You would be forgiven for thinking Honest Dave King is a bit preoccupied by the C word. Every time he extrapolates where the club he supports (through an accomplished undermining strategy) is heading, the subject returns to knocking Celtic off their lofted perch.
This task could take £30m-£50, King estimates, a burden he is willing to share with others, although he does not appear to put a figure on his own piece of the action. Ploughing £50m into newco Rangers over the next five years would certainly help, but it would still leave them short of Celtic’s projected income over the period, and in this town, success is a zero sum game.
Top dog gets a crack at Champions League income, which is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. For a Scottish club to get into the Champions League in a responsible manner, they need Champions League income more seasons than not. Alternatively, they can gamble recklessly, build up contractual commitments which stretch out for years into the future, in the hope that they out-perform the other would-be top dog.
We’ve seen this movie before, it is the arms race that David Murray bulldozed Scottish football into. It was calamitous for his club, which was sold for £1 to an insolvency specialist before being liquidated.
It had consequences for Celtic too. Fergus McCann build a stadium and left us almost debt free, but in the intervening 20 years Celtic lost far more than they would have, if they had copied the lavish spend (and tax) policies Murray undertook with Rangers.
Things are different now. We have cash in the bank, a winning team on the field, who have qualified for the Champions League group stages twice in succession, and we’re guaranteed to be seeded to qualify again next season. We also have a secure long-term borrowing facility, so in the event of a reversal in qualification, the club would not be put in jeopardy.
Starting an arms war with this Celtic team would be an act of remarkable courage. Observers will also note that the upper limit of King’s expected requirement, £50m, is just a little less than 10 times what the highest bidder for Rangers assets managed to clean up with, when the supporter’s need was greatest.
There is an alternative football development strategy, it’s called sustainability. Budget to spend no more than what you expect to earn, appoint good coaches and scouts, pay your tax and look the world in the eye.
Engage fans in this sustainability model. Tell them the road to the top will have twists and turns, and will take a while, but they can be sure their club will never be liquidated. This is the only way to run a football club, whether your Celtic, Aberdeen or newco Rangers. It’s not always popular, there will often be calls to speculate a little more, but it will ensure the club survives.
King is a smart guy, so he will know this. He’s even lived through all the pain and drama once before, so the sustainability question will be intimately familiar to him. The question, therefore, is why is he attempting to lead strategy into the Clyde, flute in hand, like some latter-day Pied Piper of Govan?
He seems reluctant to underestimate Celtic but I detect a belief that the hedge funds, not to mention the Easdales, can be shoved around. That is courageous.
Keep up the good work, Dave.
Here we Go for 10 In a Row!
The 10th annual CQN charity golf day is set for Aberdour Golf Club on Friday 4th July. As ever it will be oversubscribed so if you’re interested in attending drop an email to BlantyreKev and Taggsy at cqnopen10IAR@gmx.co.uk as soon as you can.
Cost for the full day’s entertainment including golf is £80. There are a very limited number of non golfer evening places at £45.
Further detail will be released nearer the date and when places confirmed.
Seville – The Celtic Movement:
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The Rangers International Football Club – formed in 2012
– Founding father – Charles Green
– Colours – Red, white and blue in the same tradition as the former Glasgow Rangers
– Stadium – Ibrox Park which was home to the former Glasgow Rangers
– Honours – Champions division 3 2012/2013
– Nickname – The Dirty Bar Stars
– Current Financial Status – 16 million pound loss
– Share Price – less than a packet of crisps
– Future – Bleak to Black
– Manager – Ally McSleekitt (legned)
Me?
Excellent article Paul
HH
Too fast for me RTB!
shamelessly stolen from someone else….
HAIL HAIL….
People think about who they really are in the stillest of the night …
First XI ?
Wee dayooooot/hootenanny on the cards for May 10.
Last game of the season,hopefully a 3pm ko and a trophy award.
Anyone who fancies a quiet civilised libation or two look away now!
No doubt we’ll end up in The Gallowgate singing songs we shouldnae,but I reckon the Kerrydale Suite after the match will dead-heat with West for the venue of choice.
