Vladimir Romanov has grown bored of his Hearts experiment as an investment of tens of millions of pounds failed to change the side from mid-table strugglers into a team capable of something Motherwell seem able to do on significantly less.
Romanov wanted to transform Hearts into the biggest club in Scotland but failed to address the structural limitations of the club. While Hearts may be the biggest team in Edinburgh, Edinburgh is a net exporter of football fans, Tynecastle is squeezed into a cramped corner of the city and provides very little opportunity to harvest corporate income, and, in case you haven’t noticed, there were two well-established competitors in a larger, net-import city with ample corporate income opportunities.
Various Hearts boards have looked to relocate the club or extend facilities at Tynecastle without much headway being made. A bid of £22m was received from a house builder for the stadium some years ago but without a viable alternative the deal stalled.
A viable alternative could come onto the market soon.
If Rangers go out of business Romanov is in a unique position to take advantage. Craig Whyte holds a floating charge on Ibrox and Murray Park but any bid in excess of his liability, which would be considerably less than the value of the properties, which have a book value of £139m, would secure both pieces of real estate.
Hearts could sell Tynecastle and Hearts training ground, raising enough funds to considerably offset what they would need to pay to secure Ibrox, if not provide a surplus, and establish foothold in the Glasgow market to complement their historical Edinburgh fan base. One club would have a pull on a huge proportion of Scotland’s two largest cities.
At a stroke Romanov would ensure his club were for all time, at the very least, the second largest team in Scotland, and, eventually, could push Celtic for top spot.
It would be a ballsy move, but if you want to create a super-club you need to think a little creatively.
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TTTT
We’re fine mate. Had to buy a new laptop on Friday for various reasons and now have lost all your (collective) e.mail addresses. Remember “The List” that pablophanque kicked off? Does it still exist and has it been upgraded?
If so grateful if you would pass it on.
Must catch you and GL2 for a drink soon.
Take care.
Kojo my fine friend,
No Broony in that ‘EFFECTIVE PERFORMER’ shortlist?
Consistently our best player for the last month or so, IMO.
Mr Commons has been un-commonly consistent, aside from his cute thru ball to Stokesy oan Saturday.
I suspect you’ll be backing bunburybhoy’s harsh attitude toward San Diego Boy as ye seem to like siding wi the naughty step bhoys.
In your post tho’ i agree with your other candidates tae shine against the Arabs.
HH tae ye!
AoW
Palacio67
Aye, I remember. The club is grand. Always a good crowd. It’s in Brook Street, very near the railway station. Stay in touch and I’ll look out for you.
My wife is going on a school trip to Normandy that week so I will have parental duties to attend to and will not be spending a long time in the club before or after, but I fully intend to go and watch the game.
Hey lads
So, I was just looking over some of the posts from tonight, and it dawns on me that there might be a lot of truth in this “hidden contracts” business after all.
Let me see if I have this correct.
Whyte took over the club, and started the process of preparing for a pre-pack or liquidation almost at once. He had security over the stadium and training ground, but other assets had to be put out of the reach of the creditors.
So, he looks at the playing squad and isolates those guys he thinks are worth a few quid and would make the nucleus of a good side. McGregor, Davis, Naismith, Whittaker. He looks at Jelavic, but he has just signed for the club and it would raise questions if he was offered a new deal. He looks at Lafferty, perhaps worried about a clause in his contract which entitles Burnley to an extra chunk of cash in the event of him playing a certain number of games … and that contract can’t be altered unless they agree to the terms of it, including that clause ….
So his plan is to keep these guys, in fact, to transfer their ownership to the holding company, which has the security. But he can’t just do it publicly, as that would raise eyebrows and get people interested … so he sets up the smokescreen of contract negotiations .. and using those contract signing talks he draws up new deals which just happen to have a different company name on them …. And he gets these signed, and files them away ….
He then either sends amended copies to the SFA or outright forgeries … and that would have remained a secret had everything gone according to plan … but now, with all eyes on him, is set, instead, to become a massive scandal instead.
That about the size of it?
hen1rik – the gowfers on here know that I’m only joking….aye right!
I am, of course full of praise for the legendary annual CQN golf event organised by Taggsybhoy/Blantyrekev/Johnybhoy, which is a great fundraiser and Hoops event.
You should go to that.
