Quick question for you. Which Scottish team has won their last four home games, scoring 13 goals in the process? St Mirren are on a run of form at home. One of those wins was against Second Division opposition, but remember, this season, Second Division teams are on a par with AC Milan in the early 90s.
Ross County scored four at St Mirren Park but St Mirren scored five, while Hearts were despatched 2-0. This is a team with good home form who kept their squad in place over the international break. My best advice to you is to avoid betting on this one.
Many clubs have trouble paying their bills but the problem with Hearts and their regular tardiness when it comes to wages, evident again this month, appears to be different. Hearts cash balances will have peaked weeks, possibly months, ago. From now on they will be eating into ‘reserves’, or more likely, accruing additional debt at their owner’s bank. The club have been here many times before and Vlad has dipped into the equivalent of his commercial pocket to avoid an insolvency event but I’ve always found it curious why he didn’t do so on time. It’s not as though anyone can be surprised pay day is coming.
As such, there appears to be a degree of control over late payment. The money is always provided but not before pain is passed down from owner to earners, which is a bit curious.
For all his faults, and they are many, Romanov and other shareholders in Ukio Bankas have ‘invested’ countless millions in Hearts, money they are unlikely to get back with the residential property market so depressed. They have also not exposed the club to outrageous fortune – the overwhelming majority of debt is owed to the bank itself, balances at HMRC and other creditors are low, and they pay their football debts. This means that if Hearts go into administration, the route back through a CVA would be clear. The only serious losers would be staff made redundant, while Ukio would face a write-off, perhaps already acknowledged internally.
I was surprised at the news Danny McGrain was appointed first team coach yesterday but also delighted. Danny’s was not a name mentioned for the position when Alan Thompson left the club but he is immersed in the fabric and culture of our club. ‘In the days of changing ways’ a strong thread of continuity is an invaluable asset in ensuring the new generations acquire the important elements of our identity.
We are a club in touch with all that is important.
Fancy writing an article for the ever-popular CQN Magazine or maybe advertising therein? If so get in touch, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
Click here to read the fabulous CQN Magazine for free, or strain your eyes squinting below. You can also buy a hard copy of the magazine here from Magcloud.
[calameo code=000390171a36dad35d58c lang=en page=38 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
1,179 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 32
- »
HH
Hello!
Hail Hail
Good luck to Sir Danny,great appointment.A True Celt.
Bring on Barca
Where’s Philvis?
HELLO! From WEE BGFC ;-)
Seanpat
Did you get my message previous article.
This should be a great game tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it.
The two best footballing sides in Scotland in my opinion.
Paul67
Danny McGrain……The fabric of our society.
Teuchter ár lá
Can I Have Raspberry -Retired 9 months ago,worked mostly at Parkhead, recognize your nickname on your email addy.How you getting on?
Be great to see our Bhoys back in action tomorrow. Good for St Mirren getting 13 goals in their previous games, this will prove to be an unlucky number for them as they’ll be stuck on it for 90 mns tomorrow. We’ll have enough to beat a battling St Mirren.
Danny McGrain is a great choice and an old head amongst our young management team.
Paul 67 et al. Greetings from Tyneside.
I’m not on here often enough for my liking these days but when I do get on it’s good to know nothing’s changed.
The quality of writing and subsequent posts is top notch. The humour is superb and the campaign for Wee Oscar goes on apace.
We read almost daily of charitable cycle rides and marathon runs as well as services to mark that most important of meetings at St Mary’s in November 1887.
As you rightly say, “We are a club in touch with all that is important”.
I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way.
CAN I HAVE RASPBERRY..
Will be in touch shortly.
Pat.
Off out to Xscape skiing with the two weans (WEE BGFC and Princess BGFC) – hopefully the currant buns will be further down the slippery slope by the time we get back this afternoon.
Re: the article – a wee bit of sarcasm (meoww), international finance, and a tribute to Danny – a true gentleman, auld heid(!), good coach, 24 carat gold Celt – what’s not to like????
When’s the FTT reporting? My nerves are killing me – but in a very good way :-))
Did Georgeous George get home safe and sound?
BGFC
Teuchter, You forgot Dalek Parlane
Hail hail bro.
Wotte’s Belgian blueprint is the tonic for Scotland’s Buckfast generation
Stewart Fisher Sports Writer. The Herald
IN a manner of speaking, Mark Wotte must take a fair portion of the blame for Scotland’s defeat by Belgium on Tuesday night.
If it wasn’t for the sterling work he and his coaching compatriots were undertaking at the KNVB 10 years ago, their Belgian counterparts wouldn’t have used their neighbours as a blueprint when they overhauled their own youth network.
