Feyenoord beat Heerenveen 6-1 on Saturday, won 1-5 at Utrecht in their previous game and recorded another 6-1, home to Almere before that. That is lightening form. Draws in their opening two games of the season are the only chink in the armour. The Dutch champions are a weaker Pot 1 side, but they won a far stronger league than Celtic compete in and are formidable opponents.
When facing the media yesterday, Brendan Rodgers acknowledged there was hard work ahead, “We’re not at peak Celtic”. Acknowledging yet another knock to yet another central defender, this time Nat Phillips’ rolled ankle, he would surely want another few weeks with his embryonic squad before going into such a match.
Reassuringly, the manager spoke about the players having “flexibility”, which he explained as “when you defend… you have to have that collective responsibility and resilience.” I want to see us defensively organised. We are not Barcelona 2012 and we’re not even peak Celtic 2023, so let’s not leave shipping container-sized gaps in defence.
You and I have seen too many Champions League away games to set expectations as lofty as a single point, but as ever, we can hope.
Celtic’s preliminary accounts for the year to 30 June 2023, released yesterday evening, broke all of the right records for a Scottish football club. Turnover was close to 19% up on our previous high (35% up on the year), profit after tax was £33.332m and our net cash position was a surplus of £72.3m.
For context, our highest turnover in either of the Ronny Delia seasons was £52m, £20m less than we had in the bank at the end of June. It is financial guardianship like this that deliveres trophies and all those trebles. Football and monetary success are symbiotic. We don’t have details that will eventually be available when the final accounts are published, but the notes confirm the sale of Jota took place before the year end.
It is informative how hard information often contradicts assumed facts. Profit from the sales of Jota, Juranovic and Giakoumakis in total was £14.4m, this is after the asset write-down and money paid out to Benfica, Legia Warsaw and VVV Venlo.
The club mentioned the previous two seasons as a unitary block twice in the accounts. Peter Lawwell noted, “total spend [on player registrations was]£51.4m over the two financial years to 30 June 2023”. And went on to say, “reserves….. will be used for settling outstanding sums due from transfers over the last two seasons”.
Money in the bank also allowed the green light on the extensive upgrades to Barrowfield, which will see a dedicated facility for youth and women’s teams, including an indoor training field. We will pick up on the accounts again when we get the finals.
Let’s hope for the right result against Feyenoord this time.
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No longer Monday and it is now game day!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66853131
Good to see the Club taking ownership of this issue
COYBIG!
T
Bada
Poor reporting from the Beeb – “In recent years several former coaches and officials at the club have been convicted of sexual offences against teenage players spanning decades.”
“at the Boys Club” surely – not at CFC ?
I’d be surprised if the liability insurers were not making the calls on this.
May be wrong but a friend I know had an employee claim unfair dismissal. They wanted to fight it but their insurer made the call to settle despite the employer wanting to fight it in court as they followed procedures and had evidence that when the employee phoned in sick they were working cash in hand at another venue.
QB
Hatate, O’Reilly and Kyogo all to score tonight!👍🙂🍀
Just not sure how many Feyenoord will score in reply!😳😂
TB&F. 🙂🍀
Agreed, a draw would be a fantastic result, especially for what it would mean for our chances of a 3rd finish or better
I think we should expect some unpredictable results from a group that contains teams with little champions league experience and a couple of very inconsistent teams in Lazio and Atleti. And an improving Celtic and a manager who is talking about getting better results in the big cup
Hopefully we’ll have a reasoned response from the players and fans if we do get beaten. It won’t be a disaster if we lose tonight
Quad- I just read the headline mate,I avoid clicks on BBC articles, but hopefully will help folk move on
BADA-BING at 12.02. I agree, and perhaps some of that money lying in the bank can be put to good use.
However, no amount of financial compensation can make up for the unimaginable hurt caused to the victims and their families.
It’s just a pity that so many of our opponents refuse to live within their means.
