I’ve never been comfortable with the ‘Greatest of all time’ comparisons. Pele or Messi, Cruyff or Maradona? It is clearly impossible to compare players across different eras, different competitions or playing in different teams.
Which makes the return of Jota so interesting. Jota Mark I was a Celtic icon, who left for a new club record fee and a little piece of all our hearts. Then the pesky stats guys got all interested in Nicolas Kuhn this season. Nicolas’ goal contributions are a step up from those which elevated Jota to that iconic status.
The players are similar height (Jota is 2cm taller) and build, and are at the same stage of their career (Jota is 9 months older). They are both ripping it up in the Scottish Premiership and were star performers on Champions League duty in Munich last month (less so at Paisley on Saturday). There are clear differences, though.
Jota has the better touch and is more effective in close proximity to a defender. For this reason, opponents are reluctant to get too near him, as he can ghost away. Kuhn links with others better. He seems to have a helicopter view of the pitch, allowing him to understand movement beyond the vision of most.
Hopefully we get to keep both for a few seasons anyway, and get to answer the question of who is better with some hard data and lots of subjective analysis. On the Greatest of all time question, Ronaldinho did things on a football field I have not seen from anyone else.
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Back to Basics – Glass Half Full (1:17pm), you mention that Kühn is faster than Jota. There is a UEFA player stats list showing the fastest runs recorded to date in the CL, and Kühn (35.9kph) was actually faster than Maeda (35.4kph).
For comparison, Allan Wells’ gold medal winning time in the 1980 Olympics was equivalent to 35.1kph.
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/?sortBy=top_speed&order=desc
Jota and Kuhn are both excellent players. They have both had disappointment in their careers. Kuhn never succeeded with Bayern and PSG, while Jota and failures is Saudi and Rennes.
They say that players returning are never a success but Jotas rescue from Rennes has resulted in Jotas form returning with a bang, He has been excellent.
Kuhns form has dipped a little but to me this is caused by Kyogos departure. Kyogo would pull opposition players with him darting runs and open up spaces for Kuhn. Idah and Maeda are effective in there own ways but dont create the space in the box that Kuhn looks for.
The work rate of the front 3 is massive and will only improve over time
Kuhns form has dipped a little but to me this is caused by Kyogos departure. Kyogo would pull opposition players with him darting runs and open up spaces for Kuhn. Idah and Maeda are effective in there own ways but dont create the space in the box that Kuhn looks for.
very true,
illistrated by the disallowed european goal,
So someone with 1000 shares could buy another 1000 at a cost of £1700, not sure that would be a goer really, especially looking at how questions at AGMs are dealt with ,but you never know, as I said this could be done with Stadium naming sponsorship agreements etc over a period of time, but would the cost of the new stand show on the balance sheet until paid off?
I am having problems changing from page 2 to page 1. Now every time i log in i get an offer to cancel adds blocker which i refuse to do. So is it a case of switch it off or i will switch you off.
CONFUSEDCSC.
The San Francisco 49ers-backed consortium poised to take over Rangers is considering Rafael Benitez as the next permanent manager at Ibrox. (Daily Record)
SPFL bosses say Police Scotland has told them it is open to discussions’ aimed at lifting Scottish football’s alcohol ban after more than 40 years. (Scottish Sun)
——-
Who makes this pish up.
Rafa to the Badgers Hovel, dearie me, they are desperate.
The booze ban –
US cosortium “how can we make money in scottish football ? ”
you know the hard rinking nation that loves a bevvy and is the best attended per head in the whole world .
Once completed the cost of the new stand, if not allready paid for via share issue and financing or naming rights would be amortized as an assett for a number of years,
so a £100m spend would appear on the books as £10m over 10 years possibly.
but also capital allwances in the years you actually build it, can be offset against taxes due.
Paul67
Didier Agathe had Ronaldinho in his back pocket .
TT
Favourite Uncle
I’ve had no issues since I switched to Duck Duck Go for logging on to CQN.
Safari, google etc were all a real pain, but things work fine now.
Don’t forget the Secret Subway perfect for Match Day 👍
Log in
oh as a buy the way.
