Spurs have dispensed with the man once thought Europe’s hottest guru manager (don’t believe in guru managers). Villas Boas was a failure as manager but he was a mere symptom of their problems. Splurging circa £100m on vagrant misfits should be enough to disguise the fact that you don’t have a sustainable strategy. For a while. But primary responsibility lies with whoever authorised the budget in the first place.
Selling that chap with the funny hair to Madrid went some way towards offsetting the cost of this summer’s acquisitions, but Spurs wage bill for the new arrivals will dwarf the money paid to those who departed. This is the more serious problem.
They are left with players on long and expensive contracts who look like they auditioning for a West End show. Forget about Spurs recouping their ‘investment’, the chances of players attracting contract offers which match the cash the Cockerel coughs up each month is zero.
The Bale money is gone and those new contracts written in the summer will inhibit the club for years. What next: downsizing, or another visit to the roulette table, gambling with even bigger stakes next time?
Here’s what happens when you sell your star player: everyone and their grannie wants the money spent. “The [Insert club name] board need to show their ambition”. This comes from fans, the media, the manager, scouts, family members and every taxi driver in a 30 mile radius. And why wouldn’t they spend an apparent windfall, that’s what the money’s there for, after all.
It’s at this point clubs lose all self-awareness. Reinforced by the success which led to the development and profitable sale of a prime asset in the first place, the organisation’s view of its reach, not to mention competency, is obliterated. “We have spent money well in the past, look, here is the evidence, therefore we can spend this even larger amount of money well now”.
With this belief now orthodoxy, every pore in the organisation secretes an intoxicating scent attracting the club to market. Unfortunately, the rewards for spending big are heady and instant, though they seldom last as long as the hangover.
Directors are celebrated, ticket and merchandise sales get a short-term kick. The manager and coaches get to play with more expensive toys; quite literally, everyone is happy. This is narco-football, only accommodated by ever-bigger hits. For some, this narco-football offers proof that management share wider stakeholder aspirations. I contend otherwise.
The heresy to this orthodoxy reads differently:
Clubs should mistrust their successes, they are evidentially more random than most are prepared to accept.
Windfall transfer income is more likely to draw clubs away from the part of the market they are most competent in. It is an acknowledged fact that sellers and agents literally see them coming.
Don’t go searching for the instant hit, you’re more likely to miss. If necessary, take some short-term pain while using resources to enhance recruitment infrastructure.
Heresy in any area of life is seldom met with quiet contemplation. Narco-football heresy is more likely to be met with a rationalisation that the heretics don’t share orthodoxy’s core values – sustainable success of the football club – no matter how many references to “sustainable success of the football club” they make. It’s Salem-esque.
The orthodox-heretic analogy is evident where three or more are gathered in any club’s name. The first club who manage to unite everyone behind the heretic’s charter will clean up/reach nirvana/find salvation/achieve ultimate enlightenment/do lunch with Tom Cruise.
CQteN St Patrick’s Day Dinner is now FULLY BOOKED. Many thanks for everyone who responded so quickly. We are well on the way to raising the money to build a kitchen and shelter at the Kholoni Primary School in Malawi (for details check here).
Just a few posting days left to order your CQN Annual before Christmas, £5 from every sale goes to the Malawi appeal:
Sean Fallon: Celtic’s Iron Man:
[calameo code=000390171ece27dd9e54e lang=en page=98 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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Eurochamps- aye and I hope it has some kind of image enhancing software!
Still doing my lines….
I must read the article in full
I must read the article in full
I must read the article in full
Any idea what time the Annual General Heist takes place the morra?
Frank
You peepl will make any excuses to stay tied to the unionists.You are entitled to but please do us a favour and let us Scots decide our future.
Derks left boot
celticquicknews@gmail.com
Meanwhile over in the darkside.
Anything happening with our former rivals?
I hear some talk about a third tier, Newco having it’s first ever AGM.
Is this a matter that should attract attention from the Champions of Scotland and their support?
For what is worth IMO, Sleekit Sally has played his exit strategy card with his proxy.
He will not walk away.
He will leave by “mutual agreement” (or sacked in normal language), complete with a substantial pay off and confidentiality clause signed.
Quids in and reputation intact.
Stupid, stupid Huns.
EC67
Whyte loses,thats all the experts on the sites showed for what they are,dreamers…Rangers play in blue at Ibrox,they same creeps follow them,the same cretins that let them away with everything on and off the pitch still run the game in Scotland…so go away and enjoy your Christmas and stop bothering yourselves with what is non off your business…They will be back,much worse and you will have plenty to worry about then…
Could the first person who sees a wheelie bin flying through the sky in EK give me a shout so I can leave work early
Wheelie bins kicked by angry Sevconians dont count
BigStormWatchCSC
Did you know that if you run the name Hiroki Yamada through a variety of on-line anagram solvers you get … Hiroki Yamada.
How boring is that … ?
