Neil Lennon’s interview with the official site was the second resounding State of the Club address from Celtic within a week. The manager said:
”Clearly, in terms of where Rangers do play, that is now a matter for others to decide upon, it is something we have no control or influence over.
“We must now move on, and move on with a collective unity between the supporters and the club and the team.
“We need to stand strong, shoulder to shoulder and all work together to continue to move the club in the right direction.
“We want as many fans as possible to come back to the club and take their seat at Celtic Park and invest in the club as much as possible.
“We are now looking forward and not back, we have a vibrant young team, I want to progress this team as far as I can but we cannot do this without the fans’ support.
“There will be no slacking off or complacency, we have a lot to look forward to and that´s what we are preparing for, but I need to be very clear, we need our fans with us every step of the way.
“We cannot let outside negative influences dictate the mood at Celtic, we are very optimistic and we are very much looking forward to the season but we need our fans right with us”.
“It´s imperative we make inroads in Europe again this year and it would be nice to get through the qualifiers and into the Champions League group stages, but I´m under no illusion how difficult that´s going to be
“Everyone wants to play at the big table and that´s our whole focus. We go into this as champions and that is a fantastic feeling, so hopefully that will give the players an extra spring in their step.
“If we qualify then you never know where it will take us.”
I hear season ticket sales are up on the corresponding period last season but the message from Neil is clear, with the driver for high-value corporate ticket sales missing, Celtic are more dependent on ordinary supporters buying tickets than ever before.
This is your tax-and-supplier-paying-champions-today-and-next-season-Celtic. You wouldn’t rather it any other way so get along and enjoy it.
1,060 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- »
Kalimera from a sun drenched land of Sammi.
0-0 draw with a back 3. Lots of guys to come back, Ki off for a decent profit, fair enough beginning.
Spent last evening out laying octopus traps with Michaelis. Local fisherman is not an easy job. Who would have thought sailing the Aegean would have you sweating like Fat Sally in a pie shop and covered in concrete dust?
Fantastic experience.
Walk into the mountains beckons.
EC67
saltires en sevilla on 11 July, 2012 at 07:05 said:
If he did how come we dont know?
“Either way not much he can do about that now and he has a team to prepare for a new season” = prepare? Hmmm ..not to sure about that..as much as the black sheep prepares the rest of us for the abattoir maybe. Still at least it gives the impression that we are faithful through and through. The problem I have is that unless its SFL1 Friday we still wont know for sure.
Good morning CQNers,
….”Clearly, in terms of where Rangers do play, that is now a matter for others to decide upon, it is something we have no control or influence overANYMORE
That statement makes perfect sense now and explains why Celtic have been so quiet, the deal is done and it’s Quid pro Quo ……..Rangers agree to accept future sanctions and Celtic’s revenue streams are restored next year.
Jobs a good un and awe naw and philvisreturns are on the ball.
Margaret McGill on 11 July, 2012 at 07:22 said:
Maybe he signed a confidentiality clause :)
All will be revealed soon enough. Right now I’m focusing on supporting humans the team to get ready for the league campaign and CL Quali
HH
why are the succulent hacks pouring out the scare stories?
Not so sure its all a done deal yet
Before the huns get into Div 1, assuming for the sake of a laugh, they get into Div. 1, maybe the following teams:
Dunfermline/Dundee
Falkirk
Partick Thistle
might be encouraged to take some of our players on a subsidised loan basis for an initial six months maybe twelve.
Wilson
Blackman
McCourt
Ibrahim
Twardzik
Twardzik
Bangura
Rassmussen
Watt
Keatings
Murphy
Thompson
Toshney
Chalmers
Fisher
Alabi
Any six/five/five of these players in the above teams squads would fair enhance them.
Imagine… The Twardzik twins, McCourt, Watt and Loovens playing in Dundee shirts would be interesting viewing for a year.
I never thought I’d see the day when the Celtic manager had to sign a confidentiality clause w/the bored so as not to release information to its customers/shareholders/supporters. Anyway if Sevco choppers are in SF1 Friday night then the conclusion of the erudite amongst us is that the Celtic Bored have colluded as old Firm. Anything else and we still wont know
what the grand Celtic Bored vision is for Celtic other than make a few bucks next season. Are they waiting to get into the EPL? Or are they still building their 5 year plan around “What are the huns daein?” as they have for at least 3 years prior and probably further back to 1998 and now no longer have a pacemaker. Still dont know. Celtic have not released any information
or shown their cards or indicated their vision. What The faithful Higgs bosons amongst us equate to “playing a blinder”.
saltires en sevilla on 11 July, 2012 at 07:16 said:
Morning Saltires ,
agreed . brightening up lovely now .
