Football’s better without manipulation

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I’ve no fondness for Stuart McColl but I’m disappointed the wheels have fallen off Motherwell’s bogey this season.  Delivering two consecutive second place finishes in a league populated with mostly better finances teams was exceptional.  Over the last three years they have lost players instead of paying money they couldn’t afford, otherwise they would almost certainly be challenging at the top of the table.

I like Gordon Strachan.  One of the things I like about him is he is almost impossible to get on-message.  Talk about manipulating football in order to get the ‘right’ teams in the top division is ludicrous, Gordon knows this, or he wouldn’t have used a word like “manipulate”.  On a substantive note, I think he’s wrong on this point.

The game changed when Rangers were liquidated, and it changed again when Hearts and Hibs were relegated.  Fewer people buy tickets as there is not genuine competition for the league title, but some things we can do without.

Scottish football survived without the ticket money these clubs brought them, and the country’s streets, pubs and A&E departments have benefited from not having to cope with the sheer hassle we used to put up with.

I’ve enjoyed our four lower tier-only games this season, they were atmospheric and entertaining.  If this was our future, I’d bite your hand off for it before I’d want to go back to the old ways.

Celtic, Motherwell, Aberdeen and the rest are defined on their own merits, and many of us are enjoying our football.

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782 Comments

  1. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on

    Canamalar/Auldheid/Bada Bing & Others

     

     

     

    My good friend Canamalar made a statement a couple of pages back with which I can’t but help take issue with and state clearly that I disagree entirely.

     

     

    That statement was that Peter Lawell is an expert at managing how he comes across.

     

     

    I beg to differ strongly.

     

     

    The one thing I am absolutely certain of is that there is little or no consideration given to the PR, soundbites, statements, PR strategies or policies that have come from Celtic Park in the last few years at least.

     

     

    Peter Lawell is an accountant. A good accountant so I am told. He has morphed into a CEO. A Conservative, by the rules, safe pair of fiscal hands CEO.

     

     

    He is not an innovative CEO, an Entrepreneurial CEO and he most definitely is not a PR focused CEO.

     

     

    None of that makes him a bad CEO — just not one who is expert in how he comes across. That could be managed far better in my opinion, and to be honest, if it were handled far better then Peter Lawell would be a far more popular CEO and that is a fact.

     

     

    By the way, I was not at the meeting last night and so don’t know exactly what was said but any message that “we tried with Res 12 but got nowhere” is in direct contradiction to what I have been told personally and the message coming from the Company Secretary last Friday.

  2. ” Our love is like a ship on the ocean

     

    We ve been sailing like a cargo full of devotion

     

    So I d like to know where you got the notion ..

     

    To rock the boat -dont rock the boat -Baby ! ”

     

     

    Hues Corporation CSC -way down south .

     

     

    Off oot to sell 145 litres of mighty fine olive oil / 8.50 euros a litre . : Should keep me in choons and Mrs S of T in footwear for a wee while.

  3. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    hoop doggydog

     

     

    11:49 on 4 November, 2014

     

     

    A big cheer went up in the Lounges also at the news of the draw……SHOCKING…..I left everyone in no doubt that they were deed, liquidated, gone …… didn’t make me feel less angry, I’m afraid

  4. Kitalba

     

     

    Thanks for that, but surely the esteemed judge’s opinion, leapt on by Sevco and the media as confirmation of the same club argument, that a football club is an entity capable of being owned and operated, was his own reading of corporate law.

     

     

    He seemed to ignore the fact that Rangers (1872-2012) was incorporated in 1899, and, under Scots law, the club could,therefore, not be separated from its corporate identity, unless it had its own secretary, committees etc. , which of course it did not have.

     

     

    I don’t want you having to repeat information you have already given on here, so I’ll check out TSFM for the relevant articles/ comments.

     

     

    Hail Hail.

  5. Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on

    Hoop…,

     

    And IMO the reason so many are ignorant of the facts and are happy to believe they are the same club is that Our board have said nothing, if our board had come out and told the world that rangers and the SFA had cheated us out of millions in a failed attempt to keep rangers alive and that the current club playing out of ibrox were not the same club, do you think as many Celtic supported would be happy to see this fixture being labelled the old firm game ?

  6. Just in from a very colourful Melbourne over 100.000 at

     

    the Flemington race today and loads of hoops about the

     

    city never seen any deid team stuff but then a had ma

     

    blinkers on because it was a racing day.

