Paltry 15% cut cannot be main story

891

Got into a brief conversation last night about whether administration and liquidation were likely at Newco Rangers.

The club’s creditors will be few and of comparatively low value, nothing like their predecessor club’s £100m debts.  They will owe HMRC vat and PAYE money, utilities and other trade creditors will be owed no more than a small number of money’s month.  Newco have not been able to secure bank borrowing, so that’s not a worry, but there may be directors’ loans, as well as wages in arrears.

The upshot of this is that money saved by ditching creditors is limited and unlikely to offset the damage administration would do to a club with less than two years trading history.  The only significant action that could be taken in administration would be redundancies.  Playing staff could have their contracts terminated by administrators, bringing to an end the Charles Green extravaganza.

Liquidation is an unlikely to occur as a consequence of the short or medium term challenges.

The most surprising element of yesterday’s news is that players were asked for such a modest pay cut.  15% of player salaries will not change the fundamentals and will save very little (circa £300k) between now and season ticket renewal time.

Keep your eye on the sale and leaseback of properties we discussed here since 2012.  If Ibrox and Murray Park are sold (potentially to existing investors looking for their payback), Newco could get some relief between now and being able to reach the Premiership, while the investors would become less anxious.

The cynic would say that being able to lay blame for selling Ibrox on players for not taking a modest pay cut is a convenient line.  Selling your main/only fixed assets to a commercial investor is a horrendous prospect as you will left to pay the consequences in perpetuity, you also lose collateral, making future borrowing more difficult and expensive, but, right now it’s a decent option for Newco.  Their future is screwed, not because of a land deal (delightful irony), because of what has happened on that land over the last two decades.

The fundamentals remain:

Running a football club the size of Celtic, under normal conditions, costs anything between £17m and £22m – before you employ a footballer.  Utilities, rates, policing, stewarding, insurances, maintenance, ticketing, PR and the tasks circa 200 people carry do not come cheap for a club of this size.  When budgeting for football operations, start to count your football income after you’ve banked money around this level.

Newco Rangers will be a fraction below this at the moment, but if they are to continue to operate a business capable of entertaining (sic.) >30,000 people several times per month they will not be able to eat into these costs significantly.  Insurance, rates, police and other costs need to be met; face painting is optional.

A club the size of Newco Rangers, or Celtic, is not viable without regular Champions League income, and is not possible short term without splurging into higher debt.  If Celtic slip away from the group stage for an extended period, they will have to downsize all areas of operations.  Football budget would be much more like Aberdeen’s.

Keep in mind the words of the magnificent Blue Knights.  While ensuring Charles Green was left in an invidious position to start his new enterprise from, they were clear, only a CVA, leaving Rangers in top flight football with access to Europe, was viable.

This BBC article adds insight into what I referred to yesterday about former Southampton chairman, Nicola Cortese: “A presentation to the players in April last year did not ask if Southampton can win the Premier League, but how can they win it?

“Players were asked to fill out questionnaires. What time did they wake up at home? What were their habits? Did their children wake them, did the dog? The results were analysed and changes were made.

“When Southampton travel away from home, the hotel is often booked for two nights rather than one. On the first night, club staff arrive and clean the already pristine rooms. They vacuum up every particle of dust that might cause illness or carry a bug.”
[calameo code=000390171ece27dd9e54e lang=en page=98 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

891 Comments

  1. Love the coverage of McCoist’s latest nonsense Heroic manager backing his players seems to be the script … wonder what his board think of his statements?

     

     

    And can you imagine of our manager was in this situation? Cracked crests, “Lennon defies Board” headlines, splits everywhere …

  2. And if you allow me to bore that pants of you further yet, we have only had to suffer for 203 minutes this season, as that is the number of minutes we have trailed in games. We have been ahead or level for 1597 minutes…so….coont yer blessings :-))

  3. twists n turns

     

    03:50 on

     

    18 January, 2014

     

    Some vg pictures in this article hence the link as opposed to the usual cut and paste job.

     

     

    http://celticunderground.net/the-bhoy-in-the-picture-hampden-memories/?

