The changes over the last decade have been so profound, and are now so established, it’s difficult to recall how different the balance of power was back then. In 2004, a small handful of people had complete control over the Celtic media narrative.
Was Martin O’Neill going to Leeds United? He was, you were told he was, live on the country’s most listened to radio programme. By a former Celtic player, too. Objectivity and the opportunity to challenge was controlled by the very people who were writing the headlines.
For years, this was the way it was, and it was poisoning Celtic. The ‘old board’ were worthy of little better, but Fergus McCann was brutally attacked. He was the man who would bring equality and respect to our club and fans, but he was demonised by lazy hacks who cared little for truth. So much so, he was booed by the very people who celebrated the league title his vision brought. It was a bitter experience for many.
Martin O’Neill, in some respects, like The Man 35 years before him, brought a force of personality so strong, the gaggle of critics could only stand back in awe, but the system had a flaw. Stein brought unimaginable success with little more than unimaginable brilliance. O’Neill used money, lots of it. More than Celtic were earning. His whirlwind high-spending start at Celtic ended with the £6m signing of John Hartson in 2001, little over a year after he took the job.
Martin would spend another four years working within a budget; not one that brought expenditure into line with income, we continued to lose millions each year, but one which limited signings to a fraction of what was spent on Hartson, Lennon and Sutton.
While those four years were among the most exciting in our history, it was an unhappy era.
Put yourself back in time for a moment. Celtic are champions and have beaten Ajax to qualify for the Champions League for the first time. We were imperious, had beaten Rangers 6-2 and took to a field in Turin to final take part in a tournament which for so long appeared out of our reach.
Juventus went 2-0 up but back came Celtic. I worked with a Rangers fan who was at a lower league game that night. When we equalised, his friend text “I don’t think I can take this anymore”. We had come from nowhere, an irrelevance in Scottish football, but here we were, champions of Scotland and level against Juventus.
At that moment, anything was possible. For the first time in decades, we thought, maybe just…
We soon learned that it takes more than honest endeavour to win in Italy, and visits to Portugal and Norway provided a rude awakening. This was not ’67 all over again, there was a lot of work to do, we just needed to keep the pedal to the metal.
Two years after that defeat in Turin we came close to winning our second European trophy in Seville, with a team which had, pretty much, been in place for three years. We were getting the hang of European football, but the team was aging.
For reasons that defy logic, history records the Seville season as the highlight of that team, but the achievements of season 2003-04, with 25 consecutive league wins, and eliminating Barcelona from Europe, were vastly greater.
Then the party was over. The Great Swede left, we’d lost £35m in a few short years, and reality was acknowledged; all clubs need to live within their means, or face liquidation. The climb-down was necessary, but I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t hard.
Back then few people read football clubs accounts, even though Celtic posted copies to over 20,000 shareholders, but all the clues were there, Celtic had to stem the flow. We lost £7m in the Seville season alone; wages to players and coaches were unsustainable.
Despite this, Celtic were regarded as cautious. We lost £35m over five years; Ranger lost £35m in a single season. If they could pump debt up to £80m and survive, why wouldn’t Celtic? We would learn the answer to this question in 2012, but think back to 2004, thoughts that one of Scotland’s major clubs could be liquidated were ridiculed – often, on CQN.
So how did the media deal with our club in 2004? I was driving to work one morning and had heard “What the Celtic fans want to know, is where is all the Seville money?” once too often. “Where is all the Seville money?” was a toxic question. There was no Seville money, only higher debts.
When I arrived at work I ranted about such lazy reporting. This was calculated reporting of the most pernicious type. A Rangers supporting friend suggested, “Why don’t you start a blog and challenge what they’re saying?” I’d never heard of a blog, but he sat me down and got me going.
The first CQN article, written 10 years ago today, was a modest call to “Ignore the Press”, but just before I pressed publish, I had to select, ‘Allow comments: Yes or No’. I’d no views either way but ‘Yes’ was default, so I left it.
The whole thing, the millions of comments, the hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for those in need, the friendships made, the golfers, the slimmers, those helped in bereavement, the thousands of kids attending our school kitchens each day in Malawi and the countless hours of enjoyment we’ve had, are all down to a default position on Blogger. And a Rangers fan telling me to start the fight back online. Who’d have thought it?
