Had your fill of international football for the year? Good. Let’s get on with business. Delighted Mark McGhee’s back in football, and at Motherwell. I had a soft spot for Mark back in the days, ‘Hammer of the Hearts’, as he was.
By watching Mark McGhee you saw a profound change take place in the game. Until the mid-80s it was possible to get by in the game aligning brute strength with decent levels of skill, as Mark had, or even sublime skill with compulsive inertia, which was enough for Charlie Nicholas to carve out a career for a while.
Almost in an instant the game changed. Mark was praised (and valued) with the most unflattering chant, Nicholas was finished after the debacle of Raith Rovers. Not that he’s bitter.
Best of luck to big Mixu too. I’m long on record saying we don’t need a ‘strong Rangers’ (sic.), but the flip side of this is that we do need teams like Aberdeen and United meeting the grade.
Murray Capital Group posted a £13.6m pre-tax profit. I’ve been writing about this wolf in wolf’s clothing for long enough to know the script with this matter.
I know many CQN’ers have helped Glasgow the Caring City over the years. You should take a look at the work they carried out with Syrian and Afghan refugees in Serbia this month. If you are on Facebook, give them a like here. It helps the volunteers to know their efforts are appreciated.
Then maybe ask older Celtic fans what they know about Novi Sad, it’s a story worth telling, even 48 years on.
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Few interesting snips in today’s papers. BBC pay EPL £204M for match of the day. They pay just £1M for Sportscene. This is obscene.
taken from twitter…….nail on head
Fenerbahçe Chairman Aziz Yıldırım has been acquitted on all charges in Turkey’s massive match-fixing case.
Yıldırım was first sentenced to jail in 2012 and fined 1.3 million Turkish Liras ($560,000) for forming a criminal gang and match-fixing during the 2010-2011 season. He served around one year behind bars before being freed pending his retrial.
Auldheid
Sorry mate not sure it was emailed to me and I’v binned it :(
Weeminger
I produced a business case spreadsheet that tried to be as balanced as possible in the assumptions made in some areas for income/expenditure or used previous account records.
It predicted TRFC running out of cash in Feb2014 as I recall but I stopped keeping it up to date because somehow or other a loan turned up or pay days were met.
I gave up keeping it up to date because I eventually concluded that money was coming in from somewhere that was not accounted for.
No proof but when a predicted result based on what is known does not transpire, then there has to be an unknown.
I don’t know what is keeping them going but I doubt it’s clean money.
TD67
Ta.
In many ways it says what needs to be done to clean up our game.
Geordie Munro
Your `Braintree` comment would have brought a smile to the face of Jimthetim53 0:-)
Newradbhoy
You are not alone in holding the opinion the Scottish football is heavily populated with ` hammer throwers`. I , on the other hand, might well be a lone voice in disagreement. Most teams at Celtic Park are very defensive but I am often impressed with the speed and accuracy of their occasional breaks. It may well be that the idea of there being too many cloggers grows from the perception that referees are too lenient on those occasions when players such as James Forrest are not given protection. Overall, though, I believe the game in Scotland now is less up and at `em than it used to be.
JJ
Terymac
I often go to San Pedro de Alcantara ( near Marbella) and one year I met a girl from Birmingham who had flown over for dental treatment. She said it was cheaper to do that than have it done at home.
JJ
Geordie……………
……………
:))))))))
14 Oct 2015, 08:07 PM
If Lawwell is alive and employed by Celtic he’ll be paid his bonus. Actually I’m beginning to think that may be the actual criteria in his contract.
Take a look back over the last 10 years.
Whether we qualify for the CL or not he gets paid his bonus.
Whether we make a profit on transfers or not he gets paid his bonus.
Whether we win the league or not he gets paid his bonus.
Whether the company makes a profit or not he gets paid his bonus.
Whether ST sales go up or down he gets paid his bonus.
Whether sponsorship revenue goes up or down he gets paid his bonus.
It’s utterly bizzare. I would guess Dermot Desmond wouldn’t be the easiest person to work for and would be the kind of guy that would expect an awful lot of his employees but Lawwell manages to walk away with £1m a year just for keeping a £50m turnover business going.
