Let’s get the result out of the way first. We went out to a weaker team who were nonetheless very well-drilled in defence. AEK scored with their only two attempts on goal last night and with one of their two at Celtic Park. This contrasts greatly with our chance conversation rate. It hurts and is money left on the table.
Recruitment is correctly at the heart of the inquest. Not only did nine of last night’s starters play under Ronny Deila, seven of them were once the heart of Neil Lennon’s team. Only Olivier Ntcham and Jack Hendry were brought to the club by Brendan Rodgers. One of Moussa Dembele or Odsonne Eduard, both Brendan signings, would have started if fully fit, while the Belgian, a Ronny signing, would have started in other circumstances.
This is Brendan’s fifth transfer window, so why do so many remain from the Ronny/Neil eras? There are good reason and bad reasons. McGregor, Rogic and Forrest have improved significantly under Brendan. We want more like this.
We only have accounts for Brendan’s first year, which show a £13.8m spent on player registrations. Since then we have bought big ticket players like Ntcham and Edouard, and more. Total spend will not be a whisker below £30m. Profit for Brendan’s first year was £6.9m. We could spend more (always), but we are still in an expenditure territory that AEK could not dream about.
I wanted John McGinn, but he is irrelevant to last night. He would not have displaced Ntcham or Brown. Not only was John not a solution, he was yet another squad player!
I’m not saying it’s easy, in fact, it’s difficult. We did not fall to a team who necessarily had a better plan for their recruitment budget, every season there is an AEK who hit the right numbers and over perform, before reverting to the mean. These are the perils of qualification.
We do not have a viable plan to continually qualify for the Champions League, and failures like this hurt. But we have been here before.
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BIGCHIPSUK – 10 IN A ROW (2001-2010)
Alas, in spite of all the hoo-ha about our defence, perhaps we should be looking at the other end of the pitch. As mentioned by Paul, our chance conversion rate was badly inferior to that of AEK. In fact, over the whole tie Celtic had 37 shots at goal to AEK’s 15, so Celtic needed more than 18 shots per goal scored, while AEK needed just 5. And it wasn’t a case of Celtic failing to create chances, as they created more than twice as many chances as AEK. We also had 13 corners to AEK’s 2.
and there is your answer they created less chances and scored 2 , the issue is not creating chances it is the minimum amount of chances the opposition need to make to score , our defence is a shambles ,end of.
So why has recruitment been poor?
The artice doesn’t really address this despite alluding to it in the title.
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles on 15th August 2018 2:01 pm
NATKNOW on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:54 PM
ernie lynch on 15th August 2018 1:45 pm
When, and in what circumstances, will Peter Lawwell cease to be CEO?
————————————————————————————————————
In his study, with an ice pick after a window slams shut…
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It will definitely be the Rev Green, who is responsible
cluedocsc
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Or maybe a Green Brigadier, on a heated driveway, with a vuvuzela…?
:-))
We were informed by Paul67 on June 25th that the Armstrong deal was a good “portent” for Celtic signings with the added promise that this would be an enjoyable summer for the Celtic support. Aside from the usual literary snobbery, the intended message was totally inaccurate. Today’s leader also fails to address the concerns of so many who have posted on the blog since last night’s match. We need right back & centre-back replacements, NOW. We needed them before the CL qualifiers, we needed them last season. We cannot defend. The failure to land McGinn was a mistake of enormous proportion. He would have been a mainstay for years to come, in my book, a player with dig, passing & shooting ability. Tell Peter (omitted in today’s leader) the clock is ticking, the fans patience is wearing thin.
Fail-to-prepare-then-prepare-to-fail CSC
I wanted John McGinn, but he is irrelevant to last night. He would not have displaced Ntcham or Brown. Not only was John not a solution, he was yet another squad player!
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The arrogance of that final – squirrel-seeking – sentence turns my stomach.
HH jg
Has Boyata been sold yet?
TRADITIONALIST88 on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:58 PM
Madmitch earlier
Yes there are countless other songs out there that we could adopt/adapt to our needs. For example, we have JCGE, but there is also untapped potential in songs like EWTRTW, AHWNN, HB, SBM, WMUBYGG etc
GB take note.
HH
…………………….
I see what you did there. ? Ikm not even going to attempt to work them out.
Wikipedia……………………..Says Marvin Compper plays for Glasgow Celtic…………coulda fooled me
I am tired of reading this blog. As time goes on it appears that Lawwell has influence over Paul and what appears here.
Lawwell is to blame for our failure. He gambles with the CL each season and has effectively cost us 30-40 million. Not sure how anyone costing a company that amount could continue with their position.
Not sure what our defensive coaches are doing either. It appears that lessons are never learned. Think their own positions should be getting reviewed also.
Time for a change on the board, it’s time for Lawwell to either leave completely or solely work on the commercial side of the business.
