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Number 7 has been following some of the comments on downsizing…<\/em><\/p>\n I have always been a follower of etims and read with interest the recent discussion by some regarding a wage cap\u00a0being enforced at the club over the last few years by a board who seemingly are hellbent on protecting the finances of the team. \u00a0Can we seriously call this protecting the finances or is there another motive? \u00a0Is celtic football club being ‘downsized’ in\u00a0front of our very eyes? \u00a0I would agree with the latter and here’s why….<\/p>\n Ever since that wonderful summer of 2012 the football authorities would have you believe that we are sleepwalking into the oblivion, that without the bigoted blue pound being spent at our grounds twice a year that we are staring into the abyss, the end of football as we know it. \u00a0Of course, real football fans did not toe the party line, crowds around the country where up, silverware was being distributed up and down the country and Scotland’s champions Celtic had entered the lucrative champions league group stages 2 years in a row… things where looking good, Barcelona where dispatched of and Celtic reached the last 16 of the Champions league for the first time since 2008. \u00a0This would surely be a catalyst for bigger things, the club where back where they belong and had the basis of a good young team. \u00a0Our goalkeeper was getting picked for England, an African nations cup winner in defence, in midfield we had a nominee for african player of the year and up front a striker who was banging in the goals week in week out. \u00a0All that we needed to do was keep together the spine of this team and spend\u00a0some of our hard earned cash wisely and the sky was the limit for this talented young side… so what went wrong for Celtic? Where the authorities correct? Could we not prosper without our dead cousins from across the city? \u00a0The answer, no, the real reason was the lack of ambition from the people who we entrust to take our club forward, the Celtic board had ‘shit the bed’ in more ways than one<\/p>\n Number 7 has been lurking in the background, and offers us a little, well, is it inside information ?<\/em><\/p>\n Some people may find this hard to believe but as stated on this site previously a wage cap was deployed by a board who saw falling crowds at Celtic Park as a direct response to fans losing interest in the league. \u00a0This would mean that any player who was to sign for the club as a new players or as part of a contract extension would have to adhere to the policy. \u00a0My understanding is that the structure in place is no more than 16k a week. \u00a0Where is my evidence of this? \u00a0Well all you have to do is look at the signings we made, the standard of player we let leave and the end product which we are now witnessing. \u00a0Hooper left and we brought in players like Amido Balde and Teemu Pukki, Victor Wanayama left and we brought in Derk Boeriggter and we replaced Fraser Forster with a goalkeeper who hadnt kicked a ball in 2 years and was training at the new incarnation of rangers!! \u00a0The board had made a massive mistake when choosing to buy into the scare mongering of the SFA and the MSM. \u00a0Crowds where failing because the product was failing, Trophies where surrendered to the likes of Kilmarnock, St Mirren, Hearts and Aberdeen. \u00a0This was the reason that the board SACKED Neil Lennon… He was made the fall guy for the boards failure to re-invest in the side. \u00a0Where did this leave morale in the dressing room?<\/p>\n Gary Hooper and Kris Commons are good mates, those of you with social media will recall various golf trips the two would make together abroad and these bhoys where joined at the hip.. arguably two of the most adored players since the likes of lubo and larsson. \u00a0Hooper wanted and extra 6 grand a week instead we sold him to Norwich for 5 million and he is now playing football for Sheffield Wednesday. \u00a0Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews, two welsh internationalists \u00a0formed a strong relationship at the club and would bust a gut for each other and the club, Ledley expected to sign a contract extension but instead was sold on the cheap to Crystal Palace and within 18 months his pal Matthews was shipped out to sunderland after refusing to sign a new 5 year deal from with in the constraints of the new wage cap. \u00a0Others like Samaras where also allowed to leave after running down their contracts and to quote some on this website “the rot had set in”<\/p>\n Players talk to each other… They all know who is on what… Its a fact of the business… even our best team ever the Lisbon Lions would know what each other where on… I remember reading that Tommy Gemmell found out the Cesar was earning a fiver more than the other players and went straight to the manager and demanded all the other be paid the same, it was agreed that they would all get the extra fiver a week, but so did big Billy!!<\/p>\n The point i am trying to make is can we point the finger at the wage cap we have set as being the beginning of the downward spiral? \u00a0Will players really give that extra 10% knowing that in 6 months time they will be shipped out to England and will no longer have to deal the fallout of not making the group stages of the champions league or for not clinching a league and cup double? \u00a0I think we can… I think player moral is at a low, when a club youve been with for 3 to 4 years and enjoyed some great success with decides your not worth that bit more a week your head is down and your performances suffer!! \u00a0When you watch your mates leave even though you know they didnt want to go and where forced out it has to have a negative impact!!<\/p>\n we all want the same thing, a prosperous football club playing entertaining attacking football able to compete at the biggest stage in european football. \u00a0this will not happen whilst we have wage caps at the club.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Number 7 has been following some of the comments on downsizing… I have always been a follower of etims and read with interest the recent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8468,"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\/2016\/01\/Downsizing.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2cz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467"}],"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=8467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8473,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467\/revisions\/8473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}