My friends in Celtic, our first nine-in-a-row, coming days after the infamous European Cup semi-final defeat to the thugs of Atletico Madrid, brought some cheer to a muted week for Celtic fans. It was a new World Record, but the globe is too big a place for World Records to be meaningful to most people. Those honours count most in your own backyard.
Winning nine for a second time this year would, in normal circumstances, be an occasion to cherish; I bet the merchandise opportunities were a glint in the eye of the commercial department a year ago. When it eventually came, through an SPFL board vote, we did what we could to muster some cheer, but the world had much more to worry about than sporting records, even if nine was now only a Scottish landmark. The pandemic robbed some of far more than football glory, but it denied Celtic fans a special moment.
The football industry, like most entertainment businesses, is on its uppers, with consequences for every club. Aberdeen, with costs far lower than ours, talk about losing £1m per month, but with furlough arrangements, voluntary wage reductions of managerial and executive staff, deferments among players, the financial impact of the virus has yet to hit.
Celtic’s risk is three fold: there will be a reduction in revenue from match day activities, merchandising and commercial streams, while health and safety costs will increase, albeit not by a significant margin, between them, these two measures will cost at least £10m, possibly much more.
The third risk is the increased jeopardy seeds like Celtic face in European qualification. The first three rounds of qualification for the Champions and Europa Leagues are one-off games. The Europa playoff round is also single leg, whereas the Champions League playoff is over two legs. The danger is clear: have a Lincoln Red Imps away day and even an invincible treble winning team could be out of Europe altogether.
No European football and, all other things being equal, Celtic will make a loss of several tens of millions of pounds next season. Europa League group stage participation will see that loss curtailed, but not by much. Reach the Champions League and, for a period, we will be one of the financially strongest clubs in Europe at a time when perhaps 75% of clubs will be underwater and keen to trade players.
So what can we do about it? It is generally difficult to overhaul your team before the early qualification rounds. Paying €5m for a goalkeeper is a good sign of intent, but it could also be interpreted as acknowledgement by the board of the stakes at play. Years of good leadership put Celtic in a strong position going into this crisis, now we are splashing millions in July, when the keeper who started last season’s qualifiers is still on the books; anxiety levels must be different than the corresponding time last season.
Some clubs with options will use this crisis to trade well and improve their team beyond what would be achievable in normal times. Celtic have options, but goodness, a bad night in the likes of Gibraltar would change all that.
I deliberately used the word ‘trading’ not just buying. Selling wisely is as much a part of building successful football teams as buying is. Manage your assets (take me back to 2004), get the good ones on long-term deals, if this is not possible, sell them at the top of the curve. There is no obligation for football fans to care about finances, so if it’s not your thing, that’s ok, but my Article of fFith is ‘Teams which fail to manage their assets perform significantly worse than those who do’.
Understand your place in the food chain; let others get emotional when players (KT) or managers (BR) declare this or that, then leave. It’s football, we have seen it all before. Be unsentimental in the transfer market, trade well and you will outperform those who simply hope players love them back.
Our financial outlook over the next 12 months is so varied, it is not even worth speculating what will happen, but this is not your first season as a Celtic fan and you will know how to interpret the events as they fall over the next two months.
“Be unsentimental”, you say? Try that. Try getting 10-in-a-row out of your head when planning for this season. If you can, you have icier fluids in your veins than I have. Whatever ails the world, Celtic have to find the fortitude to deliver 10-in-a-row, but there are risks.
If you remember this corresponding article from a year ago, I said our chances of nine-in-a-row was no better than 50%. While we were comfortably ahead when the league was called, a home defeat on 29 December opened the door to a challenger who bossed us for the second time that month. I could write a book on what went wrong with Newco after the break, but they were more than capable of beating Hearts, Kilmarnock and Hamilton. Had they done so, instead of losing and dropping two points at home to Aberdeen and another two to St Johnstone in Perth, they would have been champions when the votes were counted.
Winning leagues is seldom easy and Newco’s biggest problem last season was that they did not have a manager or players who had come through a campaign and delivered the title. There is institutional knowledge at Celtic Park and Lennoxtown. They know how to handle defeats – think back to Steven Gerrard’s post-match “bottle” comments about his players in defeat. Reversals soon become crises, dressing room resourcefulness disappears, while the champions scent blood.
Newco know the league was lost before Covid struck but they also know they came closer than the final league table indicates. They had a good opportunity and they still do. As things stand, I don’t think their chances are as good as they were a year ago, but I would put the probability of the title going to Ibrox next year at 30%.
Several things temper my confidence: this is the last season I expect Newco to be close to Celtic. They have made an operational loss every year since they were formed (and an actual loss if you overlook a remarkable IP revaluation). This cannot go on, they are out of road on Financial Fair Play, and while Celtic contemplate a significant potential loss, Newco do not have the possibility of Champions League football and will find it impossible to break even and remain competitive. Their outlook is very bleak and they face a significant retrenchment after this season; whatever resources they have will be deployed now.