     

    The race fav. Admire Rikti lying second ready to put in it’s

     

    usual flying finish, then you would have thought it’s two

     

    back legs fell off and dropped back to the back of the field

     

    died later in it’s stall, shame wonderful horse.

     

    Scources say it may have been an aneurism or heart attack

     

    mmmm.

     

    When i was younger i would have bet my last penny on how

     

    many fleas were in a sevco semmit but maybe this is why i don’t

     

    gamble anymore.

     

    Earlier i blogged about my working and travelling life and how i

     

    had met Celtic supporters in some weird and wonderful places

     

    don’t think i’ve had any replies to top them, so lets hear them

     

    Bhoy’s and Ghirl’s

     

    H.H Mick

  7. Ellboy – very good post. Celtic should be setting the tone for a wider debate on this issue and that should be taking place in full public view.

  8. hamiltontim

     

     

    10:46 on 4 November, 2014

     

    Cowiebhoy

     

     

    Just on break and catching up.

     

     

    I understand your frustration regarding lack of clarity etc but last night was a huge step in the right direction in engaging meaningfully with the support.

     

     

    Representatives were there from all Celtic supporter organisations, including the GB.

     

     

    As TD has stated we weren’t asked to sign any secrecy disclosure on the way in but I do think we need to be mindful of putting on a public forum, some of the things.

     

    ———————————–

     

    There was nothing untoward put in my post,all I did was back up PL and the Board, some may spin it another way, but backing up CFC is a good thing, but then again, that’s just my opinion, although someone may put a twist on my post to the powers that be at Celtic Park, so I copied and pasted it just for a belts and braces back up, you every know.

  9. TD

     

     

    I think you need to calm a wee bit Tony. I never even suggested that there was anything ‘untoward’ in your post.

     

     

    In actual fact, I was backing up what you had said.

  10. By the way, I was not at the meeting last night and so don’t know exactly what was said but any message that “we tried with Res 12 but got nowhere” is in direct contradiction to what I have been told personally and the message coming from the Company Secretary last Friday.

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

    They way read what PL said on the res. 12 was that the parties concerned where updated to how far they have got with it. And it was left at that.

  11. lennybhoy

     

     

    seems people are not receiving texts from me .

     

     

    i took full advantage of the hospitality you offered mate ;)

     

     

    hope you and all your extended family have a lovely Christmas , even the “grumpy wan” lol

     

    catchye ;))))

  12. tonydonnelly67

     

     

     

     

    12:16 on

     

     

    4 November, 2014

     

     

    That concurs with Paul67s Twitter last night so I think its clear it is still a live issue.

     

     

    BRTH has added a bit more above from last week.

  13. Frank Ryan's Whiskey on

    • CultsBhoy

     

    10:50 on 4 November, 2014

     

    Technically and legally The RIFC are a new club.

     

    In reality they are the same fans , same colours , same stadium, same hatred, etc….

     

    We all know this.

     

    So who cares about public declarations that will do more harm than good. It will throw petrol on a fire. Nothing else.

     

    My satisfaction is knowing Celtic are better in every respect. We have moral superiority for as long as we avoid liquidation ( forever), we have a bigger stadium, bigger income, play in bigger competitions, have better players, better history, better future,better Board ( who can still improve imo)…

     

    I actually think any inflammatory public declarations would diminish our unquestionable superiority.

     

    We know – they know – we are better!

     

    =============

     

    Couldn’t disagree more. Liars, bullies and cheats need to be confronted at every opportunity regardless of circumstances. To remain silent in the face of such a concerted campaign of lies, mistruth and manipulation of facts regarding the continuity myth is nothing more than complicit agreement with the ongoing deception. Who cares about public declarations? A great many of us do. Keeping quiet and sitting at the back of the bus is not something Celtic supporters have ever been guilty of. For a section of Celtic fans if the Celtic PLC continues to ‘say nothing’ the Rubicon will well and truly have been crossed. The consequences for both the Celtic PLC and support could be huge.

     

     

    ‘Unquestionable superiority’ has a very hunnish resonance!

     

     

    Stand up and be heard Celtic.

  14. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    lennon hunskelper extrordinaire

     

     

    12:00 on 4 November, 2014

     

     

    Absolutely spot on ….

  15. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon ....The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    ryan’s whiskey

     

     

    12:44 on 4 November, 20

     

     

    Correct …..but Cultsbhoy is stating the facts as they stand ……he is content with that, and some, like the two of us, aren’t……HH to both of you ……

     

     

    The time has come to highlight / challenge to the hilt, the 5 way agreement CON ……to all concerned….let’s go for the bar stewards again….