My friends in Celtic, pause for a few moments and peruse your domain. On the field of play your favourites matured into accomplished football players. 2011 ended with an acclaimed Joe Ledley header confirming what we already knew, Celtic were the best team in the land.
Despite ‘losing’ the previous three league titles Celtic held firm in the January transfer window; a difficult decision. We needed to win the league – at any credible cost – but without jeopardising the financial stability of the club. More than sporting form was under debate on these pages at the turn of the year, continents were shifting.
Since 2004 readers of Celtic Quick News have read the gospel of financial responsibility. Bills need to be paid, debt cannot be allowed to rise year after year without enormous consequences. Back then we asserted that Rangers would crash and burn. By 2008 we predicted they were on course to go out of business. This message was not always welcome among our own. It was mocked by some, who demanded ever-higher spending to match the Murray Millions, but on 1 January 2012 there was scarcely a Celtic fan alive who didn’t think Rangers were going out of business. It was only a question of when.
When the crash was confirmed, on St Valentine’s Day, Scottish football embarked on a remarkable period of soul-searching. Rangers last owner, Craig Whyte, had a plan, which we explained in some detail in 2011. Whyte subsequently revealed he met with SPL directors, Neil Doncaster and Ralph Topping in October 2011, told them the likelihood that Rangers would go into liquidation, and asked them to back a plan to catapult a Newco-Rangers into the SPL.
The plan was nonsense. Whyte should have been sent away with told to pay his bills but Doncaster was oceans out of his depth. A fait-accompli would be presented to the SPL clubs, vote to change the rules and elect a Newco into the top flight, or deal with “Armageddon”.
Football eventually did the right thing, as many, perhaps most, Rangers fans wanted all along, but hundreds of scribes attached themselves to Whyte’s Cunning Plan, which was presented as a bastion of responsibility, not the work of deception it was. The fight-back started on these pages. Soon it encompassed fans of every club in Scotland and the SPL clubs have no choice but to stick with the established rules.
Rangers creditors voted against a CVA and liquidators were appointed. Pop, and they were gone! Football fans of every colour, who has endured defeat to Rangers but still asserted that expenditure must be limited to income, enjoyed three seconds of glory as they turned to the bling-addicts beside them and said, “Told you”.
A man from Yorkshire with a group of partially-known investors nipped in ahead of various groups of Rangers fans to secure the assets of the club. Evidence suggests he believed the club would achieve a CVA (the assertion that “the history, the tradition, everything that’s great about this club is swept aside” if they were to be liquidated confirms this), but he bid more than any group of Rangers fans for the liquidated assets so ended up with an opportunity to issue himself with 5 million shares worth 70p each a few months later. Beautiful.
We’re on our own.
Celtic began as the solitary voice at SPL meetings speaking against Whyte’s plan. They were not responsible for the demise of Rangers, but let the record show, when the moment of reckoning arrived, the Celtic board liquidated the Old Firm.
On the field of play we were a well-oiled machine. Our first league title in four seasons arrived with consummate ease. Kilmarnock showed what a well-drilled team could do in the League Cup final, with a little help from a last minute blind-spot when Anthony Stokes had his legs whipped from him in the box, but let’s be generous, you know it, I know it, we would have missed the penalty anyway.
Last minute Hampden penalty decisions would crop up again in the Scottish Cup, when the whole Deliberate Handball rule was cast asunder, but refereeing is always been an emerging art in these parts.
The new season, our first ever as the only superpower in the Scottish game, held one major challenge – qualify for the Champions League. Four wins in four qualifying games was better than expected, so the team who were slapped by Sion, attacked by Atletico and usurped by Udinese a year earlier, were in the Champions League.
Be generous to those who dismissed our chances. One poor guy writing the ITVFootball tweets wrote “Bye bye Celtic” on the day we were drawn against Spartak Moscow, Benfica and Barcelona. Based on the evidence available, it was a fair call.