Anyway,I’d be really grateful as always to those who turn up.
We are open to all!
This task could take £30m-£50, King estimates, a burden he is willing to share with others
If they are prepared to invest £49,999 996.
Livi
The hoops are Celtic.
Leftclick
Great link
Rangers II – The Soap Opera Continues.
Best comedy of the year …
Top ten Me & Oscar???
Great article Paul….especially the ironic ” King is a smart guy”
Leftclick from previous.
Favorite ki?
For me it has to be the Korean dude plying his trade with the black cats. ;-)
This is a ‘BOLD’ move by Dave King.
If he ‘Hey Perso’s’ £50M then it will be DAZling.
MWD
Excellent article, Paul 67, but who’s this new club you have referred to as newco rangers….. rangers are deed…….this new club is the rifc, or sevco, as I like to call them …….
PAUL67
IMO,King reckons that the current Rangers model will fold.
It will fold despite his entreaties to the current board to be permitted inside the tent and spread the largesse.
Thus the uncrowned King will be welcomed by the hordes as the conquering hero.
Without spending his ill-gotten gains either.
He’s not interested in Rangers Mk2. He’s only interested in himself. But if I am right,he will be a dangerous foe in charge of Third Rangers.
He’s a street fighter. He’ll take no prisoners,and he will be more ruthless than even Murray was.
IMO,Celtic should move heaven and earth to have him disqualified.
He will use his position at Rangers Mk3 to seriously damage the integrity of the game up here in order to get to the top of the tree.
IMO.
Surely Easdale will donate the £200k he is suing a died in the wool fan for to the fund.? After all the hun was only calling a spade a shovel!!
Big weekend ahead for me,
getting married on Friday,
hopefully see the hoops win the league on Saturday
and Tenerefe on sunday for 2 weeks honeymoon
hope we win the league on Saturday as I have friends
up from England going to their first Celtic game
LiviBhoy…. Excellent story from earlier.
I love it when my Dad tells me a story and he is in his mid- sixties now.
My favourite story he tells is not about him though – it’s about his Dad ( my Papa who died in 1988, but who thankfully got to see the Centenary double being won )
It is a very short story and it is brought up any time we talk about the 7-1 game from 1957.
My Dad was 9 then and he tells me that it was the only time he ever seen his Dad ( my Papa ) unable to stand up or even talk. He was THAT drunk!
My Papa was a tiny wee man so he wouldn’t have to go a long way to hit the deck!
Anyway when my Dad tells me that story his face lights up and he is bursting with pride. I could listen to that story every day of the week. It makes me proud and grateful to be a Tim…………Oh Hampden in the Sun, Celtic 7 and the Rangers 1, all my days I will sing in praise of the Celtic team that played that day.
YNWA
LB
Repost your article. It gets lost at the end of a previous article and everyone will want to read it.
BMCUWP
Is it one word? Should have stuck in at English when I was at school and not sat dreaming of us stopping 4,5,6,7 in a row!
Hahahaha
LB
maestro-number8, thanks.
Richie, ah, you spotted it.
67Heaven, they may be a new club, but I have no problem calling them by their chosen acquired name. Just as I would for Airdrieoneans.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S, I disagree. I don’t see any viable threat from King. Hope he stays around for a long time.
maestro-number8
Thanks mate. On the 7-1 game. My dad was just a toddler in 1957 but they had a huge radio in the front room. It had never worked as long as he could remember. It was sort of a piece of furniture that made the room look better. He had asked his mother about it and it was broken during the 7-1 game when his father lifted it clean in the air when the 7th goal was scored at Hampden.
LB
Paul67
There are three questions.
Have TRFC/King learned nothing from their experience?
Have the SFA and member clubs learned nothing from the consequences of Rangers experience?
Have the laptop loyal learned nothing from Rangers experience?
The stupidity at play is colossal.
At some point in their past all the above must have partaken of dodo pie and some it entered their gene pool.
wee piece updated on the article above.
LIVIBHOY
Seems so,bud.
