The early years of a new business are risky. It doesn’t matter if you have the best product or service, or the potential to rule the world, it’s critically important you don’t run out of cash.
The Rangers Football Club ran at a cash deficit from their first month’s trading. Within six months of starting business they undertook an enormously successful share issue (going public as Rangers International PLC), raising in the region of £22m, but they continued to spend more than they earned. On Saturday, the BBC reported a club source confirmed they were 48 hours from running out of money.
For a moment, put aside who owns Rangers International (RIPLC), sits on its board, owns its retail rights or has security over its assets. In any normal run of business these things are important, but right now, for RIPLC, they are secondary. The most important issue in this company is paying its creditors.
They can either pay their bills, or they can’t. If they could pay their bills, they would have no problems with predator-shareholders and the company could accommodate the aspirations of all stakeholders – including fans.
If the company cannot pay its bills it will not meet the aspirations of any stakeholders. It will either go out of business, or it will attract an investor who is prepared to pay creditors, and in return extract assets or some other compensation.
The pain of Dave King and his legions of cohorts in ‘restoring Rangers’ and preventing Celtic from accumulating 10, 20 or 30-in-a-row is tangible, but there was no easy fix. Rangers International should have been urged by all of these voices to cut costs to match income, pay their bills and ensure that Newco, unlike the original Rangers FC, would never be out of pocket and vulnerable to the most aggressive carpetbagger.
Instead, all we heard about was the Restoration of Rangers, no matter the cost. Living as modest also-rans, paying their bills while hoping to win the odd cup and avoiding an absolute hammering at Celtic Park a couple of times a season, was simply unacceptable when pitted against the alternative – burning cash like there’s no tomorrow and hoping something miraculous would turn up. It was madness.
Mike Ashley has fed the junkie-club a couple of million, which might be enough to see it through Christmas but it’ll need another, larger, hit, before long. Attempts by King or any other wealthy fans to intimidate the Easdales, or Ashley, to capitulate, will fail, again.
The club does not have the money to pay its creditors until season ticket renewal money arrives, but it has more assets, specifically the stadium and Murray Park, which can be sold or secured. In return for this latest loan, Ashley got control of the boardroom. This will allow him and his allies to dictate the terms of the next funding arrangement.
Those wondering how he will increase his shareholding in Rangers International, in conflict with his ownership of Newcastle United, are missing the point. He doesn’t need to own Rangers International, all he needs to do is own the stadium – at an onerous rent, and own the merchandising and image rights.
Like Sir Davie Murray before him, he might even fancy owning the IT provision, travel, stadium advertising and catering (yes, I know that’s already gone) at Ibrox. Murray’s companies used to take close to £4m a year out of Rangers – and they thanked him for the honour.
Much of the above could be outsourced to Newcastle, where all ‘customer contact’ could be administered from. He could even subcontract the manager, coaches, scouts and the guys who puts the cones out from Newcastle. All of which would mean that in the event of a commercial trauma, he holds all the contracts necessary to start afresh.
Ashely doesn’t need to own another ounce of Rangers International, in fact, after he has secured the stadium etc. on a long and glorious lease, he will be pretty much finished with the hollowed-out runt of a club.
Similarly, those who suggest Ashley’s loan is a sign that he will not allow the club to fail are missing the point. If he owns or controls the stadium, IP, client databases, coaches or whatever else, he controls what happens AFTER a liquidation.
Right now Ashley, and his collaborators remaining on the board, have to pay those onerous contracts we heard so much about, while they own less than 50% of the shares. I doubt Ashley has paid onerous terms in his life. Liquidation would allow him and his pals to start afresh, stop paying the last bunch of spivs and keep the money for themselves.
In practically every literary portrayal of hubris, the protagonist has a moment of self-awareness. It as though literature doesn’t work, it’s not credible, without a fleeting moment of clarity. No one, it seems, carries the same stupid world view throughout a complete novel.
Literature has failed to prepare us for the most predicted self-harming on the planet.
Remember to order Caesar & The Assassin, signed by Billy McNeill and David Hay, more here. To confirm a note on Billy’s nickname. While it was acquired from Cesar Romero, Billy prefers “Caesar”, which was how the name was always spelled during his playing days.
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Bada Bing. That is good to hear. H.H.