I stay in Kenton and work in Neasden , so west , north-west end .
Beers sound good. was in Ealing for the beer festival last week so whatever suits. Drop me a line to handle @gmail.com.
Sanna
Vmhan on 11 July, 2012 at 07:17 said:
No dis-respect to anybody sir,but here we have a pair of posters claiming to have prior knowledge of an imminent exclusive regarding the hun charade – nothing wrong with that,i hear you say.The thing is this though – one poster is based in the wilds of Donegal,and the other is based in Barcelona,of all places.
Forgive me for appearing to be cynical,however i shall offer up these words of advice on the matter – If you are going to hear anything,it will be heard on the streets of Glasgow first.
UltraCynicCSC.
Just had a thunk re Clyde’s comment (i know , but at my age it takes a while for the ole grey matter to kick in).
If the voting topics are ‘clarified’ , what happens if ths SFL clubs vote NOT to admit SEVCO5088 ? Does the matter of Dundee/Dunfermline become moot ? Are we then heading for an 11 team SPL ?
sanna (twilightzone csc)
Margaret McGill:
I agree, Celtic should have a rolling five year plan and it should be made public too, how else is a Supporter able to guage whether those he emotionally and financially supports are meeting any, if any, expectations or goals.
If we are going to be big we have to think big; no company gets big without predetermined and scratched indelibly on the wall goals. Accountable goals.
How deep does the emotional bore well go and how much is left in the accounts of those whose hearts burst with obligation?
Maggie
I was half jokin about the confidentiality agreement/ clause …you know they are applied in business all the time.
What would make you think Celtic would not use them as a tactic to achieve an aim and goal.
My point is Lenny is a few weeks from kick off he wants the fans back in max numbers
I don’t see any harm in that
I expect it!
The wider issues will unfold soon enough not much he can do about it now
Meanwhile I am backing our manager and urge all Celts to do the same
HH
kitalba on 11 July, 2012 at 07:41 said:
Ah good!
Thanks Kitalba
So I am not the only one who thinks the Celtic bored is full of shit!
Phil Mac is also based in the wilds of Donegal though.
I shall reserve judgement.
Anything is possible,but i doubt it very much.
Sanna
Will do
HH
I thought Phil was on sabbatical writing a book?
Phil is a legend.
Margaret McGill on 11 July, 2012 at 07:44 said:
Its better that we’re inside the tent pissing out ……..
Shaking Heidi does nobody any favours…. poor little swiss kids :)
Looking back and found myself on RM hate post….Oh sorry they all are!!!
Had to laugh at this one
‘Even if our club is reduced to having to play on the streets, then we will follow on from the pavements’
Do they have enough supporters/jumpers/shellsuits for goalposts or are they playing ‘RUSHIE’
Hail Hail
Sanna
You have mail
HH
murdochbhoy on 11 July, 2012 at 07:52 said:
Pablo Fanque’s or Lennon Bros tent?
Morning,
If you have mot cancelled your SKY Sports & ESPN. Read the below and pick up that phone.
According to Stewart Regan, chief
executive of the Scottish Football
Assocation, and Neil Doncaster, his SPL
counterpart, the existing deal, worth
circa £15m per season, would disappear
to be replaced with one worth just £3m.
The fall off is staggering.
While Rangers are a key player as far as
the television companies are concerned,
they are not the be all and end all of
Scottish football. In the 2010/11 season
the average viewing figure on Sky was
247,000 per game. Even if all broadcast
matches including Rangers are
discounted, there would still have been
on average a viewership of 180,000 per
game. Rangers contributed 27% of the
viewing figures, so why should a
subsequent TV agreeement without
them decrease by 500%?
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that
this is a terrible deal. The SPL is the
11th most-attended league in Europe,
ahead of Switzerland, Austria and
Norway, all of whom can command
higher television revenue. Even without
Rangers, the SPL would still have had
higher attendances than the three
aforementioned leagues. The Greek
league, which has attendances half of
our own, has a television deal worth
three times as much, while the
Norwegians pull in similar numbers.
Are attendances the key indicator here?
Can they translate into viewing figures
when the Barclays Premier League is on
our doorstep and on our screens? Let’s
look at some leagues in a similar
situation, namely the Austrian, Swiss
and Norwegian leagues.
The former has a deal with Sky Austria
worth £13.5m a season, an arrangement
similar to our own. However, while the
SPL goes out to 645,000 subscribers in
Scotland alone, the Austrian league is
broadcast to just 240,000 local
subscribers, three times fewer. Like
Scotland, Austria is in the shadow of its
neighbour and Sky also has the rights to
all games in Germany’s Bundesliga.
