Teemu Pukki scored a hat trick. Yes, he did.
And Brazil lost 7-1. Yes, they did.
Still can’t get my head around the news from the football yesterday.
£11m for Ross McCormack.
Celtic came from behind twice to beat Linz ASK, a third division Austrian side, 5-2. There was also a significant turnover in players for this one, showing that new boss Ronny Deila wants to look at everyone;
CELTIC (4-2-3-1) Zaluska (Fasan 46); Matthews (Herron 54), O’Connell, Findlay, Waters; Biton (McGeouch 46), Henderson; Griffiths, Atajic (Balde), McGregor; Pukki (McIlduff 77)
Not Used: Irvine, Watt, Fridjonsson
Rarely for Celtic, all of the goals were scored by the strikers. Pukki with three, Balde and Griffiths with one apiece. Perhaps its going to be alright after all…
Pukki is already on four goals, and looks a cert to start against Reykjavik. Just the other ten places to sort out then…
For those worried that Tony Watt and the Fridge haven’t had a run out yet, the next game is against Dukla Prague as soon as Friday, so theres still plenty of time.
Deila had criticised the players attitude after the Rapid game, and he was over the moon with the response he got from his lads last night;
“I was very pleased with this performance, there was the energy I wanted. All the boys went out and really gave 100 per cent, which satisfied me. It was good to see the confidence the boys showed on the ball.
“We controlled the game, particularly in the second half. It was a positive experience. We were good as a team. But Eoghan O’Connell did well, as did Liam Henderson and Callum McGregor.”
The second half especially saw some great football. Crisp passing, movement, and one or two touches before finding a team mate. Its coming together, and there is a real sense of anticipation about the coming season.
Stand outs included Dylan McGeouch , in a central midfield role, and , of course, Teemu Pukki, recently converted to a striker. And he’s loving it;
“I’m really pleased – it was a good game, with goals, this helps me and I just hope to keep going. The competitive games are coming soon, and hopefully I can be part of the team then and keep scoring.
“The first half we didn’t play as well as we can. But we still managed to score and it was 1-1 and it was good to kick on in the second half.
“We had some good passes and we just needed to put the balls in, and in the end we got a red card but continued to play well and scored more goals.
“As a striker, I have to work hard for the team and that’s what helps the rest of the side, and it also makes a difference if we win the ball high up the pitch,”
Pukki has designs on taking the mantle of top scorer from Kris Commons, but whatever he dumped in his team mates shoe may have taken things a little too far..
Ah, almost forgot. The red card. Liam Henderson picked up a couple of yellow cards, one for running too fast and the other for dawdling. Or, at least thats what it seemed like. It’ll be interesting to see how the manager deals with what was effectively a lack of on field discipline. A quiet word, or a public flaying ? Probably the former, but there is a chance that Deila may use Henderson as a marker for toeing the line during a game.
Deila has a few things to sort out. Not least, he needs to take Emilio Izaguerre to one side and tell him he’s back at Celtic now, and no longer part of the Honduran Cage Fighting Squad.
The bad news, though, is that Scott Brown will miss the first few months of the season.. The damage to his hamstring is severe, and he won’t be around until the nights are drawing in again.
Deila summed it up;
“It’s not positive news for Scott. He will be out for two months, maybe three. That’s hard for him and it’s hard for us. But we can’t do anything about it. “We have to try to get him back on the pitch as quick as possible but we have good midfielders who can step up. The hamstring has been almost ripped off. Scott doesn’t need an operation, which is a positive thing. However, it is quite a big injury.”
Perhaps this means that Celtic will move for the Norwegian American Mikkel Diskerud, whom it appears was on Deilas radar at Stromgodset. With the players contract up in December, he would be available on the cheap, and thats the way we like ’em.
Although there should be money available if we want to splash out. After watching the highly paid under achievers on show at the current World Cup, its not worth the effort. Players are rewarded too highly too early these days, and its better to look for those with the eye of the tiger, rather than those with their eye on their bank balances.
Fraser Forster has been linked with a move to Benfica. Atletico Madrid, who had also been linked with the big man, just spent £18m on Benficas keeper, meaning they are in the market to replace him, and according to Gavin Berry, in the Record;
FORSTER has long been on the Portuguese giants’ wanted list and last year the Parkhead club accused Benfica of tapping up their number one – now they are set to make their move.
Of course, he would know….. and he backs up his information with a quote from Neil Lennon, made while he was Celtic manager…
“A huge club will come in and make a huge bid.”
Insightful stuff.
There will be bids for Forster, there seems little doubt about that, but Celtic won’t be in a hurry to sell, even if the man wants to leave. And certainly not at that price. We should hire Ross McCormacks agent to negotiate our deals. That man has truly astounding ability when it comes to getting money for players.
Though, to be fair, Lawwell hasn’t done too badly himself lately.
Its just that he has stashed the money under the bed and turned the heating off.
A couple of records were broken at the World cup last night. As you have no doubt noticed, Germany beat Brazil 7-1, the highest score in a semi final, and Miroslav Klose became the highest all time scorer. Brazilian legend Pele shrugged off the defeat, calling it just another disappointing semi.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Brazilian keeper. Suffering public humiliation when the commentator told everyone he plays for Queens Park Rangers.
