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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Stephen Fletcher on the FlyBe 16.55 BHX to GLA.
Skinny bugger. Maybe he’s signing for Sevco?
RobinBhoy
jock tamson
16:55 on
17 August, 2012
Indeed he did know. SFA Judicial Panel Protocol:
“10.6 Loss of right to object
10.6.1 A Party who participates in proceedings without making a timeous
objection on the ground:
10.6.1.1 That a Tribunal member is ineligible to act as a Tribunal
member;
10.6.1.2 That a Tribunal or Tribunal member is not impartial and
independent; ……….
cannot raise an objection later, before the Tribunal or the courts.”
RobinBhoy
Stephen Fletcher on the FlyBe 16.55 BHX to GLA.
—————————————————————-
very odd. wolves have a game tomorrow at 1245 against leeds!!!
hmmmm.
alex thomson@alextomo
Charles Flint QC and Nicholas Stewart QC are the other two tribunal members.
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9:03 AM – 17 Aug 12via Twitter for BlackBerry®· Details
7malex thomson@alextomo
If it finds such payments were made and not properly declared, it will decide what penalties, if any, will apply.
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8malex thomson@alextomo
Lord Nimmo-Smith to chair SPL Independent Commission into alleged Rangers side-payments to players…
blantyrekev
You seem to have an aversion to some people posting ‘facts’ on here!
The statistic which shows that John Collins goal ratio was superior to the maestro’s does not mean he was the better player. They were different types of players anyway.
I’m also quite sure that Beram Kayal would have something to say about the whole Israeli, Arab, Muslim Ramadan ‘mince’ as you call it.
Away to do some reading now!
And no I don’t feel chastened – I’m too old for that ‘mince’!
HH!!
@Pmacgiollabhain: RT @alextomo: The legal firm Harper MacLeod who investigated the matter for the S Premier League has concluded: “there is a case to answer”.
leftclicktic
17:10 on 17 August, 2012
You wonder whar penalties could be applied to Sevco by the SPL Independent Commission, given that they are no longer an SPL club.
Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted springs to mind…
Hamiltontim, Che,
St Alphonsus’s is in Calton but it’s neo-gothic, not baroque. The pic is of St Aloysius’s in Garnethill (unless it’s of St Peter’s).
John Collins left Celtic for money. Paul McStay played for the jersey,the fans. Enough said.
AllroadsleadtoRegan
Is there a factory somewhere in England where they churn out detestable trumpets like Regan, Doncaster and Green?
JOHN GIRVAN 17/08/2012 – 15:17 – Follow me in VAVEL
The most remarkable thing, for me, about Stewart Regan’s catastrophic tenure as the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association is that he’s managed to make it this far, and last this long, whilst completely lacking any discernible spinal column. I can only surmise that he leaves the coat hangers inside all his coats and shirts just to enable him to assume an upright position. The man has been a spineless, useless, clueless, bumbling, stuttering excuse for a chief executive of our governing body since the day he first arrived at the Hampden school for performing clowns and dark arts in July 2010. He clearly bottled the ‘Dougie, Dougie’ farce – a farce which should have seen Hugh Dallas’ conspiring head roll, there and then. Regan’s spinelessness over that shameful episode then led directly to the men who masquerade as Referees in this country going on strike. The ‘strike’, incidentally, was only called because referees were absolutely outraged that their long-standing – SFA sanctioned -anti-Celtic agenda had finally been exposed before the eyes and ears of sports fans across the world. Needless to say, the Regan rolled over on that one too, although he happily allowed George Peat (then President of the SFA) to portray Celtic as being the bad guys and the cause of those poor bitter referees having to take strike action. That the ‘spite-strike’ was nothing more than a wilful act of pure rage was wonderfully highlighted and exposed when neither the men-in-black themselves nor any of their vacuous spokespeople could even begin to explain exactly why they were actually going on strike. Who knows, maybe they wanted parity of esteem?No. Cowardly, snivelling referees and match officials, ably backed by a discredited FA -through bitter balloons such as George Peat and Campbell Ogilvie – brought the Scottish game into disrepute by their shameless actions after being caught red handed trying to cheat and lie and conspire their way out of a totally innocuous non-penalty decision which just happened to involve Celtic. Forget the later