Keep an eye on what’s happening at Leeds United. The club is under offer from ‘colourful’ Italian, Massimo Cellino, who will become owner if the Football League decide that his conviction for defrauding Italian tax authorities is not sufficient to make him an inappropriate person to control a football club.
If Cellino is declared unsuitable by authorities in England I am told to expect a coordinated media campaign to have people with similar backgrounds hounded out of the game here. The is a dirty war underway for control of one of Scotland’s newer clubs.
Leeds have historically been a club which it’s difficult to feel sympathy for but I genuinely feel for their fans, who suffered for the lack of a director to say ‘No more money’ amid the clamour to reach ‘the next level’, whatever that was at the time.
Now they are a massive club but lose circa £15m per year, making it impossible for them to compete with clubs far smaller than them. Being subject to the attention of convicts is a direct consequence.
On a completely unrelated matter, I read Phil Mac Giolla Bhain today use the word “Wonga” in relation to Newco Rangers’ recent attempts to finance. That was exactly the word used to me to describe a potential financer who is set to meet the club tomorrow. The campaign to oust the club’s current owners is significantly undermining their ability to do their jobs.
Well done to Big Yogi and the Highlanders for their unconventional route to the League Cup Final. It must have been an absolute sickener for Hearts fans to lose to nine men. Absolute. Utter. Sickener. Oh well.
I read Barcelona lost on Saturday for only the fifth time when Messi had scored. Can anyone name another occasion?
Sean’s Trust, the charity founded by the family of St John Doyle (George Ryan) in memory of Sean, who was stillborn in 2000, is holding a dinner with live entertainment on Friday, 4 July, at the Fullarton Suites, Tollcross Road.
Sean’s Trust aims to raise funds to provide holiday homes to provide respite for families bereaved through stillbirth. The Trust will also raise awareness and tackle misinformation surrounding the issue. To book at ticket (£35, discount for tables of eight), email Linda at lindacroker@googlemail.com
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Leeds Utd.
I was big Leeds fan for many years mainly because the nephew of a neighbour spent all his school holidays in Glasgow and we were good friends. I started to follow Leeds and he turned from being a Rangers fan (due to his Scottish family) to Celtic fan. We still keep in touch > 40 years later.
It is said that a guy will change the girlfriend regularly, the wife occasionally but never their team because that is a love beyond anything a woman can understand (well I do to wind up the wife). But in the period when Leeds were going mad paying players way beyond what the could afford, I went right off the them and lost interest. When they re-emerged after their financial troubles, I had no interest in them whatsoever as I saw it as a totally new club.
Paul rightly points out that it is the fact that they have been bounced from one controller to another that has destroyed any hope of stability and they are open to any party that wants to play with them.
When our Glasgow football neighbours went through the same, I did feel a lot of sympathy for (some of) the fans who, deep down, know things will never be the same again. The parallels with Leeds are growing every day and a second financial collapse or the sale and leasback of any assets will leave them in the same position.
As an ex Leeds fan, I turned to one of their rivals Sheffield United – maybe people in Glasgow can take solace in having a rival team to support?
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 7m
U20s open scoring after 9 minutes. John Herron cuts ball back & Holmbert Fridjonsson scores his first Celtic goal. 1-0 to the Hoops. (PC)
Expand
HH
/Bishop B
billy bhoy 05
13:18 on 3 February, 2014
………………………
If the game you’re talking about was a few seasons ago, the game with Spartak kicked off about 5pm. Pavelycenko(sp)’scored in the first couple of minutes. Sky lost the pictures and commentary and when it restarted we were told that the ‘goal’ had been disallowed. Hartley scored for us and the same Russian scored for Spartak. IIRC.
KINGLUBO
Their hatred for him comes from a different place and under the influence something could have happened. I think that is a fair analysis given all the stuff that has gone on between those two clubs down the years.
They do say they hate them more than us after all.
Alex Salmond walks into a Royal Bank to cash a cheque. As he approaches the cashier he says, “Good morning, Ma’am, could you please cash this cheque for me?”
Cashier:”It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?”
Salmond :”Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn’t think there was any need to. I am Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland !!!!”
Cashier:”Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of impostors and forgers and requirements of the legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID.”
Salmond : Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am.”
Cashier: “I am sorry, Mr. Salmond , but these are the bank rules and I must follow them.”
Salmond :”C’mon lassie . I am urging you, please, to cash this cheque.”
Cashier: “Look Mr. Salmond, here is an example of what we can do.
One day, Tiger Woods came into the bank without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his cheque.
Another time, Andre Agassi came in without ID. He pulled out his tennis racket and made a fabulous shot whereas the tennis ball landed in my cup. With that shot we cashed his cheque.
So, Mr. Salmond , what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you?
Salmond stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, “Honestly, my mind is a total blank…there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can’t think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don’t have a clue.”
Cashier: “Will that be ten pound or twenty pound notes , Mr. Salmond ?
If they survive for next season they are never coming straight up. A solvent hearts will have money behind it and will be their worse nightmare.
