On the road this week so today’s blog is by author Stephen O’Donnell:
Pick the bones out of that! I didn’t see Legia against St. Patrick’s Athletic in the previous qualifying round, but by all accounts they were fairly unimpressive, even in winning 5 – 0 in Dublin. I was even tempted to have a wee bet on Celtic to win by more than one goal on Wednesday night, and by the time my hastily arranged subscription to Premier Sports had come through things were looking good after Callum McGregor’s early strike.
Sadly, it didn’t last. It’s a measure of how poorly Celtic played on the night that they were lucky to escape from Warsaw with a 4 – 1 defeat because, let’s face it, but for Fraser Forster and some wayward penalty taking, it could have been worse.
As expected, it didn’t take long for the Celtic Newsnow stream to start filling up with tales of anguish and pontification from the mainstream media. From AEK Athens to Maribor, the list of European failures at certain other clubs (including one that is now defunct) is long and distinguished, but nothing gets the SMSM in full gloating mode like a painful Celtic defeat on the Continent.
On Wednesday we were reminded about Artmedia Bratislava, Utrecht, Karagandy etc., I even heard Neuchatel Xamax being mentioned at one point. The key of course is that there is no context and analysis provided when these previous losses are dragged up, Celtic supporters simply have to suffer such painful reminders.
This lack of constructive analysis is a pity because there are comparisons and parallels that can be usefully drawn with previous chastening experiences in Europe. It seems that new Celtic managers are particularly vulnerable to them; Tony Mowbray initially enjoyed a successful preseason, including winning the Wembley Cup, but his first competitive game was a 1 – 0 home defeat to Dynamo Moscow. Neil Lennon had Utrecht and Braga, and of course Gordon Strachan had Artmedia.
It’s what happened in Bratislava that I think has most relevance to Wednesday night – a new manager in post, replacing a club legend, trying to introduce a more cerebral approach, a squad clearly divided amongst those who are still pining for the previous incumbent and those who want to move on and embrace the new manager’s methods… the parallels in fact are numerous and really quite striking. Hopefully this is a sign that Ronny, like WGS before him, will turn this early setback around and grow into the role of Celtic manager.
One of the most important aspects of managerial success is the chemistry between the boss and his players. This lack of a connection in the dressing-room and on the training field is the reason John Collins failed at Hibs; it’s why Mowbray didn’t last out a season at Celtic. If the chemistry isn’t right then the team will lack focus, motivation and game intelligence at crucial times in the season, and these traits were all conspicuous by their absence in both Warsaw and Bratislava.
But chemistry takes time, it didn’t come immediately to either Lennon or Strachan, and Ronny Deila still has the opportunity to get his progressive ideas across and win the respect and admiration of his squad. If that happens then, like Lenny and WGS before him, he will go on to lead Celtic to domestic and European success.
In the meantime, there is the second leg still to come. If the parallels with Artmedia and Karagandy are to be heard in the media again then Legia could yet be in for a tough night next week. The tie is most certainly not over and it will slowly be dawning on the players who let themselves down on Wednesday that there is only one way to make up for what happened.
Pride and defiance have to come to the fore again, and the situation is still retrievable. All the ingredients are there for a potentially famous night at Murrayfield next Wednesday.
Follow Stephen O’Donnell on twitter @stephenodauthor
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West End of East End
I believe the catering was very good at Murrayfield but the prices were very high. I’m not sure I would pay over a fiver for a burger or a hot dog. Each to their own though.
LB
Next topic – Quality on the pitch will bring back the list ST sales.
We sold 41k season tickets last season vs a high point of 54k.
13k x £550 average = £7.15M – costs associated with staffing and maintaning the stands etc for 20 matchdays.
While an additional £6.5-6.75M per season would undoubtedly improve the squad, would it do so sufficiently to sell all those STs I don’t think so, and that’s assuming they’re all gone on that basis.
Let’s say the reality is that c10k of the seats are empty due to team quality and that’s roughly £5M additional on the balance. Over 4 years that could get you a couple of £5M players on around £25k/week. Is that level of player going to sell an extra 10k seats?