Teams have a shelf life. In the 60 years following the War, there seemed to be a time-limit of two seasons on a title winning team. Two-in-a-row was achieved 11 times in that era, but nine of those champions lost the following season. In the other two ocassions, the settled winning team went on to achieve nine successive titles. Celtic’s Gordon Strachan and Rangers’ Walter Smith spoiled this symmetry by successively winning the title in three successive seasons.
There must be reasons why three-in-a-row was so difficult to achieve. My suspicion is that any one team has around two years at the top and that winning sides are not broken up as quickly as they should be. There is also a reason why, when three titles were achieved, it so readily turned into nine. Perhaps the disruption of reworking a losing team three successive summers brought counter-productive turmoil. We need to acknowledge that champions have a shelf life and history indicates this fact is usually recognised too late.
There is also the ‘What next?’ issue. Rangers should have had more than enough to see off the challenge from Celtic in 1997-98, but early in the season the manager and some senior players were looking beyond life at Rangers. Focus slipped and never recovered. The ‘Stay for 10’ sentiment has kicked around Celtic for years now. ‘What next?’ is a question some at the club will inevitably contemplate. This is a watershed season for many at Celtic and there is nothing we can do to pretend otherwise.
There is also the potential for the pandemic to impact the new season. Isolated lockdown and illness could severely affect any individual club. If the virus gets into the Celtic squad, we will not win the league. I know the club are vigilant on this issue, but all it takes is one infected opponent, or a careless Celtic player, and your first team could be unfit for months.
If a second wave comes, it is possible next season will also be curtailed. A slow start to the season could lead to the league being called against you. At no point can we be comfortable if we have ground to make up.
All empires fall and these Celtic players are competing in the rarest air. They deserve enormous credit, as do those who support their work. Whatever lies ahead of us this season, 10-in-a-row, two Scottish Cups and a fifth consecutive treble, or tears and despair, this will be a season you refer to for the rest of your life. Enjoy it, and enjoy Green Day for the Foundation on Sunday, you wear something green and make a donation.
Take care, we are not through this yet.
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Huns looked average today. They are a better team defending & hitting on the break,
Main thing is we we win by a few goals tomorrow.
BBC got the league table up already, bless them😱😵
Not impressed by either team bearing in mind that sevco have had several preseason games and Aberdeen only one, I believe.
Fireworks in Drumsagard …huns have won a game,fekn monkey bastards.
Huns are what Huns were..some neat footballers, hoping to break at speed but if the team sits in they look ponderous. Morelos looks enormous and disinterested….
We need to recognsie they will prbably be necj and necj by the time we meet and then we need to learn from past exchanges as they raise their game against the big teams.
Bring on the champions tomorrow.
p.s Sky TV mirroring Rangers TV can overinflate their capabilities too.
Aberdeen played first half like a first pre season friendly – slow and disorganised. Second half they were the better team but nothing in final 3rd.
Huns wasting time against 10 men in the end says it all. Only used 1 sub with a European tie in Germany midweek so not a lot of confidence about the bench. A lot of their players dropped off towards the end too.
And the Buffalo looked slow and overweight. If Lille or anyone else see that match back they should keep their money.
Nothing for us to worry about either on that display
That was a blur of mediocrity. Sevco competent but that’s all they needed to be. Aberdeen as bad as I have ever seen them, there were times when they looked like a subbueteo team, all standing waiting for the guy with the ball to do something.
If Aberdeen are leading the rest of the pack then this season is going to be all about not slipping up in games against the likes of Livingston and winning the head to head with der Hun.
Aberdeen with nothing upfront so was hoping for a 0-0 at best. The goal killed the game – very poor defending.
I’m amazed P67 thinks Sevco have a 30% chance of winning this league. They’re poor and that bench today was garbage.
Bang the goals in tomorrow, Celtic. Get top and stay top.
Good assessments of the Sevco match. They are bang average, Aberdeen are a disgrace. New wonder kids Hagi and Kent would not even get on our bench but the have a new one is some guy they got from Wigan…..
as I said at half time slippery has thems shouting and screaming for every throw-in , tackle etc. and they are getting the decisions you just have to look at the sending off 50/50 tackle both players with feet up to make sure they don’t get hurt and the dons player makes contact with the ball , thems player lets out a scream and gets the opposition player sent off , no contact with any part of thems player but only the ball , slippery has them well coached in how to influence the officials , thems player gets up nothing the matter and has a drink of water and play resumes with 10 man dons.
Hagi wouldn’t get in our B team btw.
