This is just a brief communiqué from the Word Mines as the sequel to Native Shore will not magically appear without the input of your humble correspondent.
The fall out within the Ibrox klanbase from the derby day battering at Celtic Park has been a case study in the efficacy of the Kübler-Ross model.
Many of The People are still marooned in that big river in Egypt.
Some of them have moved on to the second stage of the grieving process and that is where they excel.
I have to say that they do ANGER very well indeed.
For the technicalities as to why Ange’s Bhoys found it so easy I would recommend that you follow Alan Morrison on Celtic By Numbers (@Alan_Morrison67).
As he delves into the data stuff he becomes rather prescient about what will unfold on the pitch.
What I can offer, from very well-placed sources, is that the resource picture between the two clubs is very different.
Firstly, Celtic’s financials are robust and Sevco is on a UEFA FFP watch list.
No doubt the Stenography Corps will be able to excavate an Old Firm headline from that undeniable asymmetry.
When it was announced that the ten year old club was being so surveilled from Nyon I remembered a line from one of my favourite ballads:
Vindication once again!
My Celtic scéal is that the budget was not busted in the summer.
Consequently, money is available for the right player in January if the gaffer feels the need for further additions.
As well as that the Parkhead side knocked back real bids for players before the window closed.
Moreover, these were real offers and not the type of ones that the media reported apropos Alfredo from FC Narnia.
The basic truth is that Celtic have greater financial resources than their city rivals in Norwegian Blue.
Delete Lawwellball from the equation and you can discern the future going forward until those fundamentals change.
I’m told that after the PSV game Mr Gio asked the board for a centre back to partner Conor Goldson, a key requirement was that he didn’t arrive at Auchenhowie in an ambulance.
He also asked for a more creative partner in central midfield for that nice Mr Lundstram.
Finally he asked for another forward.
As you know these players did not join Sevco.
The original Rangers started to get into trouble when outsiders imposed financial sanity on them.
First it was their bankers in 2009 and then, fatally, HMRC in 2012.
Now for Sevco after a decade of craziness it is UEFA.
The new Financial Sustainability Regulations have closed off many of the loopholes in FFP.
This is not good news for the Sevco High Command.
Going forward if the new club is forced to live within their means then Celtic will be able to comfortably outspend them on a sustainable basis.
Of course, none of that is Gio’s fault.
The irony is that a manager who has proven so adept at moulding Sevco into a combative unit in Europe has been hamstrung domestically by UEFA.
Starting to see it now?
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I’m waiting for Keith Jackson to tell us that the ‘Financial Watch List’ is a massive Sevco sponsorship deal from Rolex…
Short of attracting a billionaire ‘investor’ or getting a brilliant manager who can consistently deliver over achievement, it is hard to see how Rangers will match or catch Celtic financially over the next few years.
How big would surpassing the combined title wins of the old and new Rangers be?
For every £5 Celtic spends, Sevco wont be allowed to spend £10.
It’s hilarious the reaction in todays Daily Rangers Fanzine aka the record
Utter drivel written by Messrs Miller and Ferguson .
And mention of a possible takeover bid by someone the club are allegedly suing .
Honestly which real investors would entertain investing in the mire that is Ibrox .
Their fans have been lied to for years about how healthy and rosy things are .
It’s only now that Eufa are watching them and possibly others that reality is sinking in and they are starting to ask serious questions regards the financial situation
As the Daily Record says they got around 100 million last year
I know don’t laugh .
As for this alleged takeover bid any news regards this or is it another fairly tale to appease the horde
You really should stop all the nonsense about Peter Lawwell – its BECAUSE of him that we are as financially secure as we are! Whatever his errors he may have made (and show me a businessman who hasn’t made errors!!) its absolutely ludicrous not to recognise just what financial astuteness he had and how brilliant he was in his negotiations with clubs buying our players (£7m for Stuart Armstrong with less than a year left on his contract FFS!!!) and in sponsorships/partnerships etc. When he took over Rangers were the club doing all the big financial sponsorship deals – we were still doing deals with entities like Phoenix Honda – compare that to now. Do you really think DD would have left him in charge of the club for so long if he didn’t think he was any good?? DD is a billionaire with many many investments run by many many CEOs – he knows a good CEO when he sees one.
Laying off Lawwell doesn’t suit his agenda.
It came at a cost to the quality of football on offer and loss of reputation in Europe.
Commercially he did a good job and was between a rock and a hard place in 2012 in respect of the 5WA as result of Rangers financial recklessness.
His reputation would be impeccable but for the mendacity to shareholders at AGM.
The 5WA should never be secret from the lifeblood of the game , the supporters, and not agreed to if put commercial needs above sporting integrity although nowadays integrity seems to have been lost in a sea of lies.
Time it resurfaced to get the balance right for a club founded on the truth, the way and the light.
I don’t disagree – the 5WA should be a matter of public record…
i presume that if PSV had not inexplicably fumbled the ball, the financial disparity would be a chasm and the level of UEFA scrutiny would be ratcheted up several notches
Hi phil
yes its pleasing to see there money avalible to spend in Januray window for Ange as for the planet fitba in the blue room off course its not GVB fault lack off activity in the transfer market they need to see before they can buy again free transfers they all the can afford to do there 18club72 want a meeting with the board lack of transfer activity club that john brown played for going downhill uefa got eye on them to me this couid be start of another story with HMRC again. HH Comrade
Spot on Phil always 100% accurate… now get back to the word mine… just finished the squad, lot more errors than Native Shore