Celtic’s accounts were later than usual last year, doubtlessly due to world events, but I expect them to be out this month. The year to 30 June 2021 will make grim reading, although the notes will record monies received and pledged for the subsequent sales of Kristofer Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie. Celtic will recover from a remarkably difficult period solvent and in competitive shape.
As you don’t need me to remind you, this season’s title brings automatic entry to the Champions League group stage, with riches that can significantly influence domestic competitiveness. Last season’s title was about history, this season’s is about the future.
Solvent and competitive shape is a condition Newco also aspire to. Their last published accounts, to 30 June 2020, noted an eye-watering loss £17m. We will hear what their title win cost at some point this autumn, it is unlikely to be an improvement.
When they lost to Malmo, discrete comments were made that they needed to sell players, a feat that proved beyond them in the transfer window. Their recent pubic share issue was undersubscribed, although it will go some way towards repaying borrowings from former chairman, Dave King, due next month.
With season ticket money expired, they were forced to issue shares on 10 separate occasions between November last year and June. The club’s appetite to burn cash has not abated since. Uefa intend to tweak Financial Fair Play regulations, but they will remain and may become more onerous.
Clubs cannot lose money indefinitely, they eventually need to live within their means or face an insolvency event.
It does not matter how bare the bank account is, I suspect Newco will find the money to keep the lights on between now and their visit to Celtic Park on 2 January. They currently have a three-point advantage and will hope they can build a firm advantage in the title chase by then. If they do, they will find the money for another 10 share issues if necessary, in order to win the Champions League bounty.
If they leave Celtic Park with their league chances looking grim, how easy will it be to fund an enterprise that will forever lose money? We are approaching the 10th anniversary of when Rangers went into administration (14 February 2012). The weeks and months running up to that date were characterised by a circling of the wagons and firm denials of the problems ahead.
We covered Rangers finances on these pages at the time. We could not be sure how events would play out, but the facts were writ large, as they are now with Newco. It’s like an Ibrox echo.
What’s more important, a title for history or a title for the future? Right now it feels like history, but by the spring that will change.
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Israel score 5th goal. I will be really surprised if both Israel and Austria do not cuff Scotland at home. They just look far superior in every way.
Hairlikespaghetti on 4th September 2021 9:34PM
“This Irish team are painful to watch, not a single quality player on show. The pub singer Duffy…”
When were you able to train and play your way into an international football squad? When did you last read what you type?
International football is painful to watch until it’s major tournaments.
Have read a lot of stuff both on here and from MSM online recently and one thing really bugs me.
I know everyone has different experience but I grew up in the Milton and to be honest I didn’t know what bigotry was in day to day life, I went to work in the regional council and got a bit there but nothing prepared me for working in West Lothian it’s like going back a couple of centuries
Camusbhoy.
Whitburn,Armadale and west Calder…
Medieval ffs..
Bada Bing,
Gerard said someone ( Who? ) bid 5 million for him,and said they were having a laugh.
Another team from another Galaxy.I bet they were laughing.”They peel them with their metal knives”
Careless language from me in earlier posts. Scots have of course drawn away in Israel, a creditable result. We now have 3 away and 2 at home, and 2 of the away games are Faroes and Moldova. So incredibly, we still have a shot at second.
Camus Bhoy,
Yep,I had a job to do in Harthill for a couple of weeks.Unbelievable bigots.
Dry yer eyes, Guido!! The standard of play from that Irish team suggests that you could pick a stronger back four from the ranks of CQN posters, ya rocket…
And as I correctly pointed out the day he signed, it takes more than singing Celtic songs in a pub to fit the Jersey…
https://youtu.be/5NHkeAHIs4E
Hairlikespaghetti on 4th September 2021 10.07PM
No worries, you’re opinion is as valid as anyone’s. It doesn’t reflect mine.
My beef was you didn’t have the grace to respond to the insult you typed during the Irish game after Shane Duffy scored the late equalising goal.