Fwiw I don’t think replacing Lawwell would bring the wholesale changes that some on here imagine, (The league we’re in and the corresponding TV/sponsorship money available to us coupled with CL football depending on 3 knockout ties in July/August each year means things probably wouldn’t change a whole lot) but to see him get such extortionate pay while we’re forced to cut back everywhere else is just sickening.
The accounts mention Key Performance Indicators:
Quote:
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
The Group monitors performance against the following key
performance indicators:
• Football success
• Match attendance statistics
• Sales performance per division
• Wage and other costs
• Capital expenditure
• Profit and cash generation
• Shareholder value
From going through the various statements we see that:
Total Revenue – Down
Football Revenue – Down
Multimedia Revenue – Down
Football success – Failed in CL
Corporate – Missed budget
Merchandising Revenue – Down
Attendance – Down
Season ticket sales – Down
The bonus criteria is:
Quote:
Annual Performance Related Bonus Scheme
The Group operates a bonus scheme for executive Directors and some
permanent employees.
The scheme has the following key objectives:
1 Improving and sustaining the financial performance of the Group
from year to year;
2 Delivering and enhancing shareholder value;
3 Enhancing the reputation and standing of Celtic;
4 Delivering consistently high standards of service to Celtic and its
customers; and
5 Attracting, retaining and motivating talented individuals
whose skills and services will enable Celtic to meet its strategic
objectives.
Football players, the football management team and football
backroom staff are subject to separate bonus schemes that reward
on-field success.
2, 3 & 4 are so vague that Lawwell probably meets them automatically, although not being in the CL means points 2 & 3 should be automatic failure. He has failed in point 1, and point 5 cant be met if we are committed to selling our best players every year.
Like last year, the Remuneration Committee decided to make an additional bonus award to Mr. Lawwell, on an ex gratia basis, for the financial year having taken account of the scale of incremental value delivered for the benefit of the Company through fulfilment of the objectives set for him.
There is almost no way that he cant get his bonus every single year.
Nice post on Kerrydale st for the PL bashers. This has Tony D foot prints all over it :-))
I was just about to repost the missing `r` but the last time I did that I was told it was a terrible impression of a pirate!
JJ
JJ,
I had just read his post as I listened to the news article.
I hope it had the desired effect. :))
hh
Going to the West end for a swally. Would somebody please tell me that huns mark 2 have gone bust before I hit Tennents bar. Thanks in advance.
Hope this is not too bad, we need Broony
Raman Bhardwaj @STVRaman · 25s25 seconds ago
Scott Brown carried off during Celtic’s training session this morning. Should have more info in next hour or so re how bad injury is.
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Brown carted off at training, hope it’s just a precautionary move.
news to me- apparently season ticket holders of the famous Glasgow Celtic can go to one Tigers speedway fixture free.
Could be an excellent CQN night out, if ole BMCUWP wants to arrange it.
[apologies for suggestin’ that bhoys who post on here might have been gullible enough to be duped by ole Peter Lawell into buying season tix]
dbbia/ivanmaugerCSC
Great article from the Clumpany, funny.
Good Morning (and please Vote ‘Clumpany’ before 30 October!).
“An Aberdeen source said: ‘The manager is livid at what has gone on. A team attempting to win the Ladbrokes Premiership against all the odds is being undermined by the sponsors.’”
Oh dear…
The above quote is taken from this piece, which appeared in today’s Record
SPFL chief orders probe after league sponsors Ladbrokes enrage Aberdeen by running book on Derek McInnes axe
According the Keith Jackson, Aberdeen are unhappy with the events of yesterday afternoon when Labrokes stopped taking bets on McInnes being the next manager to leave an SPFL top-flight club, and issued a statement to that effect.
It seems that a series of bets had been placed on him going and so – with the price collapsing – they pulled the plug.
The reason for the flurry of bets is somewhat murky, although there is a suggestion – alluded to in Aberdeen’s own statement – that there had been some ‘unsavoury’ rumours circulating online, which may have prompted some punters to have a flutter.
