{"id":7415,"date":"2015-07-06T10:25:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T09:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7415"},"modified":"2015-07-06T10:29:44","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T09:29:44","slug":"celtic-diary-monday-july-6-we-sorted-out-the-bankers-and-youre-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7415","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Monday July 6: We Sorted Out The Bankers And You’re Next !"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, all right, he didn’t say that. but if one of the hacks had thought of it, it would have been attributed to him.<\/p>\n

They have form for what could be termed as sensationalism, as you know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Runar Pall Sigmundsen, coach of Celtic’s champions League opponents Stjarnan, has now decided there’s every chance of a shock in the forthcoming tie between the two sides.<\/p>\n

Egged on by an enthusiastic Scottish sports media, he said, after watching a calamitous performance by the hoops against Dukla Prague;<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great game for us to see.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCeltic have just started their pre-season preparation and looked a little bit rusty but it was interesting for us to see them in this game.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDukla were a very good team and took advantage of a lot of space Celtic left between their defence and midfield. They had some problems with that and it is something we can look at in their game.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOur players will have to play two great games and everybody will have to play their best ever if we are to beat Celtic.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we are very confident. We like to play in this tournament and take confidence from our performances against Motherwell and Lech Poznan in last season\u2019s\u00a0Europa League.<\/a>\u00a0We knocked out two very good teams but this is our first attempt at the Champions League.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it would be massive to beat Celtic. It is a great opportunity for Stjarnan to play against Celtic and if we have a great result in Glasgow then we can do something big.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it will be a very difficult game but we are optimistic and believe in our playing style and in our team.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

He’s not fooling anyone. Putting on a pair of spectacles and combing your hair may have fooled Lois Lane into thinking the bloke who worked all day with her at the office wasn’t superman, but we tims can see through that sort of ruse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Image<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stjarnan may feel they have inside knowledge, but even Pressley\/Sigmundsen will know that the Dukla game was a one off. As far as I can remember, the only time Celtic have had a decent pre season recently was when a free flowing Tony Mowbray side thrashed the world’s most successful club, Al Ahly of Egypt, and we all know how that season panned out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He continued;<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time I\u2019ve had the chance to see them live and it was very useful. I won\u2019t get another chance to see them because we have a game of our own on July 12 in our league, so I have to be at that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat means I won\u2019t see Celtic\u2019s final game against Real Sociedad before they play us but maybe I\u2019ll get the chance to see it online.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will definitely be following it to see how they are playing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCeltic are at a different level from\u00a0Motherwell.<\/a>\u00a0They are fantastic and we know it will be very difficult for us.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe games against Celtic are big for us and we are going to enjoy them.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In fairness, the text of the interview doesn’t justify the headline,<\/p>\n

We can dump Celtic:<\/h1>\n

FC Stjarnan boss insists his team can spring Champions<\/h1>\n

League\u00a0shock<\/h1>\n

He doesn’t say he’s going to dump anyone, but they have to sell papers, and they have to stick to their policy. It’s the Record, in case you hadn’t guessed.<\/p>\n

The Mail goes with the same line, but the photo they use to back it up suggests that Sigmundsen wasn’t even paying attention to the game;<\/p>\n

\"Stjarnan<\/p>\n

The on off saga surrounding Nadir Ciftci and a possible move to Glasgow looks set to conclude one way or another early this week. Jackie MacNamara, the happy go lucky boss of Dundee united, said;<\/p>\n

\u201cNadir has turned down Wigan and the other offers haven\u2019t been enough for us to let him speak to anyone else.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNadir is fine. He understands what\u2019s happening. It\u2019s a saga every transfer window.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change anything. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen or whether he\u2019s going to be here or there.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have to prepare as if he\u2019s going to be here with us and the lad needs to do the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not spoken to Nadir about it because there\u2019s no need. The club hasn\u2019t accepted anything from Celtic.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there has been interest there but it\u2019s not been enough for him to go and speak to them yet. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Hopefully they are asking for \u00a312 million.<\/p>\n

I’m not that keen on Ciftci bringing his personality any where near a happy group at Celtic, and even less keen to have Pierre van Hoooijdonk with a foot in the door either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If Ciftci does come, and does well, how long before his agent demands a wage that isn’t fit for a homeless person ?<\/p>\n

