What Is The Reality?
There have been a few people questioning the actual reality around the state of the club re signings and players. Some, indeed many,are saying that we can’t compete with the clubs down south. This is true in many ways-we can’t compete with the wages on offer in the EPL, but we can outwith the EPL.
Lenny said so during the window.
Our CEO is paid more than fourteen of the CEOs in the EPL, so in that sense we sure can compete with the big boys. Not bad for being the CEO of a club in a diddy league! We can compete with virtually every other team in Europe outwith the elite clubs. Signing Jullien kinda proves this- we offered him a package that he couldn’t find elsewhere so he moved to us. As an aside,Pedro managed to bring the lad in very early in the window so he can do it when needs be. IMO that also disproves the theory that players won’t come to Scotland.
Of course there will be some who won’t want to play here but in the main if players see us as a stepping stone to the riches of the EPL,then of course they will come.
Why wouldn’t they,? Celtic have much to offer. European football most seasons and CL football occasionally. Given there are 950 clubs in Europe and less than a hundred can compete in uefa’s competitions Celtic are a very attractive proposition for players.
I genuinely don’t understand where this we can’t compete myth comes from, I honestly can’t. We also waste money like it grows on trees. Take Scott Sinclair for example-we triggered his contract extension for another year in the hope that we could move him on for a few bob. Was this the right thing to do? Our CEO obviously thought it was and we obviously didn’t get the offers we hoped for and SS didn’t get the move he wanted, so he gets to train on his own and is out of the picture. If we can afford to waste 30K+ a week, it puts another spanner in the works of we can’t compete.
Outwith the top six clubs in Spain, Germany, France,Italy,we pay as much as or more than the rest of the clubs in those leagues, so again we can compete. Other leagues like the Belgian, Portuguese, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss and the like? There will be a handful that pay as much as we do but the rest we blow away. The other leagues we pay more than 99%, so again we are competing.
Now granted that there will be players who,given the extra money they will get,will still not want to play in Scotland for reasons like the weather, but in reality that will amount to very few. The standard of the football will be another,but again that will account for very few.
Players and agents obviously talk and they will know the state of the refereeing in Scotland and they will know that playing for us will offer them no protection from the referees and this will account for a few not wanting to play here, but it still leaves many thousands who will come here,and I would wager that virtually any player that is playing in the Balkan leagues would come to Scotland. They have a massive pool of talent in those leagues that we should be looking at,same with the lowers reaches of the elite leagues, like where we got Jullien from.
They are out there and available, so why can’t we attract them, that is the question and one that there will be many many facets to as to why players won’t come here.
One sure fire way of making sure we give ourselves the best chance of attracting players we need is to appoint a DoF as soon as humanly possible and make sure he has the tools and the authority to work as he sees fit without the interference from on high-the on high that agents will know all about due to years of haggling and messing people about. It’s possible that agents will not be slow in telling their players that our club should be avoided-it’s a possibility,you know.
So get that DoF appointed Pedro and allow him to work unhindered. You know it makes sense, you also know that it would make financial sense. What is holding you back from appointing one, cos it can’t be the money as being a very decent accountant you will know that they will make money for the club. Could it be a massive ego? Well,only you can answer that Pedro, but I have a sneaky suspicion that’s what is holding you back from doing the right thing by the club.
HH
The day the powers that be in Scotland ban Orange Walks from the streets will be the day that Scotland starts to heal.
******
Above article by THEEXILEDTIM. Very gratefully received,as are all your contributions. If any of our readers would like to see their opinion published as Article of the Day,mail it to Mahe. We always publish them.
sentinelcelts@gmail.com
TET
I’ve long held the opinion we can be a top 32 club most seasons and top 16 on occasion. Like you, I’m frustrated to fff at our failure to implement a strategy that gives us a chance to achieve this, and get even more frustrated by what I consider the lame arguments that are given as to why we can’t join the elite.
Money and geography certainly limit our possibilities beyond the top 16 but from the top 16 down, other clubs with less income and playing in leagues that are no more attractive than the SPL, manage to progress further than we do.
Ranked 55 now. FFF. Fifty Fekkin Five.
What do most buses carry.? 57 passengers? Not only are we at the back of the bus now, drop another 3 places and we won’t even be on the damned bus.
Mind you – the driver is earning top dollar?
TWISTSNTURNS
Oh,very good!
*
HAPPPY HOOOOOOPY 80th BIRTHDAY to
CONNAIRE12!!!!!!