HH
TTTT
PS yer a fud! :-)
tommytwiststommyturns on 5 March, 2012 at 00:09 said:
hen1rik – the gowfers on here know that I’m only joking….aye right!
I am, of course full of praise for the legendary annual CQN golf event organised by Taggsybhoy/Blantyrekev/Johnybhoy, which is a great fundraiser and Hoops event.
You should go to that.
LoL
Celtic_First on 5 March, 2012 at 00:04 said
————————————————
Cheers. If I do not speak to you before hand, I’ll be wearing the Green kilt on the day, with my smaller older brother ! ( Got to get the kilt hires moneys worth!)
HH
James F – Agree as if TFPLG had got some progress in Europe it would have panned out well for Craigy.
Howevah…… sh*t happens! haha.
I still see jail time here for a few and I’d actually visit Ogilvie at the Bar L!
When the big bhoys get involved fae Europe the h*ns will find, to their cost that they are not BLUEfa!
HH
James Forrest
The whole thing is unraveling at lightning speed now, but rangers fans still don’t realize.
I was telling an older guy in the pub last night exactly what we have known here for ages.
But I could see a sadness in his eyes, and I ended up trying to reassure him that his team would be shiny and new and winning again in about five years.
I’m kinda soft that way.
tweeted by colin h tonight
An article which appeared in the Daily Record on 29 May 1998. Sure it must have slipped their minds or they would have reminded us.
The Free Library > Date > 1998 > May > 29 > Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)
GORAM: WHY I SOLD OUT SCOTLAND; Goalkeeper crippled by massive gambling debts.
Andy GoramAndrew Lewis Goram (b. April 13, 1964 in Bury, Lancashire, England) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played for both Oldham Athletic A.F.C. and Hibernian F.C. but is best remembered for having played for Rangers F.C.
who yesterday made a mockery of his decision to quit the Scotland squad just 15 days before the World Cup by selling his story, has massive gambling debts.
The Rangers star cashed in on a pounds 60,000 deal with a down-market English newspaper despite publicly blaming the same paper for forcing him home in the first place.
But he won’t be left with much change after paying off a five- figure sum that the Record can reveal he owes to two major bookmaking bookmaking chains.
Goram, 33, flew home because he feared the paper, which had already exposed his affair with a former employee of Celtic, was about to delve into the past love life of his current girlfriend, Miriam Wylie.
Unsurprisingly, Goram is now changing his tune. Yesterday he told a close friend his return was down to a “multitude of reasons”.
The friend said: “He felt low about playing his last game for Rangers, ending the season with no trophies.
“On top of that he wasn’t happy in the Scotland training camp. They were training one hour a day and there was no drinking allowed.
Publicly, Goram had the cheek to beg Scots fans forgiveness for walking out and even claimed he was willing to rejoin the squad if that was possible.
“I would still love to be part of the squad. Fans think I’ve let them down. If only I could turn the clock back,” he said.
Last night SFA former chief executive Jim Farry James “Jim” Farry dismissed news of Goram’s change of heart.
He said: “When Goram handed in his letter he became a non-person in the eyes of the SFA. We are not interested in him. He is yesterday’s man.”
One of Goram’s gambling debts is for pounds 12,500 and is under an assumed name. But an insider at the bookmaker’s said: “We all know it is Andy. We recognise his voice when he phones his bets.
“He is a great customer because he usually loses. He eventually pays up but we sometimes have to wait.”
Goram doesn’t even have his own house and is currently living with bookmaker pal Jim Fox in Largs, Ayrshire.
He pays the mortgage on his former matrimonial home in Penicuik, Midlothian, and maintenance to second wife Tracey for their son Lewis, seven, and to first wife Jacqui for their 10-year-old son Danny.
Tracey is also preparing to hit Goram with a divorce case and will be looking for Looking for a large settlement.
Goram’s decision to quit the Scotland squad cost him a minimum pounds 61,500 pay-out from the player pool and his fragile finances forced him into the arms of the Scottish Sun.
Goram’s salary at Rangers was said to be pounds 1000 a week when he appeared on a drink- driving charge in 1996.
But the Record can reveal he earns more than five times that. Rangers gave him pounds 1000 a week and seized the rest to pay off his debts. He was on a four- year contract worth over pounds 1million which expires next month. His basic wage was pounds 112,000 in 1994, rising to pounds 120,000 last year.
