When this publishes, I should be a few kilometres into the Great Scottish Run. These events can be humbling. You see people there with messages on their shirts. ‘The big C’ gets a lot of mentions, in many of its forms, as does heart disease and conditions most of us will, fortunately, be less familiar with. Some simply have a loved one’s smiling photograph on their back. Their former feeling of helplessness matured into purposeful action.
I’m running for Celtic Charity’s 1254125 campaign. This is not something controlled or even organised by the club, but it is fundamental to what Celtic Football Club is. The Celtic Movement was called together in a church hall in November 1887 to alleviate the distress of poverty in those unable to feed themselves. It is different from other clubs because it started differently and has since walked unfamiliar roads.
The spirit to help others has been increasingly self-evident in recent years but I am sure the commitment has become more embedded as a result of 1254125. It is now part of our routine, what we know to expect from ourselves.
We will only stay different if you and I continue to insist we walk (or run) unfamiliar roads. We all worry about where our club is going. There is little we can do about many potential dangers but we can make sure Celtic remains anchored to the spirit which founded it. You can support 1254125 through the MyDonate page I setup to convince me I shouldn’t give up halfway through this run. Your support is appreciated.
Yesterday we lost Cllr George Ryan, or St John Doyle, as he was known on these pages. George touched the lives of hundreds of people but unless you were in direct contact, you would not know what he did for the people of Glasgow, for Celtic supporters in difficulty, or even for the Thai Tims. He was an exceptional Celtic man who lived the way exceptional Celtic people have ever since that meeting in St Mary’s Hall.
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Morning bhoys.
Well done to Blantyre Celtic for a great day in KSC yesterday.
Frank Mc Avennie as a guest speaker with plenty monies raised for the club..
Hail Hail
parkheadcumsalford- Lasley’s challenge was, to give him the benefit of the doubt- wreckless but so typical of him, it was a lottery whether he would have got away with it/conceded a penalty/got a red/injured Mathews/ended Mathews’ career.
He went in to clean Mathews out, pure and simple, how Neil is not seething with this is beyond me- maybe he is and is keeping it behind closed doors.
Only had to see it once to see the hapless Brines got it totally wrong.
16… TheThirdTemple….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBgB3R1zkrU
Biton, Beram.
Are we judging Beram?
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
Good morning fellow Celts.
I’m looking for a bit of advice. My sister has recently moved into a new house and is in the process of decorating the room for her twin sons (aged 11).
Could anyone recommend the cheapest place to get Celtic FC duvet covers & pillowcases. The twins are of course massive Celtic fans.
I’m aware that the Celtic Superstore would be the first port of call but just looking for a cheaper alternative as my sister is a single parent.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Hail Hail from Motherwell
ps Lasley is a disgrace, just like the club he plays for
Dontbrattbakkinanger
……..
i assume the higher echelons are looking for lines of credit
7 is perfection.
I would like to express my sincere condolences to the Ryan family on their recent sad loss.
Morning fholks,
A tremendous piece of journalism today in the DR…. a journalist at the top of his game, this piece taking eh about two years of research
Tell us something we didn’t know
By Keith Jackson | 7 Oct 2013 07:36
OK, so you’re just back in from the paper shop. First off, congratulations on your purchase, needless to say you’ve made an excellent choice.
Now, turn out your pockets and sift through the shrapnel. Is there a single shiny pound coin in the change?
If so, what do you have planned for it? How far can you make it stretch?
To help out, here’s some research on what you’ll get for your money.
Homer Simpson novelty socks, a pack of chewing gum, a McChicken Sandwich, a three-minute hair colour revitaliser or de-frizz treatment, two second-class stamps, a track from iTunes, a pack of hair-clips, half a dozen morning rolls, two pints of milk or a kilo of sawdust.
Alternatively, you could take it for a punt. Turn it into millions for the price of a pair of Primark knickers. Or, if you don’t fancy the odds of 125,000,000/1 here’s an even better idea.
Buy Rangers Football Club.
There is, of course, an old adage that you don’t make money from investing in football but this ongoing omnishambles at Ibrox bucks that trend quite spectacularly. Just lately, Rangers have been a sure thing.
When Craig Whyte handed over his £1 coin to Sir David Murray on May 6, 2011, (he did hand it over didn’t he?) he was in fact, unlocking a jackpot. He was also opening up a financial scandal.
Ever since, the level of sheer greed around this bloated cash cow of a club has been truly shameful and staggering. Also, it appears to be unrelenting.
Just last week the club announced annual losses in excess of £14m.
