Why the disbelief that a Tom Boyd comment on Celtic TV on Saturday is still occupying news inches on Tuesday? Tom did not indulge in profanity or prejudice; he merely made a partisan comment on an in-house broadcast channel. But here’s the thing, he did so on a quiet news day.
Had Celtic lost to Dunfermline on Saturday, Tom’s profound musings would never have been reported, the 24-hour news cycle would have been filled by more important matters.
The football news industry, of which we are all consumers, requires stories, even when nothing of note happens. The pressures of being a staff reporter at a media outlet, which is perpetually downsizing, when your job is to deliver a story people want to read and there is just no story to tell, should be clear to understand.
This is not justification for throwing Tom under the ink barrel, but it should temper our engagement with the process. For reasons that escape my memory right now, we do not have a game tonight or tomorrow, so we might have to wait until Thursday before Ever-Green-TB gets a break.
Until then, the news is not the headlines; it’s the ABC circulation figures, which are again heavy with red ink. The Record, which sold over 500k copies per day when CQN started 15 years ago, shipped 110k last month, a 78% fall in unit sales, the same is true elsewhere. This is why Tom Boyd became a multi-day story. It could be anyone tomorrow.
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TIMALOY29 on 20TH AUGUST 2019 3:00 PM
!!BADA BING!! on 20TH AUGUST 2019 2:53 PM
To be honest, the biggest failure is the lack of a permanent director of football/head of recruitment
Dave King is an idiot but he even has enough sense to sort that out.
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Agree that our structure is all wrong on the footballing side and needs an overhaul.
However – the only reason King will have a DoF is the same reason he has any other staff in place – to act as a firebreak so he doesn’t get burned when goes up in flame
HANKRAY
A by product of this corrupt elitism has been to remove the so-called ‘romance of the cup’ from the CL competition. I would be prepared to bet that many a neutral fan was rooting for Ajax in the semi . I certainly was.
Neil is nobody’s mug,if he has been done over by Lawwell’s Arthur Daley routine, he will walk,he won’t want to be holding Lawwell’s baby,if this all goes breasts north.
GLENDALYSTONSILS on 20TH AUGUST 2019 3:11 PM
HANKRAY
We can’t ignore the fact that the CL has been a great success and it hasnt been too bad for us when we’ve qualified for the group stage (10 times I think?).
If we’d progressed last week the current conversation most likely wouldnt be happening.
I think we have to make our peace with the fact that the European Cup was always going to evolve… which sport isn’t looking to expand and innovate?
You are right to raise the issue that it shouldnt been too hard to accomodate the champions of smaller, established football nations as well as the clubs from bigger nations, and the fact its called the Champions League but isn’t so kind to some of the league champions.
But lets be honest given the route Sarajevo, Nomme Kalju, CFR Cluj, Slavia Prague many of us would have taken that beforehand as a route to the CL.
We couldnt even get to the playoff round (again) and for that we should look closer to home to apportion blame.
HH
Why do those who feel that, to improve, we must buy ?
If buying new players would improve the team, why isn`t our defence, with a new 1.6 million pounds players, a new 3 million pounds player and a new 7 million pounds player not significantly better?
Logic tell me that buying players is no guarantee of improvement but a great many seem to think it is.
Buying the RIGHT players would work but I doubt there is a Club in World Football which has a 100% record in that area.
JJ
Hot Smoked on 20th August 2019 3:24 pm
Buying the RIGHT players would work but I doubt there is a Club in World Football which has a 100% record in that area.
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I agree with the gist of what you are saying, but name one club that ever won anything without buying players.
HOT SMOKED on 20TH AUGUST 2019 3:24 PM
Buying the RIGHT players would work but I doubt there is a Club in World Football which has a 100% record in that area.
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At this point in time I think a lot of us would take 50% !
HH
Scullybhoy
Sorry but I have written this window off, we dont appear to have a scouting department rather players are recommended, shambles, utter shambles for a club with the turnover of Celtic to be organised in this way.
Yes buy right players… but nuy players!!! whole defence was for the off…everyone knew that.. We lost 5 full backs from end of season we have bought NONE Boli is not a full back in a million years.. First time I saw KT you could see he was a full back, First time I saw Boli…I could see he isn’t a defender of any type.
Also lost Weah and Burke and not replaced them As NL wont play Schved.. Also lost SS because of who knows what.
Hot Smoked
Its by no means a guarantee and in those instances you would hope for a better manager/coach/tactician. Whilst he is here though he gets my support (although it may not seem so on here)
TRADITIONALIST88
You are right of course , our route to the groups should have been negotiable but for our self inflicted shortcomings.
I see ourselves , Ajax and Copenhagen are pushing for club coefficient to be a criteria for automatic entry to the groups . Can’t see it happening , but if it did there would be an income stream there which could make us more competitive .
