Celtic Diary Friday March 6: More Deflection From The MSM

Theres a big story over on the other side of the river, and its got the MSM in a frenzy.

Thats why when Celtic revealed a massive new kit deal yesterday, somehow Peter Lawwell ended up talking about Republican sympathisers at Celtic Park.

Ian Jamieson, Celtics PR man , needs a kick in the haw maws for allowing this to happen.

Lawwell doesn’t get off scot free, but to be fair, he was probably blindsided by hacks eager to deflect from the fact that Celtic are flourishing without their old rivals, which is exactly what Lawwell said we would do.

 “I’m absolutely delighted to announce that New Balance will be our new kit sponsor and partner. Everyone at the club is thrilled about it.

“This is a fantastic global brand that will sit along perfectly with Celtic. It will be our biggest kit sponsorship deal ever, and we believe it’s the biggest in Scottish football history. We’re bound by commercial terms of the values but safe to say, it’s a multi-million pound deal over five years

“It’s a fantastic achievement and I would like to thank Adrian Filby and our commercial team who have worked tirelessly to bring this together. 

“We had a very good partner in Nike for the last 10 years and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them.

“But as time goes on, circumstances change and we went out to the market and found New Balance, and we are delighted to join Liverpool, Sevilla and Porto – great football brands.

“In challenging times for Scottish football, it does show the esteem and regard that Celtic are still held in throughout the football world. It’s a great announcement. It’s great for Celtic and Scottish football and extremely positive. 

He hasn’t said how much it is, but its a lot. The down payment has already been made;

To be honest, as long as the shirts hold up better than the Nike ones, then I’m happy. Remember the first hooped shirt, which became a two for one deal when you washed it, as it changed into the green away top ? The one that came in the papery material ?

There are various impressions of what the new home top will look like, but we hear that it will be some style of a green and white hooped effort, with Magners on the front.

Keep that to yourself, though, we don’t want to infringe on any commercial confidentiality laws.

Lawwell continued, clearly happy with the deal, despite the way the Scottish league is portrayed by those that run it, those that report on it, and in some cases, those that participate in it;

“There is some degree of negativity around at the moment in terms of the league and with this deal we have shown there is still a real degree of positivity around – and positivity around this club.

“Celtic are still regarded as a first-class top European football club, a global football club, and this aligns itself to that. New Balance are a global brand with global aspirations, the same as Celtic.” 

Richard Wright, the General Manager at New Balance, was equally enthusiastic;

“I am delighted to formally announce the partnership between New Balance and Celtic but delighted is probably an understatement – I’m really proud.

“We are about 20 years younger than Celtic, but we still have a century under our belts. We have only just announced a month ago – February 4 – our move into the sport of football, the world’s biggest sport. It was a huge decision for the brand.

“We launched in London, Sydney, New York and Tokyo to show our global aspirations in the sport. Today it was rounded off by this announcement, which is a big day in the New Balance brand history. 

“Our goals are well aligned. Celtic’s desire to grow both domestically and globally are entirely in line with what we want to do. We are a worldwide athletic brand, and after about a year working together in the relationship, designing and developing products and marketing campaign, I believe we have a great relationship already.

“For us as a brand, Celtic are regular contenders in the Champions League, the Europa League and of course, domestically – this is where New Balance wants to be.

“We want to be on the European stage and also the global stage, which is truly important to us. Lastly, but certainly not least, Celtic fans are everywhere in the world, and we as a brand we want to be with them and the club hand-in-hand going forward.” 

 Now, to me, and to many others, I would assume, thats a positive statement about a great  deal for the club, and the manufacturer.

To round off the announcement, and ad to the general feel good factor, Lawwell expressed his feelings on manager Ronny Deila, who has begun to settle into the job.

: “We are delighted. Ronny has come in and changed things. It’s a year of transition for us which we all expected.

“It takes time for people to get used to change. We haven’t won anything yet and have a long way to go but we are really delighted with the progress and we are looking forward to having him here for a long time, developing Celtic and creating a fantastic team we can all be proud of.

“Everything at Celtic is around your budget and this will help provide finance for Ronny and the team. It’s a complicated business, and it’s our job to increase the top line to make sure we take the football team as far as we can.” 

And the MSM decided we can’t have that, so one of them raised the disciplinary issues that have dogged the club. Thats the point when the PR man, Ian Jamieson, should have intervened and blocked the question. By telling the assembled hacks that only the kit deal was being discussed .

 Lawwell answered, when he really shouldn’t have;

 “It is concerning because it allows Celtic’s name to be slurred but there is a context that is missed.

“You can’t look at two people and condemn football club.

“We had 3,100 supporters in Milan and there were two (misbehaving fans) and we had 60,000 here for the Milan game and there were none. “So it is very isolated.

