I suspect we have not seen the best of Daryl Murphy, who has proven to be a solid Championship and fleeting Premier League player in England but has been unable to retain a place in the SPL, but his hamstring injury, suffered after the long flight to Pennsylvania, will be a blow on two levels for Celtic. They are denied a squad player for the crucial Champions League play-off round against Helsingborgs and are likely to unable to loan him out, easing more pressure from payroll.
Daryl was singled out for credit (here) for the way he changed the shape of Celtic in our opening league game of the season against Aberdeen. He would have been useful to Neil Lennon this coming week.
News that Helsingborgs have lost their top striker is welcome but is not quite ‘like signing a new player’ for Celtic. Let’s hope they haven’t lost their Kenny Miller only to find their Jordan Rhodes.
There can seldom have been more financially important games to the club than the Helsingborgs tie. Celtic accounts are usually released mid-August (16th last year) but I don’t anticipate any rush to publish this year. Last season’s accounts could well see the largest loss in our history as the club chased their first league win in four years (insert standard lecture on financial responsibility program, avoid urge to run legacy Sir David Murray malware).
I expect the figures to show Celtic are operating with a Champions League budget (and that’s without evading tax). Football finance lessons are clear, if you have a Champions League budget you need Champions League income. Time for this team to step up to the challenge. Get along and pack the place out on the 29th.
No regrets this time.
Bed early tonight if you are off to Dingwall in the morning. I hope we see a few of the young lads.
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petec, cant disagree with that
an deff off now have a good one!!!!!!!!!!
stephbhoy
HH.
I hope we bring in another Victor this Summer just to strengthen the midfield further. ;))
Have a great day m8.
PFayr – Aye early doors job for me tomorrow, 07:45 but i get used to it; the problem we have is that the Celtic Club loses revenue with the early kick offs as we cannot open the bar until 11am.
Be carefull when out with the bold EN, ye will recall the size of females he tends to attract; no place for the faint hearted:)I got a greeat 2005 rioja, Conde valdemar, about a ten spot a bottle but well worth it.
slainte
tony
Kilbowie Kelt
14:30 on
17 August, 2012
KK ,You’re a good Ghuy.
Philvis:
I’m sure we’ll hear your opinions later via your doppleganger Singing Detective…or Kojo…with more or less a facsimilie of your well established fixed ideas concerning all variety of human experience. One of your aliases will exit via a digital trapdoor only for another Twin to appear…then like Janus in jackboots vanish up the jobby lobby only for the masquerade of one more of your nom de plumes to return later between another anal alley…on and on like Scarlet pimpernel on a merry-go-round…(thumbs up)
Drive out prejudices through the door, and they will return through the window.
Freddie Starr in a letter to Voltaire, entitled “Like you aloater”.
NEIL Lennon will be without number of key personnel for Celtic´s trip to Ross County on Saturday but he remains confident of selecting a team that´s capable of earning victory in the Highlands.
Celtic´s crippling injury list means Scott Brown, Anthony Stokes, James Forrest, Paddy McCourt, Dylan McGeouch, Daryl Murphy, Filip Twardzik and Rabiu Ibrahim will miss the game against the Staggies. Gary Hooper remains a doubt.
With the crucial UEFA Champions League play-off, first-leg against Helsingborgs on Tuesday, a crowded treatment table, particularly among the attacking cohort, is certainly a concern.
However, the manager is hopeful that the picture will look decidedly rosier by the time that game comes around..
In any event, his full focus is on following up the opening day win over Aberdeen with another three points against the Dingwall side.
“I have about 11 out – Filip Twardzik, Dylan, Murphy, Stokes, Bangura, Ibrahim, McCourt, Brown, Forrest and Hooper is a doubt as well,” said the Irishman.
“It´s a huge concern regarding Tuesday as well but it´s a big game tomorrow. We are not looking too far ahead, and Saturday´s game is one I want to win.
“Ross County are unbeaten in 36 and that´s an impressive record at any level. We have started the season very well but I have three of my strikers out and that´s a concern.
“Stokesy has a bit of bone bruising in the ankle and you can never put a length of time on that. Murph has a hamstring and Mo is a thigh. They are not long-term injuries but we could be doing with thedr pleyers at the minute.
