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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JohnnyClash
ha – and makes sure there’s none of them Green Brigade involved in the demolition.
JJ
Of course and now The inevitable Hiroki Yamada – Youtube Montage
Big Nan – was Richard Jobson not a pretty decent player himself, maybe even played at Scottish schools level?
bournesouprecipe
16:21 on
17 December, 2013
He looks like the player we can sign for 1/2 Kris Commons exit fee and wage if he goes.
BSR
I like the look of him. Of course Youtube can give a false impression but his body swerve is for real.
JJ (Cheerio for now.)
Fact.Celtic are coming over to Turkey for a weeks break.
Fact.Ajax are coming over to Turkey for a weeks break.
H,mmmmmm.
kitalba @16.04 hrs.
I was one who described Paul 67’s article as fine ( Not great )
I stand by that opinion. IMO It is very relevant as it shows the folly of spending without a coherent plan to accommodate the new signings.
Spending lavish amounts of money with exorbitant wages does not guarantee success and can leave the club with an unwanted legacy. This is a theme than can be applied to a Celtic context.
Note how some posts blame Levy and the money men for sanctioning the spending. That to me is again relevant to PL and the Celtic Board.
Also, although AVB was maybe lucky to get the Spurs job after his Chelsea experience it should be remembered that he was rated as one of the most promising young foreign coaches / managers.
Again this has a Celtic context and possible lesson for those among us who would like to replace NFL.
With this in mind I repeat another fine article from Paul 67.
However ultimately it is all about opinions.
HH, Always in Celtic.
DBBIA
Yamada is 1.73 metres
weminger
The Hiroki Kokey – in, out?
First the school, then the ole t/office.
The gazebo must surely be next as Celtic Park is bulldozed back to the stone age.
BSR- 1.73m?
I’ll need to check that fact, if and when he signs.
It’s a little known fact outside of his native Japan, but Hiroki Yamada’s surname is pronounced Yamada, rather than the westernised Yamada.
O.G.Rafferty
14:59 on 17 December, 2013
Big Nan
God Only Knows, but for some reason that wasn’t the Brian Wilson I had hoped for
……………………………………….
Wouldn’t It Be Nice if it was, but no this one was someone I once held in high regard until his company Scottish Coal stripped half of Fife bare then went bust witout reinstating it. So he has gone from Hero to Villian. Lets hope the company isn’t allowed to Pheonix like Rangers or they would just Do It Again.
The craic this morning about Fife villages might have included Lassodie, the land around which was supposed to have been reinstated, but is now at the bottom of a big excavated coal hole filled with water.
I have been critical of Scottish Coal for some time before they went bust as you could see this coming but there you go, you’ve got me started and I was in the holiday mood
DBBIA
The gazebo is safe – it’s down by the Clyde after last Saturday’s wind. Clyde as in New Lanark..
Big Nan
16:20 on
17 December, 2013
Tom…..no problem. Brian was a resident of Rosyth & like myself, TIC mad.
Kingdom Eng were awarded some of the pipe fabrication work at Carriden for AMEC on the Rigidex Project (about 88ish)… I was a frequent visitor to your yard (Commercial / Progress). Later worked with your then manager (he was from Dunfermline)…..Do you remember Audrey????
Paddy T
Section 111 is currently being demolished, but to retain the atmosphere in the stadium it will be replaced by a giant screen which on match days will show some of the home videos taken by the FoCUS plods over the last couple of years.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
16:24 on 17 December, 2013
Big Nan – was Richard Jobson not a pretty decent player himself, maybe even played at Scottish schools level?
…………………………………….
Not that I know of D, his older brother John played professional with Meadowbank Thistle, Raith Rovers and some others but had his leg badly broken and it finished him.
Antalya a wee 4 hour luxury bus ride for me.Lovely place.Lovely wee stadium.
Am I going?.Am I f—
Paddy Turner
16:35 on 17 December, 2013
Big Nan
16:20 on
17 December, 2013
Tom…..no problem. Brian was a resident of Rosyth & like myself, TIC mad.
