Appointing a manager is an incredible gamble but the risks can be mitigated, especially at a club which is successful or even pointing in the right direction. In this case, clubs should look to build upon whatever platform they have. Bringing in a new guy with a team development strategy which is completely different from the existing plan accentuates the risks.
This is why the boot room strategy is successful over any extended period. Build on what you have, sign players needed by the squad and who have been scouted extensively. The new man may or may not prove to be the world’s best coach but at least he’ll have a successful infrastructure to insulate the club from lurching into oblivion.
When Gordon Strachan succeeded Martin O’Neill, Gordon picked up a scouting folder, flew to Poland and got on with the development project, much as Martin would have, had he stayed. Celtic were technically no less successful when Tony Mowbray took over in 2009 but the team, and strategy, were tired. A change of direction was appealing, we couldn’t continue to sign Hibs players, although the execution of the new strategy was flawed. The writing was on the wall from the moment we signed £3.9m Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Neil Lennon was an enormous gamble when he was appointed in 2010. He was a rookie, had never signed a player, won a trophy (as manager), or deployed a game plan in anger. There were a few facts in his favour. He’d worked with the other coaches at the club, as well as chief scout, John Park, and Peter Lawwell. For years, they shared a development vision. Celtic retreated into a strategy closely aligned to the vision of the remaining technical staff.
Despite the Scottish Cup semi-final debacle against Ross County Neil got the job, spent much of the next year learning a few painful lessons and hasn’t looked back since. The club gambled on the guy with ultimate responsibility, but they knew he was not about the step out on a ledge.
The time to have a root-and-branch clear-out is following a John Barnes-type season. The manager was wrong, as was tactics, scouting and team development plan. Martin O’Neill brought with him radical and necessary change. This worked at Celtic but, if anything, it is even more risky than appointing a rookie. The lower leagues of England are full of clubs who have gambled unsustainable money on a manager only to come a cropper.
There are gems out there, Pochettino and Simeone, for example, but finding them is a challenge. Pochettino pitched up at Southampton after being sacked by a hugely underperforming Espanyol, and Simeone got the Atletico Madrid job after several years of average-to-poor returns.
Big Davie Moyes was a good manager at Everton but watching him at Manchester United was a bit like watching him 30 years ago in a Celtic shirt. He started by dismantling whatever platforms were in place and served notice he would be following a Haphazard and Wasteful player recruitment policy on the final day of last summer’s transfer window by blowing all his pocket money on a guy he didn’t need and refused to sign for less money a few weeks earlier. He had to go.
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Good luck to big Johan, one of my all time favourite players.
He is still my benchmark for any players that we sign.
‘GG,
Thanks for the update on our young Bhoy the other night.
I was away tae ma bed, but caught it later on the next day.
Exciting times for him and his family…no forgettin his extended CQN family :O).
Hail Hail.
You can say what you like about Simon Bolivar, but he still makes exquisite cigars …
FF
timbhoy2 ………. It’s a bit early to be drinking
UKIP the Unionist Party and fellow bedfellow to the Tory and Labour Party brand all Scots Subsidy Junkies.
Third Viscount Benchley wrote in the Evening Standard: ‘The Scots are Subsidy Junkies, whingeing like a trampled bagpipe and waiting for a fix of English Taxpayers Money.’
BB 5
So?
Billy Bhoy 05
09:01 on 23 April, 2014
Yes English nationalism is silly and ignorant isn’t it?
Not unlike the Scottish variety.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
08:50 on
23 April, 2014
Good luck to big Johan, one of my all time favourite players.
He is still my benchmark for any players that we sign.
…………………………………………………………………………….
agreed.. even at his current age!!
Timbhoy2
Why not get Jimmy Bell as the new kit man while yer at it, and I think you are at it?
Billy Bhoy 05…………You need a friend………..go find one and leave us in peace……….Just say No!
Bernardo O’Higgins was in the masons?