Now, people stop me in the street to talk about Celtic. Can there be a greater joy in life? Thanks for all the help and support.
Celtic yesterday, today, forever.
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Bobby. Indeed is it 5 years we have been chatting :). Saw the bold MC and his daughters 1st communion a few weeks back. We tried to talk shop but mrs MC was making him a waiter for the day and wee sydney tim was asking me to play dollys
Amazing how some bloggers perceive me as wanting to liquidate our club by spending squillions
However I agree with being efficient and cost cutting and not paying over the odds for duds eg
Pukki derk Balde
Our team on the park is all about Peter Lawell’s bonus salary
Not about do we need a strike for midfield player
PL the only member of at Celtic park earning EPL wages
sydneytim
02:02 on 21 July, 2014
I suppose the most important question is: are you going to let anyone else’s editorial slant detract from your own enjoyment of watching and supporting the team (flawed as it may be from your perspective)?
IMHO life is too short to be denied the simple pleasures.
happy 10th anniversary celtic quick news
have being reading this blog since spring 2005
have being posting here for the last 3/4 years
so congrats to cqn
Living. I watched hoops home and away from 1979 till 2002( moved to Germany ) some good and bad years in that lot
Still support Celtic fc. Don’t support Celtic PLC
Paul67,
My heartiest congratulations to you on the huge success of the first ten years of CQN ~ a blog that does not shrink to fit inferior posters :~}
Joking aside, CQN is simply essential reading for all Celtic Bhoys and Ghirls wherever they may be.
Hail, Hail to the next ten years (and after).
I have not had a chance to get on the blog all day and have only just now had a wee scan through. The universal gratitude to Paul for this site is clear. Each of us has, for the first time, had an authoritive, fair minded and Celtic minded scource of news about our club, Scoddish fitba and the game in general. It must strike like a dagger into the hearts of the redtops and the supposed ‘quality’ publications.
The ethos of Celtic has been well and truly upheld with countless charity events, fundraisers and a bit of inspiration to many of us to grasp athe nettle and do our own wee bit for great causes.
Of course the blog is not just for discussing formations. transfer targets, amortisation, floating charges and what happenned to the Seville money. It has become at once a place to bare our souls in times of need, to garner advice on anything from PC tech to resturant tips, to share joy and sorrow, anger and contentment.
For me personally, I can thank you for all of the above but in addition I thank you for turning me from a guy that watched Celtic on the telly when I could into a season ticket holder.
To explain, and I’m sorry for being long winded, I wasn’t born or brought up in the Celtic tradition. In 1967, when I was in primary 1 in a school in a privincial market town in the NE of Scotland, an older girl asked me whether I supported Celtic or Rangers.
I didn’t know, as football wasn’t a big thing in our house. Don’t know why, but I replied Celtic. From that day on I always follwed the results and even badgered my old man into taking me to the odd game.
As I grew up, other intrests to be honest overtook Celtic. Women, drink, music, fags.
I always retained my admiration for the club and team but as I didn’t really know anyone who attended CP regularly, I only caught the occasional game.
This is where CQN came in. I used to read the old BBC 606 site and would see references to CQN on that. Having crossed over to see what all the fuss was about, I soon became hooked and only a year or two back plucked up the courage to ask if anyone was meeting up prior to CL game in town. Kickintheknakas very kindly invited me to meet up for a few drinks with the ‘grey brigade’ in the merchant city before I think the Barca game and I did so.
Since then I have met and formed frienships with many CQNrs and I must say everyone I have met has surpassed what I could have believed possible in their wit, kindness, welcome and generousity.
Had it not been for CQN and the people who post on it, there is no way that I would be a season ticket holder who makes addmittedly only the occasional long trip down from Elgin to CP. I would still be a Celtic admirer, sympathiser and armchair fan (not that there is anything wrong with being one of these), but my comittment would not have flowered in the way it has done.
So to Paul and to every blogger I have met and yet to meet. Congratualtions and here’s to the next ten.
HH to you all.
Sydney
I hear you on the division, and that was my point all along I suppose.
I just don’t let it come between my joy in being part of the greatest support on the planet.
Conspiracy theories are always best.
You never need to prove them.
