The referendum on Scottish independence is dominating the front pages just now. David Cameron, desperate to keep the union together has described a potential split as a “painful divorce ” , but did hint that we can remain friends on facebook.

Oh, and may I just point out, as I found to my cost on Saturday , if a young lass is wearing a “Yes ” t-shirt, it doesn’t mean what you might think it does.

Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, said he would abolish tuition fees in the event of a “no ” vote. Oh, my mistake, that was the last time he was canvassing for support before going to the country.

And Ed Milliband maintains that a poor Sean Connery impression will get us all onside.

The three have made a vow on the front page of todays Daily Record to give Scotland more powers should she decide to stay within the UK.

Seeing as how they will all be out of a job soon anyway, that kind of doesn’t matter, and with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage waiting in the wings for their shot at the trough, it shouldn’t make anyones decision too difficult on Thursday.

You have a chance to decide that you want to decide for yourself from now on.

Yesterday at work, a colleague told me he didn’t understand why Scotland wanted to break away, because of all the things we would lose. When asked to point out which ones he was referring to , he kind of struggled.

Then I mentioned a few of the things Scotland had given to the world, which isn’t bad considering most down south don’t think we could cope on our own.

 “Adhesive stamps, the Australian national anthem, the Bank of England, bicycle pedals, the breach-loading rifle, Bovril, the cell nucleus, chloroform, the cloud chamber, cornflour, a cure for malaria, the decimal point,the Encyclopedia Britannica, fountain pens, genetic fingerprinting, hypnosis, hypodermic syringes, insulin,the kaleidoscope, the lawnmower, lime cordial, logarithms, lorries, marmalade, matches, motor insurance,paraffin, piano pedals, radar, the reflecting telescope, savings banks, the screw propeller, the speedometer,the steam hammer, raincoats, tarmac, teleprinters, tubular steel, typhoid vaccines, ultrasound scanners, the United States Navy, universal standard time, vacuum flasks, wave powered electricity generation and wire rope?”

 Thats enough to be going on with.

And don’t forget we’ve got oil.

I said we’ve got oil.

It’s going to be an interesting week.

The cost of failure to reach the Champions League group stages is highlighted in todays Evening Times. Just in case any of us weren’t already aware that we’ve jumped back into the slow lane. Actually, theres no such thing as a slow lane. The speed limit is the same in all three on a motorway, it just depends who’s driving, and how much excess weight you are carrying.

Ronnie Cully points out the obvious…

Last season – when Uefa payments, gate receipts and bonuses from sponsors were calculated – the Parkhead club banked more than £22m for battling through two qualifying rounds and a play-off to book their spot in the group stage, where they won only one game, against Ajax.

The parachute down to the Europa League this season will be worth, at worst, less than a quarter of that, at just £4m.

At best, it will be below half – but that’s only if they are good enough to go all the way to the final in Warsaw in May and collect the trophy. There is a total of £165m in the Europa League pot, after organisational and administrative costs have been deducted.

Compare that to the £1.07billion sloshing around in the Champions League and Super Cup.

Celtic have already earned £1,669,500 for reaching the Champions League play-offs, where they went out 2-1 on aggregate to Maribor.

For participating in the six group stage matches of the Europa League, against Red Bull Salzburg, Astra and Dinamo Zagreb, they will collect £1,030,000. 

Each win they record will be worth a further £159,000, while every draw will bring in £79,500.

Progressing to the knockout stage in February will be worth a further £159,000.

Reaching the Round of 16 will bring a bonus of £278,250, with £357,750 for the quarter-finalists and £795,000 for the four semi-finalists.

The winners will collect £3,975,000 with the runner-up pocketing £1,987,500.

On top of this, each club participating in the Europa League receives a share of the Market Pool, which is based on TV contracts from all the countries.

Half of the £66,382,500 from this pool is split according to how many teams from each association take part.

On this occasion, 26 countries are represented, so the share Celtic can expect is £1,276,586.

The other half of the Market Pool is distributed according to how far you progress in the competition.

Along with all of this, of course, there is income from gate receipts, though, again, this will be substantially less than Celtic would have made if they had qualified for the Champions League.

The Hoops are marketing their three-game package at £60, and have begun their ticket sale to season-book holders by allocating seats in the bottom tier of their three stands outwith the main stand, an indication of how tough they believe it will be to get anywhere near a capacity crowd.

However, while the financial returns may be significantly lower, dropping to the Europa League should at least afford the opportunity to accumulate some much-needed ranking points to move Celtic up the Uefa co-efficient table. 

Thats more or less the article in full. The reason I have re-printed it is simple.