It used to be hyphenated,but the hyphen is used less and less these days.
Maybe we’re going down the German way of chucking loadsawordstogether to make one.
But,more seriously,it was an excellent post,as have all of yours been recently.
And before.
So Dave the Rave says..
I will invest another 30 million and don’t expect to get anything back from it
Is that a Freudian slip
Does he mean?….
Not like the 20 million where I got 17 million back
A few posts today on the Leeds Utd match in 1970. I was born in 1978 and the only recollections I have of the game are on TV and through my dads memories of it.
My dad is a wonderful story teller. He tells many stories over and over again and I still laugh at them and I still listen intently to hear if he has missed any details or has changed it in any way. The game v Leeds Utd is probably one of his favourite Celtic games of all time. His hero throughout the period was Bobby Lennox. There is no doubt of that but all the Lions were held in high esteem. My dad thinks that Lions are the greatest football side the world has ever seen and will ever see. Every player was a complete player for him. He will not hear a bad word said about them. In 1970 the team had evolved slightly. Some thought they were a better side. My dad would not hear of it. The Lions would never be bettered. He did say that Murdoch was the finest midfielder he ever saw. Not surprising when the Lions are a team that can’t be bettered. My dad had a love for George Connelly though. He remembers this gangly lad doing keepie uppies around the track at Celtic Park during Half time or previous to a game. I think it may have been an evening match and he said to me that Connelly should have been one of the games greats. Alas it was not to be and George was lost to the game. I actually read his book and the man seemed to have confidence issues. A real shame and loss to not only Celtic and Scotland but the game as a whole.
Leeds Utd were lauded as the greatest team in Europe. I don’t need to educate anyone on here about that. There are better placed people than me to explain the media hype and fascination with Revie’s Leeds Utd side. Celtic dealt with them at Elland Road in what I believe was a reasonably straight forward 1-0 win with Connelly netting the only goal.
The game at Hampden was possibly the only match in European history that can be described as a true battle of Britain. A collosal crowd and two teams at the height of their powers. This was not a mismatch of high spending teams like we see in the modern game. This was as level as Scottish and English sides have ever been in a European cup semi final.
My dad went to the game on the supporters bus from OHR in Clydebank. He was a regular attender at mass and had been working for a few years. He would have been around 17. He gave all his wages to his mother and she allotted him his pocket money. He had been working since the age of 14 having been removed from St Pat’s in Dumbarton by his mother who had told the headmaster that he had a start in the shipyards where she worked on the ships being built as a cleaner. Alas the job was not guaranteed but merely a line of men and my dad complete with piece box was not selected. The foreman asked why he was there and my dad explained the situation. He was taken into a huge boat by the man and his mother was in the bowels of it sat on a bucket playing cards with a group of fellow workers. This your Bhoy? Aye. Give him a start will ye? He was in. The boat was the QE2.
My dad has told me many times about the crowd there. There must have been 150,000 he explained. You coudn’t breathe. He said the noise was defeaning but would have been louder if half the crowd were able to get their breath. He told me that Billy Bremner scored one of the greatest goals he ever saw. He wasn’t worried. This was Celtic. This team did not give in. They were certainly not going to give in to a team from down the road who were over hyped. Celtic were better than this team. Leeds Utd did not play the Celtic way. They were a nasty team. Cynical and dirty. Celtic driven on by their huge support won over the Leeds side. They outplayed them. Outfought them. Victory was secured my dad said that the lap of honour after the match was somewhat premature. He felt it was as if the European Cup was already won AGAIN. I have no idea what it felt like to be there. Celtic were going for the European cup for the 2nd time in 3 years. Not only did my dad win the bus sweep with Bremner but Celtic had won through and would be going to Milan. During the crushing in the first half a guy had peed down my dad’s leg but that was only a miniscule blow compared to the thought that Celtic would be going to Milan and many of his friends would be going and he would not. He was too young for Lisbon. In any event he was in the hospital have his apendix removed and didn;t even see the whole game. To be in employment though and be unable to go to the final in Milan was crushing for him. he hadn’t a home European match in about 3 years. He attended games home and away every week in the league and cup. This was a devastating situation to be in. It’s like not being able for me to go to Seville except 100 times worse. I can imagine how he felt. He must have been distraught.
