There are lots of difficult jobs in football but right up there is being the person who needs to tell a baying mob that the club needs to live within its means, ask Fergus, or Peter. Baying mobs are under no obligation to read financial information, they are not answerable to the consequences of their demands. If they are subsequently proven to be wrong, they will not even think back to their baying days.
Over the summer, a friend suggested that then-Newco chairman John Bennett had finally stepped up to the mark. When interviewed he mentioned “sustainability” (or a variant, like unsustainable) no fewer than five times. He even asserted, “Football clubs are really good at spending other people’s money”.
Sustainability is the goal-den word in football; it can cost you trophies in the short-term, when a lemming club edges closer to the cliff, but the future is yours, if you can cope with the baying mob.
The mob got too much for Bennett, all that talk of sustainability is for the birds now. Instead, the mob have a cheerleader shouting for £50m of other people’s money to be spent to compensate for whatever inadequacies inflict their lives. The cheerleader is not offering a penny, he too wants to spend other people’s money.
Facing the media yesterday, interim chairman, John Gilligan was on to a hiding to nothing. All he could do is talk about getting the right investment, adding, “it has to be the right [other]people”.
Most football clubs go decades without winning a major trophy. It is their lot; fans are still fans; they accept their place in the world. Celtic may never again win the Big One, but we are still fans and we can still dream.
The transition from being contenders to also-rans is difficult, ask fans of Aberdeen or Dundee United, but they cope and continue to support their team. Acceptance of reality is the key. You have fewer resources, you will win less, but you will appreciate those wins more when they come. Talk of other people’s money just adds to the distress.
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Good morning Wednesday eve!
Hope BRRB cleaned out the bookies at the track.
Great stuff Paul
.. but the Gilligan Asda George breakout in previous article was funnier.
Good afternoon all from the Victoria Bar.
Aipple, a profitable day. I’m going to buy ipox and turn it into a convent. Or a brewery. 🤔
“Talk of other people’s money just adds to the distress”
If you had said this a year ago Paul I would have countered.
A year ago the distress was contained AND containable.
Supremacist mindset being fuelled by endless spin saw to that.
The game changer is the “World’s most successful football club” myth being exploded.
This deluded, arrogant, self congratulatory invention was one of very few vestiges left to cling to.
It’s exposure analogous to thousands of eyes being pried open with crowbars.
Very good comparison with the new firm experience of the last 30 years, Pablo.
R2ngers won’t fall as far but they will fall harder.
Aberdeen and Dundee United enjoyed temporary, unprecedented peaks simultaneously.
The temporary nature of success made the decline more tolerable as a result, with older fans having longer memories.
In the minds of R2ngers fans they were consistent top dogs from perhaps the late 1920s to early 2010s. (Other challengers knocked them off occasionally but these came and went).
So, One would have to be 110 to 115 years old to coherently remember a time when R1ngers fans did NOT think there was a natural order with them at the top.
BIGRAILROADBLUES on 24TH SEPTEMBER 2024 12:07 PM
Good afternoon all from the Victoria Bar.
Aipple, a profitable day. I’m going to buy ipox and turn it into a convent. Or a brewery. 🤔
——————————————————
Or a covent with a brewery?
Sorry,I am not joining in with this witch hunt against Palma.Sometimes our fans cab be as thick as that mob across the City.The Record now joining in,but in doing so,they have shown the stupidity.Stating that Palma has had a shocking start to the season,they then tell us he has featured,107 minutes !!!!!!.Yep that’s it.Barely worthwhile putting your boots on.
BR did nothing,unwittingly,on Sunday to help Palma settle into the team.Valle never got forward once to overlap,support,not BRs fault,and Hatate was quiet.
Palma likes to pass into the box,as does Taylor,Falkirk and lack of support scuppered that.We have a support,as we all well know,that have no patience.Most wrote Kuhn off ,Hatate does not produce,he wants away.Dont get me started on Jamesy and GT.Trusty copped it on Sunday,first game,playing alongside a woefully rusty Welsh.FFS.
Again,last season,when Palma came into the team,had a run,he was outstanding,10 goals,14 assists,2 goals,CL.
Maybe he does not suit BRs type of play,but the boy has got loads of talent.Too many fans memories only stretch back a couple of games.
Turkeybhoy –
I asked before but never saw a reply .
Are you ever back in Coatbridge ?
The Huns for all their troubles still have the second biggest football budget in Scotland by a distance.
The strength of the SPFL isn’t good. To be a credible threat, the Huns have to beat the rest of this league very regularly then square up to us 4 times a season.
That’s not beyond the work of a good manager. Thankfully Clement isn’t up to that job and even if he were better at his job, BR is better again.
