Memories of the “second worst thing to hit Hiroshima” attempt to undermine Wim Jansen on his arrival as Celtic manager from Japanese football in 1997 remain vivid. With no internet, we knew little of Wim. His short stints as assistant with the Saudi national team and as manager of Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the four years since leaving Feyenoord did nothing to enhance his reputation.
Ange Postecoglou is an easier man for the support to make their own minds up about. He has a record of developing talent, improving teams and winning titles. By any reasonable measure, his CV is spotless. None of his success happened in Europe and there is nowhere as acutely intense in the football roster as Glasgow, so there are hurdles to overcome.
I like that he is an established winner and that he has not relied on the chequebook to become so. I also hear great things about his strength of character, he has old school authority, as well as a technocrats brain.
Eddie Howe went to the top of the candidate list around two months ago. The time since has been lost, although Postecoglou was not in serious contention that far back. We are now three weeks from preseason training. If Ange is to be appointed, he faces a two week isolation period before being able to visit Celtic Park or Lennoxtown. He might just make it.
Before any of that, he needs to exit Japan and his contractual arrangements with City Football Group’s Yokohama F Marinos, pack his family and belongings up and fly to the opposite end of the globe. There is a lot of work for him to just sit at the Celtic manager’s desk.
At Howe’s request, we were prepared to recruit his entire football infrastructure. He would have endorsed the appointment of coaches, scouts and director of football. Celtic signed up for this but when you let them bring their encourage with them, the successful ones inevitably take the same faces (and more) back out the door with them when they go.
With Ange it will be different, although he may be familiar with some of the faces from City Football Group. This infrastructure is equally as important as the managerial appointment. Celtic need to rebuild a team ahead of a season that offers automatic Champions League qualification for the Scottish Premiership winners. Much of that burden will fall on the manager’s supporting cast. Lots to do, not a lot of time to do it in……
A quick word on Newco’s £6.75m public share offering, announced this morning. Newco have returned an operating loss every year of their existence and have been unable to trade players to meet the shortfall. The burden has thus far fallen on directors. Turning to the fans may indicate a possibility the directors’ largess has dried up. It could also imply no fresh investor has been found.
Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules mean any fresh equity investment cannot be spent on most operational costs, like football or support staff. Competing against a team that runs a persistent eight figure annual deficit has its drawbacks, but we have seen this movie before. We are back at the roulette table with all the chips on Champions League money.
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Squire, the fraud was supposed tae leave after the sevco game in December, that fell through as Leicester got a couple of credible wins,chelski and liverpool. Shelved was signed in January and loaned back to his parent club, he was never foistered on a manager that didnae want him as the said manager wisnae expected tae be there.
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 1ST JUNE 2021 5:34 PM
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How do you know those very precise figures?
As far as deals are concerned – PL has probably signed deals with commercial partners, without which we would have been struggling to sign anyone, to the tune of half a billion pounds during his tenure. He was not exactly running a ‘whelk stall’.
Riseth *…..shivers….
geebee1978 on 1st June 2021 3:52 pm
The Express suggesting Everton might look at Slippy.
Very unlikely for obvious reasons but it’d be one of the most explosive appointments in recent times.
———–
His boyhood club so he might be tempted.
Though with the money at Everton these days they will look for a more experienced replacement.
We are currently The Circumlocution Office, experts in HOW NOT TO DO IT.
LittleDorritCSC, ML2
james forrest
Out of left field no doubt about that. And it appears was not our first choice. Lets just say he can handle the coaching side of things, we need a decent squad of players for him to coach, that requires some kind of Director of Football, maybe an experience former manager. If Ange is our man, and it certainly looks like it, the latter is the more pressing matter. If we were a Rugby team I would have full faith in Dominic McKay resolving that problem, but no, we are Celtic FC.
CELTIC MAC:
It’s becoming just as worrying that no DoF is in place mate.
God knows what option we might be forced to live with there.
So no Harkin. Did he embarrassingly jilt us at the altar too or was he never in contention?
And if not, who recommended Postecoglou?
JAMES FORREST on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:00 PM
The DoF saga has been overshadowed by the managerial circus but the DoF should’ve been in weeks ago – he could’ve been scouting players and going over managerial candidates all this time.
We’re close to the point of no return for next season and as things stand, I really can’t see any way Sevco don’t win 2IAR.
geebee1978 on 1st June 2021 6:00 pm
So no Harkin. Did he embarrassingly jilt us at the altar too or was he never in contention?
And if not, who recommended Postecoglou?
But we’ve been tracking him since…..last Thursday….?