Kingdom Eng were awarded some of the pipe fabrication work at Carriden for AMEC on the Rigidex Project (about 88ish)… I was a frequent visitor to your yard (Commercial / Progress). Later worked with your then manager (he was from Dunfermline)…..Do you remember Audrey????
Paddy T
…………………………….
Can’t think who you mean Brian from Rosyth Tic man.
Dave Neil was manager for a bit.
Audrey Meikle was a smashing lassie from Grangemouth her dad Hugh worked with us at Mossmorran.
Rigidex Loops contract ended up at arbitration. BP doing what they do well and shafting the wee contractor but I had had enough by then and took them on. I would have got shafted too but after a long arbitration and when the dispute had moved to the High Court I discovered the lawyer advising the arbitrator had been given some BP shares. Settlement followed shortly thereafter!
bournesouprecipe
No to more demolition derbies!
Charges reported under the
Offensive Behaviour at Football
and Threatening Communications
(Scotland) Act (2012) in 2012-13
3.11 – Of the 106 charges including religious offence there were three religious
groups that were the subject of the charges: 88 (83.0%) charges were derogatory
towards Roman Catholicism, 16 (15.1%) were derogatory towards Protestantism and
2 (1.9%) were derogatory towards Judaism. Roman Catholicism was the main target
of abuse within the charges which referred to religiously hateful behaviour and
accounted for 32.8% of the total number of all charges.
Big Nan
16:42 on
17 December, 2013
——
Both names Correct…..
Paddy T
The Battered Bunnet @16:34
You know what they say, Yamada knows best…….
tom
It’s Yamada, as in Yamada, not Yamada, as in Yamada.
Ayr United’s Michael Moffat charged over betting allegations
Ayr United striker Michael Moffat has been charged by the Scottish Football Association over allegations of betting on games involving his own team.
He is accused of placing seven bets on six matches involving Ayr as well as an additional 150 bets on other games.
Moffat has until Christmas Eve to respond to the charges, with a hearing set for Thursday 16 January.
The SFA stress there is no evidence to suggest Moffat has been involved in match-fixing or influencing results.
——–
Not the ole CQN Yamada/Yamada debate…
DBBIA – my mistake.
Its interesting to see people advocating playing a youngster rather than resign Loovens. I wonder who they think is ready? Marcus Fraser maybe but I think will be a while before hes fit.Beyond him?
Above article from BBC website.
lets all get up and dance to a song that was a hit
before yamada was born …….
DBBIA – that mistake was my mistake.
TBB – my mistake.
Off oot, for my steak.
*takes deep breath* Yamada as in Yamada is pronounced as in 森田、冬休み日中日間出勤-_-。パートさんがやめてエグいことになってるだよ
Leftclick, out of curiosity, what punishment did black receive?
‘Its interesting to see people advocating playing a youngster rather than resign Loovens’
-exactly.
This could be the end of ole Old Tim’s chances to establish himself in the team after the 6-1 shredding of the Sieve.
The Magical Hiroki Tour featuring hit song Yamada Should Know.
Geordie Munro
Off the top of my head was it 3 game suspension and 7 deferred
and a £7k fine.
I hope that Japanese guy who is training with us has seen a fitness coach and lost a few lbs.
A guy said to me some time ago that “Yamada’s so fat…….”
Bourne
telt yeh
I think today’s article on Spurs’ spending spree after the sale of Bale has any relevance never mind comparison to defend Celtic’s approach of recent years.I think the comparison is flawed and am much in agreement with Turkeybhoy’s coments earlier on it.
I know Tims here over in Ireland who had flights/ferries and hotels booked for that Kilmarnock game. They felt bad enough it being rearranged for midweek but what a real smack in the face to be told it was done so that the team could play in a tournament in Turkey along with Ajax! The way things are being handled at Celtic that steward may soon get his wish as far as many Irish Celtic fans are concerned.
Marti
Yamada is 山田
Till later all meeting tonight