It’s ‘get back on the horse’ time for Celtic tomorrow when they face Inverness at Celtic Park. The Highlanders will arrive with a different type of momentum about them from the home team. On their last outing Celtic conceded a league goal and lost a league game for the first time since before Jock Stein’s arrival in 1965*. They are now out of all three cup competitions and have an unassailable 19 point lead in the league. Talk in some places has already turned to giving the younger players an outing.
By contrast it’s all kicking off for Inverness, who humbled Hearts to reach the first Celtic Park final of the season, just two weeks away. The excitement in Inverness is palpable. Betting odds are seldom generous on Celtic at home but with all the sub-currents surrounding this one I’d prefer not to predict an outcome.
What we need to do is match the energy of Inverness and ensure our passing and movement remains crisp.
If you are tempted into a bet, don’t look past Kris Commons to get things moving. He is our go-to guy when we’re looking for an ignition button. Kris has been phenomenal in front of goal this season but he has failed to score in four outings. The last time this happened was 51 weeks ago. My bet is that he can’t wait to get on the field and put things right.
The outstanding Celtic Graves Society are breathing life into the memory of Peter Dowds, who played for Celtic from 1889. Writing in 1936, Willie Maley wrote about Peter, “He did not find the ball. Nothing so common. It found him.”
A short ceremony will take place at Peter’s grave, at Abbey Cemetery, Elderslie, at 11:30 tomorrow. If you live in the area or can make it along, please do so. You will hear from Jim Craig and others, and get infused with our early history in a way you’ll never do sitting at a screen. Details here.
There is a little over two weeks to go before the CQteN St Patrick’s Night Dinner on Friday, 14 March, at the Kerrydale Suite, Celtic Park. The beneficiary of the night will be Kholoni Primary School, Malawi, where we will fund Mary’s Meals to build a kitchen for 1200 kids who currently don’t have meal facilities.
We have received some incredible assistance already, but you can get involved by ordering a personalised beanie hat, with your name on one side and CQN on the other.
Hats cost £15 each and if you order before 7 March you can collect yours at the CQteN Dinner. If you’re not attending the dinner (and why not?) the £15 will cover postage and packaging. If you ordered a Virtual Ticket, you’re personalised hat is part of your package. All profits go to the school kitchen.
Take a look at the front and back of the hats. To order, email hatfrompat@celticquicknews.co.uk with name, whether you are attending CQteN and address if not, and I’ll get your message to Pat.
*not totally accurate.
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I rest my case.
Gold Coast Tom
SOAL was copying all my answers in the quiz last night ,now you are at it with my posts :O) .Ha.
HH
Prince:
Boo Hoo
GCT/CIC
not looking for a fight!
There is a truism of modern life in the last few comments…. A very interesting wee set of questions can be posed.
1. I believe people act in a certain way because they are influenced by the media
2. I myself am not influenced by the media
3. Other people are not as aware or intelligent as I am.
For what it’s worth and arrogant as it might seem, I believe there is a fair bit of truth in those three questions.
The fourth part I always add in is
4. I am not as aware and intelligent as i think I am.
I didn’t boo Fergus btw!
anniversaries only at celtic such blood letting.
after all the stories told 1st,2nd,3rd hand the bottom line
is was Fergus McCann good for celtic.
in my humble opinion YES
hail hail
channelislandcelt4DAM5 –
Is that who pfAyr was having a go at?
Just taking a wee look in on my way home……
Most important before football
proudbhoy – So sorry to hear yer news pal.
Thoughts n Prayers for all who are close.
Mr & Mrs proudbhoy – YNWA
A new vid from The Thai Tims to lift the mood a little.
@thaitims: New video- In The Heat of Lisbon.
http://t.co/nYgraeZDwl
HH
kitalba –
Prince Myshkin to you ya philistine.