JHB on 1ST JUNE 2021 5:43 PM
Again you miss the point
Yes PL did some great commercial deals and yes we are better for it
BUT he was not an authority on the quality of footballers
On the numbers McGinn went to Villa for £2.75m we offered Hibs £2.25m
PL saw £500k he did not see a £20m footballer
BTW if you ever listen to Man Utd fans they have the same issue (bigger numbers) their CEO wants to be DoF
Financial/Commercial people think football people waste money
So they take control
67ECW
Decisions on Covid health issues in Greater Glasgow are being driven by one thing only – the need to get crowds into Hampden in June. Forget about Scotland The Brave, it’s Scotland The Brand behind all the sleight of hand in Edinburgh
https://i.redd.it/l99hfsm4oky41.png
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:05 PM
What actual evidence have you got that says that Peter Lawwell ever set himself up as an expert on the playing ability of any player.
I grant you that he, and not the first team manager, would handle the financial side of things….someone has to. That does not mean that the CEO will says yes to everything. However the likes of Foster, Dembele, Wanyama, Armstrong, Frimpong, Van Dyck were bought for c£12m and sold for c£75m…..that I suggest is good business.
JHB on 1ST JUNE 2021 5:38 PM
SQUIRE DANAHER on 1ST JUNE 2021 5:24 PM
The fact that Schved hardly got a look in is surely proof that he wasn’t foisted on anyone.
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I would argue that it’s exactly proof that he was. A bean counter picking up a bargain which now two football people at Celtic didn’t rate.
We have to agree to disagree.
TONTINE TIM on 1ST JUNE 2021 5:42 PM
So Lawwell bought Shved on a whim and evidently without the knowledge or approval of what remained the head coach.
He didn’t intend to foist Shved on Rodgers.
But he did intend to foist Shved on Rodgers’ successor.
what a weird time?
Turkeybhoy………….Like many of us I haven’t a clue who this man Angie is. The only Angie that rings a bell with me is the lovely actress Angie Dickenson big Hollywood star of times past.
Reading your well researched piece on the Angie that is about to set up shop at Celtic Park has eased my concern somewhat.
Right now, after losing our chance for the 10, there is a huge market for Uncomfortable “truths” ; the Celtic Blogosphere is fulll of them. What they may lack in veracity, they make up for in their spartan lack of comfort.
So much so that we have many visitors from these sites comng on here to extol the virtues of the latest line in Private Fraser aphorisms- they are very popular now as we appproach the End Days.
We can take no comfort in our 9iar and quadruple trebes cos Ra Rangers wurnae there or wurny ready or something.
Our winning of the previous 9 leagues was no indicator of how likely we were to win the 10th but the win by the Ibrox team is a sure guarantee that we are unllikely to win the next few.
Their Repetitive Share Issue Syndrome and reliance on dubious money laundering allows them to buy their transfer targets early and is an approach we should envy.
They employed a coach with only under age coaching experience and he proved a winner whereas our guy has 25 years and is totally inadequate.
Peter Lawwell has 4 weeks left in his job and Dom McKay has been there since mid-April but it stands to irrefutable reason that all bad decisions belong to the guy that cost us the 10 and Dom is being sidelined by a guy who is determined not to go.
I can sell hundreds of doomsday scenarios but we are just far from doomed.
I do not recommend or condone our dealings of the past month but even the bookies only have Sevco at 4/6 and us at 6/4.
These odds are very bridgeable but they can only be bridged by players and managers on match days and not by bloggers during a short summer break.
Another share issue at Snake Mountain ?
Time to bite the bullet and go to their website and pledge that I’m interested in 55 thousand shares.
JHB on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:13 PM
I agree that’s why I am not a PL hater
BUT he also has a longer list with duds
Why do you think we do not have a Dof
Why have we never given the job to Martin O’neill even Gordon Strachan
A DoF wants responsibility for the job that means buying players
The only person who will take the Job without the authority is an out of work ex footballer (Hammond)
It’s Peters train set – not always a bad thing but not very progressive
67ECW
JHB on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:13 PM
Final comment
The reason Rogers left
Because Peters imagination could not match Brendans ambition – big shame
67ECW
!BADA BING!! on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:05 PM
geebee1978 on 1st June 2021 6:00 pm
So no Harkin. Did he embarrassingly jilt us at the altar too or was he never in contention?
And if not, who recommended Postecoglou?
But we’ve been tracking him since…..last Thursday….?🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
SFTB
You mention doomsday scenario. I understand this to be a theoretical event or series of events which may happen in the future and could be cataclysmic.
Losing the league last season by 25 points- how should we describe that? It really happened.
Or should we just ignore it? That may be easier
Uncle Jimmy
Who ignored it?
SFTB
How would you describe it?
