News (confirmed by his club) that our next Champions League opponents Juventus have opened negotiations with Athletic Blibao striker Fernando Llorente, ahead of a possible free-transfer move in the summer, appears to put recent fantasy stories about Gary Hooper supposedly moving to Turin in the correct context. Liverpool, who several newspapers also ‘reported’ were interested in Hooper, signed a different striker this week.
The relentless pillage of Celtic player’s names used to sell newspapers is wearisome, probably more so to those at the club hoping to convince Hooper, and Victor Wanyama, to sign new contracts. Chances of re-signing Hooper if he thinks Juventus and Liverpool are about to bid for him: 0%. Chances if it’s relegation battlers from England: considerably higher. I see a new front has been opened today on Beram. We have to ensure another 28 days of this nonsense.
Llorente is a current Spanish international and played a huge part in Atheltic’s march to the Europa League final last season, but I would not be too concerned if Juventus tried to secure him this month. Moving to Turin is notoriously challenging for strikers and Llorente has never been based outside of the Basque country.
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Good morning friends from a damp but still very unseasonally mild East Kilbride
Good morning Timland.
A visit to the ticket office today
wish me luck.
izzy, if your reading back, get my e-mail address from Paul.
I too, am in the Paisley area and work in the Electrical industry.
PC67
PARAVANECCHIO67
You’re some man-must be a family thing,haha!
Next time I see Izzy on here,I will draw his attention to your offer.
HH.
……….zzzzzzz
……zzzzz
Joe Cole signs for West Ham on a free transfer earning £60k a week (not including a hefty pay up of his contract at Anfield)
A goal every 8 games for Liverpool
What a bargain eh?
Ten Men Won The League
Lets face it…he made his reputation doin wee fancy flicks here and there and chipped in with the very odd goal
Morning all. Quiet but dreary today. No sign of thon fabled big yellow object in the sky. There hasn’t been for weeks now.
TMWTL
Joe Cole should wear a mask … Reputed £4m pay off from Liverpool, goodness knows how much of a signing on fee at The Hammers and £60k per week
Footballing world gone mad
FFM 2331
Good Morning. Long time lurker, first time poster. If reconstruction goes ahead as currently suggested with SPL 1 and of 12 teams each at the end of this season, surely this cannot include any team which may – or may not – be promoted from the 4th tier to the 3rd tier since that team would not be in the top-rated 24 teams in the country? Or is that too simplistic? On the TV coverage front, Celtic should be at the forefront of getting rid of the current Sky/ESPN contract as it pays peanuts. Scottish football should market itself, or we should participate only on our own terms – it’s not as if we couldn’t afford to do that in our current financial circumstanced. Another lever which has not been mentioned so far as I am aware is to decline to take part in either – or both – the Scottish Cup and the League Cup? Do these competitions not require clubs to actually apply to participate rather than it be a default situation? Just a few thoughts on a blustery Friday morning to be going on with. HH
where is everyone today, are they all at Ross Hall?
Joe Cole has done very little since in his footballing career for about the last 4 years, his deal at West Ham shows what a desperate industry football can be. The fact Liverpool were willing to pay up 4m of his outstanding pay to offload him didn’t seem to register with West Ham when considering the salary he is currently worth.
However you can hardly claim West Ham have ever been sensible in the transfer market, this is the club who paid 10m for Demba Ba in January of one year and allowed him a relegation release clause which saw him leave for free 6 months later.
Laughed my head off in the supermarket earlier reading Keech Jackson’s hilarious attempts in trying to gloss over SevCo being knocked back again for Ryan McGowan
That’s Murphy + McGowan knocked them back with possibly Cammy Bell doing likewise
Hysterical
Friesdorfer
I agree that the current TV deal for Scottish football is barely worth the paper it’s written on and that it behooves Scottish football’s soi-disant leader to put at least as much energy into promoting the game here as they have put into saving the Deady Bears.
The main problem, as far as I can tell, is that as only a pretendy country, Scotland only has pretendy broadcast media. In most European countries, it’s usually the national broadcaster that puts money into broadcasting the national game. The closest we come is BBC Alba, whose coverage I am enjoying, but showing delayed transmission of one game a week is a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s and the world has moved on.
Does anyone know what the SNP proposals are for setting up a national television broadcaster if they win the referendum? I suppose I could look it up, but I do not recall any mention of this in the rubbish debates I have heard on the potentially very interesting subject of independence so far.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
When are you back in Gods own country?….. maybe catch that pint we spoke about way back.