It is nothing short of fantastic, in the literal sense, that we qualified out of that group. Even now, halfway through the season, Barcelona have lost only one competitive game, when Victor Wanyama, Tony Watt and their pals ripped up the form book. It took Barca until the 93rd minute to secure a win over Celtic in the Camp Nou, or they would have three competitive draws on their record for this season, one to Real Madrid in the league, and a meaningless draw against Benfica being the only two.
I honestly thing we have overachieved in Europe this season. Neil Lennon and his players got everything right. The corner and free kicks from Charlie were immense. No one in Europe does better (some supporting evidence here). Forget the more fancied thoroughbreds, Charlie Mulgrew is our Moneyball player, a team full of them and we’ll win the Big Cup.
Victor’s leap and Tony’s finish will be replayed in our minds for years. Despite leaving ample hints, the DVD didn’t materialise at Christmas. Georgios has scored in all of our five European away games, a record.
Expectations will rise as a result of these achievements but we got so many things absolutely right in this Champions League campaign the odds against doing so again next season are high. Celtic will need to start preparing for next season’s Champions League now if they are to have any chance of remaining in the tournament next Hogmanay. If we were operating at 90% capacity we would have finished bottom with one or two points. As for Juventus, bring them on.
These end-of-year reports are often a lot less encouraging. 2010 was far from easy reading, the distance we have travelled since 2010’s is incredible. Celtic end 2012 as one of the most admired clubs in the European game. We develop great players, compete against the best better than anyone else, and have a sense of purpose which will never be extinguished.
Take care and may 2013 bring you all that you hope for.
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Knoxy…,
Genuine hopes and prayers that 2013 is the best year of your life and your troubles disappear into the ether.
god bless and protect you and yours
Hail Hail
Did I speak (type)? too soon?
Anyone know what our next fixture is after tomorrow?
Knoxy Happy new year mate and best of luck to the family.
Have something to tell you ,Hamiltontim did nought on bucket day,
sent his lovely weans oot to do all the work like a modern day Fagin.
HH
Happy New Year to all Celts, need to get my first moan of the year off my back, Im convinced there was mischieve involved in making us play at Dundee at 7.30 on boxing day, theyre having a field day now but nothing said about supporters being ankle deep in pish in their sub-standard bogs or of the traditional Scottish songs coming from the home support. We have to start standing up for ourselves a bit more, five arrests hardly constitutes a riot and certainly doesnt merit the amount of press coverage its recieved
gordybhoy,
Happy New Year to you and all in Clydebank son.
God knows when I’ll be back over but you know where I’ll be bud.
Do you ever see Stephen?
Tet @ 2010
Got that and thank you.
Weefra HH
hamiltontim
21:21 on
1 January, 2013
Anyone know what our next fixture is after tomorrow?
Jam tarts at home 19th I think
HH
HT, mini Huns at CP 3pmon the 19th.
Knoxy, good luck to you all this year, all the very best.
Ht
Is it not hearts on the 25 th
Weefra HH
Doc is Neil Lennon,
phew missed the mini part of your statement first time i read it, thought they had reconstructed over the festive break.
danso_1888
If they could they would, thankfully………
3-2 van Gerwen
3-2 van Gerwen
VP
They weren’t my weans I hired those 2 rogues from ‘Rent a Wean’.
Happy new year to you B God bless and take care.
HT Hearts home on 19th
Cheers folks.
Not going tomorrow, a wee trip to sunny Worcester beckons to put a smile on mother of HT’s coupon.
Happy howling New Year amigos!!
I am very pleased to say that CQN has first-footed my laptop :))
I believe I tried to log in for a wee howl in the early hours of the New Year but thankfully my smartphone is smart enough to know when I’m too steamin to contribute – summit my laptop has lacked, but is hopefully learning :))
Anyways, as much as I love all CQN, I have a special place in my heart for my fellow moon-howlers, so this is dedicated to every one of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3hHbpCdRt8
If the Dundee Celtic game had not been televised on ESPN then two months would have elapsed without Celtic been shown on live on satellite subscription television.
Contrast and compare with the third division club. The pro Sevco PR campaign is in full overdrive before the SPL inquiry in February.
I cant see Sevco being issued with financial penalties that may jeopardise that television contract. Lets not forget it is an SPL inquiry that can only make recommendations. In all probability the SPL will act on its pwn inquiries recommendations.
