The members of the Sevco High Command who fret over the pile of unpaid invoices will breathe a little easier today.
The bean counters at Ibrox let it be known at the start of the season that Europa League Group Stages was a vital financial objective.
So far Mr Gerrard has delivered.
Although not completely out of the financial woods the revenue from participating in the group stages of the Europa League will undoubtedly help the Serious Professional and his colleagues to manage the deficit at Ibrox.
Combined with the gate receipts of three full houses at Ibrox then I’m told that getting past Ufa means another £5.5m (gross) into Sevco’s coffers.
I’m told that Mr Gerrard was not happy with the travel arrangements to and from Russia.
Indeed, the airborne stenographers were told by an Intergalactic PR guru in mid-air not to print anything about those logistical difficulties.
Of course, should Celtic prevail on Sunday then the grisly details of Sevco’s gruelling journey will be obediently related by the hacks.
They’re only following orders…
Last night Celtic cruised past their Lithuanian opponents at Celtic Park, but this has been a calamitous start to the season for the Seven In A Row Champions.
If the objective is to emerge from every transfer window stronger then this one cannot be dressed up as a success.
Regular readers here will know who I think is the main culprit in this recruitment clusterfuck.
Undoubtedly the Celtic end would have been relieved that Moussa Dembélé was not sold to Lyon yesterday.
However, a serious unhappy player can be a very real problem in any dressing room.
I’m told that he was within hours of moving onto €120k per week at Lyon.
Celtic were willing to go almost £50k per week in a new deal.
Therefore, from a simple monetary point of view his point his displeasure is easy to understand.
The bottom line is that Brendan Rodgers did not get his main signing targets during this window.
At least some of that failure can be laid at the door of the Celtic CEO.
The McGinn shambles was all Peter’s own work and that is certainly the view of Mr Desmond.
Moreover, the Irish billionaire did not take kindly to one of his senior people briefing against the Celtic manager to the BBC.
Although, I’m sure Mr Desmond was just being helpful when he had Shane Long put onto the list of possible strikers to replace Moussa Dembélé.
However, these things are best left to the professionals.
Brendan Rodgers and his recruitment team are not without fault in this farce.
Marvin Compper and Charlie Musonda were both sanctioned by the Celtic manager.
As was Eboue Kouassi, another expensive error of judgement.
Now the Stenography Corps can hardly contain their delight at the shambles at Celtic.
The Admirable Warburton and Poor Pedro had identical KPIs when they were managing the basket of assets:
Win a cup.
Come a close second in the title race.
Beat Celtic in at least one league match.
For the first time since the Off Licence Putsch, both the hacks and the Ibrox klanbase have a sense of belief that all of the above is possible.
Indeed, the “going for 55” fantasy is once more part of the approved narrative on the sports desks.
Suddenly Mr King’s jibe about “a pack of cards” is starting to have some validity.
Well done Peter.
Brendan has a major test on All Ireland Sunday and he has to play with the hand he has been dealt.
And Sevco move on with no sign of them going bust,while we have to sell due to Champions League shortfall.Our wages are at a ridiculous level.46 million last year and no doubt over 50 million in the next set of figures to be released with a lot of new improved contracts.No takers for Simunovic,Allan etc and not taking the money for Boyata.Rodgers is not blameless in this either as most of his signings have been dreadful.Comper,Kouassi, Hendry, Sinclair to name some plus loan deals for Musonda and Roberts second season Thoughts Phil.
Results on the park determine the mood and opinion, of the majority of fans. A good win on Sunday will bury most of the current issues. History tells you that. We have enough to achieve this. Leigh G when fit is the best striker at the club by a country mile . His goals to minutes ratio is phenomenal. Good money for Dembele, who for some still had big question marks. As the season progress’s Armstrong may prove to be a bigger loss than Dembele.
Or in other way to put it is Celtic are so well managed they are able to sign a player for a club record of 9m. They are able to reject a bid of 9m for a defender and also reject 15-20m for their star striker. All this off the back of a double treble helped by a manager getting paid a record salary for a manager operating in Scotland. Against a back drop of a share price sitting at least a ten year high with several million in the back. Aye right we need to get shot of the CEO. Going by BR record in transfer market I’m glad he is now being restricted. We don’t need our version of Dick Advocate type spending.
