Every single Celtic fan I know is furious over the state of this club at the moment. The one place we look healthy is in the bank balance. That’s part of the problem.
But Celtic having a healthy bank balance is not a new thing. The media’s interest in it is, and the focus they are putting on it certainly is. In fact, I’ve never seen it covered more comprehensively.
The media is playing games, of course. The hacks who could not bring themselves to write positive stories about Celtic’s finances are now highlighting them every single day, in the most brightly lit fashion. They are doing this to sew division.
I recognise exactly what this is. And you know what? Fair play to them. It’s good politics. In their shoes I’d be doing the same. This is classic dark arts stuff.
They know that the more Celtic’s financial strength is highlighted the more inexcusable our position becomes. As I’ve said in previous pieces, I am tired of having Celtic’s financial strength painted as a weakness, and the media has done that again and again.
Now they are making it a lead weight for Lawwell.
But just because I admire the craft and actually approve of the target, that doesn’t mean that I can ignore the reek of hypocrisy off of this stuff. This must be the first time they’ve covered our place on the UEFA rich list, the merchandising arm and the season ticket income and where it stacks up amongst the big boys all in the same week.
They’ve never wanted to highlight that before, or the finance gap that exists between us and Ibrox, and suddenly here they are doing it all. If we were top of this table and ten points clear, do you think they’d be doing so? You bet your life they wouldn’t.
Our positive financial position is being weaponised against us in the most blatant fashion.
To me, the money is only a part of the problem.
If we were spending the money, we do spend properly none of this would be of the least concern to me. I am not a “net spend” junkie; Ange built his team over the first two transfer windows whilst we showed a player trading profit, but he got the big decisions right.
We’ve spent in excess of £20 million on players over the course of the last two windows and we’re operating at a player trading profit … except that this time we’ve got nearly every one of those signing decisions wrong and screwed the manager over.
It is right and legitimate to highlight the cash we have on hand, and to contrast that with the state of the team. But it tells only part of the story, and even now with my dislike of this board reaching awesome proportions I am not willing to sit and watch as the press corps uses our corporate successes to attack us in this fashion.
We should not be ashamed of running profitably.
We can complain that not enough of the profits are sunk back into the team, and we can certainly complain about how the money is being spent and on what basis those decisions are made … but even in admiring the artistry of what the media is up to I can’t help but be pissed at the shamelessness of it.
But this is another avenue down which we’re open to attack because of the nepotism and cronyism which characterise our club right now.
Remove that problem and much else will fix itself here. Remember, that we are in a strong position should we ever give ourselves a shake. Our weaknesses are about decision making and institutional blindness, not about the underlying fundamentals of the club. Those fundamentals will be strong whoever is in the directors box.
Yet another brilliant article James and many thanks again for highlighting it…
The only Celtic supporters that should be financially supporting these odious organisations to see what filth that they are up to is forum bloggers like yourself and the other Celtic ones out there –
Any Celtic fan that buys them is quite frankly a shameful Celtic fan in my (not humble) but on this occasion fully fledged opinion…
Better to just give a truthful opinion of things in life just as you so awesomely do for us every day on The Celtic Blog –
My Goodness – There are some right roasters on CQN ‘The Herald says’ this – ‘Ross (some strange surname or other) in The Record says that – If ‘Rangers’ this, If ‘Rangers’ that…
Do these half wits not realise that ‘Rangers’ died and are a stinking corpse since (c.2012) !
Well Clachnacuddin thanks to our rotten corrupt board , liewell and the 5 way agreement etc it would seem that sevco are not as much of a stinking corpse as you portray,they are that stinking that after ten years being on the bones of their arse skint and issuing confetti shares they have overtook us in the league and still in Europe,I still can’t believe we have allowed this to happen when we could have had them dead and buried,if we had got the ten I think they would have collapsed but stinking desmond and liewell made sure that didn’t happen.
