Competing with the crazies

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News that Hull City had a £6m bid for Robert Snodgrass accepted took the wind out of my sails this morning.  Snodgrass was one of the outstanding performers for clubs in the bottom half of the English Premier League last season, so it’s easy to understand his ticket price, despite only having a year left on his Norwich City contract.

He is a Celtic fan and has not hidden his desire to play for the club, but Hull City (good grief) are now bidding £6m for players from relegated clubs, after spending £8m on a Spurs squad filler.

This all begs the question, can we afford to compete with Hull City?  Probably, yes, but we can no more afford to splurge £14m on a couple of players than Hull, who a year ago were reporting debts close to £80m.

We’re operating in an environment where indirect competitors for players are spending unsustainable amounts of money, pretty much like Rangers did for 20 years under Sir David Murray.  For a few years after Fergus left, we played the same game as Rangers, running up millions of pounds of losses year after year, before pulling away from the edge, while they kept the pedal to the metal and careered into liquidation.

The decision not to match the Bank of Scotland money flowing into Rangers cost us trophies, and caused a great deal of dispute in the Celtic family, but story ended sweetly.  So, so, sweetly.

The crash may never hit England, but the job for Celtic is to find a way of remaining competitive in the Champions League while matching income to expenditure.

Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.

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1,382 Comments

  1. I now pay around £200 less per season for my ST than I did previously.

     

     

    Seems like downsizing for the cost of my ST to me but hey let’s not say anything in favour the board.

  2. El Diego Bhoy

     

     

    Hiya, Pal… ??

     

     

    N.. no tae Fur Get.. ye Two Cuties..as well.

     

     

    Nice tae See Ye ..

     

     

    Yes, the Celtic Board ur Daeing a Great Joab..awright..

     

     

    n..

     

     

    You hiv that Wad o’ Extra Dough in Yer Pooch..

     

     

    That Damn well..

     

     

    PROVES IT!

     

     

    Nice Chattin’.. pally.. as Alwiz

     

     

    Kojo

     

    Still,Laughin’

  3. Hi-diddle-dee-dee(tis an actors life for me)

     

    17:13 on

     

    27 June, 2014

     

    Jungle Jim

     

     

    17:09 on 27 June, 2014

     

    ___________________

     

    Seems that, every aspect of Celtic Football Club is subject to downsizing

     

    apart from two specific areas…..Peter Lawwells bonus and, fan admission prices.

     

    =====

     

     

     

    i do not know enough about PL bonus to comment but when my ST has been reduced by £100 then your final words sound somewhat out of kilter with reality.

  4. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    Guyfawkesaforeverhero

     

     

    Thanks for that, its pretty much as I remember apart from the bit where I add on an extra minute of injury time when Ronnie scored the winner. Think it was a 95th minute winner at last time of telling. I know RG went to Barnsley and did well, whats he doing now, anyone know ?

     

     

    HH

  5. bournesouprecipe on

    The ole Williams sisters are direct descendants of Tennessee Williams.

     

     

    Wimbers CSC

  6. WeefratheTim on

    iki

     

     

    Agreed, my ST is now below £300. Pensioner and all that. What’s not to like? :-))

     

     

    Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.

  7. Peter Gets the Big Bucks..

     

     

    Because..

     

     

    o’ that ole Pesky.. but, sae Trew.. Rule…

     

     

    “Folks, ye only get Whit ye Pey Fur!”

     

     

    Pete,is Good at whit he Diz..

     

     

    n.. He deserves all the Reward Money … that we kin Afford tae Pey Him..

     

     

    That is How it Woiks,pal..

     

     

    If ye ur Good at Whit Ye dae..

     

     

    Then.. Good Fortune wull Shine oan Ye..

     

     

     

    Ah know awe aboot that!

     

     

    n..

     

     

    Ah hiv bin..

     

     

    Bounteously. well.. Rewarded.

     

     

    Kojo

     

     

    Still,Laughin’

  8. adding the 2 hat trick scorers

     

    who were on losing side verse celtic

     

    already mentioned

     

    I found 2

     

    total 4

     

    30th mar 1955-league

     

    plumb-east fife…3-5…celtic

     

    13th jan 1962-league

     

    Irvine-Dundee utd…4-5…celtic

     

    26th oct 1975-league cup final

     

    harper-celtic…6-3…hibernian

     

    20th nov 1976-league

     

    Gibson-hearts…3-4…celtic

     

    any more

     

    hail hail

  9. Nye Bevans' rebel soldier on

    twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine

     

    17:34 on

     

    27 June, 2014

     

    Guyfawkesaforeverhero

     

     

    Thanks for that, its pretty much as I remember apart from the bit where I add on an extra minute of injury time when Ronnie scored the winner. Think it was a 95th minute winner at last time of telling. I know RG went to Barnsley and did well, whats he doing now, anyone know ?