Alan Hansen, summarising for the BBC, sounded as though his dog had just died, and point blank refused to acknowledge what was an excellent team effort from the Germans. Instead , he described it as “clinical, ruthless and efficient ” , in the same way the Italians are “defensive “, the Brazilians “flamboyant ” and the English “fecking hopeless ”
Maybe someone after the tournament will take a look at the dross that has served as “experts ” and we’ll see a bit of a shake up next season.
They could use this camel, for instance.
Argentina play the Netherlands tonight-or Holland if you are watching on ITV- and it means that there is the possibility of the ultimate English nightmare-a Germany Argentina final. Hopefully they can find a Scottish or Irish ref.
While we are all happy with the way the pre season is going, its important to remember they don’t mean anything, and probably won’t be remembered in twelve months time. Proof came yesterday when no-one remembered the four defeats at this point last time. Cluj, Sevasapol, Gruener Fuerth and Union Berlin were the teams rerased from memory.
Two people who will never be erased from memory.
There is something that neither of these two players ever did whilst at Celtic. What is it ? ( Boyd mentions it in the podcast on this site )
they never hid.
legends, both.
Neither one has ever nutmegged me.
FACT.
Great signing a player who could not get a game for a poor fascist scum bag country at the world cup
Deadhead indeed
Never won the league as Celtic captain?
Tom Boyd did Gagsybhoy. He was captain when we stopped the10 and won a treble a few years after that.
Played in the Champions League?
Smile out both sides of their mouths?
McGeouch looked really good (after the first 10 seconds) in the second half as an attacking midfielder. Have seen articles previously about Celtic playing him out of position as a winger. He really caused problems playing in the middle. Hope to see him play there a lot more.
yarray
If we get any more midfield players through the middle we could play games on the M74 central reservation. The park is a bit more than a midfield so why has every midfielder we look to sign great through the middle – ONLY! Oh for the days of goalie, right back, left back, right half, centre half, left half, outside right, inside right, centre forward, inside left and outside left. Yes, that was a team line up – at one time and we only needed to count to 11.
H H
The point is, all of the central mid fielders we have are unable to drive down the middle and complete passes/lay the ball off causing central defenders problems. McGeouch showed that ability. Did u see Germany yesterday? They did a lot of damage through the middle. Lay the ball off wide and then back to players driving down the middle of the field. It creates another option. Vice the way we played last year where we always seemed to go down the wings and cross the ball into the box. Take a look at the size of most of our strikers. Not much height there. You answered your own question when you mentioned a center forward. Don’t really have a true center forward. Not a bad idea to be able to have someone who can drive at the defenders and then dish it off.
We are looking dreadfull at the back, completely wide open! with a week or so to go it’s time to play our regular defensive formation ( ex Efe )
I called it yesterday, saying pukki was class on fifa and this might be his year.
Hope this is the start and not the end.
I think the only thing dead head and I can agree on is that kayal should go. For dh because hee is IIsraeli, I just think he’s pish
Good to see McGeouch back. Hope he can keep it up. Seen so many young guys come and go at Celtic Park over the years he’s a young man who I thought when I first saw him had the quality to succeed. If he can go on the way I think he can then Scott Brown won’t be missed too much.
HH
Neither of these two true Celts ever turned their backs on Celtic. Also they never cheered a hun goal, while they were at Celtic or at any other time.
Nobody else will ever cheer a hun goal again, because they no longer exist.
I’m just pleased with the way most of the so called wee countries didn’t liye down to the so called elite, apart from the honest mistakes , are you listening Robbins you. Cheating bastard. Hope Argentina do Holland big time.. Come on the fair side. Hh
RTC
Another chapter closes on rangers tax case as Lord Doherty finds that there is no income tax or national insurance to be paid on the outstanding EBT payments, with the exception of mcclelland, macmillan, murray and his son’s EBTs (in excess of £6.5m) which are being returned to first tier tribunal for a decision.
I will go through the case point by point further down but the crux of the matter is that it was found that the EBT loans were, in fact, genuine loans from a benefit in kind and not a wage.
It has been a long and complex process and could even be a record breaker for the amount of publicity a tax case has attracted and the amount of bullshit the MSM print about it. I’ll try to keep it simple as I go through it, like saying ‘wages’ instead of ‘enolument’, and maybe anyone reading this maybe awake at the end, we’ll see about that.
I’ll start from the start, I’ve always found it a good place to start from so, here goes. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… well not that far back, I’ll start from the FTT decisions that the UTT was to consider. The UTT is not there to re-hear the original case but to decide if the FTT were correct in their decisions, so here they are:
A-rangers paid money into EBT as a ‘benefit in kind’ to benefit the player’s families which was then divided into sub-trusts for each player, the advantage being that players could get tax free loan payment, repayable from estate on death, negating inheritence tax (more on this later).
B-Participation in the EBT scheme was voluntary, players could have had the money paid as wages. Players partaking in the EBT scheme were given the set-up papers and loan applications at the same time (this means the loan applications were completed before the sub-trusts existed).