By the way the missus and I are going to see Rigoletto at QPAC on Saturday March 18th. I know how you hate opera but putting that aside, I’ll be in O’Malley’s earlier in the day. If you fancy meeting up, we can bury the hatchet over a couple of beers.
I’m game if you are big man.
It’s really just a big big carnival.
Like Nottingham Hill. Or Rio…….
Check out the quality tattoos on some of the female carnival go’ers :-)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9395166/The-Orange-Order-marches-in-Belfast-Northern-Ireland.html?frame=2275003
Morning,
I see nhsggc have released a statement showing we actually paid more than the independent valuation for Lennoxtown.
Another zombie myth destroyed. They deserve everything coming to them.
Lawwell should quit for overspending. :0)
…it’s like walking into your favourite bar……..
and you see Foghorn Leghorn
………………………….. approaching Mad Frankie Fraser…………..
HH.
kitalba –
Sorry. March 15th.
Gold Coast Tom
Yep ,thats the one,hence his final score of -10.
Stringer ,no fight at all mate . I do not profess as to being smarter than anyone ,just saying that back then (and even now ) some people took the papers’ word as gospel.
Their perogative mate .
HH
ASonOfDan –
I heard yesterday that early next week, the EU are going to announce that there is nothing in the complaint about Celtic and Glasgow City Council and that no further action will be necessary.
CHANNELISLANDCELT
He couldnae have copied all yer answers,or I’d have come third!
A coupla years back,I had a mate who copied most of my bookies slips,even writing “Same as him!” on one.
That was when I was on a roll-he stopped doing it a long time ago!!
gold coast tom
Between that and Sevco going into Administration next week will be a jelly & ice cream extravaganza.
BMCUW
PFayr was on to him and blew him up to the Quizmaster.
BCW duly dis-qualified him ;O)
HH
ASonOfDan –
The timing will probably result in a lot of splattered cats and TV sets at the bottom of many a high-rise.
Morning all.
Not only did Celtic plc pay more than the independent valuation for the land at Lennoxtown, but they settled it with a single payment.
Will never catch on.
HH!!
Jog along Sammy
Nothing to see here .
HH
I will admit that I booed Fergus on the flag day cos….
We waited 9 years to get a manager to take the flag of the huns and
Fergus backed feckin Jock Brown and manouvered Wim & Murdo to
the door. Not Good Enough. imho
During or rather, before the end of season 97/98…we had to pay(in full)
98/99 SB – cos Fergus knew that if, we didny stop the hun 10 iar….the
chances are, largely cos of his ‘bull in a china-shop’ management of the
manager and, CEO ‘stand-off’ which threatened to blow the season apart
then, in Fergus’s final season -98/99- his going away money – £40 mill
would have been under serious threat that and, the fact that he took ‘almost’
four months to bring in a new manager on the week the new season was starting
therefore, denying the new manager(Dr Jo) a chance to evaluate his new players and,
cutely, hoarding the SB money ie: only Vidar Riseth was brought in – to be joined later by BJM ?
Now, everybody knew what was coming at us from the other end of the city.
Advocate was going on an EBT- car crash spending spree.
Now, Wim knew that Celtic wouldn’t be so stupid to try to take the huns on in the transfer market so – he wanted to be shrewd.
Wim suggested that – Pierre and, John Collins(who’d just played in the CLSF with Monaco) be brought back.
Fergus wasn’t up for it. His God was his leaving ‘nest-egg’ and, to feck wi the team on the pitch.
I mean, imagine – Henrik / Pierre / Harold / JC and Wim’s tutelage ?
Fergus didny think that the Celtic fans were worth that ?
So, we got to flag day and, the ‘stink’ was already in the air – a ‘stink’ caused by
Fergus McCann & Jock Brown. imho
Aye, he was booed by the majority in the stadium – on ly the ‘revisionists’ will try
to tell you otherwise.
Fergus is a PLC-merchant.
I say F#CK the PLC !
