The Price Of Playing Catch-Up Is One We Have To Pay
Morning,all.
Sometimes,even the best get things wrong. History is littered with corporate failures which happened due to an error of judgement at a point in time,and some of them have been fatal while others have merely been very damaging indeed. There’s the launch and abandonment of New Formula Coke,but that company came to its senses in time. Or the leveraged buyout of ABN Amro by The Royal Bank of Scotland-which wasn’t helped by the impending financial crash,and effectively saw the buyer being nationalised in an effort to save it from bankruptcy. Or the failure of GEC,which decided to go all dotcom on us in the late 90s-just as that particular bubble was about to burst.
So I suppose we can be grateful that the failures of this season haven’t yet proven to be fatal to our football club,nor that the unwillingness to learn from failures leading up to this season haven’t been as catastrophic as they might have been. At least,not yet! But they might well be if we ignore the lessons that arise from them.
Chief amongst the lessons has to be that no-one should ever be entrusted with the level of control exerted by Peter Lawwell during his tenure. Don’t be fooled that this was only a recent thing-as long ago as 2004,he told Martin O’Neill that the only replacement he was getting for Henrik was a player on loan from Wolves. The following year,he told Gordon Strachan to sideline Bobo Balde in order to force him out of the club. That latter decision cost our team its best defender,and the club around £7m in wages for the duration of his contract. Bobo even got a loyalty bonus at the end of it!
The other thing we have to learn is that progress cannot be made from the bargain buckets,that we have to be willing to spend the money in order to bring success. Yes,you will find a bargain now and again-but money has to be set aside for the major projects in any company,and not just in football. Celtic FC and Celtic Plc are currently at the beginning of a rebuilding process caused by all those failures of the past. In corporate industrial terms,we face a retooling. And we have to do it right,because failure is not an option. We have made a start with the removal of Lawwell,but the new guy is still four months away from taking his place at the helm. We have taken another step with the removal of Neil Lennon,but we don’t seem to have a clue who should replace him!
We failed two years ago to properly replace Brendan Rodgers,the powers that be decided that we could do it on the cheap,an option which probably saved around £4m a year,including his backroom staff. That pennypinching approach has cost us considerably more than that sum,and it is not an approach which can be tolerated in the future. The successful reign of Brendan Rodgers saw us achieve a turnover of £101m. The year leading up to his arrival had our turnover at £52m.
That’s right-paying the money for a proper manager had us virtually doubling our income! And by the way,our operating costs only increased by 27% during that time,so that alone suggests that speculate to accumulate actually works. We need to do that again if we are to wrench our primacy back from our cross-city rivals,and we need to do it if we are to be even remotely successful in Europe too. We need to make this investment in a managerial team which will excite the fans,get those season tickets sold. And we need to do it too if we really still want to be attractive to our signing targets on the field.
But how much is enough,and how much is too much? Well,Sir Alex Ferguson probably set the bar for this approach nearly two decades ago when he demanded to be the highest paid employee at Manchester United. He got it too,but I’ll bet that Arsene Wenger wasn’t the highest earner at Arsenal,nor Pep now at Manchester City.
Celtic need to reverse that trend,we need to recognise the importance of the manager’s job at the club. We can’t afford to pay twenty first team squad members £100k a week-and even that huge sum only puts us in the same bracket as the likes of Everton when it comes to attracting players. But we can afford to pay it to one man if that man is the one we need to get us back to where we think that we belong.
£100k a month will get you an Alex Neil. £100k a week will get you an Andre Villas-Boas or a Rafa. Have we got the balls to do it,can we afford to do it?
I think that we can’t afford not to.
Above article by BMCUWP
Agree with you,
We are at a crossroads and the choices made are going to affect the club for a numbers of years, some things sadly are just the same in 2021, as they were in 1994 as this board are just as disconnected from the fans, which worries us.
Peter Lawwell is toxic, and a compliant board allowed him to be a dictator and unofficial director of football, he has no sporting integrity, ambition or vision and he has cost the club millions. Only when he has no say in things, will it be beneficial to Celtic.
If he lingers in the background, it will only be more of the same, there is a nasty rumour going about that he is going to be appointed to the board, when he leaves his present post, this is stuff of nightmares. As things will only continue in the present malaise, and he will continue to hold the club back for the near future.
The only chance we have is if the upcoming changes really do affect the way the club thinks, they have the chance to throw the abacus out the window and have some vision, ambition and connection with the fans.