HOTSMOKED 1.44
That was really funny laugh out loud clip brilliantly dubbed, thanks for sharing.
McCann says that Morelos has “bulked up” and it’s all muscle!
lol
I take it everyone on here agree the Huns are our main challengers (not dismissing the pandemic) but Alfredo the not so great has scored ONE league goal in 2020 … think a dodgy header against Hamilton in the closing minutes of a 4-0 victory … imagine Edouard had those stats, or even the Griff who had been out for so long …. we might slag the media or really dislike their (so called) reporting … but in my opinion “our” media are brilliant and probably one of the biggest factors in why the Huns and their fans fall for the same shoite season in season out … long may it continue :-)
I saw nothing today to make me any less confident about seeing 10 in a row
Aberdeen were awful, and Huns only marginally better.
It’s in our hands. 🍀
Summary : Aberdeen were a disgrace, but it’s still 3 points for the huns.
We need to treat every game as a must win, especially when we don’t have Hearts to take points of der hun this season.
HH.
Thull git less than 4 for Fat Charlie…………
( listen lhads, from now on we should go easy – he’s obviously goat a lot on his plate!)
:0
<4.
What game was McInnes watching, talking a load of shite
Didn’t watch the match but in my opinion it is too early to make assessments of players or teams.
BBC report
Rangers got the Scottish Premiership season under way with a surprisingly comfortable win over Aberdeen thanks to Ryan Kent’s strike at Pittodrie.
There was little evidence of the much-discussed intense rivalry between the sides until home defender Andrew Considine was sent off late on.
The hosts looked particularly subdued by the requirement for empty stands.
In a match of little goalmouth action, Kent curled the ball home from Alfredo Morelos’ 21st-minute through ball.
But it was no more than Rangers deserved given their near total domination of the first half.
Reaction & as it happened
Who impressed at Pittodrie?: Vote in the Player Rater
Morelos’ participation amid interest from Lille dominated pre-match interest, but it was the absence through injury of Aberdeen strikers Sam Cosgrove and and Curtis Main that was most significant in the early stages.
Young stand-in Bruce Anderson was superbly marshalled by a central defence into which summer signing Leon Balogun slotted imperiously to leave lively Aberdeen support man Craig Bryson a frustrated figure.
Rangers controlled possession without threatening a goal until a clever chest flick from Ianis Hagi found Morelos on the half-way line and the striker slipped it neatly through for Kent to beat goalkeeper Joe Lewis one on one.
It took the home side 28 minutes to force Allan McGregor into an easy save from Funso Ojo – and 59 to win their first corner – before Considine’s straight-leg challenge on Scott Arfield damaged their chances further.
Without displaying the intensity of a side desperate to prevent Celtic securing a 10th consecutive league title, Steven Gerrard’s visitors had done enough despite Ash Taylor’s fine goal-line clearance to prevent Joe Aribo extending the lead in the closing minutes.
Papajoe55
You`re welcome and I am glad you liked it.
Headline on Newsnow
A Briton who lost his penis has had a new one grown on his arm.
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Must be murder on a warm day having to wear long sleeves.
Newco petition for the league to end now being drafted , as other games kick off 😁😁😁😜
McInnes is lucky that this game was played with no fans etc…Any sensible Dons fan would have been booing his team before walking out at half time ?
I accept that his two main Forwards didnt play…but my God they were totally toothless and made the Huns look like Brazilians.
HH
HOTSMOKED
Brilliant.
Bognorbhoy
” … superbly marshalled by a central defence into which summer signing Leon Balogun slotted imperiously …”
I`ll be surprised if such a wondeful defence concedes a single goal this season.
Timhorton
Glad you liked it , too. I am still smiling :-))
the only team that can stop us doing 10 in a row is Celtic , if all players approach every league game in the correct manner/attitude with total commitment no one will get near us.
I think I would like Dundee Utd to get another goal and a two goal victory today to knock Stevies Stars off the top of the league on day 1 :-)
Hot Smoked
Balogun slotted imperiously …
imperious[ im-peer-ee-uhs ]
adjective
domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing:
an imperious manner; an imperious person.
urgent; imperative:
imperious need.
Sounds hunnish
Gftb
They would be ahead alphabetically if it stayed 1-0
Ireland struggling in the cricket 67 for 4
.
INIQUITOUSIV
Good point well made
Gene 3.23pm
Although like liquidation they might just ignore the alphabet as well :-)
Re the imperious signing from Wigan.
Little known facts, currently with his 10th club in 9seasons. Has been with no one of note ( including his present club)
228 first team appearances in 11 years.
No winners medals.
But, shortbread slavering over his performance!
‘Twas ever thus.
Hail Hail
Stay Safe
The Hibees knock the Huns off the top of the league … (for now :-)
Hehehe gftb, good news.