How many times have we been here? Miles ahead in the league, League Cup in the bag – or as often, only a minnow to take care off in the final, when some bright spark realises we’re only a handful of wins away from an elusive treble.
Celtic have had more than three great teams in the last 70 years, but anyone with a grasp of history will tell you that trebles are hard to get, particularly for a Celtic team who occasionally have to play teams at Hampden where outfield players are granted goalkeeper rights.
The ’67 team won the League Cup and Scottish Cup before anyone knew where that season would end. Rangers were still very much in the hunt for the league, while only the hearts of Celtic fans believed they would win the European Cup.
By 1969 the league title had become the formality it is now, as had the League Cup – Jock Stein won his first five League Cups as Celtic manager. A Scottish Cup final against Rangers was all that stood in the way of Celtic’s second treble. Big Billy, George Connelly and our own John Fallon with a man of the match performance destroyed our old, old-enemy 4-0.
Only a fool or a liar would tell you Martin O’Neill would overcome a +20 deficit in the league and take both cups in his first season in charge of a rag-tag looking Celtic in season 2000- 2001. It wasn’t so much winning the treble that made this special, or, indeed, the football we played, but the incredible leap forward we made between Martin’s appointment in May and that Glorious Six in late August.
Everyone was stunned, including Celtic fans, although not as much as some others. In a unguarded moment that season, one Rangers fan said to me, “I don’t think I can take any more of this”. All the old certainties came crashing down. A domination, which for the financially blind looked like it would continue for decades, was over.
Martin had the Midas Touch, for a while, anyway, and the treble was secured, but although his team continued to improve for a few seasons, that would be our last full house.
Brendan and the players are new to this. With faith in each other they may well be prone to getting ahead of themselves. There is a lot of work to do to win the Scottish Cup. Should we get past Queen of the South or the Rovers, the trip to Pittodrie will be difficult. And if we cope there, Tynecastle will be equally hostile in the quarter final.
So spare me talk of trebles until May.
Every pantomime needs a baddie and this year’s is Ally McCoist, who, against all precedent, finds his secret ballot activities for a resolution at Newco’s AGM public knowledge. It’s astonishing that we know how McCoist did or didn’t vote. In any other country, ‘news’ like this it would be a story in itself. It’s something private that we just shouldn’t know.
But when the clarion call goes up in Scotland, “”Who are these people” who failed to support us?”, the answer surely follows. Whatever reservations McCoist has about the current regime are his business until he says differently. Behind the headlines, there is little analysis about why he would jeopradise his reputation in order to inhibit King.
There’s the story.
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I shouldn’t be surprised but I have to say I have been caught off guard by newco.
Their hubris in their special dispensation meme knows no end.
Naively, I thought they might have shown some amount of, even at the crumb level, of some corporate humility.
Nope.
Same oldco same oldco.
SAINT STIVS 1029
It would be hilarious if they finagled access to the qualifiers and fell at the first hurdle.
Those games are always on the season ticket.
No income bar the pie stall,and all those outgoings.
Darn fine article about Henrik.
http://www.football365.com/news/portrait-of-an-icon-henrik-larsson
until the place can be thorough cleared, an thorough investigation into the whole sordid affair and a proper restructuring.
a dream I feel-
and expose the Old Firm .. Celtic will never allow this.
There is a big difference about using marketing terms like not using the Old Firm and getting on a plane to help negotiate thems a TV deal.
Our following is far too stupid and bigoted to catch on.
HH
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 30th November 2016 10:14 am
I agree that the precedent has been set. However, the landscape has significantly changed now.
I’m no accountant, but my understanding of the situation is that Rangers 2012 would need to raise just over £14.5M to meet the UEFA FFP rules to obtain a licence next season. That works only if the £14.5M would see the total injected over 3 season remain below £25.5M. So the soft loans over the past 3 seasons need to be less than £11M and it seems to be the case that they are approaching £10M already with another £2.9M needed before the season ends.
The only get-out clause I can see for them will be if any of the losses are for infrastructure and youth development; however, I don’t believe they would run to the £2-3M required to stop them reaching the threshold of £25.5M.
The other major issues for GASL is that he will have to disclose where the soft-loans have come from and they MUST be from the owners (i.e. shareholders) of the Club. If he has routed the money through in a nefarious manner then that will become evident. Even if it’s not illegal (here or in SA) he will need to prove that it is provided by a shareholder. Potentially difficult to do.
So it’s a real minefield and that is why their defeat on Resolution 11 is so important. Their ability to raise funds is seriously depleted because they have a limited pool to go to now. Even if anyone in the Square Mile had wanted to back them, they cannot do so now UNLESS major shareholders divest themselves of shares to another party to bring them into play; the downside is that it weakens the already strained hold they have over the club.
Difficult times indeed.
As a footnote, Brexit has made this significantly easier by reducing the value of sterling against the Euro, allowing them to lose £25M as opposed to around £22M so if currency rates change between now and April it would leave them far less room for manoeuvre.
