The man with those scathing words and saggy face is Adriano Galliani, AC Milan’s vice-president, a club that can afford to pander to Zlatan Ibrahimovic wims, so he knows a bit about football finance.
A lot more than those accusing our major shareholder of having short arms and long pockets.
I found the quote in this months When Saturday Comes. The article was looking at the strength of the English and Spanish Leagues, due purely to Tv money, and how other leagues in Europe now struggle to hold on to star men when they come knocking.
It mentions that German Champions Dortmond lost their star-man, Nuri Sahin, to Real Madrid 12 days after they won the league and Zooropa League Winners and Portuguese Champions Porto have seen their manager wooed by Oil Money and their star striker, Falcao, totter off to Madrid’s second team who have no Big Cup Football and very little chance of winning the La Liga.
As we speak Arsenal are probably looting French Champions Lille for further goodies after they signed Gervinho.
Success means that these clubs and their jewels get noticed and the rich come along and pick them off before they become a danger to them in The Big Cup. Galliani fears the Italians will be next.
We are already in the mire of Zooropa League qualifiers. The trend is seeing bigger clubs with more natural talent finding a home at Zooropa League level and being unable to compete at Big Cup level.
Here’s the bad.
Until the Tv Money self implodes then the only way we will ever compete at the top level again is if we find a nice Arab who wants to spunk millions in a league that is as attractive as lancing a boil on your manhood. The only way we will compete at our current level is decent scouting, asset and budget management and a vast improvement in what our youth system produces.
Not throwing money we don’t have away or some radical notion that our largest shareholder should be bankrolling us in some sort of mini Man City revolution. The economics are all wrong for that to be sensible.
I haven’t seen anyone say DD should “bankroll a revolution.” (?) i myself have said we should spend enough (around 6m) to properly challenge Rangers. Rangers always deliver in the end & they are meant to be skint. In this economic climate the so called skint club that we have mocked have had the SPL trophy for 3 years, outspent us, better youth development & still buying players (outspending us again) adding to a 3x Championship winning team (we don’t have any youths knocking on first team door & Rangers youngsters look well up for it.) I’m not going to go on again about how it would be done, i’m tired of it. I stated the sort of money these guys have. How is it not viable to expect them to spend a tiny fraction of their money, instead of giving Lawell a massive pay increase? (which ultimately is your & the fans money!!) Your hard earned cash funding Lawells lifestyle. I’m talking of enough to win the SPL. i have already forgotten about us doing anything in Europe for years because i see the technical ability if Cypriot & Belgian minnows in europe, far more technically gifted than what we have & they have BOTTLE in abundance. wave balance sheets & talk of Izzy & Kayal ad nauseum but 2 diddy cups in 3 years & more penny pinching is unfunny.
There has been a few articles and barbed posts on other blogs regarding DD. Not here. It’s like Buzz Lightyears default setting for some to claim he doesn’t bother. Under writing two share issues is nothing I suppose.
R@ngers spent 35m in the last 4 years that basically they couldn’t afford. It won them titles but failed in Europe as that budget is for two players not a squad. Sally has spent nothing. Us, 13m to Mogga and £10m to Lennon. Needed after a massive mess WGS made. Hate to say it we are further ahead of where we should be.
What we all individually put into the club doesn’t even cover the loo roll bill nevermind a lavish lifestyle.
as above… also DD takes/given credit for all sorts of things that he is not responsible for.. the Robbie Keane circus.. eh.. signing was paid for by the sale of McDonald transfer to Boro… no-one suggests bankrupting the club but these guys think like Chief Execs..
..NL is a godsend for them.. the fans are rocking at Paradise (mostly) which means they can scale back investment in the belief that there will be no rebellion from the fhans..
..btw DD is one of the major investors and beneficiaries of the Winterbourne View Care Home involved in abusing it’s clients.. guess what concerns over UNDERINVESTMENT AND POOR TRAINING as the cause.. nice profit if you can get it.
All billionaires have skeletons in their closets.
It’s not so much about money as good managers and Celtc haven’t had a good manager since Strachan. Results never lie.
Strachan is responsible for us desizing and pulling into the slow lane.
Strike out “improve the youth system” as all that happens is Chelski comes along and lures it away with big money!!
Boys head has been turned. Not a common occurrence.
It’s an accepted fact that money alone guarantees nothing….
however if used correctly …then it can make a hell of a difference..
But I agree that when it has come to spending over the last few years …we’ve come up short.
I think the goalkeeping situation this season was a joke…and for us to end up with Forster at the last minute defies description.
I would just like some honesty from the Club now and again …if they don’t want to spend…then they should say so and explain why…supporters can then make up their minds about carrying on or not….but cut out the waffle and the smoke and mirror…it’s been going on too long now.
Honesty in football? FFS Blatter will ensure that never happens.
Agree about not having a good manager since Strachan.I actually think Strachan knew what was coming and decided to get out at the right time. In some ways , what Strachan did was a greater achievement than O’Neill – Strachan arguably took us further (certainly in Champions League territory) and reducing the wage budget in doing so.
