Yesterday morning, The Daily Record put up one of its more hilarious pieces. It seemed as if I hadn’t long posted about Luis Palma—and how our failure to find a club for him was a warning shot across the bow of those who simply expect Ibrox to clear out all its dross—before they posted a piece about the eight players who will probably be leaving. And it was so full of supposition and rubbish that I found it really funny.
The players named include Rabbi Matondo, who they’ve been trying to get off the books for ages, Ben Davies, and others who there may be some modest interest in, but who won’t generate any kind of halfway decent fees. Again, it brings home how the media just seems to think that getting rid of players you don’t want is simple.
But on a day when Keith Jackson is again pushing the line that substantial sums will be available for players, others at that paper have a far more grounded and realistic view. And it was one of those writers yesterday who provided us with our funniest moment of the week so far —he put forward a list of players who the club could target, all of whom currently play in the SPFL top flight.
Because the thing is, although there are the usual fantasists who seem to believe there will be tens of millions available to spend, others understand how financial fair play works and recognise the difficulties they’re going to face.
That’s why The Record’s article suggesting they go down the list of players from the Scottish Premiership is so… interesting.
I described this the other day as the start of the world’s longest climbdown, and that climbdown is well underway at The Record. There are a lot of people at that paper who have realised the more insane fantasies are not going to come off, and they’ve begun to row in the opposite direction.
That is not in the least bit surprising. There must be people at that newspaper who do realise how ridiculous everyone involved in this will look if it doesn’t come off the way they think it will.
What’s worse is that you had Jackson spitting the dummy out at the bloggers not that long ago. So, all these people know what our predictions are. All these people know that most of the Celtic sites are waiting for the wheels to come off so we can say “We told you so.” And I think a lot of them are seriously worried that they’re going to be made to look stupid, even if it’s just guilt by association.
There are so many blind spots in the Ibrox fan view of this. None of them has done a single bit of research into how the Leeds takeover was structured, or how their transfer spending has been affected since the deal was done. Let me remind you—we spent more money in the transfer market last summer than Leeds did.
None of this is being taken seriously by the media or by the Ibrox fans. All the signs are there that this group will aim for prudent spending rather than lavishing vast fortunes. I know I owe you guys an article on the Dave King comments, and that will be up sometime later today.
Suffice to say that some of his statements are frankly ridiculous—like the bit where he talks about the Americans “proving” they have high-level wealth by showing him bank statements. What an idiotic comment.
But that set off a fresh rash of nonsense the other day from Jackson, who made his crazy claim that this meant there would be substantial sums available to the next manager. The number of people who believe this is dropping faster than Barry Ferguson’s chances of ever getting a management job again.
That two separate colleagues of his at The Record have now flatly contradicted that narrative must be jarring for him… and it’s instructive for the rest of us.
The backtracking has started—and it’s now in high gear. The media is slowly, but surely, starting to prepare the Ibrox fan-base for an austerity summer.
They are all at it at that rag.
As you say one “ journalist “ says they are ready to spend very substantial sums just as another is reporting Danny Rohl is a target but his £5m comp would be a big stumbling block.
When they talk about what Celtic can get by reaching the UCL it is only £25 to £30m. Today’s article highlighting the fact Man Utd’s win last night has forced the consortium to fast track appointments now that they will have 3 not 2 UCL qualifiers to reach the £40m bonanza the Ibrox club can expect???
You would think the editor or somebody would ensure some consistent message is going out as all credibility around these articles is nil.
Obviously Celtic can only ever get Revenue in the Dembele Dollars range while the
The Tribute Act can command Morelos Mullions with that being the natural order of things to their Supremacist mindset.
They’ll be operating in the cast offs market, Bosman Freedom of Contract and Loans come summertime and still won’t be able to shift their set of Action Man Heids and walkin wounded. Who the Fluck are going to buy any of that bunch of serial losers and perennial Disappointed no marks.
Summertime Bloos …feel a song coming on….
Raskin is the new super hype. The fantasist media and support, are all pluggin ridiculous sums of what they could get for him if he went. My personal fav, from the DR of course and as always, ‘according’ to this one or that one, is that he could be in the same bracket as some 50 million rated European players. Aye ok. They really don’t dae theirselves any favors dae they ?!
They’re just taking the pathological piss outta anyone daft enough to buy them Kevcelt59 !
King’s fantasist interview yesterday was cringe-worthy. Toss up between the yanks and the Saudi’s for his takeover project. They showed him they were worthy, showed him the bank balance and what they would put in. Total Bollox! Anything to flog his shares, has no care in the world for rangers or the fans.
The guy is in the Trump mould, not worth the oxygen they intake.
He certainly canny have a care in the world or no care in the world for ‘Rangers’ Jimbbhoy as ‘Rangers’ are deed as the dodo !
Hearing rumours the takeover is only at 40% and the yanks are very unhappy, with certain shareholders changing their minds and wanting more dollars for their shares.
Falling apart possibly.
It just keeps getting better lol.
I would be of the opinion that it was always the intention that when the Season Ticket payment deadline has passed with all the nonsense leading up to that, that it now, as was always the intention, frees up The Laptop Loyal Lapdogs to initiate calm down mode and that gets the SMSM out of Jail now the Gullibillies have ponied up their hard earned loyal cash? There’s one born every minute but in the case of the Gullibillies there’s thousands of them that are willing to hand over their cash! ??
It’s about time the media started talking in terms of Celtic and the chasing pack rather than lumping the tribute act with us. They’re 17 points behind and 12 ahead of third, given the austerity measures incoming, I know which gap I think is likely to be smaller next year.
The Scottish Daily Rags are making hay whilst the sun shines, any headline mentioning the Yanks probably adds a few thousand onto their daily sales. The gullibillies can’t get enough, it’s all the Ibrox mob have left to give them hope.
If the Americans walk away, there could be pressure on the Mental Health Services down Ibrox way.