The scenes of wild jubilation from the away fans at Celtic Park on 30th December 2017 tells a greater truth.
It was a sporting triumph for Espanyol Glasgow to avoid defeat at the hands of their more powerful neighbour.
The reaction of The People present in Scotland’s largest soccer stadium and on social media told a tale on them.
Gone was the Herrenvolk hubris, it was the sheer relief that the bigger club had not dished out the expected hammering.
This is the new post-2012 paradigm in Glasgow’s fitba feud.
On message board land The People were bracing for impact.
They were not looking forward to this fixture one little bit.
Fortunately, they found a Celtic team with almost nothing left in the tank.
This is as good as it gets for Sevco and, ipso facto, for The People.
For some, it was all too much.
When a draw is celebrated like a famous victory then that tells you that this is not a rivalry between equals.
The new club at Ibrox cannot match Celtic financially.
After the winter break, it will be instructive to gauge which team has been strengthened and which has not.
Celtic are in funds, Sevco are not.
Of course, I am of the opinion that having much more money than your opponent confers a sporting advantage in the professional game.
A strange notion that I can’t seem to shake off dear reader.
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the late great matt mcginn wrote and sang the song the ibrox disaster.if you have never heard it then I suggest you do asap.lest we forget.
Forget what ???
On footballing terms the Ibrox club are and will always be the enemy. Today marks the anniversary of the 66 unfortunate souls who perished in the Ibrox disaster. Those on social media mocking this tragedy need to have a right good look at themselves and remember, we are Celtic , class not crass.
For the 66 people who sadly perished…remembered.
Well said…
HH
to all celtic supporters we are the bhoys I was at the ibrox disaster that day the only disaster was Colin Stein scoring for a draw until I got home to hear there was people killed on staircase 13 as a bhoy my heart went out to there family and friends Glasgow Celtic are a family we are not like any club we stick together when Alfie con singed for our team there where supporters who bood him but as a true Tim you never put down the Celtic Jersey said by not jock but Robert Kelly God bless the souls that died that day and met there Lord Hail Hail
Well said!
Yet again we have the so called financial experts screaming whaur’s the 60m gone. Celtic FC does not run on fumes.
There are running costs that require paying year in year out. There are previous loans/debts that require paying back. There are player contracts that need honouring and accounted for going forward. There are the stadium improvements, new hotel, museum and a new state of the art pitch. There is the cost of the youth academy to service year in year and the cost of training youngsters and keeping them on the books.
Then there are the losses to absorb from years we don’t qualify.
It’s all there in the published accounts for viewing.
Yet we still have idiots who can see past “MSM headlines” and assume it’s “free money” from the magic tree and available for spending.
There were supporters from a dead club who had exactly the same thought processes. Just saying.
You forgot the Lassies…:0)
I don’t read either the MSM nor its headlines and I can assure you that this 60 million is NOT available for viewing in the Celtic PLC accounts, as it is masked behind the seemingly exponentially rising ‘Operating Expenses’ cloak, which just so happens to have risen threefold yet again this year with absolutise NO a leaf explanation forthcoming from either the board or the accounts themselves.
Have you personally read allthe counts, ‘Dhenbhoy’?
Have you measured each item you list here and correlated it with the figures therein?
No, I know you haven’t, yet you have the cheeky all me an idiot when, if you examined my postcarefully, instead of with your usual reactionary trigger finger zeal, you would notice that I’m warning theCelric support to be very careful indeed aboutwho is handling , or hiding, their financial input into the club precisely BECAUSE OF what happened to old Rangers.
No June questioned Murray, no one questions King, but mor does anyone question Peter Lawwell in any in depth meaningful way whatsoever, in fact, we barley ever hear a word out the guy on any issue at all.
Even at the AGM, on ever matter of importance, from the Ibrox hatefests & assaults on our players to the Judicial Review and progress, or lack thereof, on Resolution 12, he had one answer to every question, which was ‘Celtic is above all that’.
‘Celric is above all that’ ….
Can you explain to us, as the great defender of the PLC board of Tory Masons running our club, what such a catch-all phrase even means, Dhenbhoy?
Go on, give it a go.
After all, you’re clearly not an ‘idiot’, right ..?
*With apologies for the predictive text’s spelling mistakes but you get the picture.