During the next week or so the build up was in full swing. The church were running a trip to Milan. They would be flying there. My dad had never even been on a plane. The only time he had been abroad was to Ireland in his youth to visit relatives in Donegal. It was to him like going to the moon to travel to Milan for the final. He couldn’t afford it even if he wanted to go. It was breaking his heart. The team he loved would probably go on to lift the European cup and he would not be there. Many of his friends and people he knew were going. It was all they spoke about. It was depressing him. People who had gone to a handful of Celtic matches were going. He was in abject misery. A friend of his asked him to accompany him to the meeting at the church for the final details of the trip and then take him for a pint afterwards to wish him well on his way for his journey. My dad explained to his friend that hearing the details of the trip would be too much for him. he would meet him in the pub afterwards. His friend insisted he should come along he had to be there to wish the Bhoys well for their trip. My dad decided that he should attend. He had many friends and people he knew to be going and wanted to wish them well for their journey and maybe pick him up a souvenir. The priest I believe it to be Fr Cairns read out the details of the trip and my dad sat in the pew in abject misery hearing rhe details of the trip of a lifetime to see Celtic in the most exotic of destinations in the most prestigious game in world football. He said the meeting lasted a lifetime and he just wanted it to be over. Every detail felt like a stabbing pain to his heart. Eventually and much to his relief the meeting was drawing to a close. The priest in a way only they can was just about to say a closing prayer when he said there is one more thing. My dads heart sank. What is he going to say now? I want out of here. ‘There is one lad here who deserves this trip more than anyone in this church this evening but for reasons outwith his control won’t be able to go to Milan’ My dads face was now reddening slightly with embarrassment. ‘The young man is here this evening and I would like him to come forward and collect his ticket and travel details for the trip to Milan’ My dad was confused and pinching himself. Could this lad be me? Am I dreaming? What is happening here? Is this an elaborate wind up? The priest then read out my dads name. he said he must have floated to the front to shake the priests hand and collect his details. I think he cried all his way home. To this day He can’t really remember much of what happened after his name was read out.
The details are sketchy about how this all came about. It was very secretive. He reckons his auntie who was Celtic daft paid for his trip but wanted it to remain a secret.
My dad was going to Milan. It’s all he cared about. I believe he boarded the plane with little more than pennies in his pocket and was under the supervision of the priest who preceded to take them to every church in Milan. The result didn’t go our way. Perhaps we underestimated Feyenoord. I think that may have been the case. After the highs and lows of the previous weeks my dad was just happy to be there. He was in Seville too and is now banned from attending the next European final we reach. He has a terrible record.
It’s an incredible story and one I have been going to share for a while but never really got round to it. I had some spare time today and thought I would get it down on here.
Repost from previous article.
LB
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS ………FC not PLC
12:36 on 25 March, 2014
Wee dayooooot/hootenanny on the cards for May 10.
Last game of the season,hopefully a 3pm ko and a trophy award.
BMCW , the last game of the season for the champions will be Sunday May 11th , the bottom six play Saturday , top six Sunday on last weekend of season. Not sure how this will affect the ‘dayoooot’ plans;
fixtures should be out soon as the top/bottom six are now confirmed.
May 10 Scottish Premiership fixture round 38 (bottom six)
May 11 Scottish Premiership fixture round 38 (top six)
Gordybhoy64, what a fine couple of weeks ahead for you.
All the best, have a great day on Friday, try and cherish every minute as it will go so fast.
Hail Hail
MWD
What I’m wondering is whether the laxative gave him ( amongst other things) the figure they would accept for him to buy them out and, in considering it, he’s calling on the troops to dig deep……he’s ferting (pardon the phun) in the wind, then…!! …….. and anything like that would be scuppered by BDO, anyway, with all the investigations currently underway…..
Mr LiviBhoy…I presume………Great post from earlier, hope you don’t mind me re-posting it for the lunch-time shift!