Each year, Goram received a pounds 75,000 signing-on fee and he also had appearance money of pounds 1000 a game and bonuses of up to pounds 4500 for winning a cup tie.
His total wages for season 1997-1998 are pounds 263,000 and he has sponsorship deals worth about pounds 60,000 a year.
A leading football agent said Goram was unlikely to command wages and perks at that level when he signs for a new club this summer.
He said: “It is more than likely Andy will sign for a first division club in England where the top wages are around pounds 2000 a week. He will still receive bonuses and appearance cash plus a signing- on fee but it will fall short of his Ibrox earnings.”
A friend of Goram said: “Andy needs as much money as possible to pay off debts. He is worried he still hasn’t a deal for next season.
“By leaving the international squad he was walking away from a pool pay- out of pounds 61,500 and he needed to replace that and the newspaper provided the perfect opportunity. It may seem strange he should cash in from the very publication that is bad- mouthing him but needs must.”
Three years ago Goram faced a financial crisis after he first pulled out of a Scotland squad. He was sued for pounds 5875 for work done on his home. His lawyer claimed Goram was counter- suing. The wrangle was eventually settled out of court.
And the Record can reveal Goram and new love Miriam recently checked out of a Borders hotel without paying their pounds 280 bill.
Miriam, 28, also left her watch, and Goram sent a new one to the Ayr pub where she works before flying out to the US with the World Cup squad.
Goram owes money to the Queen’s Head Hotel, near Kelso racecourse which he regularly attends.
Goram and Miriam attended a Monday meeting at Kelso on April 6 before checking in to the Queen’s Head. They stayed for two nights and left on the Wednesday. Seven weeks later, the hotel is still waiting to be paid.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday
Eye-opening stuff about the Rangers on Beeb2 just now!
Bedtime for me. Night all.
TTTT
Hoop hoop Hooray on 4 March, 2012 at 23:58 said
Thanks for sharing your memories of Mr. Mc Bride.
With all the recent euphoria in the Celtic family,I suppose it was inevitable that fate had something bad in store for us.
I never met Mr. McBride but took great comfort from the fact that we had a powerful and brave advocate onside and onboard.
The voice is stilled,but the legacy will remain and provide inspiration for others.
May he rest in peace.
The Huns of FollowFollow complete their utter denial of relaity by starting a thread to convince each other that the Stenna Line Ferry company/or the owner, with Paul Murray and his gang are heading a consortium using Watty as figurehead to save ‘the Rangers’.
They still believe someone will walk in and throw away £50-£100 million to rescue their rancid institution from liquidation and not just wait to fund a newco, which seems beyond their tolerance and future support.
They want ‘the Rangers’ of 1872 or nothing at all – about 50% of them will refuse to follow a SFL 3rd Division Zombie Huns Fc going by what I’ve read over the weeks on there.
Lunatics praying for another lunatic to take over the asylum.
Magic. ;)
James Forrest:
As I was reading that, all I could think of was the TV programme “Hustle”. It sounded like the monologue one of the characters gives in order to explain this week’s “hustle” to the hard of thinking. Or “audience” in common media parlance. ;-)
As Pete Townsend wrote so articulately…”I Can’t Explain”…
Mind you, I was at Tesco earlier and bought a coupe of bottles of wine – one from their “Simply” range (e.g. “Simply Chianti”) and one from their “The Best” Range (e.g. “The Best…Rioja”). In combination, I have therefore been consuming “Simply The Best” since the store closed at around 9pm.
Maybe that explains it…
Lads just remember the word uttering. P67 told us about a couple of weeks ago.
What did burley say about Andre?
Short memories, Craig Burley done more than anyone to win the title in 1998. I remember great scoring performances against:-
Motherwell at Fir Park 2 goals
Hearts a great 1 nil victory
1st goal in 2 nil win over Rangers
and again against Motherwell towards the end of the season whe we were 1 down and in danger of throwing it all away. Craig scored twice before HT to turn the match around. The next day they lost 1 nil at Pittodrie and we stayed top thereafter.
Counldn’t give a toss what he says in commentary.
James Forrest….yes, that seems to be something that might allegedly have happened.
All of this suggests that CW never contemplated administrators going through all these details. Maybe he had planned a quick pre-pack?
My dear,dear,dear,friend…Friend.. The Art o’ War
Hiya,palomine..
