I’m told that the Sevco High Command were rather upset with your humble correspondent yesterday.
They had met in dignified conclave to discuss various matters and my work was on the agenda.
Specifically, it was two recent pieces of mine here.
Firstly, the fact that I was quoting football finance expert David Low was something of a blow to the Blue Room brethren.
It apparently unsettled the poor dears that I would have an ongoing communication with David and he was willing to be quoted by me.
Secondly, my entirely innocent piece about poor Alfredo seems to have had their beautiful minds firing off in all directions.
Apparently, these quintessentially British chaps discerned a rather unsavoury double entendre in my piece about the crocked Colombian.
Of course, the fact that I know that they discussed these matters will not help their collective equilibrium.
Even before this season is over it would appear that some of the Ibrox klanbase are already looking to the summer rebuild after their heroes became zeroes at Ibrox.
Well, I’m afraid that I have some bad news for The People.
The Director of Fantasy now knows that he will, effectively have no budget to give to the Manager.
As with the January window, it will be loan deals and free transfers next summer.
Regular readers will recall that my reporting on this situation prior to the January window was entirely vindicated by events.
Unlike Celtic, the Ibrox club did not spend any major funds to strengthen their squad.
This created a problem for the news management at the basket of assets as they had told their delightful klanbase that they had received an enormous fee for young Nathan Patterson.
Hint:
They didn’t.
Therefore, that’s why they didn’t spend in the January window despite some of their supporters demanding that the board give Gio “the Patterson money”.
In the summer Sevco’s recruitment operation is hamstrung on two fronts:
They do not have the in-depth knowledge on a par Celtic’s current scouting operation.
Moreover, Sevco simply lacks the hard cash to get deals done. For example when Matt O’Riley was identified Celtic knew the buyout information and how much they had to put on the table for MK Dons.
Deal done.
In January Sevco decided that £500k was too rich for their blood.
Instead, they offered the Tynecastle club £350k.
No deal.
So, £150k was the sticking point and because of that Sevco were denied the services of John Souttar who remained with Hearts until the end of the season.
Consider this, the chaps in the Blue Room KNOW what winning the title means this season apropos Champions League money.
Why then didn’t they strengthen the squad to see off Celtic?
Why?
Occam’s razor dear reader, Occam’s razor…
The ongoing security concerns were also discussed at the sit-down yesterday.
I understand that there were some home truths told to the Sevco High Command from the specialists in the room.
The chaps in the Blue Room would be sensible to listen.
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Touched on by Stephen above, are there any dates or timescales for the SDI and Cinch court cases? Everything seems to have gone very quiet.
Hi Phil, what i dont understand is when will
Sevco have to finally pay others what they owe,
like SDI, HMRC, other clubs etc! They seem to pay no-one and get away with it! And what happens to their Cinch money, will that be split
evenly between the other clubs who took part?
Oh dear, by my calculations Celtic would need to lose 3 of their last 5 games, with the Ibrox club having to secure 6 victories starting tomorrow to win the league.
Stranger things have happened or have they?
Well done to Ange, the back room staff, the players and the fans.
Who would have thought that we would be in this position after last year’s debacle and the icing on the cake could be yet another treble.
But for the eleven points earned directly from penalty kicks this season, Celtic would be champions NOW. The win over St Johnstone would have moved us 20 points clear, with Sevco having only six games left.
Not quite, 1 defeat and 2 draws would do it but even in that ‘more than plausible’ (sic) scenario would they hold their bottle?
GvB must be painfully aware now, that in the absence of the SPL title – he must win the EL.
If he doesn’t, then he gets the blame for everything from the Blue Room – and his blazer and brogues will be taken off him. 🙂
Had to smile at one report in this mornings MSM suggesting that “their” manager GvB defines next weeks match with Barga as being a hostile environment for the visitors. I know that English is not his first language but stoking hostility in the week where a hostile bottle hospitalised a guy is a poor choice of words.
If you are upsetting them Phil, you must be doing something right.
It doesn’t take the Occam’s razor principle to work out they didn’t actually have the additional 150k Hearts were asking. The whole enterprise over there is based on smoke and mirrors, Aaron Ramsey and the option to buy was particularly side splitting. To my eyes, this is a team that got lucky during the pandemic, no crowds baying for blood, an almost unfathomable lack of positive COVID cases amongst the playing squad, a craven SFA/spfl disciplinary body turning a blind eye to player indiscretions etc. In normal playing conditions they are nothing, as seen in Braga when a really average home side, really no better than a Motherwell or Dundee United saw them off easily. Throw in the absence of the pot bellied Colombian scowler for the remainder of the season and I’d say things are about to get even worse for the closed doors champions.
They qualified for the knock-out stages of the EL with the lowest points total of ANY of the qualifiers. Celtic were knocked out with MORE points than Sevco!
In fact, the one and only time that the dead club qualified for the KO stages of the CL, they did it with, what was at the time, the lowest points total ever.
If a double-entendre is called for then Phil’s the man to give you one!
Ooh, matron.
Carry On Up The Sevco.