As the transfer window begins to gently move towards the closed position, its time for decisions to be made by the maxim of blind panic to see us through to January.
Dedryck Boyata has been told he can go if we sign a replacement.
Probably.
That replacement could well be Filip Benkovic, a defender who is not good enough to get a game for Leicester. This is a twelve month loan as Celtic will not pay the eight figure fee for him, not without seeing if our scouts can actually tell if he’s any good.
We also hear Boyata sacked his agent and wants to stay, but there is a condition..
Boyata contract extension still on the table. He’s asked for additional clause inserted…Green Brigade make a banner of him as the Roman God of Love. More news when we get it.
Its a dealbreaker.
Fans have been split over Boyata, and its time to draw a line under it. Perhaps the most sensible comment on the whole affair came on twitter…
So having initially wanted to slaughter Boyata for what’s happened on arriving at the ground and seeing his name on the team sheet it didn’t feel right to do anything but support him, primarily because it potentially could have really negative consequences for the team.
what I found totally hypocritical was the continued booing throughout the game coming from the Green Brigade. I’d have thought that these guys above all other would have understood about making an arse of it.
On numerous times, along with their outstanding support of the Club they have got us into bother within the Club itself & on a wider basis with Uefa. Whether we like it or not, we all have our role to play in following Celtic & we all at times get it wrong as fans and as players.
What should always make Celtic unique is our ability to come together especially when things get difficult. We should be able to accept a player who gets it wrong just as we would expect the same second chance for our own behaviour.
Tolerance,acceptance and forgiveness are huge parts of the ethos of Celtic and we would all as a Club do well to remember that. As I said at the outset, I’d have been the first to hang him out to dry when this all started but on reflection I believe I was wrong.
I’ll back whoever is picked to pull on that jersey because all that matters is how well we do together, as Brendan said, the Holy Trinity. It takes everyone pulling together. Lets not arse that up over one mistake. We have all been there.
As for replacements, we have Benkovic being spoken of, and the young lad from Le Havre.. (The sun )
Harold Moukoudi to Celtic: £5m-rated Le Havre stopper emerges as defensive transfer target for Brendan Rodgers
Le Havre expect to sell Moukoudi before Friday’s deadline, with Middlesbrough also in the frame
Its unlikely the lad will move to Middlesborough. Unless he’s a big fan of petro-chemical architecture.
There are three young French lads at Celtic who really should be encouraged to play their part in bringing this lad in.
There’s still Scott McKenna.
This is presumably part of Brendans plan B, the next team already being at Celtic as this one inevitably breaks up. John McGinn would have been part of that group, but for some reason he chose first team football.
You can’t blame him, even if its at Aston Villa.
This forward planning by Brendan may not have the full support of the board, which may be the cause of some of the friction we’ve been hearing about.
We may also be on the point of spotting why the mainstream media have been focusing on the “problems ” at Celtic.
Little things, hidden in the narrative, that aren’t quite true, but are dressed up as though they are..
Sportscene last night said Celtic ‘struggled by Hamilton’ and that we would have won that game more comfortably 2 seasons ago. 2 seasons ago we played Hamilton twice at CP, those games finished 1-0 and 2-0. Interesting narrative being peddled by the BBC
Anyway, the real story, the biggie, is this one….
Rangers: Former players and staff urged to seek tax advice over EBTs
Former Rangers players and staff paid through an offshore trust have been told they have weeks to approach the taxman over a settlement or face an even bigger bill.
Last year the Supreme Court upheld a Court of Session ruling that £47m paid to Rangers employees between 2001-2010 was liable for tax.
Now beneficiaries of the Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs), many of whom were led to believe these were loans that would never have to be repaid, are being warned to seek “urgent advice”.
BBC Scotland has seen a letter sent earlier this month by Trident Trust, a Jersey-based company, which paints a stark picture.
The letter says: “HMRC has confirmed that it will seek to recover all income tax found by the Supreme Court to be due and that, where HMRC is unable to recover the tax from the employer, it may transfer the liability for unpaid tax…to employees or former employees.”
While HM Revenue and Customs can still pursue BDO – the liquidators of RFC 2012 Plc – for a portion of what the company owed, more could be salvaged by pursuing the former employees.
That could put many on the hook for hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds.
Former captain Barry Ferguson received £2.5m in EBT payments, German goalkeeper Stefan Klos £2m and former manager – and current Scotland boss – Alex McLeish £1.7m, while former owner Sir David Murray received £6.3m.
And time could be running out to try to negotiate a deal, according to the trust’s letter.
The trust says further charges will be applied by HMRC if tax liabilities have not been settled by 5 April next year.
And to do that, it says, those in question will have to approach HMRC by 30 September this year.
The letter adds: “If you do not come forward voluntarily and seek to settle on preferential terms, HMRC could well pursue you directly and make an assessment on a less favourable basis.”
Trident Trust stresses it is not offering advice, rather urging the players and staff involved to seek expert advice on how to deal with the situation.
HMRC said: “Follower notice (FN) legislation says that HMRC has 12 months to issue FNs following a final decision. The final decision in Rangers was on 5 July 2017. We have looked at a range of schemes where the principles at stake were similar, and follower notices have been issued where appropriate.”
BBC Scotland has contacted Trident for a response.
With so many EBT recipients on the books at the BBC, its stunning to note that they haven’t contacted any of them for a response.
Perhaps they’re too busy chasing all of those chickens away, the one’s that seem to have come home to roost.
As with all tax issues, some will argue that the whole matter is very complicated, and use that as an excuse to steer away from comment.
Its not actually that difficult.
We all pay a proportion of our earnings to the government. Sometimes it is taken before you get a chance to spend it yourself, known as Pay As You Earn.
If you do not pay as you earn, you pay later, and if you are not sure how much to pay, you ask an accountant to work it out for you.
There is no third option, where you are exempt from tax because David Murray said you were.
The players concerned knew this was coming, and some have already taken somewhat transparent steps to try to avoid paying this time round as well.
Placing assets in the wifes name is quite popular, or giving it to the kids.
Only true fuckwits think this will work, which presumably is why they’re doing it.
The revelation has renewed interest in the Resolution 12 issue, and in particular the Nimmo Smith whitewash.
We hope to have a simplified version of what is known, what wasn’t known and what was kept back so that Nimmo Smith reached the conclusion he was supposed to.
We hope that this will help other clubs and their supporters to join in the crusade against the collusion between certain individuals at the SFA/SPFL and the now defunct Rangers.
I’d be asking this guy to get involved, if I’m honest..
Born in 1965 in Liège, Belgium, Jean-Louis Dupont is a lawyer specialized in European law.
He was part of the legal team that led the Bosman ruling (CJEU, 15 December 1995),[1] which forced FIFA and UEFA to end the transfer system and the nationality quota within the EU…
He defends various persons and entities in the world of professional sport, especially in lawsuits related to European Law which oppose clubs or sportspeople and international federations.
At the very least we could ask him for his thoughts, which would cost money, but there is such a thing as crowdfunding..
Yesterday, we showed this quite alarming photograph..
Caption:
The exact moment that the shuttlecock was discovered.
today…