Celtic Diary Monday January 19: A Good Day All Round.

Celtic began the second half of the season with a tidy and deserved 2-0 win over Hamilton at New Douglas Park. Two well taken goals from Adam Matthews and Liam Henderson made sure of the points in an absorbing game in the freezing cold, but on the bright side the pies were excellent.

Aberdeen dropped two points at home to Dundee, despite the best efforts of the referee, who gave them a soft penalty late on, followed by a soft free kick and what was at best a dubious decision to allow a goal to stand. From 3-1 down with just a few minutes left, the Dons were able to rescue a point, but it also meant the Hoops were able to close the gap.

Liam Henderson was again the player who caught the eye, and the defence looked a little tidier with Jason Denaayer back in the line up, so it wasn’t the performance that had us talking on the road back home, but the after match antics of one or two of the players.

Kris Commons threw his boots into the crowd, and if I was a little quicker I’d have got at least one of them, but having said that, I’m still not sure what I would have done with one boot, size eight, slightly soiled , so I let the young lad next to me have it. Which is actually indicative of the fairly generous mood i must have been in. One of the match balls found its way to where i was sitting, so I gave that to another wee lad, hiding it under his seat, before explaining to the ground staff it was nothing to do with me.

Ach, the weans need to enjoy their day out, or there’ll be no-one to go to the games when we’re all at the tartan rug and wheelchair stage.

Emilio Izaguerre threw his shirt into the crowd at the end, causing widespread panic at the possibility he , too, was away. However, it transpired that he was throwing it to wee Jay Beatty, the little lad who was the guest of honour for the day. Izaguerre does that quite regularly.

Hamilton deserve a lot of credit for making Jay their guest. He got on the pitch at half time, scored a couple of goals, soaked up the applause and looked to be having a fantastic time.

Jays dad, Martin, said afterwards;

: “I would like to thank Hamilton FC for making Jay’s Christmas present the best present ever, they could not have been any kinder and I will never be able to thank them enough.

“Today was something else and to have a whole stadium including the Hamilton fans chanting your son’s name will live with me forever.” 

 “Hamilton were so kind yesterday and even in defeat they were just brilliant.” 

 Then there was more news  for the wee lad came when Hamilton told him that the official score was 3-0, with goals from Matthews, Beatty and Henderson, which was a lovely touch.

 There he is with me.

It was great to meet the wee man and his Dad, and I hope they had a great day.

The support will still be here come the end of January, but despite Deilas claim that no-one is leaving, there seems to be a few rumbles of discontent.

As well as Virgil van Dijk and his continual whining about how good he is and needs to develop further, fellow centre half Jason Denaayer is at it as well now. Especially now he’s found out Ajax are interested in him. This is a problem with loans. We get to showcase them, and don’t get anything when they move on. Time to put a stop to it now, its not working, even John Guidetti is dragging his heels , and there is a feeling that he’s just waiting for a call from England.

Southampton , in fact.

Bolton are still hovering around, with Kris Commons on their list, Cardiff are looking at Anthony Stokes, and the only sign of Celtic bringing anyone in is an Israeli winger called Tal Ben Haim.

Admittedly Gary Mackay Steven will be here in the summer, but Celtics refusal to pay £250,000 to bring him in now doesn’t make any sense if the club are to spend money on the Israeli, even if its just wages.

Its almost as though there are a couple of forces at work here, with a battle for supremacy on who gets the final decision under way between Ronny Deila, John Collins, John Park and probably Peter Lawwell. There doesn’t seem to be any cohesion or planning going into it. All we are doing is arguing over which wingerd we want, when there are other areas to be sorted.

One thing that is worrying, if its any indication of the quality of signings we are about to make is the tale of Jo Inge Berget, who was returned to Cardiff. It appears they don’t want him back, and his contract has been mutually consented. Think we need to be aiming a little higher, or having a look at who is picking these players.

Oh, and Sean Maloney isn’t going to Leicester, but we hear Celtic don’t want to pay £1m for him. Come to think of it, I don’t think we want to pay anything for anyone. As far as Maloney goes, he’slikely to jojn the exodus to the USA, with Chicago Fire a likely destination.

Theres only a fortnight to go until the window closes, which means if the club are serious about chasing four trophies, the finger needs to be withdrawn from whatever-or whoevers-orifice it is currently embedded in.

There isn’t enough strength in the squad to win all four, and by going with what we have, theres actually a risk we could end up with nothing.

Next up are Motherwell, on Wednesday. Its not on telly, so you’ll either need to go to the game, or subscribe to Celtic tv. A win would see Celtic back at the top of the league, as Aberdeen don’t play until Friday.

The games are going to be coming thick and fast now, so we need to be ready for them. I’m not entirely sure we are.