If there are any FPP accountant types looking on, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
KTF
It has finally happened. Celtic have been linked with a player that has a youtube video that scores a 10 on the Maciej Zurawski scale. Ladies and gentleman, Cyle Larin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsngwxY1Yak
AWE_NAW_NO_ANNONI_OAN_ANAW_NOO on 30TH NOVEMBER 2016 10:50 AM
2 Questions.
1) Would you agree that one of the reasons the club should be pursuing Res 12, is because by not doing so they have failed in their duty to shareholders – one of those duties is to maximise revenue.
2) If the maximum tv deal that was being negotiated included Rangers(in whatever form), would they have failed in their duty by not including them?
Now I think there’s also a duty to the fans and at some point this has to trump any other responsibilities they may have, but I wonder if being a PLC makes this more awkward than we make allowances for.
Personally tv deal wise, I don’t believe the loss from dropping the OF notion would have been significant enough to make a difference, so the fans should have come first.
Just mulling it over tbh.
‘When in doubt, cheat your way out’
The Hun philosophy.
VFR800A8
I agree that the huns seem to boxed in,but tbh,they’ve been in worse situations than this.
They still survive.
A surprisingly large number of televised games-including broadcasts by a company which is banned from Ibrox,go figure-are core to this. But even that only reduces the loans required,it doesn’t come close to eradicating them.
The mob who are paying a monthly DD of £18.72 are keeping them in business. But for how long?
Rangers fans are like everyone else. Emotion comes into things,but common sense eventually prevails. There are of course exceptions to that,but not enough to keep them going. None of my mates cough up,for starters.
Well,none admit to it…
VFR,
lets wait and see … creative accountancy is an Old Firm speciality
Weeminger
1) Yes but surely adhering to the rules of the paid competition for the sake of sporting integrity outweighs anything fiscal. Well you would think so if they were not corrupt.
2) Rangers benefited. We actually lost A LOT of money. and negotiated by our C.E !!!!!! The smaller clubs gained very little. So I can´t quite round this one. It was all about keeping the TV companies on side and keeping the Old Firm in the picture literally.
HH
AWE_NAW_NO_ANNONI_OAN_ANAW_NOO on 30TH NOVEMBER 2016 11:13 AM
Just on part 2) – I think we lose a lot of money because we can’t do individual deals but as it stands with the collective deal, I think we’re in a situation whereby what’s best for us, also ends up being what’s best for them.
I want to see us break out of the collective deal. Even if it involved subsidies to the other teams from our share.
DAVIDOPOULOS @ 10 58.
Cyle Larin .
Fly a kite click bait sites in Italy have him being of interest to Lazio and Molde .
weeminger on 30th November 2016 11:16 am
separated (illegally) by four divisions and we still couldn’t be separated ? and the deal that was brokered took money from Timmy to pay Billy and negotiated by our Peter
come on if there was a time to do it it was then .. no appetite for it
HH
Davidopoulos 1058
Scores goals from everywhere,left or right foot and his head,seems to have it all. Except maybe pace,didn’t see much on show.
Also,he’s either the best since Henrik at finding space in a crowded area,or MLS defenders are rank.
AWE_NAW_NO_ANNONI_OAN_ANAW_NOO on 30TH NOVEMBER 2016 11:21 AM
On the whole, I totally agree but the devil’s in the detail.
Fear basically. I do think there was a lot of fear that the claims of collapse might come true. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.
No point worrying about it now, tbh, but I think a bit of bravery would have seen better decisions being made.
SOUTH OF TUNIS
Yes, I see that the outlets linking us to him are the same ones we tell everyone not to read. Probably nothing in this one at all. But I do enjoy some YouTube scouting.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Aye, but look at his experience on plastic pitches! He is ideal for CL qualifiers and away days at Kilmarnock and Hamilton…
Davidopoulos on 30th November 2016 9:11 am
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the “SFA source” is a peice of fiction designed to put pressure on the SFA when the time comes.
———
My thoughts exactly. Wonder if this “SFA source” might have the initials JT? :-)
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 30th November 2016 11:13 am
Positing the fact that this is anything to do with the Old Firm (sic) doesn’t really wash; this is an issue for RIFC alone, no-one else.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 30th November 2016 11:21 am
You are missing out the commercial factor from the Broadcasters; they wanted RIFC included because they get possibly more subscribers from their support than any (maybe all) other club than Celtic.
Commercial reality would most likely dictate that it wasn’t Celtic or any of the other clubs that sought their inclusion, but BT Sport and Sky.
KTF
weeminger on 30th November 2016 11:26 am
I said it at the time and ten years before it happened.
The Old Firm collective would never allow it to happen.
The devil is not in the detail. Far from it.
If it walks like a pig , squeals like a pig and shits like a pig it´s a pig
No amount of talk about faith in whatever subject will change that fact.