Aberdeen apprently contacted the soon-to-be-sawed-in-half Neil Doncaster who immediately launched a ‘probe’ [why is it always a ‘probe’ according to newspapers?!].
And as the Record reports:
“After conducting his own investigation yesterday, Doncaster appeared to be satisfied the Ladbrokes publicity machine had only launched into action after a flurry of bets were placed on McInnes being the next boss for the chop.”
So where does that leave us?
Most probably with an awful lot of hot air, a lively McInnes press conference today, and…that’s about it.
As I suggested yesterday, it seems that Ladbrokes have done what bookmakers do. Bets come in, and they adjust their prices. And if there appears to be a major sudden shift in the market, they might suspend betting altogether.
Oh, and being a commercial enterprise with a PR operation they might decide to get a bit of publicity for themselves by announcing the suspension. Because guess what happens then? That’s right, the media reports “Ladbrokes have announced x”.
It is free advertising. And as you have probably noticed we are still talking about Ladbrokes this morning rather than about other bookmakers.
I can appreciate that Aberdeen and McInnes are (rightly) annoyed about scurrilous rumours, and would rather not have a bookmaker saying McInnes is favourite to leave his post before any other Premiership manager.
But it happened, and it will happen again in some form or another. Most likely with an Aberdeen player being mysteriously ‘linked’ to another club and with the odds on it occurring immediately dropping. After all, in a world where The Warbmeister can be ‘linked’ with the Liverpool manager’s job, anything is possible…
It might be distasteful but it is part of modern football. And it isn’t going away.
As for the alleged embarrassment to the SPFL in having its sponsor at the heart of a ‘disruptive’ story about the manager of the League leaders… Well that’s tough too. If the game is prepared to get into bed with the gambling industry, then there are always going to be apparent conflicts and hypocrisy.
The fact that Ian Black and others were found guilty of breaking betting rules didn’t stop the SPFL from taking Ladbrokes’ money, and I don’t see the member clubs calling for future sponsorship deals to exclude the gambling industry.
So what can Neil Doncaster do right now in response to Aberdeen’s concerns? Ask Ladbrokes to not take bets on mangers leaving? Ask them not to issue statements about moves in the SPFL betting market? Ask to see all SPFL-related publicity prior to publication?
None of these things are going to happen. And Ladbrokes would laugh in his face if he tried.
But Doncaster already knows this. Indeed back in August – following Celtic’s Champions League exit – the Herald reported the following in an article headlined SPFL unfazed by bets on sackings
“SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said there were no plans to speak to the betting company about their practices and insisted that their actions go with the territory. He said: “There were no discussions about their marketing plans when we signed the deal and we wouldn’t look to impose on the way they run their business. I wouldn’t have thought any league would.”
“It’s a bookmaking organisation and they’ve got a job to do. Their job is to obviously run their business as best they can.”
[Hat-tip to @rlMarx1 for pointing this out!]
The SPFL – like so many others – has chosen to take the gambling shilling, and until it decides to look elsewhere it has to deal with the consequences.
I’m now away to put £5,000 on Barry Ferguson to be the next Aberdeen manager. You should hear the rumours that are circulating…
#KeepOnClumping
NB The Clumpany has made it to the final of the Football Blogging Awards 2015! Many thanks for your support! All votes from the previous round have been wiped out so your renewed support would be greatly appreciated! I understand that you can vote more than once.
Hope Broony is ok…but…do we need him to beat Motherwell?
How many midfielders have we got?
Some folk canny understand where the huns are getting their money from?
Ha!
…..join the dots…..
Auldheid
The article from Tony D67 earlier, was on the Celtic Network, yesterday, I picked it up through Celtic news now
Oh good morning CQN :-) it is only 7am here
Hail Hail
Cowiebhoy
____________
Hail Hail fella
I hope yer enjoying yer holiday and, if wee Shug is with ye….tell him I said – Hoooowwwwwoooooolll:)
HH
Bed time – YNWA.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Hope Broony is ok.
Was it SJ who has stuck the boot in?
HH
new article posted.