Why are babbling and ranting about RES12. I never commented on it. I love your scatter gun approach.
I’m guessing by your “rant” you’re not a shareholder, thus didn’t attended the AGM and present your insightful forensic analysis of Celtic’s accounts. Or did you?
P.S Yes, I have read the accounts. The Operating Expenses at June end of 2015: 53,268,000 2016: 57,143,000 so going by your gibberish post of rising threefold yet again – they’d be in the region of 171 million (if we ignore the fact they didn’t rise threefold between 2015 and 2016.
Maybe you could show us this magical threefold rise … LOL
Easily seen you haven’t read them nor do you understand them. Did a big boy tell you that was a fact … a threefold rise in operating expenses. You don’t half talk a load of mince.
“wahhh, wahhhh, wahhh, whaur’s the 60m” why haven’t we signed Messi … wahhh”. Now dry your eyes.
Numbers can be made to do anything, especially when trained accountants get their hands on them, as KingCo & the multiple Murrays have repeatedly proven down the years.
In the Celtic PLC accounts from three years ago, operating expenses accounted for less than 30% of the overall total, the following year they were 50% and now they’re up to over 70%’ so, yes, not quite threefold, but not too far off.
And I know why you don’t like me questioning how the Tories on our board run our club, as you think I’m not worthy, but let me tell you this, son, you should never trust a Tory, no matter what they say, as they’ll tell you anything to get their way and you can put your house on that.
So I hate to be the one to break this to ye, boy, but you’re being shafted.
And you’ll find out soon enough how if you don’t know already.
Although, if you really do follow Scottish fitba as intently as you claim, you really already should, as its right in front of your eyes every day and you can’t see it for looking at it.
But, aye, you’ll see it soon enough alright.
Do you want to post a coherent sentence.
30% of the overall total , rising to 70%? The overall total of what?
You spout utter incoherent mince and then yell the Tories are evil.
Rants of a fool.
Given that Turnover rose massively in the last couple years and the operating expenses increased by less than 10% .. you can’t possibly be talking about that.
Tell you what since we all have access to the accounts … How about you quote the figures and the pages numbers from each year and show us your workings .. rather than us having to guess at the nonsense you’re spouting …
In your own time.
Sure, hang around ….
Nah, on second thoughts, don’t bother, as I’m above all that.
‘Group revenue (That’s ‘Total Turnover’, for the hard of thinking like yourself, D-boy) increased by 74.2% to £90.6m.
Operating expenses increased by 33.3% to £76.3m’
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41340467
So it costs SEVENTY SIX MILLION POUNDS PER YEAR to run Celtic now ..?!
Man, but it’s a good job Brendan secured all those CL millions or Celtic would be in more financial bother than Sevco.
And how will we survive if we miss out next year, and any other years after that, which is looking increasingly likely without serious investment?
Who covers the 76 mil needed for those operating expenses which appear to be rising at around 33.3% per annum ..?
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT: (But which chairman?!)
‘These results reflect the PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE to the Company of participation in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Just as it is IMPORTANT to RECOGNISE THE IMPORTANCE TO US of participation in the UEFA Champions League, so it is IMPORTANT TO RECOGNISE that the financial gap between (our) Football Club and the richer clubs in European football is widening.’
With these running costs I can see why it really is so important to point out the PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE to the club of CL participation.
It couldn’t be any clearer.
But the most interesting thing to note here is just how close the language is to that of Dave King in the 2017 Sevco accounts, how everything is dependent on Euro participation, and we all remember how much we laughed at him, so what gives Bankier a pass ..?
No other club in Scotland mentions this stuff in their accounts so why is it so ‘important’/essential, to Celtic that they need nearly 77 million a year to survive?
Haven’t you ever wondered about this, D boy, or are you only here on Peter’s behalf trying to shut my scrutiny up?
http://www.celticfc.net/news/13269
As a neutralish fan from the first to wear the green, I think Frank has nailed it. The tribute act are shite but it’s as if Celtic are trying hard to get them back. Lennon would say go and pump them 7-0 and watch every second of it.
Celtic played nowhere near their best…and got a point out of it.
Sevco played their absolute best….and got a point out of it.
The Defence rests its case M’Lud.
Happy New Year….:0)
The Scottish media has once again started a campaign to get rid of one of our best players by over-exaggerating the inconsistency of his performance levels.
