At every stage in the Ibrox experiment – the creation of a second club out of that ground, attempting to play by the same rules as the first one but without the indulgence of a bank – something has dawned on its managers, sometimes early or sometimes painfully late in the day for them. That something is this; they cannot properly compete with Celtic.
Since crawling out of the grave of Rangers they have won three domestic trophies including a league title. I consider that one on the people who run our club for making a disastrous managerial decision which took us backwards. The other two trophies is about the average for the second biggest spending club in the country over a dozen year period.
And that’s the problem; they are the second biggest spending club. We are the biggest, and even with a massive cash surplus in the bank we consistently spend more. We do this sustainably. We do this without running up debts. Their club was built on debt, it runs on debt and it will fall because no club can run indefinitely on that basis.
Every manager at Ibrox eventually runs into the one that their current boss just ran headlong into. We have spent nearly £3 million to improve what is already the best squad in the league. They have replaced a striker who doesn’t score goals with another striker who doesn’t score goals. Silva may be a better player than Lammers – he’d almost have to be – but you listen to him talk and you hear the words of a guy who has gone from a massive move to the EPL to a loan deal in Scotland and still thinks he has nothing to prove. That would scare me if it was us.
But it should scare their manager more. He is outgunned. His club is flopping about trying to sell Yilmaz because otherwise how can it afford to let him spend? He is painfully aware of this and is resisting the sale because he thinks he needs the player, but he won’t have much choice in the matter if they get an offer the club can accept.
Even if they do find money in the mattress or down the back of the sofa cushions, all this does is puts off a day of reckoning. Every penny they can spend now is money hived off from next season’s budget. They are in a bad spot, and in the meantime, they know that Celtic will sign at least two more players before this window closes, and even if that’s just on loan the best squad in Scotland will have increased its strength … and we have the lead in the league.
That’s crucial. It’s why the win at Celtic Park was so big. The psychological advantage to still having our noses in front is awesome. They have two games in hand, but they need to win those and keep on winning, and all the while watching us sitting there at the top.
Imagine watching the team which is currently in front of you getting stronger whilst your own club is fumbling about trying to get things right? The feeling has to be awful, but I do not feel in the least bit sorry for Manneken Piss or his coaches … they should have done their due diligence better, perhaps even spoke to people like Van Bronckhorst who could have set him straight.
Instead, they signed up, and as they watch Celtic spend nearly £3 million with more to come, in an effort to pull us clear, it must be dawning on them that they face an uphill struggle with a very poor side, and they are seeing this largely through sleepwalkers eyes. The real rude awakening hasn’t even happened yet. But it’s going to.
Whether quickly or not, it happens to them all.
I am not so sure about two more first team ready players will bi in by the end of this window, our board are again dragging their heels on this. If we don’t strengthen further I think we could be in trouble
It is very handy having the points in the bag indeed but they’re still to bloody close for my liking when one factors in the influence of the cheats with whistles, flags and monitors…
You would think they’d possibly drop points on the Sunday following tough European games but they out gunned us in a Scottish Cup Semi Final three years ago after that –
They were (possibly shamefully for Celtic) far fitter in the extra time on the day after a gruelling European game…
I say possibly shamefully for Celtic as they as a club would try absolutely anything off the scale to win at all costs…
And the witch doctor is back I believe – so their fitness will ‘probably’ be ‘OK’ !
football and due diligence in football from out of work managers eh Beale for instance.
will take any job as long as the bank balance is topped up before they eventually get binned. Its a business with no scruples now
Excellent article. I laughed and smiled. Hail Hail!
Off topic here, but we haven’t heard a peep about James Dornans’ motion, another false dawn?
These peepul will fight tooth and nail to ensure nothing changes, why wouldn’t they?
Thanks for the articles James,
Fulapee, will have had an idea of what goes on at grayskull ..he looks more like skeletor than Alex Rae does. He must have done his due diligence before accepting his multi million pounds contract.. again .. money the huns can’t afford hence the friendly during the break just to get some money in. Fulappee can start his rebuild in the summer . Probably get same money as the mooch did. Then we will see the real rangers coming to get us (again)
Beware James, Sevco still have the most prolific points winners in their squad. They usually wear black with a pocket full of coloured cards.
The performative arts from the denizens of the ‘Bloo Room’ have not been for nought. The message to the frontline has been sent and everyone will be on point(s) till the end of the Season.
Blue Peter Productions, courtesy of the Celtic Board and circa £100 mill in the Bank by the end of this Season will be employed to soothe the turmoil of next seasons non appearance at the revamped CL Competition.
Managed Decline Plc ( aka Peter Lawwell’s Cashbox ) will fulfill its obligations to the Glasgow Football Cartel and support Sevco in their hour of need.
Celtic’s new Trading Model will be outlined to deter fan reaction against the Club’s support of the Tribute Act will be to announce the number of applicants on the waiting list for Season Books.
Gawd save us from bean counters.