Dearie me.
tonydonnelly67
09:05 on 23 April, 2014
Timbhoy2
‘Why not get Jimmy Bell as the new kit man while yer at it, and I think you are at it?’
###
I suggested that yesterday, but I don’t think we could afford the wages.
Bawsman
09:05 on 23 April, 2014
Maybe he could join a political party that shares his aspirations.
He’d be sure to find a friend there.
All the establishment and all the fighters against them were all masons back in the 1700s
harder to find a historical figure who wasn’t.
lennons cup records not very good,getting beat by moderate teams like Aberdeen,and Morton ,no and to be honest he has had it easy winning the league these past seasons, no rangers breathing down your neck, makes it easier.i suppose , and another thing I am entitled to have my say on neil lennon. I don’t think he is a good manager, good player he was and that’s that.
charliebhoy
Didn’t feel patronised in a any way friend. Really appreciate your sentiments.
Johan. A colossus of a Bhoy. Wish him all the best. Let’s see. We lose a brilliant ex-defender who has celtic in his blood. Where to find a replacement? John Kennedy.
NoBrainerCSC?
HH jamesgang
Good morning all getting a wee bit brighter in North Ayrshire with sun breaking through and a calm wind
Sticks & Stones: particularly from Unionists who thrill in us Scots being reviled. Water of a ducks back.
I don’t generally recommend BRTH’s guff, but I make an exception in this case.
He posted this on TSFM yesterday, and for those who didn’t catch it, it’s very well worth the time to read.
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan writes:
Good Morning.
Those involved in the running of Scottish Football, and indeed the reporting of it, may well be advised to check their libraries or on-line resources this morning and search for a biography or auto biography of Sir Jackie Stewart. They could also do with dusting down their copy of the Three Musketeers!
Many will know Stewart as the three times world champion racing driver who secured 27 Grand Prix victories from 99 starts behind the wheel in formula one. While other drivers have won more Grand Prix, few can match Stewart’s percentage of wins per start, and if you extend the study into examining the number of podium finishes achieved by the Dunbartonshire man from those same 99 starts then the statistics become virtually unique.
Extending that study further, if you take away those occasions when the car failed on Stewart, something jumps out at you, and that is that Stewart very rarely failed to finish a race without scoring points, and that if he did fail to finish then it was most likely due to the car letting him down rather than the driver himself making an error.
However, it should be remembered that all of this was achieved at a time when motor racing was far more dangerous than it is today. Jackie Stewart saw numerous colleagues, rivals and friends ( note they were all one and the same ) all die in pursuit of their sport, and as a result he was in the vanguard, if not actually in charge of driving the train, when it came to demands for greater safety for drivers and changes in the rules of the sport in general.
Stewart himself sees those rule changes as his greatest legacy in the sport where he was acknowledged as one of the very best.
At times, that meant that Stewart had to be seen as rebel, a trouble maker, a difficult character, an awkward and at times forceful individual who, with others, at times threatened to scupper a race or series of races unless the organisers took his demands seriously and acted upon them.
Ultimately, of course, this stance brought him universal respect within the sport.
Given the number of fatalities during the Stewart career, it is not surprising that Stewart had one great motto when it came to driving and it was this:
To finish first in a race, first of all you had to ensure that you actually finished at all!
So what has all of this to do with Scottish Football and its current state of flux?
Well, I think it has everything to do with some recent comments from various personnel and I think it has everything to do with weekend reports of an SPFL attempted “coup”!
It is no secret that there has been general dissatisfaction with the running of the Scottish game for some time.
There has been dissatisfaction from fans.
There has been the almost summary removal of David Longmuir from the SFL once chairmen realised that the organisation they thought they were part of and engaged with was no more than a semi private enterprise.
The ineptitude of the SFA, an increasingly moribund body in virtually every respect, is there for all to see.
Sometime ago, a well known commentator on things in Scottish Football told me privately that there had been a major sea change in the opinion of those who run many of the smaller clubs. This was a change whereby those chairmen and officials were no longer prepared to simply settle for the word being handed down from on high but accompanied by mealy mouthed public statements from officials which pronounced that those officials actually acted “on behalf of” those same chairmen!