HH
LiviBhoy – God bless wee Oscar
12:19 on
25 March, 2014
A few posts today on the Leeds Utd match in 1970. I was born in 1978 and the only recollections I have of the game are on TV and through my dads memories of it.
My dad is a wonderful story teller. He tells many stories over and over again and I still laugh at them and I still listen intently to hear if he has missed any details or has changed it in any way. The game v Leeds Utd is probably one of his favourite Celtic games of all time. His hero throughout the period was Bobby Lennox. There is no doubt of that but all the Lions were held in high esteem. My dad thinks that Lions are the greatest football side the world has ever seen and will ever see. Every player was a complete player for him. He will not hear a bad word to say about them. In 1970 the team had evolved slightly. Some thought they were a better side. My dad would not hear of it. The Lions would never be bettered. he did say that Murdoch was the dinest midfielder he ever saw. Not surprising when the Lions are a team that can’t be bettered. My dad had a love for George Connelly though. He remembers this gangly lad doing keepie uppies around the track at Celtic Park during Half time or previous to a game. I think it may have been an evening match and he said to me that Connelly should have been one of the games greats. Alas it was not to be and George was lost to the game. I actually read his book and the man seemed to have confidence issues. A real shame and loss to not only Celtic and Scotland but the game as a whole.
Leeds Utd were lauded as the greatest team in Europe. I don’t need to educated anyone on here about that. There are better placed people than me to explain the media hype and fascination with Revie’s Leeds Utd side. Celtic dealt with them at Elland Road in what I believe was a reasonably straight forward 1-0 win with Connelly netting the only goal.
The game at Hampden was possibly the only match in European history that can be described as a true battle of Britain. A collosal crowd and two teams at the height of their powers. This was not a mismatch of high spending teams like we see in the modern game. This was as level as Scottish and English sides have ever been in a European cup semi final.
My dad went to the game on the supporters bus from OHR in Clydebank. He was a regular attender at mass and had been working for a few years. He would have been around 17. He gave all his wages to his mother and she allotted him his pocket money. He had been working since the age of 14 having been removed from St Pats in Dumbarton by his mother who had told the headmaster that he had a start in the shipyards where she worked on the ships being built as a cleaner. Alas the job was not guaranteed but merely a line of men and my dad complete with piece box was not selected. The foreman asked why he was there and my dad explained the situation. He was taken into a huge boat by the man and his mother was in the bowels of it sat on a bucket playing cards with a group of fellow workers. This your Bhoy? Aye. Give him a start will ye? He was in. The boat was the QE2.
My dad has told me many times about the crowd there. There must have been 150,000 he explained. You coudln’t breathe. he said the noise was defeaning but would have been louder if half the crowd were able to get there breath. He told me that Billy Bremner scored one of the greatest goals he ever saw. He wasn’t worried. This was Celtic. This team did not give in. They were certainly not going to give in to a team from down the road who were over hyped. Celtic were better than this team. Leeds Utd did not play the Celtic way. They were a nasty team. Cynical and dirty. Celtic driven on by their huge support won over the Leeds side. They outplayed them. Out fought them. Victory was secured my dad said that the lap of honour after the match was somewhat premature. he felt it was as if the European Cup was already won AGAIN. I have no idea what it felt like to be there. Celtic were going for the European cup for the 2nd time in 3 years. Not only did my dad win the bus sweep with Bremner but Celtic had won through and would be going to Milan. During the crushing in the first half a guy had peed down my dad’s leg but that was only a miniscule blow compared to the thought that Celtic would be going to Milan and many of his friends would be going and he would not. He was too young for Lisbon. In any event he was in the hospital have his apendix removed and didn;t even see the whole game. To be in employment though and be unable to go to the final in Milan was crushing for him. he hadn’t a home European match in about 3 years. He attended games home and away every week in the league and cup. This was a devastating situation to be in. It’s like not being able for me to go to Seville except 100 times worse. I can imagine how he felt. He must have been distraught.