Dallas-gate fiasco, which eventually saw Hugh Dallas lose his job over a crass, bigoted, email, because had Regan been in possession of a spine he would have handed Dallas his jotters for the major role he played in that earlier ‘Dougie-Dougie’ conspiracy. That was Regan’s first real test and, not only did he fail it in spectacular fashion, he actually managed to exacerbate things and allowed his weakness to then be exploited by a refereeing fraternity which had, at that point, been fatally holed below the water line. As sure as Succulent lamb is followed by a big helping of dignity pudding, the rats in the Scottish media; press, tv and radio, tried their level best to whip up an anti-Celtic frenzy – although when the laptop loyal close ranks and begin their squealing and squawking the collective term to accurately describe them is; Hurricane Hurting-Fanny. Now, whilst this may be old news I am using it to demonstrate Stewart Regan’s previous spineless behaviour in his position as Chief Executive of the SFA. By simply looking at his previous record when faced with a major dilemma or problem, it was not really too difficult to predict how he would react when faced with similar problems in the future. And, his every action and utterance and act of procrastination since the club formerly known as Rangers slithered into its grave has only underlined his penchant for spineless incompetence and his complete inability to grasp at the last straw of reality left in the box. The man has no redeeming features. None. He’s barely literate or comprehensible in print and manages to limbo dance his way under the bar marked; stuttering, inarticulate and gormless when attempting to speak on camera or into a microphone. He squirmed like a worm on a hook when Channel 4’s Alex Thomson asked him a few straightforward questions during an interview earlier this year. Mr Thomson had this fools card marked from the beginning, and he was not alone. He was far from alone… But hey, if you don’t like Regan’s opinion, or, more likely, you can’t understand what his opinion actually is on any given subject or question that is put to him, then just hang around for a bit, because he’ll soon flip-flop and pretend he actually held a differing and contradictory opinion all along. Honest guv. Either that or he’ll tell you that it was actually everyone else who picked him up wrongly and that he is really just a misunderstood captain of industry. Perhaps the biggest indictment against Regan is that he manages to make the SPL’s equally repugnant Neil Doncaster appear positively statesman like by comparison. A minor miracle in itself. Seriously, is there a factory somewhere in England where they churn out detestable trumpets like Regan, Doncaster and Green?Perhaps there are three English village councils currently offering rewards for the safe return of their village idiots? Although I’ll wager the villagers themselves will be offering even larger rewards for them not to be returned. Embarrassment and ridicule, in equal measure, follow Regan around like a circus clown with a stink bomb stuck to the sole of one of his big clown shoes. Yet his complete lack of self-awareness combined with a staggering level of arrogance and self-importance has him believing that he’s actually done a good job and that he should also be allowed to continue with his ‘great work’. Which, quite frankly, is a self-deluding bag of bollocks. His inherent weakness, indecision, deflection, procrastination and general roll-over-ability was patently self-evident long before he launched his own personal save-the-gers campaign – a campaign which itself consisted entirely of lies, intimidation, scare tactics, exaggeration and blatant deceit. Heck, even when the dregs of the Sevco Zombies ( McCoist, Green, Murray, Jardine and Brown ) were systematically taking it in turns to stick two fingers up at him and spit directly in his face, Regan’s spineless nature meant that he just kept backing off and allowed these Sevco cowards to repeatedly undermine him, and his plans to ‘save’ them, at every turn. Talk about the Ungrateful Dead?Lets not forget that the only reason Regan is still in office is down to Rangers shareholder and SFL president Jim Ballantyne blocking a move by the chairmen of the SFL clubs to hold a vote of no-confidence in him. The thing is, this isn’t a nightmare where the dreamer is perpetually stuck inside The Eagles song Hotel California – this beast CAN be killed. In fact, this particular beast should have been killed off – for good – at the end of last season. The Zombie beast in question hasn’t been given so much as a minor flesh wound far less been stabbed repeatedly with steely knives