In a post BR Celtic football world, they can catch us. Especially if we appoint a low quality replacement for a top class manager…
There you go.I mentioned that idiot Wyness bringing up that hoary old chestnut of” Far East Money” coming to Ibrox,just to get some space in one of the free rags.
The Record now latching on to,and running with it.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
John Gilligan follow up interview –
https://youtu.be/i711XnTXe24?si=moBrTpCIjZsvHZIX
Back to Basics
I do recall being astonished with the whole natural order of things sentiment when they won their 4th league win in 23 years and 1st in 9 years back in 87.
Of course they then won 11 out of the next 13 and boy did the whole supremacist thing land with me. They really ramped it up fuelled by Murray’s ego and bombast of course.
Although we had a sense it was a house of cards it was well disguised from their fan base and the illusion of their supremacy and entitlement continued all through the noughties and even through their journey back.
The real killer for them has been the 8 titles to their 1 which we have won since their triumphant return to the top tier under Warburton in 2016. They really have had to suck it up since then. Just when they were at peak hope / belief.
A treble this year from us and a European qualification will destroy them further. More than anything us doing 55 and more trophies than them will be the final straw in their espanyolification.
TURKEYBHOY on 24TH SEPTEMBER 2024 12:30 PM
He’s one of the more talented scapegoats we’ve had, ten years ago he would have been one of our best players
As a going concern, the equity value of that business is virtually worthless.
It has option value (the slim chance of an EPL invite or European super league), but little else.
My guess is the “equity” provided by its directors was viewed as such and was money they could afford to lose. Any further investment/loans probably has collateral pledged against it.
The only “out” for the directors would be if someone was willing to pay a discount to the book value of its assets (after auditors go over the balance sheet with a fine tooth comb) and then liquidate the business (sell off the players and the land for housing/retail etc.).
Unless they want to be lynched, the chances of that happening are zero.
Aside from another criminal taking over, it’s a total basket case.
OPM for ra peepil
You mean op(iu)m
Thirty years of watching us getting it right, one death and a few near-death experiences and they still don’t make the connection between basic sensible financial management and sustained success on the pitch.
They’re rudderless for a reason, nobody wants to be associated with them, nobody wants to have their lives ruined by the toxic culture that’s in the clubs DNA.
King wants others to invest money, so he can take it
TURKEYBHOY on 24TH SEPTEMBER 2024 12:30 PM
…
Re Luis on Sunday , I think he’d be disappointed by his contribution, it was a good chance to push forward for a regular start, everyone can have an off day. I guess the frustration ( probably for Luis himself) was that he needed to keep the Falkirk right hand side quiet to protect young Alex on his debut. You can’t be brilliant every week but at least you can be difficult to play against.
The young Falkirk full back played Luis pretty cannily, as Luis doesn’t have blistering pace he sometimes takes the ball in and almost knocks a short ball to himself , Falkirk lad read this and pinched the ball from Luis , which led to frustration, lost possession and confidence.
Against a lower division outfit , more obvious ploy is to run the full backs down the touch line until they get knackered.
Luis however needs to up his game , otherwise he’ll start to look like Hasakbanovic …. I’d be fairly confident on balance he will make a positive contribution this season.
HH
It’s quite a thing that we’ve not had any outside investment for 19 years, we have no debt, no borrowing to get us through the biggest financial catastrophe the game has seen since the war, we’re paying for capital expenditure out of our savings and we’re the most successful club domestically in Europe this century.
Paul 67
I’d suggest that in the short term the Huns will be the first Scottish team to be disqualified from UEFA competition as they will break FFP , it’s a nailed certainty if King or a King stooge gets a foot in the door.
These characters are normally lazy , stupid who somehow stumbled through life , made a pot of cash through no redeeming qualities, and will spend the remainder of their life blowing the aforementioned lolly and therefore seek to spend OPM.
You couldn’t rule out a front / stooge investor looking to wash away someone else’s cash , not sure what the going rate is 30p in the pound …. it would make the HMRC non tax compliance a walk in the park !
HH
McPhail Bhoy 12.24
🤣🤣
BRRB
Glad to hear it!
Paul, Auldheid, or others…..
Could you give us a basic lesson on UEFA’s financial regime?
As in what can a club spend shareholder money on?
I understand that, if you sell a player for 50m pounds, you can spend the majority of that on players.
If you receive 50m on a share issue, what are the limitations as to what you spend THAT on?
Many thanks in advance.
Weeron.
