Dermot Desmond

The TalkCeltic translation....

I'm not, I'm simply pointing out that as an actual business we're doing perfectly fine.

I've been critical of the board before, and will continue to be when it comes to the playing side of things, but it's very difficult to be critical of Lawwell or our board when you look at the business side of things. When it comes to brand expansion, the bottom line and other factors such as stadium and our surroundings the club really are on the ball.

It cuts both ways for me. Credit must be given as well as criticism.

The TalkCeltic translation...

I definitely don't disagree with you that we should have invested more of our winnings from the Champions League last sixteen run and so forth into the playing side. i've said as much before.

 

You keep pushing out this little line,but in fact if we spend more money then it will be borrowing money....debt.
The club is not sitting with tens of million and refusing to spend, we tend to and have been spending nearly all we have every year.

And no im not saying we will die with more debt....but with more debt comes higher risks....and that is what you're asking for.

 

It is a line I borrowed from another poster in which he was spot on. We have posted profit for the last couple of years. Not good enough. This is just evidence of under investment in the team. If we do things properly we will have a better chance of getting CL money. And talking about risks going into the qualifiers under prepared and hoping to get lucky is as big a risk as you can get.

 

He is wrong....yes we make a profit but very little,apart of course from the last 16 years and big player sales.


Again,we tend to spend all we have with very little sitting in bank apart from funds needed to run the club day to day.

And as we have seen the last two years the club does not need to spend more,it needs to stop signing such * and get a manager who can get out of this team the 40% that seems to be missing most games.

 

I actually agree with you fair play. I do think that we can do more to give us a better chance of qualifying. Sometimes that does not mean signing players but keeping players at the club. There really is no reason for us to be in transition as often as we are, that is my biggest gripe. Look at all that CL money your talking 15m plus a season. Even keeping the likes of Wanyama and letting him leave for free is better than losing out on the CL money. Had we kept him we would have qualified for at least one of Deilas failures and the cash would have been more than his fee anyway.

 

It's because clubs like Swansea, Cardiff, Leeds, Newcastle etc just have no reason whatsoever to want us there.

Arsenals and Manchesters would probably be the last to care about us, but all the small clubs, why do they want another mouth at the table? They would be nuts to welcome another competitor for their sweet 90 mil a year EPL spots.

 

Because he keeps the share price very high compared to a few years ago and doesn't ask shareholders to put any money into the club.

 

So he is rewarded for short term game. So long as he can continue to cut costs it does not matter if we under perform

 

It's probably just what he has earned and that we need to pay him to keep hold of him. Fans only look on the now and ask "why are we not better".

But inside the club and the likes of Desmond probably think the total opposite, they will be thinking "how are we not *".

Lawwell would have played a big role in us cutting the debt and getting the very best deals we can. In football say Lawwell is in the top 3% of the best CEOs around, if we had a guy who was only in the top 20%, then we could be currently sitting in far worse shape.

A worse CEO who is less respected and just not as good could have us sitting with £500k a year Magners sponsorship, £3million a year New Balance sponsorship and have through worse transfer dealing over the years have a worse squad available and have failed to cut the debt.

Where as a Lawwell through hard/smart work, good connections and being well respected has managed to get the debt under £10million, sponsorships and kit deals of like £1.5million and £6million a year etc

Mind in business bigger ones will always try and rip the pish out smaller ones and Celtic stuck in Scotland and everyone knowing we are * are prime to be taken the * out of but Lawwell has managed to get us very good deals and do a far better job than 95% of people would probably have managed, also managing to get bigger and better deals every time they are renewed where as other clubs in Scotland are probably getting less or the same year on year as our product is really getting worse.

 

It's all speculation though mate. Could easily turn it around and say " lawwell is a top 20% CEO, imagine the position we'd be in with a top 5% CEO" or "Lawwell is a bottom 5% CEO, imagine what we could do with a top 50% CEO" etc.

Leaving aside all the stuff I say about lawwell essentially lacking creativity or vision, my main argument is just that we pay him too much, especially for someone that a lot of people argue can't do anything to improve things. We're a football club first and foremost and our CEO should not be receiving anything close to parity with our highest paid played. He probably the one part of our club that receives a wage that wouldn't be at all out of our place in the EPL.

