When contemplating his first competitive game as Celtic manager, Ange Postecoglou may want to paraphrase Vince Lombardi: half the squad are injured, half want away and the other half are inexperienced kids.
We have a few weaknesses, today, all we can do is own them and get ready for battle. I expect Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Nir Bitton all to feature at some point, if not from the start. If we are to have any chance, our new club captain, Callum McGregor, will be the man who leads from the front. He brings experience and a level of fitness that belies his west of Scotland heritage.
The midfield core, with Callum, Ismaila Soro and David Turnbull looks like the most effective area in the team, they will need to dominate the ball and Ismaila in particular will be required to offer protection to the back line.
Martin O’Neill’s era started with indifferent preseason performances before the pieces began to come together of what was the third treble in our history. I would accept a slow burner of a season this time around.
Special thoughts today for our old pal, Kano. He would have run us through every scenario on what to expect from an Australian manager. Some legacies live on, though, his sure did.
If you want some news that is not dominated by the self-interested or deluded, here is a wee piece on what your Foundation is doing right now with Islamic Relief UK to help homeless, asylum seekers, refugees, children and victims of domestic abuse in Glasgow.
Celtic is a wonderful thing to be part of, never take it for granted. Enjoy the game tonight!
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FIELDOFDRAMS
I usually scroll by him as it’s a PITA trying to work out who he’s talking about.
:-(
Any news on Sarfelt(sp) or are we still hesitating?
21-5-79 🍀 on 20TH JULY 2021 12:29 PM
Anybody else getting England videos playing on this site???
—————–
AYE!!!!
NO HAPPY !!!!!!
PATCH THAT !!!!!!!
HH
BGFC
Tom @12:47 bang on there! Tired of this drivel about GCC biased in terms of capacity numbers for Ibrox compared to us. Purely down to dates as we progress into August…
anyone thinking of going abroad beware what test kit you buy , we bought two from jet 2 website, when we tried to register number not good enough for scotland. have to buy one from one that SG advise , of course the price is double at £88 per person! don’t know if it includes shortbreed or haggis!! beware
Hairlike
I would expect the allowable attendance figure to drop as the rate increases – as I’m sure it will
Wishaw
Anyone thinking of going abroad – don’t
We’ve delayed again for the third time till next March 😨
All Celtic people will be hoping for some kind of result tonight – anyone expecting one, is living in ‘cloud cuckoo land” – so there we are – neck stuck out! There will be a queue of usual suspects gearing up to chop it off, but what’s the point in calling a spade, a shovel?
Ibrox gets the authorities’ ear once again – first it was the ‘victory march’, now 17,500 at Ibrox…..I wonder what the threat was this time…another riot?
KC VIC on 20TH JULY 2021 12:20 PM
From the previous article
I like both of them, Kevin Day’s a very funny intelligent guy and a real football fan, and Kieran Maguire knows what he’s talking about
I’ll check it out for sure
MM
Who are these people we should be told.
Christie and Ajer want away because they are paid way below what they can get in England. They are not big earners even in Celtic terms.
We have to pick and choose and can’t compete, Celtic players will always move on, we buy from our market because £10M players aren’t readily available and want 60k / 70k in wages.
How to compete ?
From the previous article. Hopefully this helps with the anxiety a bit :)
ROLLING_STONE on 20TH JULY 2021 11:46 AM
““Firstly, SwissRamble is a well regarded blogger and covers the financials of various leagues. He’s also clearly well informed on the interpretation of accounts and financial information. So I don’t think we have to doubt the veracity of his conclusions.”
I know who he is, I’ve been following him for years. I’m not doubting the veracity of his conclusions I’m doubting the veracity of yours.
