When Daizen Maeda slotted that penalty past Jack Butland yesterday, I was exactly the same as any Celtic supporter on the planet.
Instant tribal dopamine hit!
Losing on penalties was another cruel blow inflicted on Sevco’s second-prize specialists.
Lovely jubbly!
However, the really important thing about yesterday is that it wasn’t, well, important.
Actually, the last truly consequential match for any club at the national stadium was last August, when displaced Ukrainians defeated the displaced basket of assets.
Dynamo Kyiv’s victory over two legs meant Sevco would not access the riches of the Champions League.
Consequently, their richer neighbours received another financial boost as the only participants from Scotland.
For the avoidance of doubt, whichever team had won the League Cup yesterday would not have altered the resource landscape in Glasgow.
Now, if any members of the Stenography Corps want to eschew their usual obedient succulence and try a bit of journalism, here are some questions worth putting the new CEO at Ibrox:
Do you intend to reduce £100k per week from the first team wage bill?
If so, is it because the January window is the only opportunity that falls within this accounting year?
Are UEFA’s Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR) part of the reason for this planned reduction in the wage bill?
Dear reader, these are pertinent questions to ask Mr Patrick Stewart as he formally commences his dignified duties today.
The football experts I consulted this morning are pretty unanimous about the final itself.
Their collective view was that Celtic did not turn up, and the team in Norwegian Blue overperformed on the day.
Despite this, Brendan’s Bhoys still found a way to edge it.
They all said that the Irishman’s tactical tweaks at the break put Celtic on the front foot in the second half.
I would not be surprised if dear Philippe puts it down as another moral victory.
He might ask the new CEO to provide funds for him to strengthen his squad in a few weeks.
However, the public data of the January window might prove challenging for the Stenography Corps to spin as anything other than austerity.
Always follow follow the money.
Have a great week!
Not one of the slickest performances and a better team than newco might have been capable of capitalising on it. At least with Celtic, you know that they are capable of so much more. Can the same be said of the rangers 🤔
No wonder the majority of their support are simply depressed. Their brand of football is awful to watch. They came into the game on the back of a few improved performances and it will be interesting to see how they come back from that defeat in the coming weeks and months ahead HH
Rangers have already begun their cost cutting initiative by sacking their trophy polisher on Monday morning!
5 years ago Celtic would have lost that game through unconscious bias influencing decisions by heavily conflicted match officials. The eradication of such derailment is VARy good for the vast majority of Scottish Football.
In the continuing absence of rich sugar daddies,
the new CEO doesn’t have much of a choice?
He’ll have to apply that good old fashioned cost cutting technique:
the slash-and-burn!
No sacred cows, everything a target for brutal cutbacks or elimination.
As for new players in January? Aye, right!I
[Get those free, young Academy players into the squad.]
As for massive hikes in ibrox season ticket prices? Absolutely!
If the bears are in pain now, they should consider hibernating
…for several seasons!
🙂
Phil could you talk us through options to cut £100k from wage Bill? Fewer executives, fewer staff and 5 fewer 1st team players?
Well judging by the amount they got for the 5 players that were sold for (£800,000)there’s not much left in terms of money on the park . The Directors tell them to grab a pair of Boots from the dressing room and be ready to help out to keep the costs down.
The first thing new Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart did was ask SFA for explanation over Cerny penalty controversy in League Cup final defeat to Celtic (according to the Daily Mail ) The answer is it wasn’t inside the box but the straw graspers are clinging to this for comfort . Fortunately Raskin is now worth 30m despite being at fault for Daizen’s goal and will reset those pesky FSR regulations . “It’s the hope that kills them”
He also scored the equaliser and sold himself very easily for the third goal. If it wasn’t for this he’d be worth £50m. 🇳🇬💚🇳🇬
For all but 10 mins we never turned up, maybe the worst Celtic performance I’ve ever seen, my son and I compared it to the Dortmund game, and Alan from CBN seems to agree, at least on initial appraisal. A healthy dose of luck carried the day, we wouldn’t have scored without it, and as for Taylor, is he Brendan’s sick joke do you think?.
“Worst Celtic performance I have ever seen?” Another Paddy……..I mean Johnny Come Lately, same old story with the shameless tims.
Thank you for that news, very interesting. As to the game? For me personally I learned nothing new. In my very humble opinion Greg Taylor will never be a full back, absolutely shocking. Reo Hatate I like but this season he has been poor. On the plus side Maeda is just unplayable he is magnificent. Likewise Nicolas Kuhn, just fantastic. I think that Kyogo is not getting the correct service and it has affected his game. The really frightening thing for Sevco is that we can get much better. They can’t.
I think we have seen the best of Kyogo now at Celtic and he’s now in slow decline.
He’s not been at his best since Ange departed despite getting the lions share of game time and multiple chances to score in that time.
Might well be time to shift him on for a bit of money án invest in a proven European level finisher.
As for Hatate he’s another Ntcham for me one good game in 5 and shows up for 20 minutes in the other 4.
I bring in Miller and look to capitalise on Reo as there is interested.
An early crimbo pressie for us especially when we weren’t able to put the game to bed in the 120mins. Too many loose passes and some of the bhoys not being on the top of their game had the other mob thinking they were Real Madrid!
Class will out though. HH
Anyone know why butland took a penalty?? Did any of his teammates bottle it?!
“The team in Norwegian Blue”
Brilliant, I see what you did there 👏🏻
They’re pining for the Fjords…
Dead parrots 🤣👍🍀
Does Malmo have fjords too? They’ve played a recurring role in this saga…
I hear this same garbage trotted out every year, even from some of our own support.
“Celtic need a strong Rangers”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Celtic need a strong Celtic. And that’s it.
Yesterday highlighted some of our own teams weaknesses in certain areas of the park. Those weaknesses, and there were a number, nearly stopped us from becoming “The worlds mostest successful team in Scotlandshire”…or something?
Over to You Peter and Brendan.
Make Celtic Stronger…again.
Merry Christmas, Phil.
I see a lot of *rangers comments about having bottle to take a penalty, someone needs to show the comments to Dessers.
Phil, you make my day, thanks God bless and hail hail