Nice chattin wi’ ye..
Nay, Mon vieux..
Ah fully Condemn and Dimiss as complete Balderdashian Rubbish.. Whit ..
BundburyBhoy is Submitting tae this Hallowed Spot in the Blogoshere..
Ah dinna appreciate The Type of Language he has Profusely
Sprinkled with his Postings…with which
he is DEBASING the Ambience..o’ this Formerly Pristine Chalice o’ Dignity.. and True. Celtic Ethos.
Noo. In another part of the Forrest…
Yep…
Ah sincerely agree wi yer guid self..
Broonie , eminently qualifies as a Maist
“Effective” Player..
so dae..
as a Matter o’ Interest…
Ki, Ledley, Wayama…
Rogne,
Again, Ah preface.. the following .. by
IN MA OPINION..
A Consider..
MA DARLING CHARLEY.. tae be oor Maist
Effective..o’ all the Ither..
“Effective Players” in the Gallery..o’ well.. “Effective” Players
Adam and Izzy, hiv a wey tae Go..but, could get there in Time.
as..in Ma opinion.. diz.. Kayal.
Cha..is an “IN-EFFECTIVE PLAYER”
Ah wid release him.
Paddy,is an “Effective” Player.. but..
Only in the capacity of a… Late,Late, Substitute..
He is the Epitome of the Perfect..
“IMPACT PLAYER”
Paddy, is NOT a Starter… in MA opinion..
He has his Uses..and His Moments.
Ah wid Keep Paddy.
Actually,Ah wid find it Hard Cobbles tae..
Find .. Another.. Player, who is a Member of our first team Pool..
Who is NOT.an.. “EFFECTIVE PLAYER”.
Which..is a Good Thing..
Right
Ah am very pleased with the Cadre of
Excellent Players.. that Lenny. Has Assembled.. and
continues tae Dae so..
Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye aloater
Gotta go
Good Night Scotland
Good Night Ireland
Good Night Wales
Good Night England
Good Night Canada
Good Night New Zealand
Good Night Australia
and
Good Night… Ronnie Anderson,wherever you are.
Kojo
Laughih’
Kojo, I did think of Charlie of an EFFECTIVE PLAYER but wiz just using Broony tae get a wee rise oot a ye!
Bit childish oan ma part but that’s part o’ the makeup ah suppose.
Why am I even trying to write like you my dear friend. I do it in company as well.
If there’s an American in my company I start speaking like John Wayne (which is kinda limiting).
Paddy? Poor Paddy. Everything that I like to see in a Celtic player when on the run. Does anyone know why he is still considered not a 90 minute player? The great Socrates was an 80 a -day man (aye i know he’s deid) but was in the same Paddy mould.
I heard that you might be over for the end-game Kojo, would be good to see ya!
HH
AoW
Our Charlie is starting to boss the team.
The more he does the better he will get.
A warm glow thinking about the years ahead…
bunburybhoy on 4 March, 2012 at 23:50 said:
Not sure what touched a nerve to deserve profanity and insults at me.
Just scroll on by me in the future and I’ll afford you the same courtesy.
If you were remotely familiar with the blog you would know that such language is out of order, so I suspect you are at it anyway. Kids read the blog, my three teenage daughters amongst them and as a result I will have to explain to them your insults toward me. Thank you for that.
AoW
Mimicking speech is just natural empathy.
The way you talk to a child is very different from talking to your mates.
Or pretty Irish barmaids (sigh).
And talking Las Vegas Scoats….
Well good luck with that.
San Diego Bhoy
I kinda hoped you would just ignore him, as I think he’s had a wee drink.
Then I remembered you pulling me up for some crass language many moons ago.
And you were right then, and right now.
Definitely bedtime for me. Good night to all the good guys :-)
AoW
Why does the blog always break at night time? No one seems to go on it much…. I am really scared of newco with no debts being allowed into spl straight away, would be fairer if they repaid all tax with interest over a long period and with additional penalties. Would anyone take perry? I think rarely for a rangers player he is not a thug and is a ball playing centre back, certainly better than that useless talentless Goian. I think he would be a good back up to have instead of Dan. Ball playing centre backs are what is needed to do well in Europe.
Antifa
Normal folks are asleep.
Just us “creative” types stalking the blog.
Slightly aff oor heids.
Antifa
I would be wary of any hun centre back.
