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.
120 Comments- Pages:
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DENIABHOY:
Haha certain things just stick in my mind :)
PHILBHOY:
Beautiful! :) My own personal favourite from that book is one I’ve used a couple of times in relation to Sevco, and how it was built in the shadow of Rangers, which itself was a shadow and something sort of unreal.
“A strong place and wonderful was Isengard … but Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived – for all those arts and subtle devices for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child’s model or a slave’s flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, The Dark Tower …”
A little copy. A child’s model. A slave’s flattery.
It sums them up perfectly.
BIGRAILROADBLUES – Make sure you get Lullabies to tell you his shirt auction stories :)
JAMES FORREST
Brilliant and describes thems to a tee!
Deniabhoy
Intriguing. 🤔
CL night and nearly half an hour since previous post? Hmm…
HOT SMOKED on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:27 PM · EDIT
Has SFTB been banned?
Haven`t seen any posts from him for a while.
================
No ban for SFTB
He is still here
Evening all.
HOT SMOKED on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 6:13 PM
CL night and nearly half an hour since previous post? Hmm…
====================================================
My excuse is that I have a poor internet connection at home, whilst located behind the couch. :)
HH
BELMONT BRIAN
Ya big fearty!
Hope yer good!
BELMONTBRIAN
Brilliant 🤣🤣
AC have made an awful skolbocks of a fab chance – after amazing play – feel sorry for the geordies
Hot Smoked.
Sftb
Hes on a holiday j,poland and Berlin i believe.no ban as mod says,away resting and getting his knowledge typin fingers a rest :-))
HH
JF 5:14
Well said.
Nerves kicking in now.
Celtic tunes on. Roll on 20:00.
PI#HILBHOY
All good here, candle lit, rosary’s at the ready.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
HH
ST TAMS
:) :)
Apologies for the late update on Superbru but I only got back last night. I was over in Poland singing rebel songs with Zbyszek- we managed “My only son was shot in Lublin” and “Carry me up to Cracow”. I also took in the Dundee game at the Astra Stube bar in Berlin with some very knowledgeable and funny Scots working over there.
Anyway- before we face a CL away game tonight, with all the terror that brings, let’s bring Superbru up to date. In Round 5, our top 5 were:-
1. Ayrshire Tim- 11.5 points
2. BC Milan- 10 pts
3= jmccormick, Bhoy from the Village, James Cant & Bognor Bhoy- all with 9 pts.
Several Good Samaritans managed to keep me off the bottom this week. Nobody was pointless, not even wee BGFC, who failed to trap again, but there were 4 who only garnered a single point and they were:-
wee BGFC
Chalmersbhoy
The class of 67
and Cosy Corner Bhoy who was awarded the wooden spoon by the Superbru computer.
In the overall race, this week’s top seeds are:-
1. BC Milan- 35 pts.
2. Scaniel- The Donkey King- 34 pts
3. Pannysbhoy- 31 pts
and the knocked out in pre-qualifying group were:-
Disco Deek- 8.5 pts
wee McCaff- 9 pts
Cosy Corner Bhoy- 12 pts
& Friesdorfer- 13 pts
Remember you cannot win the wooden spoon without entering regularly.
Despite Ayrshire Tim’s impressive score, our top individual score remains Big Jimmy’s 14.5 points from week 2.
Superbru returns next Saturday 23rd with Celtic’s kick off at 12.30 in Livingston. Plenty of time to catch up on our pacemakers.
Now- back behind the couch.
I want to be banned and hang out with the cool kids
SFTB is back from overthrowing a small south American government, excellent!
Thanks for the SFTB news ( and for an increase in posting!).
As a matter of interest, would Sevco fans be as worried as many of us seem to be if they were playing Feyenord tonight?
Indeed, would our supporters be so confident of a Sevco defeat as they are for our own team?
“It is financial guardianship like this that delivers trophies and all those trebles”
Agreed Paul.
And the key input that provides the opportunity for the board to show off it’s impressive financial guardianship?
The incredible financial commitment of our supporters
“As a matter of interest, would Sevco fans be as worried as many of us seem to be if they were playing Feyenord tonight?”
I’d hope so after PSV :)
QB
HOT SMOKED on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 6:31 PM
I understand your point, however I have seen my team twice this season, they do not fill me with hope.
I so wish I am wrong.
With regards to that mob, I could not give a flying fook.
HH
That game in Milan should be well over, Milan 15 shots 7 on target, Newcastle blotter one over the bar and didn’t notice the second.
Humble pie from the panel at HT, tipping Newcastle not only to win here but possibly the group 🙄
Big Wavy
That’s some pep talk😀
I’m moving another couch in front of the one already there.
My tip is a 3:0 win- Hatate hat trick
CELTIC: Hart, Johnston, Lagerbielke, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, O’Riley, Palma, Kyogo, Maeda.
Subs: Bain, Morrison, Yang, Turnbull, Holm, Oh, Iwata, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, M.Johnston
Hatate and Palma start. No Phillips
Zbyzsek was asking after all of you and was keen to get an update on how Old Tim was doing.
SFTB,
ha, ha…
I wish it wasn’t so fella…..but if the club appears non-plussed about us remotely competing in the ECL, not sure why it’s expecting the supporters to do so either….
Keep it tight for the first 90 minutes…
HH
Phillips is injured
Pace up front with Reo pulling the strings.
That ba’ over the top could be devastating for the Bhoys.
Just don’t lose
KINGLuBO
Hart
Aj, Lager Lager, Scales, taylor
Calmac Hatate Oreilly
Palma Kyogo Maeda
That effin bench…..
Forrest, Ralston, Bain, Turnbull and Mikey Johnston..
That’s next season’s masters football line-up..
HH
So. Celtic emergency loan signing Nat Phillips, brought to replace our several injured centre-back’s, only for Nat Phillips to play 45 minutes & join the injury list.
Ok.
HH
An attacking line up by the look of it. Too open for my liking but BR knows better than me for sure.
That said the same 4-3-3 away to sevco played two different games in each half so depends on mindset and how deep the midfield sits.
QB
Bench has collapsed
Big Way – LoL
BIG WAVY on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2023 6:59 PM
:-))))
Expect the worst, hope for the best. It’s Celtic in Europe time again!
HH
Like the look of the back four!