Here’s how it works. Celtic tell agents the profile of players they are looking for, who subsequently send their client’s CVs and DVDs back. If one fits the profile (for example: a central defender, with pace, wage budget £X, transfer budget £Y), then he is retained for consideration.
Some retained for consideration make it onto ‘the list’. Celtic actively pursue these players, usually more than one per requirement, as they know how deals can fall through. If players start to drop off the list, either because they have not performed to standard when scouted, or Celtic’s approach is declined, names are added to the list from those retained for consideration.
That ‘retained for consideration’ folder generates more advertising revenue than anything else in football. Lots of people are incentivised to link a name to Celtic (or many other clubs). The agent can legitimately tell a journalist he’s spoken to Celtic about a player, the journalist can then trail the transfer saga for weeks, its rise, climax and last minute hitch, will generate millions of hits. This is called Click Bait, you are the target.
Consider the near certainty of the reporting that Jelle Vossen was about to sign for Celtic. The Genk striker matches Celtic’s criteria in several areas: he’s a striker, they will be able to afford his wages and transfer fee, they have received information on him. Hundreds of articles have been written on this basis alone, generating thousands of pounds of advertising revenue.
The problem is, Jelle Vossen isn’t on ‘the list’. His CV is stuck in a folder somewhere at Lennoxtown, not currently under consideration. Celtic are not actively pursuing his services.
Danny Wilson? Never made it onto the list. His agent got a courteous response “months ago” when first asked if there was interest. Danny’s CV is in the same folder Jelle’s is in. When I spoke to a senior source at the club yesterday, the player is so far off radar, the source couldn’t even remember Wilson’s name when I asked about Celtic being rejected in favour of a newco.
The PR behind the message sent out with Wilson’s signing was inspired. Some of the reporting was shameful. The days of being able to twist a story against Celtic without consequence are gone. The BBC recanted one story (at the insistence of reporter Alasdair Lamont). Sky Sports News gave Neil McCann a stage for utter guff on Wilson rejecting Celtic, while much of the print and online media quickly moved on, not caring one way or the other.
The episode reminded me of the almost universal line the media took the day Neil Lennon resigned – unhappy at Celtic’s transfer budget, apparently. This message was never attributed but it was reported so widely, you could trace the manipulation. We even had the Usual Brigade of ex-Celts ready to express their disappointment at the club’s financial decisions. Economic illiterates, to a man. The story was nonsense and almost certainly came from the same source as Wilson’s rejection.
There are strikers on Celtic’s list, but if the agent’s talking to the media, chances are, he’s not talking to Celtic anymore.
Here’s a Bob Dylan singing Like a Rolling Stone, especially for Neil McCann. How does it feel………?
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Met a guy called Paddy while we queued to get in, at one of the midweek games near the end of the season who was from Sheffield , he had travelled up after work was travelling back after game then returning to see the Celtic on the sunday.
slipped my mind to ask him which political party he supports while getting to know him and thank him for his effort.
:))))))))))))).
Hail Hail if yer lurking Paddy
‘…superficial rhetoric,sporadic acts of philanthropy and perfunctory concerns for the environment.”
Has wee Francie been readin’ the ole Ibrox Directors Handbook?
Gary67
11:07 on
26 June, 2015,
Exactly what I put on yesterday.We ARE much stronger this time.Does not mean we should be complacent.We need a striker.I like Griffiths,jury STILL out on Scepovic,which seems incredible.If LG is injured,we have only one option.If we are lucky with LG,and really cannot find a striker who suits our requirements,although,I think Vossen ticks every box,then I would be happy to go with him.
Not getting too worked up like some.A long way to go in the TW,and most deals done near the end.As I said earlier,Brugges like us want to see how they fare before selling.
I cannot believe it.
Planned my holidays around Celtic being seeded in CL so play their second leg ties at home!
First game at home on 15th, my flight home gets in at 21.45.
Seriously miffed.
Cannot remember the last cup tie I missed at Paradise.
