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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Palacio
Great memories indeed!!!
PFayr,
Remind us all who negotiated the televising of their games ?
Hah, Dubliners on Jools now on catchup.
Am a happy man. I see the ghosts of Barney, Luke and Ronnie behind them grinning at each other with a cool pint of guiness in hand :))
Interesting to catch up on some of the chat at home.
We say Rangers are dead. They say Sevco are Rangers (today, tomorrow, always).
I don’t know any Rangers fans to ask, but if I did, I’d like to know their answers to some simple questions.
1. If Sevco are Rangers and the history is unbroken, why did they start this season, when they were in administration, without a points penalty for not coming out of administration in the close season?
2. If Sevco are Rangers and the history is unbroken, why are they in SFL Division Three? If it’s by decree of the football authorities, who somehow determined to “punish” Rangers by making them go directly from second in the SPL to the fourth tier, where can I read the announcement from the SPL, the SFA, the SFL and their football club confirming this demotion?
3. If Sevco are Rangers and the history is unbroken, what consequences has their club had to face for failing to come out of administration and going into liquidation? If it made no difference, why all the fuss and rending of garments?
johnniem
20:52 on 1 January, 2013
Wtf is the obsession with the club that died … They are an irrelance …. How any self respecting celtic fan can post links to that former club baffles me … I am a celtic fan. Not an anti Huns fan.
=======================
Had there not been a high level of “obsession” about them for the last 3 years then they wouldn’t have went into administration, liquidation and they would still be competing against us in the SPL. Things would have been swept under the carpet.
They need to be watched due to their previous.
FFM
Aye, they just canny help it can they, even in the fourth tier, they still need the help of the match fixers.
Hell mend them.
And I also was too late getting petec’s mail, I had them on both to score, crap odds mind you :>)
HH
Paul 67, Auldhied – or anyone in the know…
The way I read it, anybody who wants to stand against Ogilivie for re-election needs to declare their candidacy in February.
Do you know if any one else will be persuaded to stand for election or will Ogilvie be unopposed?
February is not a long way off…
FFM,
Why would you want to sleep with a lost wallet ?
hoopy-do
22:20 on
1 January, 2013
I just dropped one in my mates hoos, wot shuld be my next move?
—————————————
slap the dug!!
jude2005 is neil lennon \o/
22:53 on
1 January, 2013
Right…..LOL
CANAMALAR
Outstanding pedantry,cap doffed.
HH & HNY
Fortunes Favour Mibbes
22:24 on
1 January, 2013
Re the polis
——————————————-
She should have refused to pay the fine and called their bluff, we’re sacrificing our rights with this ‘on the spot’ pish. Almost every night you see pseudopolis handing out tickets to people for litter outside central station, You don’t have to give your real name & address, just A name & address!
HH!
BMCUW,
:oD)))
Still no a patch on the spellers, grammars or punctuationers but thanks for the wee vote of confidence, all the best bud :o)
Hail Hail
Happy New Year to all Timothy wherever you may be. Let’s hope the team pull up their socks and give us an even more memorable second half to the season. I’d settle for keeping our squad intact, adding a couple of signings – Central defender, playmaker (helsingborgs nos. 8 or 10 would do), domestic treble and into last 8 of CL. Not too much to ask for surely!
Hail! Hail!
Oor Sammy’s musical cousins?? This is summit else :))
Greeks rule ! :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_WEjAnslGc&feature=youtu.be
Just in from watching darts final (fogot to take mobile)
Returned to find I have been gifted a ticket for the game tomorrow :)) YA DANCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2013 gets of to a flyer :))
Tim Malone,
There’s as much chance as Gerry Adams getting that as anybody ousting that bigot Ogilvie.
Reilly1926.
Spot on mate.
Its what thems want to happen we’re obsessed!!!
No hound them.
http://www.edinburgh-gazette.co.uk/issues/27190/pages/3501
Link from TSFM site, BDO Notification from the 28/12/12
HH
I see our pal has been put away for 12 months…..
How do I get a pop -up blocker?
leftclicktic
Whit? And we all have to pay, ya tighterse….