They have to put right the RES 12 and governance issues get in a DOF and a manager who will attract 14000 fans to turn up at his unveiling, give him the players he wants, and the club has to grow a backbone and demand a level playing field with the SFA.
Option 1 will mean a return to the covers on the top deck, option 2 will mean full houses and a waiting list.
I think this is going to be a day where we all agree on Bobby’s post
WEDNESDAY 4TH
Fr Murphy was in tonight. I have not felt too bad today, although I notice the energy beginning to drain. But it is quite early yet. I got showered today and had my hair cut, which made me feel quite good. Ten years younger, the boys joke, but I feel twenty years older, the inevitable consequence of eight years of torture and imprisonment.
I am abreast with the news and view with utter disgust and anger the Reagan/Thatcher plot. It seems quite clear that they intend to counteract Russian expansionism with imperialist expansionism, to protect their vital interests they say.
What they mean is they covet other nations’ resources. They want to steal what they haven’t got and to do so (as the future may unfortunately prove) they will murder oppressed people and deny them their sovereignty as nations. No doubt Mr Haughey will toe the line in Ireland when Thatcher so demands.
Noticed a rarity today: jam with the tea, and by the way the Screws are glaring at the food. They seem more in need of it than my good self.
BMCUWP
You are spot on as usual. Quality manager and players required as early as possible so we hit June running. Only way we’ll have a chance in Europe and get back to winning ways domestically.
Because next season will bring more of the same from the club playing at ipox. They might be running on fumes, but without FFP and an SFA strategy of “Move along Timmy, nothing to see here”, they’ll continue to find creative ways of bringing in players they could never otherwise afford.
Oh and they WILL be world record breakers at the season end…First professional top flight team never to concede a penalty, team awarded the most penalties and only team never to have a player sent off in a season.
That brings me to that t@sser Kris Boyne. His sycophantic comments in defense of Gerrard’s red card, and how the ref will realise he made a mistake….never ceases to amaze. How this imbecile gets a gig anywhere is beyond reason.
Anyway, apologies I’m bordering on a rant now 👍🍀
MORNING ALL and JIM, BOBBY great post, what frightens me the most is celts forchange 2021 option 1, i think there are far too many old firm fans in our support who only want to see us play that mob from govan 4 times a year, and they will still buy season tickets and merchandise, if this happens we will be getting crowds of 20,000 and buying players from hibs hearts aberdeen etc the european dream will be over for years to come, what lawwell and the board have done to our club is heartbreaking H.H.
Bobby
If there are any counter arguments to your position on Lawwell I’d like to hear them.
I posted elsewhere, oh probably 3 years ago, that this was where we were headed. In particular I stressed the “speculate to accumulate” point.
The responses just depressed me.
“ do you want us to end up like the huns” etc.
PL was the right man and we were lucky to have him.
That viewpoint was bollox then and history has proved that to be so.
Every time we made progress, with Martin and Brendan, Lawwell’s ego and interference into footballing matters saw us slip backwards again.
The collapse of the huns camouflaged the underlying trend to many, but not to me. For some bizarre reason, a large number of the support were happy to ignore what our European performance was telling them. We were in reverse. From a team that were beating the elite of Europe to a team being absolutely and utterly humiliated by teams that were operating on a fraction of our budget.
Worse still, the tribute act were clearly eating into our dominance over the past 2 seasons. It wasn’t always reflected in the result but it most definitely was in the performances.
Any businessman with even a modicum of analytical skill could’ve arrested the decline.
When personal greed allied to a belief that you’re the smartest guy in every department of operations, outweighs everything else, then the results are inevitable.
The damage he’s done will take years to undo. That’s assuming the next CE isn’t coming in with the same style of governance as his predecessor. For the sake of our sanity we’d better believe he’s not, and he’s a guy who can delegate to talented people in every area of the club.
It’s almost criminal that PL has taken us so low.
Thanks to all who responded yesterday. Was kinda busy and forgot to say ty.