“We had glut of injuries around October time and these have come a bit early this year. But I´m not overly concerned and hoping that the majority of those boys who I have mentioned will train on Sunday, and we are hoping to have a bigger and more vibrant squad for game on Tuesday.
“For tomorrow we might draft in a couple of younger ones but we will still have a strong team going out there.”
Celtic know they can´t take the threat of the SPL newcomers lightly having been on the receiving end of a 2-0 shock defeat in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 2010.
The sides also met at Victoria Park last season in the League Cup with the Hoops reversing that scoreline in a hard-fought contest to progress in the competition. They are a team that the Hoops boss has plenty of admiration for.
“We had the semi-final a couple of years ago and we played them in Dingwall last year,” he said. “I know the club very well. There are good people there. It´s well run and no surprise that they got promoted last year.
“They have some good individual players, and like a lot of provincial teams they have great spirit. They are a community club as well and the people take a lot of pride in what they do.
“It´s a great story but we want to burst their bubble tomorrow. We want to go there and win and go into Tuesday in a psychologically in a good state.”
The manager was pleased to see all his stars return unscathed from international duty. On the other hand, he admitted to being somewhat surprised at Fraser Forster´s continued failure to receive a call-up to the England squad.
“I´m frustrated for him,” said the Irishman. “I think he´s developing into a top-class goalkeeper.
“I don´t think England have a plethora of goalkeepers to choose from, and I do feel he´s good enough to make the England squad.
“I think he´s more than good enough to play and he´s proven that over the last couple of years. He´s played in huge games already and shown the character to play in those games, and certainly the qualities. We just have to keep him going.
“We have a few big weeks coming up, and if we can get through into the Champions League group stages his exposure will spread throughout Europe and will give him a great platform to hopefully make that breakthrough.”
Champions League Budget?
I think the issue is simple for distinction.
If in an ‘average season’ we can generate say £50m income from domestic activity then a non CL budget would be £50m. A Champions League budget is one which contains the domestic income figure plus an enhancement based on CL involvement, say x + £10m so in the ‘average season’ a CL budget would be £60m. If you plan for a CL budget (£60m) but don’t qualify then the income is restricted to £50m but expenditure is £60m resulting in a loss of £10m that year.
This is easily evidenced through the budgets of one RFC (IA) (not including fringe benefit enhancements like EBTs) who planned their budget on x + CL every year (and probably a bit more).
Now, Paul 67 used to tell us that CFC always planned their budgets on x only and that any CL income was a ‘bonus’. However, if we have lost funding for the last 3 years because we have budgeted for x + CL but not qualified does that not undermine the idea that our ‘prudent’ approach was based on CL always = bonus?
Have we lived within our means or not? Will we need (another) share issue where the fans again bale out the club?
Or is this just a wee PL inspired article to pave the way for NAE SIGNINGS……..
We should be told……….
HH
John Collins has a 0.2 scoring ration to Paul McStay’s 0.1. However, John Collins was free to play an attacking left sided midfield role and took corners and penalties.
Meanwhile Paul McStay was playing the creative central mid, the box to box mid, the defensive anchor mid and filling in for another 7 slots where we had employed limited players. He also had to dish out the oranges and juice at half time blow up the balls and play captain.
I loved them both, but I think I know who was the more ‘complete’ player.
HH
When MON managed our expectations back in 2005 to life in the slow lane I fear he was over cooking his opinion somewhat as it now appears that life on a B road is just about our fill.
Each year we fail to qualify for the CL each year it becomes more difficult. For a catholic club we appear frugal to the Scottish Protestant extreme pre 1980.
MWD
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1300528-scottish-football-association-the-rangers-football-club-already-making-trouble
Hope this links works, if only our msm could report in the truth like ole Uncle Sam.
A good read, which hits the nail firmly on the head.
HH
Afternoon Bhoys & Ghirls
On the way back from Inverness, after a couple of days in the Highlands. Maybe back in time for the quiz. Are you joining me tonight?
Seems like we have a big wage bill without the benefit of the Champions league footie. Good to see we have reduced the wage bill this year by moving on a few, but don’t like the fact that we are gambling on CL footie. No signings other than big Fraz is a risk to me!
Looking forward to the game on Sat and indeed our next CL venture on Tuesday.
HH
CRC
Tim Tanium
Having a problem signing in at Challenge part.
Paul67-love the evolving blog as it changes. Colour scheme not too bad either!!!