They did this not so long ago with Stefan Johansen and now they are at it with Scott Sinclair.
I’m gutted to say that their tactics are working if the abuse that Scott received almost every time he touched the ball in the game against Sevco is anything to go by.
Johansen was trying to get back his match sharpness after a lengthy injury but this was being hampered by the ‘best support in the world’s’ constant abuse of him any time he touched the ball.
How does this abuse help any player regain confidence and form?
I know it’s frustrating to watch a player who is not having a good game and it’s only natural to groan when he makes a mistake or a wrong decision but it’s the swearing and name-calling that is offensive and bang out of order.
Vile, foul-mouthed louts beside me at the game screamed horrendous abuse at Scott any time he was near the ball or something didn’t quite come off for the player who has scored more goals this season than he did at the same point last season.
HE IS THE CLUB’S TOP GOALSCORER FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!
Get off his back please and prove that we are, in fact, the best supporters in the world.
Help all of our players to reach the performance levels that we know they are capable of.
Just think how many goals Sinclair would have scored by now if he was actually playing as well as last season!
As my old Grandda used to say to anyone hurling abuse at any Celtic player within his earshot -If yir no’ here to support the Bhoys then go away hame!
Well said, CB.
I agree, shouting abuse at you own player does not make him fill with confidence, these supporters cannot be named SUPPORTERS, as they are doing the opposite what the name suggests, they should encourage anybody who’s having a bad game, there were times Jamsie would make me feel like shouting or any other for that matter who misplaced a pass, it only makes them think twice and not pass at all, which is worse
,
Totally agree With you Croppy 150%. Although they pay their money it’s not a passport to behave like “ vile loud mouthed louts.” Many years ago in the Jungle I got into a bit of a boxing match for chinning a fellow supporter for exact same. I discovered that you can’t reason with a sphincter.
To scream,shout abuse , and denigrate somebody like Scott Sinclair, who’s having a bad day is downright criminal. That’s not what we are, we are not Sevco supporters . We have always been there for our players, our team and our club regardless.
The guys standing next to you Croppy are ignorant arseholes.
HH
Your spot on I left after 83 minutes Got sick ae the moans and groans Celtic fans need tae take long hard look at themselves at times, getting on teams back after 50 minutes just hinders the team. Best fans in the world ma baws!
The game changer for me and the boost for Sevco was the early injury to Bruno Alves and the introduction of Master Bates in his place, who had a good game.
Had Alves not been injured then we would surely have had at least one goal even with our misfiring strikers.
Happy new year phil
And I hope to see you in the near future.
A wee play in the east end would be great.
HH and keep safe ???
Great reading as usual
HAPPY NEW YEAR PHIL
&
All the green n white HH
A couple of days ago, I was watching hinges an episode of Only Fools And Horses, where Del entered a drawing that Rodney had made whilst sprouting pubes. As you can imagine, the drawing won a trip abroad – only, the drawback was that Del became Rodney’s “dad”, and Rodney’s girlfriend became his “stepmum”, as well as Rodney’s passport being doctored so that he immediately became a 14 year old once more.
Now, given that Dave King is the inspiration for Del Boy, do you think that Lord Limpopo has tapped into their collective artistic genius (in the absence of their footballing prowess), and shared these “works of art” with Mr Kellogg in exchange for a handful of tickets to Florida? Meanwhile, Celtic will be performing their own take on the Shake’n’Vac advert -meeting the Emirati sheikhs, and vacuuming lots of money from them in the shape of investment in the hotel and museum project? These same Emiratis already have a large investment in the Dalmarnock area in the form of the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, aka the Emirates Arena.
Look forward to every comment Phil, i remember celebrating a draw to win a League but celebrating to maintain 11 point deficit well!. Sad that this celebration covers up multitudes of sins, and allows the biased media the opportunity to institutionalise the brains of pitiful people. “Clutching at straws” springs to mind
Roll on 2018
Saturday’s match was Celtic’s 38th competitive match of the season which is equivalent to a full league programme and we were not even at the turn of the year! By comparison, TRFC have played only 27. Certainly, Celtic laboured in the second half which gave TRFC encouragement to come forward. However, Celtic created enough chances in the first half and if it wasn’t for some poor finishing from Sinclair and Forrest and excellent saves from the TRFC keeper Celtic would have and should have been home and dry by half-time.