We don’t need the hassle. Ciftci isn’t worth it.<\/p>\n

Remembering van Hooijdonks attitude and perhaps unfairly passing it on to Ciftci may be wrong, when of course, the Turk has never moaned about wages,<\/p>\n

No, he just bites, kicks and elbows people.<\/p>\n

Chris Sutton, not exactly a shrinking violet on the pitch himself, sees something in ciftci, and he might be right;<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruiting a striker is the hardest position to conquer as the good ones cost so much.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it comes down to finding a project and Ciftci is at a good age for the club to develop his potential. As a footballer player, he has a lot going for him.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe uses his body well, he can score different types of goals, he can bring others into the game and he can be a right handful\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, Deila likes to play that centre-forward position as a lone task and he can do that really well from what I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The whole saga has reminded me of the \u00a0sour taste left behind by van Hooijdonk, who moaned about money here, at Nottingham Forest, and then at Benfica.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s no room for disruptive agents at Celtic, and whilst you could argue that he’s only doing his job-as he is now trying to get Ciftci the move he wants, there’s a horrible feeling that what is happening at United now will happen at Celtic in twelve months time.<\/p>\n

I can’t put my finger exactly why I want to give this deal a miss, but there’s a lot about it that doesn’t \u00a0feel right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anyway, even if he does get here, he’s got to displace Leigh Griffiths from the line up, and Griffiths, the most natural striker we’ve had in many a year, won’t give his place up easily.<\/p>\n

Griffiths admitted he was tiring on Saturday, but also pointed out why…<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt was good. I felt good for 45 minutes and I started to tire around the 60 minutes mark. We have only been back training since Monday and it was good to get an hour under my belt and I will be raring to go next week.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to get fitness but we want to win games as well and it was disappointing not to win it, but it was only a friendly and we have another one to go before the Champions League game.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe pressed them well in the first half, though it was disappointing defending from our point of view but we showed what we were going forward and creating chances. After 75 minutes they started popping the ball about and we looked a bit tired and jaded.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have a full week\u2019s training before we play Sociedad. It will be good test for us but we will be raring to go. They are a great side and have had some good results in La Liga and hopefully we can show what we are all about.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0This could be a big season for Griffiths. He has shown what he can do, after an unconvincing start, and with a run in the side, and the support from the midfield three, he could easily score thirty plus. In Europe there are fears that he won’t be able to step up, or he’s not big enough, or strong enough, and all the usual doubts, but he won’t let us down.<\/p>\n

Defenders do not like his all action bustling style, and he has the speed of thought, which when combined with confidence, that \u00a0could be the difference between a bad result and a memorable one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If players were judged on heart alone, he’d be world class. Work on his upper body strength and he will be.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

The Scotsman has dug up the old “Martin Odegaard” \u00a0on loan story, presumably so that they can follow it up later with a “Celts fail to land Ronny’s protege ” piece later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ronny says he is not good enough for the Celtic first team. Celtic have not , officially , made any recent moves to get him, and he’s going to Getafe anyway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was in the Spanish papers. Scottish papers have a different way of looking at things.<\/p>\n

Anyway, why bring in a loan player, as good as he might be, and develop him when Liam Henderson and Tom Rogic are waiting to be helped to the next level ?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the dark side of town, there’s confirmation that Deloitte, the auditing firm, no longer do the books at ibrox. They quit , apparently after their staff received threats from an unknown source…<\/p>\n

Chris Graham, who lives in his own wee world, hinted it might have been those “rangers haters ” who haunt the poor man’s dreams<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course it was. It couldn’t possibly be anyone else. and Deloitte would have stayed on had it not happened.<\/p>\n

John James, who lets the world know what really goes on over there, had more to say on the absent chariman, Dave king and his “wealth “<\/p>\n