     

    _______________________________________________________________________

     

     

    Think has has a business selling fire extinguish equipment!!!!!

  10. nothing without fans on

    LiviBhoy

     

    15:10

     

     

    Apologies for the late reply.

     

     

    I wasn’t disagreeing with your main point just wanting to clarify which memorial the match was fundraising for.

     

     

    I live in Edinburgh too and agree entirely with the points you make to macjay1 at 15:28.

  11. bournesouprecipe on

    Hi-diddle-dee-dee

     

     

    Do you think ‘the dressed up thank you’ retained for last season and this worked?

  12. bournesouprecipe

     

     

    17:48 on 27 June, 2014

     

    ___________________

     

    That remains to be seen though, I think that the John Collins effect on the Celtic on field side of things will impact positively on the crowds.

     

     

    Like some posters, I would like Celtic Park to have a standing section, obviously with the seats back in again for European games.

  13. Shortie –

     

     

    “Tax Fugitive Jailed for 11.6m Scam”

     

     

    …………….penny for wee davie’s thoughts when he read that one.

  14. bournesouprecipe on

    Hi-diddle-dee-dee

     

     

    Not a fan of standing sections I’m an oldie that stood in the jungle on beer cans, it’s retrograde, and will spoil the aesthetics of an all seater stadium and I’m surprised Celtic appear to have acceded to the young ones demands, – we shall see. If the younger fans get their wish and it promotes the GB type atmos, I back it. Despite a European wide ST demise Celtic are in pretty good shape for next year, and beyond.

  15. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    Frankmarker

     

     

    Well dug out, thankfully a bit before my time

     

     

    Nye Bevans

     

     

    just what I thought, he always had the look of a fire extinguisher salesman did Ronnie.

     

     

    Cheers for your replies

     

     

    HH

  16. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    bourne

     

     

    how did you find that out ? you certainly seem to have the measure of her.

  17. South Of Tunis on

    Money —–Money ——-Money .

     

     

    The Palermo media are claiming that Norwich are willing to give Palermo 4 million euros for a player descibed by the Palermo Manager thus – ” a womaniser who doesnt turn up for training and is incapable of doing what he is told-he has to go “.

     

     

    Scorchio -way down south .

  18. ……..and…in other news

     

     

    ZOMBOYDIE has returned to asbestox…………..

     

    …Is this one of those rare examples of a rat swimming towards a

     

    sinking ship?

     

     

    HH

  19. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    weefra

     

     

    i had a look around for you but think it was just our local flute band departing from their practice session ahead of their weekend jollies

  20. STV show the only goal Boyd has scored against us, sad barstewards.

     

     

    Hail! Hail!

  21. twentyfirstofmaynineteenseventynine on

    bourne

     

     

    hahaha, one too many magners on day off

     

     

    crappattercsc

  22. bournesouprecipe,

     

     

    In the works changing room today, the huns were heralding having the best strike force in Scotland.

     

     

    I showed them your link of the hun geriatric changing room…didn’t go down well :)

  23. 6 M[illion for a striker…..celtic more interested in getting 3 for that price….doesn’t matter if they are duds…..3 better value in their eyes……heard sale of sb”s are down on last year……no doubt more duds will be brought in to try increase the sales

  24. South Of Tunis on

    Competing with the crazies ——

     

     

    ” I watched Fabio Capello blaming everything on anti Russian referees . He sounded like a man trying to hang on to a job which pays him £38k euros a day .”

     

     

    Sicilian radio pundit ———-27 6 14

  25. BSR

     

     

    ……….the Tarbolton scowler (pen)……….is much older

     

    …………….. a dinosaur in fact

     

    – Oldus Firmmus giganticahun.

  26. Paul 67

     

    If Celtic got access to greater revenue via the league that they play in or a better Tv deal, they would not spend in excess of what they draw in, that is the philosophy of the board, the madness which needs to be addressed by those who run the game is that they allow small clubs with small supports to spend vast ammounts of money compared to income, I can see it you can see it every blogger on here can see it, why is nothing done?

  27. Joe Filippis Haircut on

    Wee fat sleekit Ally is building a team of geriatrics over at Ibrokes I hear he is thinking of becoming player manager as he scours the Country for more golden oldies to please the fifteen thousand season ticket holders.It is believed he is in the late stages of talks with big Terry Butcher for centre back and captain. H.H.