Is it not a condition of UEFA Licensing and participation in UEFA Competitions, that the club must have a youth academy set up for association devlopment purposes ?
and also to distribute the “solidarity payments” to the other league members it has to be spent on academy ?
With our increased participation this season, will some clubs earn more from celtic via uefa than they actually generate fro themslves ?
The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape for 2024 is due about now.
Here are some reminders from the 2023 version. I am looking at the 118 page report wrt to investments and takeovers and celtics place within it,
So here goes –
However, there are signs that stakeholders’ cooperation and new regulations are
already having an effect. Faced by strengthened incoming squad cost controls led
by UEFA, there are strong signs in the latest figures that clubs are taking stock of
their wage bills and trying to get their costs under control. In 2023, player wages
increased by less than 1%, the lowest growth level on record, contributing to the
re-balancing of the wages/revenue ratio for many clubs.
Nonetheless, more vigilance is needed than ever before regarding club investment
and finances. Debt levels continued to increase, with bank debts expected to
pass the €12 billion mark in 2023, i.e., 50% higher than the pre-pandemic level, leading to
record negative interest expenses causing clubs increasing stress on the financial markets.
Finally, the report focuses on multi-club investments and ownership models,
highlighting how nowadays more than 300 clubs are part of multi-club investment
groups, leading to an increased risk of seeing two clubs with the same owner or
investor facing each other in the same competition, creating potential integrity risks
at the European level.
The current context demands strict enforcement of cost control regulations and
more harmonization of financial rules between leagues. This is paramount to limit
overspending, “creative finance”, and rules’ circumvention. As long as differences
on key regulatory matters continue between leagues, inflationary tensions will
persist, contributing to imbalances and instability.
Traverso
Robust gate revenue growth for top 20 clubs
Seven clubs with more than €100m in gate revenues
Seven clubs reported gate revenues of more than €100m in 2023, with Liverpool FC set to
rejoin this group in 2024 following their stadium expansion. The gate receipts of the top
20 clubs by gate revenue grew by an extremely healthy 32% in 2023, with only four
clubs reporting declines. The largest absolute increases in gate revenue were reported by
Spanish and Italian clubs.
Large supporter bases propel some clubs into top 20
This list of the top 20 clubs features many of the usual suspects, but the large supporter
bases of Olympique de Marseille, Rangers FC, Celtic FC and AFC Ajax have propelled those
clubs into the list.
Rangers 18th – 49 million euros
Celtic 19th – 48 million euros
Both in Champions league group, RFCSevco charging more.
sorry format copying not workin, will try harder
St Stivs – heritable property isn’t amortised.
Matchday yields vary considerably
Matchday gate revenue is derived from season tickets, ticket-related membership fees, single match purchases and matchday hospitality and concessions. The number of fans attending and the general level of ticket prices are both important in driving gate revenue. However, clubs’ abilityto generate high yields per match* and per fan is increasingly being driven by the amount of premium seating and the hospitality service on offer.
The most extreme example here is Paris Saint-Germain, who generated the second highest aggregate gate revenue in 2022 and the second highest yield per home match, despite having only the 26th highest number of fans attending home matches.
in 2022/23. Unsurprisingly, that club generated the highest average yield per fan (€140). In contrast,
Borussia Dortmund, who had the eighth highest aggregate attendance figure for home matches, do not appear in the top 20 clubs by total gate revenue owing to their €26 average yield per fan
Average gate yield per home match (€m)
Celtic 23rd – 1.9m euro per match (33 euro per fan)
Rangers – 24th – 1.8m (37 euro per fan)
The Battered Bunnet on 5th March 2025 3:19 pm
St Stivs – heritable property isn’t amortised.
the capex spending is, What is heritable property in the context of the plc ?
Good Afternoon…
GREENPINATA @ 8:23 AM,
Yes, I kinda knew all the ghuys, but it’s only when you see it listed that the size of the operation hits you.
CELTIC40ME @ 9:40 AM,
Jock Stein, was that cliche man – when he arrived at Celtic in ’65, there was three Celtic teams.
The first team, the reserves and the third team.
