\n<\/strong>It feels like 44! It\u2019s a nice milestone. Every year is more important than the last. In these times, to have four years at a club this size is something I\u2019m very proud of, and we keep forging ahead.<\/p>\n
When you were asked to take over the team on an interim basis following the departure of Tony Mowbray, was there any trepidation at the task that lay ahead or was it simply excitement? How determined were you to grasp the opportunity? Do you remember the moment you discovered that you were becoming Celtic manager on a permanent basis? What is your proudest achievement during these past four years? Any regrets? With the club on the cusp of making it three-in-a-row, what are your emotions? I wish he hadn’t mentioned the bit about his cv. Theres an awful lot of signs that he is thinking about a move just lately-like in the opening paragraph where he says it ” feels like 44 ” Just wee things, though I don’t think theres any truth in the rumour that he’s ordered “English Football Grounds ” from the library. Not yet, anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n Celtics under 20 side were beaten at Dunfermline yesterday, the Fife side racking up a 1-0 win. That means the table makes interesting reading….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The board considered detailed legal advice with regard to the application of its regulations within the context of a decision made under Italian law.<\/p>\n “Having fully considered the matter, the board agreed unanimously that the decision of the Italian Court does constitute a disqualifying condition under its owners’ and directors’ test.<\/p>\n “The relevant disqualifying condition being that Massimo Cellino has been convicted of an offence involving acts that would reasonably be considered to be dishonest.”<\/p>\n Does that apply to Dave King ? \u00a0Was it forty six convictions ? Is it a problem ?<\/p>\n Well, it should be. And haven’t those staunch and loyal supporters learned anything from the last few years ?<\/p>\n Anyway, once again, convicted tax fraudster ( surely an act that ” would reasonably be considered to be dishonest “) has been given free publicity to stake his claim and splutter forth his ideas.<\/p>\n It had to be free. He has a marked reluctance to pay for anything. But he does tell us what it will take to make Second Rangers a force in Scottish football.<\/p>\n “I think the minimum – if we get lucky – is \u00a330m and we will probably need \u00a350m. That would be to compete with Celtic,”<\/p>\n Imagine you had an idea for a business, and then took it to see your bank manager. Then you asked him for \u00a330m . Or \u00a350m . He might begin to suspect you hadn’t done your homework, and were, in fact, talking shite.<\/em><\/p>\n “The Rangers strategy should be a simple thing and I have discussed this with institutions. It is this: every year we have to compete with Celtic. That is the business plan. And that is Celtic’s business plan as well. We have to beat them and they have to beat us. ”<\/p>\n Its remarkably similar to the previous business plan. The one that ended in liquidation. Celtics business plan, which is working incredibly well, doesn’t actually involve them at all.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Hugh MacDonald, in the Evening Times, added his thoughts to the narrative;<\/p>\n He also derided a continual lack of competition as corrosive to the financial health of both Celtic and Rangers. “Nine-in-row is terrible for Celtic and nine-in-a-row is terrible for Rangers. It is good for the fans, but bad for business,” he said.<\/p>\n Nine consecutive titles for Celtic would mean nine shots at the Champions League. Money which would help any business plan. Hardly bad for business. Not paying tax is bad for business.<\/em><\/p>\n He said investment was needed so that Rangers were not condemned to being “also-rans” in Scottish football and pointed out that a “dilapidated” Ibrox needed an upgrade.<\/p>\n Also -rans ? They’re not even walking yet.<\/em><\/p>\n He ( King ) said he was willing to meet the shortfall in any investment plan, even if he had to pay the “thick end” of \u00a350million.<\/p>\n Just like David Murray did. I ought to clarify here that “thick end ” is referring to the money, not the investors.<\/em><\/p>\n “I am not going into this on the basis that I have to make a return on an investment. I actually believe whatever I invest in Rangers I will never get back. But I am happy to do it,” said the Castlemilk-born businessman who lost \u00a320m in Rangers under the Sir David Murray regime.<\/p>\n According to South African court papers, King received \u00a318.1m back from the club. Meaning a net loss of \u00a31.9m. Which is known as a “commission “<\/em><\/p>\n He insisted fans should be patient as they awaited the board’s business review which should be published next month and was dismayed by the sabre-rattling by some supporters.<\/p>\n He wants them to rattle little cans instead. You know, the ones you put money in.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n ” I think it is the view of some of the supporters that they are looking for a fight. My preference is not to fight,” he said.<\/p>\n More reverse psychology. The word “fight ” occurs a lot in this article.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n “Unfortunately, it was reinforced to me in my visit to Scotland that there are a lot of people who are so emotional about this that they almost don’t want the board to say everything is okay.<\/p>\n I don’t think theres any chance of that happening. everything isn’t okay. Far from it, in fact. King just wants first dibs on whatever the vultures leave, even if its just the name.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n “They are just ready for the fight.”<\/p>\n Theres that word again….<\/em><\/p>\n But he was hopeful that Rangers could come through the crisis that has besieged the club in recent years.<\/p>\n Here we go again…..They didn’t. They died.<\/em><\/p>\n “I will be very surprised if that, through the efforts of myself and other people, Rangers do not come through this in a healthy way and ultimately get back to where we all think they should belong,” he said.<\/p>\n That rather depends on where you think they belong.\u00a0<\/em>They’ve already booked their seat.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is it about that club that attracts the likes of Whyte, Green, King, Easdale \u00a0et al ? Why won’t any respectable businessman touch them ?<\/p>\n Celticchuck on twitter may have spotted it<\/p>\n Anyway, back to the rules.<\/p>\n Will the SFA allow King, should his venture be a success. to take control at Ibrox. Surely his convictions, like they have for Cellino at Leeds, should put a stop to that ?<\/p>\n Can the rules be ignored ?<\/p>\n Graham Spiers on twitter seems to think so<\/p>\n ” Very dodgy. But it can be.”