FF
Paddy Gallagher @ 8:16 Absolute class stuff from Ajax,still don,t like their fans though. Hail Hail Hebcelt
The honest mistake
Why would someone bless themselves aggressively in public?
BREAKING: Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has lost his appeal against ticket firm Ticketus and must pay £18m damages
He can appeal again – to the Court of Appeal – must be before January 3rd. @SkySportsNews
Why do I get the feeling another appeal will be on its way :))
Celtic fans being criminalised, arrested, harrassed, put under surveillance.
Celtic fans being alienated by the actions of PL and the board.
Crowds falling by the week.
This will end in tears.
Brown brogues in the Celtic boardroom?
Sadly, it looks that way.
HH
I support Celtic Football Club…..not Celtic plc
BIG-CUP-WINNERS
09:39 on
18 December, 2013
Thanks for providing address mate, appreciated.
DLB
winning captains.
CQN Annual arrived while in Barcelona.thanks for your help.
Huge problems down Edmiston Way and internecine warfare the (orange) order o’ the day and suddenly the clamour to foment disarray amongst the bhoys………?
Hmmmmmmm!
BBC still throwing money at their heroes Sevco v Dunfermline SC live.There must be better ties than that pash
Jungle Jim,
First Chinese astronaut on the moon named as ole Zheng Zhi!
.
What happened to VMhan and Coorslad..?
Summa
THE ACT
I may be wrong on this but most of the country isn’t in the least bit perturbed with The Act, whereas here in the west it has United Celtic and Rangers fans in a common cause.
Bada Bing,
The mouthwatering clash of two third tier teams was clearly too much for them to resist.
Still, it means our game remains a 3pm Saturday kick off.
Despite the fact that everything Hun related is hidden behind a wall of smoke and mirrors, with a hint of the fog of war thrown in, one thing remains constant……Sir Craig of Whyte will not go down without a fight.
I’d expect the gloves to come off in an even bigger way now.
hehehe stupid huns.
RIFC broke stoke market rules, sais Paul Murray,…… news flash Mr Murray, breaking rules is what they do, in fact , I think they have world records on it, ;)
https://twitter.com/CelticScoop/status/413244767494238208
Charlatan Paul Murray urging the fans to get along to the club’s first AGM in 3 years.
Here was me thinking RIFCplc is a holding company that was only incorporated last year.
Antipodean
I heard he was called Loo Na Lan Ding or Zeng Zi for short.
goldstar10
10:08 on 18 December, 2013
Charlatan Paul Murray urging the fans to get along to the club’s first AGM in 3 years.
Here was me thinking RIFCplc is a holding company that was only incorporated last year.
A very good point. If we suspend disbelief for a moment and consider (as the huns would have us permenantly do), this is an AGM for the “holding company” that “owns” the club. Therefore nothing to do with the footballing side of things? So why would football fans be there? Surely only Shareholders would havean interest or anything worthwhile to contribute. And since all the proxy votes are already cast and we know the outcomes……why bother? :-)
winning captains at 09:31
Just ordered the CQN annual – do you think it will arrive in darkest France in time for Noël?
AR Greenpinata
The list of people involved the the moon landings cover up…
NASA
The US government
The Austrailian space programme ( they kept in contact with Apollo 11 when it was out of contact with the US)
The Japanese space programme who did lunar images where you can see the tracks of the US lunar rover
The Chinese space programme who last year produced the highest resolution images of the moon where you can see tracks of the lunar rover
The scientists who claim to be able to work out that the moon in getting further away by two inches a year because they bounce lasers off mirrors left by the Apollo missions ( I have met one of these)
The scientists who have studied the rocks which were brought back from the moon.
AGM in Sevconia must mean Anytime General Meeting.
Once the Chinese put a man (or woman) on the moon, do you think there’s a chance they’ll turn their attention to cracking the apparently intractable problem of parking meters being unable to give change … ?
FF
Gordon J-William Hill Scottish Cup Fifth Round
Saturday, 8th February 2014
Celtic v Aberdeen
Kick-off 12.45pm (Sky Sports)
Mark Hately claiming that Chinese moon landing success is ‘tainted’.
Ticketus will prob. Go after Ibrokes now, as Whyte had to put up some kind of collateral, and at the time that’s all that the Motherwell billionaire had, companies like Ticketus just do not hand over 18 million quid without a belt and braces clause, IMO, could be wrong mind you.
Gordon j @ 1003
“Still, it means our game remains a 3pm Saturday kick off.”
1245 Ibuleve.
Auldheid –
I heard there were 2 astronauts on the Chinese mission – Wan Wee Step & Wan Jian Leep
!!Bada Bing!!,
I missed that change – thanks
Yorkbhoy,
What about that Peter Lawwell?
Auldheid,
Takes me back to my younger days when my Dad used to tell me about the two Chinese footballers, Bang Wan In & Wan San Shoo!
did the nazis not get to the moon first ?
i am sure i saw a documentary about that