Public data and inconvenient facts

For the green half of Glasgow, this should be the summer of their quiet content.

Feeling just champion has been something of the natural order this century for those of the Parkhead persuasion.

Now, if João Pedro Neves Filipe brings back his joga bonito to Paradise, then the Ange fella will be, as he would have it, “super pleased”…

No doubt the marketing folk at Adidas will be looking forward to utilising the photogenic Portuguese winger for the most recent iteration of the Hoops.

Across the city, the devil is still in the retail, and it might impact how and who they can recruit.

If you recall, Big Mike was meant to be utterly banished from Ibrox in 2017.

At the time, your humble correspondent was something of a contrarian.

This journalist sted that Sports Direct actually had emerged from the negotiations with a BETTER deal and that this would soon become apparent to the Sevco High Command.

I will leave it to you to judge the integrity of my reporting on that matter.

At the start of last season, I pointed out that the idea that Big Mike would allow a sportswear competitor to kit out HIS Newcastle United was utterly risible.

The obvious deduction is that Ashley HAS some beneficial interest in Castore.

He hasn’t gone away, you know!

I’ve done as much excavation as I possibly can on this one.

That said, I’m reasonably satisfied that the sportswear magnate acquired a holding there AFTER the small Merseyside outfit got into bed with Sevco.

My understanding is that Ashley did NOT do this via Sports Direct.

Moreover, although Big Mike is no longer the owner of NUFC, the kit deal with Castore remains extant.

Across the city, some of the more sentient Sevco supporters are asking questions.

Of course, none of this will come as breaking news to regular readers here.

As I have already stated, the public data on Sevco’s verifiable transfer activity in this window will be more valuable than all the gushing pish in the Daily Radar.

Slowly, the Penny Arcade will drop for at least some of The People.

Just a quick míle buíochas to all of ye who have purchased Native Shore the publisher is delighted, and I’m grateful.

There’s more scéal to come from the Gerry O’Donnell fella, that’s for sure.

So, I’m away back down the Word Mines as the Moleskine notebooks are filling up.

Never stop.

On that front, I plan to have another short excerpt from Native Shore on here this week.

In the meantime, it is fair to say that Lawwellball is thankfully a thing of the past at Paradise.

The Celtic manager gets the players he wants and when he wants them.

That’s what happened at the start of the January window, and it undoubtedly tipped the balance in the second half of the title race.

Sevco, on the other hand,  had to make do with loan deals that, in the end, made little impact.

Yes, yes, Aaron Ramsey was signed to make a difference in Europe.

Please insert your own jokes here…

My information is that the director of fantasy is operating on the same basis in this transfer window as he was in January.

At the start of the year, his orders were to sell players to bring in an eight-figure sum.

Any gaps in the squad were to be filled with loan deals and projects on small fees.

Given the revenues they have brought this season, Mr Gio should now have millions to spend on re-building an ageing squad.

The observable data would suggest that this is not the case, and I think I know why.

Rather I know WHO:

Big Mike.

Yet it could have been substantially different.

The fact that Sevco missed out on a European trophy by a penalty kick is utterly Shakespearean.

Yet this has still been a stellar financial year for the brethren in the Blue Room.

Nathan Patterson was sold (although not for the fantasy figure obediently regurgitated by the hacks) and compensation came in for Mr Let’s Go and his coaching colleagues.

Then the entirely unexpected run to Seville.

If there isn’t anything lurking in the background, then they should post a profit for the first time since they were born in 2012.

The known unknown is HOW MUCH Big Mike took from them and how and when it was paid.

As I stated, ignore the pishful thinking from the Stenography Corps and focus on the public data.

The Fitba Fifth Estate is where I mainly get my content.

I read the likes of Joe McHugh at Video Celts for proper evidence-based reporting and young James Forrest at the Celtic Blog just for the craic!

In the mainstream media London-based Anthony Joseph is top class.

Now, I need to get back to the other thing.

Never stop.