Spanish football, like its economy in general, in mired in difficult financial times, which, apart from one or two well-funded clubs, has restricted the budgetary scope of a large number of teams. I had hoped all summer to hear we were on the case but it wasn’t until the final day of the window that solid opportunities materialised.
Marseille-born Tunisian international Lassad Nouioui is a complete unknown to all of us but his profile, earned at Deportivo La Coruna, fits the bill. He scored a handful of goals as Deportivo finished 18th and dropped out of La Liga in season 2010-11 but hit the heights last season as they secured promotion. It would be practically impossible for Celtic to sign a striker with the equivalent profile in English football, despite the apparent gap in standards between La Liga and the English Premier. I’m also delighted to hear Levante, who finished 6th in La Liga last season, were so keen to capture him.
There is also something I like about the port-town mentality the people of Marseille have. It’s very Glaswegian. Lassad should flourish here.
I’m not sure what Phil Mac Giolla Bhain’s reaction was when The Sun called asking for an interview about his new book, which details the mainstream media’s failure to report the demise of Rangers. “Are you joking?” may have been appropriate. I had no prior notice they were running an interview yesterday and couldn’t believe the promotion they gave to a book detailing the failure of their industry.
This was not without consequences, of course, and The Sun got themselves into an incredible mess, today trying their best to backpedal, which is pretty much what the theme of the book predicts (irony #1). Meanwhile there is a book publisher in Glasgow who cannot believe his luck. Thousands of unwitting critics and a leading newspaper have ensured Mac Giolla Bhain, who would struggle for a platform without the anger of others, has a bestseller on his hands (irony #2).
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Dobbo
10:16 on
4 September, 2012
Remarkable that, since we were drawn against Benfica, they have lost Axel Witsel, Javi Garcia and Javier Saviola without replacement.
————–
have you seen the bonus their chief exec, Perdo L’lawello is getting ?
.
Kit..
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain
Product details
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Frontline Noir; 1st edition (8 Sep 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1904684262
ISBN-13: 978-1904684268
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 27 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Reference > History of Sports
#2 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Football
Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?
Like · · 51 minutes ago ·
Eeeh. Them Boodgie Smooglers look real classy. What next, Fat Sally in a mobility scooter wearing a bikini?
Sweet Tooth? Self publicity . I was sorely disappointed. He can be so much better.
(Better off getting Phil Mac’s quick study of the huns.)
Lay off Green!!
If the bares thought Craigy Bhoy took them for a mug they aint seen nothing yet!
Green Lantern
Methinks he’ll be smuggling only half a budgie…
Mebbbes Sally ate the other half…in a black bean sauce and some fried rice :)
Saint Stivs – An’ then I says to the rich Chinee fella… I own t’biggest football club in t’ world as it ‘appens. Ow would you feel about investing in t’Rangers?
Ee looked at me for a moment, inscrutable as they come, and said: Thank you Mr Green, but I’d rather you paid for your meal and let us have this table back. (thumbsup)
Did Green pay Rapid the £1 Million owed or is this going to the FIFA Tribunal?
If he has not paid it there will be a few clubs and those at UEFA raising an eyebrow at his boasting.
I was told on Sunday they tried to purchase a few players but clubs would not entertain them because of their recent history. Did not really think it was a viable story but beginning to wonder now.
hahahahhahahahaha
phil, that was good,
have a fortune cookie
Saint stivs
Witsel sold for 40m euro, purchased for 7.5m euro 12 months ago. That is where we want to be…
Green’s plan to capture the Chinese market involves getting one of those waving cat ornaments into the Blue Room. (thumbsup)
Guardian
Scottish Sun cancels book serialisation after Rangers fans jam switchboard
In an unprecedented act, The Sun has cancelled a book serialisation the day after blurbing it and running an interview that praised the bravery of its author.
The Scottish edition of the paper had planned to start running extracts today from a book entitled Downfall: how Rangers FC self-destructed by Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.
But within 24 hours of its lengthy puff announcing its serialisation the paper ran a leading article explaining that it had changed its mind.
The decision followed the jamming of its switchboard as hundreds of Rangers fans called to complain while others took to Twitter. Rangers itself lobbied the paper and threatened to ban Sun journalists from its ground. There were also physical threats made to The Sun reporter who wrote the interview with Mac Giolla Bhain.
