In American football, they call it a “Hail Mary”.
It is self-evident that the acquisition of Davis and Defoe is about an all or nothing attempt to stop Celtic winning the league.
I have seen the finances of these two deals and they are locked ward material.
Messrs Davis and Defoe will be the best-paid players in Scotland by quite a measure.
However, if they can deliver the championship to Sevco then it will money well spent.
Do not be surprised if there is a fresh move to the fans as “co-investors”.
As per usual, there will be zero journalistic scrutiny from the Stenography Corps on any of these moves by the Sevco High command.
Mr King has other work to do this month apropos the Takeover Panel case:
The funds must be cleared to be in place in the UK by January 11th and then an offer has to be made by the 25th January.
Mr King will be in front of Lady Wolffe on February 4th.
General Ashley also has his legal divisions in action regarding Sevco’s car boot sale retail operation.
Of course, none of this matters to the Ibrox klanbase.
They think they can win the league and nothing else really matters.
The hinge factor in all of this will be whether or not Celtic can go for a hat-trick of recruitment failures during this transfer window.
Timothy Weah and Vakoun Issouf Bayo will undoubtedly be value added in the Hoops
Today I was told that Celtic would make offers for “two EPL players from the same club”.
This time last year Brendan Rodgers got the two players he was after.
Unfortunately, they were Marvin Compper and Charly Musonda.
Of course, the summer recruitment shambles was not down to the Irishman at all.
These new acquisitions are all down to Brendan.
If they do not deliver then he will be entirely responsible and he knows it.
I’m sure he will be mentioning that in his prayers at night.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Help me out here. Do the SFA still have an effective drug testing programme?
I remember a couple of years ago there were questions asked about the SFA’s ability to carry out testing and, if memory serves me right, the SFA pointed the finger of blame at the UK sports doping agency.
The last drug test numbers I saw made public showed that you had as much chance of a Euro millions win as a player had of being drug tested.
I’ve written to Maxwell, and his predecessors on this, but apparently only those in the know need to know!
It was ever so. The good old SFA, transparency is a word not in their dictionary for very good reasons.
The Defoe signing is a clear indication that Morelos will be on his way, not to the higher reaches of the EPL but to a desperate club in the relegation area willing to take a chance on the petulant Columbia, or perhaps that China bid will resurface.
Kamara on a pre contract to replace Coulibaly in the squad and Jordan Jones to take over from Ryan Kent whose transfer fee is too rich for Rangers liking.
Gerrard is clearly stating that any further additions will be self funding when some of the highly paid deadwood is moved on.
Pena and Herrera anyone?
It’s little wonder that another head had to be recruited to look after and report on the loans, in and out, there being so many.
After all one more addition to the payroll will hardly make a dent in the numbers.
Any information as to whether the GASL actually met the deadlines to ensure that the documentation and approvals to move the money out of SA were met? It will be interesting to see if he moves the money by the Jan 11 deadline or comes up with some excuse again.
One last thing, to your knowledge has anything been done by anyone to even remotely look into King’s claims that organized crime/criminal elements had been involved in purchasing shares? I would have thought that might have been something they would be keen to look into to make sure that money laundering could not happen in Scottish game. SFA doing….well, SFA?
Someone has just reminded me that Beaton was the referee when Rangers played Albion Rovers at Ibrox a few years back in a Scottish Cup tie.
With Rovers leading one nil, and on the verge of creating headlines to compete with Rangers famous loss at Berwick, with a few minutes to go the ball was launched into the Albion box but plucked from the air by the goalie.
However Moshni, remember him, bundled the goalie and the ball over the line, Beaton gives the goal with the Albion players going mental.
The game was live on TV and I remember one of the pundits in the studio, a former Rangers player, voicing his astonishment that Beaton had not blown for a foul on the goalie.
We are not talking 50/50 decisions here, it was an assault on the goalie.
Would be great if someone could find the footage and put it out there.
I read somewhere that Bournemouth expected whichever club took Defoe off their hands to contribute part of his salary.
Why not all of it? With estimates of his EPL contract being anywhere between £60 to £100k per week it’s difficult to see how Rangers can justify the spend.
CL Group Stage is the answer but that is a perilous route lined with difficulties.
