Tomorrow morning, I’ll do a couple of pieces on the Celtic AGM as there is a lot that came out of that, but for tonight I want to look, with amusement, at the performance of Ben Banks, one of the worst online writers in the country, who covered the event for The Record and tried to find each and every negative that he could in it.
And tonight, he and his newspaper have published an astonishing article headlined “The 3 pillars of bulging Celtic bank balance but huge £11.5m bill provides spending reality check.”
Yes, in the same week they’ve tried desperately to spin Ibrox’s horrific numbers as a positive they are now trying to spin our strength as a negative because it’s not as strong as it seems.
You could not mark these people with a blowtorch.
They have no shame whatsoever. The article simply repeats what Lawwell and Nicholson said at the meeting, without providing any context to it, and slapped that ludicrous headline on it.
We’re had a “spending reality check.” God almighty.
In the same week where that newspaper has presented Ibrox accounts as being brilliant, and the club as being in profit, when those results are horrendous and their club has actually made a loss.
The board has committed to January spending. Rodgers has confirmed that the plans are in place. The only people getting a reality check here are those few morons who can’t do their sums and who imagine Ibrox spending millions whilst we stand still.
The money we have in the bank is at a record high. £70 million is a lot of money, and it can buy a lot of stuff. So what that we’ve got major infrastructure projects?
He seems oddly fixated on the idea that we’ve paid our tax bill.
I know that’s a concept that doesn’t always go over down Ibrox way, and with those members of the media which thought that HMRC had a cheek to ask for its money so that other taxpayers weren’t cheated and so public services weren’t starved, but our club does these things right.
Our club got a lot of stick today from our own fans.
I understand why. We’re getting some stuff wrong, but our financial position is nothing to be ashamed about at all. The money we have in the bank not only secures our future, but it gives us opportunities to spend as and when we need to, and that’s the thing that our rivals across town don’t have.
Every penny that separates our profits from their losses is significant at this point. Because that changes what UEFA will allow both clubs to spend.
Their wage bill is higher than ours and they make less money … that should be a source of panic inside Ibrox, not pride, and the media should be contemplating the full consequences of it.
A club which makes losses this year is a club that cannot spend as much next year.
That’s how it works. That’s how it goes. A club that makes profits this season is able to spend more next season. That means as our strength grows theirs lessens. That means as we get stronger they get weaker, that’s how the regulations on financial sustainability function.
This is a good one even for them. This is turning black into white.
These people are badly, badly in need of another red pill moment, like with what happened at Rangers, something that pulls them kicking and screaming out of whatever fantasy world they are living in, towards the real one.
Is Banks a ‘freelance ‘ scoop constantly used by the Record rag ? If he is , now we know why !
Well done for putting your questions at the AGM.
And as for that £70M cash pile: I just don’t get it.
Plc’s don’t typically amass a cash pile – just in case.
That’s an inefficient use of resources – unless you wanted to self-fund a large
capital investment.
If CFC plc can’t use the cash, then it should be returned to shareholders
– via a Special Dividend – and they could use that cash more efficiently.
Alternatively, a large cash pile might make the company more attractive,
and more valuable, to a potential buyer.
At the AGM DD’s son indicated his father had no intention to sell, anytime soon?
Also, the AGM ruled out updating the Main Stand.
Unless the cash pile is earmarked for the mooted hotel development,
I just don’t understand why CFC plc is hoarding cash.
[The PL reasoning – for hedging against non-CL years – doesn’t stack up, IMO.]
Edit
Apologies; think I got you mixed up with Joe McHugh re: AGM questions.
Please delete as appropriate?
Haha not at all mate, I totally agreed with every word he said.
Every word. And what he wrote earlier today, some of which I’ll be echoing tomorrow.
And have the scum even paid there tax bill upon last season with there record wage bill, and all without any sources to do so yet again?
Our own wage bill has been increased with the new improved contracts offered, yet we will keep the main word of “Sustainability” intact, to keep the long term future of the club safe, can the scum make such a claim?
The wage bill will always determine the amount of spending we will do?
There is a massive player trading model already in place, but the wage structure has been behind somewhat imo,but catching up also.
As a club we still harbor to much upon wages and hopefully this starts to change also, to release wage money to get in the higher quality player that will come with the bigger wage demands also?
We still remain a club that can attract players, yet won’t get caught up in the overspending upon offering huge contracts the scum have to do, just to get eejits to sign for them and end up trapped within such a shitty club?
Believe we have all the right ingredients in place, especially as I see Rodgers here for the long haul, expected that from Ange also but wasn’t to be.
The next couple of transfer windows will determine just how much backing the board will actually give to Rodgers, yet some big decisions await, and will cost potentially a few bob to resolve in the player’s that don’t feature within the plans of Rodgers either?
Yet we still remain in a sound financial position to resolve the issues from within, again can the scum make anything like such a claim?
Handing out contracts and not getting the returns wanted is a scourge upon the Scottish game, without the revenue that TV money brings into the best part of other European leagues, yet with the hands tied behind our backs, we still don’t do to badly with being able to deal with the problems bought to ourselves over the issue.
We can still continue to move forward, not fast enough for many within the support, but still had to get the overall infrastructure in place first, and still believe that plenty of work was done during the summer in order to get that to a safe and sustainable degree imo?
Of course nothing like that would be printed of claimed by a Hun scum cheerleader, when a good lie is good enough for the thick gormless scum Hun eejits
Said this umpteen times. They continue tae print this type of shite, because they know Scotlands their ‘safe’ ground, where whatever garbage they want tae make up and print goes ‘unchallenged’, except for blogs like this. And its a pity, but the fact is, a lot more of the public are liable tae read their bogroll tabloids than they do football blogs. Any other country and their ‘views’ would be challenged, exposed and they would be humiliated. That’s if they even dared tae try it anywhere else. The DR in particular, is absolutely crammed wi these fkn clowns masqueradin as journalists.
Hatred is not their fantasy, it’s their reality. Fecking hypocrites, the envy and jealousy has affected them so much they only have their hate to live for until the next time they can hate again. HH
This was their take on Matt O’Riley’s International debut ..
‘ Matt O’Riley admits making his debut for Denmark with the no10 on his chest left him proud
Only for Northern Ireland to wipe the smile off his face ‘
Stinking hun PR fanzine
another year of “losses” recorded and no credit line. Eh £70mill in the bank and a £30mill credit line if required. I we are in trouble!!! Gessa break