Alternatively, how would you define a doomsday scenario for Celtic?
Uncle Jimmy
It has already been described .
It was a winnable league that was lost by 25 points and we have to own that failure. It does not change our past aor alter our future (apart from not achieving 11 that is).
A doomsday scenario is what happened to the Huns in 2012
SFTB
I agree that we need to own last seasons failure. Alas, I see too many examples of that not being the case. Many many posters on here and in another place.
I’d certainly agree with your last sentence!
Well said
The sniper v scattergun approach is interesting. I’d warrant some of those suggested as sniper acquisitions are not in the right place – Lenny didn’t know about Wanyama signing for instance.
Anyway, I ran the numbers a while ago and, excluding the sale of Academy products, in the decade since 2010-11 to 2020-21, we’ve made the huge trading profit (transfer fees paid v transfer fees received) of a whopping £1.6m! Our youth products in that time brought in c37.5m (basically Tierney and McGeady), which makes the profit sum look more healthy at £39.1m. That’s still only £3.9m per season.
In short, we’ve wasted a lot of money on the scattergun approach, which has been hidden by the handful of successes (either sniper or scattergun) – Forster, Van Dijk, Wanyama, Armstrong, and Dembele.
Of course a lot of the wastage is due to the scattergun approach and “buying potential” rather than being more focussed in our punts and buying players to fit a system so they’d be more likely to “catch the manager’s eye”. Bayo is a good example of that – we bought a guy who’s best feature is headed goals from crosses when we play (in the main) a patient passing approach…
Now that Bob Dylan has turned 80, will there be outrage and cries of betrayal when he swaps his acoustic Zimmer for an Electric Wheelchair?
SFTB
No, he’ll always be a Zimmerman!
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:35 PM
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You are correct and I agree with you – he didn’t get everything right
Neither did any player that played for Celtic during his tenure. Neither did any manager that managed during his tenure. Neither did some of our supporters who sullied the name of Celtic on a number of occasions.
What history will show is that he was in charge during the second-most successful football period in the club’s existence.
I believe that his remuneration in his period in office is commensurate with what he achieved for the club, football & financial wise.
Twenty-nine honours in seventeen years – a quadruple treble – nine in a row – an invincible season – financial stability & probity. Peter Lawwell was front & centre to all of this, and yes as we stumble & fall he must bear his share of the blame. However the scales are very very heavily in his favour – we should remember that as we say goodbye.
If Dom can achieve 25% of this, he will be satisfied, but no doubt still reviled in some quarters.
The best number 63 ever
https://twitter.com/74frankfurt/status/1399267764951519240/photo/1
JHB on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:53 PM
Great chatting to you I’m off for a pint
Peters tenure !!!
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king
Hail Hail my friend
67ECW
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 1ST JUNE 2021 6:59 PM
Hail Hail to you too.
Word is Yokohama won’t let AP go until they’ve sourced a replacement. Are they a more organised and better run club than us?
Uncle Jimmy
“No, he’ll always be a Zimmerman!”
😀 👏👋
MARADOMINIC on 1ST JUNE 2021 3:49 PM
Who bought players over last few years? apart from a couple when you could see the manager knew them … and Israeli agents stable. Or Man city players… or crazy loans. Who buys them? assume they will be leaving with lawell !
Interesting point about the “agents stable” it is very noticeable if you ever have the misfortune to stumble across any of the UK MSM news channels and carefully look at who is reading the news out to you, even the host of BBC POLITICS LIVE is and has been very suspiciously viewed by me at least for a very long time. Makes me wonder about what is going on, really going on in the grand scheme of things, and what is Celtic’s role in it. For example why have our leaders been cowering – for well over a year now to do an interview with Alex Thompson on Channel 4 News – given that the sought after interview is about a disgusting subject that our leaders have badly handled, could leave us weak and exposed to very dodgy people. As I see it, he says she says surely can’t be stood up as evidence? Can it? Surely in a world as corrupt as the one we presently live in anybody could be corrupted to say anything about anybody? That is in no way to dismiss legitimate grievances even crimes. But surely our club isn’t being blackmailed or worse about an issue, a disgusting issue that boils down to he says she says? If we are being blackmailed is the “agents stable” part of the out workings of that blackmail? Is our lack of any challenge whatsoever to the off field Ibrox/SFA collusion based on the blackmail that I mention? What a disaster is being visited on our club because we supporters have been tolerant of these people who are supposed to lead us. That it takes us to loss a league title to get supporters angry is another unedifying pillar of our club. Stay safe.
No surprise that Paul is bigging up this nobody.
I take Kennedy is going to be assistant as he hasn’t been chased yet.
Going to be a long few years