Big packy is right. The biggest threat to Celtic is its adherence to Old Firmism which is a business model that requires both the blue and green halves to be relatively equal so as to sustain the bigot pound at the expense of the club’s European ambitions. Even if the club does bring in a quality manager to replace Lennon, nothing much will change as long as it remains shackled to the new huns. When all the 55 titles nonsense kicks off, it gives the club an opportunity to break with Old Firmism by unequivocally challenging the Big Lie and putting the record straight that they are a new club and this is their first title. They could also inform all the news outlets that the Old Firm is dead and they should desist from including Celtic FC in that term. Furthermore, if they insist in doing that then the club will refuse to have any further dealings with them which includes denying them all access to players, management team and Celtic Park. It would also be a good time to re-visit Res11/12 and the sham Lord Nimmo Smith enquiry and the 8 or 9 titles the old huns won when they were using EBTs. If the board seriously wants to get its supporter base back onside, it really has to ditch the new huns and stand up for the club first and foremost. The alternative is to say nothing which would mean a return to the stands of shame, only this time, it will include all the more of the top tiers.
Good article BMCUWP.
Would we as fans get behind a coach with a long term plan to establish the club as a true European competitor if it cost us next season’s title?
Or is the preference for immediacy even if it is detrimental to our putting in a structure for future growth?
Could we be lucky enough to have found a CEO with the vision, support and wherewithal to have both?
I would settle for a structure that promises long term growth and the footballing side to be recognized as the company jewel.
Being cynical and on the evidence of Lawwell and DD’s tenure especially this season i do not share the optimism that the right moves will be made.
Responsibility and introspection seem to be lacking at Celtic PLC.
Jack Hendry
Yay or Nay?
He is being scouted by EPL/European teams and considered to be one of the best defenders in the Belgian league.
If we were being told we are signing one of the Belgian leagues top defenders for free would we be excited if his name wasn’t Jack Hendry?
The boy through no fault of his own was hung out to dry in his young Celtic career and suffered a crisis of confidence.
Time out of spotlight and experience has reshaped him.
Considering we are short of defenders for next season i think he should be assessed in preseason.
If he is the player we thought we had when signing him he should stay.
BMCUWP
Spot on Bobby. We need to get over the biscuit tin mentality and spend actual money to improve. Spend within reason of course, but spend nevertheless. Buying on the cheap only gets you tat. Speculate to accumulate (c. Twisty) but in a planned and controlled way.
HH
Twisty
Thanks to your sons for helping me out yesterday 👍 much appreciated.
HH
Fan-a-tic
It’s a yes from me for Jack Hendry – the bhoy was never given much of a chance, continually played out of position and was deemed as duty scapegoat. Same goes for Bayo imo. We need to give players a run of 10-12 games to see if they are up to it. Same could be said for Ralston, Johnston, Henderson.
HH
Good article BMCUWP. We’re now at a juncture where the ‘custodians’ know that they have to either go all in, or just have enough to run alongside William. If they’ve any sense they’ll know they have to pull out the stops but knowing their penchant for sticking with a certain financial model they’ll go with the latter
On another matter, if results occur that lead to the possibility of the huns winning at Celtic Park I think we need to let the board know in unequivocal terms that they better step the fuck up and act appropriately. I want the team to expand on all footballing fronts, particularly in Europe, but also putting all teams who think we’re weak back in their boxes, for the huns, it will be their coffin. The majority of the Scottish football fraternity are laughing at us including the media etc Its time to settle and do what we do best.
Shved ,Bayo,O’Connor, need to be assessed, and given a chance as well.
bada bing1
Shved,Bayo,O,Connor ?
Is that a new Irish singer?
BMCUW
Excellent opening article. Agree with everything you have written in it. This is a very important moment in our history. We need to get the managerial appointments correct.
Fan a Tic
Jack Hendry is a big Nay from me.
Never rated him at Dundee, just like I never rated Taylor at Kilmarnock. Predicted that both were a huge waste of money.
Neither have it in their make up or character to be a success at a big club like Celtic. We really need better than what players like Hendry or Taylor can offer us.
Garry
Defenders require the most coaching.
It often amazes me how often defenders take the wrong line and pull themselves out of position.
You can coach them to make better choices and Hendry did not have that.
Ballwatching seems to be our defenders main staple and again positional awareness can be coached.
Our biggest flaws of the last few seasons have been been in central midfield where we chase and abandon position recklessly.
Franco Baresi of AC Milan was one of the greatest defenders of all time.
He wasn’t fast or physical but his reading of a game, patience and impeccable timing was second to none.
John Clark although not quite up to Baresi’s level was short and not particularly fast but read the game beautifully.
While they both had natural talent playing in great teams with an established role enhanced them.
Teaching a defender like Hendry what angle to take and patience is not rocket science and with the help of modern technical equipment and data along with a defined role should see an athlete improve.