Phil; some prolific and amazing output from you to start off 2018. Many thanks.
Also, best wishes to you and your family for a happy and healthy New Year!
I dragged myself out of my sickbed for the game, man flu/ or bad cold…..but l did.
Wish I’d stayed put. The team was shocking….but their trip to the sun should reinvigorate them.
A happy New Year to you Phil and your family…and to all Tims everywhere.
I see that courtesy of Paul Murray, there was a visit by the “grassroots, non-party” Scotland in Union organisation to Rangers FC training facilities. Now why would they go there? Not for hairdressing advice, I’m certain.
Turns out though that SiU ain’t quite so grassroots as they make out to be.
Happy new year to you all!
Perhaps they have a policy of supporting grass roots, while opposing grass stalks, on account of the unfortunate colour?
After all, the almost universal greenness of the upper, regrettable part of grass is surely too coincidental to be mere coincidence.
Almost certainly the work of Opus Dei, and the Unseen Hand of Hidden Forces.
Happy New Year Phil,
If today’s productivity is anything to go by you are going to be very,very busy in 2018.
Thanks Phil,your output is all We have to keep us in the collective reality picture,’press’ in Scotia is NOT true to its task,namely to investigate. HH?
TYVM ?☮️???
Seems strange that we have to show signs of mediocrity against sevco before known weak areas are hopefully really focused on by the financial folk. Our pool of talent has been chiselled away at by injury, our defence and defensive philosophy were both known to need upgrading, and the fatique has been accelerated by gubbings in Europe and at Tynecastle. Fans are also slightly fatigued also so many games, reverses with Res 12, little progress with OBFA, and with laughing at the lies of an anti Celtic media.
Any financial advantage we have has been reasonably taken advantage of with the exception of our defence. In the summer the central defence required treatment, and we missed out on the South African but there was no back up, and we suffered. Now arguably only Tierney is reliable and Ajer may be a rock we build around. Its imperative RB & CBx2 is addressed, and with Roberts & Hayes out we need a right wing /inside right playmaker to help Forrest. The contracts folk should have this all dealt with on Brendans instructions. Hope they are as professional as we think they all are. Forget Sevco get Celtic fit for Europe, evrything else will take care of itself.
Good points well made, Frank, but I doubt our PLC money men will fork out big sums on any player for the Europa League when they refused to do so for the Champions League qualifiers
The were two assumptions being bandied about the time, the first of which was that Brendan would make CL level defenders of Jozo & Boyata in the interim, with the second assumption being ‘Why spend money when we’ll just get humped anyway?’
It’s the tacit acceptance of this latter point amongst the Celtic support that had me most worried at the time and has me even more worried now, as it appears that the ‘bhoys’ of the PLC have somehow hypnotised the support into accepting our new found status at the very bottom of the shitty end of the Euro pile.
That this stubborn refusal to defend our European pedigree has happened while we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of our greatest victory of all has left me with a very sour taste in my mouth and a feeling of dire foreboding for the health and welfare of our club whilst in these mens’ hands for the future.
Take away Ntcham’s fee and Celtic’s net ‘spend’ on acquisitions and sales since BR’s arrival was less than 2 million, while giving 3 players who wanted to leave us (Gordon, Jozo, Armstrong) much improved contracts when they should have been told exactly where to get off and stronger reinforcements brough in.
So the PLC financial folk appear, yet again, to be flattering to deceive, as is the way of such people, despite the massive cash windfalls of 2 years’ CL qualification.
Why every Celtic shareholder hasn’t stood up in angry unison and demanded answers as to where that c.60 million pounds has gone is beyond me, not to mention the inaction on Res 12, the ‘Judicial Review’, their continued silence on the Linfield & Ibrox racism and on-field assaults, etc, etcetera.
But the most surprising thing is that, while Peter & his Tory cohorts maintain the famous ‘Wall of Silence’ on all of these issues and more, barely one fan of CFC stands up and makes the point that perhaps our support is even more deserving of an open and transparent board given the lessons of silence and evasion employed previously by Murray at the OldCo and now Dave KingCo with Sevco.
Or is it that the only thing that matters to us is lording it over the Billys again?
