My friends in Celtic, the third domestic trophy returned to the boardroom earlier this month. We sit 14 points clear at the top of the league table, and with 20 games remaining, you can get 20/1 on Newco for the title and 750/1 on Aberdeen. Yet again, Celtic are not so much a sporting favourite, than an investment asset (this is not gambling advice!).
We have nine points after six games in the Champions League and could confirm qualification for the knockout round next month. The club reported record turnover for last season of £124.6m, with £77m in the bank.
Good performances in Europe contributed significantly to this calendar year seeing only two defeats in all competitions: a random 10-man loss at Hearts and an absolute drubbing at Dortmund. 2024 is the year that delivered more major trophies than defeats. This has never happened before and surely will never happen again.
The summer transfer window saw £31.2m spent on in-coming players, with a new high watermark of £11m splurged on Arne Engels. How easily we moved on from the loss of Jota and Matt O’Riley.
A new transfer window opens tomorrow, so before the madness gets underway again, recall the angry and entitled writers who despaired all summer at Celtic’s transfer activity. Their form is as consistent as Cameron Carter-Vickers, so you will hear from them again soon. Transfer business is skewed to the end of the window and is more complicated than many would have you believe.
2025 opens at Ibrox, where it is seldom easy. However, a Celtic defeat would not convince any of the 50,000 attendees that their ‘heroes’ are capable of catching the champions.
In February we had slipped behind Newco and were playing poorly. I was concerned the title would be lost, Newco would earn a Champions League lifeline and Celtic would plunge into disarray.
As it turned out, the Premiership, Scottish Cup and League Cup were all decided in pivotal games against Newco: 3-3 draw at Ibrox, the 1-0 Scottish Cup Final win and the penalty decider in the League Cup Final. All of these games could have gone the other way, and for a period, looked as though they would.
It is to Brendan Rodgers eternal credit that he knows how to win tight games. Marginal differences in the game at Ibrox were enough to change Scottish football history – and not just for last season. With £77m in the bank, Celtic would have coped with a second place finish, albeit, there would have been a trauma. Newco, however, were devastated by the consequences of only taking a point that day. They celebrated the passing of their last chance.
We are in the fortunate position to have a manager, players and entire club who collectively have the corporate experience to get the job done. As long as Celtic perform as they have been recently, we will dominate in Scotland and give a reasonable account of ourselves in Europe.
Some of us lived through the 90s, when Rangers were out of sight and Celtic were under-resourced. Always. We won the league in 1998, due to a random series of events, including signing a winger from Feyenoord, but that was a one-off. The next two seasons were a return to more of the same.
The rebirth of Celtic under Martin O’Neill had a compelling side story: the corporate disaster zone that was Rangers under the bombast of David Murray and his non-execs. They lost £35m in one season; Martin found himself battling against a dying empire.
Rangers acted as though their domination was guaranteed. Even our 1998 triumph was handled interestingly by Murray, saying “9 out of 10, not good enough”. The seeds of their downfall were writ large over their accounts and those of Murray International Holdings, for anyone who cared to read them.
Their domination was so overwhelming, it was almost impossible to get anyone to listen to reality back then. So let’s be clear:
Domination is good.
Generation(s) of Domination is great.
Ignore the fundamentals of business and you sow the seeds of downfall.
Celtic are successful domestically because we recruit well, we develop players well and we have elite level managers, coaches and sports scientists. There is, however, a gap between where we are and where we could be.
Brugge spent around half of what we spent on Arne on their most expensive summer signing and spent less overall than Celtic (in absolute and net terms). They have not and never will spend £9m on a player from the Norwich City bench.
Champions League qualification is coming your way quickly and we will be up against teams who work the way we did to find and develop Kuhn, Bernardo, Johnstone, Jota and our Japanese contingent. Celtic excelled in that space for over two years.
Looking back on Ange Postecoglou’s time, recruitment now appears to be his strong suit (he has no such controls at Spurs). Brendan is more of a master tactician. If we continue to scout players Brendan has watched or worked with, we will decline.
The players we sell for a profit in 2027 and 2028 should be signing targets in 2025. They need to have development potential and eventually leave a price several times higher. If we get this wrong, it is the chink in the armour our opponents need to become relevant again.
Our operating expenses for the year to 30 June, which excludes transfer fees, were £105m. That’s the cost of doing business at Celtic currently. You don’t need me to tell you what happens to our profitability if we fail to reach the Champions League.
We are not Oldco Rangers; the financial reserves are there to prevent a cataclysmic retrenchment in the event we run at a loss, but keeping the club profitable, improving the player trading model (good though it is, it still has a long way to go) and maintaining salary levels consistent with our income spectrum will determine if you ever get to celebrate 10-in-a-row.
No harm to Real Madrid, who have normalised winning the Champions League, but Celtic fans have the best role in football. Despite being pushed all the way, we get to win so many trophies, achieve our own level of joys in Europe, with remarkably few god days.
This was not always the case and it took God-level strategic planning to achieve. It cannot last forever, but a quarter of the way through this century there is no sign of a sunset. The 2024 title win was genuinely pivotal. Congratulations to everyone at the club who played a role in delivering yet again, often in the face of absurd hostility.
