My friends in Celtic, tomorrow we raise the league championship flag, both domestic cups are in the Celtic Park boardroom and within six weeks, we will compete in the Champions League group stage.
This summer, so far, has seen the departure of one automatic first choice player and one occasional starter. Five players arrived, while we extended the contracts of Callum McGregor, Kyogo and Daizen Maeda. The most disruptive event of the year was the departure of manager Ange Postecoglou; replaced by the prodigal Brendan Rodgers.
We need to talk about the dirty little subject. I usually have a good handle on what net cash figure to expect from the Celtic accounts. They trend and vary based on previous cup runs and European progress. Right now, it is difficult to know for sure. Last term, Champions League income returned for the first time in five years, we ‘sold’ a manager and post-yearend sold Jota for £25m, although payments may be staggered and there will be a distribution to Benfica.
What we know for sure is that if you see a red haired man standing at an ATM, say “Hi, Michael”, as there is a good chance it will be Michael Nicholson, unable to suppress the urge to put his Celtic card into a cash machine every time he passes one, just to stare at the balance!
At the end of June 2022 we had just shy of £32m in the bank, up on the £26m when the interims were concluded six months earlier. Our interims at 31 December 2022 showed a staggering net cash position of £59m, £33m up on a year earlier.
More than half of the net proceeds from Jota’s sale have gone out the door already to pay for the acquisition of five new players, but our position (after post-yearend transfer business) will be more than £40m better than it was last year, which itself was a healthy position.
What to do with that money? The nouveau riche notoriously waste money, but it’s Michael, not Viv Nicholson, in charge at Celtic, so don’t expect us to spend, spend, spend on short-term hits. We have continued to invest in strategy: buy players who can either immediately earn a spot in the first team, or who have the potential to get there. More of the first team will earn improved contracts, hopefully allowing the manager a settled core to build on.
But we are not here for the money, we are here for the football, and on that front, there is a lot of work to do. The champions of Scotland are on the cusp of being Champions League regulars. To make that a reality, Celtic need to improve the rate they earn Uefa coefficient points. Another season with only two draws among the defeats is not going to cut it, nor can we expect Newco to reach the latter stages of the Europa League so regularly.
This is the last season with Champions League groups as they currently are. From next season, teams who qualify for the competition proper will play eight games, not six. That raises TV appearances and all match related income by 33% over current group stage income, with a subsequent play-off tie up for grabs before the knockout rounds start. It is a game changer for the new season’s Scottish champions, even at Celtic’s current income level.
As ever, everything comes down to who will win the most important league title in Europe – I am not exaggerating. Nowhere can the title be so transformational, nowhere is interest in the game greater. The Scottish population watch league football more than any other country by some margin. It is not the most skilful, it just matters more than anywhere else – neither you nor I need attendance stats to know this is true, it’s why we spend so much time hoping, dreaming and reading stuff like this. Massive clubs in England lose the league and their fans shrug, no one shugs in this town.
Newco lost several first team players without compensation, they took what resources they have, and assembled a squad who are at their peak. None of them is likely to appreciate in value. Instead of copying the Celtic strategy, they are living for today. Sign experienced, physically stronger journeymen, and see if they can out-muscle Celtic’s shorter, younger players, with more potential.
Credit where it’s due, this is a coherent strategy. It may even help them earn coefficient points in the Europa League, if that’s where they end up. Lose the league, and they are right royally screwed, but that’s a worry for next year. For now, it’s all about that most important league title in Europe.
Before a ball is kicked, no one would swap the Celtic squad for the Newco squad. On paper, we win again. But anyone who tells you Celtic winning the league this season is a certainty is unfamiliar with the vagaries of the game. Should Newco qualify for the Champions League, their ‘live for today’ strategy will surely see them invoke the memory of the aforementioned Liv.
I expect a real challenge. We lost managerial continuity, we have a new tactical plan, and I remain fearful that we will be bullied (euphemism) in the middle of the park in games that matter.
Our board’s mantra for many years was “We make decisions on what is best for Celtic without reference to what happens elsewhere.” This worked across an era when Rangers went into liquidation, for the want of banking Champions League income to cover the possibility of an adverse court verdict. We did not follow the lemming over the cliff, but in those difficult years, the pages of CQN were full of advocates to be as ‘ambitious’ as David Murray. We lost several league titles doing the right thing, it was a bitter time best not relived.
I trust the manager, the scouts and the treble-winning players, but our chances of us winning the league this season is no more than 67%. Celtic is our gift; enjoy tomorrow, enjoy the season and let’ s hope for an era defining title win.
219 Comments- Pages:
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PHILBHOY
Best wishes to your family on your good lady’s birthday.have a great day.
Celts.
Awaiting the iron chariot as a famous cqn’r would say.
I am blessed making this journey,for many reasons.i will soak it up.:-)))
Go to work Celtic,do your best.