Being older and more experienced should help still his mind so i would definitely have him back for preseason evaluation and take it from there.
GT does not have great physical attributes but his effort is always there though i see him as a decent SPL squad player and not much more.
Very good article Bobby.
We’re at a crossroads here and I’m not confident that the PLC with take the right turn in the road.
Its funny, but we’ve all said for years that Ibrox was a castle built on sand and its only a matter of time before its swept away. And while we’ve been standing back patiently waiting the foundations under Paradise have been swept away by an earthquake!
I’m in shock at how quickly things have unravelled. I had another in a series of ” Fuck me!” moments on the golf course yesterday. I was teeing up my ball and suddenly realised that we were not going to have to face that awkward moment when Fraudgers is introduced to the crowd on Ten In A Row Day.
I’ve been obsessed by the though since he left and yesterday it hit me like a hammer. It was all for nothing!
Its gone!
I can’t even be bothered entering the discussion about the new manager with my mates. Two years ago I would have seethed in Moyes had arrived. Now, he’s a wet dream!
Scunnered.
Fan at tic
Would we as fans get behind a coach with a long-term plan to establish the club as a true European competitor if it cost us next season’s title?
==
I have already written off both the league and Europe next season. Not because the club has any long-term plan but simply because PL is still planning for next season. We do not have a quality manager but a stand-in alleged defensive coach with the worst defense probably in Celtic’s long history- makes good reading doesn’t it!🙄We don’t have a new manager yet but we do have a litany of lame excuses from the board as to why that is. As for players – half the 1st squad potentially leaving and Blue Peter undoubtedly planning their replacements – that don’t make good reading either does it🤔
It’s a matter of weeks until the CL qualifiers and yet ‘again’ we don’t / will not have a settled defense- but you know what -we will not have a settled anything.
If we were to recruit a quality manager, a DOF, and saw that a bit of quality is added to the playing squad, all this would equal progress, I’d happily forgo a league title or 2 knowing that we are finally steering the right course. Personally, I believe that, until we see some positive signs of progress and that the board is paying heed to our concerns we shouldn’t be putting one penny into Celtics coffers. It’s sad that momentum for action (A merchandise or ST boycott) has been lost. Then again when you have one of Blue Pete’s mates a chairman of one of the supporter’s groups what else would you expect. Looking forward to the next CST meeting where DL can again tell us we are clueless morons.😏
Fan a Tic
Hendry is 26 in two months. I don’t think he will make it at Celtic. Too soft and nervous a player for my liking. Taylor, I see no positive attributes in his game whatsoever.
We must have stronger defensive players than this pair.
Oglach
Unfortunately i concur.
Excellent article and follow up comments.
Fan,
As regards Hendry I would have him back. I agree he was a scape goat and thrown into some very difficult games. In the Euro cl qualifier against AEK I think, he actually had a better game than Ajer but because of Ajers in built belief in himself he just moved on. Hendry seemed unable to and a game in the league cup at Partick finished him. He was like a nervous school boy, frightened to play because his confidence was shot. Which brings me to the bit you posted about the coaching. He was getting coached by BR at this time and if he needs a good coach to get the best out of him, why couldn’t BR? I see where Garry is therefore coming from but I would bring still him back. We are not over endowed in the centre half department and I think we can write julienne off so there’s £7m we’ll never see again. I don’t trust julienne, he’s not to be relied upon. Far too in love with himself and the treatment table so let’s give Hendry a chance to see if a new coach rates him but please not Dyche. Boring fitba and that voice would mean I’d never be able to listen to him talk about the game.
Btw how many weeks now since the five huns broke the void rules. Not a peep. Utterly incredible and though I had no time for Lennon I will credit him for always fighting Celtic’s corner unlike Lawwell who’s mouth is clamped shut by the skeletons in his cupboard.
ATOB
BR is a possession coach who likes ball retention and playing out from the back.
As you said it cost him and us in AEK game.
Hendry was not ready for that at the time.
As you know i never liked the Brown and Calmac centre mid pairing as it exposed the defense so Hendry was put under too much pressure sooner than he should have.
BR’s teams are very good with possession but struggle badly for shape when it’s lost as he has shown with Leicester and us in Europe against other tactically astute coaches.
Fan a Tic
Jack Hendry was coached by Brendan Rodgers, Chris Davies and Kolo Tourè for 12 months.
I saw no improvement from him in that time.
Why was Hendry signed by Brendan, if he could not play the Rodgers way?