Before I unravel this remarkable tale, I must declare an interest. I read a draft of the book and provided an approving quote that appears on the back cover.
The story stretches back four years. Mac Giolla Bhain was the first journalist, and, for much of the time, the only journalist, to chart the financial dramas that led to the demise of Rangers football club.
The fact that he worked outside the Scottish media establishment to tell the twists and turns of the tale in a blog is hugely relevant. Indeed, a crucial part of the story involves the initial failure of Scotland’s journalists to investigate the internal shenanigans at Rangers.
For his trouble, Mac Giolla Bhain suffered from persistent verbal threats from people calling themselves Rangers fans. As his name suggests, he is Irish, though he was born and raised in Scotland. He moved to Donegal in the Irish republic 15 years ago.
Once Rangers went into liquidation in February this year, it was natural that Mac Giolla Bhain was selected by a publisher – Bob Smith of Frontline Noir – to write about the scandal. Ironically, it was a Sun staffer who originally recommended Mac Giolla Bhain to Smith as the possible author of a book about a different topic.
Mac Giolla Bhain was well known to The Sun, having previously freelanced for the its now-defunct stablemate, the News of the World, and having a high profile in Scotland due to his blog.
The Sun’s Scottish editor, Andy Harries, admired Mac Giolla Bhain’s work and, on hearing about his book, made a swift decision to buy the serialisation.
He planned to run two successive spreads and one of his staff, Simon Houston, was assigned to interview Mac Giolla Bhain. The result, as shown in this screen-grab before it was taken down from the paper’s website, was hugely sympathetic to the blogger.
It stated that he had broken “one of the biggest stories in Scottish football history” and revealed that he had been the “target of sectarian hate from extremists” and had been subject to “sinister death threats” which had “left his family living in fear.”
The article, announcing the book’s serialisation, predicted that it would “shoot straight to the top of the Scottish bestsellers list, with pre-sale orders already through the roof.”
It described Mac Giolla Bhain as “an internet phenomenon” who, in May 2010, handed the News of the World “the story which rocked Scottish football by revealing that the taxman sent Rangers a demand for a staggering £24m… one of a string of predictions Mac Giolla Bhain made about the Glasgow giants’ perilous financial state which came to fruition.”
Within hours of publication, Rangers fans – or people who call themselves fans – began calling the paper and tweeting. Evidently, some of them mentioned a controversial posting by Mac Giolla Bhain on his blog in April this year.
Headlined The Incubator, it was a satire on the bigotry of many Rangers’ fans. In so doing, it employed obviously offensive images.
Harries and some of his senior staff were said to have been alarmed by the blog’s implications. In a rapid about-turn, Harries decided to pull the serialisation despite the puff promising to run it.
Aware that he could be accused of giving in to pressure from Rangers supporters, he published a leading article to explain his about-turn.
We knew Mac Giiolla Bhain was “a controversial figure”, it said, but “it was clear from the book he had written that he had a story to tell. And we felt it was a story that needed to be told to you, so that you could make your own minds up. So that you had a chance to read the behind-the-scenes details about the downfall of Rangers. So that you had a chance to see where the blame lay for the collapse of the club.”
But it went on to argue that Mac Giolla Bhain’s single blog posting “undermines the entire industry” and that was the reason to cancel the serialisation of his book
It stressed that the decision was “NOT because of the social media backlash” and “NOT because of the internet bullies… but because the author — previously unbeknown to us — is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush.”
The leader continued: “We believed Phil Mac Giolla Bhain to be a proper and sound journalist. Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson obviously agreed and wrote the foreword in the book. He was wrong and so were we.”
I called Harries, who refused to comment further, simply saying: “I stand by what I wrote in my leader.”
Given my belief in the credibility of the book and Mac Giolla Bhain, I took wide counsel on the affair from those who support him and those who do not, and from staff at the Scottish Sun.
The general consensus is that Harries made a bad call initially by agreeing to serialise a book that was bound to upset Rangers fans. (I understand that the cancellation has resulted in scores of calls and complaints from rival Celtic fans throughout the day).