Its a mystery to me that Ashley is getting involved with the sevco. For a start he has no interest whatsover in Rangers/sevco/newco or whatever co they are, in a football sense. A blind man can see that. He will not be putting any serious cash into the club. This man is in Glasgow for one reason only, and that is to take cash from the fans who are willing to buy whatever he sells them. He has the retail outlets, he has the rights of the badge, he has the controlling interest at the club, he will no doubt be looking at the value of the stadium and the value of murray park to further his already full cash balance. This is the man who has torn the heart out of Newcastle utd, this is the man who buys players on the cheap (mostly frenchmen) and punts them for big profits like celtic do, this is the man who Newcastle united owe £135m to, this is the man who says that “we at newcastle dont want to win cups and leagues” we are quite happy to be mid table, by all accounts he doesnt even like football, but one thing you cannot take away from him is he has a nose for making money. He can smell it from miles away, and reportedly has a personal wealth of £3.65 billion. What is he going to achieve on the commercial front at ibrox ???? how many more pairs of trainers,boots,socks,golf tees, can you put into Sports Direct shops. He owns, Slazenger, Dunlop, Lilywhite, and he even has the factories in India and the far east making these products for him, what financial wizardry can he achieve at Ibrox that he hasnt already plundered ???? methinks its the stadium/murray pk that he is after come the next meltdown, and he will just sit back and watch his wallet get even fuller when the commercial properties pick off the rich takings. I have 4 friends from Newcastle who had a combined total of 140 odd yrs season ticket holding between them, and who have given up, bacause of their lack of trust in Ashley. They will not be back til he ventures out of st James pk, the man is a vulture, and I await the goings on at castle greyskull with interest. Please bear in mind this man has no interest in football, just making money………..Asda/Tesco/Waitrose/Morrisons…..who’s next.
the battered bunnet
13:00 on 27 October, 2014
… for the football operation
Was this not the same situation before their timely death where Sir David siphoned the revenue from various operations to his own pockets?
Has anyone considered that MA in 2014, now running the establishment club with all the assistance that brings together with limited investment in the football operation, I.e a decent manager and some loan deals and a couple of million spent on players could realistically challenge for Champions league next year?
Or I am just being paranoid? ?? :)
As I said Brick and Mortar and of course the “little” extras por cierto
http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/sir-john-hall-makes-clear-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle-united/
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/less-than-a-club/
Phil has a slightly different view Paul. Not involving admin perhaps.
South Of Tunis-a mate is going to Romania for Astra game next week,staying in Bucherest.Did you post info re Romania last week mate ? If so any advice for him,thanks.
From Fields of Green
Spoils of War
post-467-1203285054Early on the morning of 31 January 1968, the NVA and the Viet Cong launched an assault on the South Vietnamese city of Hue, as part of the Tet Offensive, which had gotten underway on the previous day.
The objective was the capture of an important road, Highway 1, a key ARVN airfield, the operational command of the 1st Division of the ARVN, a US Military Assistance Command base and a Naval Command base on the Perfume River.
The city was only 50 miles from the DMZ, and it ought to have been a fortress. It wasn’t. What followed was one of the fiercest engagements of the Vietnam War.
When it was over, the combined forces of the US Marines, the Army and the ARVN had routed the enemy and secured control again.
That didn’t matter much to the people of Hue. Their city was almost completely destroyed in the battle. 5000 of them were dead.
In Washington, Saigon and Hanoi the leaders weren’t particularly concerned with minor details like that. The citizens were cannon fodder. Their deaths were collateral damage.
The politicians were interested in victory, and in the real estate for its strategic and tactical advantages. They were the spoils of war.
I was thinking about the Battle of Hue during the week, when I was listening to, and reading, the hacks joyously relating the “three way fight for Rangers.”
Ha! How wonderful irony is.
Like the people of Hue, the Peepil of Sevconia are of little relevance to those “fighting” on either side here.
King has played this game so often – and so badly – the Sevco directors ought to have his head mounted on a plaque for the boardroom. One hack today salivated over the unseemly squabble by saying King was “always likely” to be outclassed by Ashley, and yes, I agree.
He was. But more embarrassingly for him, and for his allies in the media, he had already been outclassed by Whyte, by Green, by Stockbridge, by Ahmad, and finally by Easdale, Nash and Wallace.
The guy is a Loser with a capital L, who in all this time has never won a single concession, for all his PR bluster. His plan for boycotting fans to put their money in an account was a ludicrous notion and is now a busted flush.
