Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou is expected to make a statement about his future later. We’ve been handed the draft.
” Leeds ? Isn’t that what you put on your dog ? Don’t talk shite, mate. ”
I’m not even going to repeat the oft quoted mantra about him inevitably leaving for the EPL one day. Instead, I’m going to repeat my own view, which is that he wants to build his own team, and manage the first Asian team to win the European Cup.
A project he has already started and his own single minded determination will see that through.
That project took another step yesterday when want away striker Georgios Giakoumakis finally got his move. The ambitious Greek has signed for Atlanta United in the USA, for reasons best known to himself.
We got him cheap, for whatever reason, and he did well while he was here, scoring 26 goals in 52 matches, mostly from the bench against tired defences.
That might sound harsh, and the one up front strategy means he rarley got the chance to play alongside Kyogo Fuhruhashi, which may well have been a devastating frontline, but their inclusion would have excluded either Jota or Maeda, both of whom contribute much more to the team.
What was also telling was his instagram farewell….
“Well, that difficult time has arrived!
“It was an incredible journey! I loved and was loved by the incomparable, amazing Celtic fans!
“Thank you very much! You will forever be in my heart and mind!
“I will be forever grateful to you! Goodbye
Your GG
No mention of the manager or his team mates……
We wish him well.
Celtic face St mirren in the Cup this weekend, and somewhat ludicrously, the game is one of only two which will use the controversial VAR system.
Gavin Berry in the Record explains…..
VAR will be in operation at just two of the four Scottish Cup ties involving host Premiership clubs this weekend after Dundee United and Livingston failed to stump up the cash for the technology.
Celtic and holders Rangers will both have VAR at their respective last-16 ties against St Mirren and Partick Thistle. However, it will not be operational at any of the other eight fixtures taking place. The technical infrastructure isn’t in place at lower league grounds and the cost is prohibitive to install it for a one-off tie.
But it IS in place at both Tannadice – where the Tangerines take on Kilmarnock in an all-Premiership clash – and the Tony
Macaroni Arena where Livi take on Inverness. But the clubs involved have opted against using VAR for those fixtures with the cost around £10,000 which it is left to the clubs to agree on how to foot that bill. VAR was introduced in October with the £1million-plus fee per season shared around the clubs to cover Premiership matches. The SFA cover the costs of the technology for Viaplay Cup and Scottish Cup semi-finals and final at Hampden.
We’re paying them to cheat us ?
Helpfully, I’ve prepared a statement for Celtic to give to the SFA.
I can understand our neighbours over the river paying for it, in fact they’ve probably registered it as a player, but one has to ask of the Celtic board …
We might as well offer to make the Cup a handicap event, giving the opposition a couple of goals head start.
Sometimes I genuinely wonder if those who run our club hold a monthly meeting during which they think up ways to piss me off.
Well, you can tell them it’s working.
Anyway, when i’m pissed off i always find it cheers me to laugh at those less fortunate than myself, and today is no different…
The transfer window, the main vehicle for raising short term cash if needed, has just closed. They managed to raise a few quid for charlie McCann and that’s about it.
That, combined with this share issue, means that they may well be up the proverbial creek not only without a paddle, but they’ve just noticed there’s a great big hole in their boat.
Of course, the media called it a cash injection.
The Sun triumphantly announced
CASH INJECTION
Rangers issue a further four million new shares as Ibrox side
generate February cash boost.
Cash boost ?
i think it may be prudent to stock up on jelly and ice cream, as reports indicate we may be about to encounter a shortage.
To lose one club is careless, to lose two would be fucking hilarious.
The Manchester city story has all but disappeared now from the Scottish media, so any comparisons will not be made with the demise of the now defunct Rangers.
Just so we ….and they….don’t forget, Rangers Tax Case on Twitter has posted a helpful remnder of how it all went wrong for our original rivals….