An accountant should have no say in footballing matters. Maybe we bring in a DOF who works with Rodgers and Lawwell can stop undermining the manager before we lose him.
Just the fact that there is so much talk about Peter Lawwell indicates that there is something dysfunctional about the way Celtic is being run.
Football Club’s CEOs just shouldn’t have such a huge role and profile.
Maybe it’s because there’s an absentee owner, whose first love is golf.
BIGCHIPSUK – 10 IN A ROW (2001-2010) on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:45 PM
While I agree re our poor chance conversion rate , not one of the chances we created was a ‘sitter’. The two AEK scored from were relatively easy chances . That was all down to how difficult their defence made it for us , and how easy our defence made it for them.
Amazin’ te think a 3 miillion pound Hibbe was really our Messiah!
Sack the board right enough.
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles on 15th August 2018 2:12 pm
Has Boyata been sold yet?
====
No, and the worry is that interested parties will have more time now to watch videos of him.
HH
ERNIE LYNCH on 15TH AUGUST 2018 2:14 PM
Quite. The chain of command has a weak link , just like our defence.
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 15th August 2018 2:13 pm
Haha, forgotten them already myself:)
HH
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 15th August 2018 2:13 pm
TRADITIONALIST88 on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:58 PM
Madmitch earlier
Yes there are countless other songs out there that we could adopt/adapt to our needs. For example, we have JCGE, but there is also untapped potential in songs like EWTRTW, AHWNN, HB, SBM, WMUBYGG etc
GB take note.
HH
…………………….
I see what you did there. ? Ikm not even going to attempt to work them out.
——————————————————
Some light-hearted fun (finally)
I’ll get us started…
EWTRTW = Everybody Wants to Rule The World
AHWNN = A Horse With No Name (?)
Boyata will never play for Celtic again.
Everyone knows this.
Any team wishing to sign him will wait intil the very last minute to come in with a take-it-or-leave low did. Don’t ask me how, but it’s imperative to generate an auction.
One other thing about Celtic getting beat, it fairly brings out the ” long post ” brigade..
Just to save ye scrolling back through it all it appears to be the fault of Peter and Paul and Brendan and Dedryck and every scout and coach employed at lennoxtown. Get rid of awe they characters and we’re cousty..
Just as well the rest of Scotland is mince otherwise we might not be going for a treble of TREBLES.
Owoaisme.csc
H.F’N.H
Davidopoulos on 15th August 2018 2:18 pm
Yes, actually…top of the class chief :)
HH
Just had an e-mail from Sofology proclaiming the ‘good news’ that my new sofa will be delivered tomorrow after a 14 week wait.
Not much good to me now as I was planning to hide behind it during the CL matches.
canigetarefund?csc
Firstly, accountancy is not my chosen profession, so forgive me if my observations are off the mark. If there are any accountants in here I would be glad to receive a reply to this comment.
When I read “We only have accounts for Brendan’s first year, which show a £13.8m spent on player registrations.” I was initially sceptical of this figure and decided to look at the accounts directly. Link here.
Investment in football personnel
Paul’s conclusion that we spent £13.8m on “player registrations” is drawn from page 2 of the accounts. The statement itself is located in the final bullet point under the heading “Financial Highlights” and reads as “Investment in football personnel of £13.8m”. Now, the term “football personnel” is, as far as I can see, undefined within the accounts. So I’m unsure exactly what it encompasses. Evidently, it will include transfer fees for the purchase of players. However, it could very well contain a lot more than that. Paul has concluded that “investment in football personnel” is analogous to “spent on player registrations”.
Net Player Trading
Page 15 of the accounts details player spending.
It states that Celtic spent ( or technically speaking “Amortisation of player registrations”) £7.5m (a 50% increase on the previous financial year) on registration of players “…as a result of investment in the first team squad”.
It states that Celtic’s “Gain on sale of player registrations” was £2.3m (2016: £12.6m), “…reflects gains achieved in the sale of Stefan Johansen and Stefan Scepovic in comparison to VVD and Adam Matthews in the prior year”.
Net spend: £5.2m
Now remember, these accounts are to 30 June 2017, that means they include figures for players purchased in both the summer and January window.
Conclusion
Willingly or otherwise, Paul has misconstrued Brendan’s spending on “player registrations” in his first year at the club. Brendan spent £7.5m on “player registrations”, about half of what Paul claimed. Of that his net spend was £5.2m. That means that we purchased the following players NET for £5.2m: Sinclair, Kouassi, Gamboa, Dembele and De Vries (I‘ve excluded Toure).
With a spend of £5.2m Brendan qualified for the CL and completed an unbeaten domestic treble.
WMUBYGG Wake me up before you go-go?
SBM Stand By Me?
HB Happy Birthday?
WANTED .WANTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Centre back for Glasgow Celtic……….early bathers back problem and constantly injured need not apply…………say cheerio to the 3 of them…..how on earth does a footballer Compper be injured every week………taking the piss……will never play a full game for the club……..FFS get rid of these hanger ons ………you couldn’t make a decent centreback out of the 3 of them.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 15TH AUGUST 2018 12:43 PM..
