Trading well is everything. Two years ago we watched a World Cup game between our then right back, playing for Croatia, and the right back we were interested in, who played for Canada. Josip Juranovic went to the semifinal with Croatia, while Alistair Johnston’s Canada went home without a point.
Celtic’s recruitment system told them to trade Josip and buy Johnston. Alistair was the gold nugget lost in the MLS. This and trades like it, gave Celtic a football identity which brought the latest wave of trophies. It is Tier 1 operating mechanism, learned from City Football Group, and aligned to what Hearts have now signed up with.
I am delighted Alistair has signed a new deal that could keep him at the club until 2029. He has the ability and fitness to be a stand out for us in the Champions League for all that time.
Still, ‘Trading well is everything’. You and I have learned so much since we watched the wheels come off Martin O’Neill’s great team, as it expired through age. My suspicion is that we will do less trading like the Juranovic-Johnston deals going forward and more deals like Adam Idah and Arne Engels.
The deal is a good boost ahead of the trip to Tynecastle, not to mention this morning’s AGM.
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HH
Shareholder has room in raptures
Shareholder asks: “Mr Chairman, who was the last Celtic player to score against Rangers? Gary Hooper.”
This generates hysterics from the crowd.
He goes on to say Celtic are going for 55 and if they make it, they’re the real deal.
He then says the term honest mistakes was coined by former referee Hugh Dallas but askes who benefits from these honest mistakes.
He said VAR confirms everything we already knew – incompetence and subconscious bias for one team.
This is like a stand up. Not so much a question. Peter Lawwell interrupts and then he finally says: “Michael Nicholson, you are now the Godfather of Scottish football. You are now Al Pacino.”
Now he is praying. Lord thank you for making me a Celtic supporter. Thanks for Brother Walfrid, Jock Stein, Lisbon Lions, Jock Stein, Fergus McCann, the second voyage of Brendan Rodgers, for getting Craig Whyte off his show trial of 2017, always good to see an innocent man walk free.
Huge rond of applause. Peter Lawwell jokes they’ve run out of time.
Glad AJ has signed a better contract.
More from the floor
Next up is a 95-year-old from Govan who opted not to support his local team. Asks if he can get a seat on the board!
And now a fan fom the Paul McStay CSC who praises the Celtic Foundation for organising the Celtic Sleep Out and says charity staff deserve great reward – as much as other staff.
Good deal for the club and player, potential captain material is AJ, well done to all concerned.
Accessible seating, Engels a star
The next question is about accessible seating at Celtic Park and urging the board to be more transparent with disabled fans. Asks why minutes from fan forum haven’t been published.
Michael Nicholson says he’s aware there has been an issue.
He goes on praise Brendan Rodgers for developing Matt O’Riley but says Arne Engels is more complete and at the stage he developed O’Riley to.
Where’s the money, Rod? Well, actually…
Next up a fan says rock star Rod Stewart should be investing in Celtic!
He says he’s been following the team since 1964 and has contributed more money to the club.
Lawwell jokes that he knows he’s tight but on a serious note says he contributes a lot to the Foundation and does a lot behind the scenes and his genorosity is second to none. But that he’s not sure he would be keen on investing in a football club.
Ticket prices
A supporter talks of the rising ticket prices and would like to see more consideration to that given the club’s bank balance.
He accepts some will argue that’s the price of success but wants to see something given back to the ordinary fan. That’s met with applause.
Michael Nicholson said they spend a lot of time talking about it and that inflation is greater than season ticket price hikes. Champions League prices also frozen.
Stadium redevelopment
Next question is on stadium redevelopment. He proposes crowdfunding to redevelop South Stand.
Michael Nicholson says it’s an area they’ve thought long and hard about. If they were in the English Premier League it would be a much easier decision to make.
Next fan, a member of Celtic Trust, asks if Celtic will commit to setting up a Fan Advisory board to improve supporter engagement.
Michael Nicholson says supporter engagment is a shared amnbition and fan advisory board is one aspect of that. He hasn’t had the chance to go through the club Fan Survey but open to discussing it.
Missing the Mark
Next up is a question on Peter Lawwell’s son Mark Lawwell and when they decided to sack him having been so “jovial” about him at last year’s AGM.
Peter Lawwell says that Joe McHugh, asking the question, runs a blog and that it’s higly personal and he won’t answer the question. He says Joe has an unhealthy obssession with him and his son.