Apart from the last paragraph, I couldn’t care less about the money thats coming in. Yet the media-and the club -seem to think we are as bothered about it as they are.

We have already seen that no matter how much comes in it’s not being re-invested on the playing side. Hell, its not even being used to reward loyal and successful players for staying. The only bit that matters, and surely this is the bit the club, and the meduiia, should be concentrating on are the co-efficient points. There is a chance to rack a few up, and avoid the early starts to the season. The way the draws are fixed mean that apart from the champions, the other sides from Scotland have little chance of making the group stages. In recent years they have faced the likes of Real Sociedad and Liverpool before the season is even fully underway.

I know its an alien concept to our papers and radio stations, but a wee bit of support for the common cause wouldn’t go amiss.

Thursday game against Red Bull Salzburg may be hidden away due to other events that day, which is good. Te eyes of the press will be on the referendum, which means manager Ronny Deila-( just five mentions of ” Ronny”, instead of “Deila ” to go ) can focus on getting a result in Austria.

Ronny reckons there are some similarities between the two clubs;

“They are a good team who have used a lot of money to invest in youth and build a good side. 

Struggling a wee bit to see a similarity there, but please, continue…

“But I respect the way they play. They’ve worked on their system for many years 

Just like us ?

“They do play in the way I like to see, though. 

Maybe he’s just not sure about the word “similarities ” .

However, its a new competition for us, and there are six games to play, no matter what. We should be too strong for the other sides, especially Red Bull who are going through a bit of a crisis at the moment, with three defeats in a row.

This might be what the pundits call ” a good time to play them ” . Ronny does seem a little less stressed about the tournament, hinting that he might not have enjoyed the knockout games….largely because we kept getting knocked out;

“Everyone is ready now and it is like a league so there are more chances to do it well.

“That means you can play your own game more. 

Its just finding out what our own game is….

“The main thing is the experience. We need to use it to be really ready for next year. 

Er, he did inherit quite an experienced side. Will someone please point that out to him before it all goes tits again ?

 So, what do we know about Red Bull Salzburg ?

I have to admit , its not that bad an idea to have the sponsors name incorporated into the clubs name. Not for Celtic, of course, but one or two others could use it to raise money, especially clubs who are short of a bob or two. In fact, being in marketing myself, theres a cracking partnership along those lines just waiting to be exploited;

Especially as the product appears to cost roughly the same as shares in the club itself…

Well, the third entity to come out of Ibrox will need a name, and it’ll be looking for investors….

By the way, they’ve a Malaysian businessman looking to buy them now. Wait till he sees the books;

Sorry, Red Bull Salzburg….

Certainly one of the more colourful strips in football, although i’m not sure-brand name apart-why they’ve gone with the image of two bulls banging their heads together. Not exactly progressive, as both bulls will be out of action after the impending collision.

FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club, based in Wals-Siezenheim. Their home ground is theRed Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, the club is known as FC Salzburg and wears a modified crest when playing in UEFA competitions.^[2]

The club was known as SV Austria Salzburg, and had several sponsored names, before being bought by the Red Bullcompany in 2005 who renamed the club and changed its colours from its traditional violet and white to red and white. The change resulted in some of the team’s fans forming a new club, SV Austria Salzburg.

Founded in 1933, the club won its first Austrian Bundesliga in 1994, which was the first of three in the space of four seasons which also saw them reach the 1994 UEFA Cup Final. The team currently has eight league titles to its name.

The Red Bull company bought the club on 6 April 2005 and rebranded it. After the takeover, Red Bull changed the club’s name, management, and staff, declaring “this is a new club with no history.”  

Can’t see that catching on closer to home.

 Red Bull initially claimed on the club website that the club was founded in 2005, but was ordered to remove this claim by the Austrian F.A. The new authority removed all trace of violet from the club logo and the team now play in the colours of red and white, to the consternation of much of the club’s traditional support.^[19] A small pair of wings form the motif of the new club crest, displayed on the team jersey, in accordance with Red Bull’s commercial slogan at the time: “It gives you wings.” This complete re-branding of the team proved very similar to Red Bull’s treatment of its two Formula One racing teams, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. However, Red Bull would not completely follow this precedent when it acquired the MetroStars club in Major League Soccer in the United States; while it rebranded the team as the New York Red Bulls, it chose to recognise the MetroStars’ history.

Red Bull Salzburg, October 2005

The traditional supporters tried to resist the radical changes and formed their own movement in order to regain some of the tradition. Several fan-clubs throughout Europe voiced their support in what they saw as a fight against the growing commercialisation of football. However, after five months of protests and talks between the club owners and traditional fans, no compromise was reached. On 15 September 2005, the ‘violet’ supporters stated that the talks had irreversibly broken down and efforts to reach an agreement would be terminated.