This was eye-watering stuff which might just have shaken a massive rump of the Ibrox support to its core.
Yesterday’s protests against the board at Somerset Park suggest many of these fans have now woken up to the fact their club is being milked once again for all of its worth.
So let us strip this story back to its starting point and examine the enormous sums that have come and gone between then and now. All for the price of Whyte’s pound.
There is no precise way of knowing how much Donald Muir, the financial fixer who plucked Whyte from obscurity and delivered him on to Rangers’ doorstep, profited from his seminal role in this debacle.
But given his paymasters at Lloyds wiped out an £18m debt overnight and also freed itself from the spectre of a £50m tax bill, it seems safe to assume Muir’s reward would have been suitably juicy.
It was certainly an extraordinary piece of business. A great deal for Murray and Lloyds, a bargain for Whyte, almost certainly a lucrative pay day for Muir.
But the onset of an unimaginable and unmitigated disaster for Rangers.
And this was only just beginning.
One of Whyte’s closest allies during his takeover was David Grier of Merchant Corporate Recovery. In 2011, shortly after Whyte was in place, MCR was bought over by Duff and Phelps.
Again, it is safe to assume Grier was no worse off as a result of this buy-out. He was also given a leading executive role with Duff and Phelps.
And Grier, having already been paid by Rangers to give Whyte financial advice, was now also about to cash in on the club’s administration. On February 14, 2012, Whyte succeeded in having Duff and Phelps appointed as administrators.
The final bill for their services came to more than £5.5m.
This, of course, was after Whyte had raised £27m from a season ticket deal with Ticketus.
In his nine months as chairman he also stuffed the taxman for around £15m in unpaid PAYE. And the £18m of debt that he bought from Lloyds for a pound?
That disappeared too in June 2012 when Charles Green, the man hand picked from nowhere by Duff and Phelps as the club’s saviour, failed to agree a CVA and liquidated the old company.
Green then picked up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip, which was another astonishing deal given that it was conducted in a closed shop without other offers being invited by the administrators.
OK, so how far has Whyte’s pound stretched by this stage?
Conservatively – and even without that phantom £50m EBT bill – over £70m worth of solid trading has now been accounted for on the back of his initial transaction.
And Green’s big hands haven’t even started rubbing yet.
We know the rest inside out. Two lumps of season ticket cash, fetching a combined total of around £16m. An initial cash injection into the Newco of £12m. In December 2012, an IPO worth a further £22m.
Now admittedly, this is back of a fag packet accounting but even so these figures add up to £50m.
And yet last week the club’s financial director Brian Stockbridge signed off on a set of results and admitted almost all of it had vanished. In fact, a mind-blowing total of around £6m of the IPO cash was emptied out the back-door on ‘fees’ almost as soon as it had come in through the front.
By June of this year, according to Stockbridge, £11m was all that was left in the Rangers’ account.
Green, meanwhile, was buying himself a retirement castle in France (What is it with Rangers? How come everyone ends up in a castle in the end?) after trousering more than £1m in wages, bonuses and pay-offs in less than a year.
In fact, he was sent on his way with a £600,000 goodbye when he should have been sacked for gross misconduct and told to leave the premises with nothing. Well, nothing more than his £3m worth of shares.
The ever-generous Stockbridge signed off on that one too, having just awarded himself £200,000 for watching Ally McCoist win the Third Division title. The Rangers manager, of course, was also handsomely rewarded, with wages of £825,000 for winning the one title this club never previously had ambitions to win.
And yet McCoist came cheap at half the price.
Were it not for his public validation of Green then a wary Rangers support would not have rushed to stump up for 38,000 season tickets.
And without this phenomenal level of backing, Green’s plans to make a killing on a hurried share issue would also have been up in smoke.
So what is the Ibrox totaliser standing at now? £125m? Maybe a good deal more? All divvied up on the back of a one pound deal. Yes, this Rangers story is a disgusting tale of sickening greed, dragged out over a sustained two-and-a-half year period of obscene scavenging.
All the while the club itself continues to drift towards the rocks for a second time with those at the helm seemingly too busy barricading themselves in to notice the imminent danger.
And, really, who could blame them?
In this shameless orgy they’ve enjoyed quite a bang for their buck and groped a great deal of flesh for a pound.
Ayrshire is Green and White
HH
I’m Luke ing Forward to reading Robert Tressels book as a Rangers man has it ready for reading Tuesday.
Anyone who questions Chris Sutton, needs his head read.
Rangers, and he helped, have been Vladimir, in their place.
