For the Fitba finance experts among ye the following might prove to be interesting.
A Maroon buddy of mine sent it to me and I’m grateful to him.
The full thing can be read here.
We discussed it on the phone and I said that this was a very sober dry exposition of a plan for a club to be self-financing and sustainable.
Indeed, I pointed out to him that it was the obverse of what Walter Smith had aid when he was briefly the titular head of the Holding Company Vehicle.
In reality, he was merely a sock puppet for Charles of Normandy.
What the Blessed Cardigan did say during his reign of error was largely forgettable.
However, he did share this gem:
“There is no common business sense at a club such as Rangers.
“Yes, money is being lost. But what can you do?
“You can’t sit on the board of directors at Ibrox and tell the Rangers fans, ‘We can’t afford to do this.’ You have to go out and find the money to do it.”
The difference between the Ibrox insanity and the measured analysis from Tynecastle couldn’t be more different.
When both clubs were battling for automatic promotion out of the Championship the home crowd in Gorgie taunted the Sevco support with the chant of:
“You let your club die, you let your club die. You walked away and you let your club die.”
Unkind, but not untrue.
The fact is that Hearts fans rallied to the cause and saved their club.
In 2012 The People cluttered the pavement on Edmiston Drive waiting for a Sugar Daddy to appear and pay their bills.
My Maroon mate detests the lazy associations between his club and anything that emerges from Ibrox.
Moreover, he’s fully behind Ann Budge in her determined effort to extirpate the last of the John Wilson fraternity from Tynie.
These words blink to life beside a beautifully framed collage honouring the Edinburgh-born revolutionary James Connolly.
My Tynie mate gave it to me as a wedding present.
He spent hours cutting up material from a museum exhibition that celebrated the life of Edinburgh’s famous son.
The event was called “sing a rebel song”.
I treasure it.
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We have a very experienced and professional chairman Mr Peter Lawwell, He has done a fantastic job in keeping our great club afloat, Loath him or Love him the job he is doing is incredible, Our Chairman was wanted by clubs in The [EPL], But he wanted to remain at Celtic, He has Celtic at heart and he wants the same as everyone else connected with our great club and that is [Success], He brought Brendan Rodgers and his coaching staff and brought other players to Celtic, Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele, Patrick Roberts on loan from Man City etc also getting our goalkeeper Craig Gordon to sign a new further contract to stay with Celtic, This was a fantastic piece of business and our young bhoys have learned and taken in what everything Brendan & His coaching staff are doing with them on the training field and this is definitely showing and bringing extra bonus on the field of play and also other players also have come on under Brendan and his coaching staff, Because before we had players that were not functioning or giving 100% on the field of play are now showing so much more and the supporters are noticing this and they are backing our team, our manager and coaching staff 150%, The future is looking really good, A Happy dressing room, A happy team, Happy coaching staff, Happy Manager, Happy Supporters means Happy Chairman & Shareholders, So all in all [EVERYONE IN THE CELTIC FAMILY ARE HAPPY] Again i would like to thank and congratulate our chairman on a job well done, Credit Where Credit Is Due Hail Hail
Phil, while I admire Ann Budge we shouldn’t allow her achievements to airbrush the Gorgie misdemeanours from history. Your Maroon mate apparently “detests the lazy associations between his club & anything from Ibrox”. I’ll bet he does, unfortunately there are many similarities.
1. Buying trophies – Hearts have won 4 Scottish Cups in the last 111 years. 50% of these came under the Romanov rule when they were buying or loaning players they could not afford to pay. Sound familiar?
2. Campbell Ogilvie. To be a key director of one club which was liquidated is unfortunate. To follow that up by being a key director of another is beyond parody.
3. Relationship with the council. Hearts went bust owing Edinburgh Council over £93k. How could this happen? At the same time the Council allowed Hearts to continue playing in a decrepit stadium with a main stand, currently under demolition, which made Ibrox look like the Taj Mahal. FYI there have been nets strung under that stand to catch debris for many years.
4. The training ground. Hearts went bust owing £146k to Heriot Watt for the use of their training ground. How did that happen? Hearts continue to use these facilities ( Oriam ) which are often portrayed (wrongly) as being Hearts’ training ground.
5. The lies. Hearts should have been relegated a season earlier. Right until the last moment their MD David Southern was declaring Hearts as self sustainable. One month after the 2012/13 season ended Hearts went into Admin. This gave them a whole season to try ( they failed ) & overcome a 15 point penalty. Dundee should not have been relegated at the end of the 12/13 season. One year later David Southern joined Dundee United who were subsequently relegated, again beyond parody.
To summarise Hearts bought trophies & stiffed their creditors, including HMRC for £2m, for a total of £30m. Forgive me if I don’t join in the general acclaim about their new found jurisprudence!
Keep up the good work.
Tynecastle fans have Foundation of Hearts in their corner; those supporting the club playing out of Ibrox have Club1872 in their corner.
I know who I would welcome to contribute the fans’ perspective.
Much respect must go to Ann Budge and colleagues for saving HMFC from liquidation !
I am absolutely sure that a vast amount of time, effort , pain sweat and tears went into
that solution. Unfortunately , in my opinion, much of the sterling work undertaken by
Ms Budge and co was rendered pointless by the unbelievable appointment and inclusion
(in any form or manner) of the fitba “antichrist”. The man who
thinks he,s gods gift to soccer.. But who sadly has shown his ineptitude, time after
time, after time. Take a bow Mr Craig Levein ……. HMFC, are operating with a huge dead weight lassoed around their necks……………..Just an opinion !
I hope Celtic are paying attention in respect of using the talents and experience available over their huge supporter base, many with professional qualifications in many sectors, to improve internal and more accountable governance, to the benefit of all who put Celtic first.
Ann Budge is a welcome breath of fresh air in oor game.?
Keep going Phil.?
main page only shows last 4 stories – you writing too fast!
Can it show last 10 – so we don’t miss out ?
You can use the archive search,homepage,scroll down,right hand side down from the donations button,and simply select a month,then a article of your choosing.
Easy,too easy,a bit like the Saturday lesssons of fitba at ayebrokes.A doddle.
Thanks for the read Phil.✅
Jojoj, just click on Archives on the right hand side and the relevant month, and you’ll see all articles for that month.
Simply go to the “Archive” selector and choose the month. All posts for the month become available.
Go to the blog page – you can access all stories there
Click on ‘Blog’ at the top of the page. That takes you to recent and not so recent content. Oor Phils on fire at the moment. Could have completed several tomes over the last 6 or so years. A certain Glasgow institution has kept him busy.