We need to bring these players through ourselves. We’ll never be able to buy the quality that would generate additional seat revenue to cover itself.
I’d love to see an exciting team of home grown lads.
weeminger
The time to blood a clutch of our young players was 2 years ago. I doubt it will happen.
LB
Jungle Jim…there was a time when we had a season ticket waiting list of 15,000.
Mistertaximan
Being on the waiting list was a great excuse not to actually buy one. I knew guys on that list who have still never bought a season ticket.
LB
weeminger
54k was a high water mark that was never sustainable. Martin’s tenure was electrifying. It had Henrik, Seville, putting the dead ones in their place, etc.
However, and you deserve more than that blindingly obvious, we should always be looking to push the boat out. I’d focus on the kids and teenagers, price accordingly, run the gestapo out of Celtic Park, let them stand and be brave enough to embrace what the next generation want out of the experience.
Still stand by the fact that we should be making better use of the global talent pool rather than getting all protectionist player wise.
Or failing that, hire MadMitch and finally get too see the fruits of his shagging ‘growth agenda’
If he ends up abbreviating the players shirts at the club shop like he does here,. we’ll never make any money :)
Like others, I would contest this Celtic team being inferior to the one that played Artmedia. Artmedia were inferior to Celtic. The night we played the away leg in Bratislava was comical due to everything they hit going in and us missing a couple of sitters. WGS later admitted that going gung ho was a huge mistake. I also blame Artmedia on WGS attitude to David Marshall and Aiden MCGeady. They took their share of the blame.
Somebody else posted a fair assessment player versus player on the team that played Artmedia vs now. This team shade it back to middle with the forward line of WGs team only marginally better.
I just don’t get the take others have that suddenly this team now are useless duds. The manager changed the style and shape on Wed and compounded that by sticking previous first picks on the bench. Cue player disenchantment and lack of confidence. It’s enough to make you want to go on a bit of retail therapy to cheer you up apparently.
I don’t think we are all doomed yet. There is about a 5% chance we can still get to the next round and 50% chance either way of getting to the Europa or Champions league… Provided Ronny gets his tactics right and sorts out the squad!
However, sorting out the squad means less changes than he had for the last game and maybe healing a few sores for folk who either haven’t played or have been played out of position. The home game next week should be about concentration in the First half hour with hopefully a goal then going for it thereafter.
When we play our next European game we should be playing very cautiously with no crazy formations and huge gaps between midfield and defence.
Also, for those saying we are doomed, we are not. Hopefully those cash reserves that were built up plus a few player sales will see some the arrival of a centre forward, centre mid, centre back and a goalkeeper. These need to be replacements for the centre forward we don’t have and a box to box midfielder. We will also need to replace Forster and Van Dyke.
If we get quality replacements in I will be happy. If we qualify for either European league I will be happy.
This situation should have been avoided though. …
The Green Brigade will be giving it laldy on Wednesday and we all need to join them.
Legias support gave their side energy to push on the other night.
We have a bigger support than Legia.
Anything is possible.
HH
Big wavy…what do you want? Have I not just clarified my position? It was an analogy and was not intended as a personal attack. Go back and finish reading.
Good Afternoon.
Management.
It’s a great word. It covers a lot of bases, hides a lot of defects and yet at the same time it can hide a lot of attributes to.
A football manager has to manage players, a team, decide tactics, study the opposition and then instruct his team how to negate the opposition’s strengths whilst capitalising on his own team’s forte.
To get that done the manager ( and his management team ) must have the respect of his players. They don’t need to like him, or want to spend time with him, but he must command their respect. If you get a manager who is liked and respected, then perhaps you will find that the players will run through a brick wall for him.
We don’t know where Ronnie stands on that score yet. In effect he is on trial. I hope it works for him, for his players and us. If he wishes to change the personnel then this will only happen gradually, and so at the moment he has to lift a broken squad, give them a cuddle, give them a row ( in private ) tell them what they are good at and and how they are going to beat Legia at Murrayfield.
I always though that Wim Jansen was very good at this. In the early days he watched his Celtic team draw or lose to opponents only to meet them again quickly, and in the interim he had said ” Look- come here– this is how you beat this mob!” — and they did!