I have come into some more information in regard to our convicted criminal chairman. Estimates of the funds held and subsequently frozen in a London bank have been wildly exaggerated. To evade tax, Mr King switched funds from one British Virgin Islands trust to another. He then established two Guernsey based trusts that fed into a London account. The total value of this account was \u00a37.8M. Having checked numerous court transcripts, I can find no \u2018relief\u2019 order, therefore \u00a31.6M was not provided to King on an annual basis as previously claimed.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of his jets was found in France. It was valued at $42M (\u00a326M) and sold for \u00a310M. The other was seized at an airport in South Africa and sold for an undisclosed sum. He was informed that if he attempted to board this plane he would be arrested. King\u2019s primary strategy to evade tax was to invest in aircraft.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Everything he owned, including his watch and golf clubs, that he claimed were owned by a trust and \u2018loaned\u2019 to him, went under the hammer.<\/em><\/p>\n

All that remained after he paid SARS and his fines was one property in his wife\u2019s name, which was created by demolishing 3 properties, and his \u00a37.8M in his London account. He would have received some interest on this sum, but this was subject to UK tax.<\/em><\/p>\n

As has long been established, King will receive some compensation from BDO. An interim payment is due later this month.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are no hidden accounts or assets. SARS had the authority to pursue up to \u00a3230M of his assets if these could be found, which was 200% of his estimated wealth. He repatriated NOSA from Hong Kong to South Africa. All his asset classes are now in South Africa\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

So we now know exactly what he has access to. He won\u2019t be risking any of it in Rangers.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, there is another scandal that could impact his holding in Micromega, which is held in his daughter\u2019s name. 56% of his daughter\u2019s holding of 76% was acquired by a foreign company called Drenk, owned by King in The British Virgin Islands. Having breached the 30% barrier, King was compelled to make an offer for the remaining 44%. He chose not to. He broke the law, aided and abetted by CEO, Greg Morris This was discovered by irate shareholders who challenged Morris to provide an answer. They are still awaiting his response.<\/em><\/p>\n

MoeGoe, I eventually got there. He\u2019s a slippery character. He had over \u00a38M at his disposal when initiating the hostile takeover of Rangers. However he did not use any of it. He borrowed \u00a32.5M to avoid transgressing exchange controls, something that he admitted to in regard to the trusts in BVI, which were exposed at his trial in London.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The toxicity surrounding King means they will never get credit, they will never be able to sell shares, and no-one with any sense will invest in them.<\/p>\n

Or as John James puts it…<\/p>\n

Everything that could have gone wrong off the field has gone wrong. Paul Murray has spent his short tenure fighting fires, many of them started by our convicted criminal chairman. Cast your mind back to the statement, to The London Stock Exchange, in regard to King. This statement was read by everyone who matters in financial circles. I have never seen any individual more publicly excoriated than King. As soon as this was issued, everyone knew exactly how toxic King was and why no exchange, or brokers to an exchange, would engage with RIFC. We were well warned.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Speaking of toxicity, this story has a rather pungent whiff about it;<\/p>\n

Macleod \u2018would return to Ibrox\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

FORMER Rangers midfielder Lewis Macleod has admitted he\u2019d love to return to Ibrox, just six months after being sold for \u00a31 million.<\/em><\/p>\n

New Gers boss Mark Warburton signed Macleod for Brentford but boyhood Rangers fan Macleod has said he \u2018wants to go back one day\u2019 – despite still waiting to make his Brentford debut.<\/em><\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve always said that Rangers are my club and I would want to go back some day. But I\u2019ve just moved down here and I\u2019ve not even started yet as far as I\u2019m concerned. Brentford are my priority \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A million ? Really ?<\/p>\n

Someone at Brentford must be looking into that particular deal. Or at the English FA.<\/p>\n

And if not, they should be.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we hear the Second Rangers squad have decided to record a cover version of Bruce Springsteens “Girls in Their Summer Clothes ” to raise extra funds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Embedded<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another winner there lads.<\/p>\n

The money raised will go towards the signing on fee for John Eustace, the man earmarked for the captaincy at Ibrox. If they can find him , that is.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot of money heading towards Ibrox, as Lego produce another box set designed for the young Ibrox fan.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

\u00a0The highly under rated Pat McCluskey was the man in yesterdays picture, can anyone tell us the connection between Pat and this fellow ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, all right, he didn’t say that. but if one of the hacks had thought of it, it would have been attributed to him. They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7416,"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\/2015\/07\/deila-ronny-deila-celtic-manager-july-6-austria-tour_3172697.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1VB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415"}],"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=7415"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7419,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7415\/revisions\/7419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}