I’ve been looking for signs for an inflationary bounce in English football. The next Premier League TV deal is still 12 months away but at this stage before previous TV deals kicked in, clubs started spending ahead of themselves as they looked to secure a piece of the lucrative new deal. In particular, I’m keen to see how central defenders are valued.
Today news broke that West Brom agreed a deal with newly-relegated Hull City to sign central defender, James Chester (26) for £8m. Chester has 11 months left on his contract at Hull. Three years in the English Championship and 45 Premier League games over two seasons was enough evidence to induce modest West Brom to pay the asking price.
It would have helped that three other Premier League clubs, Southampton, Aston Villa and Newcastle, were also reportedly interested, but no one is making false claims for a lad who has not troubled the scouts of England’s top clubs. He’s a modest player who is able to sign a pre-contract in January. This is a spectacular fee, passing between two modest clubs, for a central defender.
Consequences for us? We’ll see.
I’m doing a State of the Club article for Friday, as we do the day before the league campaign starts. So far there’s a flow to the words. A solid result on Wednesday will reaffirm that, whereas a reversal would, frankly, deem a satisfactory assessment inappropriate.
So much turns on these next few games, Champions League qualification, squillions of pounds, and sure, the State of the Club. We’ve come through a few iterations of acceptable levels of performance over the last 20 years, since winning our first trophy in six years. Younger readers will never appreciate how precious a 1-0 Scottish Cup win over Airdrie could be.
These days it’s all about the treble and Champions League group stage qualification. The loss of a cup would be an annoyance, but Celtic need to be part of the Champions League.
Our friends at Magners have offered a pair of Premium seat tickets for the Jock Stein Stand at the opening league game of the season on Saturday. To enter, all you need to do is email me with the name [IN THE SUBJECT LINE] of who we play that day, celticquicknews@gmail.com
If you’d like to donate £1 to the CQN Mary’s Meals school kitchen appeal, help towards what would be our fifth kitchen in Malawi, you can do so here:
Entries close at 6pm this evening, so not much time.
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Modren trolls are really rubbidge!
Being a successful troll. Rule 1. ‘You must occasionally say something of sufficient wit, accuracy, interest or relevance to cause people to pause to read your input’
Agent Provocateur?
Nope just plain pants!
Daniel Defoe would be birlin’ in his grave!
HH jamesgang
franny … I, too, am struggling to understand this one … clearly, NB and SB have the two starting roles tied up … but after that, we are a bit thin on true midfielders … and LH is that … but he doesn’t seem to figure in the plans at the moment….. all we can hope is that, if he does go, he goes somewhere he will get first team minutes, and will come back an improved player ready to stake his claim in the first team.
Getting pretty nervous about the game.
As per!
2-0 really good
3-0 great
Clean sheet – vital!
As someone who sees betting as a mug’s game the only line I’d put on would be a Broonie hat trick!
HH jamesgang
MIT
Re Z i would look out for 2 articles from Z which i thought were stunning
1.Rollback parts 1 to 4 trickledown fantasy and
2 His analysis of the first twin towers bomb in 1993 was a scary bit of foresight about where Us foreign policy was heading
Enjoy
HH
Winning Captains
Still having an issue with the Magazine, went in through different means, and still tripping out
Ok – those all using the digibox (kodi), Important Note –
My mate who is really clued up on these things, tells me the very latest and by far best means for access to all programs is through
Google
“Iptv stalker” copy this zip file onto your box, laptop or tablet, will give you the very best access to all requirements
Hope this helps :-))
Hail Hail
James Gang
i am feeling good bout tomorrow night,not cocky or overconfident,just a job of work to do by winning and that is what our club is about :-)
i feel our preseason has worked well so far and we are improving too.
no hun broadcaster or squinted convos on radio for me.