from the SFA staff canteen. Although I hear Campbell Ogilvie ordered that all the steely knives be removed and placed in the bottom drawer of his desk for safe-keeping. The bottom line at the big Hampden hoose is that all of this – absolutely all of it – is the direct fault of the spineless Stewart Regan. Had Regan simply applied the SFA’s own rules – without fear or favour, as he said he would – Sevco and Green’s deal would never have happened, or if it had still gone ahead they would now be plying their trade in one of Scotland’s junior leagues. Just like any other new club with absolutely no history and no accounts for the previous three year qualifying period would have been forced to do. Campbell Ogilvie – he of EBT and apartheid signing policy fame during his time at the football club formerly known as Rangers -still being allowed to hold the position of, and also collect the salary of, president of the Scottish Football Association, and all with Chief Exec Regan’s full backing and conspiratorial blessing. Sevco, an entirely new company and football club, being given an unprecedented temporary licence that they were neither eligible nor fit to be granted. Don’t be shy. Step forward, Stewart. Sevco being allowed to transfer the membership of a liquidated company and football club to an entirely new company and football club – against every rule and article of association, not to mention common bloody decency. Yes, it’s multiple award winner Regan taking yet another gong. A transfer embargo that was staggeringly then un embargoed so that Sevco ( who had, and still do have, outstanding football debts both at home and abroad ) could give unsustainable contracts and wages to a bunch of new players. Our Stewart is a real card. Isn’t he?Honest football clubs who play by all the rules and pay both their debts and taxes being bent over and shafted by both the liquidated club and then by the entirely new club – all dreamed up, supervised and then signed off by Hampden’s very own rubber man himself, Stewart Regan. All actions and punishments against the Liquidated Rangers, and misconduct charges against McCoist, Green etc. being conveniently put into some kind of SFA suspended animation, as well as Sevco being able to do and say and get away with anything with total impunity. Okay, there must be two Stewart Regan’s, because even I am doubtful that one man could have created such an unmitigated cluster-feck of this scale and scope. Stewart Regan has single handedly subverted and perverted Scottish Football whilst simultaneously blowing bubbles up the collective bums of every club and football supporter in this country. The biggest problem for him is that he fooled absolutely no-one. Unless you count his own reflection. However, what Regan and Ogilvie really have to worry about is the desperate, flailing arms of David Murray, because that man knows where each and every skeleton is buried and he will take everyone and anyone who was involved in the EBT scam ( amongst other things ) down with him. And the SFA have had a long list of “everyone’s” and “anyone’s” in their direct employment over the years. Oh Noes…
Could you use a leviathan- ala The Island of Doctor Moreau mutant like- banana as a canoe? (hypothetically speaking of course).
Billy Conoe-lly did use bananas with an elephantine anomaly as shoes- maybe in the future we will see widespread and inventive uses for genetically modified monster bananas…houses, coats, rocking chairs, maybe even cars?
Invercelt
Pretty sure you’re tight about neo gothic/baroque but wrong about the church.
Estadio’s picture is St Alphonsus. Time for a wee kip :-)
BMCUW @ 14.46,Very good,balanced comment (see, I don’t spend all my time criticising).
Just been told that someone on CQN had a spare for Helsingborg IF next week, if it’s still going I have friends from Barrow in Furness who are travelling and need a few tickets.
HH
Did have a wee chuckle today about RC news telling us that the NewCo attendance at the weekend will be a world record for a 4th tier match ever.
Thats amazing, something to shout from the Ibrox rooftops, well if they dont cave in , award yourselfs an extra star on the badge for that one.
If performances on the field go well, and they are chasing, they can get themselves back in the championship race (which would be some feat given they are currently 5th in the table, or if you like the 37th best team in Scotland), then surely RC and the other MSM will have to report a new world record attendance every fortnight.
tubes.
wonkyradar
17:20 on
17 August, 2012
Could you use a leviathan- ala The Island of Doctor Moreau mutant like- banana as a canoe? (hypothetically speaking of course).