Just a quick word on the demise of the new Rangers, who are looking for money everywhere they can possiby hope to get it. All this new club stuff was explained by one of their support, in the Metro, after the letter last week which explained what liquidation meant;

Like i said last week, let them be who they want to be. Its all going to end in tears anyway, so they might as well enjoy the last few weeks of pretence.

Which brings me to a serious point. Some of you may have heard a call to the radio last week where “Eddie From clydebank ” explained the deed of novation.

This is from him, explaining it in more detail;

Deed of Novation – the Key to the Sevco Saga

Bit of a history lesson to start. 

Sevco 5088 Ltd were the acquisition vehicle who had a binding contract with Duff & Phelps to purchase the Rangers assets. The Directors of Sevco 5088 are believed to be Charles Green, Imran Ahmed, Craig Whyte and Aiden Earley. As we now know, Sevco Scotland Ltd ultimately bought the assets. How does this happen? Legally, a 3-way agreement had to be put in place which Duff & Phelps (as Administrators of Rangers Football Club plc) and the Directors of Sevco 5088 and Sevco Scotland signed. All parties would have a copy of this, so too would the lawyers involved in drawing up the agreement. The details of that agreement remains a secret to this day.

The new Rangers is unable to utilise their major property assets to secure much needed funding. If negligence or criminal activity has hindered the business then the Rangers Board should pursue this in the courts. If, as we are (ridiculously) expected to believe, Charles Green cheated Craig Whyte then it is obvious he is the one to pursue. If Duff & Phelps have failed in their duties then a pretty penny will be waiting for Rangers thanks to the professional indemnity insurances Duff & Phelps no doubt have. The issue over the property transfer remains in the Accounts and remains a hindrance to the business. No action has been taken to resolve this. Why have the Directors taken no action? Directors have a fiduciary duty and there is a clear failure here. Maybe the next bit will explain ….

Pinsent Masons were expensively employed to find the answer to this problem. They returned the good news that Craig Whyte had no connection to Sevco Scotland / The Rangers Football Club Ltd. The right answer …. to the wrong question. There was never any doubt that Craig Whyte had no involvement in the current corporate structure. The real questions was deliberately sidestepped – how did the assets move from Sevco 5088 to Sevco Scotland, on what terms, and who was involved. It was an opportunity lost. The only possible assumption is that the Directors of Rangers, and their hidden foreign investors, had blocked any meaningful investigation. 

It was an obvious whitewash. Amazingly, some people were stupid enough to proclaim this a victory. The Rangers fans have since asked why the Board don’t want money from King, the Three Bears, or Sarver. The Sarver offer was overly generous for a failing business. Only Ashley and the Easdales, original investor and proxy to the foreign investors respectively, are allowed into the inner circle. Ashley has no interest in the fate of the football club beyond his Retail venture being secure. The motivation of the Easdales is likely vanity, who can say.

I do not know what the terms of the Deed of Novation are. They are likely to benefit the Directors of Sevco 5088 in some way. We may be talking rental income, sale and leaseback, purchase agreements, loans and interest, a combination of these, or anything else you can imagine. The recent news that Rangers suddenly need significantly more money than previously thought, and immediately, points to some “legacy issue”. Other commentators have suggested this relates to “off the books” (secret) arrangements. That arrangement, I believe, is the Deed of Novation.

Why is this important? Simply:

– The transfer of rights to purchase the assets of Rangers is the single most important point in time in this saga.
– Every action since by the Rangers’ Boards and Original Investors has been taken to keep these details secret.
– This agreement will be in writing and copies will exist.
– The terms of the agreement will make the motivations of the original investors clear.
– The terms of the agreement will make clear what the endgame is likely to be.
– The Scottish mainstream media are afraid to ask the right questions.
– The Rangers fans too, it would appear, are afraid to ask the right questions. 

Does Craig Whyte still have a claim over Rangers? Will this asset “switcheroo” come back to haunt Rangers? Maybe … probably. The only thing I can say with certainty is this will keep a number of Law Firms in Scotland and elsewhere busy for many years to come. I heard recently is may take 10yrs to sort out this mess. There will be winners and losers.

Non-Rangers fans are looking on in bemusement or amusement. Rangers fans appear not to be looking at all, or looking in the wrong places. What Ally or Walter or any of the past players think about anything is irrelevant. The SMSM need to step up and ask the real questions. The Rangers fans may be sleepwalking into oblivion. 

A big thank you to him for allowing us to use that, and its worth reading carefully.

Jimmy Johnstone wasn’t wearing shinguards in Fridays photo, meaning the health and safety mafia would have had him banned.

Heres an old picture, when was the tour that is mentioned in the text ?