HH
CRC
Zbyszek
You are wasting your time my friend. Phyllis has a closed mind. She already knows everything and has no desire to be informed by ‘other information’. She is what we call here a knowitall. She will not engage with you or your ideas or entertain the notion that there may be something in what you say, other than to summarily dismiss anything you raise.
On the other hand, a range of other posters are considering what you have said and considering your information. They have more open brains and hearts and may benefit from your efforts.
I would respectfully suggest you use your own heartbeats more constructively and either do something else or engage with other posters directly.
HH
paul
i dont think your continuing use of thems spending can go on forever(personally i think if we fail to get past helsingborg that might be it )
bottom line is that we recieved an extra 1.6m from eufa for europa league
we recieved 500k from southampton for hoovield promotion
we have taken 10/11 players OFF wage bill in last 2 months
we did not spend every penny from mcgeady,boruc mcmanus sales
we sold juarez and rasmussan for probably 500/600k combined
we sold circa 45k season tickets last year and this year also
made about 1m from philly game
we are guaranteed 6 (SIX ) home games in europe this season which will bring in about 4.5million (minimum) not inc tv/corporate earnings
we can in an emergency sell any one of 4/5 players for between 3/8million
got 2m for winning spl
so tell me again why would it have been a problem in bringing in the couple of players our manager has been asking for since MAY (4 months) ago
i know i said i’d give you all a break, but it’s addictive.
mcstay v collins.
first off, collins was a very, very classy player. i think had he moved to, say, the serie a he would have been revered. he had an elegance about the way he moved the ball that i’ve never seen in any other scottish player. that includes the maestro. he was also a lot tougher than seems recognised. perhaps it was partly arrogance, but he didn’t shirk a challenge.
mcstay though was in a class all of his own. the only comparable player in world football today is xavi. granted, the catalan may “appear” to be better, but what would mcstay have achieved in a midfield with iniesta, fabregas and messi? mcleod, provan and burns were fine players, but i hope they’d agree with respect that barca’s midfield is a little better.
simply though, i think mcstay will always emerge for one simple reason. loyalty. he could have played for the barcas, inters, manyoos of this world. he say himself well rewarded at celtic and chose to live his dream. the same dream i suspect we all have, or have had. in todays absurd transfer market, mcstay may well have been a £50M player. but you can’t buy loyalty, not even for £50M. that’s why, in our hearts, he will always be priceless.
i feel a wee tear of nostalgia now. :-)
Dare I ask if our nemesis Burley is still spouting his spiteful, impertinent and vile words on ESPN? Have checked the website and there is no mention of him …….
Before I subscribe for tomorrow’s game would be interested if anyone knows?
Thanks
ten men one the league
not having a go at you but after msm were telling everyone juarez was £2,5m and hoops was £2.4m our manager came out and clearly stated that he had NEVER spent more than £1.3million on anyone player
there are facts and there are msm “facts “
trickeymickey67
Did you need to ask?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
Is RC Ogilvie still the SFA president?
Is Burley still on ESPN?
HH
…pfayr:
Keep me posted re-EN, not seen him since the CQN Bus outing to Easter Road last season.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Shimmie
Remember to take off 20% of all those sales for the VAT man, remember we have to maintain a stadium, a training complex, pay the wages of hundreds of behind the scene staff, pay for Gas n Electricity, Rates and all those youth projects that we have invested in. Also factor in the decline in merchandising, tickets sales, commercial revenues (there is a recession on you know and we are not immune) and the loss of 2 games against the deid team.
greenjedi
the loss of 2 games against the deid team.
——————————————————-
agree with your points in principle, but that one… my season ticket didn’t get cheaper thanks to their demise. granted, i bought it while they were still on life support. out of interest, did the prices ever go down?
Comparing Paul McStay and John Collins via goal statistics is utterly mental.
In that case Pat McGinley was better than Paul McStay. And Pat was better then Clarence Seedorf and Didier Deshamps! Mike Galloway was better than Paul Lambert and Neil Lennon should have stuck at the golf.
In fact comparing them at all can only ever be purely subjective and every opinion is as valid as the next. Comparing them at all is just good old plain pub talk. Actually this apple I’m eating is very banana-ey. Discuss.
Consider yourselves chastened.