The Man City case will be of passing interest and will generate lots of comparisons to the Rangers’ case. Let’s not lose sight of what happened at Rangers and why it mattered.
From very soon after taking over Rangers in 1988, the club started giving off the books loans and other tax-free payments to players. It was cheating. It was also carrying a high risk.
Celtic had one brief dalliance with a contract termination payment to an EBT used by Juninho. On review by the Celtic board, this was reversed and all taxes due were paid. No sporting advantage accrued from it. Back to Rangers.
Rather than lie about it, Rangers could have declared the payments to the SFA (and HMRC when asked) and tested the scheme in court. If it failed, Murray could have easily borrowed the money from HBOS to pay any bill in 2005/6. The amounts then were small. But lie they did.
Why did they lie and deny for years? While HMRC were persistently asking about payments to players and demanding to see records, Rangers doubled down paying more and more players through an increasingly risky scheme. Why did they do this?
Because it gave them a sporting advantage. If their EBT scheme failed at FTT/court, they would immediately lose their financial advantage in signing players. Even if ruled legal, it would be public. Celtic could then go all in on the same scheme. They would have had no benefit
They had to lie. They had to break SFA and SPFL rules to preserve their on the field advantage. That is why Rangers’ use of disguised remuneration was cheating. But the SFA & SPFL lied to fans and conspired to have a fake investigation.
And Rangers were not relegated. Liquidation meant they no longer fulfilled the criteria for SPFL membership. If others can quote selectively from Nimmo Smith then so can I “Rangers ceased to be a club”.
The crucial difference between Manchester City and the now defunct Rangers is that the Englsih club can easily afford to pay any fines or penalties or unpaid bills.
Rangers couldn’t, so they went to the great football league in the sky, where they play Gretna, Clydebank and Third Lanark on a round robin basis, for eternity.
Airdrie also died, but St Peter wouldn’t let them in , for fear they might bring some of their support with them.
He was off the day Rangers crept in.
Now, whilst I still don’t feel good about paying the SFA to cheat us, I do feel a little bit better reminding myself that there is always someone worse off than we are.
Yesterday, we had this….
John E Mitchell
Hugh Keevins analysing the rainjurs Net Spend during the transfer window
Today
Thinking about you Tommy, our Calton bhoy. “Faithful Through And Through”. From Saint Marys Bhoys Guild – Eastercraig Bhoys club to Celtic – Celtic – Celtic and then loaned out to Hairy Mary – Hill. The man who captured all our hearts. Such an elegant player who always looked class on the pitch. “Found It” yesterdays caption.
As you can see, I tend now to dwell on the past, Celtic FC is an inspiring club, its history long and unbroken, you are humbled by those who went before and those that do so much for charity, sometimes we forget these long distant runners who carry the banner for our great club, they are an inspiration to us all. “Celtic For Good” is the bedrock that keeps our history close in these modern times and remind us all of why we support Celtic. Tommy Burns memory will live long in our hearts.
Indeed Mike, the players who gave their all for the club, who bled green mean more to me than anything else when it comes to Celtic.
McNeill, Lennox, Johnstone, Burns, McStay…to name a few, had Celtic in their heads and their hearts.
God bless them
Well said! And well done and our grateful thanks to the supporters who don the lycra and peddle fast, every kilometer adding to the box of good causes, those that climb the hills and the valley’s, bungee jump,go roaming in the gloaming, to those that tend the graves of past Celtic players, the Celtic Graves Society, lest we forget.
My favourite Celt of all (my) time. If someone asked me to describe Celtic in two words the answer’s simple – Tommy Burns.
Says it all. Tommy had that magnetism that just drew you towards him, everybody that I have met said exactly the same, even the bhoy at Celtic curios. When you look at the players that Davy Hay scouted, you will see Tommy Burns players and Wim’s.
Mike, whilst I’m sure you try hard not to plagiarise, (or to be seen to do) you don’t often succeed and I’ve mentioned this before.