Summa.CSC
Munich 1680
It was very sad news to hear about the death of George Ryan.
An obviously good man as many of the people posting on here are testament to his good name.
I did not realise I knew George until my mates older brother posted on the St Gregory’s school Facebook page the big George was in fact the guy I knew from school as Geo Ryan.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
R.I.P George Ryan.
Keith Jackson……………….Not a word about him bigging up the MBB, he was a catalyst in the downfall……..Sweet.
Bawsman
09:19 on 7 October, 2013
Keith Jackson……………….Not a word about him bigging up the MBB, he was a catalyst in the downfall……..Sweet.
……………………………………………….
Perhaps we should put up a statue to Keith, as without him Rangers might still exist.
Good Morning.
What fantastic efforts by Jobo Baldie , Paddy Bhoy, Paul67 and many others at the great Scottish Run yesterday.
Fantastic, not just in the sense of the achievement or running around the course in excellent times, but also fantastic in the sense of raising money and raising awareness of the plight of others who are less fortunate than many of us through no fault of their own whatsoever.
I am honestly jealous — jealous because I can no longer run– and when I read of others who can pound the streets and parks I feel as if I am missing something — especially as a long time a ago I could and did run a wee bit.
However, raising money for charity– and highlighting the needs of charities and so on— is not exclusively in the domain of the fit.
My own skin and blister took to the walking yesterday. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail she sent round explaining why:
————————————————————————————————————–
” A friend of mine from University lost her battle with leukaemia on 26th December 2012. Eileen Sheer was the first person I spoke to and the first friend I made at University and many years later I met her again on the first day I started work with the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. Eileen was brave and witty and a real inspiration. Eileen was a Children’s Reporter in Glasgow and Dumbarton for 23 years and was hardworking and dedicated.
In memory of her I am walking the Great Scottish run 10k with 26 other friends and colleagues to raise money for Friends of the Beatson. The Beatson is the West of Scotland Cancer Centre and the Friends of the Beatson provide amazing support for all Cancer sufferers who have inpatient treatment. I have seen their facilities. It is a 5 star haven in a city hospital and does fantastic work. Eileen said Friends of the Beatson made such a difference to her many long stays in hospital over the months and years of her illness.
So 27 of us are walking for her…we have raised over £5500 so far but want to raise more so I am emailing everyone to ask if you would consider sponsoring us. This walk has really taken off but was started by my friend Shona Spence ( another law student from the same year at university as myself and Eileen and also a Reporter) and I . So the justgiving page is a team page but it’s in my married name as Shona and I were walkers no 1 and 2…we didn’t know it would rise to 27 and that we would raise so much money. We called our page Inspired by Eileen because we honestly were inspired by her bravery and spirit throughout 3 years of illness.
So if you can please support us at http://www.justgiving.com/Inspired-by-Eileen or to donate £10 by text please text EILS66 £10 to 70070.
And if you get BBC Scotland look out for us…we are the 27 walking at the back in the identical friends of the Beatson T shirts…we are walking…Eileen would not have wanted us to run…and we will be talking and laughing for the whole 10k just as she would have wanted.
Thanks for your support
Anne Marie”
————————————————————————————————————-
Last week I put out a call on the blog asking for suggestions for a city centre or at least Glasgow venue for a forthcoming CQN charity dinner at which we could raise money for charities including the 1254125 fund.
As I said in my post in the early hours of Sunday morning, one of those who I had e-mailed privately was George Ryan who I contacted partly with a view to seeing what help he could provide with Glasgow City Council owned sites, and partly just to catch up with George with a view to bending his ear about various things over lunch.
Of course, that lunch will sadly never be.
However, if ever anything highlighted the need for such a dinner it is George’s untimely passing.
I know that there was a big day out just over a week ago ( which I sadly had to miss ), that CQN’ers get together at the old Gazebo, in Babbity Bowsters, at Ayr Race Course and of course at Celtic Park.
However, notwithstanding arguments about signing policy, Board Room Politics, general politics, favourite malts, choice of music, and so many other things, it is clear to me that there is a spirit among those who post here and that it would be an absolute dereliction of duty to fail to organise a dinner which not only celebrates the blog itself, but what the blog represents, those who have been instrumental in its success and influence, and those who have contributed so much….. especially those who are no longer with us….. Pablo, Miki, St John Doyle and others.
So, I will continue in my quest for a suitable venue, date and time and in the interim can only congratulate those who walked and ran yesterday… and those who inspired them to do so.