The retired-you never retire!-priest set us on our way in Lisbon on the 50th Anniversary of The Great Day,with a Celebration Mass. This was followed by a wee trip to our own Holy Grail-opened for the day especially for us-followed by a short visit to the marvellous Pink St in the evening.
Well,I say short. I think it was about 5am when we stoatit home. Some wiser heads had given up earlier,of course. They had golf in the morning. They missed the singalong with Jorge Cadete’s WPC sister…
But my abiding memory of CONNAIRE12 is the bus trip back from Fatima the previous day. Quite simply,a lovely man and an absolute gentleman.
I hope you have many more great days,C.
THE EXILED TIM, spot on once more, when you break it down like that, even a thicko like me can see we can compete regarding wages, ffs every window we are scrambling around looking at loanees, as twisty says down to 55 in the rankings for a club our size ,a feckin disgrace ,its time pedro saddled up his horse and rode off into the sunset.hh,
Happy Birthday Connaire 12. Lisbon was very special.
BOBBY, happy birthday to connaire 12, after last night might have to pay him a visit.?
BP
Woohoo
“Going for 55”
Well done Peter
We beat them ……
TWISTY ???
New article ( this one) not appearing on my menu today
I need to go to the end of the old article and click on Bobbys “ new article” post to get here? Just me?
Morning Timland, early T break as it’s lashing down, again, no rain for months and three downpours in a couple of weeks, still very warm tho.
TnT
Must just be you me thinks 😉
HH
Have we appointed a DoF yet ?????
Awe Naw is gonna have a field day today when he sees the daily record Peter Lawwell story re his lobbying Uefa to improve the chances of Scotland’s clubs reaching the UEFA Champions league?
It’s admirable in some respects actually, but, there is another way………beat the shite that’s put in front of you….
TnT
So why are we downsizing to the degree that the top clubs are going further and further away from us, in many ways it makes no financial sense whatsoever, our board have made it clear that money is their God, yet they still try and do things on the cheap, they have also proved that when you invest in quality it greatly improves your chances of playing in the CL, now if they had invested the riches gained instead of hoarding the cash, I would pretty much guarantee you we would have been in the CL this past couple of seasons, we would be in a position that we have quality players who we can move on when they want moved on and would have ready made replacement lined up, once we got to the stage of being a regular top 32 CL team I contend that as we would be able to pay better wages there would be less chance of players wanting to move on, after all the EPL clubs can’t buy everybody and CL football, winning leagues and cups akin with very decent wages will be enough to keep most players happy and onside, so why do we not invest from a position of strength, IMO the only reason is that we don’t want to be so far ahead of the rest in Scotland that the game here would die a death, IMO that’s what’s needed, it’s a joke anyways, the sfa are as corrupt as it gets and they are only there to benefit the huns as has been proven time and time again, yet the thick twats that support them are so fecking stupid they can’t see it.
HH
Not speaking about Celtic here, but supposing there was a CEO or DOF or a Manager who has a pool of agents he prefers to deal with. Would that not narrow his choices a bit? Why would he rather work with one agent rather than others? Might a lot of ‘duds’ be signed? Think brown envelopes and payments to off shore trusts. Far fetched? Trust me, it happens.
Jim
It would, but when hiring someone you would obviously look at their track record, if they have a habit of these things you leave well alone.
HH
Interesting article, TET.
Celtic can afford to pay decent transfer fees, say up to £12m. We can pay better wages than most outwith the top 6 in each of England, Spain, France, Italy, Germany. We would be 2nd favourites against the top 2 in Holland and Portugal.
There are 5 UCL places available through the Champions route, and we must win 4 ties to qualify. 2 of the 4 ties are versus poor sides, although Sarajevo were v tough this year. The 3rd and 4th rd qualifiers are against teams better than any other Scottish side. Yet we play these games after a very short summer break, and during pre season training. That’s 4 testing cup ties. If we beat 4 Scottish sides, 2 from lower leagues, we can win the league Cup. Another 5 ties and we can win the Scottish Cup. How often do we win cups? Normally, one in three. It’s unreasonable to expect us to get to UCL groups every year. Talk of last 16 and last 8 is for the birds. I’m sorry.
In any event, we will only hold a top player for 2 years max. We can’t even hold our home grown stars.
Basically, I’m saying we should dampen down expectations, and hope that if we put a nice side together, we could see EL football after Christmas. Next season, we can hope to win a place in UCL.
We spent good money on Eddie and he has proved a success. If a top team comes in with a good offer, say £30m+, and 100k per week wages, he’s off! We just can’t compete at that level.
I’d love things to be different, but they ain’t.
