New contracts are Champions League dividend

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It’s great news that Celtic have secured three first choice players, Charlie Mulgrew, Adam Matthews and James Forrest, on new long term contracts.  It allows the players to forget about long-term career issues and concentrate on team matters and the manager and scouts can worry about squad recruitment efforts in other areas.

This news is a direct consequence of Champions League group stage qualification.  Not only do Celtic have funds to increase wage budget, more importantly, aspirational football players, who want to reach the very top of the game, have a reason to be here.

The same is true of Fraser Forster’s England call up.  Scottish football has long been regarded along the lines of lower division football in England, but with Champions League football, the English national team have endorsed our football.  It will be easier to attract the next wave of recruits as a result.  One day Kris Commons [stand out Player of the Year candidate]can only hope his own national team will regard his productive displays in the same manner.

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  1. bournesouprecipe ,

     

    Thank you.

     

    I was very remiss in not acknowledging your own special day.

     

     

    Many HAPPY returns.

  2. Clashcitybhoy

     

     

    20:34 on 6 October, 2012

     

     

    I wonder how Bill Gates, Warren Buffet etc all enjoyed their trip to Stirling today?

     

     

    I am sure they will recognise fellow philanthropic spirits in the generosity of Rankers in allowing Scotland’s worst team an early goal and a victory.

     

     

    I feel certain that both individuals will be straight on to their marketing and finance teams to make sure neither loses out in the hotly contested bidding process for sponsorship and naming rights.

     

    _______________________________________________________________

     

     

    I never thought about it quite like that.

     

     

    That’s the Scottish MSM guff for Sunday sorted. :))

  3. BSR- what…your new birthday top being unveiled??? :)

     

     

    Or is it the new 125th anniversary top- no hoops tomorrow?

     

     

     

    Kilbowie Kelt- Have a grand day tomorrow in the special company of your nearest and dearest.

  4. Magnificentseven on

    bournesouprecipe

     

     

     

    20:44 on 6 October, 2012

     

     

     

    goldstar

     

     

    The 125th top would be nice, but no Hoops would be odd?

     

     

     

    it’s the new top tomorrow

  5. bournesouprecipe

     

    20:42 on

     

    6 October, 2012

     

    VP

     

     

    Scottish Heroes CSC Lisbon Lions

  6. Magnificentseven

     

     

    Good enough for me, when you see it up close it is a thing of great beauty.

     

     

    But we’re unique, because nothing can top the Hoops

     

     

    Nothing CSC

  7. Much as I respect Kilbowie Kelt’s take on things, I don’t feel we have come anywhere near being compensated for the rampant cheating we have had to live for. From what I can gather, that cheating is still going on. The other teams they played away should have beaten them but the MIBs did their usual dirty work. Let this pretend team die, like its unmourned parent. Let Scotland be rid of this shame once and for all.

  8. Magnificentseven on

    bournesouprecipe

     

     

     

    20:48 on 6 October, 2012

     

     

     

    Magnificentseven

     

     

    Good enough for me, when you see it up close it is a thing of great beauty.

     

     

    But we’re unique, because nothing can top the Hoops

     

     

    Nothing CSC

     

     

     

    agree with that…. the hoops stand out

     

     

    but the new top is a cracker…and they need to sell it

  9. Notthebus, having pinned his character to not walking away I don’t see how doing so would be possible.

     

     

    Bournesouprecipe, Willie Wallace? Was that before he went to Hearts?

     

     

    Kilbowie Kelt, enjoy your meal and trip.

  10. ArranmoreBhoyLXV11 on

    KILBOWIE KELT, BSR,

     

     

    Happy birthday to one and all..

     

     

    Stirling Albion obviously gave you a present..

     

     

    HH

  11. Glendalystonsils likes a mr whippy with his lime green jelly on

    Ring Ring! Ring Ring!………..

     

     

    Hello, Sue…..?

     

     

    Sue barker………Who is this…….?

     

     

    It’s me…….Sally….Listen Sue, doll. Ah need a favour.

     

     

    No! I’m finished with all that ya wee creep, I’m seeing Sir Cliff now.

     

     

    Naw ,naw, ah need a new job and ah need tae get outta town quick….

     

     

    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

     

     

    Sue….? Sue…..?…………

  12. I once knew a young lad called Sally

     

    Who was fond of a pie and a swally

     

    His waistband was tight

     

    But his team , they were shoite

     

    And here ends the reign of poor Sally.

  13. Magnificentseven on

    FourGreenFields

     

     

     

    20:53 on 6 October, 2012

     

     

     

    I once knew a young lad called Sally

     

    Who was fond of a pie and a swally

     

    His waistband was tight

     

    But his team , they were shoite

     

    And here ends the reign of poor Sally.

     

     

     

    last line

     

     

    and everyone called him a Wally

  14. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Kano 1000 on

    Good Evening,

     

     

    Below is a post I placed on the RTC site in early February when Craig Whyte lodged papers at the Court of Session saying that there was a risk of Administration– whilst stopping short of making an appointment.