Our books are open for inspection. This idea that we are squirrelling money away is nonsense.
A lot of people do not realise, how much it costs to pay wages at our club.Yes,we have made money from Champions league over the last few years,but it is certainly not all profit.Increased wages is quite significant if you checked the balance sheet.I do not want our club to end up a basket case like sevco.Also if we fork out a fee for 10 million,again put wages of say 30 grand a week for a 4 year contract,this then becomes 16 million quid.It won’t happen,plain and simple.In reality clubs like Bournemouth and Brighton are bigger than us now due to the huge disparity in TV money.We get a couple of million,they get 100 million.Wake up,we just can’t compete at that level unless we got in the EPL,but that won’t happen either..
Correct. Doesn’t help when you have idiots spouting the rubbish above.
Threefold increase in operating expenses to hide it, no doubt he believes that mince which runs around in his head.
You have the same idiots querying why a taxi fare is so much when petrol is only x pence a litre and you get so many kilometres to a litre. Wages, vehicle cost, maintenance and repairs, insurance, licence and host of other incidentals doesn’t even enter their minds.
Probably because most folk understand where the money goes and that player contracts/wages don’t operate on 12 month basis. Also transfer fees are not the sole expense when it comes to player acquisitions the cost of their wages over three years is far more important and has to be factored in. You can’t just keep adding to the squad wage bill, willy nilly.
You keep ranting on though … the majority see the sense in maintaining a sustainable club.
You think running costs of over 76 million quid a year are those of a ‘sustainable club’?!
In Scotland?!
You’re even stupider than you first appear, DunceBoy.
‘Scattergun approach’ …
Did that phrase just pop into your head when you were on yer mad rant about taxis, pal, or do you always think like that ..?
Jamie M, most people don’t have to ‘realise’ how mush it costs to payplayers at our club, as a quick look at the accounts shows that our average annual wage is c. £717,000, but the reality is that there’s only a select few making the higher numbers.
Total team costs come in at under 20 mil per annum, from a record annual turnover of 90.6 million, so my question is, where does the other 70 million go ..?
The burden of proof is on yourself and the DunceBoy to demonstrate this now so do take your collective time and get it right once you’ve learned how to phrase your thoughts around clear factual assertions, like I’ve done above with theBankier statement.
You can even shift the discussion to a more recent thread if you like, as I suspect it might take you both a while …
Cheers.
When Dunfermline Livingston ECT use to celebrate getting a draw at paradise it was big news. Their manager would be over the moon and proud of his players. We seen the exact same from Sevco players and management after the 0-0 draw. Their fans celebrating like they had just won the champions league.
Celtic have had nothing left for quite some time. Up front we looked tired and unable to make quick moving passes or indeed decisions. It looked like a Celtic team that needed a break badly. Sevco fans of course won’t see that they will believe it was Celtic at their best. And they will be celebrating for the rest of the month. Celtic fans on the other hand will be disappointed Celtic couldn’t put in that one last performance before the break. If we had seen our strike force at its best creating chance after chance and going all out to win and we still ended up with nothing then I would have been worried as it is we couldn’t even be bothered to make the runs or even go on the attack. The amount of time we seen Celtic going from around the Sevco goal playing all the way back to our keeper was shocking. It really showed this was a Celtic team out on their feet with nothing left after setting a new British football record. They deserve a good holiday and rest now they have done this club proud over the last year and let’s get ready for 2018 if we finish with another treble we won’t even remember that game. While it will probably be going down in Sevco folklore.
Happy New Year to you and your family Phil , once again great stuff from you to kick off the new year , i look forward to the demise of sevco in 2018 !!
What Sevco fans fail to recognise is that their club made up no ground against the league leaders. A draw was not good enough for them.
Happy New Year to all!
Rebus
And that their current ‘club/company’ thingy is not the same incorporated body which is now lying in a drawer in Canary Wharf awaiting its final interment in what must be the longest liquidation process in the history of all humanity.
BDO must be well into the marrow by now but, to be honest, I’m more surprised that there’s anything left, after nearly 6 years & counting.
How badly do you think the old Rangers would stink if Dave King & Company really were to ‘bring the old club out of liquidation’ as he gushingly suggested as a distraction at the start of his unholy reign atop the Lost Marbles staircase?
Worse than a Ne’erday hangover?