Furthermore, how can he not have twigged to the Business 101 proposition that unless you buy shares in a company you have no influence over how its run?
As for Brian Kennedy, that one is simply hilarious. Where the Hell did he come from all of a sudden? He’s another who’s been over this particular assault course before, like a fat man trying to break his personal best. I laugh every time he shows up on the starting block.
I think he, and King, suffer from the same delusions, and just like reading their names in the paper.
Then there’s Ally, standing on the side-lines like a kid who came to the Prom without a date. What did I tell you about him last time? He’s switched sides, again, hoping that this time there’s some money available. He too is labouring under an old delusion.
He’s going to be disappointed in more ways than one.
Mike Ashley, on the other hand, you have to respect. This is a guy with a storming, iron-clad business record who goes about things the right way. No courting mates in the media for him. No bluster about doing this or doing that. No ego on display at all. He operates quietly, for his own reasons, following his own agenda, and he does not let anything stand in his way.
He has handled this whole thing with class and professionalism. I kinda like the guy, especially as I’m not blinkered in the way so many of the press are by what he might do for Sevco.
A lot of nonsense has been talked about why Mike Ashley might want a say in the business at Ibrox. Some of those who’ve been trotting this out are the media hacks we’ve come to view with justifiable contempt. Some others should know better.
Actually, you don’t have to be a genius to work out what it is that Mike Ashley wants.
You don’t have to be a genius to understand that he’s motivated purely by money.
Let’s take the two key presuppositions about why Ashley might want Sevco.
First is the “Rangers brand.” Well, he’s already proved that he doesn’t need to own the club to get his mitts on that stuff. He already owns the retail outlet which stocks it all and has an iron clad deal in place to sell the jerseys.
Whilst we don’t know the exact terms on the loan he just gave the club, we know he wanted certain intellectual property rights when he made the same offer some weeks ago.
Two men were foremost in blocking that move. One was Graham Wallace. The other was Phil Nash.
Nash is gone already. Wallace is a certainty to follow him.
If Ashley gets the IP rights then he owns the “Rangers brand” without having to own the club, or invest significantly in it. He will control everything from Rangers mugs to Rangers bath products (stop laughing), rubber ducks and all. Anything which is manufactured, anywhere in the world, carrying one of their two crests will need his stamp of approval or be subject to big legal problems.
Second is this continued guff about Champions League football.
The perceived “wisdom” goes something like this; Newcastle United are perennial EPL strugglers who will never play on the Champions League stage. Ergo, Ashley needs to get an interest in a club which does play on that stage, to maximise the potential of his brand.
Oh yeah? Since when?
Since when was it cheaper to actually buy a football club, spend oodles of money on them and propel them into that tournament, to boost the exposure of your brand, than, say, to simply become a commercial partner of the competition?
Why not just become an official sponsor? Get ad space at games or adverts on TV before the matches?
These things cost more than … buying a club?
Why do Amstel or Sony or any of the other sponsors bother spending all that money on getting their products and brands advertised?
Hell, just buy a team. It’s cheaper, right? It has to be!
Forget that you’d only get that exposure when your own team is playing, and in none of the other games.
Forget that they need to get through qualifiers and actually, you know, participate in the group stages.
Forget that to make them competitive means spending even more money, or you risk seeing your brand associated with embarrassing failure.
Forget all that. We’re following Daily Record logic here.
And why on Earth does he need the “exposure” of the Champions League in the first place?
The English Premiership is an international global super-brand, generating $2.2 billion in television sales every single year. It is broadcast in 212 countries, to over 600 million homes and has a potential audience estimated at 4.7 billion people.
Even more hilarious are those who see some financial upside for him in controlling a team playing on that stage.
Celtic, at a push, can make £20 million from Champions League money, and Sevco Rangers could, conceivably, make something similar if they were willing to spend what it took to get there … but that, in all likelihood, would be expensive and mortally risky.
The average EPL club payment, for television money alone, is £55 million.
Tell me again why Ashley sees Sevco in the Champions League as important?
The truth is much simpler than any of these things. Ashley sees Sevco Rangers as an easy mark. As a quick, sure-fire way of making some money.
All the work has been done for Ashley in advance of this.
Sevco Rangers fans have always insisted their club did not die. The SFA’s refusals to comment on this matter and decisions by organisations such as the Advertising Standards Agency and others, which appear, on the surface, to confirm that liquidation did not destroy them, add to this overall view.