“If you looked around Europe that night I am sure there would have been 100 misdemeanours.

“We are concerned about it because it gives unnecessary and unwarranted bad publicity to Celtic, due to a very small minority.

“We are doing all we can to identify those responsible and will take appropriate action.

“If you come to Celtic Park for an event, there is no offensive behaviour, the crowd behave impeccably.

“So you have to put it into context and for Celtic, we find any problem is immaterial, a small problem. We are comfortable.” 

“I don’t accept that Irish Republicanism is anywhere in Celtic’s history,”  

Where did that come from ?

“I don’t recognise Celtic being associated with sectarianism or Irish Republicanism.

“This is a club that since 1888 has welcomed everyone. It has been inclusive, diverse and open to all.

“We have a very small minority who have chants that we would rather not be here.

“Whether or not that is people who wish to have an Irish Republican identity is another matter. It is a complicated issue.

“But people who promote a proscribed terrorist organisation are not welcome at Celtic Park and that has been the case forever and it will always be the case.

“But you have to put this into context. This is a very small minority. It is not at Celtic Park.

“If there is a problem it is a very small minority of the away support that we are dealing with.

“If you put that into the context of other matters and other situations, hopefully you will agree it is immaterial.”

Ironically, Lawwell was talking about context, when of course, the entire statement is out of context, considering the kit deal was the big story.

 As a result, he’s given the hacks some distracting headlines while the Good Ship Ibrox sinks into further disarray, which a cynic might say was exactly what they wanted.

 Perhaps its worth pointing out here that Irish Republicanism, whether you support it or not, is an entirely different subject from sectarianism. One is a political belief, the other is judging someone on their religion ahead of anything else.

 Yet the press cannot, or will not , make that distinction.

 As for Celtic never having had any connection with Republicanism, if you know your history, then thats clearly not the case.

But the real issue is that the subject never needed to be raised, and someone should be in the dock for allowing it to be.

In other news, it looks like Jason Denaayer will be promoted to the Manchester City first team squad when he returns from his loan in the summer. Lawwell admitted as much, indicating the club have given up on trying to keep him;

“I think Jason would be looking to go back to City.” – 

John Guidetti has commented on the visit to Glasgow by Feyenoord transfer chief  Martin van Geel, playing down rumours that he is off to Rotterdam as soon as he can;

 “Why was van Geel here? I’ve no idea. Maybe just to watch a fun game.” 

 If Celtic against St. Johnstone is van Geels idea of a fun game, on a cold and miserable Wednesday night, then that probably explains how Guidetti ended up at Stoke, and really shows that he shouldn’t listen to much to anything the Dutchman has to say.

 Although it might be too late for that.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Rangers International EGM is being held today, in front of an unusually large crowd at Ibrox.

 Dave ” The Man Who Would Be ” King, is in town,

Paul Murray is with him,

And the Rangers support are there to back them!

One of them is particularly confused, as to what actually is the definition of a  convicted criminal

Now, lets turn this scenario around, and put ourselves in the shoes of the typical Rangers fan.

 Not literally, don’t worry.

 Imagine, if you will, that a genuine billionaire is in charge at a stricken Celtic, ( not too difficult, because there is one ) and the club is struggling to pay the bills.

 Michael Kelly, Chris White and a few others from the 1994 board are in the papers, demanding to take over and asking the support for their help, via a share issue.

 In fact, its worse than that, as their figurehead ( fictional , for the sake of this argument ) is actually a convicted tax fraudster, and he’s the one asking for our money. After we’ve already been fleeced a couple of times, with no noticeable improvement in the clubs financial position.

 In fact, we’ve had to borrow money to keep the lights on.

 Would you vote for a return of the board that almost killed the club ? Or, as the reality is for them, would you vote for the some of the board that were involved in the fiasco that led to the liquidation of your club ?

Or would you stick with the billionaire who, at least, has been putting some of his own money in ?

 We’ve always suspected that they are not a bright bunch over there. Today could see absolute proof of that.

Speaking of bright bunches, the Evening times has sent Chris Jack, Matt Lindsay and R Gray to cover the meeting from their own unique angle.

Teamtalk Rangers pointed out something everyone seems to have missed;

There is a theory that Ashley/Sports Direct’s contracts are so onerous that Ashley is waiting to see the new regime struggle with finance before turning to him for help – he has never lost a fight and his wealth is unlimited unlike King and his allies, so Ashley’s next move will be intriguing.

 Atletico Madrid were the team with the player abusing Jimmy Johnstone in yesterdays picture.

Caption competition today, and this picture from the press conference yesterday may tell us more than we think….

You tell us what you think…

And could we ask you to spare a thought for Hollywood action hero Harrison Ford, who is seriously injured after crashing his aircraft on a Los Angeles golf course.