The board

Wont be saying that once you see the rumoured home kit

 

A poor kit will tip me over the edge brother, * *.

 

I for one am actually pleased to see all these comments.

It means that the support is actually facing up to the reality that this board, operating under the direction of Desmond, have zero ambition, and even less inclination to modernise our transfer policy than they did 1 or 2 years go when things were looking rosy and the support was distracted.

Last summer we got all sorts of unsubstantiated pish spouted about incoming players and investment in the squad, based on absolutely nothing other than that "Brendan wouldn't be coming back without a big backing to have a go in Europe".

Those of us who labelled it fanciful nonsense were told to shut up and sit down.

And the even smaller minority of us who claimed this board, and Desmond, weren't concerned whether Sevco took the odd title were labelled moon howlers.

It's good to see more and more supporters waking up to the reality that these * need ousted, pronto, if we're ever to evolve past our current incarnation as one of the TWO biggest/ best clubs in Scotland.

The * probably pat themselves on the back everyday, laughing at how they have managed to sustain spending the same transfer fees and wages for 2 * decades whilst reaching record breaking bank balances.

Mark Lawell was a sacrificial lamb. See, we sacked him cuz it was his fault. But as long as this merry-go-round of "jobs for the Bhoys" , directed by Desmond and operated by Peter Lawell continues, were going * nowhere as a footballing institution.

They "sacked" Mark Lawell, but does anyone honestly believe, given their history, we'll see a an honest to * recruitment process to find his replacement? Ie. Scouring available candidates across Europe and examining their credentials, experience and range of contacts?
Or will it be another lazy arsed appointment of a man who has already professional and personal links with the club, and one who will operate under the direct supervision of Peter Lawell?

"Celtic Football club are delighted to announce that "Neil Lennon/ Gordon Strachan/ Anton Rodgers/ Dudu * Danan" has agreed to accept the position as Head of Recruitment".

 

And you're still gettiing telt to shut up and sit down. Funny that.

 

Yeah, even if we have a better Summer this year (wouldn't be hard), there's no doubt the money men and the empty suits at the top will try their hardest to hold us back. They simply don't give a * about progressing us as a club.

We need a major overhaul in youth development, scouting and recruitment. We also need stadium upgrades and better facilities. Basically we need to get with the times and modernise.

Does anyone realistically think any of this will happen? Getting in a DOF should be the main priority; the scouting and recruitment should improve following that.

Recruitment will always be hit and miss to an extent, but it's been catastrophic for a while now. The last two windows in particular have been a disgrace. If we win this league we will have gotten away with one MASSIVELY. But that gives us another chance this year to actually sort our * out.

Instead the club will rest on their laurels, sit on their arses and * around with cheap punts and unambitious signings. Then we'll be here this time next year after another embarrassment in Europe saying the same old things.

Our domestic success in recent years has papered over the cracks of a club that's rinsed and failed its fans for two decades. This can't go on anymore, but sadly I can't see it changing.

 

Reading though the comments I feel that there are some things the board should be doing but I also think some expectations are simply never going to be met, particularly success in Europe.

We need a proper review of our governance model from the outside looking in. We need to refresh our board and create a structure that weighs up stability and experience with good practice in rotating board members and holding the exec to account.

We need to spend on infrastructure. Celtic park and it's surroundings look old and dated. It feels left behind. Part of that feeling is definitely due to the decline of the area in general but there is more Celtic can do.

And we need a football structure that is solid and not based around giving complete autonomy to managers that realistically will be here for a few years and move on.

That all said, my likely unpopular opinion, is that European football will forever be beyond us as long as we play in the Scottish set up. No board on earth could realistically mount a sustained challenge at champions league level based on the income we generate. It may be possible to have the odd season of outperformance but the European game is now simply impossible to beat if you belong to a small nation.

Over the last 3 years, our total transfer expenditure puts us around 68th in world football (c.90m). If we doubled that expenditure, we'd come in around 38th surrounded by the likes of Leicester, Nice and Brentford. Triple it and we are getting into the top 20 ahead of Rennes and behind Marseille. Such is life. By all means we should have more ambition than turning up to get pumped, but sadly I think we will never materially close a gap in Europe as long as we are in the SPFL. I appreciate the difficulty that puts the board in.

 

But how much have we brought into the coffers in same period sween. Must be close to what we have spent

 

97 in sales so positive net 7m over the period.
Note, this is in euros and just me filtering data on tranfermarkt so not especially scientific!

To put into context we are sandwiched between Torino who were net positive 2m and Lille who are net positive 132m.

 

Transfermarkt is extremely unreliable when it comes to transfer fees, Jota to us they have as €16.2m for an example.

It’s not even a good rough idea of transfer fees, it’s just made up ones.


Whilst I’m pointing that out, I get the point you’re saying as well, just not good figures to base it on at all.

 

I think you're misunderstanding people's expectations.

No one is realistically thinking we should or could go out and blow our entire cash surplus. That's not smart, not realistic.

But no one can deny that this board are incompetent and negligent.
We're being left behind by clubs such as feynoord, psv, Copenhagen etc, who have modernised their recruitment and spend accordingly.
Feynoord and psv sell players for profit the same as we do. But if they make 30m on a player, the replacement will cost 50% of the transfer fee they captured. It's basically a nuts and bolts 50% model.
What do we do? Rake in millions , and instead of buying one player for a decent fee, we spend * sums of 3 players who aren't fit for purpose, hoping that one of them comes good.