I totally agree with ATOB about Jullien. Total wimp that is never a centre half for SPFL fitba.
Imagine a central defence pairing of Hendry and Jullien.
The weakest most easily bullied pair you could have in your team.
Would welcome neither in a Celtic team going forward. Hope the new coach/manager thinks the same.
Garry
I don’t disagree but he was young and raw .
If we had been a better run club and had a more balanced squad he would not have been put in to such a pressure situation.
Maybe Rodgers never signed him?
I think he should be given preseason for evaluation before we cut our losses.
Good article Bobby! Also agreed 100% with M6Bhoys post!
Sean Dyche gets a lot of stick for boring football. That’s not the whole picture. Burnley are now an established EPL team. Turf Moor capacity around the 20K mark. The guy organises his teams to compete with the best in his league. I’d bet Pep couldn’t achieve what he has with the meagre resources at his disposal. He’s had his conflicts with his board over this.
He is a real football man and I’m confident he’d relish the European challenge we could offer. I think we would be lucky to get him. A yes for me!
On Jack Hendry, we may NEED to bring him back. Not a huge outlay in the grand scheme of things although I’d swap him for Benkovic in a heartbeat!!!
Fan a tic
Hendry is 3 years older than Ajer.
He turns 26 soon.
How long do we give him?
Garry
As i said preseason.
Fan a Tic
Sorry, not for me.
I would sell Hendry, Jullien and Taylor in summer, if we can find a buyer, which I doubt.
Hendry🤔 Never like to write off a player but he looked a right fearty in his limited spell with Celtic. Did heehaw on loan to other scots clubs. Somehow he has managed to defy logic in Belgium and has proved he can defend a bit, allegedly. Don’t figure Belgium League ranked 8th and the SPFL 14th by UEFA. Could it be they actually play football in Belgium?
Jack Hendry is currently valued at £900k, I’d say a fair estimate of his worth. Do I want to see him back at Celtic – nope. If we can get a million or so for him – bite their hand off and reinvest it in bringing back Jozo simunovic or Benkovic who are superior defenders to Hendry, all imho of course.
This guy looks like a defender
Oglach
An injury prone defender!
We are even slow at reacting.
Reacting should be reactive
celtic defenders who could defend, john clark billy mcneil bobby murdoch jim brogan frank brogan jim kennedy, seen them all from the jungle.another true story,👍
IS the blog broke dont blame me, where is jimthetim garry and mcaff ,off topic was walking the dugs this morning noticed a can of tennents lager at the side of the road, it was yellow in colour not like the super lager which was blue in colour, remember hogmanay 60 years ago, yes 60 years i didnt drink then i was only eight, but my mum would put a tablecloth on the big wooden table and there would be cans of mcewans pale ale and cans of tennents lager, now i might be wrong here but were the mcewans in green and the tennents in yellow,feck this growing old lark😎
BIGPACKY
Pretty sure that Pale Ale was in a green can,but Tennents was mostly light blue,with photos of scantily clad models
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Evening all! I recently wrote to Ian Bankier, then followed up with a second letter as his reply was a crock of the proverbial! Anyhoo, in order to keep you updated as to the inside track on everything Celtic I have copied below Mr Bankier’s response in full! I’m sure you’ll agree it’s as much of a sop as his previous reply although this time I think I can also detect a degree of annoyance! Here’s my second letter to him;
Open Letter to Mr Ian Bankier, Chairman, Celtic Plc
Having just experienced the worst performance of a Celtic team since the early 1990s I am writing to further express my disgust and frustration at the current situation at our Club.
I wrote to you on the 12th of January with a series of frustrations regarding how you and the Board have managed our Club in recent years and how things have transpired this season. You are aware of the importance of what should have been an historic Ten in a Row to the Celtic supporters but our capitulation has been dramatic and embarrassing in equal measure.
Thank you for replying by email to my letter but can I remind you that you intimated that you would address the issues raised in it. Your reply to me was a sop. You wrote that you would address mine and other supporters’ concerns when you released the Company Interim Report. You haven’t addressed these issues and my feeling is you won’t now either. Your behaviour is unbefitting of a man at the helm of our great Club.