That is the test for Ronnie now. Warsaw is done — only what happens now and in the immediate future counts.
Managing a football club is a different sort of management.
The discussion about Peter Lawell and the boards KPI’s this morning I found very interesting especially the contribution from The Battered Bunnet.
A Football Club is like no other business because it has a ready made and willing customer base. That customer base has an emotional attachment to the club and so even if you are a duff manager of the club’s business some customer’s will come.
They will not be swayed away by cheaper entrance fees elsewhere, or by another local club or by any of the other things that might sway the ordinary consumer carrying out the ordinary commercial transaction.
That is why, in many respects, the normal KPI’s that you might measure management by are worthless.
I appreciate that books have to balance and that budgets have to be kept to, and in that respect Peter Lawell runs a very tight ship with accountants at the head of every department.
But, as others have said, Celtic fans — Football fans — don’t turn up to watch balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, and performance indicator graphs and charts.
In my opinion, the Celtic Board need to take a lesson from, for example, those who have managed the Commonwealth Games.
The Games have created an atmosphere and a buzz about Glasgow. Right from the off, the “fans” were whipped up into an excited frenzy. A buzz was created, and as a result the “customers” have turned up and spent their money by turning out to watch the badminton, the rugby, the cycling, the wrestling, the swimming and so on.
“Sports Management” in the business sense is about getting bums onto seats by immediately getting those bums right out of the same seat to cheer and marvel at the spectacle.
Sports fans want to come and wonder at the miraculous, the brilliant, the skillful, the fantastic.
They want a thrill.
With respect to the board, at the start of every season they should be planning on an announcement of some kind that creates a thrill and starts a rush to Celtic Park.
Whether it is a player, a new manager, new training facilities or whatever — you need to create that buzz. That is what understanding your customer in this field is all about.
Peter Lawell is a good manager, a safe manager, but, in my opinion, he has not as yet proven to be an entrepreneurial manager — and that is what is needed.
It is all very well being within budget, and hitting some standard accountancy driven KPI’s and so on — but they don’t make a huge difference to the emotion of following a football club– and in football emotion counts.
There is a fine balance between employing “fans” in key positions at a club and employing “industry specialists” who are not fans. No club should be run by a team who are all one of those groups or none at all.
Celtic PLC should have an innovative management as well as a ” safe hands” strategy.
Of course there is innovation with the developments around the ground and before that at Lennoxtoun.
But there also has to be innovation on the football park and at the coaching level right through the club.
Some might say that the appointment of Ronnie is innovation and it will take time to see that blossom.
Maybe’s aye– maybe’s naw.
But what we cannot have is a management team who seasonally accept that we are going to have some kind of horrendous blip every time a football manager changes.
That is poor corporate management and one only has to think of Liverpool’s famous boot room to see how that is overcome — and that is not the only means of curing that problem.
I am not saying for a moment that Celtic Football Club do not have good management at board room level, but any boardroom who views this year with the same aspirations, goals and structures as last year is not working properly.
You have to look to the future, build on where you have gotten to up until now and do something that not only retains your existing customer base but builds it up and attracts new customers.
A football player is only one of eleven that can be placed on the field by a manager. Each year it should be the aim of the club board and the football management team to improve on the key personnel in the playing staff.
Such improvement not only brings results, it also brings customers, their money and performance results as measured by the KPI’s.
I work in the video industry, and have to say that I admired the most recent Celtic video which was designed to persuade us to renew our season tickets.
I actually did not need the video to be so persuaded but was still impressed with it.
However, that same video both asks and answers a key question for me in terms of how you should manage the football club.
You are invited to renew — BECAUSE!
Well — because what?
Don’t just treat the fan like a dumb customer and say “because we are Celtic” — it has to be more than that. Better than that,
Each year we get a new strip launch and as each year passes that new strip and the photographs that go with it seem more and more like a cheap sales pitch. The strip might be lovely, many of us might want one and it will work to an extent.
But surely we want the strip, and kids particularly want the strip, because they envisage themselves emulating their heroes who wear the strip.