You are never wrong.
Retro Celts CSC
skyisalandfill
03:02 on
21 July, 2014
great post
skyisalandfill,
Excellent post sir, good on ye!
AR
On a more morose subject, is there no depths that this organisation will not seek to plumb.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/sky-news-apologises-after-reporter-colin-brazier-rummages-through-mh17-victims-luggage-at-ukraine-crash-site-30446569.html
AR
I don’t usually post but I’ll make an exception as it’s a special occasion. Keep up the effort and good work for us ex-pats ( and ex St Pats )
We don’t all agree on everything but we do offer food for thought and ..well
Once you know, we can always scroll on by the antagonists. Congrats to all concerned.
Just want to join all the others in thanking you Paul for CQN. Been away all day Sunday but here I am back home and one of the first things to do is to check in for my Celtic fix. Thank you for the hours and hours of reading your articles and this blog has provided.
HH
Beechbhoy
Whatever happened to the Babbity Bowzers money?
Thank you CelticQuickNews, stuck for words trying to put a value on how good this place has been for me.
Met a load of people I now count as good friends, that’s kind of special.
The original social network.
ZuckerbergGT*
Greetings from the mile high city of Denver. Congrats to Paul67 for ten years of the blog.
Read every day wherever I am on this planet. Keep on keeping on.
Hail Hail!
RobinBhoy
Lazy Journalism…..
The Perfect indictment.
10 years on and it seems to me that Paul67, George Orwell and Chic Young have proven the prescience of lazy journalism to be factually correct.
My only concern is that the Lazy Journalism….. Even in the last decade of interwebbyness…. Has became even more lazy… And more contrived…
There have been many insightful, thoughtful and informed postings on this blog over the last 10 years on Celtic, SFA, and a whole lot more….
Just seems that the BBC et al…. Given events of the last few weeks…
Are becoming more Lazy/Orwellian.
Those of you you whose passion is Celtic, and understand the workings of the SMSM must recognize the absurdity of the media in realms beyond sport….
It’s outrageous and despicable!
Roll on the future eh?
Im a regular reader and infrequent poster, barely a day goes by without me clicking into CQN.
Paul67, great blog, love your work.
Lang may yer lum reek
JimmyBhoyCampbell
In Cambodia
John 3:16.
Praise be to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o-uUS6bSOP4
Good morning friends from East Kilbride where dawn has just broken (pardon?) to reveal a totally clear skied and therefore very pleasant morning. Nice day for an early flight to Birmingham.
JOBO BALDIE
Glad you relented,bud.
Wee choon for ya.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DNMY4ZeR4_w
Oh jeez.
Just read an interview in the telegraph with Lulu about what to do in Glasgow.
“If you can, go to a Celtic or Rangers match. Football is as important as religion in Glasgow.”
Where to start.
Nightshift almost over so hitting the sack
HH
On the scrounge for a spare brief for tomorrow.
Apologies, but I have a good friend coming up from dan saff this week and want to show him what the Hoops are all about.
Anyone who is not using their ticket or knows someone, I am happy to meet before the match.
Speaking of which, has Murrayfield Lodge been secured?
Happy birthday Paul!
Tremendous job you’ve done over the past decade.
My first post was after Artmedia. I called on WGS to resign…
Morning all. Lovely down here at the moment. Judith says we’re in for a whole week of sunshine. Good news to start the week.
I guess I’m slow on the uptake but am I right in thinking hat if we get through to all the qualifying rounds of the CL, all 3 games are to be played at Murrayfield? Not a prospect I relish one little bit.
Yesterday was a good day on CQN; let’s hope we can look back on a whole lot of good yesterdays in 10 years time.
WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED.
CQN was 9 months old when I discovered it. 3am, new born on my shoulder, seemed inappropriate to search the web for anything more adult than Celtic, I typed in ‘Celtic news’ for something to read and up it came.
A few months later I was at Aberdour, 16 of us for the first trip I think, all undertaken by Taggsy who I’d never met and who has become one of my closest pals. First meeting with jonnybhoy who is another, we formed a gang and our wee stretch of the CQN pool had our towels laid on the loungers.