I agree that Peter Lawwell is overpaid, and that we should have a “football” person on the Board, with responsibility for all footballing matters. Will a top manager work with our DoF? Who do you suggest should be our DoF? Will DD see it that way? When there is so much money sloshing around football, the bean counters will hold sway, especially in a PLC.
What precisely would be the role of a D.O.F. at Celtic ?
Not coaching. Lenny et al.do that.
Not liaising with agents. Not negotiating contracts. P.L.does that.
What then?
Ger57
I never mentioned last 16 or last 8, but we should be getting to the groups more often that not given our income and via the champions route.
You are missing my point tho, if we were in the CL most seasons players would be more inclined to stay for longer, granted most will want to move on but this is where with forward planning when one leaves we have another ready to step in, it’s not rocket science, the likes of the Dutch teams, Benfica, Porto, these teams manage it and we make a bollix of it year in year out, there is no forward looking structure, why not look at their DoF, they all seem to be doing a very decent job, they make the CL most seasons, so I see no reason why we don’t, granted much is down to the coefficient but the Dutch champions still have to qualify, but as long as the policy of acting on the hoof is in place we will never fulfill our true potential, money in the bank doesn’t win football matches.
HH
Macjay, I think what we want is for Peter Lawwell to relinguish his football responsibilities to a DOF. That includes negotiations. The DOF would have a budget he must stick to. Lawwell would sign the cheques, that’s his involvement.
The DOF would not coach, but would decide the typical style of play tactics, formations. The head coach would be recruited to fit into that plan. A common style of play would be implemented at all levels from youths upwards.
jimthetim53
That`s more or less what I thought was being recommended.
Can envisage a few toes being treaded upon.
If one prefers to have a flamboyant manager with 100% say on tactics, formations and style of play, Fine. Change the manager every few years too. Fine. Just forget the need for a youth academy. Let each new manager as they come along do their own recruiting to suit their style. Recruit from outside. As I say, forget the need for an academy.
I don’t suppose either is ‘wrong’. You just make your choices. We seem to be trying to sit somewhere in the middle.
MacJay
What Jim said.
Pedro told us a few years back that we were going down the route that the European clubs were on, we are nearly there, if he relinquished his football roles and appointed a DoF we should be fine, till then it’s a hit and hope.
HH
The Exiled Tim
I would hope that P.L. has absolutely no role to play in decisions related to choice of transfer targets or on onfield tactics.
Yet to be convinced that he has.
Macjay, I doubt very much whether PL has any say on on-field decisions. But I think he has much say on transfers. Even if it’s providing a short list for the manager to choose from. We seem to use Man. City, where his son works, a lot. Coincidence?
A good tool to have in your box in the world of recruitment is networking. Perhaps that is merely our use of Man. City. Likewise Southampton, PSG etc. But as I said earlier, networking can be for the best of reasons or the worst.
jimthetim53
The Man. City connection.
If your understandable suspicion is correct , and it may be , the association has hardly been disadvantageous to Celtic.
Unless , of course , any of the dealings involved underhand practises.
Perish the thought.
Yes I agree Macjay. I wish we still had Jason. He seems to have peaked with us. Although I think playing alongside Virgil helped! 🙂
Rumour of new contract for Eddy
Shit! That’s him away in the summer!
MacJay
I would wager my cave that he doesn’t have anything to do with the on field stuff, I have never seen anyone say that he has, as for the transfer targets…….over on cqn the other day Paul himself in one of his leaders told you all that Pedro is actively involved in the transfer dealings, he always has had, he is playing at being a DoF, sadly he is crap at the role, he should stick to what he is good at, bringing in sponsorship monies and the like and leave the football stuff to football people.
HH
The dugs in the street know that Eddie will be gone as soon as an acceptable offer comes in and the way he is banging them in that will be sooner than we had hoped, we need to buy in asap another French kid, one who plays at the level below Eddie, they will be affordable and hopefully they will develop into another Moussa or Eddie, forward planning is what it’s all about, but I will wager now we won’t bring anyone in till he is gone and by then it may well be too late.
TET
Opinion only.
Magic recruitment in the last window.
Immediate needs catered for.
A punt on future needs .
I doubt that PL had any input whatsoever in those dealings apart from the financial negs.
But , if he did , then , for me , yet another feather in his cap.
Sky at it again, photos and times of EPL manager’s press conference, and Slippy G at 3.30……pathetic
MacJay
It’s fact, it’s not opinion, you should listen to the man himself, in his podcast with CU he lays it on the line how transfers at the club work, it’s financial folly to bring in a new manager every few years and have a clear out of the playing staff, the new man should just coach what he has, it’s how modern football works, it’s the path we are on, the only difference between us and other clubs is they have a DoF and we have Pedro.