A new day,dawn and title to be won
Best of luck James Forrest.
See yiz there
HH
The GG Live updates article will be up at 11.30.
PHILBHOY
Hooooooopy birthday to C.
PHILBHOY
Happy birthday to your wife. About the party my invite must have got lost in the post.
Have a great day Big Mhan, you and your family.
KEEP THE FAITH
Time for the Tolbooth if I can hurdle all the barriers from here to the cross. Set em up barkeep!🍻
St Tams
I slept in.
Philbhoy
Give my best wishes to your wife on her 65th birthday – have a great day.
Good morning, friends. Hope to hear from dozens of you today from around 2.20pm onwards. Please.
SENCELPOTY@GMAIL.COM
i just read the list of road closure for the cycling.
if your route involves going through the city you better leave now, if you havnt already.
the council and the scottish government need to take a good look at them selves,
curtaining us orangements rights to walk the kings heighways
Took me 1 hour to get from Charing X to the East End yesterday at 11.30 in the morning. I suggest if your route is through the city or up past the green, you’ve now left it too late and will catch the 2nd Half!, por cierto
I’ll be walking from the Horseshoe Bar to Celtic Park. Might steal a bike…
CELTIC: Hart, Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Nawrocki, Taylor, McGregor, Turnbull, O’Riley, Abada, Kyogo, Maeda.
Subs: Bain, Starfelt, Yang, Holm, Oh, Kwon, Iwata, Hatate, Forrest
first big call of the season for the manager – turnbullin hatate on bench.
From the comments on here after Tuesday’s game maybe Hatate on the bench isn’t a surprise.
COYBIG
we lack height, physicality, the left back is the weakness and the goalkeeper if finished,
the new polish bhoy is not first team ready, and abada is no jota.
celtic 6 county 0
wtf – seriously bring him home
————-
Winger Jota is reportedly going to be sent out on a shock loan by his new club in Saudi Arabia just weeks after sealing a £25million exit from Celtic.
The Portuguese star opted to leave the Scottish Premiership champions in a big money deal that saw him join Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante in the mega-money Al-Iittihad squad as he became the latest star to make the move the Middle East. The Treble winner has played both of his new club’s games since his signing in the Arab Champions Cup against Tunisian sides ES Tunis and CS Sfaxien, ahead of the new season starting next week after being key for the Hoops last term.
But bombshell reports in Saudi Arabia have suggested the club have decided to send Jota to a yet-unnamed destination on loan because they want to bring in yet another high-profile world star. Al-Ittihad have reportedly decided they want another marquee signing and have decided Jota will be sacrificed so they can free up space for a ‘world class’ striker, according to Saudi media reports.
Yip. Hatate dropped and Nawrocki preferred as Brendan makes his mark
A very good morning to you all from Germany,
looking forward to this season – I have a good feeling about it.
Hail Haul
BOGNORBHOY on 5TH AUGUST 2023 11:15 AM
Let the moaning commence
Don’t think Hatate is dropped, surely.
By the way, when we travel to the bigot dome we will win, why, it’s my birthday that day
KINGLuBO
On Stena, a few sevconians aboot!
PHILCOOL on 5TH AUGUST 2023 11:33 AM
Don’t stand downwind of them .
Live updates are up
SAINT STIVS on 5TH AUGUST 2023 10:17 AM
Scottish Football League penalty Differential 2018-19 to 2022-23:
Rangers = +37
Hearts = +12
Kilmarnock = +10
Celtic = +9
2022-23 only:
Rangers = +10
Motherwell = +4
Hearts = +4
Dutd = +4
St Johnstone = +1
Celtic = 0
—————-
There you go right there for anyone who doesn’t believe in bias towards a certain club.
Shocking figures. But not sure there’s anything that can be done. As too hard to prove anything and Celtic don’t seem interested anyway.
Mon the hoops!
Get off to a flyer today and put the pressure on that lot until they get their first penalty of the season tomorrow. 😂👍🇮🇪⚽️🏆🏆🏆🍀
GG live updates up
Not complaining. Just surprised that Kwon and Iwata made the squad. They were both miles off it on Tuesday, That said, Brendan knows a wee bit more than I do…..
I’m glad to see Turnbull in the side. Both he and Abada seem to be flourishing under new management.
Good to see,
To all of you who are able to be at CP today, enjoy yourselves. These events are few and far between. They only come around in 11 out of 12 seasons….
Ronnie
Glenavy…
Don’t worry I won’t be anywhere near them.
HH
Phil.
Glen dalys.lol
Glenavy. …
Regarding reo, I have noticed during preseason that he was performing the reo hatate show, holding on to the ball too long, trying to play his way out of sticky situations & always playing the attempted killer pass.
It was as if he performing for his personal bio, as friend records his every action from the stand. It reminded me of Victor Wanyama in the weeks before his exit.