The fruits of that labour were clear to see in Brussels in midweek as that nation’s new golden generation mauled the best our country currently has to offer, but thankfully Wotte feels that the work he has commenced in the last 16 or so months can replicate such results closer to home. The project, however, has an uncertain completion date that may be as much as eight years away. And success or failure is predicated upon such variables as weaning the nation away from its seeming dependence on junk food and tonic wine.
“Back in 2000-02, I was in a similar job in Holland to the one I am in just now,” said Wotte. “I did the under-19s and 21s and with the two nations [Holland and Belgium] being so close we played a lot of games. At first they played 4-4-2, without any philosophy, and only cared about winning. We played them at under-19s with our generation – [Robin] Van Persie, [Arjen] Robben, [Nigel] De Jong and [Maarten] Stekelenburg – and Marc Van Geersom, the Belgian guy who had just been appointed, said ‘we’re going to change everything and not going to play just to win any more’ and they adapted the 4-3-3 system – the Dutch style of play – and visited France a lot to copy the training programmes.
“That was exactly 10 years ago. When you see where they are now and the quality of players they have – [Eden] Hazard and [Kevin] Mirallas were on the bench on Tuesday night – they have a depth of squad as well. They realised they had to change their culture and philosophy in terms of how to deal with youth football. That’s exactly what we tried to do when I came in a year ago. Of course, the current generation of Scottish players have been brought up in another culture, and results don’t come overnight; you can’t expect to become a world-class side tomorrow. But Belgium are now one of the strongest sides in Europe and in August they beat Holland 4-2.”
Judging by the inaugural football festival of the SFA’s seven performance schools there are some promising signs, but Scotland also presents some challenging obstacles to be overcome. More than 100 boys and girls have been selected according to their talent and given individual player programmes to adhere to, but those troublesome teenage years have wreaked havoc on many a Scottish talent. “There are many reasons for the decline of Scottish football,” said Wotte. “There are lifestyle issues – we need better physical education and diet. The kids should not be growing up with crisps, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. And when they’re 16 they go on the Buckfast and have a great night. I am not blind, I live close to Glasgow so I see this.”
A hysteria tends to set in whenever the full national team are underperforming, but Wotte feels the SFA are now doing plenty of things correctly. He encounters kids at the lower age groups these days who compare favourably with some of the illustrious talents he has met in the past, and uses the example of Ricky Sbragia’s under-19 team as proof that these youngsters are flourishing with the benefit of first-team football. The government has bought into his project but further investment is required to enhance our network of facilities.
“When Van Persie, Sneijder and Robben were 12 or 13 they weren’t better than the Scottish kids we have at that age,” Wotte said. “Not at all. But it’s about how you develop them into world-class players. We’ve always done well in Scotland up to the age of 16, then players fall off a cliff.
“Maybe in the past it was difficult to get into their club’s first team. But there is a big difference now. A year ago, only Fraser Fyvie from our Under-19 side had played first-team football. Now we have Matty Kennedy, Marcus Fraser, Ryan Fraser, John Herron, Ryan Gauld and Thomas Reilly, who are all involved at first-team level. Islam Feruz would play in any first-team in the SPL right now. At Rangers, Lewis MacLeod and Barrie McKay are playing in SFL3 but, for sure, MacLeod would be playing in the SPL, that’s a no-brainer. So there are more and more coming through.
“Whether that’s down to the philosophy of the clubs or a lack of money is another discussion,” added Wotte, who has invited his countryman Co Adriaanse to address the academy coaches next month. “But we will get better every year with the things we are doing. The quality of the academies will get better, because we’re funding £2m a year into clubs’ academies. We’re running an under-20 league and the performance schools. We’ve doubled the amount of activity of our youth teams. I believe in best v best and our 12-year-olds are now training eight times a week. That has to improve them.
“It’s not all bad, it is just that the timing of this conversation takes place after losing against Belgium. And I think 100 times against Belgium you win one or two times and even then everything has to go well for us. But what we were doing wasn’t good enough. We’ve started the process. I’m 16 months in the job and everyone at the SFA is behind the project. I hope everyone in Scotland is behind it as well.”
What about Dalek Strickland?
Gents/Ladies.
Ref Dalek accusation.
I’ve been a copper for 27 years in Glasgow/Paisley/Clydebank/Greenock and many points in between. I have never, ever heard that term in reference to RFC, their fans, the Ibrox disaster or the 66 killed.
Richard Wilson writting a new book on their troubles, if this quote is anything to go by I think it will be called Spread the blame.