HH
Hold……
HOLLLLLLDD!
AWAYANBILEYERHEID
20 years surely fly by.
Just seems like yesterday.
Never forget the months of protest and the glorious day Brian Dempsey announced with the wee bunnet at his side, ‘ the war is over, the rebels have won!!’
Thank you Fergus, John Keane, Matt McGlone,David Lowe, Brian Dempsey and the Celtic support whose intelligence staved off disaster for us.
Pity our former rivals didn’t have men of such standing and a support with more than one brain cell.
May they rot in hell.
3 hours til we’re off to Paradise.
Cannae wait
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS ………FC not PLC
02:59 on 1 March, 2014
PETEC
Mailed you on yer new addy.
Hope it helps.
If not,let me know,I’ll delve further.
_______________________________
Thanks m8ty, I appreciate that.
I’m not much of an emailer but if 16 Roads and even CRC could email me what I have posted to them, especially headers at this temporary address. pedro678@yahoo.co.uk I’d be very appreciative.
Thank You in advance.
Don’t Stop
HH
God bless the bunnet!
HH!!
Morning Bhoys. I was at a great Celtic quiz last night with 10 Rounds and 100 questions in all.
I asked for, and was sent, the whole quiz in 11 PDFs, arranged by round and with answers too.
Print it out and you have an instant charity night!
I’ll forward this to anyone who wants it (for free, of course).
Just drop me an email to: southeastpress@live.com
I think Paul should be able to vouch for the fact I won’t be sending you on any spam!
Good Morning Cqn, getting ready to head up to paradise, where l will be meeting my great friend and his lovely Daughter, and will be raising a glass in remembrance of Moira, who’s Birthday it would have been today
Hail Hail. EDB
Gold Coast Tom:
So I was right all along, you were the Prince, and Edmund too, and all the rest too, so why did you have to lie about it so often? You know I hate opera… how do you know that Tom? How do you know what you state without any knowledge is even close to the truth?
Am I up for a beer in O’Malley’s… no. It is the most pretentious pub in Brisbane. Pick another, I don’t go to pubs here very often, but for you, I’ll make the effort.
Team for today. Johanssen should go straight back in and I’d rest Ambrose & Commons.
——————-Forster——————-
Matthews VanDijk Mulgrew Izaguirre
——————–Biton———————
———Brown ———-Johansen——
——————Forrest——————–
————-Balde—–Griffiths————–
Subs zaluska Ambrose Fisher Stokes Pukki Henderson Boerrigter
4-1 Griffiths
From the Herald……
The Saving of Celtic, Part One: David Low
He was Fergus McCann’s corner man when his strategy of usurping the incumbent board through receiving the proxy votes on shares was the principal weapon in bringing the fight for the very existence of Celtic to a dramatic conclusion.
On the 20th anniversary of the McCann-led takeover, Low, a financial analyst still based in Glasgow, can look back on the events of 1994 with the wisdom of experience but his retellling of the key moments reveals how close Celtic came to going out of business and how McCann was bold, even reckless, as the crisis mounted. This is the inside story of how a club came back from the brink in the words of someone who was there at all the crucial moments.
The First Meeting with Fergus McCann
There was a meeting of a few Celtic fans who were worried about what was happening at Celtic.
This was in 1992. David Murray was borrowing more money, Rangers were having more success, Celtic did not have a proper stadium with the Taylor report kicking in and the board clearly did not have access to any money.
I met a few like-minded wealthy Celtic fans who shared the concerns I had. One of them suggested I meet this strange fellow called Fergus McCann who seemed determined to help Celtic.
I went over to see him in his apartment in Montreal in the winter of 1992. He invited me in and made me a cup of coffee. I remember this meeting clearly because the cup of coffee was brimming to the full and I had to concentrate on it not spilling on his table.
He said: “Ok, Mr Low. Who are you, why are you here and what do you want?”