I’ll need to check if I can switch flights to Tuesday then try to convince Mrs EC67 that we have had enough sun by then!
EC67
Lennon’ n’ Mcmjallby- that would be an ecumenical matter
Timaloy. After vic was sold we had a large positive cash flow at AGM Peter lawell said thus was an example of that our club was in good shape. He said this again in the press on the 7th of feb 2014. Next day aberdeen controlled the midfield at Celtic park to knock us out the cup. Big vic had not been replaced
Wrong priorites
DBBIA – don’t mention the Clangers. Somebody will start going on about the ole Soup (Taker) Dragon and there will be no end of it…
Timaloy. It is much easier to find midfield and defence projects as they are under the radar
Strikers you have to pay the price for them
We have wasted millions on failed pl policy on striker projects
Not good enough
timaloy29
11:15 on
26 June, 2015
@Turkeybhoy
http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/572263/Celtic-Brandon-Mechele-Club-Brugge
Looks like you were bang on.
The reason I nabbed him last night was,as I said,he is a bit of a personality in Brugges.A fanatic for the club,and very up on his football.He did say the boy was tremendous,and the Belgian press are saying that he and Denayer will be Belgiums new defense for the future.
Maybe the asking price too much for us.He did say he thought Vossen very good,and wished Brugges would sign him.
[FFin’] “Sarver plans to spend around £40m completing the takeover and has insisted manager Lucas Alcaraz will have up to £30m to bolster his squad in the transfer market.”
——
“He wanted full control of the club which I would be very nervous about. I do believe we have a better option with the current board.”
——
“I think we’re far better with the genuine Rangers men we now have in control.
They won’t let us down.”
——
“We need to be owned and run by people who really care about [Sevco]’s place in the world now and in the future.
We are on the right path.”
——
“Happier with a board populated with Rangers men than a sugar daddy. If he is investing £30m you can be assured he has a plan how be gets double that back. These guys didn’t make their money by issuing freebies.”
——
“I don’t want our club to be a rich mans toy. I’m am delighted with who has control, everything about the club is changing for the better just now, and will continue to do so with [Sevco] men at the healm.”
——
“He seems like a decent chap but we’re better off and SAFER where we are.”
——
“we have men who have Rangers in their blood now running our club, the herald are just trying to antagonise us.” [They’ll never manage that, Sammy]
——
“We have people we can trust in charge, fan involvement and a commitment to increasing that, assurances that enough money will be made available to take us back to where we belong.
Would much rather be in our shoes than Levantes anyway”
——
“The story is nonsense.
Someone could have written the same story about King and [Sevco].”
——
“To put our faith on an unknown quantity at a time we were in the hands of unscrupulous leeches would have been a step too far as he could have been just another member of the gang. Happier with the way things have turned out so far.”
——
“Hopefully that makes sure he’ll be nowhere near Ibrox in the future then.
Will watch Levante closely as I’m certain it won’t end well.”
And, should we be short of greetings cards, the corpulent gastropod is there to oblige:
“To celebrate the largest folk festival in Europe FF is producing 12th of July cards ahead of this summer’s festivities.
Each pack contains 6 cards and envelopes. If you are in Glasgow we can arrange to meet you for sales – each packet is £4.99 plus p&p.
Links for postal sales (p&p inc) are given below. European and Overseas orders are sent airmail, UK packets are sent 1st Class. Sadly overseas postage costs from the UK have soared in recent years.”
Someone once sad that CQN needed more birds .. not bluebirds though.
Now theres a shock.Although it only happened yesterday,the SMSM have seemed to have forgotten that Mr Eustace has made his way back to unemployment in England,rather than sign on the dotted line for the Huns.Cue the mad desire to find more headlines and recommendations for that other stellar signing,Keirnan.
Do you think they think no one has noticed?.
Jobo ha very fitting for now !!!
I hear tomorrow could be different.
Is this being added to your morning report ?