He whittled that down to two, the first team (later known as the Lisbon Lions) and the reserves, then he fortified the reserves with “development” bhoys (later known as the quality street gang.)
Now, at present, I’m not so sure we have a great development set up, not at all sure when I said that.
The fact is if Celtic want to win football matches, they have to score goals.
There is no such necessity in developing footballers.
The last decade of Peter Lawwell’s reign as CEO, the player development model became key to his strategy.
For me this was a business initiative, as far a football is concerned, it put the cart before the horse.
Empty cliches about fitting in to Celtic jerseys aside, theres a very clear and obvious flaw in the “great development” set up if you dont have the personnel to develop in the first place.
Adam Idah, is not played because he is a BR signing – since he arrived, Adam has had the opportunity to become first choice Centre Forward.
He hasn’t managed to achieve that yet, however he is a very effective player who will get better.
Kuhn has done very well at Celtic – if you look at what Brendan Rodgers said about Nic when he was signed, he’s done exactly what is said on the tin…
And they wont come either. Kuhn’s agent explained very clearly why he came to Celtic, it was because of the opportunities that we had give to players with his profile in the past.
Brendan Rodgers very clearly saw Nic Kuhn’s potential from day one.
We should not be buying development players for the sake of it – we need to be much more decerning and much smarter when we recruit these players.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL @ 10:07 AM,
An org chart and the roles and responsibilities of the Academy staff would be very helpful.
However, I’ve never seen a public one.
Hail Hail
Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of an Ostrich impersonation regarding the South Stand .
Money will need to be spent on whatever option we take. And it will not come cheap.
HH.
Saint Stivs re: Rafael Benitez
I did chuckle when I read that this morning.
Very large disparities in commercial revenue
The sponsorship and commercial revenue* of the top 20 clubs for this metric increased by 16% in 2023, with only three clubs reporting declines. Their merchandising revenue rose by 31%,and their main sponsor revenue increased by 14%. Among the top 20, there are relatively large gaps between 7th (Liverpool FC) and 8th (Tottenham Hotspur FC), and between 11th (Juventus) and 12th (RB Leipzig). Club-driven sponsorship and commercial revenues are the largest financial differentiator between the very top clubs and the rest.
Commercial revenue almost double TV revenue for top 20 clubs
The commercial revenues of these top 20 clubs generate almost double (1.9 times) the revenue of TV distributions from domestic football. There are only two clubs in the top 20 – SSC Napoli and FC Internazionale Milano – whose commercial revenue did not exceed domestic TV revenue
in 2023. At the other end of the scale, the commercial activities of AFC Ajax, Celtic FC, Fenerbahçe SK and Paris Saint-Germain generated between five and ten times as much as those clubs earned
from TV. On average across the top 20, even if all UEFA prize money (approximately 80% of which is derived from TV contracts) was also added to domestic TV revenue, it would still be less than commercial revenue.
Celtic 20th – 54m euros (44m previos year
forecasted to be 33rd place, so 20th is exceptional
9.6 times domestic tv revenue.
1.5 times domestic and uefa tv revenues
Greenpinata on 5th March 2025 3:30 pm
Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of an Ostrich impersonation regarding the South Stand .
Money will need to be spent on whatever option we take. And it will not come cheap.
HH.
—————-
70m in the bank, 40m more income to come, share issue say another 50m, new naming rights and commercial contracts another 40m
cysatal palce new stand to cost 200m, we can finance it, i would be more concerned about the how to do it to least impact attendnace during construction timeline.
What happened to the cataclysmic retrenchment money?
The board might decide to do it for the 150th anniversary .
Three of the ten largest all-time profits reported in 2023
Record profits before tax
FC Barcelona, Brighton & Hove Albion FC and SSC Napoli all reported bumper profits before tax of more than €100m, albeit the FC Barcelona profit was driven by an unprecedented level of divestment gains. Brighton’s profit of €153m, generated by a combination of operating profits and large net transfer profits, has only been historically surpassed by AS Monaco and Tottenham Hotspur’s 2018 profits. SSC Napoli’s profit is also the seventh highest on record
Celtic 7th (from 700 clubs) in all europe with a profit of 47m euros
Kit and merchandising revenues extremely polarised
This chart combines the kit manufacturer sponsorship revenues with total merchandising revenues to provide probably as good a measure of club popularity as any. The top 20 list includes all the top dozen clubs by total revenue, albeit in a slightly different order, plus a number of traditionally well supported clubs such as AFC Ajax, Celtic FC, Leeds United FC, Eintracht Frankfurt and two of the Istanbul giants, Galatasaray AŞ and Fenerbahçe SK.