ITS ALL ABOUT CELTIC
maybe bump into you tomorrow night :-)
hail hail one and all have a good evening
:-)
HH
SSN reporting that we will be playing in the new European strip tomorrow. I want us in the hoops at every opportunity. Hh
Result more important than the Kit. HH
When I saw that Quarabag’s away shirt was all white I was afraid that it would clash with our hoops and thus we would be asked to change. Perhaps that’s it?
jamesgang
16:39 on 28 July, 2015
Being a successful troll. Rule 1. ‘You must occasionally say something of sufficient wit, accuracy, interest or relevance to cause people to pause to read your input’
‘occasionally interesting or relevant ?! ‘…. so, I dont even qualify as a troll! damn! :)
An Tearmann …. thanks. I will see if I can dig them up.
Typical ‘backfiring’ reports especially from BBC, on Celtic CL ticket sales.
Tickets going like hot cakes csc
Thought Qarabag’s strip was mainly black. I have always thought additional strips should only be used when there is a clash. How naive. HH
masty
I was working as a porter in the North British Hotel(now millenium) glasgow late78 early 79 and the Scotland team were in ,
“Go and find Mr Stein and tell him there is a telephone call for him”Nae mobiles :)))
I’m over 6foot 4 and the closer I got to him the smaller I began to feel, after passing on the message and a brief thanks son reply ,I could have flew as I walked back with him,
Kenny Dalglish always seemed to be sitting apart from the others signing things and , Gordon McQueen & Martin Buchin were together Buchan had a black eye if memory serves me right.
MiT
If you were a mere toley trolly there wouldn’t be a long Q of is waiting to buy you a pint when you come over!
An tearmann
Hope you’re right big stuff. I’ll be at the Corner with atop and his wee pal
HH jamesgang
pannysbhoy on their official website it looked white for away games. I don’t like the hubris of wearing our NB bumblebee Europe strip. It smacks of presumption.
Like others I also think it diminishes the psychological power of watching the hoops.
Somehow a poor performance in these alternative strips looks even more hapless than usual.
Mike in Toronto…..
If true, I would support Liam’s loan to Dundee Utd. As things stand right now, I don’t think he has a great chance of making it at Celtic. Dylan McGeouch had more talent, yet got completely ignored at Celtic.
There was no ‘program’ by which he would have a chance to develop. NL played his strongest teams almost all the time. Dylan got a few games – as a winger. He never had the acceleration for that. A few more at full back. I believe Dylan is back with us, but clearly only so we can get money for him.
Liam faces a similar future. Unless he takes a different route. As you pointed out, Brown and Biton have these 2 positions. Charlie is back, and the coach always tries to shoehorn him into the side. So in all probability, he would be ahead of Liam.
Likewise, I think Rogic has pushed himself into 4th in line for one of these 2 spots.
Dundee Utd do a better job of bringing young players on. Way better than we do. He’d get a chance there. And if he did well, he’d play the next week, too. He might get 20 starts for United this season. What will he get with us? 4?
So, all in all, it makes sense to me.
On Liam nothing anywhere apart from that tweet,
31003
15:46 on 28 July, 2015
Help.
Just purchased a fire stick. I’ll download kodi. Whats to do once downloaded?
Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?
If you download kodi from the link below, it will configure kodi with all the most common and useful addons.
http://www.tvaddons.ag
Celtic Football Club
@celticfc
StuArmstrong: Bhoys ready for big Euro test celticfc.net/news/8696
http://www.celticfc.net/news/8696
jamesgang … I know it is still a few months away, but I am already getting excited about the trip …. although with all the CQN’ers to meet, it may become a trip to Celtic Park with a side trip to ireland, instead of the other way ’round! How am I going to explain this to the boss? Although I suspect that once she gets to Celtic Park and meets everyone, it could end with me telling her that she is spending too much time on CQN!
weeron .. I think the demise of the reserves a few seasons ago (whcih I think was done to help the zombies) has definitely made it more difficult to us to develop players for sure ….; although, honestly, that hasn’t been our strong suit for some time….
but I hope LH gets a run, and comes back …. from the little I have seen of him, there is a bit of fire about him that I like … but, then again, I thought Darren O’dea would be great for us, and that didn’t work out as I hoped …. so, I’m probably not the best judge!