During the next week or so the build up was in full swing. The church were running a trip to Milan. They would be flying there. My dad had never even been on a plane. The only time he had been abroad was to Ireland in his youth to visit relatives in Donegal. It was to him like going to the moon to travel to Milan for the final. He couldn’t afford it even if he wanted to go. It was breaking his heart. The team he loved would probably go on to lift the European cup and he would not be there. Many of his friends and people he knew were going. It was all they spoke about. It was depressing him. People who had gone to a handful of Celtic matches were going. He was in abject misery. A friend of his asked him to accompany him to the meeting at the church for the final details of the trip and then take him for a pint afterwards to wish him well on his way for his journey. My dad explained to his friend that hearing the details of the trip would be too much for him. he would meet him in the pub afterwards. His friend insisted he should come along he had to be there to wish the Bhoys well for their trip. My dad decided that he should attend. He had many friends and people he knew to be going and wanted to wish them well for their journey and maybe pick him up a souvenir. The priest I believe it to be Fr Cairns read out the details of the trip and my dad sat in the pew in abject misery hearing rhe details of the trip of a lifetime to see Celtic in the most exotic of destinations in the most prestigious game in world football. He said the meeting lasted a lifetime and he just wanted it to be over. Every detail felt like a stabbing pain to his heart. Eventually and much to his relief the meeting was drawing to a close. The priest in a way only they can was just about to say a closing prayer when he said there is one more thing. My dads heart sank. What is he going to say now? I want out of here. ‘There is one lad here who deserves this trip more than anyone in this church this evening but for reasons outwith his control won’t be able to go to Milan’ My dads face was now reddening slightly with embarrassment. ‘The young man is here this evening and I would like him to come forward and collect his ticket and travel details for the trip to Milan’ My dad was confused and pinching himself. Could this lad be me? Am I dreaming? What is happening here? Is this an elaborate wind up? The priest then read out my dads name. he said he must have floated to the front to shake the priests hand and collect his details. I think he cried all his way home. To this day He can;t really remember much of what happened after his name was read out.
The details are sketchy about how this all came about. It was very secretive. He reckons his auntie who was Celtic daft paid for his trip but wanted it to remain a secret.
My dad was going to Milan. It’s all he cared about. I believe he boarded the plane with little more than pennies in his pocket and was under the supervision of the priest who preceded to take them to every church in Milan. The result didn’t go our way. Perhaps we underestimated Feyenoord. I think that may have been the case. After the highs and lows of the previous weeks my dad was just happy to be there. He was in Seville too and is now banned from attending the next European final we reach. He has a terrible record.
It’s an incredible story and one I have been going to share for a while but never really got round to it. I had some spare time today and thought I would get it down on here.
LB
This task could take £30m-£50, King estimates, a burden he is willing to share with others
If they are prepared to invest £49,999 996.
Ohhhhhhh and make him chairman :)))
Ps did he not slabber something when he arrived in Scotland a few weeks ago along the lines of “i’m staying here till I get a solution ” just before he returnd to S.A with his tail between his legs, (allegedly):))
Till later all
Just watched the debate between Jim Sillars and George Galloway, and compared to the screaming match that was Sturgeon v Lamont it was quiet enjoyable. George , for me , has unfortunately acquired a whiff of the self serving aroma that permeates so many of our political representatives but he is still enjoyable to listen to. Although I feel if an undecided was watching last night then Jim Sillars made the more salient points.
Aye.
Rock Tree Bhoy
12:34 on
25 March, 2014
– Nickname – (In this neck of the woods they are known as) –
“The Laundrette”
Cant think why :))).
BMCUW
So is it the 10th May ?:))))
Away this time
There’s a Hun on Hun civil war coming our way and I doubt if anyone could predict what is going to happen, but I think that we can all agree that it’s going to be very messy unfortunately the SMSM will keep trying to drag us into it, and some in here will too that’s a cert. but it has absolutely nothing to do with us, we run a tight ship, and our house keeping is spotless, it’s days like this I smile being a Tim, I couldent even begin to think of us being in there shoes, brrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Gordybhoy
Aw ra best pal!