Provided of course that the board was interested in building a competitive European team.
our ‘newly’ purchased defence is…
elhamed ajer jullien bolingoli
it still has not played together.
does our manager have a clue?
doesn’t look like it
Scullbhoy
`I agree with the gist of what you are saying, but name one club that ever won anything without buying players.`
I cannot. But my guess is that all clubs buy players but only in a very small number of cases does that result in winning anything.
Just to be clear. I am not against buying players. My point is that many SEEM to think that will guarantee success. I think there is plenty of evidence that it doesn`t.
Glendalystonsils………..of course we would have been all rooting for Ajax. Come to think of it, Liverpool had not won an English League title in 29 years. Ajax are battling through qualifiers as we speak even the great Billy Connolly could not make this joke up.
Natknow
they have plenty of competition from Celtic bloggers these days who are also happy to put the boot in in order to make money from our club and support.
Indeed, and we all know which Bloggers and which sites.
GLENDALYSTONSILS on 20TH AUGUST 2019 3:39 PM
Yes, interesting reading today, but I fear the time spent will prove to have been wasted. Still, got to try and hopefully theres an alternative course of action planned if theres no improvement.
By all accounts the proposals last time around were so bad for us that we were delighted to cling on to the route we have now, even with 2(I think?) fewer places for clubs like ourselves in the group stages.
HH
We have no chance of signing Benkovic.We have every chance of signing Wanyama,we just have not bothered.I think.Dont know for sure.We should have.Yes,as I have said before,I would take Taylor tomorrow.Not being “Biscuit tin”,just think he is a good LB.For the money,a bargain.For RB,no idea,I think El Hamady is a great replacement for Mikel,so far,and a loanee,looking to get some game time,might be an option.We will not pay big bucks for a great RB,nor would we get one.Realism,please.No way writing of the new signings.How many minutes has Julien played?Boli looking better each game.Need a right tough ass to come to another country,and be a star right away.Patience,please.Still in dejection about our lack of new transfer business,but what ya gonna do.Me,looking forward to whupping some Nordic ass on Thursday.If Celtic TV ever get me up and running.
Re Tom Boyd.
I will be very surprised if any punishment is doled out to either Celtic or Tom.
JJ
Buy the right players – yes. Hard to argue with that!
BSR (I think) posted earlier a list of ins and outs over the past weeks.
There are many, many players that have been purchase over the years that are nowhere near the quality required. If that happened during the tenure of a single manager than we’d probably have a ready-made explanation.
But it’s happened over year and so is clearly a structural issue.
WHY do we buy players?
Many on here and elsewhere would argue that it’s not to improve the team.
To get so many wrong over such a long period suggests we do not have the right scouts with the right criteria to identify the right players in the first place.
The club is now apparently overhauling the scouting department. Maybe that will fix the issue. Maybe not.
turkeybhoy
“…if Celtic TV ever get me up and running”
more chance of us signing a few world-beaters this week
LAMBERT14 on 20TH AUGUST 2019 2:04 PM
#lawwellout
Lambert – Would you be willing to let us have Dave King as his replacement?
Hot Smoked on 20th August 2019 3:40 pm
I again agree with most of what you are saying, but selling your best players or seeing them retire and not replaced will almost certainly see a downsizing and this is what a lot of fans fear is happening to Celtic currently.
HH
MARADOMINIC,
What did you think 1st time you saw,Paul Elliott.I know what me and the rest of the crowd thought.WTF,is that.Nearly,a full season of it.The great Billy Mc Neil,roasted every time he played against certain players,Joe Harper,Jim Forrest,and god help us,George Mc Lean.Other greats took time.Lustig took a long time before he was accepted.I was there.Just examples.The current one is Pukki.Making snap judgements on people,is a stupid thing to do.A lot of people take time.Some never make it with some.Forrest,still has his detractors.Again,just an example.FFS,have a bit of patience.
THE REAL STORY AND WHY CLUJ COULD COST 9 IN A ROW
Had we got past Cluj we had a shot at £40 million CL group stages
As importantly even if we lost we would have gone straight into the Europa League group
So beating cluj guarantees minimum £10m
Today (2 days before we play AIK) there is a risk Celtic will not be in Europe
Within the space of a week we have gone from looking at £40m to potentially nothing
Now we all know PL will be reluctant to sanction any positive transfer stuff under these circumstances
We all believe that the last 3 or so years have given us rich reserves to call on at times like now
But I do not believe we will buy a “game changing definite first team starter” until we are confirmed in the Europa League Group Stages (and even then I a not that confident)
Meaning if we get knocked out by AIK – what we have is all we have
You can answer the question how you like – but is it enough to win the league
PL has managed over £100m additional revenue from player sales and CL money he is up against a group that are in debt and in court more than most yet he has lost that dominant position by poor management of managers and a lack of structure around our recruitment
he is culpable of corporate neglect on a grand scale
But that’s OK because we have circled the wagons
67ECW
SCULLYBHOY,
How would you have gone about replacing KT.I have said,sign Taylor.A player who looks to me like a young KT.