Its easy to look back at the O’Neill era with rose-tinted glasses , but we should never forget the irresponsible contracts that he left behind. I have read some evidence to suggest that O’Neill was given a remit to build an English Premiership side as there was some indication down there that it would be a possibility in the near future of crossing the border. When that didn’t happen, things have unraveled slowly but surely since. We got lucky with Strachan in the respect that we had decent qualifying paths from the previous regimes “good” work – but at least he won the league to take advantage of that.The one bright side is that this years league winners (somehow!) will qualify for the group stages of the CL – so this is a very important season for Celtic. I mean they all are , but finish second this season – and what are we facing? – we are facing the near certainty that the majority of our assets will be stripped , and we will be down a manager. The harsh truth is that we will then be facing another Mowbray situation. This will leave a golden path for the Fake Question of Sport Captain to “greatness”. It really saddens me that we don’t seem to be able to put any sustained pressure on the other side of the Old Firm.If you look back over the last 40 years we keep letting them back in from the outside. If they win the league this year , their future looks good and we look like spending another serious amount of time in the first runners up spot. And if that happens , we will all but confirm our place as one of footballs greatest losers.
What a shameful legacy. When you look back at all the leagues since 2000 – how many should we have won?
We have let Rangers in far too many times in that time. Questions need to be asked about why that is….
Bolloxs. Martin bailed as he knew what was coming and WGS was a willing zero debt gimp desperate for a big job. If he was an intelligent guy he would have bailed after our most emotionally charged title in years rather than lead us to the abject.
Lotw, can you give Strachan credit for anything? 3 out of 4 title wins, last 16 of the CL twice. He lost one League which we all know we could have and should won but what is the general consensus for the reason we lost that league? Not signing a striker or more accurately Stephen Fletcher in January. Strachan wanted him, the Board would not pay so on that point we cant blame Strachan alone if at all. We can blame him for some poor results, not winning the last two games of the season which would have seen us win the league for a start was unforgivable.
I must admit I find it quite incredible the ill feeling and negativity from some Celtic fans towards Strachan, it baffles me, largely because it usually accompanies undying praise for O’Neill. Yes he was not perfect but neither was O’Neill not by a long way.
We can all disagree on a lot of things around our club but surely we can agree that one of our best Managers (yes he was) in over 35 years deserves some credit and maybe some respect for what he achieved as painful as his demise was.
The general consensus suits those that want to blame the board, while not signing Fletcher – which I have doubts about the whole story – was a mistake the biggest mistake was Strachan not leaving after Tannadice, like he said he would – 3 years is a long time was his quote at the beginning – when it was obivious to all that his team was being found out and his ideals were Jurassic.
By the end he was being tactically out-thought by Gus MacPherson.
His first 18 months were great. Some of the stuff we played as magnificent, the CL nights produced memorable results, he signed Nakamura and THG. His team peaked taking AC Milan that’s season Big Cup finalists to extra time in the San Siro. Heady, great and days that will now be a thing of the past.
But, his obsession with SPL players and shit tactics makes his last 2 seasons forgettable tedium apart from 8 games. It was a chore to watch Celtic during his last 18 months, coupled with his stubborn attitude and arrogance.
2nd last game of his reign against Hibs, win and and we win the league it took us 75mins to muster an attack. Unforgiveable.
He made me realise that I would rather play the beautiful game and fail gracefully than win ugly. Why do you think we welcomed Mogga with open arms and his flawed philosophy? We needed it.
Don’t worry I also have a beef with MON for 2005.
My view of WGS will lessen as the years go on. The wound is to raw just now.
“The one bright side is that this years league winners (somehow!) will qualify for the group stages of the CL – so this is a very important season for Celtic.”
Sadly, the reason for that is Rangers and the fact that they raised the co-efficient in Europe. When they got past Sporting in last years Europa League, the last Swiss team was knocked out in the same round. This paved the way for the Scottish Champions to gain automatic entry to the CL. They might just have done us a huge favour come May!
looking over the past few boards we just seem to have left ourselves open to greedy businessmen looking to earn easy money am not business minded in anyway so don’t know any solutions but there must be one surely not sure if becoming a PLC is the answer but don’t know if that’s possible being a registered charity (sorry if got some facts wrong lol)
There are some really good comments in these posts, and I agree with most of them.
I dont want DD to bail the club out. I want the board to run the club properly. Running the club properly doesn’t mean zero debt. It means managing our debt properly. Every successful company in the world uses debt to improve their business.
We cant compete with the biggest clubs in Europe, or even in the EPL. But we dont have to. We just need to beat the Orcs every year to get into the Champions league. Playing in the CL every year would give us £12m extra revenue, and it would give us the exposure we need to maintain our world-wide following and interest from neutrals.
How long do you think the board can keep flogging Celtic around the world- just on past glories? We played in Australia and were no better than the locals. People in this countries aren’t going to keep paying to see us if we dont improve.
Sending weak, uninspiring teams to other countries is just another example of how the boards policies are flawed. Celtic is a unique brand, but it’s based on us being able to punch above our weight, being able to entertain people, and stand up for the little guy. But the goodwill of people around the world towards Celtic is not going to last forever.
All we need to do is beat the Orcs, all or most of the time. But this board are either unwilling or unable to even manage that. They are one trick ponies, and their trick doesn’t work. Something has got to change, or we’ll be the first club ever to go out of existence with ZERO DEBT.
Great post. I agree. This zero debt is the killer.
Totally in agreement with Celtic Daft above! DD and the rest should go now!
Who do you want in? Only crooks and shysters will invest in the SPL.