Last night, Mark Pirie at The Record published a piece called “The 2 major ‘dents’ in Rangers accounts that mean Celtic can make transfer mistakes in brutal contrast”.
Just when I thought I might be about to read a reasoned, accurate account of the second Ibrox club’s recent financial statement, I read the sub-heading.
“The Glasgow giants released their accounts earlier this week as they returned an operating profit.” And it was immediately clear I wouldn’t.
The opening line of the piece is so wrong that it’s almost hilarious. “The sacking of Gio van Bronckhorst and Michael Beale have put two big “dents” in Rangers profits,” it reads. If you’re thinking “But they didn’t post a profit …” you’re not imagining that.
Pirie himself tries to pass this off as someone else’s ignorance.
“That is the view of former Hibs star Tam McManus – as the pundit declared that Scottish Premiership rivals Celtic are now able to make mistakes in the transfer market thanks to their spending power over the Light Blues,” he writes.
But even if you think that it’s McManus talking the nonsense and not The Record reporter, he has given credence and credibility to the worst of all nonsense with those opening words.
Actually, aside from the guff about Ibrox posting profits, McManus is actually closer to the mark than The Record are, and perhaps that’s why they’ve twisted his comments to suit.
The financial figures are scary-bad for Ibrox going into January, as they give Celtic far greater scope in the transfer market, even accounting for the likelihood of us having a good lead.
Tam McManus is a prize clown, but when even he can do the basic maths on this one and highlight the gap you wonder why Pirie and his editors insisted on that headline and that spin.
We have a massive advantage going into the January window, and whilst we have to press it for it to do us any good, we’ve got them severely outgunned and this is the closest anyone in the media has come so far to actually admitting that out loud.
Look over on their forums.
They fully expect big spending in January on the back of “the profits.” The word “mad” doesn’t even begin to cover that level of delusion and self-deception. Their fans are a big part of the reason for the state they are in, and the club refuses, point blank, to counter some of their crazier views with the facts.
The media doesn’t help. Even as they acknowledge the gap they continue to push the profit lie and aside from Graham Spiers, who highlighted the Swiss Ramble article online yesterday, not a single one of them has done a decent deep-dive into the hard numbers.
That is more than just an abrogation of responsibility. It’s a disgrace.
Pirie is literally the worst excuse for a journalist at that paper. I got banned from their comments for saying ‘copying and pasting stuff from the Internet and trying to skew a narrative on it is not journalism, go do a bloody interview!’
You got banned from them Mike…
You won’t miss their tripe for sure –
One less reader for them…
Brilliant stuff !
It’s seems to be a bit of a fire fighting exercise at moment as certain outlets an fan sites have done the sums,even been suggested bassey fee was only 5mill up front rest over 4yrs!!!!fk if ats rite their figures are even worse,,,
I think you are saying the average secvo fan is a bit thick numbers wise!!??? Not news eh? As Phil says deludomol is being overdosed
The rags like The Record think they are Sevco’s best friend…
They are in truth amongst their worst enemies –
They played a huge part in Rangers dying (c.2012)…
And they’ll go a long way to bringing the exact same scenario to Sevco –
They Fcukin well deserve each rancid other !
It will be a long wait if you are waiting for accurate reporting of the vast gulf between the bottom line on the Celtic balance sheet and the one on the sevconian balance sheet
In fact. The only time it will EVER be acknowledged accurately is if sevco somehow turn things round and dominate Scottish football in the same fashion that their predecessors cheated to do so. THEN it will be a case of ” …. and Rangers’ (sic) dominance of the Scottish game is even more remarkable given the vast gulf …. yada yada yada”.
It’s all so predictable and boring. It needs to stop and the only people who can facilitate that are the Celtic fans themselves by taking affirmative action.
Surely a half decent editor worth his/ her salt would have said to Pirie after his attempt at educational reading ….you’ve .missed the meat on the bones of the story ? It seems to me that the Record are getting rid of print staff at an alarming speed ,there is no governance left to correct the multitude of sins from the scoops’ laptops ! It’s a correct your own homework number gig , isn’t it ?
And them lot call that rag ‘ The Daily Rebel ‘
Crazy
Mark Pirie and his colleagues are an absolute car crash. I read them every day just to see what nonsense and awful attempts at spin they will produce next. Today he is talking about a “coded message” from Hagi about going back to Rangers. I read it three times trying to find this coded message, nada. Just Hagi saying he loves Spain and that he wants to win trophies. It’s not even sinister journalism that I don’t agree with like the Daily Mail etc, it’s just really amateurish and embarrassing journalism. I don’t know how his bosses let them get away with the work they produce. Painful stuff.
The more you read and financially support them Rayray the longer they survive…
Starve them of cash and they die –
It’s coming but Celtic fans can make it happen faster by not reading…
Especially when it’s the painful stuff that you describe in it –
Thankfully their sales are off a cliff and 12% have been made redundant…
Beautiful figures indeed !
You don’t know how his bosses let 5hem away with it? Simple, idiots like you buy their rag so why change anything
And we shouldn’t need a major advantage in January.
The Board should have ensured that the required transfer business
was completed in the summer – not in January, [excepting cover for injuries].
Nobody I know was, or is, happy with our transfer business in the summer.
We should really be in the LC Final next week,
and we should be securing that 3rd place in the CL Group. 🙁
At ‘best’, the Board has simply delayed the required investment until next summer.
…but still won’t believe anything until I see players arriving who will make a
difference in Europe.
Celtic need to do the same as Sevco in this window and sign a couple of refs