The hate from the sheep all came from one man and one man only, Alex FergesHUN he was the wideo with the west coast bias accusation, and it all went downhill from there.
I heard The Rangers were turned down for a Wonga loan – too big a risk apparently
Tele writer: ‘Neil Lennon
abuse was disgraceful’
By JAMES MASSON, 3 February 2014
10.57am.
Tele writer James Masson could well
understand how Celtic team boss Neil Lennon
felt as he was pelted with all sorts of items at
Tynecastle on Saturday.
James was covering the Aberdeen v St
Johnstone League Cup semi-final for the Tele
and was struck by one of the items which had
been launched at Lennon during the game.
Lennon, who’s Celtic side face Aberdeen in the
Scottish Cup, was forced to leave the ground
before the final whistle due to the abuse he
was receiving.
Tele man Jim said: “I was in the overflow
section of the press box with Neil Lennon in
the directors box about three or four rows
behind me.
“Suddenly, a paper cup filled with cola, which
still had some of the soft drink in it, came
flying down and struck me on the back.
“I later learned that, although it had missed
Lennon, it also struck the laptop of a press
colleague showering the laptop with cola
before continuing on its journey which ended
with me.
“The abuse Lennon was subjected to was
disgraceful.
“However, given the amount of drunk fans,
both Aberdeen and St Johnstone, I
encountered on the way to the game I wonder
how on earth they managed to get into the
ground.
“They should’ve been stopped, they weren’t
and some ended up causing bother at the
match.”
Appears that Phil’s blog is down at the mo… possibly under attack?
They don’t like it up ’em Captain Mainwarring!
HH
/Bishop B
Possibly under attack, lol.
testing testing, LG score yet?
KLV
Les
Phil has stAted on twitter that his web hosting company are looking into it.
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 4m
Half-time: Celtic U20s 1-0 Partick Thistle. Holmbert Fridjonsson’s early goal separates the sides at the break.
From the tweets it seems that Fridjonsson and Griffiths are linking well. :)
HH
/Bishop B
Thanks Len, Gentlemen.
KLV
kevinlasvegas Supporting Wee Oscar Knox
Celtic Football Club@celticfc9m
Half-time: Celtic U20s 1-0 Partick Thistle. Holmbert Fridjonsson’s early goal separates the sides at the break.
https://twitter.com/celticfc
RRC
Re “walk a mile in his shoes,etc”
Sorry for the delayed response. Service in this pub is shocking,haha!
Billy Connolly said what’s the problem,he’s a mile away and I’ve got his shoes…
ACGR if you are lurking just want to say thanks for the bottle,man that,s a rare good dram. I was tempted to open it at the game,was it cold or what? I thought our new man Stefan “Modric” was very very impressive looks a real find. Hope things go well on your trip. Hail Hail Hebcelt
leftclick We are all Neil Lennon
Thanks mate, Even better,
KLV
Doc is Neil Lennon
13:01 on 3 February, 2014
Absolute. Utter. Sickener. Oh well.
You missed out Total:-)
——-
And magial and brilliant and made my day and hell scud it intae them and………….:)))
Ps
I hope Hearts took their full allocation of stewards along to watch :))
BILLY BHOY 05
You are not alone in your dislike of The Horseshoe. A certain mutual acquaintance is none too enamoured of it-ask him.
THE BARCA MOLE point-blank refused to join me in it on the evening of the blue taxi,and PF AYR made his excuses.
I was in it with my Dad when karma paid a visit to Naismith,sitting with a buncha huns,never met them before.
If all huns were like these fellas we would all have a love-in. Smashing fellas,as are practically everyone I have met in there over the years.
Not an apologist for the place,we all have our own opinions,but I reckon it’s the only place you’ll see a bin man and a lawyer,for example,having a conversation on equal terms.
Plus,they served me from a rather early age!
“@Pmacgiollabhain: My site is currently offline and my web hosting company are investigating the cause right now.”
Paul67
They will be applying for state aid next.
Haud oan, have they not already blown the whistle on that outLANDish idea?
Celtic Football Club@celticfc41 secs
53mins: Patrik Twardzik, on as a substitute for Leigh Griffiths at half-time, converts the spot-kick. It’s now 2-0 to Celtic.
They sh*t in our shoes, but we pish in their bovril.
HH!!
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon, supporting WEE OSCAR..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
its ok I saved it from I think it was your post and Emailed many with it to many:))
Phil Macgiollabhain
Sevco on borrowed time
Leave a reply
Sevco need money.
The only question this week on Planet Fitba is this: who will lend money to the Ibrox outfit?
Recently, the Rangers International Football Club CEO and his colleagues were in City of London asking some serious guys for serious cash to keep their loss making subsidiary HMS Sevco afloat.
I have in my possession the names of the five companies that they approached last month in the City of London.
However, Graham Wallace and Philip Nash left the Square Mile empty handed.
One ‘boutique firm’ connected to the prestigious Munich Reinsurance Company agreed to the meeting only out of courtesy to Wallace because of his time at Manchester City.
These chaps asked Graham Wallace a straight question about the ownership of the assets and he couldn’t give them a straight answer to their satisfaction.
