Monday mornings can often be difficult at work.
Especially after a tough weekend…
So spare a thought then for those poor souls in the Stenography Corps who have to front up today.
They had been obediently gushing for months about the “Gerrard revolution”.
As regular readers will know I said that it would all be wonderful at Sevco until football matches had to be played.
Yesterday the spin hit the reality wall.
In the post-match presser, Brendan Rodgers exuded class and practised poise.
No surprise there.
He also put the Moussa Dembélé saga to bed by stating that the player had crossed a line with him last Friday and that there was no way back.
The Stock Exchange has been informed today that €22m is the fee for the player.
I understand that Lyon picked up the tab for the attendant costs of the transfer, mainly fees for agents etc.
Moreover, I’m told that there is a substantial sell-on clause for the player as well.
It would be an understatement to say that the summer transfer window was unsatisfactory from Brendan Rodgers’ point of view.
It’s normal for Celtic to carry out a review of the dealings once the deadline has passed.
Mr Desmond usually dials into those meetings.
What I learned yesterday is that he plans to attend the next one in person!
Perhaps someone has some explaining to do and it isn’t the man from Antrim…
A repeat of the summer shambles cannot be allowed to take place next January.
If the CEO is given a player to sign and it is within the budget then it should be a simple paperwork exercise and not an opportunity for him to grandstand.
Across the Clyde, I understand that the Serious Professional is less than happy at being thrown under the bus apropos the klanzone spat with Glasgow City Council.
Yes, his name is on that letter, but he had no hand act or part in the social media campaign against Ms Aitken and her colleagues.
My understanding is that the decision to personally go after those councillors was taken at a much higher Level.
Yesterday, I asked a source close to this story about the iconic Albion car park.
The reason for my question was that I had thought that the basket of assets could have used that world heritage site for the proposed klanzone on match days.
He told me that it was not on for two reasons:
- Fire regulations apropos the Club Deck.
- Close Brothers might well consider that to be a “change of use”.
This row is just another example of Mr King picking a fight for no good reason other than to augment the victim narrative to the Ibrox klanbase.
Meanwhile, General Ashley is putting on pressure apropos the new retail deal.
Oh, and he really would like his legal fees paid that are due to him from the last Sevco capitulation!
Moreover, I’m sure those nice folks at Hummel would have been delighted to see so many counterfeited orange Sevco tops in the away section at Celtic Park yesterday.
Mr Gerrard has delivered Europa League revenues, but as was pointed out to me yesterday they are spending it as quickly as it comes in the door.
Gareth McAuley is another addition to an already bloated wage bill.
Would the 38-year-old have tipped the balance of the match yesterday?
Quite…
For the avoidance of doubt dear reader, unlike many in the Stenography Corps, I was in flying form while writing this piece.
It’s a fine day in Donegal and I hope you have a good one.
Dembele was for the off last Season you could see it in his performances.
He was never a long term signing from the off and if truth be told can anyone see Edouard at Celtic in 3 years time if he proceeds to batter the goals in with great regularity?
I can’t.
So that leaves us with one of the 3 who is 100% committed to playing and more importantly staying at Celtic namely Griffiths.
If you look at the strike ratios of Griffiths and Dembele FROM OPEN PLAY Griffiths record is actually better and when you consider this is over a longer time span (therefore more likely to contain lean spells) was Dembele really all that at Celtic?
Further to this Hoopers goal return trumped them both so perhaps in the case of goalscorers beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and fans tend to back who THEY LIKE rather than who’s actually doing the business.
Dembele may well go on to break all sorts of records else where but my point is when you stack up what he did at Celtic it really wasn’t that special at all.
We got a terrific deal all in with him but his departure and how HE HANDLED IT has brought him down a peg or two in my book.
Good luck to him and all the best but yer no legend at Celtic son.
Griffiths has still got the time and the ability to become one.
He’s also the best ‘dead-ball’ man since Henrik and Nakamura…,
Crikey you almost kept this to discussion on team you purport to support. Congratulations.
No action to be taken against Sevco GK Mcgregor
#unbelievable
Another fallacy being reported as fact by our media following Sunday’s match, as yet another justification for Rangers defeat, is that we have to remember that this is a young team therefore they should be cut some slack.
So far so good, young guns against Celtic’s vastly experienced pensioners.
The reality is that the average age of Rangers starting 11 was 25, whilst Celtic averaged 26 yet no one in the media referred to Celtic as a young team.
Lazy journalism or propaganda…take your choice.
Also worth noting that not one of the Rangers starting 11 is a product of Murray Park,whilst Celtic fielded 3 home grown starters.
So now Ryan Jack is calling for the referee to be demoted….IT WAS NOT EVEN A FCUKIN FOUL !!
PS: I don’t hear much on the goalie kick on Ajer in the box which would have resulted in a red card and a penalty
After the chaos in the tunnel at the weekend, no doubt exacerbated by the change in ticket allocation, with the police seemingly unable to respond to what was happening right in front of them, time for the club to refuse any tickets for the next game at Ibrox.