It isn’t a surprise to me that you didn’t comprehend. I believe the reading level on CQN is at an all time low and that is the main reason I’ve patched it apart from around the wee team games.
:))))))))))
How many huns can the BBC get in to their propaganda? Chris Burke….fk me
Sean Thornton, I said in the work that Armadale hadn’t left the 90’s to much laughter until I added the 16 but then I’ m 6 foot 5 and from Milton and don’t give a …..
BADA
Exactly, Chris Burke ffs ! and when ratface McCann says there was a big fan group in the stadium tonight I take it he means the crowd ?🤔
So Guido, your ‘beef’ was that I didn’t ‘respond’ to my own post? As I mentioned, I was out for a few beers. I didn’t feel the need to log in again to check if you had felt offended and were awaiting an update, sorry xx
As for your more general insult to the whole blog, while I cannot speak for any other posters on here who have contributed to the collective failure to meet your exacting literacy levels, I do feel that your own incoherence has contributed in some small way to this drop in standards…that’s my ‘beef’…
The Celtic Managers job would never have shrunk to fit the boul’ Stevie………….
meanwhile ….”Sportobscene”
*shakes heid*
BANKIEBHOY1
Sportobscene 😂😂😂
There’s always been trolls those that would rush to denigrate This Dear Green Place?
:))))))))
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Thompsony, McCanny, Burkey………….
Fans, eh?
;)
Hairlikespaghetti on 4th September 2021 11:17PM
I’m one of those annoying people who know what long words like incoherence mean.
I’m painfully aware you didn’t feel the need to login again after Shane’s equaliser, it’s the difference between reading my first post this evening and comprehending it.
It’s cool you’ve moved away from the no insult square.
Bankiebhoy totally agree thank god we didn’t get Stevie
BBC golf updates are done, Europe up USA down. Cheating Yankee whingers.
Aff oot. Thanks for the laffs, Hairlikespaghetti.
Maybe I am getting mixed up.It happens.Is Burke’s father not a big Celtic fan?
Just watched a youtube of Liam Scales (short tbf) – what stood out was that he played primarily at LB and a 6ft2 at that position could be good for the whole teams general height @ setplays defensively.
I hope he can make the step up and challenge for a first team place @ 23 he is late coming from Ireland. Theres definitely something for Ange to work his magic with.
The wee Tennis cutey is doing great .6-0,6-1,in the 4th round probably up against No1 seed next though,in next match.Great to watch though.
TB…………
Is Burkey’s Da on Sportobscene?
HH
Guido son, life is way too short to waste time trying to ‘comprehend’ the posts of a condescending blowhard whose exacting ‘reading’ standards far exceed that of the rest of the blog.
You stick to insulting the CQN contributors and I’ll stick to posting my own views without first seeking your approval. That easy enough to ‘comprehend’?
Bankiebhoy,1,
No,but you get what I mean.I thought the player came from the same background.Why he really did not cut it “,South of the Border,down old Mordor way”
The biggest disgrace ever on”Sportobscene”,( very good ), was Thompson getting the job of host over Michael Stewart.He was treated as the show idiot before.
Hairlikespaghetti on 5th September 2021 12:01AM
I’m a CQN contributor you’ve insulted three times in five lines.
Turkeybhoy…if ever anyone was not cut out to be a presenter it was cardboard Stevie Thomson.
TB,
yep, yon’s just some hun producers oranj crush……….!
A younger Haircut That Time Forgoat.
AN article from Kevin McKenna in The Herald:-
IN the new politics of Scotland an infantile state of permanent empathy is valued above all else.
It travels on a fear of being insufficiently chi-chi by the current arbiters of healthy thought. This season it’s the backlash against Rangers and the Orange Order and a contrived eagerness to stand with the Irish. Yet many who consider themselves to be savants in the Scottish empathy-state privately revile Irish Catholicism and its chief means of reinforcement: Catholic schools.
In Holyrood today sit two new ministers representing a party which for many years denigrated Catholic education. Among its most intolerant supporters are people who have questioned the right of Christians to hold public office. They seek validation in a Twitter posse and screech “Unclean! Unclean!” at all those they consider to be social lepers.