Mourning….. ‘the Rainjurz’
SMSM are now down deep in denial of how Celtic can be so ‘far ahead’ in a two horse race, and the gap called, death by cheating. Long suffered Celtic supporters, that were taunted by Rainjurz ‘bigger than some small countries’ sized budget, are now living in the cavernous gap between a new club that have no hope of making money in Scottish football. You only need to look at Rainjurz and what happened, to see why Sevco struggle from rebuild to rebuild, on pennies that only the Craig Whyte’s and ‘glib shameless liars’ are willing to pay. If only SMSM had reported truthfully during the EBT years, it might have been avoided, their cheating gave a free hit to Celtic, John Bennet and living within their means wasn’t acceptable.
The blue room hoodlum mentality liquidated and are now rooking every known ‘big business man‘ that they can con, only a fool would put a figure on the gap, so the new old guy quoted £50M. Meanwhile the Blue knights have been headed off at the pass by FSR a friend of Celtic and another Rainjurz bi – product.
It will always be like this CSC
Chairbhoy
This story on Gilligan and DD was going the rounds at the time.
https://x.com/RhebelRhebel/status/1838239505037271202?t=FT0KrFPPCrbghSPe5eiV9g&s=19
I think Phil McG blogged about it.
Sevco need money but they are a loss making business carrying a heavy debt and cannot seem to be run affordable
What would attract any investment? The existing investors want their money back. This would eat up any. New investment. There will never be enough money to compete with Celtic unless we really mess things up.
The only hope is uncovering an asset like Bassey who they can sell on for an inflated price. A single gem is not enough.They need several gems. Their approach cannot produce players in any quantities with high wages paid to free agents.
All in all they are doomed.
Bigbhoy
You mean like Moreorless, tavpen, goldson or cant(do anything)well
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2024/09/24/john-gilligan/#more-35460
Gene on 24th September 2024 1:13 pm
You mean op(iu)m
———————————————————————–
That was my wee pun.
I did think about OPM for the masses – but that didn’t seem quite right for that mob :)
Tim
You can’t mention Masses and r2ngers in the same sentence.
AULDHEID @ 1:50 PM, GENE @ 2:01 PM,
Ah right, that’s where it must have come from…
Thanks…
Hail Hail
Another shadenfreude-scented article about a mob we’re definitely not partners with nor obsessed by.
Won’t it be nice to be obsessed with the vision for how we’re going to bloody-nose the best sides in Europe and make proper progress when Brendan’s backed as per his demands ?
Predictions about their impending doom have been standard fayre across the Celtic blogosphere for yonks. Bizarrely – like the nine-life zombies that they are – they never seem to die as hard as we want them to.
As I write; would be be nice to be pre-occupied by the Dortmunds and Madrids of the world rather than the festering undead.
Unless we’re in love with ancient hate more than in love with continental/ international fitba ambitions ?
Anyone who knows Mr Gilligan will be astounded of forehead to hear of his great business experience which is being touted on FF.
A good beer sales guy with a handshake and a few jokes for the low level after dinner Masonic circuit is more his strength.
This could be time for Ben and Jerry’s never mind Jelly and Ice Cream. Or at least a few Magnums.
The Return of WeeRon
I’ll check the relevant FSR Regs when on laptop but this article at
https://secretariat-intl.com/insights/financial-regulations-in-football-caught-offside/
Is of interest . It focuses on the financial regulations that apply to English clubs and the failings therein but refers to how UEFA FSR is a better means of assessing a clubs sustainability.
You will find that about 2/3rds down the article.
The key thing is that unlike England there is no domestic equivalent of FFP or FSR in Scotland but since playing in Europe is where the money is then all SPFL clubs with European ambitions have to abide by UEFA licensing regulations.
That is why knowing how FSR, and I mean FSR not FPP, which stopped applying when FSR took over in June 2022 for the licensing round starting in 2023 for 23/24 season works is important.
When you think about it how could Celtic build up a cash reserve and sustain it pre FSR if our main rival forced Celtic’s wage bill up using non football money to buy players they could not afford?
It would be the equivalent of trying to keep up with Lance Armstrong in the race for the yellow jersey.
I’ll look up relevant sections of FSR later but that article provides useful background.
Quadrophenian
Fair point but it is funny.
I think we will know more by the 6th November if we can get close to a real breakthrough in Europe.
Our rivals are not enjoying consistency in their domestic environments. We have 3 tough games coming up. 3 points + from these and I really think we can impact. Even 1 point plus some decent performances and I will have hope.
Our manager needs to find a way of getting game time into the rusty legs of the fringe and new guys this next 6 weeks imo.
BRRB
Blue nun.😇
BURNLEY
Agree it raises a bitter titter.
Just wish they were in the rear view forever.
And that we had – like Japan’s football side – a long term vision for how we’re going to get our hands on the biggest cups.
HANDSONBIGCUPS CSC