The assistance of the mib’s always makes them look better than the actuality.
Read Maurice Walsh.
Blackcocks Feather is brilliant.
Read that.
But just read Maurice Walsh.
You will see yourself in the tale, or in the gael.
Trust me, it’s like coming home.
And the way we play – overlapping fullbacks, combined with very defensive opposition tactics, meaning we have to really lay siege to their parked bus goalmouths – leaves us open to counter attacks and long diagonal balls into spaces vacated by the full-backs, meaning our centre backs get very exposed, especially against quick attackers. I think THAT’S the reason we struggle to find “good” centrebacks.
But it is the way we need to play to beat Scottish opposition the Glasgow Celtic Way. Alternative is to play like huns and bludgeon the opposition whilst relying on MIBs to favour us with their “honest mistakes”.
.
FAO Neil Lennon..
Dear Neil..
Have You Stopped reading CQN..?
I Have been Telling You since the 30th of October..or thereabouts..
Drop Sammi and You WILL Drop Points..
Especially Away from Home..
Summa
Twenty questions on Rangers’ 21st day of administration . . .
Chief football writer
THE Rangers crisis is spreading like a political scandal or a grotesque oil spill.
Michael Grant on Monday The Herald
It threatens more damage and laps towards new characters almost every day. How many will be taken down by the time the entire, epic drama has played out?
For the moment, that can be only guesswork given that Rangers and/or Craig Whyte are being investigated by Strathclyde Police, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Duff & Phelps administrators and an independent SFA inquiry.
Everyone is looking for answers – truthful ones this time, Mr Whyte – but as Rangers begin their 21st day in administration, plenty of questions remain: some old and unresolved, others new and alarming. Here are 20 of the biggest:
1
How likely are Rangers to fail completely? This is a business which loses roughly £33,000 a day, £250,000 a week and £1m a month. The administrators have Rangers on a life-support system, pleading for cash. Duff & Phelps claim to be optimistic but for them to acknowledge the “newco” option at all shows that liquidation is very possible.
(If after all their downsizing they are losing – £33,000 a day – how much were they losing a day at the height of their spending?)
2
Is Whyte a criminal? This character’s reputation is in absolute tatters but no-one can accuse him of criminality. There are no criminal charges against him and nor have there ever been. But Strathclyde Police are poring over what’s gone on at Rangers and they may ask the Crown Office to seek a conviction over his financial dealings during and since the takeover.
(?)
3
For all the song and dance Sir David Murray made about selling Rangers only to someone with the club’s best interests at heart, why won’t he explain how it ended up in Whyte’s hands? After six months of “due diligence”, was his research so shoddy that it didn’t even show Whyte had been banned as a company director for seven years?
(Why did the press not dissect Whyte like they did McCann?)
4
Is it true that Murray and Whyte agreed to a mutual clause that neither would publicly criticise the other? They haven’t so far. Why would they both be fearful that the other would have reason to criticise them?
(Why did the journalists not ask the question of both those named when they had the opportunity?)
5
Does Whyte actually own Rangers? If Duff & Phelps aren’t convinced that he put any/enough of his own money into the club, could he be in breach of the undertakings he made at the time of his takeover? Whyte inevitably would challenge such view/decision, of course, and that could mean a long and ugly court case.
(A question for RTC I think)
6
If Whyte’s ownership is contested and it’s proven not to be legally his, who would own Rangers?
(Don’t the herald have any lawyer types on their books anymore)
7
If he has nothing to hide, as he says, why didn’t Whyte’s solicitors comply with the SFA’s requests for information about whether or not he met their fit and proper person criteria?
(Did the SFA ask the question before Whyte got the Gig? Maybe the question should be are those who run the SFA fit and proper?)
8
Rangers’ company secretary Gary Withey has been accused of obstructing the administrators’ attempts to obtain the “missing millions” from the Collyer Bristow client account, ie the balance of the £24.4m Ticketus deal once £18m was used to pay off Lloyds Banking Group. How can Withey defend himself?
(Why don’t these guys ask all the former directors and company secretaries of Rangers what exactly happened on their watch that brought Rangers crashing to its knees?)
9
Has Whyte used that account to pay Withey?
(?)
10
Whyte says he’s a Rangers man. He arranged for £24.4m of fans’ money to go into that account. So with Rangers on their knees, and the administrators desperate for cash, why did they have to resort to legal action to seize that money?