Why did The Rangers not sign Joe Cole? We know Super Sally has that massive War Chest to spend …
gordon_jbackingneil lennon
His massive chest has slipped down to his belly – obviously
Friesdorfer – Welcome to the blog.
I recall some mutterings about the reconstruction plans wherein it was suggested that the entry to SPL2 would be on fotballing merit alone, killing the suggestion of a fast track SPL2 entry for sevco.
Peter Lawwell sat in on the last negotiations with Sky in the summer along with neil doncaster, when the current deal was ratified following the death of rangers. His remit would have been limited however the negotiations could clearly not be left to neil doncaster alone who had already stated publically (in his desparation to get sevco voted into the SPL) that without rangers the SPL TV deal was worth only 2m per year, thus severely compromising the SPL’s negotiating position with Sky. This man should never be allowed near a contract negotiation again.
SonsOfErin
Joe Cole has had worse days! He is no Keiron Dyer though. That boy has made millions out of the game and not even played 100 games!
LB
C_F
Happy New Year.
The status of BBC in Scotland post a Referendum Yes vote is undefined. Although there are an assortment of suggestions, there has been no policy commitment. It’s status currently, with regard to the distribution of TV Rights budget, is scandalous though.
BBC considers Scottish Football to be of Regional interest only, while English Football is considered to be of National Importance. Accordingly, funding for broadcasting rights for Scottish Football is drawn from the £100M BBC Scotland budget, while funding for English Football is drawn from the £400M Central Sports Rights budget.
The BBC Scotland budget will reduce to £85M over the coming 4 years, from which all BBC Scotland output, whether TV, Radio or Internet, News, Drama or Sport, must be funded.
The English Premiership is considered to be a ‘Crown Jewel’ by the BBC, “iconic and treasured”, a sporting event of such importance that it “brings the Nation together”. The EPL is bracketed with events such as Olympic Games, 6 Nations Rugby and World Cup Football.
Thus the BBC justifies paying Alan Hansen considerably more to present Match of the Day than it pays SPL for all TV, Radio and Internet Broadcasting Rights.
The funding for EPL TV rights – £60M per annum – is drawn from the BBC’s central budget. Were it drawn from the budget provided to English Regional broadcasting, the BBC simply could not afford the EPL.
The following article from BBC Director of Sport Barbara Slater is rather instructive: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2012/05/match_of_the_day_heads_towards.html
I hope to have more on this dichotomy in due course, and will keep you posted.
TBB
Apologies Keiron Dyer has played 404 games in all competitions since 1996.
That works out at 25 games a year in the last 16 years.
LB
Re the Wonga ads – I posted on this a few days ago. For those who didn’t see that post, CQN supplied a list of advertisers we didn’t want on the site. When we did this we had never heard of Wonga. They will be added to the list Monday when normal business resumes.
winning captains
I saw that post.
Some people just don’t read back and probably like to complain anyway.
It’s what they do.
WG
oldtim was asking about delivery days for the annual.
I would hope this transfer window is quiet, a few players on the periphery moved on, a couple of the youngsters out on loan and maybe one or two players coming in.
TBB
Happy new year to you and yours too.
Thanks very much for that information.
The only consolation I can see is that it gives BBC Scotland less budget to give to Sevco for any cup ties that come along. If the BBC Scotland budget also funds BBC Alba, at least some of the budget is going to good use. BBC Scotland’s coverage of the SPL (radio and pathetic TV highlights) is a waste of money. The whole thing is abysmally amateurish. If you gave a scout group or a bunch of sixth-years a week to prepare they could probably come in and do a better job.
If independence goes through, though, surely BBC Scotland will cease to exist. Therefore Scotland will need a new broadcaster. Maybe their first move would be to re-hire all the BBC Scotland muppets that are currently wasting the budget you talk about, but you can only live in hope. Maybe they’ll bring in a proper team to run it, from Germany or somewhere. Or put Mark Daly in charge.
Has “Stairheid” Rami arrived at Ross Hall yet?
Good morning from a cloudy Manchester. Three days into my month of no alcohol for the Cancer Research Dryathon. Going great feel better already now for the weekend. Helping that it is the winter break so no need for a few cans while watching the Celtic match.
natknow – “we welcome the paper-chase…”
10:35 on 4 January, 2013
Has “Stairheid” Rami arrived at Ross Hall yet?