“But this isn’t about finding targets for ire. It would be too easy to point fingers at a few key figures and say that it is their fault. The issues that have come about are very rarely down to misjudgements by just one person. They are down to structure, to mindsets and occasionally, to people making the wrong decisions”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Hun propaganda hand book on the way.
canamalar-Dearie me,looks like he cut his teeth doing the Rankers News . Foreword by The Cardigan ?
The Dalek accusation is a figament of a very troubled, alcohol fuelled imagination. The idiot makes Nick Griffin look like a Jesuit.
We shouldn’t be surprised from a support who besmirch Jock Stein’s name; a man who on that terrible day assisted with the dead and dying.
Scottish Daily Express
GERS GET £17M IN PLEDGES
Rangers chief executive Charles Green
Friday October 19,2012
By Michael Baillie
Have your say(0)
CHARLES GREEN claims that £17 million has been pledged so far in Rangers’ share issue.
And the Ibrox chief executive, above, insists any fans who back up their promise are guaranteed shares.
Rangers last week announced they intend to float shares on the AIM market in London with the target of raising £20m through an IPO (initial public offering).
Green said: “It’s been very encouraging and I’m now seeing the passion and commitment of Rangers fans financially.
“We see it on the terraces, of course, but in these difficult financial times the response has been amazing.
“In the last figures I saw a couple of days ago over 8,000 fans had registered, with some 20,000 fans on the website, and we have pledges of around £17m.
“And by the time we get to the cut-off date that figure will have risen.
They can see the club is going in the right direction and this really is the icing on the cake
Charles Green
“I would like to stress that any fan who backs up his or her pledge with a cheque will get their shares.
“I have had some calls from people concerned about that because we said the IPO would be up to £20m, but fans will get their shares.”
Green added: “It’s much better than I expected. I don’t think anyone could have predicted the response and it’s testimony to what Rangers fans are about.
“They can see the club is going in the right direction and this really is the icing on the cake.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
8000 registered @ say £500 = £4m …….and how many of that 8000 are Bhoys at the wind-up
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…….
Vlad
I suspect he is waiting for some current events related to 1872 to conclude to see what final positions SFA and SPL adopt in relation to 1872 before pressing the CVA button for hertz van mental.
Late paying seems to have 2 purposes:
1. testing out the SPL and SFA reactions
2. keeping players insecure therefore being able to dominate negotiations
HH
I said I was interested in investing £10k four times
Green buttons up the back the same way as the stupid huns.
greenjedi-I’m in for 67k,can’t wait to hang the Share Certificates on the wall.:}
Good piece, Paul
A timely warning to expect no love at New Love Street.
Tricky fixture.
How joyous is the appointment of possibly the greatest living Celt as first team coach.
Your possibly mischievous description of Danny as being ‘ immersed in the fabric and culture of our club’ is very fitting.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
12:10 on 19 October, 2012
”Richard Wilson writting a new book on their troubles, if this quote is anything to go by I think it will be called Spread the blame.
“But this isn’t about finding targets for ire. It would be too easy to point fingers at a few key figures and say that it is their fault. The issues that have come about are very rarely down to misjudgements by just one person. They are down to structure, to mindsets and occasionally, to people making the wrong decisions”
#########
He’s right about the mindset bit.
The arrogance and triumphalism that imbues their culture makes them think they are untouchable.
It’s nothing new.
It was the same mindset that lead to the Ibrox disaster. Read Irvine Smith’s book if you are in any doubt about that.
And it’s still going strong.
Regarding Dalek anatomy – isnt it curious how, in addition to a ray gun, they also developed a toilet plunger.
Still, with all the sh!t coming out of Ibrox, probably makes a lot of sense…
Gaun yerself Danny Bhoy one of my all time heroes
HH
Already put my score cast on! Hooper scores first 2-0 at a rather generous 19-1 with Paddy power.
Not been on for ages. Supporter since 1979, never heard anything about daleks until they started getting mentioned on here. Didn’t even understand it till today! I HAVE heard a sick song, but on a supporters bus only, never at a game.
Hx2
Ernie….,
The mindset is solely about the ascendancy of one club, all roads lead to ayebrokes, this whole book will be about obfuscating that.
!!bada bing!!
12:00 on
19 October, 2012
Can I Have Raspberry -Retired 9 months ago,worked mostly at Parkhead, recognize your nickname on your email addy.How you getting on?
No bad, thanks. How’s retirement?
I’m now in for a £120,000 in multiple identities
St Martin’s Bhoy
12:03
I’ll second that!
Can I Have Raspberry On-It’s good mate,started a wee company doing Fire Risk Assessments (a legal requirement btw:}),getting a turn just now but can always be better.Met you a few times with the Ashfield Legend I D. Just digging out a few “eyes shut” lines on the coupon tomorrow,any joy I will meet you in Barca :}.Enjoy,it’s a great city.