(Why indeed?)
11
Duff & Phelps say that money – Rangers’ fans money – was “progressively being eroded” in the bank account. Who was spending it and on what?
(Well the Andrex shares never went orbital due to their spending habits)
12
Three other parties have made a legal claim on it? Who are they and on why do they believe it’s their cash?
(Name the companies)
13
How long could Rangers be in administration? All Duff & Phelps have said is that they expect it to be over before the start of the new season on August 4. It depends on the likelihood of getting a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), and that won’t happen any time soon.
14
Duff & Phelps say the big tax case verdict will “frustrate the process”, which, frankly, is an almighty understatement. People do want to buy Rangers but won’t they all melt away if it is hit with an apocalyptic tax bill of tens of millions of pounds? The deadline for genuine expressions of interest is March 16 but the tax case verdict won’t be known until next month.
(Regardless of the Big Tax Bill are they not still losing £33,000 a day?)
15
Is Paul Murray the real deal? He’s open about having comparatively limited resources and needing to assemble a consortium to save Rangers. The big tax case could scare even him away.
(Was Paul Murray not on watch at Ibrox when all the shenanigans were going on?)
16
If they emerge as a “new Rangers” will life soon be the same again? The administrators say those who have shown interest in a takeover have done so “based on a materially reduced cost structure”. In a nutshell, cheaper and poorer players from now on.
(Does that mean there will be a need for more frequent ‘honest mistakes’?)
17
Why has Murray gone so quiet?
(Why were all the journalist so quiet when he was holding court in the blue room?)
18
Is Campbell Ogilvie complicit in secret payments at Rangers? Former director Hugh Adam accused Rangers of making “off the books” payments to players which were not disclosed to the SFA during the 1990s. Current SFA president Ogilvie was Rangers’ company secretary at the time: what did Ogilvie know, and was he involved in decisions which break the rules of the body he now leads?
(Why doesn’t Campbell Ogilvie just categorically and unequivocally deny these sort of payments were made? After all the longer the question floats….)
19
Why has Adam – a periodically outspoken critic of Murray’s regime – not made these accusations before?
(I thought he had)
20
Will Whyte ever show his face again at Ibrox? Surely this one can be answered with some confidence. He’s finished. The club will be wrestled out of his hands and his hold on Ibrox and Murray Park is unclear. Whyte has become the most reviled figure in Rangers’ history. Of that there’s no question.
(But was it not you who dubbed him the Whyte Knight and the Motherwell Born Billionaire? Don’t you guys in the press feel just an eensy weensy bit responsible for the farce?)
What should be in the books but isn’t and shouldn’t they who signed off the annual reports be asked some direct questions?
Is there a statute of limitation on fraud?
Aberdeen 1 Celtic 1: Title race needn’t be taxing
Chief football writer
RIGHT, how should this be phrased?
Michael Grant The Herald
Let’s just say that their thoughts went out to Rangers. The north-east was grey, dreich and bitingly cold on Saturday lunchtime but many in Aberdeen obviously felt nicely warmed by the ongoing shambles at Ibrox. To be blunt, it’s the gift that keeps on giving for many Aberdeen and Celtic fans. Home supporters waved their banner about loving HMRC. The Beatles’ “Taxman” was again played over the Pittodrie public address system. Celtic followers went through their repertoire about what they intend to do when Rangers die. They sang, too, that they were going to “win the league at Ibrox”.
That’s what the championship has been reduced to now. Celtic, free from the remotest prospect that they might be caught, merely study the league table and fixtures list to plot when they will achieve the formality of being across the finishing line. Commitments against Dundee United and Kilmarnock in the two cups mean they won’t play another league game until they’re at Ibrox on March 25. Plenty of fans are beside themselves with excitement about this. They’re salivating at the idea of rubbing Rangers’ noses in it by wrapping things up that day.
The arithmetic stands like this: a win at Ibrox will make Celtic champions unless Rangers win their only intervening fixture at Dundee United on March 17, or if Motherwell (technically in the mix, to their enormous credit) win their next two league games. If Rangers and Motherwell stumble at all then all Celtic’s Christmases could come at once.