Further, there was a growing feeling that the officials simply did what they felt best AND that if they felt it best to ensure or preserve a strong Rangers ( or Celtic for that matter ) at not far off any cost, then everyone else would have to like it or lump it.
My understanding is that such an attitude no longer cuts the mustard and that ” The wee men” have at last found a voice and are not satisfied with the answers– or lack of them — coming from Hampden.
In particular take note of the comments last week coming from the chairman of Forfar Athletic who stated openly that he wished Rangers Football Club all the best for next season in the league above, but then added that the recent match between his club and the team from Ibrox was not fair competition!
I await to hear whether or not the Forfar chairman has been cited by Vincent Lunny — surely a football official who complains so openly that the competition is not fair at all is bringing the game into disrepute?
Then again, perhaps Mr Lunny and others are smart enough to steer well clear of any debate as to what is in fact fair competition in Scottish football in 2014 — especially when it comes to the Ibrox club and its either very long, or very short, history depending on your point of view.
However, the chairman of Forfar Athletic is the chairman of Forfar Athletic — he runs a provincial club with a small fan base and it might be said that his club have not been unduly affected by the worst of the fall out from the years of footballing abuse overseen by Messrs Murray, Whyte, Green and others while in charge of one of the giant clubs in the league.
The same cannot be said of other clubs who will come into direct contact with the current Rangers set up next season. Clubs such as Falkirk, Hearts, Dundee, Hamilton Acccies, Hibs, Ross County, Raith Rovers. Queen of the South, Livingstone, Dumbarton and Morton may all well compete with the Ibrox administration next year.
Those same clubs all (now) seek to run and achieve success on a proper business basis and some clearly saw their fortunes decline during the Murray money years when Scottish football endured a long period when one of the top teams in the country ensured success ( or attempted to secure success ) by way of a covert monetary policy which any sane person can see flouted the rules under which every other club was meant to playing.
That was a policy which was never uncovered by anyone at the SFA or the SPL — perhaps that is something which at long last is beginning to rankle?
Certainly, the historic and ongoing failure in transparent governance coming from Ibrox has rankled with countless thousands of Rangers fans who have parted with cash for shares, cash for season tickets and merchandise, and who invest emotionally in the football club ( Old Co or New Co ) itself. The SFA can hardly be described as having served them well in terms of applying the rules which are supposed to highlight any fiscal deficiencies.
Irrespective of what Lord Nimmo Smith might have said or not said, irrespective of what he was asked to look at or not asked to look at, or what Campbell Ogilvie revealed or kept hidden, the fact is that the governance of the individual clubs in Scotland has turned on its head in the last two years.
Clubs are actually now seeing the benefit of properly run clubs, acting within budget, with a proper business plan and a good idea of what they can achieve going forward as a collective and as individual businesses.
However, that emergence from the dark also brings with it a dawning that the SFA really is “not fit for purpose ” in its current form and in fact is a hindrance to “fair competition” and proper investment in the individual clubs.
For example, the new owner of Hearts is a proper business woman — not only that there were others who were just as willing to come and invest in Hearts — provided the club play in a properly structured football set up.
Similarly, the businesses of all the other clubs ( and the financial commitment from their fans ) need looking after rather then the business of supposedly looking the exclusive business of the big two and the business of the SFA itself.
The Championship sides in particular will have to face a Rangers side where there are repeated claims that the aims of those who run the club ( and those who would like to run the club ) are to “restore” Rangers to their rightful place at the top of Scottish football.
Clearly, that aim can only be achieved at the expense of everyone else, which is absolutely fine in the event of it being achieved as a result of fair competition — but here comes the Forfar chairman proclaiming that the competition isn’t fair!