But the SFA and the SFL DON’T
HH
HT
Meant to give your lassies a bung but the seal on the bucket was solid,need to go back
to selling a fitba card in the vogue.
All the best to you and your good Lady and the Ghirls.HH
danso_1888
No industry is going to turn its back on a large part of its customer base, so it was never likely that The Rangers would not have been allowed to continue in some form or other.
From memory the rules that allow a club SFA membership and a licence to play in the SFL are open enough to allow admission in that whilst they state what is required in the licensing process, they do not prescribe what should be done if all criteria are not met. That is left open and it could be argued that the rules were followed, certainly very laxly but followed.
Not sure who took the licensing decision but I bet Celtic were not involved and would not have wanted to be, not for any concern for Rangers but to stop money going out of the game, money other clubs desperately needed to stay afloat.
I have no problem with that but I do have a problem of the unfettered support The Rangers appear to be getting from the SFA as that destroys the game’s integrity.
To use an analogy I might not want a dog who bit me put down for wider reasons but I would want the cur muzzled by someone I trusted.
Negotiations with Mrs Doc have broken down completely, I have lost this one.
Miss Doc is 16 tomorrow and friends and family are insisting on helping her to celebrate this.
2pm kick of for the celebrations, if I am not there, it’s not worth thinking about.
I will be at CP in spirit(Old Putney or Highland Park most likely).
pwn=own
ht and the rest of us non sevco supporters
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=96rC4X_KWl4
Fixtures after tomorrow,
HEARTS-HOME-19/1-15-00
ST.MIRREN-NEUTRAL-27/1-14-30(LEAGUE CUP SEMI-FINAL)
KILMARNOCK-HOME-30/1-19-45
RAITH ROVS-AWAY-3/2-12-45
INVERNESS-AWAY-9/2-12-00.
Canamalar
The resemblance is uncanny!!! ;-)
danso_1888
It’s not just our suits who are complicit, it’s all the suits, that I find astonishing.
It took Turnball-Hutton to speak out, but still only one club didn’t vote them in.
The whole game in scotland is rotten to the core, from the hun loving administrators to the referees who control the games, assisted by the msm.
If I had anything to do with it, yes I would have spoken out, but as I am only an internet bampot, my voice is nothing.
The msm still hold the megaphone, until they get a bit of intergrity, the same charade will carry on.
4-2 van Gerwan
VP
I remember selling 2 fitba cards in The International on Aitkenhead Rd prior to the 3-0 win against the huns in the year we played at Hampden.
Nae winners.
WOOHOO!!!
Ps did put half of it in the plate though.
….when the rockets were doing their best to sully this Dear Green Place, they took care to go about their murky business under cover of darkness…..
Of course we are not taking about the regular bona-fide Celtic supporting troops, however weird, however wonderful…..however opinionated. It’s easy to spot the good ghuys…….
I’m talking about the odd squad, the one or two, multi-monikered scary monsters, with the ‘pop up’ ppc curiously remarkable ‘positions’ on all our weak spots……
……..the Hun-House, JACKanory professional social media monitors…….the Sleekits, the antagonistic anagrams, the wee rascals and the paid-for persistent Tim baiters…….
Shameful…….
TET,
For suit see banker, regardless of industry the top never want to loose their position, they’d rather see the whole industry loose credibility than accept individual responsibility, it’s an age old conundrum, how to ?
Just can’t for the life of me think why anybody would think that Sevco would simply disappear and that the likes of Longmuir,Ogilvie and bigots like Ballantine would resign from their positions.Why would they? These people are bullet proof.Who’s going to sack them FFS? Why would they resign? The Craft has them ring fenced fom any threat to their positions.
…..I should add that I was selling the cards to raise money for my football team and not as some money making venture!!!
Bankiebhoy
Happy new year to ye.
HT
2 WORDS …………AYE RIGHT
johnniem
20:52 on 1 January, 2013
We shall not rest until the Demon is interred…….
Danso_1888
Methinks thou doest protest too much….?
Bankiebhoy
Happy New Year matey ..
4-3