Many dont want to know.He is Scottish,FFSh
HOT SMOKED on 20TH AUGUST 2019 3:24 PM
Understand what you are saying in principle. Spurs managed to have a better season last year without signing a player.
However, we are short at fullback in terms of numbers. Two fullbacks are a minimum or we will see more square pegs in round holes (Ajer, McGregor etc.)
Traditionalist88………….You make some interesting points and obviously know what’s going on behind the scenes regarding teams outside the elite and Cjhampions League competition. However still convinced it’s a flawed setup
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 20TH AUGUST 2019 4:02 PM
This isn’t an attempt to make excuses for the board. The club has failed in at least the last 3 windows.
It has to be pointed out that the “Lawwell won’t spend until CL is confirmed” or “PL has gambled on the CL again” is a myth.
Name me the big time signing that was made after CL qualification was achieved. It doesn’t work that way.
My concern about Celtic is that we waste time chasing players out our reach. The point shouldn’t be “why didn’t we sign John McGinn summer 2018”
He was already slipping out our reach by then.
It’s why didn’t we sign John McGinn summer 2017 or even summer 2015 when he was a bosman and already one of the highest rated Scottish prospects.
Why did we chase Piccini for RB? Castagne? These guys are out our reach. We need a director of football who knows our place in the market.
HANKRAY on 20TH AUGUST 2019 4:08 PM
I agree there has to be a way to marry the wishes of all and absolutely agree that the big clubs in smaller leagues can add so much to the competition, as proven by Ajax last season but also by ourselves in the group stage numerous times(at least at home!).
But last seasons CL competition had some incredible games and I feel we are good at complaining when we’re not at the party.
Many fans of clubs in smaller leagues than ours complain that the likes of us get to parachute into the EL but hey, we’ll take it! We have two hands tied behind our back trying to compete in the transfer market so take what you can get and campaign for change for the better!
HH
Natknow
Personally i think we buy a player in the hope of developing and punting, regardless of whether its someone we need or not for the team.
PL is reluctant to spend regardless of what competition we play in Europe, i wonder what is intransigence is based on, i have an idea though………………………
TIMALOY29 on 20TH AUGUST 2019 4:13 PM
My concern about Celtic is that we waste time chasing players out our reach. The point shouldn’t be “why didn’t we sign John McGinn summer 2018”
He was already slipping out our reach by then.
It’s why didn’t we sign John McGinn summer 2017 or even summer 2015 when he was a bosman and already one of the highest rated Scottish prospects.
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We do sign prospects. They are usually referred to disparagingly as “projects” and not given a chance to develop.
It might be all the success of the past 10 years has raised fans’ expectations to the point where we do not have the patience for this. We want success. Now.
Apparently.
Bourne,
El Hamed ( pass marks )
Only if you consider passing as an incidental part of the game and not integral. His inability to find a Celtic player with a pass is worrying.
GO TELL THE SPARTIM on 20TH AUGUST 2019 4:24 PM
Natknow
Personally i think we buy a player in the hope of developing and punting, regardless of whether its someone we need or not for the team.
PL is reluctant to spend regardless of what competition we play in Europe, i wonder what is intransigence is based on, i have an idea though………………………
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Plenty of fans would share your view mate – based on what they see with their own eyes.
Europe is a bonus.
AIK Stockholm come to Celtic Park on Thursday night and just to let you know in case anyone may be worried, Shamrock Rovers played a 2-2 draw against the Swedes in Stockholm but lost at home 0-1. Shamrock Rovers like AIK were well into their season so fitness was not a problem though I’m not sure if the Irish Hoops are a fulltime pro outfit. I would regard Celticas as several steps above Shamrock so Celtic should be ok against the Swedes we hope.
Over the weeks, even months I resigned myself to losing KT, I consoled myself with the statement that “we had a contingency plan in place.”
I conveniantly remembered the statement ” We will come out each transfer window stronger than we go in ”
There is still time of course, but maybe some of us want to hold our custodians to their word.
Spending wisely on planned, homeworked best fit players will of course enhanse the team. Spending big money, with the manager not totally convinced will result in a very expensive unused bench.
HH.
https://twitter.com/gibbogibby1/status/1163545736342056960?s=12
Version no 6…
TIMALOY29 on 20TH AUGUST 2019 4:09 PM
I accept my knowledge of how we buy and sell players regardless of timescales is at best limited
But why is it, as we approach the end of another transfer window, I feel the hot breath of the hun on my neck
When we should be so far away from them that we are more worried about Aberdeen
I do not feel the confidence glowing through my veins as I have in the past
I do not know how transfers work but I do know we are cash rich and player poor
67ECW