Over in Sevco land around 12m has been spent on around 14 players. Say half of this up front so say 6m. Not sure of exact sevco figures but I’m probably not too far wrong. Celtic have spent 9m on one player. Sunday should be no contest if football is about the cost of players on the pitch.
I have just been told that Dembele is off.
Agreement has been reached…he’s no longer a Tim.
I wished him well yesterday…but since then he has gone way down in my estimation.
All I will say is…NOT Shane Long….PLEASE.
Absolutely astonished at your blind faith of Brendan Rodgers. You lay everything at the feet of Peter Lawell. Yet you have repeatedly told us that Rodgers had total control after Peter was carpeted by Dermott after semi final defeat to deady bears . Have you been paying attention as Rodgers has lost his players trust. Lying to your players is not going to end well. He may have won a personal battle to show Peter who is boss but he has done Celtic no favours in the process. But then what would you expect of a man who walked in the door and handed contracts to Kennedy. Mulgrew and Forrest. Long life Celtic fan my arse
Blimey, as i previously mentioned – what a difference a few months make. Back in late spring, there was dissapointment at Celtic only scoring five ratber than seven or eight against the side they’re due to meet at same venue on All Ireland Sunday
what was the reason for the last minute decision to not sell Dembele? Maybe the club got a sense from the fans of the backlash that would come from selling him after the obvious failure to fix the defence or even signing anyone of note to strengthen the team? My twitter stream is only a small sub-set of data to go by but I saw many posts of people who were angry at the Dembele leaving news. Anyway, this has been one of the worst transfer windows I have ever seen by us and I think that Lawwell is the primary culprit and bears most of the fault.
We have seen all this before with Celtic. They never build from a position of strength. Im not surprised it s been a quiet window. We have also heard all this before from the ibrox entity. They do love a slogan over there. Having watched both teams this season i believe,although not started well,Celtic have it in them to go up a couple of levels to the point no team in Scotland can touch them. Over at ibrox their strategy seems to be to start at a blistering pace in the hope of blowing teams away early doors. They do not have the calibre of players to do this on a regular basis. They have tired badly in the bigger games towards the end hence the losing of late goals. If Celtic turn up on Sunday it will be a wake up call and bitter taste of reality for the ibrox hordes and OM G.
have to say Sevco have been very lucky so far this season,they have come through two ties they shouldnt have.they have gotten a bounce since slippy g took over, theres no doubt about that.I still think celtic will be too strong for them on sunday.Oh and bye the way…..cmon the Dubs. Hail Hail.
It’s absolutely terrible news if we don’t let Dembele go. Dembele will be very unhappy, this will spread throughout the dressing room, Celtic will no longer be seen as a good club for young players to develop. Promises broken, my respect for Rodgers has diminished. Dembele has been used and lied to. Right now I’m ashamed to be a Celtic supporter. Bad times ahead because of this shambles. Same goes for Boyata. Rodgers has totally played all the wrong cards here. We should have had both Boyota and Dembele’s replacements in 6 weeks ago. This shambolic recruitment transfer window has cost us millions by not qualifying for the group stages of the CL and millions in transfer fees which won’t be on offer come January. What is the point in keeping Dembele if his heart is not in it. This is going to affect the team badly. Fans are idiots if they think Dembele will give his best now. Poor planning all round, a complete disgrace. If we had signed a good centre half, McGinn, a centre forward even if on loan and Patrick Roberts then let Armstrong, Dembele and Boyata go we would have improved the squad and came out with a big profit. It wasn’t rocket science. It could have been so easy. Why have we made such a mess of this? I honestly despair!
You have proof that promises were broken and Rodgers is lying?
Suggest you’re at it. Are you sure you’re a Celtic fan?
With respect,I suggest you read his post again.Sadly,most of what he posted is bang on the money.HH
I will answer your final question…
Because…Its what we do.
We always have…and probably always will.
Money is the be all and end all.
Nowt else to say.