I loved that directness. It wasn’t said in a cold way but in a business-like, no bullshit manner. This saves time. Most of the business world is populated by timewasters. He wasn’t one.
I liked him and what he stood for almost from that second. In the whole time I have known him – and I talked to him this week – he has not changed one iota. You always know where you are with Fergus whether you agree with him or not.
His determination was obvious. He explained he had been trying to help Celtic since 1988. The board didn’t want to know.
The Plan
I unveiled my plan as an investment analyst, having dissected the share register and the articles of association. It was to acquire shares quietly from disenfranchised, dislocated and disrespected shareholders. My proposal was to gain their support. We wanted to pick up enough shares or support to call a general meeting and replace the board in conjunction with a capital injection from Fergus and other wealthy fans.
Fergus asked lots of questions. I told him that the three families who owned Celtic did not get on and he should not look upon them as a group. About 40% of shares were held outside the board. When I visited shareholders you found they were unhappy. There was an issue over the registering of shares.
The board had a right of veto but I had a cunning plan. I told Fergus that if we got them to sign a stock transfer form we could have an irrevocable proxy for their votes.
The share register does not change but we control those shares and when we get control we will then register them .
He said: “This is a very good plan, Mr Low, and I wish you all the luck in the world but I cannot support you on that.”
I said: “Why not?”
He replied: “All the money I have, Mr Low, is going in the club. I am not going to reward these guys for the state they have put the club in. If you succeed, I will be first in the queue for money for the club.”
That was good enough for me. He was committing funds to the club. I left that meeting a very happy bunny. I felt I had an ally.
I was proved right. He always delivered on the button.
The Gathering of the Shares
We were always a loose coalition. Me, Fergus, Brian Dempsey, John Keane, Eddie Keane, Jack Flanagan, Michael McDonald. The only thing we had in common was our love of Celtic.
I went about acquiring shares and it was easier than I thought.
Shareholders kept saying “we are with you”, from Canada to the north of Ireland. Within three months I had 40% of Celtic in this office and the board did not have not a Scooby.
But we needed 51%. We spoke to a shareholder who feigned support but promptly called the Whites or the Kellys. The cat was out the bag. But they did not know the extent of our endeavours. That was when we started hitting turbulence.
We were at war. We ended up fighting for two years.
The Fight
Celtic are getting worse, Rangers are getting stronger and it is getting nearer nine titles. We called an egm in November 1993. Celtic needed money and we came up with a plan for a cash injection of £17.9m. The board rejected that. Everybody was depressed as the club was clearly heading for the buffers. The team was terrible and the fans are agitating. There was a feeling of ‘let’s pack our tents and go’.
I said: “What do you mean? This is the end of the board. They cannot reject such a capital injection. It is a matter of time before they collapse. The next call they will receive is form the bank saying: ‘How could you do that?'”
They were into the Bank of Scotland for £5m. Within three months, the bank wanted its money back. It wanted the money or personal guarantees.
Eight Minutes from the End
It was eight minutes and I can say that with certainty. I was there. It was the end of February when the bank said to the board: “Give us our money back or give us personal guarantees from all of you.”
These were not wealthy men.
Kevin Kelly and Jack McGinn came to see us in an office in Park Terrace and told us the bank wanted money. They said they had a meeting with Gerald Weisfeld who was going to pay off the overdraft but there was no plan for the future.
I told them not to go to the meeting with Weisfeld but to tell the bank that a solution could be found. The bank then basically said: “We want a million within 48 hours and another four million by the end of the week.”
I phoned up Fergus and got him off the golf course in Phoenix, Arizona. I told him: “Your time has come. They want £1m.”
He says “okay.”
He authorises the £1m and books a flight to Glasgow. He arrives on the morning of the fourth of March.
We then had a meeting and then went to the bank. The deadline was 12 noon. We stayed until the money arrived as these were as the days before immediate transfers.