But Harries, though English, has been in Glasgow for 25 years and is said to understand the sensibilities in a city divided by football and faith. I understand that he still believes in the book’s authenticity.
One of his senior staff told me that he was “devastated” on reading Mac Giolla Bhain’s “incubator” blog posting and felt he was in an impossible position.
But two experienced non-Sun journalists, both of whom did not favour serialisation, read the situation differently. They believe Harries was shocked by the hostility of Rangers fans and feared a possible sales boycott not unlike the one that the paper suffered after its infamous accusation against Liverpool fans following the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.
He was therefore relieved to find an excuse – the blog posting – in order to effect a change of direction.
That view is strenuously denied by Harries’s senior colleagues. They say he is genuinely heartbroken at the turn of events. He felt he couldn’t “defend the indefensible” (Mac Giolla Bhain’s blog) by facing down complaints from Rangers’ fans.
“He found himself in an impossible position,” said one. “He just felt he couldn’t justify going ahead.”
Naturally enough, Mac Giolla Bhain is furious too. He believes his April blog posting was so obviously satirical that Harries has used it to get himself off the hook. Several journalists agree with him.
He said: “I think this is a dark day for journalism in Scotland when a major title can be forced into self-censoring in this fashion.
“The most worrying aspect of this are the threats aimed at Simon Houston who interviewed me. An attack on a journalist is an attack on journalism and, ipso facto, an attack on democracy.”
Greene is saying all the right things to a captive audiance (hope that is the right spelling).He aint no mug he’ll make his money and run away from the hun.
That’s both Javi Garcia, Axel Witsel sold by Benfica in the last few days; they were the first team centre midfielders and of course the Portugese window has closed so they’ve certainly weakened in that area of the team.
Garcia rated as one of the best ball playing defensive mids who was sold to Man City for around 20 million euro and Witsel who played 48 games for Benfica last season was sold to Zenit for 40 million euro.
ernie lynch
09:02 on
4 September, 2012
Hope it’s not an Edinburgh jury…….!!
So Sevco have direct access to players if they are currently out of contract …I know clubs can sign out if contract players outside transfer window. Business as Usual etc.
Shurely the ban on Sevco should mean no new players signed under any circumstances during the …cough …embargo :)
Or are they restricted to under 18 only?
Easily confused me …can anyone clarify?
HH
Philbhoy:
Just been really busy mate, Leftclicktic’s a good lad but he need not worry too much about me.
Besides being busy I made the mistake of going onto Amazon to buy Political Football – The Life & Death of Belfast Celtic and like a kid in a sweet shop I left with it and Paradise Lost & Found and nine other Celtic books.
Today I pre-ordered Phil’s and five more Celtic books. I’ve now got a mad ambition to buy every single book written about Celtic, even that big one The Celtic Opus … so if anybody has one to sell please let me know.
On a separate thought, me and my brothers are have a paving stone done for my dad, would anybody like to join me in getting one done for Pablo, Celtic_Lover, Lurgan 53 and any others recently departed?
001:
I’ve got it on order. Cheers mate. BTW my kids want to go to Melbourne in the school holidays. If I can get off work I’ll see you in the Punt and Pint or whatever it is called.
Alison Robbie @AlisonRobbie
Looks like another Scotland withdrawal could be on the way – Neil Lennon expects Charlie Mulgrew to pull out with achillies injury
Anyone else heard about an injury to Chaz? Really hope its not too bad.
My post regarding the motives of Phil seems to have disappeared into the ether.
saltires en sevilla
They can only sign players under the age of 18.
saltires en sevilla
They also look like falling foul of this too.
++++
Rangers FC Signing Plans Scuppered By “Rules”
This morning’s Daily Record reports that Mr McCoist’s plans to sign more stars to his already international laden squad today may be scuppered by red tape.
The problem?
The SFL rule re not having more than 22 registered players of 21 or over.
Regular readers will know I have been writing about this ever since Rangers FC was admitted to SFL3 so I assume the talented regulatory team at Ibrox were well aware of it before today.
As I mentioned earlier this week, it looked as if there were 14 players counting against the limit plus 3 more who would be counted from January 1.
The Record has pointed out though that Rangers FC has retained the registrations of 5 of the players who refused to TUPE transfer to newco.