Quad Bhoy…… are you suggesting that liability insurers are calling the shots here ?…and it is they who will ultimately pay out and not Celtic ? …If so big precedent set and a number of Big British football clubs …including Sevco ( Gordon Neely etc) better get ready for the flood of similar vicarious responsibility claims that will now ensue 🤔
I’d take a draw right now if offered, I don’t buy all the “only a Pot 3 team” thinking given we are a Pot 4 team and going away from home with a 2nd (or 3rd) choice CB pairing and a whole team adapting to new systems of play.
QB
No cheap goals conceded tonight. Let’s make Feyenoord work for their goals and take things from there. We will create chances, if we can score them then we’ve a punchers chance tonight. See out the first 30 mins and I’ll feel much more confident.
The huns start blubbing when Neely gets mentioned…..and mutter it was the old club, hopefully all Clubs face up for their responsibilities now.
CARPE DIEM 63 on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 12:32 PM
“are you suggesting that liability insurers are calling the shots here ?”
I do not know enough about public liability insurance etc to suggest anything but I do wonder if it is possible given the scenario I detailed that I know to be true, even though it seems wrong to me.
“including Sevco ( Gordon Neely etc) better get ready for the flood of similar vicarious responsibility claims that will now ensue”
Sevco were approached by lawyers I think (and their OldCo club did actually directly employee the accused) – yet they were able to rightly state that was a different club/company and for some reason the Scottish courts wont transfer that liability to a separate club/company in that case as they have done in the case of CBC…
QB
I trust this mornings BC news was released with the agreement of both parties. If not I’d be concerned. Very often confidentiality is the byword in matters of such sensitivity and delicacy until full resolution is achieved.
Fingers crossed for tonight, but I think it’ll be a long one. Great to have so much money in the bank but our wage structure means we operate at the level of a mid to upper English Championship side, not Champions League. Modern football economics…
I am sceptical about using profits from the men’s team to build a stadium for the women’s team. It seems a straightforward subsidy. Happy to be persuaded that it makes good business sense.
BBC reporting the club will settle the boys club cases. Not a coincidence with the publication of these figures and something I thought might happen. It’s a terrible legacy for the current Board to inherit but good those affected look to be getting some compensation for their suffering.
My cousin played in the same boys club team as Charlie Nick’s younger brother and Raymond McStay. I’m pretty sure Torbett took that team and remain grateful he wasn’t targeted.
Weren’t Feyenoord described as a gift of a pot 1 team on here?!
I understand the logic, in that we will have a better chance of getting somthing against them than the likes of Man City etc, but ‘gift’ not the terminology I’d have used and I notice it wasnt used in todays blog after Feyenoord have notched 19 goals in 5 league games(we’ve scored 11)….
Intae them…
HH
MAZZY
It was actually the solicitors for the victims who released the statement welcoming that Celtic had indicated they are willing to negotiate a settlement.
Cloud9
That’s me telt. I didn’t appreciate I was being “more than fanciful” to imagine public liability insurance might insure against liability from the public :)
I defer to your more extensive knowledge of this topic – it’s nothing I’ve given much thought to / done much reading on. I would have thought if we were in discussions to settle it might make a mention in the accounts though as a potential liability?
QB
Paul The Spark.
Yes, I’m aware Thompsons were behind the statement release. My point being I hope their decision was with Celtic’s agreement and that they were not – for their own reasons – putting Celtic’s willingness to settle into the public domain. I’d hope Celtic were made aware of Thompsons intent, and were comfortable with it.
PETERLATCHFORDSBELLY on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 12:42 PM
I am sceptical about using profits from the men’s team to build a stadium for the women’s team. It seems a straightforward subsidy. Happy to be persuaded that it makes good business sense.
—-
I take no sides here, but parity, which is what the women’s game seeks, goes much further than building a shared stadium. Parity means that all resources be split 50/50 between the men’s and women’s set up – after all they are all footballers employed by the club. This is a fast developing situation. The courts will be busy in the future.