However, as with most of the top 20 charts, there is a clear polarisation among the biggest with a 35% gap between Borussia Dortmund (€54m) and Manchester City (€73m) and a 34% gap between Paris Saint-Germain (€97m) and Manchester United (€130m).
————–
Celtic 17th 34m euros (up 4m on previous year)
Leeds, interestingly in 16th, the only place they appear on any graphic, so much for 49ers investments.
no rangers, hmmm,
St Stivs – Heritable Property = Owned Land & Buildings – stadium, training centres etc. Depreciation on the £65M of Land & Buildings on the balance sheet last year was less than £1M, and much of that would relate to those premises which are leased rather than owned.
St Stiv’s
It is because no one likes them.
However they don’t care. :)
The Battered Bunnet on 5th March 2025 4:10 pm
got ye, ta.
so having read the report,
i am still a little opposite of david low as to why anyone wants to inverst in “the rangers”.
unless they get to CL League participation, they lose money every working day.
only option, strip it to the bare bones, cut cloth to what you can actually afford to spend.
redirect spening away from on the pitch to the infrastrucutre, they goons in place now tried it with stadium capacity, NEH etc, but it amounts to he haw to the bearz if they aint winning the trophy count (their new obsession0/
Saint Stivs @ 1:36pm
Would you invest next financial year if Celtic plc announced an issue to raise, lets say £100m.
Is there really an untapped appetite for this ?
—-
Honestly don’t know, SS.
Finger in the air?
£100m is high. £30m – 40m more realistic.
BigChipsUK on 5th March 2025 2:13 pm
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/?sortBy=top_speed&order=desc
——
Brilliant data. Cheers.
Worth pointing out not only did Daizen run fast but he ran furthest of any forwards on the list.
Brilliant endeavour.
Saint Stivs @ 3:14pm
Re Champions league 2023 gate receipts
Rangers 18th – 49 million euros
Celtic 19th – 48 million euros
Both in Champions league group, RFCSevco charging more.
——
Shocked.
Shocked am I.
No really, I’m shocked.
Sevco silently screwing their fans while we publicly (which is a good thing, IMHO) debate our club’s pricing policy.
Whodathunkit?
Right. Afternoon tea break over.
Later ….
BigChipsUK on 5th March 2025 2:13 pm
Notable that big Idah is clocked as (a little) faster than Kyogo. There’s a lot of potential in Idah yet to convert into performance.
Saint Stivs,
I do think we could raise money by :-
An incentivisation share option.
More Corporate Hospitality
More smart sponsorship and advertising. ( I am not positive, but I don’t think we have digital advertising between our lower to top stands )
Smart crowdfunding schemes with fan engagment
Various worldwide membership schemes bringing expat communities together and engaged.
More use of the Stadium with various initiatives. Concerts, fun days, tournaments etc etc.
Take social media to a new level with smart online competitions etc.
As you mention, stadium rights may be viable. However we will always call it Parkhead anyway.
Seemingly Twickenham sold the rights to an insurance company for circa £100 m. I never even knew that as most outlets still refer to its original name.
Newcastle got it wrong and had to reverse its decision.
Looking at our current sponsers, gambling, unhealthy food and bevy many not be appropriate.
However Coka Cola could make it real. Im sure many of our supporters would embrace the real magic.
Coke makes u happy stadium would bring a smile to many faces and im quite sure the toilets could be adapted appropriately to the satisfaction of all.
HH.
If the 69ers are going to do a DOGE or a Jim Ratcliffe on R2ngers to cut costs; does that mean:
no more ‘world class’ breakfasts
no brogue dubbin
BYOB (bring yer own blazer)?