     

     

    Given what is now so completely clear and known, the post seems prophetic thoiugh I stress that I did not forsee things absolutely turning out the way they did as that was impossible.

     

     

    However, the post stands the scrutiny of time, and given the events of this afternoon, perhaps the last paragraph was the most prophetic?

     

     

    I have also written a rather long piece on a comparison between Rangers tax troubled and the problems faced by the cycling world and the Tour de France which poses some questions which the FTT is about to answer— only for more questions to appear.

     

     

    That can be found at the link below though it is 11,000 wors plus long so far too big for here as it would clog up the blog!!

     

     

    http://broganrogantrevinoandhogan.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-silence-of-the-lambs-and-when-the-wheels-come-off-the-bogey/

     

     

    HH

     

     

    BRTH

     

    ——————————————————————————————————————-

     

     

    Good Morning,

     

     

    Mary Shelley, her husband Percy, Lord Byron, and the author and physician John Polidori sat down on more than one occasion and discussed the idea of creating fantastic and fantasist horror stories. Ultimately, they decided on a competition amongst themselves as to who could create the most horrific character and story. Polidori,is credited by many as the creator of the Vampire genre– later giving rise to that colourful, charming and debonair character Count Dracula.

     

     

    However, Bram Stoker did not introduce us to the Count until 1897, while friend Polidori was writing about” Vampyres” as far back as 1819. It would appear that Stoker– It is so tempting to call him Stokesy — gained greater fame because he made his monster more real, gave him a name, made him duplicitous, alluring and mysteriously murderous– so making him all the more attractive to the reading public. The Public loves a believable baddy you see.

     

     

    However, the purist horror story prize has to go to Ms Shelley! Her 1818 novel, “Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus” depicts the monster of the book as the direct consequential result of a single deliberate decision which is taken by Dr Frankenstein to use modern and perhaps unethical experiments in the laboratory, to achieve otherwise impossible fantastic results!

     

     

    Of course it all goes wrong with dire consequences, and results in the creation of a creature or monster wreaking havoc across the land, and thus giving us the legend of Frankenstein’s monster.

     

     

    Does any of this ring a bell?

     

     

    Yesterday and in the course of last night, Rangers Football Club and those who run it, did their very best to mimic the tale of Frankenstein and his monster in a unique way. Craig Whyte and Alistair Johnston, both staged their versions of gothic horror in the spotlight of full media glare. Both sought to paint the most horrific of pictures and present the waiting press with their portrait of who the real villain of the piece was.

     

     

    Like Shelley’s Frankenstein novel– some blame must attach to the mad scientist who started the catastrophe, while others see the misfit, half witted monster as the unwitting but ultimately more dangerous beast.

     

     

    When it comes to fantasy, I have to say that both Whyte and Johnston are no mean players in the field either. Regrettably, a talent for fantasy has no place in the boardroom of a PLC and if you stop and think this morning you can only conclude that things over Ibrox way have been in a truly shocking state for many many a year.

     

     

    Did I really hear AJ say on national radio last night that he had a series of discussions with Lloyds in which he simply suggested that any debt Rangers PLC had should just be absorbed into the MIH balance sheet and so should be transferred to that company by the bank?

     

     

    Did he really stress that Rangers only owed say £30-£40 Million at the time whereas MIH owed £800 Million so why not add it on as it was only a minor percentage of their kind of debt?

     

     

    Did he really say that the Rangers Board, having been bailed out and underwritten by the fans once, and by MIH and Murray through a previously underwritten share subscription after that, vastly overspent in the Advocaat years but always believed at the end of the day Murray would come in again— so the actual finances didn’t matter that much?

     

     

    Did he really say that the Auditors had been giving warnings about the EBT years before but that nobody was too concerned about it because HMRC did not seem to be pressing it or pursuing it and so they just carried on?

     

     

    Did he really say that he had reviewed all the minutes of board meetings which were Chaired by David Murray and that there just appeared to be no issue or any discussion about EBT’s– although moments before saying that the Auditors had been warned by HMRC that it may well be, or indeed was, an issue?

     

     

    Forgive me for being a bit blunt– but just what in God’s name did the then Rangers Board think they were doing? If Auditors say there has been a hint from HMRC that a practice is wrong, you had better discuss it and check it out and be active on it! You don’t wait for HMRC to wake up and come and crucify you years later and only think about it then.

     

     

    As for just throwing all the debt into MIH– if that was seriously Johnston’s plan he should not be sent out to buy a loaf let alone run a company. Why on earth would Lloyds agree to that? MIH was already overgeared and in trouble, and as I understand it, the LLoyds folk could not believe the justifications for the loans which had been made to MIH in the first place by the Bank of Scotland. That was why they took control of the company. MIH is in Administration by any other name. If in 2010/2011 AJ honestly thought that Lloyds would just happily add on the Rangers debt then he is a fantasist of the most extreme kind. Completely and totally delusional.