The pool is massive, there’s regulars along all different stretches and ends, there’s a baby pool where the tantrums go on noisily and there’s folk who sit back from the pool and just watch. I dived in early, it’s glorious, dangerous, refreshing, it can choke you if you’re in too deep and the night swimmers can be quiet, graceful sorts, or drunk and splashing around while the rest of us sleep.
But like all the best pools it’s a safe, well maintained environment and something healthy to enjoy. We get the occasional floater appearing of course but it’s normally obvious whose trunks it popped out of and soon flushed out.
Hail Hail to the lifeguard, an arduous task but so brilliantly undertaken that he rest of us can swim about freely and I look forward to reading some dreadful holiday and pool analogies later. :-)
HH
Jobo!
Morning young Mhan.
Please scroll back to my post at 11.11 last night….
PleaseDon’tGoCSC
;-)
HH jamesgang
Ah mean, whit is awe this aboot?
Commonwealth games?
Surely a contradiction in terms?
Common? Wealth?
They say on here that threre’ll be ‘kudos’
for Celtic af the opening ceremony?
Kudos for the Thatchers on the ‘bored’ and
awe their ‘blind-folded-sheep-hahahahhappy-clapper’
followers, more like.
Celtic FC 1888 = Founded to feed the poor.
Celtic PLC 2014 = Back-slapping the rich.
No Jungle = No Celtic. imho
Off oot, bye.
Happy birthday CQN. Been reading it for years. Great stuff! (First ever post)
Is the game on at all on tomorrow ??
16 roads – Celtic über alles…
05:07 on 21 July, 2014
John 3:16.
Praise be to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.
………………………………………………………………………..
SO JUST FORGET ALL ABOUT HENRIK LARSSON THEN
Good morning CQNers,
Paul67,
Congratulations on the tenth anniversary of CQN.
The insight CQN offers me into everything Celtic, and every other possibly conceivable topic, is a great fillip as it challenges as well as it informs. Primarily CQN helps me keep in touch with kindred spirits.
Thanks Paul and the team who put on the show at CQN.
KevJungle – Murdo Macleod is my favorit CELTIC player ever.
awe their ‘blind-folded-sheep-hahahahhappy-clapper’
followers, more like.
…………………………………………………………………………
BTW – include me in that group
PJMCCAY
What kept you?
Welcome aboard.
Congratulations to Paul67 and many thanks for providing this platform for the last 10 years, your hard work does not go unnoticed or unappreciated, sometimes I don’t know here you find the time and the will, but you do as you are a good man and for that we are extremely grateful.
HH
Black Sunday. Thats when I discovered CQN. Scott McDonald – who was he? Totally gutted, couldn’t understand what had just happened. Searching the internet trying to find answers when CQN came up. A perfect example of a problem shared is a problem halved, here was a forum with what seemed like thousands of like minded guys some even more gutted than I was. I’ve been a fan ever since, dont post much but always a great read with lots of great guys.
P67….
Congratulations on 10 years!!
Only found this site a couple of years ago but never posted. Started just before I came back last year for the Ajax game (first one for 38 years).
Generally in pop in everyday to catch up on what is happening and have to say get more news here so don’t bother with other sources.
Looking forward to another 10 years, or as long as i am still breathing.
Keep it lit.
HH
DESERTBHOY
38 years without going to a Celtic game?!
Is this a record,I wonder. And do you think one or two people on here will try to match that in time?
Congratulations on reaching the10th Anniversary ofCQN. I post extremely infrequently but look in several times every day.
Like many other posters I came across the site thro News Now Celtic. The only other site I looked at was E Tims. CQN was different in that it gave fans the opportunity to contribute. Also, the topics were only Celtic or football related. And it could be funny sad, maddening but almost never boring.
I like many others have seen posters come and go ~ Donegal Danny, Edward, Pablo Phanque, Joshy Bhoy to name a few. One person who did capture my attention , and who’s still on site,is the unique, idiosyncratic Kojo.
In that time Scottish football has changed out of all recognition. I anticipated with relish the G.O.D. that was to come that Paul predicted, and posted angrily when I watched the H*** pick up their 3rd title. Little did we all know what was to come.
Let’s hope that in 10 years time we’ll have witnessed another revolution and Celtic will be competing at the European top table.
Hail Hail Paul and thanks.