Ordinary people often do the most extraordinary things.
Cheers
BRTH
Well, here we go again. Another bloody international break and no Celtic game at the weekend. The start of the league season always feels so start-stop.
I see the Ayr manager is complaining in the press that both goals against his team came courtesy of dodgy officiating. New club, same old referees, it seems.
Just read today’s Herald..
Its been a ‘box of tricks’ right enough for McCoist who has created the illusion of being a Ranger’s man through and through while secretly playing a large part in bleeding the club dry with his his excessive wages – which once revealed he agreed to half. Shameful behaviour. The Hun fans are putting way more in to Hunco than they are getting out in the club’s hour of need. The least they can expect from McCoist and Smith who have been well rewarded by RFC over decades, is that they would do likewise, surely?
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
09:31 on 7 October, 2013
Good Morning.
What fantastic efforts by Jobo Baldie , Paddy Bhoy, Paul67 and many others at the great Scottish Run yesterday.
Fantastic, not just in the sense of the achievement or running around the course in excellent times, but also fantastic in the sense of raising money and raising awareness of the plight of others who are less fortunate than many of us through no fault of their own whatsoever.
I am honestly jealous — jealous because I can no longer run– and when I read of others who can pound the streets and parks I feel as if I am missing something — especially as a long time a ago I could and did run a wee bit.
However, raising money for charity– and highlighting the needs of charities and so on— is not exclusively in the domain of the fit.
My own skin and blister took to the walking yesterday. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail she sent round explaining why:
————————————————————————————————————–
” A friend of mine from University lost her battle with leukaemia on 26th December 2012. Eileen Sheer was the first person I spoke to and the first friend I made at University and many years later I met her again on the first day I started work with the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. Eileen was brave and witty and a real inspiration. Eileen was a Children’s Reporter in Glasgow and Dumbarton for 23 years and was hardworking and dedicated.
In memory of her I am walking the Great Scottish run 10k with 26 other friends and colleagues to raise money for Friends of the Beatson. The Beatson is the West of Scotland Cancer Centre and the Friends of the Beatson provide amazing support for all Cancer sufferers who have inpatient treatment. I have seen their facilities. It is a 5 star haven in a city hospital and does fantastic work. Eileen said Friends of the Beatson made such a difference to her many long stays in hospital over the months and years of her illness.
So 27 of us are walking for her…we have raised over £5500 so far but want to raise more so I am emailing everyone to ask if you would consider sponsoring us. This walk has really taken off but was started by my friend Shona Spence ( another law student from the same year at university as myself and Eileen and also a Reporter) and I . So the justgiving page is a team page but it’s in my married name as Shona and I were walkers no 1 and 2…we didn’t know it would rise to 27 and that we would raise so much money. We called our page Inspired by Eileen because we honestly were inspired by her bravery and spirit throughout 3 years of illness.
So if you can please support us at http://www.justgiving.com/Inspired-by-Eileen or to donate £10 by text please text EILS66 £10 to 70070.
And if you get BBC Scotland look out for us…we are the 27 walking at the back in the identical friends of the Beatson T shirts…we are walking…Eileen would not have wanted us to run…and we will be talking and laughing for the whole 10k just as she would have wanted.
Thanks for your support
Anne Marie”
————————————————————————————————————-
Last week I put out a call on the blog asking for suggestions for a city centre or at least Glasgow venue for a forthcoming CQN charity dinner at which we could raise money for charities including the 1254125 fund.
As I said in my post in the early hours of Sunday morning, one of those who I had e-mailed privately was George Ryan who I contacted partly with a view to seeing what help he could provide with Glasgow City Council owned sites, and partly just to catch up with George with a view to bending his ear about various things over lunch.
Of course, that lunch will sadly never be.
However, if ever anything highlighted the need for such a dinner it is George’s untimely passing.
I know that there was a big day out just over a week ago ( which I sadly had to miss ), that CQN’ers get together at the old Gazebo, in Babbity Bowsters, at Ayr Race Course and of course at Celtic Park.
However, notwithstanding arguments about signing policy, Board Room Politics, general politics, favourite malts, choice of music, and so many other things, it is clear to me that there is a spirit among those who post here and that it would be an absolute dereliction of duty to fail to organise a dinner which not only celebrates the blog itself, but what the blog represents, those who have been instrumental in its success and influence, and those who have contributed so much….. especially those who are no longer with us….. Pablo, Miki, St John Doyle and others.
So, I will continue in my quest for a suitable venue, date and time and in the interim can only congratulate those who walked and ran yesterday… and those who inspired them to do so.