Billy Conoe-lly did use bananas with an elephantine anomaly as shoes- maybe in the future we will see widespread and inventive uses for genetically modified monster bananas…houses, coats, rocking chairs, maybe even cars?
Even spines for Regan and Doncaster.
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Quono
Hiya,pal?
Nice, chattin’
Verily, Verily..
Ah say unto you…
Celtic, wull no mak a Move in the Transfer Market..
Until..
The Blue Bell Wids.. comes tae Rouken Glen..
or
Celtic, Advance… tae the Euro League, Proper.
Whichevah.. happens.. foist!
Maks sense.. Tae Me.
Kojo
yer pal.. who likes ye . already
Still, Laughin’..like.. Heidi!
So……….
Lord Nimmo-Smith and 2 QCs for the independent tribunal. This is serious firepower.
I cannot think of another forum in Scotland where there would be such a high-powered bench outwith the Court of Session. I get the impression that this tribunal will be tasked with producing an appeal-proof judgement. And such things do exist.
The other thing about this tribunal is that they will not be at all concerned about the penalty to be handed out for what is undoubtedly the most serious case of cheating in the history of British sport. They will be singularly unimpressed with the degree to which the Government were denied the appropriate level of tax on players’ earnings.
The orcs should be running for the hills.
hello , tried to post earlier but I think the new style blog got the better of me.
I have stayed away fro a while now as I got fed up with all the nonsense about us “signing” £5M players and the fact that we were hoping that UEFA were going to come in and sort out the Hun FA.
As expected, bugger all has happened and we cling to the hope that the EBT/Contractual punishment will see that lot stripped of titles and cups. I sincerely hope they do but with all the shenanigans going on , I expect they will wriggle out of any more punishment as the Hun FA and their partners in crime are desperate to see them get away with as much as possible and will not want to rock the boat.
Now to more important matters, the game tomorrow and the mid week trip. the lead article today is a bit of managing expectatins as I suspect PB knows the financials will make sick reading and provide the MSM with more guff about how much we need that lot. PB is correct, qualify for the CL and we shoot their fox, end of story.
Our finances will be examined with a forensic discipline that would shame Quincy ME and the entire CSI franchise, unlike the Nelson`s eye cast over the Murray years over the road.
That is fact and we cannot change that, what we can do is treat our opponents with respect both tomorrow and on Tuesday. Play a good team tomorrow with any positive result being treated as just that; then take our team to Sweden win the match and we can look ahead to the home game.
I would trade a win tomorrow for a score draw in mid week , as we know ,we need this money and the Europa League is no substitute for the only show in town.
Hamiltontim @17.27,
Once you’ve had your kip. you’ll find I’ve not changed my mind (& you wouldn’t expect me to, would you?).
St Alphonsus’s has pointed arches, but the giveaway – as Mrs IC has pointed out – is the reference to St ignatius (founder of the sinister jesuits) on the dome.
Maestro..Paul mc stayed.
John Collins..left for nowt on a bosman says it all for me.hh
Seems one of the 2 new appointees has an Arsenal season ticket, and the other has recently
mediated in a dispute at the english RFU.
wonkyradar
maybe in the future we will see widespread and inventive uses for genetically modified monster bananas…houses, coats, rocking chairs, maybe even cars
—————————————————————–
we may even see a stadium announcer pay tribute to them in his monicker ;-)
Frank Zappa evening on Sky Arts 1 …thats my evening sorted ;-)
Reports saying Fletcher will move for £12M, never thought he was that calibre of player, although the ridiculously inflated English market doesn’t help.
Re Estadio’s church picture.
It’s St.Aloysius’ Church, Garnethill
I was there last Sunday night for Mass.
It has a 9pm Mass, which is the latest Mass anywhere in the UK.
No more excuses for those who work 12hr Sunday shifts.
It is an absolutely stunning church, based on the main Jesuit church in Rome, the Church of the Gesu.
