading for insolvency.
Part 5 – 15 March 2012 to February 2013 – The Lord Nimmo Smith Linkage
Timeline Two relates to Conclusion 2.3 above which covers exchanges between Celtic/Celtic shareholders and the SFA including a reference to UEFA in 2016 that can be read in its constituent parts viz:
Part One – December 2014 to April 2015 Shareholders Engagement with SFA via Celtic.
Part Two July 2015 – December 2016 Shareholders Independent Engagement with SFA/UEFA via a Law Firm.
Part Three June 2017 to date – After The Trial was Over.
Whilst what took place during 2011/12 was the catalyst for Resolution 12, it was not driven by any desire to harm a club that was already undergoing liquidation, but by a desire to demonstrate that the Scottish Football Association was unprofessional in conducting its governing duties and that the lack of transparency and accountability enabled them to do so then and continues to this day uncorrected.
Resolution 12 wanted to send out a message that the SFA were accountable to clubs who were in turn accountable to shareholders where the club was a Public Limited Company (PLC) and that shareholders concerns simply could not be ignored when big decisions provided one club with money at the expense of other member clubs.
Resolution 12 in its dogged pursuit was an attempt at bringing transparency and accountability into future clubs’/SFA thinking to prevent a reoccurrence in Scottish football of events since 2000. The same kind of thinking by the member clubs of the SFA that will produce the same results in future if not heeded.
That attempt is being doggedly resisted and one device consistently being used by the SFA has been to present Resolution 12 as a Celtic fan v Rangers fan issue and so deflect from their own failings which can clearly be seen under Timeline Two and which the SFA has resisted any attempts at correcting on the excuse it would be raking over coals.
If there is one group of supporters in Scotland who would have benefitted from proper governance at the SFA since 1999 it is Glasgow Rangers and if they can but just lay their prejudices aside and look at the facts in both Timelines they can only reach the same conclusion, that they were ill served by an unaccountable and opaque SFA from 2000 to 2012 and continue to be so.
If, having read the narrative you wish to contact your club’s supporter Association or Trusts to establish their position on good honest football governance a list of contacts can be found HERE .
Currently we intend to use this resource as a repository for information on Resolution 12 and related issues. If you wish to comment on the content of the blog or the direction of travel of our campaign, please direct your comments to The Scottish Football Monitor, specifically the “Accountability via Transparency” article . On SFM there is wide representation of fans of all Scottish clubs, and we do not believe that Celtic fans and shareholders have a monopoly on the desire for accountability and transparency at the SFA.