<\/p>\n When asked how, Spiers has yet to reply.<\/p>\n The Valencia Celtic game in the picture postcard yesterday was “quite interesting ” because although the game took place in September, the Spanish side had only won the previous seasons trophy a few short weeks before this game took place.<\/p>\n Heres one to think about..Who is this signing on the dotted line for Celtic ?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Aberdeen boss Derek MacInnes has played down talk of aberdeen mounting a serious challenge to Celtics league supremacy next season. Publicly, at least; His side…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/lennon-celt.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1eR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4769,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4765\/revisions\/4769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>I was excited. It wasn\u2019t a problem. When Tony left, after we had a really bad result at St Mirren, it was just a question of trying to pick the team up and get going again as we knew we had good players and they hadn\u2019t been playing to anywhere near the level we knew they could. It was just a question of just steadying the ship until the end of the season and seeing where we went from there.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I may never have got the opportunity again so I wanted to make the most of it. We won our eight games and lost the semi-final which was a blow and I thought the opportunity might have gone, but thankfully the board saw something in me to take the club on and here we are four years down the line.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>We had the eight games towards the end of the season, and I spoke to John Reid after the Hearts game, which was the last match of the season, and he said, \u2018You are in with a chance of the job\u2019. Then, about three weeks later, the call came through that I got the job. It was a wonderful moment in my life. It was about 11 o\u2019clock at night when I signed the contract and I walked down the tunnel and then looked around the stadium and thought, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re going to be running this place for the foreseeable future\u2019. It\u2019s something I will never forget.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>There have been a lot of things \u2013 making the last 16 was a huge achievement, there was winning the double last year and the first league championship was an important one, when we cut back a very big deficit. But I\u2019m as just as proud of the players we have brought in and developed. We have turned them into excellent young men as well as good footballers who have an affinity with the club. When you see Hooper and Wanyama coming in and going on, and then we have players like Matthews, Forster, van Dijk, Lustig \u2013 players we have brought in who were relatively unknown and have turned into household names. That gives me more pleasure than anything else really.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>There are a few. The cup competitions this year weren\u2019t great and we have lost a couple of finals and semi-finals, but you can\u2019t have everything. The incentive next year is can we quality for Europe again and get into the Champions League, and can we win a treble. That will always be there as a target going into every season.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m really proud and I didn\u2019t think I would be where I am today and have that on my CV. You always want more \u2013 you always want more trophies and want your team to play better. But a wise old bird told me: \u2018don\u2019t look for the perfect when you can get the best\u2019. So you always strive for perfection but whether you ever get that or not is another thing.<\/p>\nU20s :: League Table<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n POS<\/td>\n CLUB<\/td>\n P<\/td>\n W<\/td>\n D<\/td>\n L<\/td>\n F<\/td>\n A<\/td>\n GD<\/td>\n PTS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1<\/td>\n Celtic<\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n 14<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 43<\/td>\n 19<\/td>\n 24<\/td>\n 44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2<\/td>\n Rangers<\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 42<\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n 44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3<\/td>\n Hibernian<\/td>\n 21<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 53<\/td>\n 28<\/td>\n 25<\/td>\n 42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4<\/td>\n Motherwell<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 45<\/td>\n 41<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5<\/td>\n Hamilton<\/td>\n 24<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 42<\/td>\n 38<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6<\/td>\n Aberdeen<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 45<\/td>\n 37<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7<\/td>\n Inverness CT<\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n 10<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 46<\/td>\n 37<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8<\/td>\n St Johnstone<\/td>\n 24<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 10<\/td>\n 41<\/td>\n 44<\/td>\n -3<\/td>\n 30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9<\/td>\n Kilmarnock<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n 35<\/td>\n 39<\/td>\n -4<\/td>\n 30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10<\/td>\n Partick Thistle<\/td>\n 25<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 35<\/td>\n 49<\/td>\n -14<\/td>\n 29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 11<\/td>\n Dunfermline<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 40<\/td>\n 42<\/td>\n -2<\/td>\n 27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 12<\/td>\n Falkirk<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 37<\/td>\n 49<\/td>\n -12<\/td>\n 27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 13<\/td>\n Dundee United<\/td>\n 24<\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n 32<\/td>\n 35<\/td>\n -3<\/td>\n 25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 14<\/td>\n Hearts<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 34<\/td>\n 53<\/td>\n -19<\/td>\n 23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 15<\/td>\n St Mirren<\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 21<\/td>\n 33<\/td>\n -12<\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 16<\/td>\n Ross County<\/td>\n 22<\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n 14<\/td>\n 29<\/td>\n 56<\/td>\n -27<\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n
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