If Pete liewell and this board are on track to let sevco win the league this season,ie managed decline,if everyone on these blogs know this why doesn’t anyone organise a boycott,if sevco win this season while we had 70 million in the bank and that lot are skint ,this would be a catastrophe,I can’t believe our board would let this happen but with Liewell and his cronies who knows.They would also be cheating shareholders as well with their managed decline to assist sevco,if they win the league this season there should be hell to pay ,hold back on buying STs , merchandise etc ,loss of money is the only thing this board worries about.but unfortunately Celtic fans are still so loyal so I don’t know what would get this board out.
Great Post ,James…….Got to share this…..
Good Point Sir!…
Sevco, exact same as the liquidation FC – always running out of other peepul’s money. (with apologies to Labour!)
What as opposed to Tories and tartan Tories the SNP.
They may be built on debt and have technically less gifted players than us but they’re running us pretty damn close with an aggressive squad that can arguably manage the SPL’s defensive farming community teams better than us. One that is still in Europe for a reason and in that competition, as is the case in the SPL, that reason is not refs and other fully signed up officials.
They also have a sizable income, considerably more than the others and more than the last double trophy winning team, St. Johnstone. A club that we gave away points to this season. At home. I mean seriously, how can a club with our resources have lost two trophies in one season to the likes of them and drop points to an even less talented version of them this season. Yes I’m being disrespectful to them but mainly to our club’s hierarchy and our proclivity to under achieve, at times. Arrogance won’t win ought. Careful planning, a willingness for our board to spend and wisely, will. We have proven to be more susceptible to fielding points to defensive units than the huns have post Beale.
The importance of covering our bases now, filling the 3 positions we fans recognise need filling this transfer window, to not only win the league but to be better prepared for next season’s CL with a readily prepared team/squad can’t be understated.
A new keeper goes without saying and. So someone of quality is necessary to transition with big Joe through the next 5/6 months, ready for the new season.
LB – credit to Taylor for fighting off all challengers to date but we do need better. Someone taller, with more defensive rigidity, possibly even Scales if a new CB or the existing CB options develop positively.
In terms of Scottish based CFs- would Shankland be able to cut it in the way Kyogo does against a defensive backline of 5 and 5 immediately in front of that? He is in the goal scoring striker mould and would do a job I guess. Miovski though fits the Celtic model, he has more of a talented skillset and with goals too. Or do we look abroad at a Sydney Van Hooijdonk type. Bigger, rugged and importantly within our price range. Like GG he won’t want to be an understudy though. Same with the Scandinavian boy. There has to be scope for 2 upfront? God do I yearn for a Larrson and Sutton (or Hartson) type of partnership again.
Brendan we’ve accepted you back and now it’s down to you to stand up for the club you support and move our board. HH
Even talking to van bronk clemente would still have taken the job as van bronk would have told him about his pay off, mercenary manager
I don’t think the Ibrox manager is coming to any such realisation whatsoever. I genuinely think he senses an opportunity as Celtic take, once again, the steady as she goes approach. Are we really supposed to be excited about Kuhn? I wouldn’t be scared if I was that lot. We have proven already this season that we are more than capable of dropping points to teams we should be putting away 10 times out of 10.
Why shouldn’t he sense an opportunity? Other than the 2-1 game at CP, we’ve very little to discourage him.
Totally agree our hubris is ridiculous. Last years League was pretty close this year is very close. This is a very close race and next derby is at Ibrox … we could easily lose. Our signings are underwhelming. We haven’t signed a starter since Johnston and that was to replace another starter Juranovic. We have a massive financial advantage but last two years we have not spent enough or spent wisely. This window we all know one winger is not what we need …. Let’s stop being complacent and get a CF LB DM and GK or at least two of those. And maybe even a CH starter. If we added quality in those positions the I would say we can pull away. But our rivals have a squad to beat easily all the rest and they keep on winning , so of course the race will be close.
I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there are an awful lot of mad conspiracy theory comments on this site that I get tired of hearing, and especially leading up to the Glasgow derby games when the men in black are going to defeat Celtic without the need for Sevco even turning up. We are also continually told that Celtic are the club that are instrumental in helping the bluenoses to survive, does anyone truly believe in that guff, or are we not just keeping them barely alive so that we can slap them about as our own personal plaything ensuring our continued dominance on the Scottish domestic scene. Anyway, all I am saying is that we should all calm down a bit, as personally I don’t think anyone at Celtic Park is intentionally doing the Club harm by being too lenient with THEM. I agree that the board should be more pro-active and vocal in taking them to task on occasions, but I don’t believe that we are deliberately turning a blind eye to their shenanigans.
It concerns me that we actually have fans who think Peter Lawell would (and has the power) to allow rangers to win the league. Truly astonishing. I think a small section of our fans are mentally ill and delusional.
100% correct we have our fair share of Amadans
R u for real the last old firm game the officials were awful and u know what I mean the game at I rox we were denied a perfectly good goal ur ceptic team have been very lucky the luck can’t keep going on
Aye we have been lucky for just about the whole of this century so far, and what about all those lucky trebles we won. LMFAO
Everyone knows the fan chant daydream believer Cheer up ……… there’s actually a very fitting line or two in a verse :
Oh our good times start and end ,
Without dollar one to spend ,