Now, don’t start me on the mince about Kayal, Israel, Muslims and Ramadan until you’ve all done a lot more reading.
Good day.
greenjedi
the only thing that you say which has any bearing is not having 2 games against thems
the rest could have been written by PL
where is proof re decline in merchandising? new 1st team kit new black kit — tick
my understanding from within CP is season tickets are in line to last season– tick
we have had youth projects for last 25 years — tick
we have people working behind scenes for as long as club has existed — tick
we have had gas/electric in CP for as long as i remember(56 this year ) — tick
so in conclusion your points are errr POINTLESS!
Last thought for the day, why don’t we just go bananas in the transfer market, three or four 10-15 mill pound players will see us alright for a european run to be proud of Cdertainly for tis year and maybe a few more.
IF it all goes pete tong we can slip into admin, liquidate, try to get voted into the SPL and carry on as usual. What da ya say?
kdc
Too much talk of bananas on this blog.
any talk of collins and mcstay though surely has to include the night…
trailing 2-0 to cologne, we got them back at celtic park.
there really was a buzz about the place that night.
i doubt the pair ever combined so well.
and i’d still give creaney’s “goal” to collins. what a night.
Philvis @ 12.47,
Not been to Budapest, then?
BTW plenty of fine-looking Polish lasses here in Inverness.
Champions League income needed for Champions League budget.#
I wonder just what other Champions League aspirants’ budgets you are comparing Celtic’s with?
And given that we could not win the SPL for three consecutive seasons, we do not appear to have been recruiting Champions League quality to justify an allegedly Champions League budget.
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
At some point or another, PL and DD have to accept that to ensure Champions League income, we must have Champions League quality. This will not come about cheaply or without a bit of speculation.The indication is that Celtic do not, or will not have in the near future, have the stomach for taking a punt.
With a fortnight of the current transfer window left, it would appear that we will be punting Ki (this may well be confirmed by his non appearance against Helsinborgs next week) and nobody of any substance brought in.
At the risk of repeating myself. NL is still awaiting the arrivals his class central defender and physically dominating striker. Talking of class and again repeating myself. Boruc and Nakamura are probably the last two, ready made quality signings made by Celtic. And that is fully seven years ago.
kdc
16:33 on 17 August, 2012
I like bananas :-)
HH
CRC
Gregor Kyle@gkOnTheHuddle
Can’t believe the size of the queue at the Ticket Office today. General sale for Helsingborg tomorrow. On course for a sell-out I think…
Do bananas come back if you throw them?
Zbyszek @ 13.23 (?),
1) Britain & the US were not to blame for what the Germans did to the people in the Warsaw Ghetto
2) It could be argued that they were to blame for not stopping that slaughter, but their priority was to win the War & bring all the killing to an end. I’m not sure whether they were right: I’m not even sure if they had the ability (in 1943) to stop the Ghetto extermination. It’s ironic that – as you know – some bigots blame the Polish resistance (who had very few weapons) for not saving the Jews.
BTW Philvis is right about your English.
Phil Mac’s new oldco book for sale on Amazon, anyone read it yet?
shimmies-Spot on again mate.
Rangers manager Ally McCoist says he will fight the Scottish Football Association charge against him.
McCoist had called for the three-man SFA judiciary panel who punished the club to be named.
“At that particular time, there was nobody really standing up for the club at all,” McCoist said.
“I just felt, in the position I was in, that I didn’t have any other option than to speak out for the club.” …
McCoist had asked: “Who are these people? I want to know who these people are.
Play media”I’m a Rangers supporter and the Rangers supporters and the Scottish public deserve to know who these people are, people who are working for the SFA.
“Make no mistake about it, this is an SFA decision. They have appointed the panel, so therefore they are working for the SFA, but who are they?
“I think we have a right to know who is handing out this punishment to us, I really do.”…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19298734
—————————————————————
fine and dandy ally. but for one small, but significant detail. you DID know who those people were. you wanted the PUBLIC to know who they were…
so they could exact the sort of retribution and threats that they, well, did.
which is, well, sort of the whole point of the disciplinary hearing.
i hope turnbull hutton is on your disciplinary commitee. you sleekit little coward.
CSC Malmö have our tickets for Tuesday. Happy, happy days.
wonkyradar
16:54 on 17 August, 2012
Depends who you throw them at?
HH
CRC