Celtic has tonight released its interim accounts for the first half of this campaign, and to be perfectly frank they are pretty astonishing, showing the club healthily in profit.
The pre-tax figure is a shockingly good £33 million, leaving us with an in-bank cash surplus of £50 million … more than enough to see us through a lot of rainy days if they come.
Celtic’s finances are incredibly strong, as these figures prove, and this after we’ve given Ange the funds to rebuild the entire playing squad in the space of just 18 months. Who could have known back at the start of his tenure, when we looked to be in a really bad place and where some thought that with perhaps a year, or even two, of rebuilding we might even be competitive … instead of that we’re utterly dominant and making money hand over fist.
Part of this is the Ange Factor. Part of it is that we’ve just become incredibly good at this, and our ability to post figures like these continues to cast a dark shadow over the club across the city, a club which subsists on director’s loans and other borrowing.
Clearly, we have nothing to fear whatever regulations UEFA introduce, and we can continue to fund the manager and his plans far into the future. This is how every club should be run, and the proof that they are not can be seen all over Europe.
Income for the first half of the campaign topped out at £75 million. The caveat here should be that we have no European football to look forward to until next season, but this is a jump of nearly 45% from last year, and that means we’re going to be pretty near the £100 million in turnover mark … a significant achievement and a high-water mark which shows our strength.
It’s chump change compared to what English clubs get; the bottom club in the EPL earns more than that from its TV rights alone, but we can spend all our time staring across the fence at that ridiculous and bloated league or we can focus on the things that we’re doing right and well and by God that is obvious when you look at numbers such as these.
Lawwell is in the right place at the right time to take advantage of this, but let’s not overlook the fact that one of the reasons we’re in this great position right now is that he is no longer in the CEO’s office where his judgement was impaired and his ego too great.
It is to be hoped that he contents himself now with the role of the showy front-man whilst others do the heavy lifting and put in place the strategic vision which he, himself, lamentably failed to.
But he is entitled to this day, and the whole of the board is entitled to this day, and the anticipation of even better days to come.
We’re stronger than we have been in a long, long time and these results show that the support of the fans continues to be the absolutely critical factor in that, because without us there wouldn’t be any transfer kitty for the boss, no money sitting in the bank and no profits to speak of.
This triumph is ours as much as anything, but it would be beyond churlish not to say that at this moment we are indisputably in a great place and looking as if we could hold our position at the top of the game here for years to come, and that’s in large part because we are exceptionally well run.
Frankly, I don’t see where a sustained – or sustainable – challenge to us comes from as long as we can produce figures like this. What it makes clear is that try as they might, the club across the city continues to operate in the shadow of the Parkhead colossus.
Yip
Good old Pirate Pete filling his pockets with as many pieces of gold taken from Our Club!!
Nothing changes
The man should be nowhere near Our Club
Never saw the 5 way agreement my hole
Lying Bassa!!!!!
Great news and we are so far out in front financially that we are untouchable. With Ange at the helm we are also untouchable on the field of play and going forward we should be totally dominant for years to come.
Glasgow is indeed Green and White.
Lawwell may be the captain of the ship but it is Ange that is earning the money.
These figures don’t even take in the 12m just taken in on transfers! Surely we should be looking at building a new main stand
Increasing the ground capacity was in my head as well.
Exactly should been done years ago , and the money is there! Make paradise symmetrical!! Those restricted views are embarrassing no excuse not to do this now ,!! We fill it at least 10 times a season plus no stadium is ever built with this ” we cannot full it all the time” bs! But we would and it out us light years ahead of anything there and really geared up for any changes in Europe or anything else that may benefit us in future I build this hotel into the new main stand and museum to, the room is there, do it CELTIC
Meanwhile the FILTH have just raised a paltry £1M thru mare Confetti Bog Roll share issue lol! Long may this Knuckodraggin SCUM stay as the NOT Worth a Fuk 2nd power in Escocia lol! Perennial Runners Up, the bestest team after 80 Mins Champions, the We Never get a pen against us Champions & of course the Drinking Lavvy Water in Europe Champions BAWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
We will be even stronger when we get rid of some of these players taking money and contributing nothing like McCarthy. There is still tens of thousands per week going out. I would like to see a great attacking right sided forward in the summer.
Beale has just announced in the SMSM,
that Lawwell is lucky.
🙂
Dare I say that the club is building a contingency for any future monies needed.
Sensible IMO considering the country we live in .
Where my comment
We should be worried he is front and centre on such an announcement.
Less than six weeks in position and he is now asserting his power.
When he was placed in this position I posted he will never be satisfied with a seat in the shadows.
It will only end with Ange having a reason to walk away.
Ah don’t trust him one bit. Cannae put it any plainer.
gotta agree with geoff….
lawwell is a bastard and should have gone up with his car….
if anyone pushes ange out the door…it will be this bastard…his ego won’t allow anyone to to overshadow him….
mark my words…
As far asI can see the only change to how we operated under Lawwell and Nicholson is the speed at which we do business and to target players primarily from the Asian Market.
The brief however remains the same.
Buy cheap sell high and target players in the U24 age bracket with a view to developing them for profit.
The only departure from this I can see is the one year hiatus as Peter Lawwell took an extended break from Celtic.
Now he’s back it would appear we have reverted back to type.
It’s all one having £50m cash at the Bank to gloat over but if we go into the Champions League without a PROVEN European level finisher then where do the results on the Park come from?
Our Manager should be booting Nicholsons door in after these results demanding better quality.
We lacked the finishing this Season and you can make the excuses you want about it being there first venture into the CL as players but like the jerseys the goal frame doesn’t shrink on a Champions League night just because it’s dark and the lights are on.
If an inexperienced 18 year old can do it on the big stage with little or no genuine experience ( Watt was playing up the Park 18 month previous with no Club experience) at the top level then why can’t supposed top players like Kyogo ?
About time our Board started backing our Managers with the quality required otherwise it will pan out as it normally does.
Great results Peter.
Now back the man.