In good ‘faith’ years ago I told you of, and recommended then and now, what I rated as the best Celtic player’s book ever.
It was Tommy Burns’ book written with Paul Cuddihy but you didn’t even name the book correctly in that wee pic above. I despise the moronic following of ANY faith, as I despise the conjoined existence of monarchy. They thrive with and for each other. But I readily accept Tommy’s ignorance of this.
Anyway, Tommy’s book is actually called: “Tommy Burns, A Supporter Who Got Lucky” and has a footnote of, A Story of Family, Faith and Football. (as opposed to that pic you included above.) If I recommend something I’ll definitely have read it and probably still have it as I do Tommy’s book.
If you think I’m being pedantic, sulk on. Without honest and detailed observers then truth is lost. Just think of events across the Clyde; by doing research and being tenacious I KNOW (and can prove) what REALLY happened. If you want/need to copy things, FFS get therm right.
Got to finish by saying that I’m absolutely convinced you’re a ‘good guy’ at heart but to also say that honesty and the effort to destroy the myth of huns survival does NOT begin with personal point-scoring. It starts and ends with truth!
HH and, er, em, enjoy yer marmalade and cake!
Caption Seeing as how Gaza fekd it up trying to save Rangers, his bottle and fish supper were worth more, Clint arrives to show they aren’t a one trick pony……oh wait they’re not even that. The pony kicked it.
Caption: Now we know why they called him Dirty Harry.
The wee horse after this ride, would later recall the real reason he was called Dirty Harry
It sounded harsh because it was harsh.
Can’t imagine he was on much in Holland.
Comes to a bigger club for more money with an expected proviso that, if he ‘does well’ he would get a pay increase.
Does well.
Pay increase probably not what he was expecting.
We have previous in this.
Won’t get booted in the chest, whilst standing up, with no foul, in Atlanta.
Probably.
Stevie, Giakoumakis or any other player being sold is all part of the game, what bothers me and is causing me to be a little anxious, is why January? Why sell in January?
Well I suppose the window Monti, that works for the club and the player. I agree with you but he scored goals.
In Scotland, with primitive tackling and minimal appetite to stop it Celts getting hammered every week. Even GG out for a spell. When a chance comes ( is worked on for long minutes at a time ) we have to take it. Much more often than not he did. As much as I like Maeda and Kyogo, they don’t.
Walker and Nicholas said terms they were offered as an increase were really poor. Maybe explains their attitudes now (I have no time for either)Moreover, come CL ( hopefully) his experience would be more than that of Oh.
Anyway, you are right, he’s gone, on with it
Probably a combination of not 1st choice, wages and a readymade replacement being available made it now rather than summer.
I don’t think you can argue with Kyogo being 1st given his form and being the better fit for our style of play.
I may be wrong but I seem to remember that his impact when he did start wasn’t the same as when he came on. I wouldn’t go as far as Ralph’s harsh judgement (I thought he might’ve referred to him as gg 😉 ).
Wages? Who knows, although the USA isn’t usually the ambitious destination.
Personally, I thought it was starting to fester, with Ange being unusually snarky, so it was good that it was resolved quickly, no matter how disappointing.
Hopefully, Oh (and the other recent recruits) get their chance, as these next few months should be the auditions for our Champions League ambitions next season.
Good points The Cha. Would have preferred a June exit myself. There’s still a lot of football left and Oh is just a young man still to adapt. I agree about style though.
Ange sees a style of playing in the CL that GG’s game doesn’t fit and the squad being built to play this level. I’m sick of teams coming to Celtic Park and passing us off the park or quick transitions and breaks leaving us deflated. Last campaign was about missed chances though.
On Atlanta, I’ve been in that stadium ( Mercedes Benz) for a game. It was an eye opener. Standing areas, roof closes if needed, good food, beer to your seat, great crowd and atmosphere ( often but not just, of Spanish, South American descent) who know how to support. Great engagement by players, management and owners. Best of luck to him
The Gullibilly’s at Club 1872 will of course herald another cash injection whilst simultaneously failing to realise that every time this happens their own Shareholding gets diluted in the process.
