Well, that was very pleasant viewing.
Mission accomplished!
Firstly, some perspective.
Unlike when Sevco met with little Progrès in 2017, the Ibrox club WILL have European football after this defeat.
Moreover, this was not an existential event tonight as it was for the original Rangers in Malmo in August 2011.
The temptation for the Stenography Corps now will be to spin a minimising narrative apropos the financial hit.
In the post-match comments, Mr Beale said that the basket of assets would have a “quiet end to the window”.
Celtic will make a minimum of £29m from UCL this season before performance and gate and TV.
Tonight, Sevco lost £13m and are now looking at £11.5m plus gate plus TV.
Once again, this allows Celtic to financially pull away IF the people in the Parkhead Boardroom will enable those resources to be deployed by the football department.
Failure to do so might suggest they want to nurture a duopoly of almost equally matched rivals.
Perhaps that is a part of a (cunning) business plan.
It is a question worth asking.
Another promising player was confirmed at Celtic today.
Hopefully, the chico is the real deal.
The thing is, tonight, PSV had a player who cost €15m, and it was discernible as Noa Lang repeatedly danced past Mr Beale’s Gumtree Galacticos.
Celtic COULD deal in that market.
For some reason, they choose not to do so.
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PSV EINDHOVEN 5 v 1 PVC SEVCO
The best football viewing of the season.
Referee very lenient. Hardman Cantwell laughable. Own goal a Godsend.
Which Celtic will show up on Sunday?
Closing of the transfer window appears lastminute.com with too many ‘work in progress’ signings. Palma needs to be Champions League quality. Bernardo? Yet to put pen to paper.
Hail, hail.
I wonder what Jon Dahl Tomasson thinks of loads of R2ngers Supporters being involved in refereeing or VARing in any Celtic or R2ngers match.
I mean, any game, not just the Glasgow Derby.
Foreign refs PLEASE. How do we go about it?
WEe should, obviously, only sign quality first team ready players that are required now and no more projects at this time.
The additional benefits of doing so are the optics of one club continues to surge forward while the other continues to stagnate, if not degenerate (or did they do that a long time ago?).
I agree with Charger regards his comment if the boot was on the other foot those at Ibrox and their media cronies would want to bury us if what happened back in 2012
Their would have been no holding company myth. ,all titles would have been stripped .etc
Make no mistake they would have buried us .
Fun though it was to watch them floundering as their limitations caught up with them under the intensity of Philips’ highest lux bulbs, such enjoyment has to be tempered with the grim realisation that similar painful tankings are quite likely to happen to us over the coming months if we get a particularly tough draw in the group stage and no reinforcements are added to shore up a squad that although large in number is curiously bereft of genuine First XI players.
You could argue that we should just accept the leatherings and bank the huge cheque and spend it wisely over a period of time, but we don’t spend money all that wisely because we stick doggedly to a strategy that has had mixed results and a lot is wasted on ‘project’ signings that don’t develop as hoped when purchasing first team-ready level players might actually constitute better investment.
I’m over on Lanzarote on holiday just now and didn’t see the Sevco hammering, but I’ve got to agree with Charger. The board and DD need to have a good look at themselves and decide whether to go for mediocrity and duopoly with Sevco or blast ahead and bury them for a generation. We have the resources, we just need the board to be in line with the support and go for it. A wee aside – I read ‘native shore’ a few months ago. My wife is now reading it just now on holiday and loving it. It is an absolutely cracking read. Get the follow up written and published asap Phil!
I’m glad you enjoyed Native Shore Bill.
Sadly, writing novels is a very time cosuming business-years in the making.
There is a planned sequel to Native Shore, but it is very early days.
So glad there will be a sequel Phil. And I’ve still got ‘The Squad’ to read meantime! Awrabest.
A question Phil. Are your books available on Kindle?
The Squad is available on Kindle.
Native Shore is print only at the moment.
It’s available from Calton Books, Waterstones and direct from the publisher.
👍👍
If they believe a duopoly of equally matched rivals is good for business then they are sadly mistaken. It’s even questionable if it would work if BOTH sides wanted it that way. Sevco want to dominate! End of! If the boot was on the other foot right now they would do EVERYTHING THEY COULD to bury us.
The sponsors of a league or tournament want it to be competitive. But the theory that the sponsorship and ticket sales, of an individual club depend on a degree of competition, is frankly, a crock of shite. The sponsors of a club/ team/individual, at the highest level want success. Nothing else. It’s a simple matter of brand association. The sponsors want their brand associated with success.
When Sevco were on the four year journey, twelve national trophies were up for grabs. Celtic won six of them, indicating that there was at least a degree of competition. I cannot recall a single major sponsorship deal struck during that time. We were also forced to close a chunk of a stand if my memory is correct, due to a lack of ticket sales.
Fast forward two years. Two years of total dominance. SIX out of six trophies, and the biggest sponsorship deal in the history of Scottish football is struck with Dafabet.
Fast forward two more years, two more trebles, and utter domination. THAT deal is overtaken by the deal with Adidas. Both running side by side until 2025 at least. Season tickets sold out. The waiting list for a season ticket so long, that the club are not accepting any more applications. World class, worldwide brands, particularly sporting brands, want to be associated with success and only success. They do not want second place or glorious failure.
Excellent price my thoughts exactly only I couldn’t possibly put it so forcefully or in deed eloquently, if only the suites were competent enough to think along those lines instead of their 100 year old attitude football might have gone forward a little.