This still leaves three slots for over 21 signings but if filled and without departures they would exceed the limit on New Years Day.
The rules or “red tape” as the Record calls it might stop Mr McCoist signing new players. The rules are what Mr Green is using to try to get money for players who were never employed by his company.
The lessons of Shylock and the Merchant of Venice come to mind.
Will a “learned judge” grant Rangers FC an exemption? Remember the SFA, SPL and SFL pledged to “facilitate” entry to SFL3.
Would Mr Longmuir’s SFL allow more players to be signed, as a result of the dispute with the 5 players? In doing so, this would thwart some of the effects of the registration embargo.
KJam
His injury was the reason he didn’t play on Saturday. If Lenny expects him to withdraw then Charlie should be doing so immediately. It is a mystery why he hasn’t pulled out already
Celtic come before Scotland
If Del Piero has not yet signed for Sydney, then the reason must be that he’s got wind of the biggest team in Scotland being debt free, having great history, amazing fans and playing in the prestigious Ramsden’s Cup. Surely he’s on his way?
@ Ten Men Won The League
I just hope he it is not too bad and he is back playing for us pronto. Imho he is one of our most important players and we have some very important games coming up.
I’d be happy if all of our players withdrew from the internationals and got a good rest before the next phase of the season. There are a fair few need to recover from injuries and we don’t want any more on the treatment table.
If Saturday’s game proved anything, it was the absence of an old head on the park.
It is imperative that this omission is rectified.
Som mes que un club
10:46 on
4 September, 2012
saltires en sevilla
They can only sign players under the age of 18.
Som mes que un club
10:48 on
4 September, 2012
saltires en sevilla
They also look like falling foul of this too.
—-
that’s clear enough
cheers mate
HH
A good explanation of what’s going on in Belfast
http://sluggerotoole.com/2012/09/03/viewing-platform-orange-hall-clifton-st/
I really can’t believe the currant bun’s capitulation to the ‘real’ currant buns is going to be quietly forgotten,and we all move along quietly now like good little brain-dead proles.
Man,talk about creepin’ nazis. There they go…..slitherin’ around doin’ as much evil as they can.
Stupid, but dangerously evil, hun ratbags, and their cunning stunts.
May they wither and die in the wastelands of the fourth division. Bottom feeders….that’s all they are. Unfit, unclean , undead.
Headtheball
well his main requirement was for somewhere his family would enjoy living for a while ….. I think we would be best trying to hide the existence of zombies in Scotland from Mrs del Piero
So the sun sacked Phil’s book serialisation because, they say, he “is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush”.
I wonder who else that applies to who will be given loads of column inches on the sports pages?
Naw, I couldny think of anyone either.
Del Piero Quick News .
Del Piero’s agent / brother has confirmed that he met representatives of Sydney FC in Torino last night . He described the meeting as ” positive “. He added that both sides are scheduled to meet again tonight..
He also stated that Olympiakos have offered a contract worth considerably more than the contract currently offered by Sydney FC [ said to be 2 miilion euros for a season ]
dirtymac » fast forward to the G.O.D
09:53 on 4 September, 2012
‘Do you think there might be a statement to that effect if the tribunal is complete but they are awaiting the outcome (or commencement) of criminal investigations?’
The most there would be is a statement to the effect that the decision isn’t being published at this time ‘for legal reasons’.
I think what might happen is that the lawyers on either side get to see the judgement in draft, just to correct/comment on any minor inaccuracies. At that stage if it looks like publication could prejudice a criminal trial either Minty or the prosecuting authorities could ask for publication to be delayed until any trials have been completed.
Talking to a currant in work, he was disappointed at Sevco not being draw against Celtic at CP, as they “would pump us”!!
He is the same fellow who believes only the company of 1872 is deid
o.g.rafferty11:07 on 4 September, 2012:
>>>>>>>>>>
Aye…..and did you see the one comment posted by (nom de blog)’ Heinz Guderian ‘. And WE get slated for callin’ them as they are?
Fascist thugs.
HH!
saltires en sevilla
Sevco banned from signing anyone 18 or over for one year, In theory they could sign free agents next September.
I wonder what Keevins take is on a banned journalist is?