TET, My sister and her man are over in Quesada just now, the photos she has been sending – the weather looks terrific. Don’t know if they have caught the rain, haven’t heard from them since Tuesday. My bro in law is back today so I’ll get my flat battery fixed. Sister staying on for another couple of weeks, got pals coming over.
The Exiled Tim
New manager.
Ronnie had to go.
Brendan chose to go.
Lennie I have high hopes for.
In terms of longevity.
Oh they gave us Neil Lennon and Paul Mc Stay ………………
We have continuity.
Peters bonus keeps rising along with fellow board members.
To continue this strategy we have to sell valuable players and replace with projects.
We have a football team that comes second to profit.
There has been consistency during Pete’s tenure.
TET,
You cite Ajax as a comparator for Celtic. I don’t have the exact data to hand, but I know Ajax have had some very poor seasons recently. No trophies, KO’d early from Europe and no superkid youngster to sell. They have also had some spectacularly good years and their run to the CL semi-final was great to see. Over the last 4 seasons, Ajax only qualified for the group stage once, albeit they progressed to the semi. A bit better than us, but not much.
GER57
Worth remembering that Ajax have genuine competition in their league so a few poor seasons could be expected.
What they achieved last season was admirable and should give supporters of teams outwith the big5 the inkling that with a proper forward thinking strategy and careful investment it is possible to compete at the big table.
I disagree on a bit better as they have succeeded in a far tougher environment than us and we have been nowhere near a European semi under Lawwell.
Our expectation management tells us to be happy to accept the occasional crumb and anything more makes us ungrateful greedy bastards.
G57
I should have changed Ajax to the Dutch teams, in fact I have.
I know what you are saying and I sort of kinda agree with you but we are NOT getting value for money, Cluj that fecked us out of the CL are pyoor skint in comparison, in fact put all the clubs together in the Romanian top league their combined income is way less than ours.
We are rich in comparison to most of the clubs on the planet, our income is massive, the TV money that we don’t get is often thrown in as how we can’t compete etc, that’s bollix, we may have a lesser TV income but our combined income from all we take in give us a ranking of 55th income wise on the planet, we sure don’t act and play like a 55th ranked club, our problem is we don’t spend what we take in wisely, now and again we hit but in the main it’s a miss.
HH
Non football topic… but I know there are some horse racing guys on here ….and there is a parallel with Scottish football…
Turns out that Triple Crown winner, Justified, failed a drug test, (apparently tested positive for a large amount of scapolmine, which is a a PED), so should not even have been allowed to run in the final leg of the Crown. However, results were ‘delayed’ so that it could complete. Then, after the event, authorities decided at a closed door meeting – with little evidence presented – that the results could have occurred by accident, so voted to dismiss the case, and then changed the rules to reduce the punishment for such offences….
Sound familiar?….
Instead of Sevco, I may now referred to them as Justified FC …. change/ignore rules to suit them, and seems to fit their sense of entitlement….
A bit off topic. The bridge between Portpatrick and Larne is in the news again. apparently it would cost approx £!5bn. Wouln’t that be a lovely parting gift from England to Scotland and Ireland. They’ve spent 8 centuries dividing us and then they leave us a bridge. I thought tunnels were less expensive than bridges but what do I know? The irony of it just tickled me.
Mike in Toronto
Cannot envisage any circumstance that i would accept the word Just and sevco in the same sentence.
Sport is there for sole purpose of profit nowadays.
Wonder if the main interest in denying justice in the Triple Crown case was to protect sponsor’s, racing authorities and bookmakers income?
Fan-a-tic, I agree. Aim for the stars and if we don’t quite reach, at least we tried. I’m frustrated because we’re not utilising our resources to best effect. I don’t know if it’s scouting, or our weather, the Board, our piss poor league, hammer throwers, shit referees but we do struggle to sign decent players and I’m not convinced it’s all down to our parsimony.
Great article TET and a drum you’ve been banging for sometime. You’ll already know I’m in the camp with Ger 57. We can do better but let’s be realistic. Yes we need better forward planning, we also need a DOF to run this forward planning and we definitely need Peter Lawwell keeping his nose out of transfers.