Adults, who go to play at 5 a sides and the likes revert to being children when they don the strip. Children pretend to be adults when they wear the strip.
Both groups look to emulate a hero — a Dalglish, a McGrory, a Lubo, a Henrik, a Johnstone.
A KPI for those in charge of a football club should be — how many heroes did you have on your watch?
How many folk did your appointees bring in who sold shirts by the bucket because of what they did on the field of play.
How many times a year did the really big broadcasters roll up at the door with their OB units and satellite vans?
How many times did you have to charter a plane to take the team to somewhere else in Europe?
How often have you fielded calls from players agents who were offering you a player from a rung above those who you already have because the club has been placed in the spotlight for all the best reasons?
How do you rate in terms of getting more and more improving players to want to come and play for your club?
Forget about what they cost, you can always say thanks but no thanks because they are too dear — what have you done to make people want to come to your club?
Football contracts are notoriously difficult beasts to negotiate and football players and their agents can be a nightmare and that is to be expected. But if top players don’t want to come to your club then — why– and what are you actually doing about it?
Management does not stop or start with the first team coach or his assistant, and it is certainly not to be dictated by someone with an accountancy degree — unless he wears a pair of football boots as part of his daily work practice.
To attract better players you have to advance the team, to advance the team you have to attract better players: To get better players you may have to pay higher wages or you may have to pay for a top class manager to get the very best out of lesser players and make them a stronger unit with the totality being greater than the sum of the individual parts.
But most of all you have to manage those customers. You have to give them something to cheer, something to excite them and something to make them jump at the chance of a ticket on any given Saturday or Wednesday or Tuesday night or whatever.
I am perhaps giving my age and my musical taste away here but in 1972 the American Band Steely Dan released an album whimsically called Can’t buy a Thrill — well in football management that is precisely what you need to do every now and then.
Because when you pay for your season ticket that is precisely what you hope you are doing — Buying a Thrill
So, when it comes down to setting goals and targets, business plans and budgets, KPI’s and performance indicator budgets and strategies — somehow, somewhere, you have to have a column marked ” Thrill Budget”.
It is every part as vital a column in a football P&L as rent or rates or depreciation or dare I say it amortisation.
The thrill can be a player or safe passage into the champions league or ideally both — one who brings about the other.
However, in the absence of a thrill budget…….. then you are simply relying on luck.
And relying on just sheer luck is no proper management at all.
Livibhoy…whatever…I am defending the accusation that I can’t count that is all.
Mistertaximan
Agreed apologies if it sounded a bit nippy.
LB
There was a time not so long ago when home matches against Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen etc used to sell out weeks in advance. That is, the small number of available tickets not sold to SB holders used to sell out very quickly in the days of Larsson, Moravcik, Sutton etc.
Things change but even after the building of the new CP if things weren’t going well or the league was lost attendances would drop by 20k to around the 40k mark – the rest would all return the following season, full of hope!
That 40k seems to be the settled figure and it is an impressive figure and a good base on which to build.
Many feel in the doldrums but things can change very quickly in football – whoever thought we’d be 1/50 to win the league and that we’d be unhappy?! The feelgood factor is actually strong at other clubs such as Aberdeen, Dundee United, Dundee, St.Johnstone, even Hearts and the myth of armageddon has been put to bed.
HH
LiviBhoy, West End Of East End, big wavy, STFB.
Some really sensible well thought out posts from you guys today to counteract the gloom and doom merchants.
Hopefully, apart from the usual numpties, we will now get behind our team and try to egg them on for a result on Wednesday.
I have two season books and if I thought of cancelling them after one bad game, ! wouldn’t even consider myself a Celtic supporter!
That doesn’t mean that I’m not hurting and that I respect the views of other genuine supporters!
Cliftoncelt,
Whether you like it or not Celtic is a Public Limited Company and as such the Board is subject to Stock Market rules regarding doing their very best for their shareholders.
This will in many cases run contrary to the expectations of many of the football fans (a great many of whom are also shareholders!) who can’t see why they don’t go out and spend £10 million on a striker.