Ordinary people often do the most extraordinary things.
Cheers
BRTH
________________________________________________
My 2 oldest sisters ran, and ran superbly well, just over the hour mark for the best looking ladies ever.
64 mins.
MickTT @ 09:04,
“Morning fholks, A tremendous piece of journalism today in the DR….”
Quite incredible…
For someone who has taken the internet bampots to task for their expose(s) it is a quite breathtakingly incompetent, revisionist piece.
Incompetent because of the maths, not back of a fag packet accounts but a total failure of primary school maths.
Craig has six apples, he gives one to David, three to Charles and two to Brain how many apple does Craig have…
6+1+3+2=12
Craig has twelve apples.
Revisionist because all the characters that he supported and along with so many convinced the hapless Gers their Club was in Good hands, notice David Murray gets of lighly again.
No internet bampot would get away with posting this nonsense on any decent blog.
Still he is correct about one thing – the Club is certainly heading for the rocks.
Interesting that Brain Stockbridge stated the other day, words to the effect, that Newco Will not run out of Cash. Well not while they have Ibrox and Murray Park anyway.
Sale and Leaseback??
Hail Hail
Keith Jackass… He ‘a a legend!
Is it broke?
Mibbe no!
Always happens when I’m oan tea break.
Philbhoy
You broke the blog???
Chairbhoy
09:59 on 7 October, 2013
Yup, I reckon sale and leaseback is what they are working towards.
A dripping roast rather than a quick buck.
Interesting though that Jackson is suggesting that the Murray/Whyte deal was brokered by the bank, which is what I have suspected from the start.
googybhoy
Sorry!
Ah, poor old Keech…..
Green then picked up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip, which was another astonishing deal given that it was conducted in a closed shop without other offers being invited by the administrators.
—————-
Were we not breathlessly told by Keech of luminaries like Bill Miller, Mr Ng, the blue nights, Brian Kennedy…..so how was this a closed shop without offers invited?
Do they never ever read their pap back to themselves and realise they’re writing garbage?
ernie lynch
Who buys and who sets the rent?
Or is it done with a “partner” on generous terms?
If anyone is in any doubt about Brines then cast your mind back to his reaction/actions and his facial expression during the spat on the touch line between Lenny and the Fat Controller.
I’m sure if Brines had been wearing his other uniform of choice that evening Lenny would have found himself in the back of a polis van.
Nacho No nuts and Ogilvie doing the draw today. Just rubbing everyones noses in it.
Will not be surprised if we have to go to ibrokes for them to get a bumper pay day.
From Twitter
@boxertoye: Pmsl a liquidated company showing the Deadco the way http://t.co/12M2t2LOxA
HH
“RANGERS missed out on a share of a 600k pay-out from former TV company Setanta – because technically they don’t exist anymore.”
“Clubs who were part of the SPL between 2009 and 2012 received payments this week as their final dividend for the company going into administration back in 2009.”
“But Rangers got nothing because they were classed as a club which no longer exists after their liquidation in June 2012.”
Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar
10:38 on 7 October, 2013
If anyone is in any doubt about Brines then cast your mind back to his reaction/actions and his facial expression during the spat on the touch line between Lenny and the Fat Controller.
I’m sure if Brines had been wearing his other uniform of choice that evening Lenny would have found himself in the back of a polis van.
________________________________________
Proper Evidence, that didnae need the excuse of MONEY.
There are a lot of excellent Referees in Scuddland but they will never make it.
Fleming, Flehming, Phil really backed the wrang horse there.
Philbhoy – Bring it on!!!!
10:37 on 7 October, 2013
‘ernie lynch
Who buys and who sets the rent?
Or is it done with a “partner” on generous terms?’
###
Well obviously they’ll have to achieve a quick sale because they’ll have run out of money and the alternative would be administration, which ra peepul would not thole, and the sale price will require to reflect that commercial reality.
The rent likewise will have to be generous to achieve a quick sale.
And I’d be surprised if the purchaser is not already known to the current board.
McColl etc know what’s coming hence their desperation to derail the process.
Reading back on the blog and all the lovely tributes being paid to George Ryan.
CQN is really a special place.
Rest in Peace St.John Doyle
HH
Thanks Ernie!
lymmbhoy
10:41 on
7 October, 2013
From Twitter
@boxertoye: Pmsl a liquidated company showing the Deadco the way http://t.co/12M2t2LOxA
………………………………………………..
a cracker!!
but at least that bust outfit paid out……..