SPF
philvisreturns
12:47 on
17 August, 2012
macjay1 – the best looking women on his travels through Europe were Polish.
You should have sent the young bhoy to Prague. (thumbsup)
– ——–
I raise the bar , and would go for Copenhagen girls.
My eyes were sore the last time I visited.
Evidenced also by their TV programmes.
Sevcomedia reaction to the appointment of Nimble-Smith:
“Was Lord Nimmo Smith not on the “independant” commission that gave us the illegal transfer ban?
——————-
Yes, yes he was
——————
So lord nimmo smith cannot possibly be independant. He must surely be taken off the panel
——————
This panel looking into the EBT (alleged dual contracts) scenario should surely not include a member of the previous panel which imposed a sanction which was not in the existing football legislation. Lord Nimmo Smith should not be on this new panel. ”
——————
Really got their fingers on the pulse these guys.
awe_naw_no_annoni_oan_anaw_noo
17:41 on
17 August, 2012
Frank Zappa evening on Sky Arts 1 …thats my evening sorted ;-)
—-
From your posts took you as more of a black lace man :))
Monaghan1900
The Second comment on the thread & response :))))
Lord Nimmo Smith is a mason.
Ah…..but is he a R****rs supporter?
completely irrelevant, but it pricked up my spidey senses…
apologies if it was mentioned before.
i read that “sewer rat” and all round loathsome scumbag el hadji diouf has signed for leeds. nothing remarkable about that…
except leeds are managed by neil warnock.
am i right in thinking warnock was boss of QPR, and the very same man who labelled the world’s greatest dribbler a “sewer rat?”
i sense an erosion of moral fortitude.
leftclicktic
17:53 on
17 August, 2012
Yeah..I saw that. You could actually write this stuff for them.
Awe_naw
Thanks for the info. Great way to spend my birthday, cabbaged out watching Zappa.
awe_naw_no_annoni_oan_anaw_noo
Thanks for the Zappa heads-up. Frankly a great way to spend an evening
Paul McStay was in a class of his own, at his very best he was genuinely world class; with incredible passing range, vision, great shot and he could make space for himself as well as anyone I’ve seen play in the hoops. Collins was a different type of player really. More of a runner, less of a long range passer, more direct and a better eye for goal. Both were good in the tackle. The Maestro was a lot tougher than most people gave him credit for, he was not one to be bullied or harassed out of his game, as numerous midfield battles with clawhammer cavemen like Neil Berry proved. Collins was elegant, creative, could beat a man, put in a cross, had fantastic technique at freekicks and had a tireless engine.
I really don’t see how you can compare the two. Yes they were midfielders. But very different midfielders, with contrasting roles. Some have used stats to prove their point as to who was the best- yet we mocked the huns when they did this with Henrik and Boydychenko. Like someone else said: you wouldn’t compare Petrov with Moravcik but the two were in their own way as effective as each other. I guess comparing things is just a habitual quirk of the human mind.
PS
Maestro should have left Celtic when he had the chance- leaving behind the morass and miasma of the old boardrooms final death rattle years- he could have went to Italy or France and still remained a true Celtic legend. But its the mark of the man that he stayed, unlike Collins, even when Celtic were being booted from pillar to post by every hack and his dug during those dark dark pre-Fergus days.
jock tamson
17:55 on
17 August, 2012
A genuine marriage made in heaven for Warnock Leeds and el Hack Mooth.
Nimmo Smith back on Tribunal action? Now let’s hope he imposes a proper sanction this time – after a fair and impartial inquiry finds them guilty of course.
How about suspension of SFA membership for many years? You know, the membership that some other team was so keen to have transferred to it …
wonkyradar
If I recall correctly, and if I’m wrong I’d be happy to be corrected, Collins stiffed us by signing for Monaco. Wasn’t there something about them playing in France but not actually being a French club and normal transfer rules didn’t apply? Had he signed for any other French or maybe even any other European club then a transfer fee would have been payable?
Fergus fought long and hard on this one.
Any regard I’d previously had for Collins ended at that time.