     

     

    —————-

     

     

    tnt,

     

     

    thanks for that, good read. i saved the main pic to be my new screensaver,

     

    for those asking last night, on saving it is says “1974 SCF”, SO ITS V DUNDEE UTD, 3-0 i think,

     

     

    without peaking, quick quiz ,,,,,,,,,,,

     

     

    how many times did Jock Steins Celtic play at Hampden ?

  4. ACGR:

     

     

    This is a video that illustrates hate and the aftermath.

     

     

    Ghosts of Rwanda

     

     

     

    1:21, 1:38, 1.43 initially confronting the cowardice to confront hate, then stark and graphical example of the product of hate, then the politics of covering your arse when supposedly patient good men did nothing and they present semantics as their only defence to their cowardice and apathy. It illustrates perfectly why silence is not golden. Only the victims were dispensable blacks as opposed white and the blacks of Africa are ten a penny or so some would have you callous.

     

     

    Could never happen in Europe though.

     

     

    Ignoring the Balkans.

  5. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    Mountblow tim supporting wee oscar

     

    09:10 on

     

    18 January, 2014

     

    antipodean red

     

    mountblow tim,

     

    Is it every any different in old bankieland and now the council are talking about making the ‘Muni’ a nine hole golf course!

     

    Sacrilege

     

    AR (formerly of the parish of clydebank)

     

     

     

    Many many happy Sunday arvos divoting our way round Dalmuir with mates..

     

    Any timescale for when the axe is to fall?

  6. a wee whiles back i discovered on you tube some bhoy loading up loads and loads of old celtic footage, some brilliant stuff.

     

     

    lost his name out of my favorites list, and now cant find it ……….

     

     

    i know its a long shot but anyone think of who i mean ?

     

     

    the guy was putting up loads of old games, very few hits to each, but brilliant watch ….. anyone ?

     

     

    what brought that on, was seaching for celtic united cup final in 74,

  7. Saint stivs,

     

     

    William Callow

     

     

    Goldstar,

     

     

    Medical reasons this time. Foreign gallivanting caught up with me, could miss a few. My bhoy will explain.

     

     

    EC67

  8. Eurochamps67

     

    11:06 on

     

    18 January, 2014

     

    Saint stivs,

     

     

    William Callow

     

     

    cheers bud, could you link to any of his stuff, something wrong here my searches aint going anywhere, sure my kid has set up her own preferences in you tube, lost in space here.

  9. From BBC Scottish Football gossip;

     

     

    “Meanwhile, Rangers shareholders James and Sandy Easdale could be about to plough about £20m into the cash-strapped League One club. (Star)”

     

     

    I just wonder how the brothers’ chat with the accountants or bank manager would go;

     

     

    Q. “So- why £20million?”

     

    A. “It’s a nice round number”

     

    Q. “What return will that attract?”

     

    A. “Em, return?”

     

    Q. “Yes- what profits will that £20million expect to generate?”

     

    A. “Well- it’s the The Rangers- we are the peepil, the Teddy Bears, Simply the best..”

     

    Q. “Sorry to interrupt you, but what relevance is that to…?”

     

    A. “God save the Queen…”

     

    Q. “Look, we would have to advise you that an investment of that magnitude with no predicted return is not something that we would recommend”

     

    A. “…Rule Britannia…”

     

    Q. “Holy shit- where’s that disclaimer?”

  10. Tucked up with mhan flu and depressed at not being able to go to see the champions .

     

    Will need to live vicariously through Burghbhoy Juniors attendance.

     

    Hope that aged 11 he doesn’t match my usual alcohol intake!!

     

     

    Shocking news about the wee 3 year old boy in Edinburgh, what in the name of goodness is the world coming too?

     

     

    Enjoy the game Bhoys , depending in CQN commentary today. Thanks in advance.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  11. macjay1,

     

     

    I think it’s one of a number of ways of saving the council money but I hope it’s vigorously opposed, spent a lot of my life at Dalmuir in my younger days. Worst moment was winning the monthly medal and forgetting to sign my card! Used to get a hard time from the Huns for wearing the green and gold outfit, loved it.

     

     

    AR

  12. Cowiebhoy supporting the Celtic to 3 in a row on

    Sipsini,

     

     

    Seen you post earlier, young Miss Sipsini is 18 today, so very happy birthday to her :-)

     

     

    Lennybhoy, if about, could meet under north stand today ? Before game or halftime, I will give you a wee donation for Sean Ryan’s trust, race night.