Have a great New Year, Paul.
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Happy New Year / gesundes neues Jahr, everyone!
Talking of health, the Sevco team are dropping like flies :-D
https://x.com/CelticFC/status/925052168092180481?t=CuByolb9uAJHxoRDK6-lGA&s=19
Maestro
Made up stuff
It goes from bad to worse
First it was Tavernier now Butland oot !
Internal bleed and spent the night in hospital. Butland that is.
Nae disrespect….hope he’s okay.
Maestro- check the date
The Butland story is only from one source , albeit the source is quoted on other sites.
Could be a squirrel so not taking it as true just yet.
Gene …Bada ….check the shirt and date 🤣👏😀
James McCarthy contract up end of season.
Bizarre CSC.
the long wait is over- the rags also reporting Butland out
I know I’ll get pelters for this, but when I saw him, I rated him, Holm.
Must be an attitude thing, but he’ s tough and he can play, imo
Off for a dram
KINGLuBO
The Darts is very very good today
Just watching Quenns of the New Year from last night…..
Oh dear !!!!
Absolute guff …..
I wouldn’t be keen on Tierney coming back at all..
Happy new year to you all and all yer loved ones far and near. Melbourne Mick, get them boots back on son😂👍👍. When ma leg heals I’ll be knocking doon 11-12 yr old academy soccer players and telling them yer getting beat by an auld man with artificial hips but no artificial talent 💚💚💚🇮🇪
Age is just a number!!! God bless all
Sean
A happy New Year to abody.
Health. Happiness and Peace.
Who mentioned Squirrels. If my dog reads this she’ll go nuts. Its a hard job defending tje house from pesky Squirrels.
HH to all.
MAESTRO re: The Darts
Top stuff for sure!
https://www.womensaid.org.uk/what-we-do/football-united/
know any ghirls married to the you know who ? let’s look after them tomorrow
!!BADA BING!! on 1ST JANUARY 2025 3:12 PM
the long wait is over- the rags also reporting Butland out
——
BB
Happy to be corrected but as far as I can see they are all just quoting the original source – the Rangers Review.
I’ve just seen
‘Stick Dessers in goal tomorrow. He’s brilliant at preventing them.’ on tiktok 😂
Daily Ranger reporting it as well.
Reserve keeper (with the UFB sounding name) had worst save rate in league last year when with Murderwell.
Aipple
They’re just quoting the Rangers review so still only one source.
As I said above – could be bollox.
Wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow mornings headlines are “ Rangers handed massive boost in OF
derby with Butland making a surprise recovery !!!! “ or some other hysterical crap.
THE LONG WAIT IS OVER re: same source
Ah, OK. Didn’t read article, I should know better.
Hoopy new year everyone.
TBH, I really don’t know if the news about Tavpen and Butland is good or bad.
They’ve both been honking so it will be difficult for their replacements to be much worse.
Butland out due to spending time in hospital with bleeding, that isn’t a disadvantage to them as he is worth a couple of goals a game to us.
Does look official now that Butland is out
I know he’s prone to a blunder , especially down to his left , but he’s also pulled off some pretty decent saves
against us.
https://x.com/RangersFC/status/1874489557518893177?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Talking to Kuhn re contract extension
Butland starts every game so they’ll be weaker without him. However, I can’t imagine the difference will be noticeable. Butland has been awful.
Posted in August 2021!
https://x.com/tirnaog_09/status/1430050789213581339
The more things change eh?
Just back from Vale and another disappointing 0-0
On top in the first half and at least made a few chances. Second half was more equal.
Desperately need a goal scorer
https://cdn.celtsarehere.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2018-02-15T220311Z_65828281_RC16F7352250_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-EUROPA-CEL-ZSP-1920×1258.jpg
sorry to spoil the party :
https://substack.com/inbox/post/153732048?r=bc5xc&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
I’ve watched all these derby games in the recent past in a relaxed state knowing we have the quality, particularly in attack to be successful and of course not forgetting the Brendan Rodgers factor. Thursday will be no different wiith a fourteen point cushion and I expect Celtic will play their best football however they must guard complacency.
During the holiday i happened to watch podcasts from the Canary islands, I’ve often wondered bout what its like there at Christmas. Sure it has the weather but apart from that it looks the most souless place to be at that time of year. Little or no evidence of Christmas , lights, decorations seasonal music etc and lots of the restaurants are closed on the big day.
People obviously go to get away from the pressure and have little or no interest in Christmas season and fair play to them, but never for me.
Hankray Christmas (25th) is celebrated in Spain but 6th January (Feast of the Epiphany) is a bigger celebration.
Evening all.
A wee tune for our Bhoy’s tomorrow.
The Clash – Death Or Glory
https://youtu.be/zdIdv2ReeDY?si=MTOIkOcWl-rQSKz1
Terrible stuff this morning in the Big Easy.
Spent St Patrick’s day there on a couple of occasions and those streets are packed. Seems the perp was ex US military. The footage is just terrifying.
FBI saying they do not believe he acted alone.
Slightly bizarre TV interview there with the state Senator in New Orleans.
Dog at my side and darts coming back on.