The statement from the SPFL champions today must have had an ominous portent for the brethren in the Blue Room.
In this century, for almost every year, Celtic has sold more season tickets than there are seats at the stadium Mr Bomber played for.
To the Sevco High Command it must seem like Groundhog Day, same old same old.
Somehow they have to overcome this quite literally in built financial advantage.
Season tickets sales plus Celtic’s excellent commercial performance puts the Parkhead outfit on another level.
Football finance expert and Fergus McCann’s trusted lieutenant David Lowe has carefully estimated that it is in the region of £15m pa.
Now,in the EPL, that’s petty cash voucher territory, but in Scotland, it is a game changer.
A reasonable approach by the Sevco High Command would be to raise income and cut costs where possible.
The former isn’t easy in Planet Fitba.
Yes, astute moves in the player trading game can net a windfall a la Calvin Bassey to Ajax.
However, at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be huge equity in the Ibrox squad.
Indeed they just lost their equivalent of Jota and Kyogo for free.
Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos, both in their twenties, should not have been allowed to run down their contracts.
Not clever.
So that brings us to cutting costs.
I learned today that many of the back-slapping freebies sometimes afforded to club legneds and fan influencers have been eradicated.
If there is to be a hospitality spend it must first go to that nice Mr Bisgrove, and final sign off is with chairman Bennet.
The PR problem is that it is a cash strapped club that must pretend to their supporters that all is well and that they’re actually quite flush.
Of course, they can rely on the succulent assistance of the local media to spin constantly to the Ibrox klanbase that all is well financially.
On that front the Sevco High Command have valuable help with Operation Soothe.
For the avoidance of doubt,across the city there is no need for such performance art.
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Excellent news on Kyogo’s new contract.
Don’t believe both Morelos and Kent are i the twenties; I’d have put Kent at about 11 st maximum.
Loads of credit ( look away now any snuh infiltrators )..must go to Michael Nicholson and whoever appointed him ? The board gets plenty of flack and they deserve a pat on the back for the past 2 years business and I trust guys like uncle Phil keep reporting the Facts “
The withdrawal for hospitality is quite a significant decision.
In the great scheme of things, withdrawing hospitality to all the Ibrox
hangers-on will save a relatively negligible amount of money.
However, it will definitely create a disproportionate amount of negativity,
moaning and b!tching by those who probably do have influence amongst
the bears.
But, then again, if money is really that tight at Ibrox, then both
Bisgrove and Bennet don’t have a choice, and just have to brace themselves
for the blowback from annoyed ex-players, media types – and anyone else
who now has to grudgingly pay for their own ticket / drinks! 🙂
Aye but they have a ‘subject’ mindset rather that a ‘citizen’ mindset over there. So different logic applies.
Aye but the Tillman money and Bassey too…Scott Burns of the record still insisting that 2 interested EPL teams slugging it out for Tillman will see rangers get a £1m bounty. It’s worse than ludicrous. This guy must be embarrassed to put his name to that story.
Then Bassey a huge disappointmet in Holland, Ajax will try to recoup whatever they can but it won’t be near the money they spent and any cut rangers were due would be based on profit over what the Dutch club payed out, ie very very likely hee-haw.!
Like your story suggests Phil, rangers trying to stay at the income races with the Celts…. What they are needing to do is bring out a new ‘wet wet wet’ themed top.
Let’s not get too smug or complacent. Neither of those attitudes sit comfortably with me.
Right now we sit on the same points total as Sevco. Zero. We’ve played the same number of rounds in Cup competitions. Zero.
There there are multiple penalties to be awarded to Sevco and denied to us. There are penalties to be denied against Sevco and awarded against us. Despite VAR there will be numerous honest refereeing mistakes, against us and for Sevco.
Let’s wait until May 2024 to crow again, briefly before the the cycle begins over again.
There is nothing better than to hear and read that Celtic has a moral class, that doesn’t have to cheat or deceive. Unlike the other shit show that has rags writing foolish untrustworthy stories, not even a child believes.