With no response from Police Scotland to the change in the allocation they must be 100% sure that they will be able to protect the few hundred hoops fans who will make the trip across the city.
I hope their confidence is justified. As with Sunday’s game a new plan is required to get the Celtic fans in and out of the stadium.
The match itself could be pivotal with regards to the league. Tensions will run high and a reverse for the home team could be the last straw for their fans.
Getting home safe through streets teeming with disgruntled opposition fans doesn’t bear thinking about.
If Police Scotland have reservations about the revised ticket arrangements it’s time to speak up now but Celtic have a duty of care to our fans and can take the decision away from the police by refusing our allocation.
With King stirring the shit about SFA and SPFL appointments, Gerrard mouthing off about referee decisions going back years, the faux outrage over the fanzone, the inbuilt sense of entitlement which is part of their DNA, another defeat in December will just further wind up fans who need to go back 6 years to remind themselves what a league victory feels like.
“Klanzone”, love it, great work again Phil.
It’s always a fine day in Donegal Phil. Even when the rain is hitting you under the chin because it’s bouncing that high off the ground it’s still a fine day in Donegal. Ach! Aw right! I’m biased!
Yes, the Ge55ard Revolution is starting to look very much like the revolution of a millwheel – take all that trouble to turn around, and you’re back in the same position you started!
As bosses go, Slippy G is far from the sharpest tool in the box.
Although as tools go, he’s certainly been put firmly in his box.
Hi Phil. My Monday has been marvellous! The skelpings continue and it’ll be a long season for sevco. They’ll be praying McGregor doesn’t injure himself as only he and the crossbar kept it from being a total humping. Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham were different class.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee……
me team, me team, eeeeeeeeeeee… me team me team, me team!!!”
I for one woke with a little more trepidation than is normally expected when meeting the new co, simply, I wasn’t sure how the bhoys would react to the happenings just gone by.
I am again filled with a pride for my team and the way they conducted themselves on our dear green place, outstanding.
Hail hail
Here is a question for my fellow Celtic supporters….Can you imagine the gnashing and wailing from Dead-co if it was our goalie that kicked out at a Sevco player and the ref missed it?
or the blatant stamp on brown being the other way?
Just catching up online with some of the media headlines.
It would appear that there are only 2 football teams in Scotland and the rest are just making up the numbers.
A number of articles highlighting the 4 points gap to Celtic but not the 7 point gap to Hearts, as if they don’t exist.
I’m no fan
of Hearts or Levein but credit where credit’s due, they have started the season on fire but are completely ignored by the West of Scotland press corps.
Probably also worth noting that Rangers sit 2 points clear of the relegation play off spot which again our stenographers appear to have missed.
Probably cost someone their job if they dared mention that in print.
If any of our noble media try to dress up yesterday’s game as evidence of the gap narrowing then they must have had their eyes closed shut.
Morelos and Lafferty hardly saw the ball such was Celtic”s dominance in midfield.
Arfield looks like a younger version of Dorrans and I’ve yet to see what Ryan Jack brings to the party.
McAuley at 38 seems a strange one but hey ho.
They now have 5 loan players in the first team squad. Not a single player in that squad is a product of Murray Park whilst the Celts had 3 starters and another on the bench via the academy.
Not only are they spending money as it comes in, the Europa bonanza is being spent in advance of receipt from UEFA.
Less anyone forgets Close Bros are due £4m in February.
It’s hard to believe that the merchandising contract has not been signed off yet.
Though King was keen to tell his readers in the narrative to last year’s audited accounts that all was well and Sports Direct had been shown the door.
That was almost 12 months ago yet here we are no further forward and the Xmas market soon to be upon us.
We will need to see the current year’s audited accounts to ascertain if there has been debt for equity swops with any of those who provided the soft loans.
Though some of the big earners have been moved on their replacements are being well rewarded.
Will be interesting to see the bottom line numbers and whether they are ever closer to break even which again according to King in last year’s narrative is around a £7m loss.
Yep, clear evidence that they were heading in the right direction which added to the triumph over Ashley were both highlighted in the what we did well column of the accounts.
Hi Phil. Do expect to write anything regarding the crush at the game yesterday?
Beautiful Sunday’s always followed by beautiful Monday’s 🍀🍀
Haha a great round off to your piece Phil. The thought of the Daily Ranger / Evening Times hacks operating under duress with frank orders from above following yesterday’s sobering footballing lesson puts a smile on my face.
In regard to your comments re the fair North West, as the song goes, ‘we’d have our own Las Vegas in the Hills of Donegal’ but just remember the advice of Poor Pedro: ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’. So, you might want to retract your comments about the sheer joy rippling throughout the region today 🙂
Had the perfect Sunday yesterday,first Celtic,then the Dubs,then the Pubs.Happiness is being a Tim/Dub.Hail Hail.