Over the border in Switzerland, they
have just signed a deal worth £20m,
with a further £4m coming from
domestic channels. Swisscom, the cable
company with the rights, has 608,000
subscribers and is the biggest cable
operator in Switzerland, giving it similar
reach to that of the SPL yet generating
33% more revenue.
In Norway, they have an even better
deal, with a contract signed with TV2
Norway worth a reported £44m a year
revenue despite viewing figures which
are lower than Sky’s figures for the SPL.
According to a report from TNS-Gallup,
the most viewed domestic Norwegian
match in 2011 was Lillestrom versus
Brann, which attracted 196,000 viewers.
As a comparison, a fixture between St
Mirren and Hibernian attracted 392,000
viewers on February 20 last year, while
the SPL’s average viewership on Sky is
just shy of 250,000 per match. Even if
we discounted all matches with
Rangers, the viewership would still be
around 180,000 per match.
So, Scotland gets less money than the
Norweigans, the Swiss and the same as
the Austrians, but on all counts boasts
higher viewerships and match
attendances. So why is the deal so poor
in comparison? There is a suggestion
that it is to do with the popularity of
the English league, but Norway attracts
Premier League viewerships five times
those generated by their domestic
matches; a similar ratio to Scotland,
given that the average English game
attracts 1m viewers.
Likewise, Austrian and Swiss football is
overshadowed by the Bundesliga, which
attracts more viewers than domestic
matches – yet they still have deals
either similar to or better than the SPL.
Another issue is the perceived lack of
competition for SPL rights. Since the
collapse of Setanta, Sky have had a
monopoly and have, therefore, dictated
the figures. Indeed, a Nordiccom report
into the current Norwegian deal
highlighted the situtation in the UK,
saying “if former rivals decide to join
forces instead of continuing to
compete, this may have dramatic
consequences for the competition, and
hence also for prices. The fewer
broadcasters that originally were
present, the closer a reduction can
move the market towards a monopsony
[one single buyer]. This, in turn, will
transfer market power from the sellers
to the buyers”.
So the above lack of competition
maybe explains the current deal being
less than those of other European
countries, but still cannot explain
Doncaster’s £3m figure. To put that
prediction into perspective again, it
would rank Scottish football on par with
Hungary, who sell their rights
domestically for £2.8m. That league
gets 2900 fans per game on average.
Is that all Sky are really offering for a
league which would generate viewing
figures of 180,000 a game more than
Norway, even without Rangers? The
Barclays Premier League generates
average figures of around 1m for Sky,
yet receives £1bn a year in revenue.
Even with their monopoly, £3m is a
derisory figure. But, assuming the
figures are accurate, what alternatives
do we have?
There is ESPN, but they appear to be
building their interests in alliance with
Sky. There is BT vision, who just
invested £750m to show 38 Barclays
Premier League games a season. With
their model, which allows users to
watch via mobile devices and the
internet as well as conventional TV, this
may be the way forward. There is also
the long-mooted SPL TV option,
modelled on the successful Eredivisie
TV platform in the Netherlands.
At £6 per month, or £50 for the season,
the platform allows you to watch all
the Eredivisie matches live, wherever
you are in the world. Just to put this in
perspective, if a similar deal was set up
in Scotland, 37,500 subscribers would
be required worldwide to match
Doncaster’s figure of £3m. If the
numbers without Rangers remained at
180,000 a match, just short of £15m
would be generated for the Scottish
game, which looks surprisingly similar to
what Sky are currently paying.
Is the current deal underpriced?
Possibly, but with the lack of
competition and the unwillingness of
the SPL to take a step into the
unknown, it is at least understandable.
Could the proposed £3m figure by
Doncaster be undervalued? Absolutely,
and for that comment alone there
should be a vote of no confidence
heading in his direction.
Margaret
If the Celtic board have colluded and supported Neil Doncaster’s role in the SFL1 plan for Sevco, It will be outed by the MSM who hate Lawwell with a passion, time will tell
Until this is proved regarding the Celtic board alleged underhanded moves season ticket holders like myself will support the manager in his quest for footballing trophies
Lenny does not have the media savvy of MON or WGS, he wears his heart on his sleeve and is a dream interviewee for the MSM by answering every question, does Lenny know if Lawwell has been involved with Doncaster? does Lenny know if there is a done deal? who knows i refuse to damn a man on speculation
Phil still hashas his finger on the pulse
He has been at Q&A sessions in KSC Blantyre in the last few weeks as have PMcC and P67
lionroars67 on 11 July, 2012 at 08:00 said:
How come nobody knows? Isnt that strange?
Margaret McGill on 11 July, 2012 at 07:58 said:
For the benefit of Mr Kite obviously………
Regards
murdochbhoy on 11 July, 2012 at 08:05 said:
For the benefit of Mrs Hite
there will be a show tonight on Celtic Green (..cymbals ..cymbals…!!)
Lenny’s sons will all be there
late of Tony Mowbrays fair what a scene!
Over men and horses green hoops and martyrs
lastly through a hunshead of real fire.
In this way Mr. D will challenge the world!
The celebrated Mr D
Performs his feat on Saturdee at Bishopbriggs
Lenny’s sons will dance and sing
As Mr. D flies through the ring dont be late
Mrs D assures the tim public
Their production will be second to none.
And of course all the hairy old whores dance the waltz-!
The band begins at ten to six
When Mr. D performs his tricks without a sound
And Mr. D will demonstrate
Ten summer bets he’ll undertake on a solid pound.
having been some years in preparation
A splendid time is guaranteed for none
And tonight Mrs Hite is topping the BILL!!!!!!!!!
Margaret McGill on 11 July, 2012 at 08:04 said:
lionroars67 on 11 July, 2012 at 08:00 said:
How come nobody knows? Isnt that strange?
What wr do know is this
Celtic Voted No to Sevco in SPL
Peter Lawwell is quoted below
Asked if their own finances would suffer because fans might not buy into a one-horse race Lawwell said: “Not at all. I can tell you now that is not the case.
“We have a robust financial model we will continue. Our horizons are to dominate Scotland and compete successfully in a European context.
“Our focus and priority is always to optimise the opportunities for Celtic. Our debt is extremely manageable and maintaining our model and winning on the pitch is our focus.
“All we want to do is concentrate on taking our own club as far as we can and I wouldn’t see anything that may or may not happen with Rangers getting in the way of that.”
Lawwell’s view is shared by Bankier who said: “Of course we’re well placed to take advantage of anything that might happen.
“We’re going to be in better shape than them if their problems cause greater difficulties.”
Asked if the SPL’s sanction – a 10-point deduction from any club which enters administration – would be enough, Lawwell would only say: “It would be inappropriate to comment at this moment but we do have strong views on this.”
I for one hope the Celtic board were part of the consultation process undertaken by Regan in April.
There is little point taking a principled stance when the enemy is fighting dirty, and we all know from history what we’re up against.
We are in a powerful position and its only right the Celtic board put forward its minimum requirements in any brokered deal the Scottish footballing undertook, to do otherwise would have been foolish beyond belief.
Morning Bt.
Not sure if you caught my belated Chinese Lantern thank you yesterday but if you didn’t….thank you!
Hope you and yours are well.
Margaret McGill on 11 July, 2012 at 08:08 said
Very good……..
I’ve gotta go…….God bless
Lionroars67 @ 06.40
I thought your Ian Queen story was a spoof :-)
Hunbelievable
No club has stated whether the vote to exclude the newco was with a provision that it would only be for one season.
Celtic are on the verge on having a very good team, I for one don’t want it rip apart because we need to sell or can’t afford wages due to the absence of rangers.
Support Celtic 100% no ifs.
All incoming flights to Scotland cancelled for the foreseeable future if the huns don’t get the vote….
Ian King expects that England will cut a chase across the border and leave us to drift off into obscurity and certain death in the North Atlantic…
I smell the fear!!
Morning ST Martins bhoy
Didn’t catch it I’m afraid nut no worries, anything to help
No huns in the SPL.
Some mutant offspring of said huns MIGHT show up in one of the lower leagues this season (big MIGHT)
Whether they show up or not, outstanding punative acions from various sources to be heaped upon this abomination for years to come.
What’s not to like?
Yet we have people applying msm logic, conjecture, second guessing, and downright fiction to have a go at the guys who run our great club, Celtic. Just because they won’t behave EXACTLY as these informed critics want.
whodathunkit
p.s. bored = board ain’t remotely funny
lionroars67 on 11 July, 2012 at 08:14 said:
I dont see what the last paragraph has to do with your assertion about what happens on Friday. Come to think of it everything else you have quoted below the first 3 lines comes from Feb 14th. Today is July 11th. So focusing on the first 3 only relevant lines one of which is mine we are left with
“What wr do know is this
Celtic Voted No to Sevco in SPL”
I think it can be argued that Celtic did not show their hand like most of the other SPL clubs in this vote until the day of the vote thus making it easier for Lawwell to safely join the majority with a NO. Unlike you intermediate Higgs vector bosons I remain unconvinced.