He uses the 30m figure to highlight the big differences in income between the cL and the europa he doesn’t suggest that will be the numbers for this year. That was your assumption
Based on the distribution report published on the Uefa website here’s a breakdown of how qualification for the CL and the Europa might add up in prize money. It’s based on the Huns qualifying for the CL and winning 1 game and drawing 2, and us winning 2 and drawing 2 and finishing second in the Europa league groups. The Huns would have a lower coefficient payout in the Europa but if they repeated their performance of last season they’d earn an extra 3m on top
CL based on qualification, 1 win 2 draws
In €m
Participation fee – 15.25
Performance-based fixed amount – 4.5
Co-efficient – 5
Tv Pool – 2
Total – €26.75m = £22.5
Europa League based on qualification, 2 wins, 2 draws and a second place finish. No progress beyond the last 32 (Celtic)
Participation fee – 3.63
Performance-based fixed amount – 2.7
Coefficient- 3
TV pool – 1
Total – €10.33 = £8.78
Europa League based on the Huns performance last year
Participation fee – 3.63
Performance-based fixed amount – 7.4
Coefficient- 2.2
TV pool – 1
Total €14.63=£12m
Going by the published information on the uefa website based on a few basic assumptions the difference between the Huns participation in the CL and ours for this season purely in terms of prize money would be £14m
Between participation in the CL for them for this season and the Europa based on last season the difference is around £10m
You could argue that there will be an uplift in ticket revenue between the two competitions but it’s three home games, who knows how many fans will be in the grounds and they already charge a big amount for the Europa league so the difference is likely to be minimal
What won’t be minimal will be the costs associated with cL qualification. Significantly higher than for the Europa, millions.
Your statement, based on the tweet was: “ interesting to see figures re CL vs Europa League Participation. Basically a £16-20m difference”
It’s not, and his figures never suggested that
Likely to be nearer 10m between them and us if they qualify and we don’t
Likely to be an uplift of around £7m for them between CL and Europa using their performance last season
P67 in full expectation management mode. How did it come to this? It’s almost like the club leadership has been negligent.
I hear it’s 45K season books. And the waiting list will be a thing of the past. Not so much of a vote of confidence after all.
P67,
The Twitter link to the Kano Foundation work is no working.
PLB,
who you hear that from ?
God bless Kano, fitting that he should still have a huge presence in our community so long after his passing.
Plb
I’m on the waiting list and heard nothing yet – which I’d have thought I would because I’m about 4k on the list – where have you ‘heard ‘ 45K.
hairlikespaghetti @ 1:14 pm
“Tom @12:47 bang on there! Tired of this drivel about GCC biased in terms of capacity numbers for Ibrox compared to us. Purely down to dates as we progress into August…”
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You might be right but, given the record of the Scottish Government on this, I would not jump the gun to exonerate- easy way to check is to see what allowance Partick Thistle have for the tie nonight vs Dumbarton and compare that with their opening league fixture on the 31st vs QOTS
its working now.
Big Erik, why did we let him go.
https://twitter.com/eriksviat/status/1417223561702428674/photo/1
Agree about the midfield, Paul – our strongest and least-disrupted area.
I hope we go with a 4-3-3 from now on. Don’t want to see the 4-2-3-1 again. We play a lot of games where the opposition sits deep and we need to get the ball wide more and stretch them.
The 4-3-3 offers more options for combination plays on the outsides with the full-back, “wide” midfielder and winger. You don’t get that with the 4-2-3-1.
Shaw or Soro sitting, Turnbull and McGregor further up- will get the best out of McGregor too. Henderson and Rogic adds other options.
Saint Stivs
I think that was one of Rodgers’ biggest mistakes. I’ve a feeling he turned against him after one of our Euro defeats but may have been more to it than that. I felt he was well suited to SPFL games
RS @ 1.05
The £53mill wages number will be total for the whole club not just the football / squad elements — however the vast majority of the spend will be on team not the business / stadium.
My guess — £53mill = £45mill football / £5mill business / £3mill CEO aka PL.
This would suggest that we are paying some big wages — £20K pw plus — to quite a few players / most of the squad.
I have always thought that we should have a significant matchday fee in all of this — £10K each for a SPL win would be a good place to start.