I have long argued that of all the negative outcomes to emerge from the Rangers – Sevco shambles that this is the most dangerous one for their supporters to have embraced.
This creates a clear separation between the company and the football club.
Sevco fans have held on tight to Rangers “identity”, but what does that represent?
If it’s about the badge, then Ashley and his company can hold onto that whatever happens to this incarnation of the club, and sell it to anyone who resurrects them in event of a meltdown.
As the club has no retail outlets of its own, and as Ashley runs the biggest online retail outlet for sports goods, what choice would they have in event of even a liquidation if he made the only offer to take that off their hands?
In short; this notion that “the club” survives liquidation is good for Ashley, because even in the worst case scenario he still has a claim to part of any NewCo that emerges from the ashes, as long as it, too, wants to maintain the Survival Myth.
With his 10% control, the IP rights, the shirt distribution agreement and perhaps, in time, even a hold over the property, the final argument, that for Ashley to get his money’s worth “Rangers needs to be successful” would be laid to its own inevitable rest.
That is the stupidest assertion of all.
As long as there are enough fans going to games to keep the lights on, he can continue to extract money from those who buy shirts and other merchandise, and he can license the “Rangers brand” to everyone else who’s got an interested in fleecing the Peepil with everything from Sevco bed covers to beach balls.
There’s plenty of money to be made out of the “Rangers brand” without his having to fund a winning team on the park.
This whole “identity” thing is, and has always been, big money in and of itself.
Newcastle has never challenged for a major honour since he took over. He sees the club as little more than ad board for Sports Direct and a £250 million asset on his balance sheet.
They regularly play to full houses, as he must suspect Sevco will.
Whether they are winning things or not is unimportant to his goals, and where the chance of winning something has involved the spending of one more penny than he needs to, he’s not done it.
He could cut Sevco to the bone and force them to exist on subsistence level funding, as long as people were still able to buy tickets. He could hold the death of their club over them like a killing weight if they didn’t want to play ball, and he could mean it.
If we accept that he doesn’t “need” the global exposure for his brand and his only interest is in securing certain assets, then why would he care whether they are winning things or not?
“Ah,” some will say, “but if he wants to control Rangers he has no choice …” This presupposes that in order for him to get maximum exposure they have to be playing in Europe, and competing.
Apart from being a pitiful variation of the above, there’s no evidence that he wants control anyway, and there are many reasons why he wouldn’t.
He will not have the headache of having to face the fans, because he won’t be on the board and he won’t be the owner. He won’t have to deal with the football authorities, or worry about the prospect of the two sides coming face to face in Europe somewhere down the line.
His role, on the surface, will be that of the generous benefactor who helps them keep the lights on. And if he decides, one day, that he’s not getting a sufficient return then he’s got options in administration and liquidation both.
All of this has cost him little more than £1 million in shares, and another £2 million loans so far.
It’s chump change. He’s already taken at least that out on merchandising alone.
In the longer term, there are two ways for Sevco Rangers to exist.
The first is to increase revenue. Even with Ashley’s much vaunted international business acumen, it is hard to see how that can be done with a second tier Scottish club, permanently at war with itself and with the world, being undermined by outside influences and eaten from those within.
This is a club with few friends outside its walls, insular, arrogant and backward. The notion of investing in an “institution” who’s greatest claim to fame in our multicultural world is “Armed Forces Day” will be an easy one for the money men to resist.
Sevco Rangers, even with full houses every week and playing in the SPL, even a Sevco Rangers which is regularly competing in Europe, will struggle not to post huge losses. Why would a rich businessman want such a thing on his books?
The second way for a club like this to exist is to cut costs. Radically.
It can be done, but you have to stick to it, rigorously, and you can’t have a manager in post who thinks you need a 10 – 1 spending ratio to succeed.
It’s tempting to bet on McCoist being the next casualty of the bloodletting that has only just gotten started at Ibrox. When I said earlier that he might be in for a big surprise I meant it. When Ashley’s point-man is appointed to the board and he calls Ally in to see him I suspect it won’t be to ask him for his list of multi-million pound transfer targets …
The first of those two options – increasing revenues to the point where a billionaire actually thinks he’s getting a good return – is impossible. The second is all there is. The third option, which Murray tried and which Sevco fans still expect someone to match, of spending someone else’s money, without end, is certainly not going to happen on Iron Mike Ashley’s watch.