Although finance is global most of the companies they visited in the Square Mile are conduits for cash from the Eurozone.
This added the problem of the exchange rate to deal which, I am reliably informed, puts the final price of any deal up by about five per cent.
In all of the meetings they found that RIFC was off the ATR scale.
That is ‘Attitude To Risk’, which means the higher the risk the higher the points above base rate.
Sometimes for a bad risk these boys will go up to 25 points above Euribor.
It is essentially corporate Wonga.
However, RIFC couldn’t even get that!
When you go to these guys your business is already in trouble.
Moreover they need to know the bottom of your barrel, how big the hole is to the last penny.
You also have to show them that you have a clear plan of action to get yourself out of the financial mess you’re clearly in.
This is high risk borrowing for people in a real fix.
The people who are lending are pricing it at that level of risk.
Quite simply it is last port of call stuff.
Yet even these guys won’t touch them.
It would appear that Ibrox is now a toxic brand in the wider business world.
We know that no one will lend to them.
They can’t open a current account and get standard banking facilities.
This is a company with no credit line from a bank.
The more I learn about his guy Wallace, the more I feel for him.
The job was sold to him as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in England.
I understand that he took the gig on the understanding that a sale and leaseback deal on the fixed assets of Sevco was a given.
Sadly, the stadium and the training ground needed a clean bill of health.
Thankfully Albion Car Park is in tip top shape.
However, the stadium that John Brown played for has seen better days and I understand that the repair list is a nightmare.
Murray Park also has a few issues, but Ibrox is a no-go area.
When Donald Muir took over at Rangers in 2009 the maintenance regime was cut to the marrow.
So far the only battle that Graham Wallace has won inside Stalag Sevco has been to get Brian Stockbridge out of the door.
The clever folk at Laxleys believed that voting the hapless Financial Director off the board at the AGM would create more problems.
So they thought it better to vote him back on and then show him the door afterwards.
When he was on gardening leave his desk yielded up an entire treasure trove of bad news and they found bills that had been unopened, bills that had not been logged.
Overnight the bad news got worse and the debt hole got bigger.
Stockbridge was then asked to accompany Graham Wallace and Philip Nash to London on the pretext of meeting with potential lenders.
This, I was told, allowed the CEO and his highly paid associates, along with people from the Laxleys
“To sweat Stockbridge for what he knew”.
Philip Nash is now effectively acting as chief financial officer (CFO) and doing the job that Stockbridge was meant to do.
With each passing day, Nash is turning more and more stuff up.
Graham Wallace does have a plan to turn this omnishambles around, but that requires cash in the short term.
Only last week the planned redundancies of staff at Ibrox and Murray Park were called off because the new entity didn’t have the cash to pay them statutory redundancy pay.
The workers were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement before the meeting started.
Then they were told that they could go now and they would get paid what was due them in terms of severance pay when the company had it.
It is unclear if there is enough money in the clumpany’s bank account to pay ALL of the wages this month.
One well-placed insider told me that even if the first team squad are paid what they are due in February, it is not certain that there will there be enough money to pay all of the other staff.
Let’s be clear on this, dear reader: Stalag Sevco can only escape an insolvency event if someone, anyone, will lend them money.
Their monthly cash burn is not £1m per month; that is rather wide of the mark.
It is only £714,000 per month,
Then there are those pesky bills.
There is more, much more to come on that one dear reader.
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 58s
60mins: Goal for Celtic! John Herron makes it 3-0 with a cultured, curling finish with the outside of his foot. Superb play from the U20s.
HH
/Bishop B
Just wondering like, Graham….?
@GrahamSpiers … Has sleekit mccoist whispered anything in anyone’s ear lately…sorry, I forgot, you didn’t see that…Bless you….!!!!
Leigh Griffiths subbed already
What is going on
Great info from Phil; obviously well researched. The wolf is well and truly at their door!
:-))) HH
Another non-scoring forward?
Leigh Grifiths subbed having failed to disturb the ingyin bag.
Must have been a Lawwell signing.
leftclick we are all neil lennon
14:09 on 3 February, 2014
It WAS mine, bejazzus….hahahahahahaha……get’s better by the minute….!!
gerrybhoy
14:19 on 3 February, 2014
It cannae get in fur the elephant..hehe
Thanks to all my CQN friends. My brother Gerry is still with us. I arrived at Monklands 8pm last night and am at his bedside as I type this. He is in a bad way but is able to talk, just, and understands what is being said to him. It is heartbreaking but I sm so glad I got here in time.
Thanks sgain for sll your prayers and support.
GerryBhoy
14:19 on 3 February, 2014
‘Great info from Phil; obviously well researched.’
###
I’m repeating myself here.
But that article and the others before it haven’t come about as a result of investigative journalism. The information is being fed to him by someone on the inside, someone with an agenda.
The question is: what is the agenda.
Tom
14:23 on 3 February, 2014
I’m glad to read that you have at least have had some precious time together. Stay strong.
Good to Hear you got to see him in time Tom,
God Bless mate,
KLV