     

     

    However, it would appear that he is not alone in that field.

     

     

    The current chief jockey at Ibrox is cut from the same fantastic hue. It is said that the papers filed yesterday are no more than a warning across the bows of HMRC that are meant to spell out that he means business and that HMRC might get nothing at all if they don’t play ball with Rangers on some kind of discount deal.

     

     

    Dear oh Dear. If Whyte can only send a message to the Revenue in this way, if he does not know the attitude and indeed the powers of the revenue in 2012 when it comes to unpaid and late taxes, he too should go and take the reality pills.

     

     

    His watch has seen Rangers PLC rub the revenue up the wrong way at a time when Rangers PLC’s best interest would have been served by smoozing them and pointing out that whatever went before was unfortunate and incorrect– but was the tactics of the old guard and a past regime.

     

     

    However, Craig Whyte’s interest may well be very different to the interest of Rangers PLC. The company will now find itself on the wrong end of increasing penalties for non payment of VAT and PAYE, with the result that the overall Revenue debt just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Like Frankenstein’s monster, the experiments with the revenue and the pathetic attempts to address them just bring ever more terrifying results.

     

     

    Craig of course blames the old board and the tax case— he plays a Bram Stoker by giving the public a true villain– it’s the old board, the guys who did nothing, The EBT merchants, who sat and fiddled while Rangers burned– they are the real villains says he. He just conveniently forgets his own bam handed management and the fact that he knew all along about said tax case— which has not as yet been the subject of a judgement. He has no accounts to show, no transparency in business terms, no goodwill on a historic basis with HMRC or anyone else, and has integrity, reliability and credibility rubbished in a court of law on more than one occasion.

     

     

    Then to bring his fantasy to a Climax he glibly talks about the Administration process ending with Rangers being stronger and in a better position! Even the press– who have consistently found it hard to follow any of this fantasy— recognise this statement as a work of barely imaginative fiction.

     

     

    Meanwhile every other club in Scottish football must wonder at the fact that Rangers have achieved prolonged success while racking up unpaid taxes and benefits that stretch to tens of Millions of pounds– sums which other struggling but properly run clubs can only dream off. Alas you do not get a knighthood for running smaller and less significant businesses in a prudent fashion it would appear.

     

     

    Anyone can make a mistake in business, but when you see repeated mistakes and errors, the outside observer has to stop and wonder when and if making such errors has become part of a plan.

     

     

    I am sorry, but the last 24 hours has simply shown Ibrox to be a business horror show. It demonstrates clearly that the lunatics really did take over the asylum many many years ago. Quite how they managed to persuade anyone of their sanity and that they had some ability I genuinely do not know.

     

     

    Now we are left with Frankenstein’s monster, blindly stumbling about wreaking havoc wherever it goes. Clueless as to what is right or wrong, out of its depth and destined for painful and humiliating destruction. Yet, there are those who will argue that this is a monster that Scottish Football can’t live without, and that it has to be allowed to exist in some shape or form, and that ir is needed to ensure competition and that the league has a fear factor.

     

     

    That is a suggestion that is akin to suggesting that we all live with the aforementioned Count Dracula– but we all get a sunlamp to shine on him just to make sure he behaves properly and doesn’t go biting us all in the neck– again!

     

     

    Rangers— Gothic blood sucking Vampire of the modern age, living successfully off the lifeblood of others, or a horrific creation of Dr Moonbeams and his Marty Feldman like henchmen?

     

     

    Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus.

     

     

    For those who are not up on their Greek Mythology, Prometheus was a Titan and a brother of Atlas. He stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals. As a punishment, Zeus had him tied to a rock and a Giant Eagle came and ate his liver. However the liver grew back each night so that the eagle could come and eat it afresh each day, and so his punishment was perpetual with no day ever showing any sign of improvement. The single decision to steal the fire had horrific and painful consequences that lasted an eternity.

  15. Ach today was just a minor blip in the glorious 8 week history of Sevco.

     

     

    Remember this is the club with a global fanbase of 500 million – ALL of whom will be buying shares in the soon to be announced flotation.

     

     

    Before that, however, the club will announce a multi-million pound kit supply deal with Adidas – a figure of £20 million per year has been rumoured.

     

     

    Several multi-nationals have also been in discussion with Sevco – all eager to be the club’s next shirt sponsor. Again a figure of some £20 million per annum has been mentioned.

     

     

    With this sort of financial clout Sevco, in just a few years time, will once again be competing with Europe’s elite clubs – and further bolstered with at least £100 million in TV revenue per season.

     

     

    Whew! Need to go and lie down and try to digest the enormity of all this!

     

     

    HH!!

  16. Today’s result,for sevco , must be the worst result in Scottish football in recent times

  17. johann murdoch on

    Happy birthday today to BSR..hope the presents were plentiful ..well the one fae stirling was!

     

     

    And to

     

     

    Kilbowie celt .. Best wishes for tomorrow hh

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