As you can see above they have over 22 million Shares which is 5.09% of the overall Shareholding at Ayebrokes.
On the 20th June 2016 Club 1872 had 4,900,776 Shares which at that time was 6.01% of the overall Shareholding at Ayebrokes.
Which is a 353 % increase in Shares which has resulted in a 0.92% DECREASE in overall Shareholding.
Sevconomics
Good old Club 1872..you know, the one with the same guy on the board as sits on the Rangers board but not actually representing Club 1872 there. Fools and their money so easily parted.
Desi it is my firm belief that this was setup primarily so Dave King could offload his shares for full value because it makes no sense whatsoever for fans to be paying into this if the aim is to get a stronger hold on their Club.
Every time they have a share issue (there’s 23 since 2017-18) their goal gets further away.
Its unbelievable that they cannot work this out.
Here are their “Goals”
How are you supposed to achieve that exactly when the Share Pool dilutes further with every Share Issue ?
Desi, not sure they actually part with their money though.
And the offshoot of all this is that the refereeing fraternity, those on the field of play and those operating VAR, will be under no illusions that they MUST ensure that *rangers win the League and a Cup….for the sake of *rangers ‘ survival and err, Scottish Football.
Hold on tight guys, it’s about to get rocky and you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Caption
Preparing to give Ange a ride to Leeds, according to the hysterical press.
The tribute act are skint and UEFAs new regulations are possibly the end. The usual muppets bogging/bigging up an escape route to a European Super League, a bit like the share issue, bog rolls for the intensely stupid.
Caption: “Sister Sarah’s f*ck*d off with the two mules and I’m left with this.”
SFA invite independent scrutineer to review VAR decisions
no I said ‘Clint’, im just a little horse im afraid
Caption
Devastating new evidence surfaces in the Bernie Clifton plagiarism case
the new aberdeen manager gets his animal of choice confused.
Caption:
You’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, Ange?”
Caption:
“Yeah. Tell them Tax Inspector Callahan thinks there’s a 2-11 in
progress at Ibrox. Be sure and tell them it’s in progress.”
Dirty Harry Callahan 2012
Clint Eastwood Hung Like a Horse! New Evidence Revealed!
Caption: The carousel in the ‘Rangers’ fan village proves a bit hit with a guy whose best mate eats bananas with his feet.
Caption.
Life has been a pain in the arse since Gio left.
Alfredo signs new contract as a movie star
Caption – And after paying out good money for a thoroughbred, Clint pops over to ibrokes to meet with Douglas to demand he makes his day with a showdown and a refund after receiving an ass who thinks sevco are laughing at him.
Caption: Get aff yer ‘orse and fix the comments section oan etims.
Celtic plc Interim Report for the six months to December 31, 2022.
Revenue increased by 44.8% to £76.5m (2021: £52.9m).
Profit from trading was £28.1m (2021: £7.0m).
Profit from transfer of player registrations (shown as profit on disposal of intangible assets) £1.8m (2021: £25.8m).
Profit before taxation of £33.9m (2021: £27.6m).
Acquisition of player registrations of £5.7m (2021: £16.8m).
Period end cash net of bank borrowings of £59.2m (2021: £25.6m).
celticfc .com/news/2023/february/10/celtic-plc-interim-report/ (remove space)
Eye popping figure and, although 2nd half of year is usually a lot less, we should comfortably break the £100m mark for only the 2nd time.
We’re gonna need a bigger biscuit tin. 😉
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2023/february/10/celtic-plc-interim-report/
Oh.
Are the Officials paid double bubble after the 90 minutes?
Any improvement to the game comes with a ruinous attitude.
Jealous wee pathetic men run our game.
Stephen Robinson tactics:
After a Celtic player plays the ball, go through them.