Today, the lepers are feminists who, until recently, were society’s most radical and successful agents for fundamental change. In the course of a few years, though, that’s been dismantled.
In Scotland, to be a woman is now an off-the-peg choice, where all the sacred and protected characteristics of womanhood are twisted into something else. And where the old words indicating distinctive sexuality and femininity are now redundant and rendered something regressive.
In Scotland, Irish Catholics have long been mocked by these group-think progressives for their large families and portrayed as socially backward for emphasising the role of motherhood.
Yet, these faux-liberal critics did nothing to alter the state’s reactionary model of work which made it impossible for women to have careers and raise families at the same time. Instead, they were forced to sub-contract parenting to outside agencies because of workplace inflexibility and low wages.
They sought to bring the Irish into a homogenised sense of Britishness reinforced by an old, Scottish middle-class subservience to the Empire. “Ah, see those Irish with their separate religion and culture and language and family traditions. How can we make them bend the knee to the British way, especially when there are wars to be fought and lands to be conquered? We must quash their separateness.”
The great American historian and social philosopher, Christopher Lasch talked about this in his book Haven in a Heartless World: “Educators and social reformers saw that the family, especially the immigrant family, stood as an obstacle to what they conceived as social progress – in other words to homogenization and “Americanization”. The family preserved separatist religious traditions, alien languages and dialects, local lore and other traditions that retarded the growth of the political community and the national state.”
At the heart of the Scottish Government and among the political elites lurk influential people who mean to do great harm to the practice of the Catholic faith in this country. This is most often manifest in hostility to Catholic schools. Many of them rushed to condemn 100 comic-book black-shirts as they walked along Argyle Street on Sunday morning.
Yet, many of these also subscribe to the view – still prevalent in civic Scotland – that the very existence of Catholic schools contributes to anti-Catholicism. This was espoused in The Times this week by one of its columnists. The writer is not alone in this view. Similar opinions are expressed from time to time in this paper (though they at least have the advantage of being well-written) and by senior politicians.
We know this because Catholic politicians and others who share their views about the family are routinely abused by these progressives for being the wrong sort of Christians. Just ask Lisa Cameron and Kate Forbes and Chris McEleny.
The Catholic Church currently reserves the right not to abide by recent government guidelines advising that parents aren’t informed if their child expresses a desire to change sex. Thus Catholic schools will increasingly be regarded as a place of refuge for parents of all faiths and none who don’t wish to see government interfering in the formation of their children. So what then? It’s beyond reasonable doubt that those who still believe Catholic schools to be a problem will move to force them into line.
The Catholic Church is the largest NGO (non-government organisation) provider of education in the world, according to statistics compiled last month by the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education. It educates 30% of the planet’s children. In Scotland, 17% of our children are Catholic, yet 24% of the nation’s children attend a Catholic school.
There’s a reason for this that goes beyond their records of excellence in disadvantaged communities. Catholic schools seek to focus on the dignity of the whole human person, a mission which is especially crucial at a time when many in government, the media and industry perceive education to be little more than a commodity to equip children for life in a capitalist society.
In a recent lecture the Catholic academic, Roisin Coll said: “This is a restricted vision of education that is not Catholic. Our schools encourage children to pursue a deeper understanding of life and with this a commitment to social justice. Their contribution to society is a positive one and should be celebrated.”
The Scottish trade union leader and political activist, Cat Boyd tweeted her disdain for this tendency to blame Catholic schools for anti-Catholicism. “I have so much more compassion and find it far easier to forgive Rangers fans singing the Famine Song than I do for unthinking attacks on faith schools by the Scottish, pearl-clutching middle classes. They’re the real root of this problem; not bloody St John’s primary up the road.”
You might even venture to suggest that the Orange Order and its sympathisers are at least honest and open about their desire to defend Protestantism and in some of their valid criticisms of what they see as theological unorthodoxy in the Church of Rome. In a diverse and enlightened society such views ought to be freely expressed without fear of prosecution, even if done so unpleasantly.