Given the overall increase in the wage bill since the accounts were signed off plus the addition of Defoe and Davis the estimated cash shortfall of £4m for the current year is wishful thinking.
Despite the revenue from the European run another hefty loss is on it’s way.
Where are the millions from the merchandising contract?
Oops, Rangers and the media appear to have taken a vow of silence on this subject and don’t mention Sports Direct whatever you do.
Ok agreed that BR hasn’t been brilliant with signings but his skills at man management have been excellent. He came into a bunch of players that were underperforming and went invincible, ostensibly with one guy added.
The core of that team is still there. His skills are still there. Few tweaks and we will be doing treble treble.
I honestly think Lawwell doesn’t want us to win the league and do 10 in a row.
He clearly and wrongly signs up to the nonsense of a string ibrox team. I think he is worried they will stop at nothing and end up going to the wall with best case a 3rd life of an ibrox team.
I’ve been texting a good friend much the same message tonight. The money men at Celtic do NOT want to see sevco go bust or drop out of the top flight. But I’ll tell you right now, if PL sacrifces 10 in a row to keep that shipwreck afloat, the Celtic fans will NEVER forgive either him or the club. They will be lucky to come EVEN CLOSE to matching sevco in season ticket sales next year or any time in the foreseeable future. The fans will respond with a cold fury that PL cannot begin to imagine.
Paying players wages that you can’t afford – we’ve heard that one before , and it didn’t end well for the deceased club .
My New Year resolution ( apart from Resolution 12 ) is to live long enough to see the Tribute Act fail – and then enjoy the pantomime of the SFA/SPFL and some as yet unknown entity attempt a resurrection and present Scottish football with Tribute Act II .
Next time we get 60,000 Celtic fans to chip in £100 quid each to buy the assets and then turn the place into a multi-storey car park.
Aye. You’d have no bother finding them! Put myself and my three brothers down for two spaces each.!!!
🙂
Just to remind Mr King that if it all goes pear shaped he can also do a Daniel Defoe and skip to Robbin Island and make like a modern day Robinson Crusoe surrounded by great white sharks….it’ll feel just like home…..
At this time of the season, given the summer shambles, “offers” are not good enough. The players should have been identified long ago by Rodgers and Lawwell should have negotiated terms which would ensure they are purchases.
Never mind the cash in hand Celtic declared in the last accounts. Money from the sale of Armstrong and Dembele, despite timings of cash payments and the purchase of Edouard, can and must be used to add quality to a team which is, essentially, Delia’s team.
It’s not difficult to look at the stats and find the areas that need strengthening. Go to celticbynumbers or modernfitba for some great reads.
Don’t forget the £7m plus from the % sell-on from big Virgil
Forgot about that! Even more reason!!
The reason it is essentially Deilas team is because Brendan’s signings on the whole have been poor.
Other than Ntcham and big Eddie, on the whole they’ve been shite. The Dembele deal was negotiated during RD’s reign as was the bulk of the Sinclair deal. Although to be fair that might not have got over the line without the personal connection. The recruitment team put together, at some expense, by BR has unearthed fuck all in two and a half years.
I particularly love reading lines like “He’s transformed McGregor” whilst thinking its taken him 2 years to realise he’s the natural replacement for Brown and only came across this revelation through injuries and suspensions!
Then plays him as a left back at Ibrox for 90 minutes whilst the best Left Back in Scotland is sat on the bench next to his apparent back up Hayes?
Whilst i agree with most of what you have said, it must be pointed out that Rodgers has bought / loaned 20 players since he arrived so far !
The fact that you refer to the current team as “Delia’s” reveals how little impact Brendan’s signings have made.
(Bought: De Vries, Bain,Izaguirre, Gamboa, Hendry, Compper, Toure, Benyu, Mulumbu, Kouassi, Ntcham, Hayes, Morgan, Sinclair, Dembele, Edouard
Loaned: Musonda, Benkovic, Arzani, Burke)
Then throw in the fact our wage bill has increased by over 47% since 2016
He SOLD Izzy and then BOUGHT him back again.
WILL winning the title be enough? I think they would need to reach the CL group stages to justify the financial expenditure you’ve outlined above and to get them out of the money pit they seem hell bent on digging deeper by the day.