Some clubs don’t like the idea of competition being unfair and want to ensure that the SFA are actually ensuring fair competition and so protecting and looking after the interests of the investors and stakeholders of ALL clubs and you can only ensure that this is the case if there are proper rules and that those rules are applied.
Otherwise, there is no reason at all to invest in any football club.
Further, unless those rules are fairly applied, there will be those who will argue there is no real reason to support a football club at all!
So consider the following rules which relate to a domestic football licence and which are in situ at the current time:
8.2.6 SFA Decision
A licence will be refused:
a) If the annual financial statements (that may also include supplementary information) are not submitted to the SFA within the defined deadline.
b) If the club submits annual financial statements (that may also include supplementary information) that do not meet the minimum requirements for the content and accounting.
Having read the auditor’s report on the annual financial statements, the SFA will assess it according to the points below:
c) If the auditor’s report has an unqualified opinion, without any modification, this provides a satisfactory basis for granting the licence in respect of criterion A.47.
d) If the auditor’s report has a disclaimer of opinion or an adverse opinion, the licence will be refused.
e) If the auditor’s report has, in respect of going concern, either an emphasis of matter or a qualified ‘except for’ opinion, the licence will be refused, unless additional documentary evidence demonstrating the club’s ability to continue as a going concern until at least the end of the season to be licensed has been provided and assessed by the SFA to its satisfaction. The additional documentary evidence includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the information described in 8.1.7 (Future financial information).
If the auditor’s report in respect of the annual financial statements submitted in accordance with A.47 includes an emphasis of matter or a qualified ‘except for’ opinion in respect of going concern, then Indicator IND.01 shall apply (as set out in 8.2.26).
As a result, the SFA will undertake more extensive assessment procedures in respect of criterion A.52 (Future financial information) and, if granted a licence, the club must also comply with criterion A.67 (Duty to update future financial information).
f) If the auditor’s report has, in respect of a matter other than going concern, either an emphasis of matter or a qualified ‘except for’ opinion, then the SFA will consider the implications of the modification for club licensing purposes.
The licence may be refused, unless additional documentary evidence is provided, and assessed, to the SFA’s satisfaction. The additional evidence that may be requested will be dependent on the reason for the modification to the audit report.
If the club provides supplementary information the SFA shall additionally assess the auditor’s report of the agreed-upon procedures in respect of the supplementary information.
g) If the auditor’s report of factual findings from the agreed-upon procedures includes reference to errors and/or exceptions found, the licence may be refused.
The above provisions can be summarised as follows:
In order to have a chance at finishing first in any league, first of all the SFA have to be satisfied that any club will in fact finish ( the season ).
In recent years, the SFA has a poor history when it comes to ensuring that clubs can finish. All the evidence would suggest that there has been poor performance when assessing the financial statements and structures. Clubs have gone into administration, liquidation and in essence have been trading whilst insolvent.
Further, even taking the FTT decision which is under appeal, the only description of the quality of the evidence at that tribunal more than suggests that when it came to financial disclosure the Murray Group did everything possible to conceal, deflect and essentially cover up the truth of its financial operations.
When it comes to the LNS enquiry concerning player registration, the disclosure of financial documentation, the reading of accounts and the conducting of any necessary assessments and so on, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the footballing authorities ( principally the SFA ) have either deliberately turned a blind eye to rule compliance or are absolutely and utterly inept!
Take your pick.
As we head towards season 2014- 2015, it appears that those within some clubs who strive for proper financial governance of their own clubs and the game in general are demanding a new attitude.
Like Jackie Stewart all those years before they are demanding change within their sport and they are being awkward about it — in particular they will ask the question:
Before you get the chance to finish first, having considered all the financial rules can you prove that you are likely to finish?
If not, put your house in order otherwise you do not get a licence to play at all.
It is an Alexandre Dumas moment — all for one — and one for all.
Timbhoy2
Of course you are entitled to your point of view, this is not follow follow, we are open minded here. Lurking Huns GIRUYs.
I watched the ole Musketeers on BBC.