HH
VFR800 IS NOW A MONSTER 821 on 30TH NOVEMBER 2016 11:27 AM
And we could have been brave enough to say – “Nope, that’s no good, we don’t need your money. We’ll try elsewhere”
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 30th November 2016 11:12 am
This isn’t directly linked to survival, at least in the short term. They will be around for the next few seasons at least – the Gullibles will stay fork out.
However, their demise may be accelerated if they cannot access £2-3M a season form (short-lived) European competition. GASL more or less stated their ongoing fiscal viability was reliant on that model.
KTF
AWE NAW
Devil’s advocate on your suggestion.
On the surface,it sure seems that we took a hit on our deal to keep theirs alive.
But the big but…
The board of a PLC have a duty to maximise profits,and their computations will prove that their actions met that requirement.
I mentioned emotion in an earlier post. I wanted them dead,so did you,and most other Celtic supporters. But the board cannot-by law-act purely on emotion.
I think they acted against the views of the majority of people who are shareholders,but that they did not act against the company interests as they viewed them at the time.
Get-out clause,mibbe. But it’s pretty much ironclad.
Sevco starting to look like the skint guy in the casino who asks his mate for a tenner so he can win money and pay back the tenner.
BMCUW-the MLS games i watched this season,were Scottish Championship standard…..
The reality of this which the SFA SFPL don’t want to admit is that Sevco are not big enough to be big.
There is an arrogance of presumption that is at large in Planet Fitba that can’t see Sevco as a pedestrian struggler.
It’s like the perennial Casanova who canny accept that his carefree shaggin’ days are over cause he’s an old wrinkled gadgie.
!BADA BING!
You watched that?
The amount of football there is on the telly now,I can barely be arsed to watch anyone bar Celtic and whoever they’re playing. If anything of note happens in a match,quick Google and saved yourself 90 minutes of sifting sand in a dry creek.
How’s trix,big fella? You for a swift swally in the BV on Friday?
Neilson to MK Dons, last game tonight v huns
BMCUW-Going out on Friday,birthday weekend….
BPOI
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sV0lKD3KPsc
!BADA BING!
I’ve stopped celebrating them,mate. Don’t get me wrong,happy to celebrate everyone else’s,just not mine.
I’ve only had one birthday since I was 18. It was my 25th,about four years ago.
I’m due my 30th around 2030,coincidentally.
Hearts have had a very mixed season so far. I have no idea how the game will go tonight but a poor result for Sevco tonight means the pressure is really on against Aberdeen then Hearts again. They don’t like that pressure stuff.
Neither do Aberdeen to be fair…
I’m only 26.
(On Mars)
https://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/
WEEMINGER @ 10:37 AM,
No, I didn’t, long suspected but interesting coming straight from the horses mouth.
AWE_NAW @ 10:50 AM,
Well you are right, it may be a dream, however not impossible in my book.
Say HMRC’s position on the BTC is upheld, Craig Whyte writes his memiors and further cover ups/scandals are exposed or even an inslovency event for Newco. The pressure to clear up the mess might be irresistable.
The old firm dynamics have changed, while the model has still some “value” it is certainly tarnished.
Also the OF money is dwarfed by UCL money, the Glasgow Clubs can’t stay in touch with European standard Football via OF status.
The fact is the UCL is the only game in town. Either we will be competing or Newco.
Literally Glasgow Town isn’t big enough for the both of us…
If the Celtic Board are smart they’ll do all in their power to ensure Newco get no where near European status… and it ain’t us whose gonna leave.
Hail Hail
BPOI
Aye,the days of acting my age,not my shoe size,are gone.
I canny even use those styooooopit size 47,etc,European sizes any more unless I dress up like Mr Custard. My shoes would look like a small sailing ship…
Just before I go to work…
A few weeks back the golf club photo with the knighted one ,the cardie hun and hi my name’s Sally and a.n.other….. we are still here…( they were never away)
Sally ( and others ) wullnae back us.. and the smsm print about it …
As thunderbolt Newman would say…..
https://youtu.be/RTZoJ01FpD8
VFR800 is now a Monster 821 on 30th November 2016 11:27 am
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 30th November 2016 11:13 am
Positing the fact that this is anything to do with the Old Firm (sic) doesn’t really wash; this is an issue for RIFC alone, no-one else.
and the games Administrators therefore I disagree
yes Commercial reality is the reason for the 5 way agreement that we have never voiced concern about … and so we are back to corrupt and cheating. No debate
HH
Challenging news for Sevco, Old Firmers and profiteers on the Feast Day of St Andrew.
Bye the way have they coughed up for the damage at Celtic Park or their tickets for the game? Is their stadium safe?
Same club? Going for 55?
WWE/PLC.
wait&seeCFC
Offski
AWE NAW
Commercial reality may have been the reason for the 5-way agreement,but I seriously doubt that anyone had figures-in the short time available-to prove that commercial reality meant blocking the huns return to the league.
That commercial reality had its basis in company law,and companies were bound to act by it.
They now know it to be a fallacy at best. I genuinely doubt that there will be so little opposition to any new entity.
But that’s only my guess,mate. And yours is as good as mine,if somewhat less palatable.