This gave rise to two separate fan groups: the ‘Red-Whites’, who support ‘Red Bull Salzburg’ and the ‘Violet-Whites’, who want to preserve the 72-year-old tradition and refuse to support the rebranded club. The Violet-Whites ultimately formed a new club, SV Austria Salzburg. 

 Hang on, its not us they have similarities with. It’s that lot from south of the river and their various splinter groups.

 Their manager is a chap called Adolf Hutter, and with a name like that, he was never really going to be lucky in life, and so it seems with his post at Salzburg, co-incidentally just a few miles from Hitlers old summer place in the mountains.

 According to the Daily Record, his job is on the line… and they’ve dragged in former Hearts player Thomas Flogel, a former team mate at international level of Hutters, to explain why, and he has a few words of warning for Celtic;

“The expectations are high for Red Bull, especially in Europe. In fact, some people believe they could win the Europa League but I’m not so sure any more.

“If they lose in Europe then there will be pressure because Red Bull owner Dietrich 
Mateschitz always wants to be on the top. He is the big boss and demands the best.

“You will often see him at Formula 1 and I’m sure he’ll be there on Thursday.

“They want to go far in Europe and the big target is to get a run in this competition.

“It’s not just Red Bull Salzburg but also the teams they have in America and Germany. It’s about the brand. Everyone is expecting Salzburg to win all the time in Austria because of the money they have.

“They are expected to run 
away from the rest but they lost to an up-and-coming team, Wolfsberger, who are now top of the league.

“Salzburg are under pressure now because of that and other defeats which is a little 
advantage for Celtic. 

“They played better football last season but lost their manager Roger Schmidt and star player Sadio Mane to Southampton.

“Schmidt went to Leverkusen and is successful right now with the same pressing system.

“The new manager wants to come in and follow the same style but I’m not sure if he can bring the same success.

“It hasn’t reached the stage yet where they are asking if he is the right man for the job but there is certainly pressure.

“I played with Adi in the national team and against him when he was with Salzburg.

“He played for them in the Champions League which was a good spell for the club.

“In management he did well at SV Grodig whom he led into the top league. That landed him the Salzburg job.

“Adolf is from the area and played with the club so he was the No.1 choice to replace Schmidt. Red Bull try a pressing game but Celtic are a strong team and it will be really interesting to see how this game turns out.

“I can’t believe they will press as high all over the pitch against Celtic, although they might think they can get away with it at home. If that is the case then Celtic would be able to get joy with long balls behind the Salzburg defence because they play so high.”

“They still have another two or three very good players and are strong but they’re not playing as well as last season. Salzburg were outstanding last term which is why people expected 
something special this time.

“Jonathan Soriano is the captain and leader. He is a player who is a bit like Toni Kroos and a real danger going forward.

“He has been on fire for a year and I was a bit surprised nobody came in for him.

“He floats around but is always waiting to pounce on any chance in front of goal. Salzburg are strong in midfield as well. The other one Celtic must watch very closely is Kevin Kampl. He is quick and strong.

“The money has come into the club since Red Bull arrived nine years ago. They have a much bigger budget than the rest.

“The sporting director Ralf Rangnick has been working hard to get good players to the club and has brought in some quality during his reign.

“It was always hard to attract good players to Austria. We always got players at the end of their careers.

“Now it has changed and Red Bull is attractive. Mane is an example of that and they’re always looking for young talent.” 

 A  team, used to success,  struggling to adapt to a new managers ways ? Perhaps these were the similarities Ronny Deila could see, but chose, somewhat diplomatically, not to mention.

 The game is on BT Sports, and kick off is a 6.05.

 We have a chance to rebuild our reputation in Europe very quickly after a ridiculous opening. For the good of the club, the manager , the players and the support, I hope we do it.

 The SFA are probing the accusations of racism at aleksandr Tonev, who allegedly called  Shay Long a “black c**t ” on Saturday. They will ask everyone concerned for their version of events, but there doesn’t seem to be any footage of the incident, despite the amount of cameras and microphones at games these days. Oddly enough, no-one at the game has said they saw it either, only the Dons player running to the ref to complain.

 However, if Tonev is proven guilty, then he should be sent packing. But until then, we need to await the outcome of the investigation.

 More chuckles from yesterdays missing words question, with Tonev seeming to bear the brunt of the jokes.

Try this today, as we return to politics.

David Cameron begs Scots —————-

Actually, Cameron said if Scotland left the union it would be like losing a member of the family. Presumably because he’ll find us in the pub as well.