It’s handed to Michael Nicholson who said isn’t a meeting to discuss personal attacks.
Brendan Rodgers also has his say and said Mark did a fantastic job at Celtic. He speaks of his influence in bringing in Ange Postecolgou and players such as Alistair Johnston. Brendan emphasises the passion for Celtic from the Lawwell family and they have the best intentions.
Massive round of applause.
Now Joe goes on about referees and John Beaton, referencing the Hearts game when Yang was controversially sent off.
Michael Nicholson says he was being jovial about ‘penalty to Rangers’ last year. We don’t pick out any individuals. We’ll focus on what we can do to impact positive change, not look at specific referee examples.
Joe now takes club to task over record at youth level, highlighting defeats to Montrose and Morton in the SPFL Youth Cup.
Brendan Rodgers then interrupts and talks about his own track record in youth development and rhymes off the likes of Callum McGregor, Stephen Welsh and Anthony Ralston.
He admits they shouldn’t lose to Morton and Montrose but at Chelsea he lost to Colchester so results like that happens.
Good afternoon, An Tearmann. I hope you and the rest of the Bhoys are well. I hope that scoundrel BRRB behaving himself.
HH
Celtic End game
Season ticket holder asks about the Celtic End in the Jock Stein stand. Are the club planning to build it and if so is there a guarantee fans will be offered similar seats in the stadium?
Michael Nicholson says the initative is not a Celtic one, it’s pulled together by another group of fans. There’s a demand for increased rail seating through survey. Still working through the results of that. In addition, need to look at practicalities and will always take in views of all fans. There does appear to be a demand. Was at Stamford Bridge and they had a standing section behind goals.
Just the ticket
Next up a fan is raging at the UEFA fines the club have been paying for the misbehaviour of fans. And also addresses the issue of distribution of away tickets. Why do they fall into the hands of those who disgrace the club.
He receives a massive round of applause. Peter Lawwell says the fines are unacceptable and they have tried various routes to look at the ticket allocation but to no avail.
Michael Nicholson admits demand far outweighs supply and their system isn’t perfect. On behaviour, he said it’s not just a Celtic issue but football as a whole in Scotland and Europe. Said when away tickets are allocated they don’t always end up in the hands of that person.
Club missing a trick?
A Liverpool-based Celtic fan brings up the subject of stadium expansion. He isn’t a season ticket holder as won’t give the club money to sit on a waiting list but would hand over credit card details in a minute if he was offered a season ticket today. Asks if board truly understand if stadium capacity was increased another 20,000 season tickets would be sold in a nano second.
Peter Lawwell said it was covered earlier but that if the shareholder makes himself known to one of his colleagues it can be discussed further.
On your bike
Fan asks if any discussions with Glasgow City Council regarding traffic issues at Celtic Park.
Michael Nicholson says cycle lanes were brought in temporarily around Covid and have remained since. Fans weren’t consulted and if they were then would have raised concerns. City Council think it’s a good idea to bring back parking restrictions around Celtic Park. But they’ll do best to represent views of fans. Says be might be a cynic but cycling lanes came in when they were bidding for cycling championship.
Praise for women’s team success
Fan thanks Elena Sadiku for work with women’s team. Asks about strategic direction and financial support baord plans to invest.
Chris McKay says women’s team went professional in 2020 during Covid and since 2021 have increased investment every year, won every domesic title and qualified for Champions League. Barrowfield is an area for women’s team to develop.
That’s all folks
And with that, the 2024 Celtic AGM comes to a close. It was pretty much as seamless as expected as the club basks in the success of last season, and the early part of this campaign.
Good afternoon all from the Brazen Head.
Scullybhoy
This old scoundrel never behaves. 😉
Stivs – thanks for the real time updates to a chilly Texas morning.
AJ – superb – love the guy.
Christmas movie – fantastic.
Hoping the tone on here is more 1967 than 1933 today. 🍀
bigrailroadblues on 22nd November 2024 12:20 pm
Good afternoon all from the Brazen Head.
Scullybhoy
This old scoundrel never behaves. 😉
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Good mhan. I hope to get over at some stage this season and have a bit of craic.
Great time to be a Celt.
HH
Peter Lawwell says the fines are unacceptable and they have tried various routes to look at the ticket allocation but to no avail.