JTT talked about preferred agents. I would not like to think that PL operates in this way. If he does or did it would have come to light by now. I’m not accusing him of anything under hand. What I will say is that I bet agents have their preferred clubs and the way we footer about getting players on must be the talk of the steamie. Players want to know their future. Take el hamed today. He openly says he couldn’t play a game for his club because he was maybe going to Celtic. Eventually we got him in weeks later. How many other players were maybe going to Celtic and thought, know what I’m getting mucked about here I think I’ll go where I feel wanted. All this because PL operates like an account, not a DOF. A good DOF knows what players are available, what their currently gettting, what they want and who is interested because generally these guys are steeped in the game. It’s a small world football and everyone talks. They agents also talk. They will say to their client, don’t wait for Celtic to offer the right price because most times they fanny about and you may have missed out on another deal elsewhere. That’s why we need PL as far away from transfers as possible.
As for keeping players. Again IMO Ger57 is right. Anyone who is top of the championship level, never mind EPL will only do two maybe three years maximum. Anything else is not realistic. I wish it was different but it’s not. The wages down south are terrifying. Do you know a Scottish under 21 signed a three year contract at a championship club for over £15k per week. Never played for first team and moved on to league one, made for life. That’s u21 and championship. We are miles off that. Top whack 40k a week is what we will pay and know what we can’t expect to pay much more when most of your games are against dross. Again we need to be realistic. Players want big leagues and big pay. We are not able to give them the first and we won’t give them enough of the other.
GER57
I agree there is more than just parsimony for our flawed recruitment policy.
The league we play in is obviously a factor especially with the primitive football and barbaric tackles.
Tonev case also would give pause for thought especially with the spineless response by our custodians to a clear travesty of justice.
Present case of Sinclair (Bobo before him) is also not exactly a ringing endorsement for how we treat our players.
Geography is also a factor with shit weather and the sectarian climate in Glasgow as has been highlighted this week.
Our failure and lack of ambition in Europe will also have a bearing.
But to me what is the biggest factor is our recruitment that’s mostly reactionary after selling someone for a huge sum and looking for a cheap replacement.
GER57
A bit off topic. The bridge between Portpatrick and Larne is in the news again. apparently it would cost approx £!5bn. Wouln’t that be a lovely parting gift from England to Scotland and Ireland. They’ve spent 8 centuries dividing us and then they leave us a bridge. I thought tunnels were less expensive than bridges but what do I know? The irony of it just tickled me.
===
Feck that idea altogether. Can you imaging the parades across it every July as the ‘Ulster Scots’ try to march across to join hands with “The blood of their blood & bone of their bones” (Copyright Alex Salmond) and vice versa.
The sea, the sea, the beautiful sea,
Long may you flow between England and me,
God help the poor Scots, they’ll never be free
But Ireland is surrounded by water.
Read that in one of Brendan Behan’s books – confessions of an Irish Rebel?
Oglach
The sea, the sea, the beautiful sea,
Long may you flow between England and me,
God help the poor Scots, they’ll never be free
But Ireland is surrounded by water.
Read that in one of Brendan Behan’s book – confessions of an Irish Rebel?
Thank you for the above.
I had the privilege of seeing the brilliant play Being Behan in NY many years ago.
What a lovable rogue Brendan was.
http://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2013/10/26/news/being-brendan-behan-73929/
ATOB
I am a bit slow on the uptake at times so you will need to enlighten me where I am being unrealistic, seriously, cos given our financial advantage over most clubs we are making a total bollix of things, my realism is that we spend our money better and stop wasting it as we are doing presently, wanting the club to be better ran is not unrealistic, wanting us to qualify for the CL most seasons is not unrealistic, if we have CL football every year we will be able to pay more so more chance of holding on to players for longer especially if they are slightly older, where am I being unrealistic, if we invested instead of hoarding money we will greatly increase our CL chances, as with everything nothing is guaranteed, but better players will increase our chances big time, when you strengthen from a good base it’s needs less and less spent year on year, these are simple facts that our CEO should know but doesn’t, it’s childs play in reality, but we have a numpty running our football dept, I have already said that we know that players will leave after two three years max so we need to allow for this, instead we have an accountant making a efin mess of things, I have been saying for years that the strategy we have is the right one, we buy cheap in the hope we develop and sell for wheans, we need a coach to coach, that’s all, just coach what he has, it’s cost effective and saves disruption when the coach-manager leaves, but the overriding factor in all this is a proper DoF.
HH
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/41348.Brendan_Behan
Fan
Calling them justified is sort of like calling the biggest guy Tiny….
And this would be a fun song to sing at a game (if I was going….)
And I always thought JAMM’s had something to do with Masons… but apparently, it was some Illuminati thing….