Let’s clear something up right away. Every summer Celtic know they may not reach the Champions League group stage. No matter how well they plan and recruit, they can come up against a better, or luckier, opponent. Champions League football might not happen in any given season, or the following season.
Celtic failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League five times in the last nine seasons. We might be getting better at qualification, but no one is making that assumption.
On 30 June last year, we had £24.5m in the bank. That figure should be higher on the same reporting date this year. We might not reach the Champions League group stage next season, but your football club has never been better prepared for a sporting reversal.
In a newspaper interview yesterday, Dave King compared Celtic’s current position with that of now-liquidated Rangers at the time Martin O’Neill came to Celtic. In O’Neill’s first season at Celtic, Rangers competed in the Champions League group stage before dropping to the Uefa Cup. But, on their 30 June 2001 reporting date, they had a bank balance of only £17,000. Not enough to buy a family hatchback.
Rangers were gambling every penny they could get their hands on without thought for the consequences of a reversal. It was a brutal period to be a Celtic fan, because although we were also losing money during at that time, the club was under siege from all sides for not ‘showing the ambition’ of the likes of David Murray and Dave King at Rangers.
Celtic know the perils of an over-dependence on Champions League revenues. We do not budget on having to qualify for the group stage each season, far from it. Our commercial sponsorship deals, retail and hotel plans, as well as player recruitment and development strategy, are all designed to mitigate an over-reliance on one source of income. A £24.5m bank balance is evidence of a club planning on long-term stability.
We know what we will do in any season they don’t qualify for the Champions League in order to give us the best chance to do so the following season. We know what to do to respond to any credible threat from another Scottish club for the domestic title.
We have experienced professionals in the boardroom and throughout all executive roles, and an actual billionaire who has put more money into Celtic than anyone has put into any Scottish football club – apart from the money the taxpayer wrote off due to the liquidation of Rangers while Dave King was paid to monitor and direct the club.
Celtic run scenarios on how things can go wrong. They know the limits of what King and Newco can achieve and believe the biggest threat to Celtic’s dominance is for the executive to make strategically bad moves. Rangers era of dominance was undone by financial recklessness, but in management terms, the problem was that the mechanisms did not exist to call the board to account on their gambling.
To combat this, Celtic have made sure that everyone at the club is challenged on their plans and performance, especially the chief executive. If there is a strategically bad move made at Celtic, which could threaten their dominance in Scotland, it will have to get through multiple layers of scrutiny and opposition. No one wants to be the next David Murray or Dave King.
Your football club might not be gamblers on the scale of Murray and King, but they are fiercely competitive and never want to lose another Scottish title. That is what we plan for, and that is the reality that Dave King cannot come to terms with.
£6m from a share issue – and he didn’t even commit to that amount, even if the Takeover Panel are quickly satisfied on the overdue share offer! And all that patter yesterday about delays in opening a bank account; why now transfer the money into your solicitor’s client account, like the rest of the world?
Why so many people put faith in this man “beggars belief”, to borrow a phrase. From his “glib and shameless liar” title to the years of evidence laid out in plain sight. You know how this story ends.
Ben Nevis Huddle is back!
After a three year gap, the Celtic fans will be back on Ben Nevis on mass on 30 June, to raise funds for your Foundation. This is a great chance to climb Britain’s highest in the company of dozens of other Celtic fans.
Participants are asked to raise (only) £130 for the Foundation. It is a great opportunity, see here for more details and to sign up.
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Crocker states Aberdeen looking for first win over either of Old Firm this season. Where do you start with that comment?
I hope the ball was subbed at half time
Excellent response from Brendan.
Sounds like Aberdeen have finally turned up against Sevco.
Columbian Joe Garner gives away the penalty. Oh dear…
Thought I was watching Rankers v Aberdeen but it turns out to be Fatboab Utd v Soapysouter Rovers – what utter pihs on displaying
Wouldn’t have Ryan Christie in a gift at the moment
The following tweet may be injurious to your health ????????
https://mobile.twitter.com/sporf/status/993461399312654337?s=12
the atmosphere must be toxic up in aberdeen – the hu^s’ll hate this
McLean (ref) starting to give them a hand.
RC been poor.
Aberdeen lifting their skirts every so gently!
Rangers should be nowhere near this – but somehow they are!
To be fair toRC – it’s no place for a footballer
Super Cumdog coming on. The 18mil man weak effort.
DAVID17 on 8TH MAY 2018 8:31 PM
Could watch this sh1te all day. Absolute dross, what a feckin laugh ?
—–
wife asked me “what you watchin thats so funny ?”
i keep giggling,
that last morelos shot,
hahahahhahahaha
El Buffalo has the coke bloat, Pena has the self same bloat, you can spot it a mile away.
Morelos! Could he finish his dinner?
China Crisis
Holt on Cumdog on
No change second half so far. Huns still ugly, still gettin’ beat.
Holding up a candle to the Sun is like comparing Morelos to a football player!
Oops.
Spoke to soon.
Huns equalise.
And the skirt is hitched!
Bateen Bhoy , further to your earlier post about really ugly huns.
Davie Dodds played for them also with possibly the ugliest being a player they signed from one of the Inverness teams, Billy Urquhart. He was gruesome looking.
Gregor Stevens was very ugly as well.
Aberdeen- a result at home is all they need – shambolic
Whit’s the goalie daein????
1-1
Andy Walker having a turn- what can you say
Sheep look like they’ve been drugged at half time.
Draw might be better for Hibs..no?
A joke of defending suited to this game
Aberdeen have been awful second half, getting deeper and deeper, can’t see them winning this now.
Why does Paul go on about the financial state of the club from Ibrox, with much facts and figures?
Couldn’t it be that he is trying to provide us with ammunition against hun supporters in our work.
Dallas Dallas,
Forgot about Gregor Stevens. I’m going to have the nightmares again now…..?
Logan shoiting himself.
The Sheep are total guff, I haven’t seen them for a while but it’s hard to imagine they have any kind of coaching or tactical awareness…
Mon The Lenny your team are better than these two..
And the Billy Boys ring out.
WiTS, if they beat the diets tomorrow it does.
I’am away