The idea that this “could be good for Rangers”, being pumped out by a panting, desperate media which still clings to those “grand old days of yore” is a fantasy, and one that continues to hold them back from the embrace of a reality which is surely on its way.
In one sense, though, this is the best thing that can happen to their club.
A long period of austerity is now an absolute certainty. Big changes – bad ones – are on their way for all involved.
We now know that they were 48 hours from an administration event which would have lit up the sky like a nuclear detonation. They’ve avoided it for now, but Ashley did not become a billionaire indulging fantasies of supremacy or delusions of grandeur.
His loans and his plans to underwrite shares, or whatever it is that he comes up with, will raise money that will not be allowed to swirl down the drain.
His desire to change the faces around the boardroom table are about making sure that the necessary cuts are made, in all departments, no matter how much it hurts, and no matter how its powerless supporters squeal like pigs.
The battle for control at Ibrox is over. Sevco Rangers is now in the hands of a man who will brook no compromise. Who will not be intimidated by daft protests which get in the papers but have no material impact on the outcome.
This is a man who will not bother about what’s written in the press – unless it’s untrue, and then watch him sue faster than Martin O’Neill – and who won’t deign to inform the media or the Sevco fans of what his plans are, now or in the future.
This guy will run that dysfunctional nightmare of a club ruthlessly, like a business, to make him a profit and nothing more … without fear, favour or sentimentality. There will be no talk of “Rangersitus” here.
The blood sport we’ve been watching for the last few years is finished. The hopes of the Sevco support are about to be sacrificed on the altar of what’s in the best interests of a billionaire businessman and his sports retail company. It is the ending they deserve, for their blinkered attitudes and their inability to read the writing on the wall.
Ashley has won. To the victor, the spoils of war.
What were the black arm bands abt yesterday?
deniabhoy
13:11 on 27 October, 2014
He’s going to sell the assets
RD on SSN said he hopes to tie up a permanent deal for John Guidetti “as soon as possible……” maybe some good news not too far away
”
“
PAUL67 1215
Apologies,mate. Obviously misinformed from earlier.
In which case,happy birthday to him when it comes!
jude
Tribute to former Celt Jim Sharkey 1954 55 RIP……27 times he lived the dream.
Good Afternoon.
I enjoyed an excellent evening at the Lola Commons dinner last night and it was good to see a good representation from the first team present to get the whole idea of what Celtic is about away from the football field.
Speaking of football fields, I will be delighted to see Messrs Scepovic and Guidetti lead the line for Celtic in future. The former knows how to play off the ball which is one of the things I always look for in a striker and yesterday before his goal he showed nice touches and a good work rate.
We should do everything we can to make the Swede a permanent employee.
There were some very good posts late on yesterday on our own board and Burnley 78 hit a few nails on the head and not for the first time.
There is a need to shake up the thinking within Celtic Park in terms of revenue streams, revenue achievement and, in my opinion, most crucial of all is the realisation that the fans — shareholders, season ticket holders or whatever you want to call them — are in fact a company asset and not a bunch of customers.
If the people who actually pay their way into Celtic park are looked upon as a business asset — as individual salesmen and women of the club, its merchandise, its ethos and so on — any business would begin to see those people in a different light.
Right now the Celtic board look to sell to those people.
This is the wrong approach.
Celtic should empower and enthuse its fan base to go on to create a bigger and more vibrant fan base or customer base if you prefer. The company should seek to create a relentless army of club ambassadors and so increase the value of the brand that belongs to Celtic.
There are all sorts of ways to do this and so create real value for both club and fans.
However, that is maybe a point to expand on another day.
Whilst the events at Ibrox fill the newspapers and the radio, we are back to the shoddy and lazy journalism of not so long ago where so called sports journalists neither understand the nature of a business strategy nor do they invest their time in actually researching what Mike Ashley does, why he does it and how.
Here is a link – possibly the first of many — which lets you see how he does what he does with Newcastle United and why their fans are not happy campers.
http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/sir-john-hall-makes-clear-mike-ashley-bought-newcastle-united/
It is all about increasing the retail footprint and the brand of Sports Direct. That is his primary business and always will be.
Newcastle United, Rangers mark 2, or 3, or 4 and whatever assets they have are merely side vehicles to advance the Sports Direct retail footprint whether that be in the UK or elsewhere.
Read the data, see where the money goes and where it doesn’t.