Balancing the expectations of the shareholders with those of the football fans and keeping Celtic in a sound financial position is the reason we pay a top executive, like the much maligned Peter Lawwell, big bucks.
Them are the breaks!
Hail! Hail!
Terrymac
Just another tim,
I’ve always found Collins comes across a bit arrogant when he discusses football. He seems to have that air about him that he knows better than everyone else. I have a nagging feeling that Collins is not going to work out because of it.
______________
When I heard of his appointment the same thoughts came to me, I know he was an exceptional player and trained relentlessly even to the extreme, this may cause a bit of friction on the training ground as not all players will have his stamina.
Sometimes it can have an adverse affect to push players too much.
I see comparisons but not with Artmedia/Strachan but with BTM. Mowbray signed his death warrant in an interview following the defeat by Arsenal in CL qualifiers. From within the dressing room the players were furious at his reaction to being knocked out as they quite rightly felt it was no disgrace to lose to an Arsenal team with all the money and a flawless success rate in the group stages. Now where i don’t agree with the players is that they effectively downed tools and threw the dummy out the pram, the supporters deserve better.
There was no way back for BTM as things festered and Celtic don’t lose 4-0 to St Mirren when the players are onside.
My worry with Ronny is he has already alienated several players that he is going to need at least in the short term. A recent example being big Tel at Hibs who told the players in February that they would be gone at the end of the season. How crazy is that, the players you are relying on? Hibs of course crashed in the cup and never won again all season.
I asked an ex player who is now in management what is the most importing thing in management and he said sign good players and be liked and respected.
Now i agree that a manager requires time when implementing change but here is the problem. If Celtic are sure this is the right man then they have to back him this window. Not even 2 or 3 players but even as much as 6 or 7 players that he knows can do the job he requires. January is a lot harder to get players in so these players are needed now to qualify for next years CL. I would be planning for next year already although i would still give it everything hoping to achieve a minor miracle at Murrayfield. However the opposite applies that if they decide its a mistake don’t compound it by being stubborn, be decisive.
I also think if it is the Europa League Celtic could struggle badly given the recent downsizing, especially this year.
Sorry a couple of poor typos in that last post — was in a hurry with my mind on other things.
In the Artmedia home game Hartson ran riot
We have no BBJ …nor anyone remotely like him
weeminger
14:09 on 1 August, 2014
Next topic – Quality on the pitch will bring back the list ST sales.
We sold 41k season tickets last season vs a high point of 54k.
13k x £550 average = £7.15M – costs associated with staffing and maintaning the stands etc for 20 matchdays.
While an additional £6.5-6.75M per season would undoubtedly improve the squad, would it do so sufficiently to sell all those STs I don’t think so, and that’s assuming they’re all gone on that basis.
Let’s say the reality is that c10k of the seats are empty due to team quality and that’s roughly £5M additional on the balance. Over 4 years that could get you a couple of £5M players on around £25k/week. Is that level of player going to sell an extra 10k seats?
We need to bring these players through ourselves. We’ll never be able to buy the quality that would generate additional seat revenue to cover itself.
I’d love to see an exciting team of home grown lads.
——————————————————————————–
Good question/topic.
I would tend to agree with your conclusion. Even if we hit the jackpot and either bought or developed a couple of players that were the new Henrik and Lubo, I suspect part of the problem is the lack of competition in the SPFL. Hate to say it but I suspect ticket sales will rise next year if there’s a hun team in the SPFL. Some people appear to want that fixture.
Sitting in a pub in deepest Lancashire and got talking to two guys, Blackburn and Man U fans.
Long chat but their main point was..’whatever happened to your great club?’
There was no point in me trotting out the epl money argument. The fact is we are the level of a high championship-bottom premier league club. Being brought up through the glory years, when we were a top World side, this is exactly what I find hardest to take.
The Blackburn fan suggested Celtic were at the same level as his club and I couldnt disagree. A quick check tells me we have more than twice Blackburn’s turnover. (Ok higher running costs etc but they’ll have at least as high a wage bill)
Something’s not adding up and I believe PL and DD are to an extent, pulling the wool over our eyes. In the new open world of social media, this is a dangerous road to go down.