Monaghan,
Brilliant once again.You can just feel the depth of their pain through their false bravado.
Spewing in their cornflakes.
Monaghan1900
Thank you
A smile breaks out before I have read a word of their deluded rambling as I have a rough idea what lies in store, but they even surpass themselves sometimes
stupid stupid zombies
Syd
As a point of reference, do you have a particular transfer budget or spend range in mind that, following such investment, absolves PL of responsibility for results on the park?
In other words: At what level of spend does responsibility for results transfer from PL to the team manager?
Just curious, like.
TBB
Delanys Dunky: check out this link. I was barred from the WildRover just off Las Ramblas so if you go there don’t tell them I sent you:-)
http://suitelife.com/2012/02/02/top-5-irish-pubs-barcelona/
The battered bunnet
Of course you can ask
The zero spend for the CL qualifiers was down to one man Peter lawell
It was his fault that we lost out on the income
seen on twitter
“A Hight court judge has upheld a decision not to hold a public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989”.
Parkheadcumsalford1051: I need to go from Glasgow to Largs today to get my golf clubs for the day oot in Millport. I have just checked bus times and it takes 2 bloody hours. I know it is McGills buses but the original stagecoach could have been quicker. Largs , the back of beyond
SydneyTim
10:38 on
26 June, 2015
Owen
Peter lawell has failed providing funds to our managers to match the spending of teams on a fraction of our turnover
Ps. Whisper it , there is no Sky TV in eastern Europe and we can’t match these teams for investing
——————————————————————————————————–
I respect that your views are honest and you would want the best for us on the park; and yes we have some dire failures in the market, but we have had also some spectacular successes – every club has failures – Chelsea have 30 players out on loan.
What level of debt do you believe Celtic should take on, in the off-chance of CL qualification?
Without get bogged down on PL’s salary – I believe that all that come in financially, goes out again, on the squad and the club – accounts show that we do not have vast reserves sitting in the bank.
The football world, especially in Europe, will become ever more challenging for Celtic – there are no easy answers, just hard choices.
SydneyTim
12:01 on 26 June, 2015
Why not, he gets blamed for everything anyway …… even the oldco hordes blame him for orchestrating their demise
Wee smiley thing disnae come up just like my last post about Happy Clapper.
One thing I DO blame him for is this weather….
Spot on thompsontwin there is no wad of dosh waiting to be spent. Saying that for every 10 p the zombies spend. …….We need to spend wisely. It is a difficult market when brentford can outspend us . The rags know nothing about our transfer targets or they would be punting them to England’s wee teams. I would be very surprised if we didn’t strengthen. Definitely a striker.
Sorry Syd, I was talking prospectively.
What level of spend in the here and now absolves PL for a failure to qualify for the Champions League this season, and allocates responsibility squarely with the team management?
Sepp Blatter says he has not resigned as Fifa president.
The 79-year-old Swiss was thought to have ended his 17-year reign on 2 June amid claims of corruption in world football’s governing body.
But, according to Swiss newspaper Blick, Blatter told a party at a Fifa museum: “I did not resign. I put myself and my office in the hands of the Fifa congress.” Blatter is thought to be considering standing for re-election as president.
Two criminal investigations into alleged Fifa corruption began in the week that Blatter was elected for a fifth term in charge.
Four days after being voted president, Blatter – who is reportedly under investigation in the United States – said: “While I have a mandate from the membership of Fifa, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football. “Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective congress. I will continue to exercise my functions as Fifa president until that election.” However Blatter did not use the words ‘resign’ or ‘resignation’.
Meanwhile, Blatter may not attend the final of the Women’s World Cup in Canada because of the twin investigations into Fifa by American and Swiss authorities.
He would normally present the trophy to the winning team, but Fifa will not confirm whether Blatter or secretary general Jerome Valcke will attend.
A Fifa spokesperson said: “In terms of the Fifa president and the Fifa secretary general, their future travel plans will be confirmed in due course.”