As I said yesterday he has gained a big foot in the door, just as he did with Debenhams, and need do nothing else to get his way — apart from control any future insolvency event to protect his now undoubted and indisputable image and retail rights which net Sports Direct substantial cash.
Cash which neither goes to Newcastle United or any version of Rangers you care to imagine.
Pretty sure I recall Rangers,under Murray,operating on match day income.
Excluding pies,programmes,and anything else associated with the club,apart from the price of a ticket.
Murray milked every revenue stream available. It’s why he and his family are,erm,minted,and the huns are screwed.
Gotta laugh,mind.
Bada,
Tomorrows headlines…..
Deila in player tapping storm.
Folks,
Winning Captains advises me that some people are having difficulty in ordering the Caesar and the Assassin Book via the CQNbookstore site.
If you have experienced any difficulties with credit card payments, or in getting the site to register your purchase then please let us know by e-mailing David@cqnmagazine.com or myself at editor@cqnmagazine.com and we will try and sort it.
Each purchase should be followed up by an e-mail to your inbox saying that you have purchased the book.
We are concerned that there have been many order numbers automatically allocated by the system when someone logs in to purchase, but that the actual number of orders does not match those allocations.
This, together with the fact that some have e-mailed to say they are having difficulty actually making the purchase, tends to suggest we have a gremlin somewhere which we are hopefully having fixed by the clever people.
You will appreciate that WC and myself do not rank among the clever people.
It is a new piece of e-commerce software that is in place so bear with us while we sort out the teething troubles.
However, if you think you have ordered the book but have not received a confirmation e-mail then please get in touch.
The book can be ordered here.
cqnbookstore.com
HH
BRTH
By the way — feel free to google the phrase “ash cash”
‘To confirm a note on Billy’s nickname. While it was acquired from Cesar Romero, Billy prefers “Caesar”’.
Did Big Billy acquire Cesar Romero’s history at the same time as acquiring his name?
Is there not a decent article floating around the interweb detailing Mr. Ashley’s time at NUFC that describes the festooning of St. James’ Park with even more Sports Direct signage than usual for NUFC’s appearances in the EL?
Remember CharlotteFakes and all those emails and recorded conversations.
Could it be that there player recruitment was only part of the remit for Steve the IT guy ?
Eagerly awaiting the Ali McCoist endorsement of Mike Ashley.. Just a case of deleting names on previous 3 or four press releases….
Ditto – Derek Johnston.
!! Bada Bing !!
Yes – I flew to Bucharest and then hired a car for a drive to Warsaw and back.My tip would be to take cash ( Bank of England or Euros ) and do the necessary whilst there.Much better rates and those rates are even better if you do the exchange on the street
NB -parts of Bucharest make multiply deprived parts of Glasgow look like Bearsden in comparison.Lots of wideboys, lots of chancers hoping to part fools with their money.
SoT-thanks for reply.HH
GM-Lawwell must know we are crying out for a hero……and jersey seller.Need to push boat out for him,disnae strike me as typical greedy player,likes it here and will be fed up being loaned out for 3 years
So it’s Huns Huns and mare Huns.
Geeis peace. Being listening to this drivel for years and they and their metamorphisis club are still coming.
Geeis a poppy debate or something. An new referendum. A Euro referendum.
mare worries at oor ain door FFS!
MWD said AYE
Somebody should tell that clown Sally,the difference between a loan and an investment.
Bada,
I’ve been saying for a couply weeks now that I think JG will be with us longer than his loan period.
Suits all parties involved imo.
Mike Ashley can secure promotion and relative success for his new business interest north of the border by doing the following.
Buy decent players in Sevco’s league for Newcastle United. Loan the players to Sevco or just get them out of Sevco’s way. The Scottish clubs have supplied some decent players down south recently and they settle better in Geordie Land than Frenchmen.
LB
Not since the halcyon days of Sutton and Hartson have we played with two big physical players up front so it was good to see Scepovic and Guidetti on the score sheet yesterday. Scepovic scored a tremendous goal on Thursday night when he must have leaped five feet to send a powerful header into the net and continuing with another score yesterday and of course being heavily involved in Guidetti’s goal. We must get the Swede signed ASP although I’m a bit concerned about this loan business. The fact that his fellow countryman Mikel Lustig is at the club is a big help. Apart from the Hamilton loss Ronny seems to be getting the team into winning mode. The European results have been very good unbeaten away from home with the exception of the Legia debacle. We won ugly last Thursday night but the two previous games were very entertaining for a lot of neutral observers. Let’s hope the winning streak continues midweek.
bsr
Ta
Im sure I saw Jim play. Did he come from Airdrie??