The last 4 seasons you have accurately predicted when Sevco would run out of money and how much they would need to keep the lights on until the next round of season ticket income. A few days ago you told us that Sevco needed £4 miilion in Sep and another £4 million by Nov. My interpretation of that info was that if the only person currently prepared to provide funds (King) failed to do so then Sevco could no longer be considered a goining concern.
Today you say that £5.5 million El income will help them deal with their financial shortfall. The group stage matches dont start until end of Sep and my understanding is that prize money payments wont happen until next year. Still looks like King needs to step up to the plate with £4 million of his own money in the next few weeks.
The share issue has been approved by a landslide.Im gutted Phil hadn’t briefed us on this happening today.
The bbc sevco live reporting of their game actually said that…
“ the rangers players will be glad of the extra legroom on their private charter plane back to Glasgow.”
Its a Brotherhood thing….don’t worry about it.
Said before Celtic are a victim of their own success. Do they buy players capable of winning the champions league and have them wasted ( and on high wages ) in the Premiership. OR do they bumble along winning the league and doing OK ( but not great ) in Europe?
Football is a business and even though the fans want better and better players there has to be a cut off point. Unfortunately for Celtic things have come to a head all at the same time and Brendan’s previous failures in the transfer market have not helped his position.
Exactly. There seems to an unrealistic element in our support who don’t want to know about the underlying problems in financing a genuine assault on the last 16 of the CL. Even if we do get the correct players in for the first eleven all it takes is a couple of injuries in the qualifying stages/ a red card etc for it to unravel. Then those wages have to be recouped from somewhere. The squad is already bloated. Then there’s the problem of “spending”. Yes we made money on transfers in. Regardless of CL money two season in row. We made losses before. The club is trying to reach a sustainable position where not making the CL means we don’t have to sell key players or lose them on the cheap. Also the problem with spending X million on fees means that money disappears from the playing budgets (player’s wages which have to be calculated in for however long their contracts last).
As you say we can’t just keep buying player’s when we have duds we can’t shift because they’ve been signed for X year on wages nobody else will pay.
Fans, bloggers who are sowing the seeds of discontentment among others, should really take a hard look at themselves and ask if their actions are doing the club any good.
An Invincible treble and B2B treble and they’re still moaning? Yes the club made a misstep but they don’t deserve the public slaughtering they are getting,
The club has never been in a better position and they can start rectifying mistakes in January.
Some of our fans need a good dose of reality and perspective.
Exactly.
There seems to an unrealistic element in our support who prefer not to acknolwedge the underlying problems in financing a genuine assault on the last 16 of the CL.
Even if we do get the correct quality of players in, for the first eleven, all it takes is a couple of injuries in the qualifying stages or a red card etc for it to unravel. Those wages, then have to be recouped from somewhere.
The squad is already bloated and then there’s the problem of “spending”. Yes we made money on transfers in and regardless of that plus the CL money two season in row, we’ve made losses before.
The club is trying to reach a sustainable position whereby not making the CL doesn’t mean we have to sell key players or lose them on the cheap. Another problem with spending X million on fees means significant money disappears from the playing budget. That budget for wages is imperative to be able to offer more to the actual player than the selling club and their agents. The bigger the wage we can offer the more chance they’ll come. It’s a balancing act as to where the money ends up and how far it stretches.
We can’t just keep buying player’s, when we have duds we can’t shift because they’ve been signed for X year on wages nobody else will pay.
Fans, bloggers who are sowing the seeds of discontentment among others, should really take a hard look at themselves and ask if their actions are doing the club any good.
An Invincible treble and B2B treble and they’re still moaning? Yes the club made a misstep but they don’t deserve the public slaughtering they are getting,
The club has never been in a better position and they can start rectifying mistakes in January.
Some of our fans and bloggers, need a good dose of reality and perspective
While there is a lot truth in your article, I wouldn’t agree that Sunday’s result is all down to a “toss of a coin”, there is not one player in the Govan based tribute act, from their aging keeper to their elastically priced striker who would get a place on the Celtic team. The result may well come down to ” poor refereeing decisions” to use the euphemism for what is really taking place in front of our eyes but realistically Sevco remain nowhere near Celtic as a team
You have totally misunderstood the point I was making.
For the avoidance of doubt, maybe you can explain what your point is/was.
there is less than a year between their ageing keeper and our spring chicken