Thompson twin. I don’t believe in debt
I believe there is income that our club are throwing away. Last year was 20m. This year could be 30 million
I have always said a few top class players with sprinkling of youth
But our team has been filled with below aversge players and a large squad of them
Reduce the squad Identity projects in defence and midfield
But pay top dollar to players who score goals
This is against pl policy though , which is not to have high paid players This has worked against us as we have ended up with a large squad , many who are failed projects which has increased costs
Have a Ceo who bonus is both on financial results and qualification of CL
No qualification and no bonus
PL is in his comfort zone as easy to win league and have 40k st. His bonus is secure on failure to qualify to CL
In football and in politics, when you are on the sidelines there are so many easy answers – when you are in power, or in the ‘hot seat’, there are only hard choices.
If Celtic/PL could spend £10/£15/£20 million with impunity, why wouldn’t it/he do it.
Please don’t give me the PL salary crap – after deductions, he takes home around £500k/year.
This for a CEO of a £70/£80 million t/o company.
Should he get less than the top-earning players – they get bonuses too?
The only problem with Celtic is that we are stuck in Scotland – that’s the sum and substance, and no amount of moaning and bad-mouthing PL will change it.
Battered. Ok I would say about 6m positive cash flow invested , if we sell a player for 10m. Then 10m must be made availible to the coach If we sell 10m and he spends 10m then the coach has failed
If we have another zero cash flow and failure to qualify for CL then lawell must go
Paul67
On the threat of streaming via KODI I downloaded the software to my lap top last night to check it out.
I’d compare it’s state after downloading and installing as having opened a flat pack of a furniture item with no instructions.
However a few Googles led me to a number of You Tube tutorials that were very helpful, although I had the tutorial showing on my phone and Kodi screen up on my lap top to make it easier to follow the tutorial and apply the instructions (with lots of stops and rewinds.)
End result was access to a number of recent movies with the learning gathered from putting the flat pack together.
On the threat to Sky what I would say is that if ex pats in Spain were paying Sky in the past, then Sky moving their satellite has forced ex pats in Spain to go Android and as a result of messing around last night with Kodi I have a better idea of what lies within the Android boxes in software terms.
The cost is way below what Sky charge with lots of choice.
I had fears about the cable infrastructure in Spain being able to handle the video traffic, broadband being delivered over the existing wired telephone cables, but already fibre glass optic cabling is being installed in the area and Spain is likely to move mainly to IPTV from to air broadcasting.
It will take a while for the mindset in the UK to move over but it will happen as the to air dinasours die out and Kodi or its counterparts is delivered pre built.
The worry I would have is for Celtic TV if it becomes even easier to watch for free. Why would Celtic keep such an operation going if it’s not making money?
The match going support would be subsidising those who watch for free and the message has to be there is no free lunch.
Somehow the club have to find a way to live in a world that hopefully is going back to the days when size was dictated by the numbers attending and not by the league they were playing in.
To air broadcasting has encouraged the latter, individual choice to watch and pay to watch only our own club by IPTV could be the game changer.
Technically is there any way to carry a code in the stream being pumped out by Celtic that requires a software decoder at the recipient’s end to verify the viewer has paid to watch that is so embedded it cannot be removed by an onward pirate streamer?
Awe naw no the auld ‘we never invest for the CL debate ‘ oan anaw noo
Thomson twin. Pl Salary including bonus ( which is part of salary ) is nearer 1m
COSYCORNERBHOY. 1209
You need the sooooperdoooooper smiley app,available for an exorbitant pittance from HRVATSKI JIM
PS-I told SANDMAN you were a happyclapper. Bet you were chuffed at being called a Nouveau Tim!
You never hear from wee Jim Diamond nowadays
So much for him and his
I Won’t Let You Down
THOMPSONTWIN
Willing to bet that PL is paid more than any player bar Scott Brown.
Auldheid
Kodi is simple enough to work out. With all the links available on the net and youtube guidance a Sevconian could manage it.
MWD said AYE
new article posted.