Despite the promise to supporters of a Review of the Football Department in the New Year there have been no discernible changes to our structure and to date this year we have lost 15 points in 15 games leaving us in second place in the SPFL, an unacceptable 18 points behind The Rangers. You have had poor recruitment, over years not just this year. You have had poor continuity planning, again not just this year. You have a poor Academy to Senior level record, again not just this year. You have allowed the SFA/SPFL to dishonestly manage the game in this country. You have failed to pursue a Financial Fair Play Initiave to ensure Clubs work to affordable budgets. You have permitted our CEO to lie openly to Shareholders about specific subjects regarding the governance of the game in Scotland. You have overseen a dramatic downturn in the financial position of the Club. You have overseen our teams routinely dismantled by selling our best players with no replacement contingency plans. Our Buy Low Sell High policy has not been a success for the Football Department although it has led to obscene salaries and bonuses for our Executive Team. These points are many and each point is multi-faceted and neither is the list exhaustive.
This season has been an unmitigated disaster from the start. Our short-termism approach to the core business, the Football Department, has seriously backfired and left us in wake of our resurgent rivals who could very well win their first, yes FIRST, League Title at our home ground. This is completely unacceptable to me and I’d suggest I also speak for a great majority of our support.
Mr Bankier, I suggest you have made untenable your position as Chairman of our Club and you should tender your resignation.
Regards,
Season Ticket Holder/Shareholder
And this is his latest response;
Dear McCaff,
I refer to your further email of 21 February and again would advise that your views and concerns are noted.
As you know, John Kennedy has been appointed as Manager on an interim basis. The Club is now in a period of transition and we will keep our supporters and shareholders up to date on material developments in the future.
Regards
Ian Bankier Chairman
Big Packy you forgot Duncan McKay
McCAFF
Bankier has just displayed his total contempt for you and your letter,and his dismissal of the concerns of the fans. The man is a disgrace to the position of chairman.
McCaff
There used to be a saying here that the Inuit had a hundred different words for snow…. in my business, we say that lawyers have a hundred different ways to say ‘fuck you’…. the letter from Bankier was pretty much one of them.
Clearly, you need to learn your place, which is to buy your season ticket, support your team at every game, and then leave the business of the club to those much smarter than you who have done such an admirable job in what are very trying and difficult times.’
Or, in non-lawyer speak…’geez your money, and shut the fuck up’.
Has Beaton phoned Steven to apologise yet? Of course he has…
BOBBY I will take your word for it ,only because ive spoke to you on the phone recently and we are both fenian bassas,another true story,😎😎
THE TIC ,apologies yes my uncle packy loved that era, dunky mckay 👍
Bobby and MikeInTVLawyerland… fortunately I’m big enough and ugly enough to understand it’s a Dear John letter although tbh I’m not sure I was expecting much more!
His mention of JK as interim appointment as the bones of his reply shows he has no real grasp on the reality of where and how we find ourselves at this moment. Had he even alluded to some proper preparation for next season and beyond it may have offered some scraps of solace whilst buying himself a wee bit of time but his reply to me appears to be the mutterings of a man who kens his jaiket is on a shoogly peg!!
Good leader today, Bobby btw and some great posts today and yesterday!
Jack Hendry is probably a nice fitba player in the right team. I don’t think we’re the right team for him. That’s a pity as he can play a bit but we ie The Club, need to rebuild and I’m not convinced he’s got enough to lift us to the level we want to be at!
I was talking to a fellow Celt today and he was telling me he’d looked at the squad and compiled a list of players worth keeping, I interrupted him and said ‘You ended up with 5 or 6 names!’ ‘Aye McCaff, how did you know?’ cos I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Incidentally my 5 or 6 included Ajer and Eddie, both likely away in the summer. The rebuilding job is massive, I’m worried we’ll not be ready, there’s no time to waste while our Chairman readily admits we’re in a period of transmission.
Finally, regarding foregoing a league or two to concentrate on the future…I’d say Celtic should be big enough for both, it’s not an either/or situation for me!
Big Packy and BMCUWP
McEwans Pale Ale was in green cans, McEwans Export was in red, and McEwans Lager in blue (though it was so bad it should have been in brown cans to reflect the fact that it was shite.
Pale Ale was always the cheapest of the trio, one year my dad ran a Christmas promo of 6 cans for 99p. Sold case loads of them, ran out of stock every day till New Year. The sales volume more than made up for the reduced margin. That is a true story.😎😎
now where them 2 young lads are sitting probably my age 60 years ago there was no walkway just a path which was covered in grass and nettles if you look across to the left 2 red bricked houses armando and clifford dinardo one had the ice cream cafe on the main st the other had the chippy a bit further up their sons cliff and armando were both in my class at school,another true story.