16thC Paris seemed to be blessed with more unfeasibly goodlookin’ guys and dolls than even the ole CQTen.
DBBIA/MiladydeWinterCSC
Our post-season friendly with Liverpool in Mauritius is now off due to a lack of Sponsorship.
But there is work in the background to
get it back on
Bawsman. I agree at the moment we are stronger but will that still be the case at the start of the new season ? I think there will be a fair few players leaving the club in the summer Sammi Forster Van Dyck to name only three but there will be many more.I think it will depend on who we bring in as replacements wither we will still be stronger at the start of the new season. H.H.
Dear Scoddland,
…to successfully conclude the re-modelling of the Bowling Klub,
might we be so boul’
to ask that Heid Barman , Brandy Syphon
(and all o’ his ilk)……….. are relieved of their ….. *cough*
“supervisory” duties and especially those pertaining to……..
‘customer service’?
Yours in Anticipation…etc etc
Vmhan,
Just catching up with your replies from last night.
Again, I ask, when did we “have” our club?
You seem to have a vision of Celtic boards of a bygone age that didn’t exist.
In reality, the present board are more socially connected than any other since the dinner tables were in operation.
There is even a specialised section of the club, the Celtic Foundation, to coordinate various community initiatives.
The PLC model is the safest way to protect the club from unscrupulous owners and/or directors.
As Auldheid noted, look around you and see how other clubs either screw or are being screwed, before you cast aspersions at our own club.
I fully understand that people have a world view on how things should be, but, in the real world that means very little; especially when that view, in certain circumstances, leads to ruination.
Celtic’s policy is for sustainable longevity, not crash and burn profligy.
Like you and I, we need to be sure, if possible, that we have rainy day cash.
I don’t believe that the club should spoon feed the support and I don’t buy into this ” disconnect” concept.
Sadly, at a time when the game in Scotland is corrupt and there is a job being done to reclaim the game, there appears to be a fifth column within the support, intent in undermining the club at every opportunity.
Finally, I don’t understand what your closing line meant. Too subtle and obtuse for me.
Would you please spell it out for me.
Cheers, ttt.
If (big if) lenny and celtic were to part company, Steve Clarke as a replacement wouldn’t break my heart.
Anyways…..good luck big Dolph. 3 pages in the record I see. Just goes to show we really are the biggest club in the land.
As if ye needed reminding ;)
You can say all you want, post all you want in here or any other blogs, as long as the SMSM keep away from the subject of change at the SFA nothing big will happen, all you are getting now is the SMSM waxing lyrically about how great a guy CO is, you couldent mark this mobs neck wi a fecking blow torch.
Happy St George’s day to all you English hoops.
MWD
Steve Clark Celtic manager?
I had to look twice there to make sure I wasent on the ff website.
Geordie Munro
09:59 on 23 April, 2014
‘If (big if) lenny and celtic were to part company, Steve Clarke as a replacement wouldn’t break my heart.’
###
Or we could go for Islam Feruz as manager with Jimmy Bell as assistant.
Feck St. George, and the horse he rode into town on.
tonydonnelly67…..
GIRUYs.. no good for the sternum!!
tonydonnelly67
10:02 on 23 April, 2014
Why waste the blow-torch fuel on their brass-necks……..there is already an infinitely more appropriate orifice for that implement available…….might need quite a few of them, though, for simultaneous insertion / effect …..
St George never visited Engerlund…
thomthethim for Oscar OK
09:59 on 23 April, 2014
‘In reality, the present board are more socially connected than any other since the dinner tables were in operation.’
####
You must have a very detailed knowledge and understanding of the Club’s history to be able to assert that.
Are you sure you’re not just letting your admiration for the current set up run away with itself?
ernie lynch
10:07 on 23 April, 2014
Hail Hail to our NEIL…
ernie lynch
10:10 on 23 April, 2014
You’re letting your negativity run away with itself …. :)
desertbhoy
10:10 on 23 April, 2014
I’ve never even heard of Engerlund……hahahahahahaha