According to SSN he is getting medical now. Is his nickname Larry?
Celtic_First
BBC Sports Scotland think Chick Young is a journalist. That says everything about what they know.
I would rather watch Lineker and co talk about our matches in an extended MOTD than listen to Rob Mclean and his never ending Sevco friendly panel discuss matches.
Never watch it now anyway but do catch glimpses.
I think the Radio show on a Saturday led by the excellent Richard Gordon is decent and the people they have at the games is good too until they go to Chick. The guy does not have a clue. Derek Ferguson although coming across as a bit thick at times is very fair and has surprisingly impressed me. He told a lovely story about his first derby match on BBC Scotland one night. I will try and recount for anyone who didn’t hear it.
Derek had played in his first Glasgow derby at aged 16 or 17 and his dad who didn’t give him too much advice or grief after matches was waiting for him to emerge after the match.
Once they were in the car heading him he asked his son how he thought he had played. Derejk explained to his dad that the nerves had got the better of him at the start but one of the more expereinced players on the pitch kept him in check. He kept encouraging him to get on the ball and take his time, take wee touches, relax and try and enhoy it. Derek explained to his dad that this guy talked him through the whole match and really helped him cope with the whole atmosphere and occassion. His father clearly delighted that someone had helped his son through the match and helped him cope with a very tough atmosphere enquired who this player was. Derek said ‘You are not going to believe this it was Tommy Burns’.
He could not speak high enough of Tommy and it was a genuine and heartfelt moment on the radio from Derek Ferguson a player I thought had massive potential but not particularly a guy I liked. He said that he made many mistakes in his life and spent a lot of time trying to get his brother Barry to avoid the mistakes he had made. Have a lot of time for the guy after that. He appears to be a decent lad.
Anyway, BBC Scotland is still rubbish!
LB
The Battered Bunnet,
Makes sense from a tv point of view – there is an audience for the EPL throughout the UK but the SPL is only of interest in Scotland.
Of course an independent Scotland would have a sooper dooper sports budget and a range of quality programmes and presenters who actually know the rules and pies and bovril for everyone. At least I think that’s what wee Nicola said.
I think the idea of Scotland voting YES for seperation is so far removed from the reality that it’s a pointless having a discussion about the carve up of the BBC.
About 1/3 of the population are seperatists, hardly changed in generations, will be the same next year as last year.
Can we drop the politics now please?
C_F
Yip, Alba is funded from the BBC Scotland budget, taking around 15% of the available funds for Scottish broadcasting.
I may be a discordant voice on here, but (excepting the Jim Traynor situation) I think BBC Scotland’s radio coverage is excellent.
The TV coverage though is quite appalling. For example, we had the combined expertise of 30 year old out of work goalkeeper Craig Gordon and 31 year old Dumbarton manager Ian Murray to provide insight on the match highlights provided last night.
The match highlights themselves, barring the first ‘featured’ 5 minute game, do not even include the team lines, and the programme is presented by the doleful and dolorous Rob McLean from a cardboard box set.
Since BBC last broadcast SPL matches nationally (2002) it has reduced the value paid for SPL rights by half 3 times in succession. Next time the contract is due to be renewed, if the BBC came back with an offer of a bag of beans – and they might well – SPL would probably accept it.
googybhoy ♥ Celtic
Well done on the booze front.
Is his nickname Larry? Too early in the morning for me mate – you need to explain that to me!!
I dont like Clyde as much as anybody but at least you can actually physically listen to its podcast if you want,for the life of me I Ive tried the celtic shows linked earlier,Ive had the spreaker app too and still I cant tune in,if ghuys like Tommy in Glasgow want bhoys listening to his phone in,along with other sites they need to have an easily accessible podcast,Celtic Underground is one of the very few who have an easy enough format to tune into or maybe Im doing something wrong?
The Battered Bunnet
BBC would be better with Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove presenting the highlights with some of the guests they get on Off the ball and make it a banter filled show with the highlights. Rob Mclean would put you off watching fitba. He should be relegated to bowls coverage.
LB
googybhoy,
abstinence is good for the liver, not necessarily the soul :)))))
Good luck with your quest…..
Do you have a link that one can donate?? to the Dryathon??
I could not manage that challenge myself, but would support those who can…..
HH