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Totally agree mate .
A thought. Did we not have the best defensive record in the SP Hell last season??
KINGLuBO
The final paragraph above should read “net spend of “5.2m”.
And unfortunately the link does not work, but the accounts are readily available on companies house.
Paul67
Your defence of the line of McGinn only being a squad player is unbelievable.
Remember that you like to give the sevco board pelters when they peddle pish to the peepil, so it’s a 2 way street.
Give everyone a shout when you grab the laptop back from Lawwell so you can start writing the header for your own blog again.
Coneybhoy on 15th August 2018 2:26 pm
Correct
Correct and…
Incorrect
Well done:) May have started something here!
HH
I already had misgivings about the pilot but when he pished in the plastic bag and threw it out the window I knew then this was not going to end well…
A hundred stories and no one to tell them to…
MIKE IN TORONTO on 15TH AUGUST 2018 12:53 PM
At last, someone else has focused on the coaching of the team.
It’s not the defenders that are the main problem. It’s the fact that we don’t defend.
From the goalkeeper out, they are all expected to be attackers.
Proper defenders don’t have that in their DNA.
We are/were good enough to deal with the SPFL level, but, to be honest, we have never punched above our weight, or even at our weight, since Neil Lennon was in the dugout.
Hopefully the Board will sort themselves out and realise that the business is football and act accordingly, but what do we do regarding the coaching of the players.
It is not good enough. We are a team of individuals, some more talented as others, but as a cohesive unit, we are disjointed, relying on individual flashes of brilliance.
Brendan has to sort it out. If he can’t, then employ coaches who can specialise on our weaknesses.
My fear is that if we do manage to bring in better players, they will get sucked into out cavalier style of play.
A bit of defensive pragmatism, please.
THCHWTECS
You’re looking in the right place but the wrong way. It’s pretty straightforward.
Investment in football personnel = Transfer fees paid for new players: £13.8M
Gain on sale of player registrations = Transfer fees received for player sales: £2.3M
Therefore Net Spend: £11.5M
Hope that’s helpful.
Paul 67 ,You stick your head above the parapet regardless of results so hats off to you. Debate and scrutiny follow. This is welcomed, however your article leads with recruitment as the issue then selects only a few individuals for mention. Others such as Lee Congerton and Peter Lawwell, who also have a role in recruitment, are not named. This feels like a continuation of the line put out to the BBC. I suggest this shows bias.
Marvin Compper has won as many Scottish League champopnship medals as Charlie Tully did.
What a time to be alive!
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 15TH AUGUST 2018 2:38 PM
I’m sorry but you are wrong. Read my original post.
Amortisation of player registrations (i.e. money spent) was £7.5m.
Gain on sale of player registrations (i.e. money received) was £2.3m.
The accounts have a specific section dedicated to net player spending. Read page 15.
Lambert14 – Brendan’s preferred Midfield is Brown, Ntcham and Rogic. If they are fit they play. McGinn would not be displacing any of them therefore like Armstrong before him he is a squad player.
I think that is factual and not derogatory towards McGinn.
Do you really believe McGinn would displace any of those 3?
People seem to think that Peter Lawwell scouts and signs players. That’s not true. The only part of the process the Commercial side get involved in is doing the deal. As CEO Peter is the main figure who completes (or not) the deal.
From information available then Brendan was unhappy that we never clinched the John McGinn signing. We assume that there were other instances when we also failed to close the deal. Brendan would have paid more money. This is the one area where the football and Commercial side cross over and this is the area where there is conflict.
However, would we have signed McGinn as it was reported in error that he was desperate to sign. His statements since signing for Villa indicate that this was not true. Also when the personal terms were revealed then the £23k-£25k figure was declared as “too much” by most
John McGinn would have been unlikely to play last night. What we lacked this tie was good defenders. As can be seen from the stats we had more possession, chances, shots, corners etc. Now Boyata would have been an improvement but he wasn’t available.
What we now need to do is throw money at the problem and sign Defenders. The window is still open. Even John Terry would be welcome.
We also need to protect ourselves and if players in their final year don’t extend their contracts then the need to be sold. Boyata has to go anyway but others like Dembele need to sign or be sold. The proceeds from these sales need to added to the transfer Budget. The recent Dafabet deal has given us options. We can bring planned expenditure forward.
Last nights game showed an improvement over the previous 2 games at least in attitude. We should push on from here
The Blackpool Gazette informs that the Blackpool Football Club Hotel Limited made a profit of £56,000 in season 2016/17. Hope ours it better than that!
Not sure which ‘His Masters Voice’ I am hearing. Is it that extra-terrestrial one envisioned in Stanislaw Lem’s novel of the same name? Or is it one originating in er Bermuda?