HH
HT
??
fortunes favour mibbes
>>>>>>
Great vid!
Could tell you stories…..
….but we grew up with rembetika (popular Greek music)…nothing quite like it.
HH!
Jude
Santa…..;-)
SorryCSC
Palacio
Blank page ???
HH
Awe Naw
I’m going to leave that to Friday mate.
Of course we are obsessed, we have been cheated from our inception.
Big Billy told everyone that we have been cheated for the last 50 years, David Hay wanted to take us out of scotland due to the cheating, even Big Jock felt the need to say just score more than our opposition to take the referees out of the equation.
Take the dougie, dougie thing, we as a club were on the receiving end of lies and corruption, combined with a cover up, our manager never uttered a word after the game, as far as I remember it was Houston who did all the spouting garbage, our manager was lied to as part of a conspiracy, and yet the media spun the referees strike as all Celtic’s fault.
I would rather we played junior football, than be part of the sham that is football in sectarianland, we can’t win, thay would rather destroy the game than let us attain the power in scotland, even though we would administer the game fairly, it will never happen.
It’s not within their dna to allow it.
2013 will be the year that marks the end for the game of football in scotland.
Now this may well not be a bad thing, I hope our suits have a plan B, or a plan C, to get us the hell out.
AWE NAW
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
RFC 2012 P.L.C.
Company Number: SC004276
(formerly The Rangers Football Club P.L.C.)
Address of Registered Office: 4 Atlantic Quay, 70 York Street,
Glasgow, G2 8JX. Former Registered Office: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow,
G51 2XD.
We, James Bernard Stephen and Malcolm Cohen, both of BDO LLP,
4 Atlantic Quay, 70 York Street, Glasgow, G2 8JX, hereby give notice
pursuant to Rule 4.19 of the Insolvency (Scotland) Rules 1986 that
we were appointed Joint Liquidators of RFC 2012 P.L.C. formerly
The Rangers Football Club P.L.C., by resolution of the first meeting
of creditors on 04 December 2012. A Liquidation Committee was
formed.
James Bernard Stephen, Joint Liquidator
04 December 2012.
HT
Like it <o))
Palacio67
Na its SKINT*&%E :))
andimeanskintcsc
BMCUWP
Thanks
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
Sorry Awe Naw, seems to work for me, I’ll cut and Paste
Publication Date: Friday, 28 December 2012
Notice Code: 2454
Appointment of Liquidators
RFC 2012 P.L.C.
Company Number: SC004276
(formerly The Rangers Football Club P.L.C.)
Address of Registered Office: 4 Atlantic Quay, 70 York Street, Glasgow, G2 8JX. Former Registered Office: Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, G51 2XD.
We, James Bernard Stephen and Malcolm Cohen, both of BDO LLP, 4 Atlantic Quay, 70 York Street, Glasgow, G2 8JX, hereby give notice pursuant to Rule 4.19 of the Insolvency (Scotland) Rules 1986 that we were appointed Joint Liquidators of RFC 2012 P.L.C. formerly The Rangers Football Club P.L.C., by resolution of the first meeting of creditors on 04 December 2012. A Liquidation Committee was formed.
James Bernard Stephen, Joint Liquidator
04 December 2012.
(44)
HH
Will the assets be repossessed ?
miki67 @ 23:30
If you can tell more, you flamin should amigo !! Would be a crime not to! I know nutting about Greek trad music !!
Would be especially interested on your thoughts my learned friend !
Can I recommend a new year resolution for you?…..share your thoughts, loves and music MORE…
Ending convo – accusations of a love-in on the horizon which are NOT your fault. Just like yer words, amigo :)))
I do believe you’re a moonhowler with gifts. One that can walk the daylight :))
palacio67
23:43 on 1 January, 2013
Hopefully we will see some fireworks now.
Both regarding Oldco and Sevco trying to use Oldco history for marketing purposes.
Miki..,
Be wary, that yin will sleep with a lost wallet just to get near a bit of skin :oD)))
Frank Lampard anyone?
MWD