QUADBHOY on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:10 PM
I meant no insult to you – perhaps I phrased it wrong – sorry.
Don’t know a lot about Feynoord but they are a formidable outfit who won their league comfortably and their manager Arne Slot was headhunted by Tottenham Hotspur. He was not interestedin moving to Spurs but instead wanted to build Feynoord into a force in Europe, an admirable ambition particularly in the modern football world.
Celtics tactics in the recent derby, catching Rangers on the break on many occasions with the pace of Maeda, kyogo and Abada had me thinking the perfect blueprint for Europe. In the past how often have we been caught out in Europe by teams using similar tactics. We are without four of our best players now CCV, Starfelt, Jota and Abada and well below the team that broke the world record last season. Yang has plenty of skill but is he as quick as Abada?
Middle of the park looks sound enough with Reo, Calmac, Riley and Turnbull to chose from. There was criticsm of Scales missing some headers against Dundee but Liam was excellent in the derby winning a lot of the aerial battles against the big Rangers newco players. It will probably be Lager and Liam in central defence with the regular full backs.
It took a long time to get over that European Cup final defeat in 1970 and let’s hope we can avenge that big shock in Milan by at least getting a result tonight.
I think we would all agree that a draw tonight would be a fine result.
That said, mon the hoops and bring back 3 points.
If we can’t get 3 points maybe BRRB will supply free pints.
“CLOUD9 on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:18 PM
QUADBHOY on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:10 PM
I meant no insult to you – perhaps I phrased it wrong – sorry.”
I took no insult from it. My reply was meant to be tongue in cheek.
I genuinely know nothing on such matters so I may very well appear be 100% fanciful to those that know more! :)
QB
Reckon this could be an unusually tight CL group – possibly even only 4-6 points between first and fourth.
Every single game will be meaningful.
Fancy us to get a result tonight if we play positively and don’t go for the “hanging on” approach. Defending well doesn’t mean you have to play defensively.
Cmon Celtic – make your mark where it matters!
Bada Bing 12.02
Correct.and the right thing to do as all on here suggest.
Quadbhoy 1.10
You are correct to assume that public liability insurance will cover any payout.it is they who are driving for the settlement and the club agree its time.Payments from the insurance fund,NOT the clubs cash resources.
HH
“HANKRAY on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:21 PM
Yang has plenty of skill but is he as quick as Abada?”
There was at least 2 occasions against Dundee that suggest he is not. Unless the Dee defender(s) that shut him down when I thought he should be clean away were also blessed with great pace.
QB
The Dundee left back was having a easy time of it against Yang ,but when Madia took over on the right the back struggled,as for tonight Rodger’s needs to start with his strongest eleven
CalMac’s thoughts ahead of the match via Celtic TV…
https://youtu.be/ifm-ah_7RYA
SMSM have Celtic written off , not just for tonight but the home game as well – sheesh.
Fascinating game where Rotterdam could be Amsterdam, Liverpool or Rome, been there done it, same old Celtic always winning.
Expect Hatate from the start in a mildly more pragmatic breaking Celtic side, with Palma taking over from Yang.
Mon the Hoops CSC
And all the men are gargoyles
Dipped long in Irish stout
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:55 PM
Beautiful South CSC surely?
On Palma – I’d sooner add Holm to MF and lose a winger even if it means 4-4-1-1 or similar
QB
Could I ask why did Celtic upgrade the present main stand ,surely looking at the old photos the stand was more open perfect for viewing,not like the present one all steel and restricted views
“BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 1:55 PM
SMSM have Celtic written off ”
Not just the SMSM ! :-)))
Celtic quiz
7/10.
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2023/september/19/celtic-fc-quiz–feyenoord-v-celtic/?utm_source=club&utm_medium=email&utm_content=quiz&utm_campaign=2324_match_preview&g4id=9&utm_term=-%25f0%259f%258d%2580-The-Champions-League-is-BACK%21-%25e2%259a%25bd%25ef%25b8%258f-Matchday-1-v-Feyenoord-Preview
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