That’s a cop out answer,not enough effort made to weed out the culprits,and they still get tickets for away games, semis and finals
Many thanks for the AGM updates. Regarding recruitment model, is it not a question of balancing the two approaches? We need the Engels type as well as the Johnston and O’Riley approach. Best of both worlds.
Getting a wee bit fed up with the Man City & Hearts love in. Does anyone know if Mark Lawell is back in the game?
!!Bada Bing!! on 22nd November 2024 12:29 pm
Peter Lawwell says the fines are unacceptable and they have tried various routes to look at the ticket allocation but to no avail.
Absolute cop out. They know exactly who these guys are but are too afraid to tackle them head on.
They wouldn’t be getting tickets from Exec club memebers or other well heeled investors would they?
just an early reminder, especially for anyone hitting the drink tonight, that Round 13 of Superbru starts back tomorrow with 4 kick offs at 3pm and 2 kick offs later the same evening. Get your predictions in before the drinking as it may help. This message may be too late for BRRB.
“ We’ve thought about it long and hard “ 😂
P. S. “ We’re no daein it “
https://news.sky.com/story/kings-coronation-cost-to-taxpayer-revealed-in-new-report-13258074
Man United check a few hundred tickets at away games, seat must be shown with ID so match with United database who got tickets
Big respect to Saint Stivs for updates from AGM.
Great news about AJ.
Joe McHugh’s site will be interesting reading today. To be fair to Joe- he runs a very good Celtic site but he doesn’t tolerate any comment that is remotely pro-Board or even neutral. I got banned from his comments section for being unwilling to hate our Board, even though there’s another of our “I hate brown folk” Celtic fans who is allowed to post there regularly.
Still- outwith his Board comments and banning people, it remains an interesting site, though he’ll hate me for saying it.
Thanks for the AGM commentary, St Stivs…👍🍀
if they are that concerned about fan behaviour at away games then they should try doing random ballots for the tickets instead of this thing about some sort of order based on how many away games you have been perceived to have attended in the last number of years.
it is a meaningless list these days with so little away tickets and, as was said, the fact that very often the person gaining entry with the ticket wasnt actually the person the ticket was allocated to in the first place but that initial person is still perceived to have gone to the game even though they didnt but keep their place on said list.
if you keep giving the tickets to the same people then you cant be shocked if the same things keep happening, so maybe they should just wheesht about the subject of pyros etc
Many thanks to St Stivs for the AGM updates.
Very interesting
Stadium access, parking and cycle lanes of particular interest.
Disclaimer – there is zero chance of me ever using a cycle lane these days.
Great news about AJ. Really developing well and with further development to come. just a bit surprising that he is happy to stay at Celtic and be coached by Brendan Rodgers and not Neil Critchley.
Think I might go with McCowan for Hatate tomorrow.
From Last Thread..
David66 on 22nd November 2024 6:27 am
…………..
I will TEXT you on Monday or Tuesday Mate.
I just hope that you get the Text, IF not I will try and phone you by Tuesday evening after you finish work.
I haven’t been out for the last 3 weeks ( The last CQN Bevvy in the Shipbank), but I have been more or less stuck in the hoose, waiting for some deliveries when I have done so
i just copied the record updates, rather than people following it on there.
no big deal.
the tone from the top table was all very perfuntory, they did what they have to do for an AGM, and batted away or took the question down a rabbit hole, nothing new or particularly interesting for me.
can kind of be summed up as, we look at things, ponder them, and go back to look at them.
nicolson must be a busy bhoy if he couldnt demand a deadline for the survey results,
in my old job, our opinion surveys for all 60,000 employees had a 3 month turnaround for results, and a year to put actions in place.
that deflection, if only we were in the english league we would build a shiny new stand, that is just a crap response.
as to ticketing prices, well we held them the same as last season, oh that is ok then, families will find £34 doon the back of the couch.
no doubt we are a successful business, and the marketing/sales/deal workers get it right, but a lack of actual ambition about the stadium and the matchday experience does my head in.
i said it was not interesting, maybe one bit was, more rail seating if no a “celtic end”, i guess 122 will become an area as the jungle bhoys are already there.
as an aside, joe personal attack on the lawwells was unneccesary, petty and did make him look obsessive.
having said all that, i thought peter as the chair said too many things.