Any contact of the slightest from a Celtic player, dive dive dive.
These tactics are referee approved.
Why do they say Clint is the son of Stan Laurel?
He looks nothing like him.
Why isn’t my comment here?
What is wrong?
What is happening here?
Caption: One mule for Gio
Click on the picture to reveal the names of these Celtic players of the Tom Campbell generation. These players of the late 1940s early 1950s carried the club through the mainly barren times before the 1960s, never the less the players names tell their own story of individual talent, a few of them would go on to lead the club to unfathomable success. Jimmy McGrory was the Celtic manager, one of the greatest Celtic players of all time, his was a unique talent for scoring goals, but his time in management was scarred by the intimidation of Bob Kelly. In modern times we have our own Bob Kelly, but let us focus on the wonderful talents of the Celtic players of this era.
Sean Fallon – Bobby Collins – Willie Fernie – Alex Boden – Eric Smith – Dick Beattie – Bobby Evans – *Michael Haughney – Assistant Trainer Jimmy Gribben – Charlie Tully – Alex Dowdalls – John McPhail – Jimmy Walsh – JOHN STEIN – Matt McVittie – Bertie Peacock – Jimmy Docherty – Frank Meechan.
Bill Daly’s cousin, Mike Haughney collected these signatures for him, Bill donated the whole proceeds of his Celtic collection including these wonderful autographs to auction, all the proceeds was donated to the Celtic Foundation and the Beatson cancer charity. Bravo.
Click on the pic. to read them, or, twice on the pipe if the answer is no. They include some wonderful Celtic players names including: JOHN STEIN – SEAN FALLON – JIMMY GRIBBEN assistant trainer and other wonderful Celtic players names. Mike Haughney played right back for the ‘Tic between 1949 – 1957 winning 5 major honours for Celtic, unusually for a right back he scored 43 goals, playing sometimes with big Jock. These are the Tom Campbell years.
Jock Stein the player: Blantyre Vics – Albion Rovers – Llannelli in Wales. He still paid the rent on his house in Hamilton, after two break – ins, made his mind wander back home. “Something about Stein” said Jimmy Gribben and the rest became Celtic history. Jock played for Celtic 148 times, sometimes we forget that. League 106 times – Scottish Cup 21, League Cup 21 times and scoring two career goals (one league title – one Scottish Cup) these, barren times was the forerunner of what was to follow. The legend that was manager, Jimmy McGrory hollowed out by the interfereing Bob Kelly, also a forerunner of someone else. Thank You Bill Daly a real Celtic supporter on the road to Lisbon.
Happy Admin Day everyone! x
Lest we forget
Further to my Club 1872 post below
Remove space between s and : in link below
v
v
https ://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/23321045.dave-king-withdraws-club-1872-deal-rangers-share-bid-fails/
Naw Dave the main reason is you attempted to offload your shares to gullibilly’s for more than what they were actually worth as your Club were actively watering down those shares with multiple share issues every year to keep both the lights on and to keep a team on the Park that could compete.
Looks like yer fans have finally cottoned on to the fact that despite quadrupling the shares they actually had less of a hold on the Club than when they started in 2016.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Like a phoenix from the ashes
Rose The Rangers MK2
Keep On Truckin’ Bill Miller.
Graham Spiers: “Sir David Murray was duped.”
TUPEd over to the DUP?
Chief Crawford Allan is to recruit Lee Mason.
He’s crawled out from under a rock to launch a diversionary manoeuvre.
bbc.co .uk/sport/football/64644440 (remove space)
He can be as masonly as possible and he’ll still be a massive prick.
Come on you crazy guys at the SFA, you know it makes sense!
Brazil’s FA will become the first to punish incidents of racism & racist abuse with a points deduction.
They’ll now be able to deduct one point from a club.
Ednaldo Rodrigues is the first black president of the CBF & is taking a strong stance against racism.