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
13:52 on 27 October, 2014
‘Good Afternoon.
I enjoyed an excellent evening at the Lola Commons dinner last night and it was good to see a good representation from the first team present to get the whole idea of what Celtic is about away from the football field.’
###
Try getting any of them to attend an ordinary, run of the mill, CSC do.
We keep hearing about ‘Onerous contracts’ and the only way to get rid of them is through liquidation. However apart from Charles of Normandy do we know the identities of anyone else who are benefiting from such contracts?
I’d imagine that whoever these characters might be, they will be the ones holding the key to whether Sevco are liquidated or not. Wouldn’t be surprised if Ashley is one of these ‘Onerous contract’ holders. Perhaps he’s been involved from the outset through Blue Pitch/Margarita or even Ticketus. I guess we’ll never really know what the set-up was/is and who all the players are but one things for sure Ashley doesn’t invest in anything to make a loss.
This £2 mil loan seems a clever way for him to protect whatever initial investment he may have made, while also taking control of what happens next to the club. Perhaps he does have liquidation in mind but if he was involved initially then would his fellow shady investors be on board with this?
Not sure it’s possible to predict the short term future but mid to long term whether it’s admin/liquidation or not I think Ashley will be good news for them. Crippling wage bills can be eradicated by getting rid of the manager and current playing squad of overpaid diddies. Newcastle will soon foot most of the wage bill by sending youth and reserve team players to Ipox. While this won’t turn them into world beaters, they’ll certainly be competitive in our poor league. Ashley will be pocketing merchandise/commercial sales the club will be stable and ‘onerous contracts’ may not be so much of an issue, as financially everyone will be a winner. Time will tell if this will be good enough on the park but currently the way we are downsizing and the apathy that’s crept in amongst our support, it probably wouldn’t take much to challenge us for the league.
I guess this is now getting closer the the end game and I hope as a club we discover our voice soon and start echoing the fans concerns about decades of cheating and complicit governing bodies. As if we don’t ever hear these things and loudly from Celtic then never mind them, I’m not sure we’ll ever fully recover.
HH!
B B
Ha ha, Sal is trousering £800k a year. Lay the laddie ah lane!!! Ps Wdnt mind being a fly on the wall when he is negotiating his “new” contract wae Ashley.
That white shirt will eether be covered wae snot and tears or blood!!!!
Just had one of those ‘Who nicked my pint?’ moments as I returned from the bookies.
First thing I said on my return.
Fair enough,time for a pee.
Pint back on table as I zipped up.
Full one too!
ernie lynch
There was a spell when hosting you POTY dance at Celtic Park secured a player or former player but wasn;t ideal for a number of reasons. Blackburn CSC in West LOthian held their dance there once and were warned any conduct the club didn;t like could result in bans and removal of away ticket allocation. Their special guest was Hoopy. They never went back.
LB
Lillywhites at Piccadilly Circus was a blue-blood sports emporium – cricket, tennis, croquet even real tennis – where toffs happily paid over the odds for their togs.
After it had a Sports Direct makeover it became incredibly popular and profitable with hoards of daytrippers falling over themselves to hoover up cheap sneakers and 5 for a pound sock deals.
Why risk a big chunk of change (playing poker with sovereign wealth funds and Russian oligarchs) to get NUFC maybe just maybe in contention for an EL qualifying place when he can throw some shrapnel at Sevco and have a much better chance of the same thing?
EL=ECL
Lets laugh at them whilst
P Lawwells wages has multiplied by 5 times since he started 10 years ago.His Bonus has also risen by 10 times it’s original amount in the same time frame.
Amazing when you consider the Club made less money in his last year than it did in his first.Proving beyond any shadow of doubt his Bonus is not connected to Either Turnover or Profit on the year
:In 2004 Celtic Football Club had a turnover of £69mWith running costs of £64mIt turned a profit of £4.3mPL’s Salary was £102,844Bonus was £38,582Total Wage plus Benefits and Pension £165,961
In 2014 our turnover was £64mRunning costs of £59.8mTurning a profit of £4.175mPL’s Salary was £524,576Bonus was £400,500Total Wage plus Benefits and Pension £999,496