BRTH
Our esteemed CEO apparently remains unconvinced by the power and potential of social media, I have heard.
Maybe the strategy of sending of duplicate emails and ignoring fans on twitter isn’t having the desired effect;)
HH
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
I think to summarise you are talking about a blue chip signing, a Nike Friday, Bang for our buck, etc.
I think that ship sailed the night at Kille when Robbie Keane failed to deliver the goals that were expected and we lost and again against Ross County when we lost with our ‘superstar’ loan player in the team.
I’m not saying I agree with that policy but think you have hit the nail on the head. We must have someone that the kids can get on their jersey. Every team may have a team of good player but most have one star man. Everything goes through that player. They are billed as the star and the rest of the team know it. We had it with Henrik. He was a one off but if you pick one player in the team and say to the rest of the side give him the ball and he will make things happen then I reckon you may be onto something. Lots of teams have taken that route. Arsenal done it with Henry when he was fairly toxic at the time. They were lucky though they had thje master Bergkamp to lay them on for him and some very good other players including a few world cup winners but Henry was marked as the star in the team and everything went to him as quckly as possible. We can’t maybe afford to sign an Henry but what we can do is sign someone who can provide guidance to our young squad. I think we have enough projects and young players what we need is 2 or 3 experienced battlers who can pull them along on nights like Wednesday. VVD is Dutch, the referee was Dutch. If I were captain I would be saying to Virgil if anything happens in this game me and you speak to the referee. Did anyone see Virgil speak to the referee? We are not being smart enough within the laws of the game to take advantage of our assets and abilities.
I understand your post is about more than the playing side of Celtic Fc but the football pitch is where it happens.
Great post by the way.
LB
Just another tim
13:59 on
1 August, 2014
I’ve always found Collins comes across a bit arrogant when he discusses football. He seems to have that air about him that he knows better than everyone else. I have a nagging feeling that Collins is not going to work out because of it.
______________________________________________________________
one point that has not been spoken about (unless I missed it) is as follows:
RD is new to Scottish football, his knowledge of the Celtic players, their best positions and weaknesses etc will be from watching past games on dvd.
When he chose our setup for Legia which i assume was over a period of days / couple of weeks before the game why on earth did JC who DOES have indepth knowledge of our squad not say “look we can’t play AM at left back, it rarely works, we can’t play KC and CM together in midfield, they don’t have the pace and we’ll be wide open. Let’s play CM at centre back and efe in front of the back four” etc etc…….then select some dvds of games to enforce his point. He has more knowledge of our game than RD and should be pointing out our weaknesses……….If he could not have seen the way we we’re setup was totally wrong when half the blog here saw it prior to kick-off then why is he there.? or did he see it and was ignored by RD.?
either way I can’t see this pairing working out
sipsini / just another tim
I know nothing about Collins and in some cases a little bit of cockiness might be just what they need.
But let;s remember this team is moving from a regime where Neil, Johann, Garry and previously Thommo were like an extension of members of the team. All one big bunch of young fellas enjoying themselves. And sometimes that’s ok.
But now they are meeting a management team steeped in a bit of modern chicanery (diets, stats, exercise and a focus on professional conduct that didn’t form part of the narrative).
No surprise the continental fellas embrace it but a huge shock to our culture here, especially when Tony Watt use to Tweet the world how he managed downtime.
That won’t be universally liked (and Collins seems more continental than scottish) and we’ll get some churn as a result. I hope there is enough Emotional intelligence to handle the transition but it could be a colder, more clinical style setup than the old boys club are used to.
Just thinking in defence of the problems Collins and Ronny will face.
Folk are ignoring that huge elephant in the room when discussing the quality on the pitch improving ticket sales. Rangers.
The Celtic board put the figure at what 5 to 10 million due to lack of competition.
As I said earlier, the quality of this team is much of a muchness with previous iterations bar the forward line. I feel so frustrated that I have to watch Grifiths, Stokes and Pukki. The first two are like 8 year olds in mens bodies. Pukki is like Andi Thom in a cowardly lion suit. Buy a forward worthy of the name and a few more folk might turn up! The others will stay in the hoose till Rangers come back apparently.
