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MIH poison, poetic history, value of good players

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

If you’ve been here for 12 years you’ll know that Celtic Quick News started because there was a great untold financial story going on in Scottish football. Celtic were castigated by many, including a large portion of their own support, as “prudent”, while Rangers, then under the majority ownership of Sir David Murray, were lauded for their willingness to ambitiously push the boat out.

But there was a problem. Celtic were losing millions every year. Rangers were losing a lot more, £35m in one season alone. David Murray’s company, Murray International Holdings (MIH), were ½ a billion in debt to Bank of Scotland, and rising.

By this stage MIH’s steel business was dwarfed in significance by its property portfolio. They borrowed from the bank and, perhaps with an eye on the fantasy Ibrox Super Casino, gambled that the market would rise inextricably.

For a few years the debt kept rising. “What’s the problem?” many said, if the Bank are prepared to lend MIH and Rangers, their strategy must be sound. These were difficult times to be preaching financial responsibility in Scottish football, but the reality was written in mile-high font for many of us. “They’re going to crash and burn”, seemed inevitable.

Today we read the news that MIH are, like Rangers before them, finally liquidated. Ignore the reported £200m that Lloyds Banking Group (now owners of Bank of Scotland) lost, that’s just the loose change. The Bank had swapped debt for shares in MIH as clouds gathered. The true financial cost to Lloyds (significantly owned by UK taxpayers) is vastly higher.

Much of the story of David Murray will never be told, not while he’s alive, anyway, as it took place well away from verifiable sources. This might change after he’s dead. The one redeeming positive he brought to football was to end the sectarian signing policy at Rangers in 1989. For that he should be lauded, many before him had the chance to do the same but chose not to.

That aside, the influence of Murray and MIH was poisonous to his club. He sold out for £1 to a liquidation expert in May 2011, against the wishes of his own board’s advisory committee, as his club claimed its last ever league title. The rest, is poetic history.

As luck would have it, tonight I’ll be with some Celtic supporter friends.  We’ll raise a glass to Sir David and his legacy.  Thanks for all you achieved, David, it could never have happened without you.

Erik Sviatchenko is a lesson in the difference good players make to a team. He’s started 11 games since joining in January, we’ve lost four goals over that period. In our previous 11 games we lost 12 goals. His impact on team performance has been phenomenal.

We’ll miss him tomorrow – so should make tactical changes to accommodate the perceived risk.

Motherwell are on fire. Less than two months ago they were in the play-off spot. Now they need just one point to guarantee a top six finish. They will battle every second for that point. If we are going to win tomorrow’s game, we will need to put in our of our best shifts of the season.

Time to get it together, Celtic.

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  2. thetimreaper on

    I would be surprised if Aberdeen take more than 10 points from the possible 15 remaining. Win tomorrow and it’s virtually done.

     

     

    Incentive.

  3. MurdochauldandHay & Wee Oscar on

    Nothing can warm the hearts of a Celtic supporter more when they are standing on the Shoulders of Giants

     

     

    Thank you Charlie, Tommy, & Yogi for all you have done for our beloved Celtic

     

     

    Hail Hail The Celts Are Here

  7. angelgabriel on

    More legends on CQN tonight than the fairways of Augusta.

     

     

    Caught some of the 2nd half from Swinecastle

     

    The Hertz are a physical team and deserved the win , aided by sheer naive and amateurish,defending by the sheep at the 2nd goal. Not complaining though. ;-)))

     

     

    Enjoy your night . 3 points tomorrow please.HH

  8. scullybhoy on

    Night all – when Celtic won the league 2016

     

    Ps love to big Tam – best Celtic goal ever – still get shivers when i watch it (especially if i want to give myself a lift)

  11. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox on

    On disciplinary matters….

     

     

    We have no players in the top 20 of SPFL Premiership bookings. There are 3 Hamilton, 3 ICT, 3 St. Johnstone, 2 Hearts, 2 Thistle, 2 Killie, 2 United, and 1 each from Motherwell, Ross Co., and Dundee.

     

     

    In contrast, there have been 20 red cards awarded and Celtic have received 3 of them with the rest going to United 5, Hearts 2, Killie 2 (Celtic loanee Findlay), Thistle 2, Dundee 2, and 1 each for Ross co., St. Johnstone, ICT (Celtic bound Ryan Christie) and Hamilton.

     

     

     

    We have had more red cards than anyone but the basement club.

  16. mullet and co 2 on

    The league has always been Celtics to lose. Tonight confirms Aberdeen are as good as the points they have amassed to date.

     

    We are a side winning a league who are in transition. The club has been in a state of permanent transition since 1988. There have been periods of stability. There have been periods of progress, there have been periods of dominance, there have been periods of experimentation but no period of tangible stability.

     

    Celtic can again look the gift horse in the mouth and make the choice over the next 3 or 4 games.

     

    Shove it in the face of the rest of Scotland and Rangers or huff and puff, roll over and create a fertile bed for wet dreams.

     

    Win and we create a platform for hope.

  20. 67Heaven .. CHALLENGING THE LIE ..I am wee Oscar...... Ipox belongs to the creditors on

    …and as our community of wee journalists enters a phase of abject depression, let us rejoice in GIUY MODE …… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  33. Thunder Road on

    TBJ

     

     

    Was a wee bit too young myself to understand what these men did having been born just a month prior to Lisbon, but my old man never failed to show what it meant to him once he began talking about it all.

     

    Mainly he kept his emotions checked. A lot of it was to do with the way he was brought up in hard times and he was made to be a man while still really just a bhoy and whatever sensitive side he had was kept hidden……until he talked of The Lions and the pride the gave him would swell up in him to such an extent as he talked not only of what they did……but the beautiful, relentless manner in which they did it, that he would be in tears……tears that he never shed for anything…….except The Lions.

  36. Gordon64 on

    At the gowf Spieth leads by one shot from McIlroy. It’s a 36 hole shoot out between the top two players In the world.

  41. Melbourne Mick on

    Hello again all you young rebels.

     

     

    Just up, logged in, scrolled back and three legends have been on our

     

    blog, Charlie who would be worth millions nowadays, couldn’t put a

     

    price on Yogi even just for entertainment value alone, and big Tam an

     

    icon and scorer in two big cup finals, why couldn’t those that invented

     

    kickbaw have made it 13 a side? a suppose then i’d be wanting 15

     

    when i think of Joe and others who missed out,ah well i can only dream.

     

    H.H Mick

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