With an 18 man pitchside squad / 22 man gameday squad you would be looking at £150K for every SPL win.
If it kept the squad on their toes then it would be worth it.
Plus £10K per game would be a big lift to a younger player on a basic contract.
Not sure if other teams work this angle regarding contracts.
From memory — Barca 13/15 years ago — they had a system where you were dazzled by a big number that included a number of provisos that put a figure into a number of boxes. All going well you could get the dazzling top line.
Things not going well you got zero in a few boxes and the weekly wage was reduced.
Hopefully DMcK gets his thinking / listening cap on and we squeeze a lot more more value out of our wages spend.
I think PL used this tactic to scupper the JMcG deal.
He offered JMcG a contract that matched the AV one but he had to play in every game.
Sent off to talk to BR about his plans and who would not guarantee him a starting place.
Therefore our contract was worth less than the AV one and BR was set up as the baddy.
JMcG then chooses to go to AV and PL could claim that we offered the same wage as AV.
JMcG then becomes baddy number 2.
PL in full trouser Snake mode.
me neither
364k people at Silverstone over the weekend.
Just saying.
Silverstone — the Track and Trace system will collapse.
CoViD19 infections in the U18’s will be rampant.
Big crowd / lots of mixing — big numbers will then be pinged.
Self isolation means a lot of over 18s will be sitting in the house.
BoJo inspired total shambles.
Fat / useless waster.
Yet still they doff.
Madmitch 12:29
The decline from three years ago is almost impossible to comprehend. Shocking mismanagement.
@ CELTIC40ME on 20TH JULY 2021 1:34 PM
You clearly are disagreeing with SwissRamble’s figures. Im not sure how you could argue otherwise.
Quote:
“the last time #CelticFC managed this in 2018 they received £30m TV money.”
“He uses the 30m figure to highlight the big differences in income between the cL and the europa he doesn’t suggest that will be the numbers for this year. That was your assumption”
Well, unless CL tv income has fallen, why would there not be a similar difference between TV income in CL and Europa League now?
You have introduced performance related metrics. I was noting the TV income figures.
Clearly SwissRamble is wrong here though…you can’t both be right.
I cannot say I am surprised that there has been no response to those asking for the source of ` 45k tickets sold`claim.
I am not going to try and guess what tonights team might be.
I just hope neither Bitton or Christie are anywhere near the team.
We have sold all ST`s and there is a waiting list of 4,371.
Hot smoked
Give them time
Anyone know of anybody on the waiting list who’s been offered a ticket and if so what number in the queue were they.
There will be some of course
Charlie Gallagher, Funeral Cortege.
https://twitter.com/MartinG1888/status/1417193144370831364/photo/1
Hot smoked
From those figures it would seem about 3k from the list
RS @ 2.17
Swiss Tony is at it with some of his figures / analysis.
He mentions gross debt not net debt — why I have no idea other than to reduce the gap between ourselves and the TFOD2.1.
Gross Debt — we owe £5mill in our current account / overdraft.
Net debt — £20mill surplus because we have £25mill in our savings account.
Plus — as noted above — he is playing it very fast and loose with the EUFA income streams.
And — from memory — previous analysis of our accounts was also a bit partial / forced / slanted.
Consequently use as a data point but hold your nose when doing it.
HS @ 2.24
Where did you get those figures from?
They seem a bit optimistic but I want to believe them.
The day I renewed the lassie who served me told me they were on track to sell 53,000 season cards.
there was a backlog of finance approvals to be done for the 4 months or 10 months payment options.
That also the previous friday had been the single biggest renewals day ever.
and that the waiting list (if any seats available) would not be started until all relocations had been done, and i quote she sadi that part is a nightmare.
`GENE on 20TH JULY 2021 2:27 PM
Hot smoked
Give them time`
Not so sure, Gene. To bastardise the old saying:
Bad Celtic news travels twice roung the MSSM before good Celtic news has got its shoes on.
HS @ 2.24
How did it come to this 👍