Their outstanding run of consecutive wins ended at Pittodrie and so, after more than 10 hours of unblemished defending, did their run of Clydesdale Bank Premier League clean sheets. Neil Lennon and his players looked impressively miserable about it, which was indicative of the competitiveness and focus which had driven them along without dropping any points since October. They are coasting towards the title and will feel pretty disappointed if they don’t ultimately extend that to a double or even treble. Still, their performance at Pittodrie will give others optimism that the cups are no formality.
It is easy to accuse a team of looking tired as soon as a great run ends and Lennon also flagged up the lunchtime kick-off and various international midweek commitments which took their toll. Whatever the factors, Celtic were unarguably flat and ordinary. Only Charlie Mulgrew and Joe Ledley looked brisk and the rest found it increasingly difficult to deal with an Aberdeen side which came at them with growing belief and aggression after a mediocre start. Rory Fallon and Scott Vernon gave Thomas Rogne and Kelvin Wilson as hard a time as they’ve had for a while. The two debutants at full-back, Mikael Lustig and Andre Blackman, looked unsure of themselves after months of inaction.
Blackman was unlucky when Gavin Rae’s shot flashed off his leg for an own goal. “I feel for him, it’s not his fault,” Rogne said. “They [Blackman and Lustig] are good players and there’s no excuse. It wasn’t hard to adjust to them being in the team. We train together every day and all know each other really well.
“I don’t think we’ve lost focus. The manager has kept us on our toes and there’s no complacency here. We didn’t play as well as we should and obviously he wasn’t happy. He tells us what he thinks and I think everyone agrees with him. It feels like a defeat because we’ve lost points and we are not familiar with this feeling for a while. We are still far ahead in the league but the disappointment is still the same.”
Should have Aberdeen done more to win it? There were grumbles that manager Craig Brown was too cautious when bringing on Youl Mawene, another centre-half, to replace Fallon in the closing minutes. That shored up their centre, though, and protecting their unbeaten run in 2012 allows the club to continue feeling good about itself. In goalkeeper Jason Brown, defenders Mark Reynolds and Andrew Considine, midfielders Rae, Kari Arnason and Fraser Fyvie and forward Vernon, Aberdeen have what they have been missing for years: a solid spine.
“I think the manager is looking at the bigger picture,” said Reynolds. “One point is better than going gung-ho and chasing after it. I thought we played well and even after going a bit more defensive we were still catching them on the break and creating chances. I think it worked out well.”
Anthony Stokes had again demonstrated his ability to squeeze home a finish from a tight angle when putting Celtic ahead. Mulgrew had earlier hit the post with a free-kick, but Aberdeen deserved their equaliser. If Mitch Megginson hadn’t finished tamely when Rae put him through they might have been the first Scottish team to beat Celtic since Hearts more than five months ago. Next week they face an enormous Scottish Cup quarter-final against Motherwell. “I think the next game could make or break our season,” said Reynolds.
No such tension awaits Celtic. Their season cannot be broken now. All they have to do is count down the days . . .
If there is something to be learned from the Ibrox debacle…. It is is this.
Do not trust the Media to fulfill the traditional role of the fourth estate.
Do not trust the politicians who push emotive buttons to secure votes from desired demographics.
Do not trust banks who have their own rules, for themselves and their favored clients.
Do not trust the SFA, who have their own agenda, and their own needs.
Trust your own instincts. It is a given moral certainty they are correct.
Scottish Football and it’s media are struggling to maintain their own legitimacy and relevance against a Tsunami their arrogance, ignorance or cognitive dissonance has blinded them too….
This is one big frigging snowball pickin up pace as it rolls on……
Finally
Stunned by the death of Paul McBride. A shock cmpounded by the circumstances. Too early for such a bright light. RIP Paul McBride. Condolences to his loved ones. Tragic…
Morning Celts from a wintry looking NW of engerlund.
SoS ha! I was waiting on that post from you, was Sammi playing midweek? Half of the team were unavailable due to internationals, I’m happy enough with a draw at Pittordie, we can go on another run and Sammi will no doubt play a part.
V
kitalba on 5 March, 2012 at 03:58 said:
Twenty questions on Rangers’ 21st day of administration . . .
One more, maybe two
Question 21
Can Jelly manufacturers fulfill the increasing demand amd will speculators step in to profit by forcing up the price.
Good morning friends from a dry and completely clear skied(and therefore frosty) East Kilbride.
Flip flops back in the cupboard and windscreeen scraper in hand…..
Jobo