We picked up a banker’s draft and briskly walked, not ran, up to the Bank of Scotland and gave them the draft.
The paperwork was signed, with me as a witness, and that is when the 11.52 comes in. I remember looking at my watch and noting the time.
Four days later, the other £4m was paid. That was all a reckless risk on the part of Fergus. It says Fergus is a blind, mad Celtic fan or he was confident in his business plan.
Maybe both.
All he had achieved by then was to become Celtic’s largest unsecure creditor. He was not on the board, he has no share. We all trail up to Celtic Park to get control of the club. We have to get Fergus on to the board.
I can only remember getting Fergus to change his mind twice. The first one was supporting my plan over shares and then other was giving the board members money.
He was against that but bowed to reality. We were in control. We then had to have a general meeting to convert his loans into equity and to register the shares and put in more money. Michael McDonald and Willie Haughey joined the board and we then had the big share issue in December ’94.
The Fans
At the end of season 1993/94, I remember sitting in an office in Parkhead thinking: ‘What have we here, it is a bag of crap . . .’
Due diligence showed it was far worse than we thought. Everybody was owed money. It was a tough gig. Then there is the move to have the share issue on the AIM market that took from March to December.
When we announced it after being beaten by Raith Rovers in the league cup final no-one knew how successful it would be. But we seemed to have unleashed some sort of pent-up enthusiasm in the Celtic support. The genie was out the bottle. We had to have a second offer to meet the demand. It was the most successful football share offer ever, maybe still is.
We had the funding to build the stadium. This is the story of the business machinations. There is one to be told about the way the fans had a major part to play in the momentum that forced change.
They were the energy behind change.
Fergus the man
I genuinely think he is a top man because he tells the truth. He usually gets the big decisions right and pursues his objectives ruthlessly and efficiently. He is not a saint but he was very refreshing. It is unusual to meet someone like him in business.
He did three unusual things: First, he invested blind. Second, he put in such a significant proportion of his wealth, some say 80%. Third, he changed his mind over paying the board money to leave.
It is difficult to come to any other conclusion than he was a big Celtic fan. He is synonymous with good business practice but there was more than that. He did not screw anybody either. The fans bought the shares at the same price as Fergus. He was honest in all his dealings and that is unusual in business.
The Legacy
All those tough decisions that he and the board had to make have been proven to have been as sound as a pound. The pressure came from the world and his wife, some fans being manipulated by the mainstream media, some from the displaced and the disgruntled.
The press was getting worked. This was making his job very difficult. But he stuck to the tough decisions. And that was 100% the right thing to do. We had to spend money on a stadium so that impacted on paying for the squad. Looking back, we were right and David Murray was wrong.
That is why we are where we are and Rangers are where Rangers are.
Future for Celtic
I actually believe Celtic face a bigger crisis now than they did in the early nineties. The team I started to go to see in the 60s was then experiencing an upswing under Jock Stein. There were the two European Cup finals and the losing semi-finals too.
I see no prospect of Celtic of competing at that level. Celtic have to get out of Scotland. They are trying to run up a down escalator and that is extremely difficult.
UEFA is adamant that the rules stay whereby if you have a football association then you have to play in that country.
Griffiths to score
PS: God bless The Bunnet!
Kevjungle, without Fergus and the PLC we would have ended up in just as bad a situation, if not worse, than that outfit previously known as Rangers FC PLC (RIP).
This is called The Real World.
Morning bhoys.
billy bhoy thanks for the offer of run home after cqn10.
if you email me I will give you the details.
blantyretim@aol.com
malorbhoy
08:50 on 1 March, 2014
I won’t make the game today (grandaughter’s birthday party)…….give EDB my best wishes on this special day for his family….
I was outside Celtic park that Friday evening with mrs bt..
the rebels have won….yes they have and the orcs are deid…..
MALORBHOY
Pass on my kind regards to Jim,a smashing fella on our too-brief encounter.