Yip – I am as appalled as you are Jim – I simply cannot believe whT is happening before my very eyes either…
My only consolation is not paying through the turnstiles to watch the farce unfold –
It was because of the financial cheating and the boards reluctance to call it out that I stopped the season ticket…
But while the cheating has seen Sevco gain several critical points this season, it’s not cost Celtic too much in The League anyway –
But by fcuk – Rodgers (pig headedness / inability to change tactics) Lawwell (interfering) Sonny Lawwell (an utter utter disaster at recruiting) all supposed Celtic men have brought this utter catastrophic shit show on between team all !
When the Interims are eventually released:
instead of a cracked CFC crest appearing on The DR front page,
maybe they’ll have a golden CFC crest ?
…with PL – made out like a Scrooge character – grasping at it with both hands?
I’d laugh at that.
🙁
Someone I respect for decent Judgement said that Celtic are stockpiling this money because they are going to have to pay multi millions to Celtic Boys Club abused if the courts decide that Celtic FC was responsible, is that likely.
Perhaps James whom I respect as as a great blogger coul comment, different angle from normal I guess.
There is ZERO truth in that. Zero.
The Insurance will cough up for any financial penalty.
I can imagine The Club making a voluntary payment over and above or setting up a trust. Trained Help line staff to deal with current issues if any. Something along those lines.
The mega dosh is to pay for the refurbishment of Barrowfield with possibly the underground Coach access to the stadium for Team buses on European nights. That’s soon to be mandatory for all Clubs competing in EUFA Tournaments.
Safety/ Security issues.
How is sevco going to pay for that underground bus access,they are totally skint but the way we’re playing I’m sure they’re confident of CL money that big Pete liewell guaranteed they would get this season,while he had us on a managed decline,like when we blew the 10 I A R.
Even at its most brass tacks level, there are said to be ‘in excess of’ 20 claimants in that case. Simple arithmetic indicates that if the surplus cash was for that purpose then it would mean roughly £4m apiece. I am not minimising anyones suffering (as already stated, this is just simple arithmetic), but any settlement is extremely unlikely to be that high, unless someone like Mark Dingwall is the presiding judge (spoiler alert: no-one with a brain would let that muppet judge the flower show at a village fete). In fact even a tenth of that figure would be very much on the high side. So whatever the reason for the surplus (and I have my own suspicions), it ain’t that.
Previously we only get winning and winning and beating them year after year because of our financial strength.
Now it’s look how good they are in overcoming us with their much better team and much better manager in spite of our financial strength.
Time will tell if Billy beats Goliath but don’t, as they are, count on that happening just yet Billy. C’mon a Hoops.
Victoriously overcoming the depths of our board’s ineptitude and their sense of pure galasness could yet produce a really happy season’s ending and put a smile as wide as the Clyde on ma coupon. HH
Anyone abused/injured by a Celtic employee inside Celtic property would be covered through employer`s liability insurance. A member of the public injured visiting would be covered by public liability. Those abused outside Celtic`s jurisdiction, whether or not by an employee, would hardly have a claim, as I wouldn`t think an employer would be liable for a crime carried out by an employee in his own time or property.
The problem we have with spending £20 million is that we spend it on a lot of Reliant Robin type cars in the hope they turn into something of a higher value, which few do.
We could spend the same money on 4 quality cars that can still be sold on without loss.
Spending the money has to be spent wisely.
We are losing more money as we don’t speculate to accumulate.
yea james…as you said…we shoulld not be ashamed of running profitably…but we should be ashamed when we look at the gap in finances between us and the huns…..and the points in the league table…..there’s the story right there..
i’m glad the board are getting a good kicking – they deserve it, and i welcome it from EVERY and ANY source….
A CLUB LIKE NO OTHER – god (if there is one) fukn help us…
FAIL FAIL !!
Isn’t it common knowledge every year how much celtic have in the bank, and also this were running a great profitable club doesn’t mention the money celtic went begging off the British government during the furlough scheme, yeah great article.