My view is that we don’t need Rangers as long as we treat the situation exactly the same as if they were still here. Buy the same calibre of player, do as well as possible year on year in Europe. If we do that and the crowds ae still down then someone is right it is down to the lack of the bigot pound.
weeminger- are you saying we don’t need to sign anyone,and just play the youths ?
Marrekesh Express
Conversation ? Sky and BT have ruined football would have been the coherent answer.
Our club punching above its weight in ECL when Blackburn and Utd get richer respectively is hardly our fault.
I live in Englandshire. I get that question all the time. The one dimensional view of the EPL fan and their reliance on the sky bosom leaves the debate a short one.
BRT&H…I enjoyed that. Thank you.
BRTH
Excellent
Marrekesh Express
A Blackburn fan asking what happened to our great club?
I would have laughed in his face.
LB
@Marrakesh Express
The PLC release detailed accounts. They aren’t hiding anything.
The club operated on a profit last year but some of that money will be saved for a rainy day. Possibly this season.
Mullet and Co 2
The risk aversion of our club to stop with the small bets (Stokes, Pukki and Griffiths) in return for a big 5/6m type bet (Finboggasson) is a huge issue for me.
If I was Ronnie setting off on a populist move I’d say here is a 6m baby eating serbian centre half and a 6 million south american kid who has scored 123 goals in 12 matches I want.
Get them Pete.
Lot of talk about hospitality, food, facilities etc.
We never had the best of those in days gone by and although times have changed the fundamentals have not…
Aside from the football, ticket prices and atmosphere are what motivate the young fans of tomorrow to get along to matches. In many cases,the atmosphere/camaraderie rather than the match itself clinches the deal.
If you are overcharging fans by 6-10 quid and then harassing them for supporting their team is it any surprise some lose the motivation to attend?! This goes for all clubs.
HH
LiviBhoy
I’d have laughed at the Man U fan too
HH
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
14:17 on 1 August, 2014
I was following your logic up until this point :
“That is why, in many respects, the normal KPI’s that you might measure management by are worthless.”
The crux of the point I was attempting to make earlier. The football business is different from other businesses for all the reasons you identify. That’s why the KPIs and individual objectives of directors are so important. They need to be aligned in some way to success on the pitch. If they are only aligned to financial metrics then all you’ll ever get is a good set of accounts.
I said it before. with Lennys team and I will say it again now. It would be better for us and the up and coming project for us to qualify for the Europa league especially as the manager is not rewarded for CL group or second phase CL football.
It would set realistic goals and targets for Ronnie to achieve. It took him .5 years to win the Norwegian league. He should be capable of delivering a decent quality Europa league team within two years with the increased expenditure coupled with continually losing your best players.
The CL is well and truly beyond us. I dont want a repeat of last year just for the sake of attracting investors, increasing bonuses, dividends and diminishing survival scare stories.
It has to be the Europa League we are targetting. If we are still in having sold two completed projects and recruited two new ones then that will prove that this can be done with Ronnie. We should not forget this is the year when he has to shift out those whom he does not fancy.
It proved the making of Lenny.
I think a freak qualification this year into the CL will see abject humiliation and its not going to happen.
I do fear. that unless improvement is not made quickly we will not evening see European football.
HH
!!Bada Bing!!
14:36 on
1 August, 2014
Absolutely not. I’m saying that the additional spend required to bring ‘bums on seats’ players will not be offset by the additional ST sales they’d bring. Although that’s an oversimplification of the issue.
However if we are able to bring through our own players, playing attractive football they are in effect ‘free’ and if that puts any additional people into the ground it might allows us an improvement when we do need to buy.
Ultimately the club needs to be better at utilising all sources of low cost talent, and play attractive football. That will get at least some of the missing thousands back, without breaking ‘the strategy’.
mulllet
The EPL signed a new bumper deal since the Rangers died.
This means that Hull City & Crystal Palace have more money than us and appear more appealing for players in the 6 million bracket. Not to mention Chelsea and co hoovering up young talent which they will loan out.
We are finding it harder to find gems as the gaps are closing