The current Celtic transfer model is basically throw enough * at the wall and hope some of it sticks.

Need a new centre mid... Go out, do proper scouting , and pay 10-15m. Don't do out and spend 6m on three players who couldn't get a game for a * pub 5 a side.

This board have * untold millions on punts and garbage.

I've zero patience nor sympthathy for their "position".
They're a bunch of dinosaurs, not fit for purpose, and they need to get the * out of this club before we slide into an irrecoverable position of not even being able to make it out of a conference group stage.

 

That's fair and Feyenoord are a good example. But they haven't enjoyed anything close to the domestic success Celtic have (of course they have more competition), and their European record isnt miles ahead of Celtic. They also have the need to spend more to compete in a better league and in turn can offer a more appealing set up for players to play in.

19-20 4th in Europa group stage
20-21 3rd in Europa group stage
21-22 Conference League final
22-23 Europa quarters
23-24 3rd Champions league group and out in knockout playoff Europa round

That is probably what success looks like for Celtic in Europe but that is really only one notch above where we are now.

I think the "problem" we have if you can call it that is that we qualify automatically for the champions league most years which makes it tougher to have a run. If we qualified for the Europa or conference groups most years I think our run would be similar to a Feyenoord.

I agree we need to spend more and reinvest more, I'm not letting the current board off the hook. But a new board will have the same problem and it's mostly due to the very unique position Celtic has found itself in with such a gulf between domestic football, European football, and the size of the club.

 

I think there’s only a certain level of player and fee we can feasibly attract here even if we tried £20m fee and £200k a week. Really, if they’re worth that money, we don’t get them.

I think that happened to an extent in the summer with Livakovic and Tete. We can pay out the money, so can teams in Turkey, who are also massive teams, in Europe, in a better league, with better weather for the Mrs to be happy in.

We’re in an odd position.

 

Is anyone even thinking we should be spending that type of money on individual players?

I get the impression it's more 5 - 10 million range people are hoping we operate in, with 3 - 4 players in that range and good scouting setup to build and maintain a team round them.

Although I guess, to answer my own point, maybe that areas gone when you see Idah at £5m and Bernardo supposedly 6 - 9m with add ons.

 

Yeah it always seems to be the extreme made up examples people come out with.

"We can't spend £15-20m on one player"

Of course we can't (well technically we could but we can't sustain that or make it make sense to our size).
We want that 15-20m spent on 3-4 players.

We are sitting with 70m (circa) in the bank and another 30-40 can be tossed on top of that should we win this league.

Imagine what the difference would be in the clubs fortunes if we spent an extra £15-20m on 3-4 players every 2-3 seasons compared to how we spend just now.

Had we spent that last summer, we wouldn't need to desperately spend it again this year (perhaps next would be needed). Players at the club would be higher calibre, meaning higher chance of results in UCL even just one win there would be an increase in revenue for us.

Performances improving in europe, means our players catch the eye more. Our players also playing alongside better players can improve their own game.

Those factors can mean players then sell for slightly more, consistently.

Meaning we can spend that extra 15-20m more easily for a few years. Build that up and suddenly we can be spending 20-30m on 4-5 players and forever improving the squad.

There is a glass ceiling for sure, but it's so far above where we operate just now.


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That’s where maximising scouting and talent spotting comes in. That’s where you need to have the very best scouting team.

It’s been said before but the problem really isn’t the money we spend, although we could argue we should and could spend more. It’s the way we spend that money. The summer recruitment showed me that we have absolutely no scouting department. Like an actual scouting infrastructure. That should be where the majority of our money goes. In scouts who are successful at operating within our level and our budgets. That’s the reason why I’ve been advocating for us to be signing the whole recruitment team from USG, who continually sign top players for peanuts. Imagine they had the ability to sign players in a slightly higher budget?

There are incredible deals out there for £6-£9m. It’s why I’m not in favour of signing Bernardo for £6m. It’s too much money for him. Whereas I’d be * delighted to sign someone like Albert Gronbaek for £7m, who has continually shown he’s able to perform and the price is nearly the same, give or take £1m. You’re taking a chance on Bernardo becoming consistent at £6m or getting someone who is nearly guaranteed to become a top player for £7m… for the sake of £1m, you shouldn’t be taking the risk but the club continually take the risk and that’s a problem.

 

Still struggling with the 15-20m range but I get what your point.

The other issue here is our setup. We aren't setup for long term success in terms of scouting, development and having a structure that doesn't completely change direction with every change of manager. Really would like to see a DoF brought in to provide continuity.

We'd probably end up with Gordon Strachan though! Literally zero long term vision in the club.

 

Literally just responded with similar .

So much of it just feels so obvious. Wonder what the full-time positions at the club actually do.

 

How do you mean?

I'm meaning if we spent 15-20m on 3-4 players (as in 5-6m each), on top of what we normally spend every few years.

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Thing is you are right mate, same old stuff will come out of Parkhead about making improvements but nothing will be done. Europe will be a * fest, would like stadium improvement's and squad also

 

The worry is a title or a double even, will allow them to continue without making the required changes to our footballing structure.