I reckoned Champions League participation was worth circa £22m to Celtic. By contrast, Europa League football will be worth less than a quarter of that. Ancillary income, such as retail and kiosk sales, will also suffer.
The challenge now is to improve the team without that income. This should not be impossible. Malmo managed it, and we’re not in a situation where the bank is hammering at the door. But what should be clear, is that the next five days represent the best chance to strengthen the team for next August’s qualifiers. There’s a notion that the biggest games of our season come early, but we’ve 11 months to plan for 2016’s biggest games.
Three things to remind you about:
Golfers: buy a raffle ticket for £1 to win a round of golf FOR FOUR PEOPLE at the magnificent Aberdour course in Fife. Competition ends on Saturday, get your tickets here!!! It’s offered by Taggsybhoy, in support of the Foundation.
There’s a Mary’s Meals collection from 1pm on the Celtic Way ahead of the game on Saturday. Ideally we’re looking for backpacks, but handtowels (the school kitchens you paid for have handwashing facilities and each child is given their own handtowel), pencils, rulers, etc.
If the kids got new kit for starting school last week, dig out the old stuff and bring it along.
Magners have kindly donated two Premium Seats in the Jock Stein Stand for Saturday’s games. You can win the tickets by answering this question:
Who is Celtic’s top scorer this season?
Player’s surname in the SUBJECT line of your email to celticquicknews@gmail.com . Competition closes at 22:00 TONIGHT, so not a lot of time to enter.
No call today for a donation, go stick a £1 in Taggsy’s raffle instead. Thanks.
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I have to laugh at any notion that we are preparing for next season`s CL now, heard this nonsense last year.
In actual fact the seeds of Tuesday night`s failure were sown in July last year when we started bringing in loan players. Tonev, Denayer, Wakaso, Berget and Guidetti. A quarter of our first team squad begged or borrowed from anywhere that would take PL`s calls. What club with any serious aspirations of success, with any notion of long term planning, would load up their first team squad with stop-gaps like that? Truly a “club like no other”, but not in the way the suits would have us believe.
These guys cost us around £2.5 million in wages and fees, took up places in the squad and team that could have been given over to permanent squad members, and in the case of Denayer, their departure left a big hole in the team that was there for all to see in the CL qualifiers. How can a manager build a team from one year to the next when a quarter of the squad are loanees and still more depart or come in through the transfer market in the summer? Where`s the continuity in that? I asked this question on here this time last year, but then I`m just a malcontent or a hun.
The really galling thing is that I bet when VVD goes, the loose change from that transfer will be used to fund a couple more stop gap loan signings from the youth academies, treatment tables and cold storage facilities of EPL clubs and we will go through this circus all over again this time next year.
We move in ever decreasing circles, not because of big bad EPL/TV, but because of unimaginative, short-term, penny-wise pound foolish management decisions taken by those paid very well to run our club.
fan-a-tic on 27th August 2015 3:46 pm
I’m not sure what people even think they mean when they say “prioritising of plc over football team” (not a dig at you btw).
At the end of the last financial year we had cash in the bank of less than £4M. That means we could have invested in a £2M player at £10k/week for 4 years (roughly) without hitting a loss. Would that have made the difference. I doubt it.
Alternately instead of Scepovic we could have signed a £4M striker and offered him £10k more than we offered Scepovic. That might have done it but it’s still not a guarantee at that price.
We don’t really have a massive amount of unused spending power .
Talk about a defeatist attitude….theres nothing we can do about PL etc.
There is no use blaming RD, he was thrown right in at the deep-end….in the end up, he will go.
But the gross mismanagement from the PLC cannot be ignored.
Their strategy….is fecking awful.
Dinosaurs and fat cats….that’s all they are.
The Aristocracy of Celtic PLC….the “cant do” board.
Absolutely clueless about football, but still they are romanticised.
You all know what is required, stop making excuses for them.
HH
Raith rovers,
that will do .
roll on sat to get back to league duty.
Stick by the club. They need us. But they need 2 spend on some quality. Also we were Certs 2 get a home draw after all the boycott talk. Let’s boycott the cups. The sfa hate us lets starve them. Not one dime bhoys. Still hurting bad from Tuesday. Seen more fight in a dead body.
Just noticed something to cheer about – the bigot Sharp finished last in the 800 metres semi-final! lol
EL good to see you posting again but what was your point ? ching ching??
coneybhoy – I’m thinking the same – where are we going to get good players from when down the road journeymen cost far more than we can dream of? We can’t cope with the English championship – that’s reality. What’s ahead of us is – hope a scout finds a wanyama every 2nd year – keep them for 2 years, pick English players from the lower leagues who can play ( there’s plenty of them the english can’t get a game in their own country), cherry pick spfl players, qualify for the CL every 4-5 years, have a run in the Europa every 4-5 years, adjust salaries for non-football management in the club, do not panic when the others return.
What time is the draw tomorrow?
Huddleboard saying Scepovic has been sold.
Weeminger,
How much extra money did we have when we got to the CLL last 16, sold Ki, Hooper, Wilson, Forster, Wanyama, Watt, my cat etc?
The Green Man on 27th August 2015 4:02 pm
What makes you think a different CEO will operate differently, given that he will be getting employed by many of the same people that employed PL?
Oops! Ledly. Anyone else?
Who is head of the scouting system???
Good news. Preparations have begun for next year.
We will have a strike force which is sharper than our current one -Baldrick and Trigger.
Why is it called Paradise?
When Brother Walfrid set sail the Celtic at the meeting in St Mary’s Hall on November 6th 1887 those present representing the Irish Catholic community in Glasgow’s East End knew that in starting an Irish club in the most hostile of places to raise funds to feed the needy they were certainly up for a challenge if nothing else.
And it was that comradeship, that sense of belonging and that pride in who and what you are, an all embracing culture and heritage that was the secret of our success from the very beginning. The earliest and most convincing example of this was the building of our first ground in less than six months before we had a team to take to the field or a ball had been kicked.
It was only a week after that inaugral meeting that we paid £50 to rent 6 acres of land yearly just 200 yards from the present ground to the north east where a pitch already stood and less than six months later after hundreds of Irish volunteers had given of their time to build the new ground that would be opened on 8th May 1888 with Cowlairs and Hibs invited to play the first match.
The new focus for the Irish and their beacon of light in a dark grey place still retains the same significance for many of us over 120 years later and in the next 3 issues of Welcome To Paradise fanzine we recount the story of Celtic Park and thank god for the resilience and the tenacity of the Irishmen who gave us a club to identify with, to become one with and to live our lives with that club always on our minds and in our hearts and they gave us a home to be proud of.
On the pitch our story is of bravery, skill, flair and always striving to be the best, not only winning but doing it a certain way, the Celtic way. From our humble beginnings we also learned as a club that we are the underdog and we have to be prepared to fight for everything we earn. Off the pitch incredibly it was these self same attributes that worked tirelessly day and night to establish the club. The first major achievement to have the first ground, facing north & south ready in such a short time and as good as what was already there was incredible.
An open air stand with a capacity of up to 1000 on what’s now the Springfield Rd side with changing rooms, baths, ref and trainer’s room was built with a terrace moulded from the earth around a narrow track which Maley compared to a garden path. The best view it was said was on top of the cemetery wall at the west side to watch the lush pitch which measured 110 yards by 66 yards. 9 admission gates stood on the east side.
And so the first match took place on Tuesday 8th May 1888 between Hibs and Cowlairs, two teams who had very good relations with the Celtic committee. A crowd of 5000 turned up which would have proved to Walfrid his vision was correct.
Three weeks later on the evening of Monday the 28th May 1888 Celtic Football & Athletic Club took to the field for the first ever time and beat Rangers 5-2 in a friendly in front of a crowd of 2000. The Celtic committee of the day were never slow to realise the profits that could be made from the very popular sports of cycling and athletics and from 1890 until 1930 the Celtic Sports took place every August.
Crowds of 6,000 were regularly turning up to watch the new Celtic team and with the landlord trying to take advantage of the popular use of his land by
trying to put the rent up by £50 to £450 per annum the club decided to move rather than give in. Different sites were considered including Possilpark and Cowlairs but the deision to move across to the other side of Janefield St in 1892 was certainly a brave one as the proximity within the same parish was seen as the only advantage. A disused brickyard with a 40ft quarry half filled by water was the daunting sight that faced the same Irish volunteers who had built the first ground just 4 years earlier.
Incredibly 100,000 cartloads of earth were used to fill the massive crater once the water had been drained out. Without today’s modern machinery one can only imagine the back breaking work involved. A 10 year lease was secured and once again the ground was built in jig time and Irish Patriot Michael Davitt laid the centre sod of turf from Donegal at an emotional ceremony on the 20th March 1892. The first match was played on 20th August 1892 with the Celts beating Renton 4-3. With a capacity of 50,000 a covered stand with terracing in front stood on the Janefield St side of the ground 320 feet long with 15 rows of seating at the back and a total capacity of 3500.
15 feet to the west of the covered stand stood a two tier pavillion which rose to 30 feet and contained the changing rooms, toilets, baths and offices. It also had a verandah where the game could be watched from. “It’s like moving from the graveyard to Paradise” remarked one wag and the phrase stuck with Celtic Park nicknamed Paradise still to this day. On the London Road side the ground would take some years to settle so there was no stand on this side until James Grant, in a private venture with the agreement of the Board, built the Grant Stand in 1899 which was ahead of its time. So ahead of its time was it that the unique glass frontage caused the windows to steam up which blocked the view and the steep steps which the patrons had to treck to get to the best seats in the house meant that it was not a success.
The new Celtic Park held 50,000 and as always the Celtic Committee had looked ahead and installed both a running track and a cyclying track which banked up 8ft at the corners. We even experimented with a form of floodlighting as early as 1893 on Christmas Day no less when 5000 turned up for a friendly v Clyde with an evening kick off and sixteen arc lights suspended from wires across the pitch. The down side was of course when the ball hit the wires and the idea never took off although it wasn’t the only match played at Celtic Park in these circumstances in the early 1890s.
Between 1894 and 1904 Celtic Park staged 5 internationals between Scotland & England including the 1900 Rosebery International when Celtic Park was all seated as the picture shows including temporary seating behind both goals! Again showing tremendous foresight in how we were viewed we were the first club to install a Press Box in 1894. We also held the World Cycling Championship in 1895 and 1897, the latter cost the club more in track improvements (£900) than we were guaranteed for the fee of £500 and led to the club becoming a limited company in 1897 to be able to withstand the deficit for the long term benefit.
Again showing an ability to make a profit new state of the art turnstyles were installed in 1895 costing £445 and with the crowds flocking to Celtic Park, not just for the Celtic matches but international football, cycling and athletics the turnstyles soon paid for themselves ten fold. Next issue we look at the next phase of ground development from the turn of the 20th century including the day the Jungle was born.
@celticwiki
Jude,
A Mr Fawlty. B Fawlty.
WEEMINGER
I honestly don’t have all the answers, I’m only a Celtic fan outraged how the team played on Tues.
However…I would half the numbers on the board, curtail the bonus culture, and restructure the scouting staff asap.
I would also ban any board member from having anything to do with transfers or team affairs.
As for a new CEO….wee jimmy krankie couldn’t do any worse,…could he.
The sooner we accept that fundamental change is required, the better.
HH
The next few days will be interesting. Believe we’ve made a big mistake with Ciftci,gut feeling and will be only too glad to be proved wrong.However, think we need a powerful centre forward to compliment LG and give us other options. The ability to cross without hitting the first defender would be good too.Roll on Saturday.
The plan we have is a fundamentally sound one. Live within our means and sign and develop players with a sell on value.
Where I would like to see it tweaked is at either end of the pipeline. Firstly I would like us to be flexible enough to sign the odd player who will not have a sell on value. That in essence means signing someone in their late 20’s or early 30’s who is a known quantity. Commons was 27/28 when he signed and more in that category is what i would like to see. One or two a year, and not for large transfer fee’s.
The average age of the teams who have qualified out of the Champions route in 2014 was 26.85 yrs , The average age this year is 27.04 yrs. That’s 10 teams over 2 years. Our average age , given our normal first choice eleven , is around 25. That means we have significantly less experienced battle hardened players in the squad than a Malmo, a Bate Borisov, a Maccabi Tel Aviv , an Apoel Nicosia or a Basle.
In the case of Maccabi & Apoel they qualified in 2015 & 2014 respectively with a team who’s average age was close to 29 . When games are as tense and critical as Tuesday’s , then having only 2 or 3 older players is not sharing the load . We have only paid transfer fees for 2 players over 25 in the last 5 years, Commons & Boerrighter. And nobody at all in the last 2 years. .
The other area where I would tweak our strategy is in Youth recruitment. We shoukd be prepared to spend some of our budget on players aged 16-17. There are just not enough players of talent in Scotland , at least the success rate of Lennoxtown would suggest that. We have had the best Youth team for 8 out of the last 9 years, so coaching isn’t an issue, yet we have barely produced a Scottish Internationalist who has got a first cap since 2010.
I don’t know whether establishing an Academy in the South of England is viable or even allowed . However if it is viable and doesn’t break any agreements between the FA & SFA , then i would seriously consider it.
Stability is essential to the success of the club, and whilst the policy of scouting, signing , developing and selling the Wanyama’s work well financially, it is disruptive to stability. A young player good enough to play regularly for Celtic at 22 will almost certainly have designs on playing elsewhere by 25. We need to minimise the number of players who only stay for a couple of years as replacing them is becoming increasingly challenging.
The Glorious Balance Sheet
Spot on,no more loan signings,unless cast iron guarantee that if we want them permanently they sign.at present all it does is cause resentment within the ranks of players not getting game time,and youth seeing the door being shut on them.and so it goes on.
@bournesouprecipe
Here here well said
@the glorious balance sheet
Agree, loan signings will not help us in 11 months time. In the case of Denayer, a total hindrance, sadly we were stronger in May than we were in August.
Restating what has been said on this forum a number of times over the last few years.
Neil Lennon’s first 2 European campaigns were average at best but he learned that to be successful in Europe we need to more defensive. He also learned that this is not something we can turn on for Euro ties only and set us up for all games to have a less offensive style of play. It was a compromise but one that I personally feel was worth it even if it made most domestic games hard to watch.
I sense Ronnie has the same challenge and the question is will he compromise ?. What will not work is the strategy he has deployed.
The question for us as fans is will we accept the compromise and accept a less expansive style of play in domestic games and turn up to the games.
He will not achieve his original objective of open and expansive while succeeding in Europe, we don’t have the quality of player.
I think that for the first time since it was opened, the Lennoxtown Acadamy is fulfilling it’s purpose.
There are more youths in and around the first team now, than there were under previous coaches.
Some posters lament the loan deals for Henderson, Fisher, etc., but if you look on the Acadamy as a place for learning, then loans are a natural progression.
In non Acadamic college courses, students are sent on Placement for a year.
This is to remove then from the cosy environment of college and immerse them in the reality of the professions they are about to enter.
Us more mature chaps used to refer to it as the Big, Bad, World.
For us, loans should help the loanees bridge the gap between development squad, with fleeting gigs on the first team bench, to more mature players, capable of making a serious challenge for a place.
There are no guarantees, though.
Barcabhoy.
The Exiled Tim touched on it the other day, cut out some of the projects and sign two experienced quality players.
I think we have upped our game on the signing of the best young players even getting them from others clubs
(Allegedly):)))))))))))
Did we really pay £3 million for Big Boerigter and pay him £15000 a week???
Barcabhoy
totes agree – there’s nothing wrong with signing couple of KCs and maybe that change can help us a lot- look at when and where the club decides to buy players who will never/rarely play for us agast those whose strengths are known – ( I’m not suggesting we but loads of Freddies or gravesons b there are quality knowns out there ).
Sorry – I’ve been on the sauce already : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiPe1OiKQuk
Captain Beef Ta 0)
Personally speaking I’d like to see the Europa competition scrapped and the Champions (c) League expanded from current 32 (4 pots of 8 teams) to maybe 48 teams. Rather than then have 6 pots of 8 teams make it 4 pots of 12 teams. A completely radical move would to remove all seeding and have a draw..only exception being separating teams from the same country in the first group of fixtures.
Just a thought.
HH
Barcabhoy-
I think our plan is starting to unravel. It is simply not possible to continue to develop and sell on young players for any significant size of transfer fee when you continually fail to qualify for the CL.
Guys like Hooper, Forster, Wanyama – their name and their transfer fees were made through their exploits in the Champions League, not through what they did v Aberdeen/ Inverness/ Motherwell et al.
Would Victor have gone for £12m but for that goal v Barca? Would Forster have attracted £10m without having the CL shop window platform and all those performances v Barca?
We are now selling players to make up £10-£15 million shorfalls in revenue through failure to qualify for the CL. This diminishing quality of the squad makes it harder to qualify for the CL in future years, making the Europa groups – at best – more likely and I`m afraid nobody goes anywhere for £10 to £15 million quid on the back of performances in the SPFL and the EL. This is something I`m sure we will find out with van Dijk.
We had 2 players at the last World Cup – Ambrose and Izzy – so if you play for Celtic your only way of commanding a big transfer fee is the CL.
Ki was perhaps an exception and even then he didn’t go for a huge sum of money (£6m). But he also had the advantage of not being an unknown, being Young Asian Player of the Year before he came to Celtic and so being on the EPL scouts radar. He also played very well in the Olympics for South Korea in summer 2012 prior to his move south so his situation is by no means typical at all.
Mike in T 3:33
Enjoyed your post in respect of 4-2-3-1.
I always thought the system far too cautious for Premiership matches. I decided the plan was to bed in the system, for the players to get used to it and to ensure it was fine tuned for the platform where it was believed to be needed most…Europe.
With that in mind I could enjoy the League games with multiple often pretty, sometimes effective, passes coupled with some intelligent running but for the most part ineffective in front of goal. Somehow, despite victories, unfulfilling.
I was looking forward to Europe.
But look what happened!
So is it the system? Are the players not equipped to play this way? Is the manager not able to get the players to believe in it?
The reason I’m more dispirited than normal was that everything was set out to give us the maximum chance to succeed in Eurooe and we failed.
Interesting season ahead methinks!
=================================
Livibhoy 3:52
It is to be hoped the RR tie will be included on the ST!!!!
HH
Jude
I am afraid derk is on more than that. Probably caused a few of the players to be hacked off last season when they were knocking their pan in and derk was up Nando’s with his burd earning £20k+ a week.
LB
The Green Man on 27th August 2015 4:22 pm
I’m wary of change for change sake (not suggesting you’re advocating this) but let’s say we get a new CEO in at half PL’s wage and he’s 2% worse at generating income. That’s a £1.2M loss on what we got in the last results. 5% worse and it’s £3.2M down. If our costs stayed the same, that’s our net cash at the bank gone.
What I’m getting at is that the margins between success and failure across the business and the team really are on a very fine line.
That’s why our strategy is the most risk averse one.
Yeah, put a huge display of Celtic legends on Celtic Park…hopefully the supporters wont notice the reality of 2015.
Smoke and Mirrors.
Indeed, we have a history to be proud of….but the PLC are progressively diluting the Celtic legend, by making Celtic a team dependent on SPL dross, and loan signings.
HH
Good Afternoon.
A Dundee Utd fan blog on the Record website caught my eye yesterday. The author has subsequently admitted it was a rant written after the recent defeat to Celtic. But it was good fun.
However, I did take exception to the blog’s idea that winning the League doesn’t mean anything to Celtic fans. As you can read here!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/meaningful-achievements/
Cheers!
@Barcabhoy
I saw you advocating this on twitter, I have to say I agree. The financial successes of Wanyama, Forester, Ki, etc have been great for club but needs to be balanced with success on the playing field as well. I think in terms of the teams who we face in the mix in the Champions League qualifiers our wage structure is highly competitive and could attract top talent in this pool so to speak.
Are you Barcabhoy because you live over there? I spent a few years there from 2010 to 2013.
Heard the sevco team bus had to get a police escort thru Coatbridge last night.
Ta Livi.
I thought “kevinjohn on 27th August 2015 12:45 pm” made some really good points and in no way could i take from it.. we should try not to improve the team. I took positive noises from it..funny how we see things eh.
In other news.. I read McMurdo’s blog today :-( found myself agreeing with nearly every word he wrote, here it is so don’t read if you don’t wanna :-)
“Celtic is a club engulfed in crisis after the shock defeat to Malmo in this week’s Champions League qualifier.
That is if you believe some of the hype on social and even mainstream media since Ronnie Deila’s men crashed out into the Europa League.
Much of the reaction has been predictable and even to an extent, understandable. Celtic fans want to see their team play in Europe’s elite competition and those concerned with the club’s fiscals will certainly be disappointed that the coveted European pot, which is a potential reward for the champions of Scotland, is now halved. That said, the reported £8 million Celtic can expect to land is a decent cushion to fall upon after the stormy exit from the Champions League.
As I wrote yesterday, the Champions League is a big ask for Scottish clubs in this day and age – even more so than before. Both Old Firm clubs have managed the final of the lesser competition in recent times and that is frankly the level they have been at for years, occasional CL victories notwithstanding. Taking this into consideration, the real test of Ronnie Deila’s managerial prowess can only justly be measured on how Celtic progress in the Europa League. A decent run is job well done, while a poor show would arguably make the case for a new manager.
The same standards apply to Mark Warburton should he steer Rangers to Premiership success. Like his counterpart across the city, Warburton would be unfairly judged should he be unable to take Rangers to the Promised Land of the Champions League. There is, of course, nothing wrong with Old Firm fans dreaming of such achievements and equally nothing wrong in the boards of both clubs aspiring to them. The problem is when failure to reach the group stage of Europe’s most prestigious tournament – yes, even perenially – means that managers are classed as losers.
The priority for both Rangers and Celtic is to win their domestic title and have a decent run in Europe, with the Europa League as a very acceptable standard. Some might see this as lacking ambition but the price of being ambitious in reference to the CL is crippling – as proved by Rangers’ recent years of torment. It could be argued that Celtic’s level of debt is also very worrying and that they have also over the years fallen for the lure of riches in Europe at the expense of prudent fiscal economy. The conundrum every year for the Parkhead board is how much do they venture to try and get into the group stages, knowing that failure means they will be saddled with players on expensive wages and who are disgruntled at playing in Scotland’s football backwater.
Setting realistic goals and creating decent expectations is the answer to the all-or-nothing dice roll of the Champions League. This includes disabusing the preposterous notion that the Europa League is a very poor second prize. In reality, it is a decent competition most years and an enormous achievement in the winning. It is still a level that stretches and challenges and is the ideal tournament for the SPFL Premiership winners.
As for Celtic having a crisis? You are having a laugh. The stushie over their CL exit will galvanise them, not throw them into disarray Deila now has something to prove again, which means he will apply himslef much more vigorously to the job at jand. Celtic are still by far the strongest side in Scotland and, although downsizing has been clearly evident in a systematic way over the course at Celtic Park, Deila has proved quite astute in picking players who can keep the edge very much in the Parkhead club’s favour. Off-field troubles like an investigation by Audit Scotland might be bubbling away in the background but anyone who thinks this week’s defeat to Malmo heralds an imminent disintegration of Celtic’s dominance needs their head examined.
The exciting thing is that across the Clyde, Mark Warburton has revitalised Rangers and turned them into a hurricane force that is sweeping all in its path. The real test of this new Rangers will be how they fare against Premiership opposition. Should Rangers encounter their bitter rivals in a cup competition and “do a Malmo” on them, that will cause an earhquake far bigger than any tremors generated by the result in Sweden.
Losing out on Europe’s big pot of gold for a smaller one will not cost Ronnie Deila his job – nor should it. But losing to the club across the city is a whole different matter as it would mean a possible shift in power. For this reason Ronnie Deila must concentrate on domestic dominance as his number one priority.
The fact is that for all the disappointment at losing out on the group stages, the real cause for concern for Celtic is that after this year, the somewhat easy path to Europe they have been enjoying might become a much more bumpy one.
A rampant, revitalised Rangers might not be an exciting prospect for Ronnie Deila and all at Celtic. But Scottish football sure could use some real competition in its top flight.
Competition makes good teams stronger. And that can only help the Scottish game in respect of taking part in European tournaments.
There is no crisis at Parkhead right now. But one could be looming if the hurricane across the city gets any stronger. Scottish football needs a strong Rangers and a strong Celtic. The old bruising encounters between the two for silverware and bragging rights have been missing from the game.The way things are going, we might be quite close to resuming normal service once more.
You have to say that right now Celtic rule the roost in Scottish football. But the prospect of this changing due to Mark Warburton’s Rangers Revolution is more potentially damaging to Celtic’s European aspirations than Tuesday night’s result.
Whether Celtic maintain their superiority or Rangers overturn it, one thing is for sure. Without a serious injection of funding into our game, Rangers and Celtic both must face the truth – they are no longer top table teams in Europe’s elite banquet.” McMurdo