Interesting ….from Phil’s blog
goneinthemorning
July 28, 2015 at 3:30 am
I have struggled to understand the business of The Rangers since Administration,
subsequent liquidation and the the resulting fire sale for 5.5 million.
I initially thought the IPO would be a resounding failure and to be honest, it still mystifies me
that it was a resounding success.
I dont want to go into the machinations of the SFA and SPL to keep The Rangers in the top flight, but I
am sure that this was factored into investment decisions. But who knows?
The latest moves by Ashley left me a litlle bit dumfounded. Normally, successfull business men do not
invest in such obvious lemons. But just because I didnt understand it didnt meen there wasnt some method
behind the madness.
The following are just my flights of fancy and as such should not be taken seriously!
The Rangers is a football business without:
1 any great footballer registration value
2 any resource for scouting or youth development
3 any source of outside finance except from Ashley
Ashley’s 3 million loan effectively shafted any other outside investment.
His loan would have to have been paid off first.
4 a revenue stream which can support ongoing costs and capital investment
The Rangers also suffers from a dwindling and fractured support which has had a huge effect on revenues
given the season ticket boycott orchestrated by a certain South African gentleman.
Revenue streams are diluted by “onerous” contracts paid to person or persons unknown.
In addition to these, effectively fatal, business problems, The Rangers has:
1 an ageing stadium which is extremely expensive to maintain and in it’s present
state of repair, requires considerable capital investment. Any investment in the stadium
would probably give a negative ROIC given the points mentioned above.
2 a white elephant in Murray Park which offers no benefit to the first team. If it did
The Rangers first team would not have so many highly paid first team players over the age
of 28. Murray Park, by all accounts, is a significant drain on cash flow.
I think it is safe to say that no-one in their right mind would invest in this disaster.
However, Ashley has and will continue to do so. Without him, The Rangers would have died months ago. So what am I missing?
Well lets look at The Rangers assets.
Ibrox
Aye. There’s the rub.
Does anyone really know who owns Ibrox or at least who has the best claim to it?
Is it Sevco 5088?
Are Ticketus still involved? (And why wouldnt they be? 22 million FFS)
What about the monthly 250k paid to person or persons unknown as alluded to by PMac?
Ibrox really is a mystery!
Albion car park and Edmonton House.
My Dad told me that the best investment to be made is in bricks and mortar. Or in this case the land it could be built on.
Ashley has gained control of these with his 5 million loan. As I understand it, this is effectively 2 million as
his first loan of 3 million has to be paid back. The Rangers will never be able to pay this back. These propertoes including
Murray Park, are Ashleys.
Not a bad bit of business there!!
The retail business.
Ashley has effectively gained full control of the retail business including image rights, broken crests etc.
However, I can’t really see any long term value in this. This business is essentially selling branded The Rangers merchandise
to fans. See my initial points re dwindling support.
So Ashley gets naming rights for the stadium and free sponsorship for his Sports Direct Brand. So What?
Despite the BBC showing every The Rangers game it can get, it is a small and dwindling audience.
Friday night football? Get real!!
Sports Direct is a 2.8 BILLION pound per year business. The Rangers is chickenfeed.
So, we have a football team going nowhere with a dwindling support. Ergo. A dwindling merchandise market.
However, Ashley has picked it up for nothing and will
doubtless milk it dry in the short term.
We therefore have:
1 an unsustainable football club business
2 an unsustainable stadium
3 an unsustainable retail business
But Mr Ashley already has major assets at his disposal:
1 Albion Car Park
2 Edminston House
3 Murray Park
The only piece of the jig saw which is missing is Ibrox. In my opinion, it has been the only real asset since the beginning
of the end.
The fire sale of Rangers has netted persons unknown maybe 30 to 40 million in the last 3 years, not counting the hangers on.
It has been a magnificent gravy train. But all trains stop at the terminus. The whole deal has never been about the football club.
No business man in the world will cry a tear over the demise of The Rangers, unless he lost some money!!
Ashley already has all the assets. The Rangers will never be able to pay back the loans.