Much more sinister are Holyrood’s militant atheists who have the power to legislate not merely upon the right way of acting but on what they consider to be the right way of learning and thinking.
Guido 12:15
I’m a CQN contributor you’ve insulted three times in five lines
And your point is?
Shortie’s leadin’ the charge to “Bloo” the rank s o’ Scotland.
Clarkey’s little more than neutered. @harmless
Defhunct.
Aye.
SFTB – cheers.
Powerful stuff well worth posting in full.
The Times columnist is Fiona Rintoul.
She has form with Catholic schools.
In relation to this subject I find the positioning of this newspaper under the editorship of Magnus Lewellyn quite sinister.
It seems to deliberately trot out this line after negative stories appear about the behaviour of Sevco supporters.
For example, Sevco launched anyone, everyone in July 2019.
In August, 2019 their fans were accused of sectarian behaviour which flew in the face of the … ahem … “initiative”.
Just ONE MONTH later, an ex deputy Chief Constable, Tom Wood, was given a platform by The Times to opine ….
“Catholic schools should be abolished to end the divisions that are fuelling resurgent sectarianism”
Whether or not he thought Catholic school children were “puddle drinkers” was not mentioned.
Roll forward two years – similar circumstances, similar editorial response.
Hairlikespaghetti on 5th September 2021 12.50AM
My point is made again. Thankyou.
—————————————————-
Let me also say, you make easy reference three times to the man’s own name. He deserves your respect.
I consider him to be a martyr of my Church. His wrists and ankles were broken on the rack in the Tower of London. Three days before he gave up his comrades. Crawled from a tumbril to his execution block where he was hung, drawn and quartered, A forever hero.
I posted this over on Sentinel Celts.
I dinnae ever post over 2 sites.
I am angry about Freedoms being taken away.
Anger is an energy.
……………………………………………………………………………….
If You tolerate this then Your children will be next.
I have never got in contact with an MP/MSP but I just had to this night.
These vaccine passports are gonnae stop me going to watch Celtic.
When John Swinney said they wanted to make a lot of the Emergency Powers permanent almost 3 weeks ago my Heart shuddered.
Then Nicola came out with the Stick attacking our young Healthy kids/adults taking away what they Love so much. Dirty coersive tactics – All Season Money in too.
This Delta Variant gets by the 2 jabs no problemo…. I’m assuming All that are compromised have been jabbed so this makes absolutely no sense.
Indeed as the Collins Brothers wrote about many years ago. The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship is kicking in hard.
Why Anitbody tests are not the main test is Telling to me as I was wanting them Last Summer for All free from NHS. The study coming out of Israel is interesting.
As I said to Jackie Baillie in my email….. If you decide to not get the 3rd jab will you then become an Anti vaccination person.
It’s insane whats happening.
This isnae just an SNP in Scotland or Tory in England thing.
Our Freedoms urnae coming back in my wee opinion.
You take Celtic away frae me – I will be at Every protest.
………………………………………………………………………………………..
Coupla thoughts re Kevin McKenna’s very thought-provoking piece, whose headline was:
“Rangers fans and dodgy songs are not the root of anti-Catholicism”
While Kevin excuses/marginalises the role of TRFC fans I, for one, am grateful – in a way – for their bilious spiteful parades as they put a very visible face to the hostility reserved for Irish-Catholics generally. Without these bravado-addicted supremacist thugs, anti IrishCatholic prejudice could continue to operate in secret ways in Scotland (as it did for yrs).
I’da also thought the main reinforcement of Irish-Catholicism ID in Scotland was Celtic, not the Catholic Church – but I’m not sure what data Mr McKenna makes that assertion.
And you learn something every day: ‘The Catholic Church is the largest NGO (non-government organisation) provider of education in the world, according to statistics compiled last month by the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education. It educates 30% of the planet’s children. In Scotland, 17% of our children are Catholic, yet 24% of the nation’s children attend a Catholic school.’