C- Equity administered the EBT/ sub-trusts until they questioned some of the loan applications then the administration was transferred to Trident
D-Trident had no formal process of approving loans, no income or credit checks were performed. The only things requested were ID and bills (though these must be taken to comply with anti money-laundering laws).
E-Trident acknowledged their responsibiity, and potential liability, to ensure the loans are repaid in full.
HOME TEAM – HMRC
As you know rangers became liable to pay tax on some of the EBTs and not on others so I’ll dispense with re-visiting the whole FTT and move onto the parts of appeal heard at UTT leaving out the 5 now outstanding sub-trusts and also those not under appeal.
1-HMRC claim the FTT misinterpreted precedent setting cases about the intentions of tax avoidance schemes and had been in error to do so.
2-That tax was due and the FTT was incorrect as they only looked at the loans seperately and not as part of the players entire renumeration package and that the FTT did not address this part of HMRC’s case.
3-That the FTT did only limited fact-finding on the control the players had over the money, that they basically had control over the loans, they requested the loans and they were paid with no solid structure or discretion in approving the loans. The FTT said “there was a degree or orchestration” with the players but did not eloborate and the FTT did not consider much of the evidence provided by HMRC.
4-That Equity then Trinity did not act as trustees but merely as a vehicle to get money from rangers to the players shown by the lack of discretion when approving loans.
5-That the some of the witnesses at the FTT on rangers behalf were not credible or reliable in giving evidence.
6-As rangers were appealing their tax bill, the onus should have been on rangers to show their tax matters were above board but at the FTT, incorrectly, the onus fell on HMRC to prove the scheme was unlawful.
7-rangers had breached SFA rules by operating the scheme
AWAY TEAM – rangers
rangers had their chance to counter HMRC’s position and did so:
1-The FTT correctly interptreted the relevant parts of the laws and cases
2-The FTT did not find any agreement between rangers and the players that the players could direct the money and that the loans were separate from wages as they must be repaid and not a sham.
3-The money was not at the disposal of the players as loans could have been refused and the FTT only needed little fact-finding as HMRC’s evidence was of little or no value and the FTT did not have to consider all evidence, only why the case went the way it did.
4-Equity and Trinity were legimate trustees as the trustees were changed when the risk of potential criticism from the plaers arose and Trinity showed it understood its duty to the players.
5-If there had been errors, they were honest misunderstandings.
6-The conduct of the FTT could not be appealed, only failure in findings and error in law
7-The SFA rules were nothing to do with the tax matter
REFEREE – Lord Doherty
The decisions took a while to get decided but the basics are:
1-The FTT correctly interptreted the relevant parts of the laws and cases
2-The FTT, in one citation, distinguished between the different transactions
3-The payments were loans as the players did not have a right to money.The FTT did not have to make findings on all evidence and the UTT is bound by the facts found of the FTT.
4-The FTT were entitled not to make any findings on whether the trustees were genuine but that Equity showed they were acting properly by refusing to sanction unsecured loans.
5-HMRC did not provide enough evidence to show witnesses were unreliable.
6-The FTT can’t be appealed on process and are free to conduct proceedings as they see fit as long as the result was a proper one.
7-The SFA rules were not essential to the case
THE RESULT
The MSM will have this as another glorious victory for ‘the people’ and that rangers downfall was due to HMRC and not conmen and spivs. Looking beyond the lamb stained bibs we need to remember that this case trundled on for years and rangers died due to rangers refusal to cooperate, concealment of documents, policy of dishonesty towards HMRC and above all, their refusal to pay the PAYE. While allsorts crawl from the woodwork and say how rangers are hard done by, HMRC cannot comment due to confidentiality so prepare for one sided debate and get the mint sauce ready.
So thats the end of this chapter and as usual there are a few questions left to be answered, the main one being will HMRC take it to extra time and appeal to the court of session? If they do there will be many more facets to this case eg the witness testimony was completely at odds with documents released by Charlotte Fakes, one side is clearly mistaken. The released documents also hold the ‘smoking gun’ which could turn the case upside down. The documents were removed very quickly by rangers and if HMRC use them may be issues around how the were sourced and aquired.
If HMRC don’t appeal then that leaves the door wide open for all clubs and companies who used EBTs in this way (including Celtic) to amend their previous tax returns and get ready for one hell of a tax rebate, we could well see the rich english teams get a lot richer.
Now its time for the Jerry Springer style final thought, if your still awake, in which i’ll deviate from PAYE and NI and look at inheritance tax. When the EBT scheme was started there were huge inheritance tax advantages, but not now. The Finance Act 2013 came into effect on 17/7/13 and one of it’s provisions restricts the ability to deduct liabilities from an estate when calculating inheritance tax, although this is one of the most complex areas of tax law, there may be a few shocks in store as even if HMRC lose the EBT case, they could still get their money, far more than a penny/pound from a liquidated company but full payments out of cold, dead hands.
To be continued…
Wheres that from ?
Feckin comment-eating monster is about!!!!!!