Ashley has no interest whatsoever in The Rangers. He doesn’t need a football club in Glasgow and doesn’t want one.
Ashley will only ever get a very short term gain from The Rangers merchandise, which may cover his expenses.
What Ashley wants is prime real estate in the growing metropolis of Glasgow and Ibrox is the key.
The next 5 million loan by Ashley is contingent on due diligence. I suspect that that is over the Ibrox Question.
If he ends up with Ibrox then The Rangers are dead. If he does not, then The Rangers are dead.
For me, it has always been about Ibrox and real estate. There is just nothing else of value.
Modren download kodi from the link below, it will configure kodi with all the most common and useful addons is rubbish.
We should be wearing the hoops in any big home game wherever possible IMO
Don’t know if there’s anything in the contract with NB which might influence our choice of strips ,I kind of assumed that the European strip would be mainly worn away.
Or is it just about flogging them?
Liam Henderson still looks a bit like an immature laddie,you can see the potential there,but it hasn’t fully arrived yet,I would be willing to farm him out to a good team ie Dundee Utd for a season, let him get a years experience with Dundee Utd then see how he turns out, there isn’t any sense in letting him stagnate on the bench as he isn’t ready to take over one of the midfield rolls just yet.
Tamabam
The trouble is that with our present resources and the standard of the league here we will be struggling to qualify from the CL group stages. A lot of energy expended to end up third or forth. Still its nice to have a couple of glamour games and we will dream that maybe this year……. Still got plenty of work to be done to even get to the groups though.
MiT
V muck looking forward to it!
An tearmann
I typed Roo. The iPhone said atop. Go figure!!
HH jamesgang
A long but interesting read for you Scottish and irish historians……….Enjoy
http://scottishsecrets.weebly.com/
Ole Buffalo Bill will be spinning in his grave with all these Cody folks a twittering and a yakin.
A couple of things Celtic need to take full advantage of tmoro…. And
1) being the rain…. No amount of watering training pitches in Baku, will prepare the visitors for the slick surface at Celtic park tomorrow night… In the heat of Baku, water on the training pitch would just evaporate.
The Tony Watt goal versus Barca springs to mind. The quick clearance from Fraser Foster, caught Macsherano out, Watt runs through and scores…. For every Tony Watt there is a Leigh Griffiths.
Again, therefore I would hope to see some direct balls in between the lines of their centre backs and full backs, with Griffiths running on to the through balls.
2) the other thing I thought about today, was in relation to Alex Fergusons Man Utd teams of 5 to 10 years ago. Granted we don’t have the same quality of player as they did at the time. But it was Fergie’s tactic to play at an intense pace, constant pressing, fast passing…. That even some of the top club names in Europe just simply folded under the intensity.
That’s what we need to bring to the table tomorrow night. Anything less, and we will simply play in to the visitors hands.
DBBIA,
I have just spent a half hour coming to the same conclusion, after my nephew had set me up. I’ll have to get him back to sort out the mess I’ve made, trying to make it better.
Anybody know what ROIC means? It’s in the context of sorting/ maintaining Ibrox- read it on Phil Mac’s site
There ought to be a web cam on the ole Celtic ticket office, so that twitchy Hoopsters could jump over to Parkers during any lulls in the queue.
bournesouprecipe
According to the BBC, there is no queue in the lulls.
glendalys
Very nicely done.
☺️
Parkheadcumsalford- it makes you wonder how we ever managed to get to the Moon; with nothing more clever cloggery than an old slide rule.
i’vehadtochangemyname
It is the return you get from your investment
The BBC web cam is fixed on the big Hoose Portacabin in the Albion car park.
Here are the actual words spoken by John Collins:
“I am not surprised there is talk about Virgil. When you are a good player there is going to be speculation.
It’s another club mentioned today, I am sure there will be another next week.
He’s a Celtic player.
Would it be difficult to keep him if we don’t make the Champions League? Probably. But hopefully we won’t have to deal with that scenario.”
You are the Sports Editor of the DR. What would your headline be?
I will post the real one in a moment.
JJ