     

     

    Now just back from walking the Deputy, walk past 2 knobs ( must have been knobs talking about zombies), anyway I here about Peterhead, Forfar etc, couldn’t help myself and shout for wee 15%, the deputy has a new name :-)

     

     

    COYBIG

  13. masty is neil lennon and both of us are supporting wee oscar on

    Marrakesh

     

    janice usually gives you to around 6ish with the young uns

  14. Sevcomedian says Raman’s for a ban:

     

     

    “In the last couple of days, I have witnessed Raman Bardwaj question Ally in a manner more suited to some interrogation akin to that in a cliched cop movie, heard an entire panel on Radio Scotland imply that another administration is looming and Snyde trying to outdo them. Over the same period, the whitewashed statement from the other side of the city has been swallowed in whole, with no consideration given to the factual evidence relating to land deals and cheap loans.

     

     

    Raman’s performance was shocking as he asked Ally if he agreed or disagreed with the players and did that bring him into disagreement with the board. Was administration inevitable? Was something worse about to happen? I was waiting for him to ask if he’d ever crept a mile or two over the speed limit or returned a library book a couple of days late. Never seen Raman act like that before, but for me, that was banning material.”

  15. Tragic end to the search for wee Mikaeel, terrible news to start the day.

     

     

    R.I.P wee man.

     

     

    Looking forward to the game today.

     

     

    Mon the Hoops!

  16. leftclick Together we will get justice for the Dam 5 on

    Seen on TSFM :)))

     

     

    Is Mr Alistair Murdoch McCoist MBE related to Miss Victoria Pollard ? There are definite similarities in speech partners and analytical skills. There is also more than a passing physical resemblance.

     

     

     

    Asked if he has been told to sell anyone, McCoist said: “Me? No I haven’t. I won’t be selling anybody.

     

    “The club might sell somebody but I won’t be selling anybody.”

     

    He added: “There are a few options and that’s an option but it’s not a road Graham and I want to go down.

     

    “To be fair, Graham hasn’t told me he wants the squad size trimmed but the obvious interpretation of cuts in the player budget would suggest it.

     

    “He hasn’t said as such but maybe reading into what he’s said about a smaller playing budget and cuts, you’d think that’s what he’s meaning.”

  17. channelislandcelt4DAM5 on

    Monaghan 1900

     

     

    Shocking behaviour by Raman . Asking pertinent questions to Sally ,whatever next.?

     

     

    Ban ra lot a them:>)

     

     

    HH

  18. Afternoon all.

     

     

    Back in Italy after a month in Scotland where it rained most of the time.

     

     

    Chuckin’ it down here as well! It’s following me around.

     

     

    Looking forward to the game today. 3-0 the Hoops.

     

     

    HH!!

  19. EC, ta, magic.

     

     

    a wee thirty treat before those who do head off to the match

     

     

    1981

     

     

    saint 1 celtic 5.

     

     

    moyes debuts for celtic and gives away a penalty

     

    stark scores for saint.

     

    burns, provan mcgrain excellent,

     

     

    look at the size of the crowd.

     

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSGTVRKTMJg

  20. skyisalandfill c'mon wee Oscar on

    Yeah but, (munch) no but, chew, yeah but (swallow and reach for another steakbake), no but, it’s all Cellic’s fault anyway cause they won the European Cup and they’re just, and I have to be completely honest with you here, fenian bassas! (Munch)

  21. Never put birthday banners out at two in the morning… My daughter just informed me they were upside down…told her it was a GB protest ;-))

  22. leftclick Together we will get justice for the Dam 5 on

    sipsini

     

    HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPY BIRTHDAY to Miss Sipsni

  23. Tallybhoy @11 55.

     

     

    Bentornato !

     

     

    Weather has been good -way down south. Friday was hot enough to allow my lazy ass to bask on a seafront bench for 3 hrs ( no jacket, no jumper , a t shirt was enough )

     

     

    Catania tomorrow for the game v Fiorentina. Bus convenor tells me the bus will be full for the first time this season.The reason ? Fiorentina play calcio bello !

     

     

    Auguri !