 

But we know he's very good at his job, probably among the top 5 best in the UK and i'd guess one of the top 25 or so in European/world football.

He doesn't really get paid that much though, if he was to resign and walk out on us tomorrow, he'd have no problem at all in walking into a higher paid job within days/weeks. And the guy we replaced him with would probably be getting paid atleast £500k a year but for us saving £500k a year on the CEO but losing out on £million a year through less good negotiating with sponsors, other clubs etc would * us even more.

Dermott Desmond isnt a dafty, theres a reason he's worth near £2billion, he knows what he's doing and there a reason Lawwell is earning £1million a year because Desmond know he's done an excellent job, a job barely anycunt could have done anywhere near as good.

Desmond and Lawwell are Celtic fans remember, the same as you and me, multi million/billionaires but still the same, wanting the best they can for the club.

 

This is a wee example of how things could have gone with a weaker negotiator.

The £4million a year Nike deal in 2005, when that was renegotiated in 2009, Nike could easily have gone "your club doesn't have the stadning it once had, tv viewing, crowds etc have gone down, we are only offering £3million a year for the next 5 years - something along those lines probably happened a weaker guy could have crumbled under those demands, where as a smarter operator could have went, we've already been contacted by others who are offering to up your deal, we want £5million a year we sell blah blah amount of strips, we are winning titles, cups etc take it or leave it. And we managed to come away with a renewed 5 year £5million a year deal. Then again recently, had the worse CEO only negotiated to remain on £4million or even worse agreed to reduce the deal, then when it came to renegotiate again in 2015 they could have again been pressured and crumbled into accepting a lesser deal again. So we could be on about £3million a year from Nike now, where as we are now actually on a £6million a year deal with New Balance so again have upped the deal despite Celtic's standing actually worsening all the time.

Thats how easily things could have gone wrong had we not as good a guys running the show.

The difference between having guys who are really good at their job and guys who are just ok could cost us £millions a year. Celtic aren't the sort of club that people are falling over themselves to hand money to like Real, Barca, Bayern, Man U even EPL teams who are offered big money just because they are seen worldwide every year, we are the sort of club they are looking at to make money off and if we show any sign of weakness when negotiating with other clubs or companies outside of football it could be game over because we'll the have the reputation of a club who are struggling and who can be taken the * out of and bullied.

 

Sorry mate but everything you're saying is completely based on opinion. What evidence is there to suggest he's one of the top 5 CEOs in the UK, or top 25 in the world, when his team is struggling to even see off domestic competition while being light years ahead of the competition? Or when a talented young manager has to leave because of his ultra-restrictive operating model?

Stuff like him walking into a higher paid job or his replacement not being as capable is again just speculation. I can't really argue with it because you're entitled to it but I don't think it has a factual basis.

I agree that Desmond isn't a dafty, but we shouldn't be under the impression that because he is rich and successful that he is infallible. Assess Lawell on his own merit, ignore any speculation about what he could earn/what another CEO could do, and ask if you think it's right that he can tell us we can't compete with EPL clubs while taking home and EPL level wage?

 

Lawwell's boy has published an article this morning saying we are in talks with a foreign betting company to be our new shirt sponsor.

 

The signs are there, Arsenal and Liverpool clubs with 5/6 times the money we have were sniffing about him before. Celtic ranked high on basically every football business reviewing people despite being from Scotland, the only ever non rich clubs who ever make those lists are Celtic and Ajax and teams from Porugal, but Ajax and Portuguese hold over us that they produce Dutch and Portuguese footballers who are generally 10x better than Scottish players.

The team isn't down to Lawwell, thats down to the managers, he's not scouting the players, he's managing the budgets.

The operating model is what it is, we are a club from Scotland who are financially very stable and run with strict budgets to remain so because any gambling isn't worth the risk.

 

Dafabet, been a known done deal for months, they will take over from Magners next year and Magners will advertise on the shorts.

 

Naw Fruity King, they already a sponsor.

 

:smiley-laughing002: Fruity King are a nonsense website, behave yoursel.

 

Genuinely dont know what you're on about.

 

You think fruity king are seriously in the running? a stupid website that claims its about to sign deals with every company under the sun every week for advertisement is real get your head out your * for fucksake :smiley-laughing002: