Reality is a different country

I was asked a cracking question last night: ‘Everyone knows Rangers went into administration on 14 February 2012, but do you know what date they came out of administration?’

Can anyone guess? This is the material Cognitive Dissonance is made of.

Duff and Phelps did an incredible job. Had they stuck to Whyte’s plan, put a fait accompli to the SPL, with a matter of days to decide, ‘Our Hero’ would still own the ground, the club and would still be exalted by those who initially crowned him ‘Our Hero’, before the term became a weapon of irony.

We got a further glimpse into the goings-on at Cardiff before popular and successful manager, Malky Mackay, was sacked.  Chief exec, Simon Lim, while commenting on the £30m loss the club made last season, as a Championship club, spoke of the signing of 20-year-old striker Andreas Cornelius for £7.5m, from Copenhagen, with a £45k per week, 5 year contract, somewhat more than the £6k he was previously coping with in Denmark.

Earlier this month Malky said, “What I said at the time still stands. £7.5m was our record transfer at the time but a hit-the-ground-running centre-forward in the Premier League costs two or three times that and every team in the Premier League are striving for someone like that.”

There you have it, £7.5m is not enough to buy a hit-the-ground-running centre-forward, you’ll need two or three times that! In England, reality really is a different country (this is not me getting involved in the referendum debate, before the nationalists start trolling me again).

English football is broken in ways it is increasingly difficult to fathom. Only the persistent annual losses and ballooning debt figures offer a glimpse into what the future may hold.

Our namesakes, Belfast Celtic, withdrew from league football shortly after their players were attacked by a mob following the final whistle at game against Linfield on Boxing Day 1948. Star man, Jimmy Jones, died yesterday. The then 20-year-old was thrown over a wall and out of the stadium, breaking his leg in the process.

That was the end for Belfast Celtic but Jimmy recovered and is the Irish League’s all-time top goalscorer.

If you would like to read the new CQN Magazine, GO HERE to read properly, and for FREE, the graphic below is just a taster.
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