Dermot Desmond

do you think that romam at chelsea will make all his money back or the people who have spent over a billion at city will make money back?

your not telling me if you had that sort of money you would not spend it on celtic.....

if i did i would spent alot on celtic, yeah we only play in the spl but still would spend money.....

 

You make some good point JC, however there are a few things you fail to take account off.

the Seville team needed to be broken up within a few years of Seville anyway as most of them were getting on a bit and past their best. I agree the following year we should have invested a bit more but within 2 years it was time for wholesale changes again.

The wages of the Seville team far outweighed the wages of the current team, a large factor in the reduction in quality was the absolute need to reduce the wage bill that was spiraling out of control. It's recommended that wages should never be more than 50% of turnover, only now are we at that figure (just above the 50%).

The reduction in wages enabled us to pay off a lot of our debts. I think the board went too far in trying to be debt free however, the 2003 levels of debt weren't sustainable and we had to reduce it, that meant not being able to afford the same caliber of players as previously as not only would we have to pay the transfer fees (in an ever inflating market growing with the EPL crazy money) but the wages demands as well were out of our reach. The largest part of most of Celtic's transfers is not the actual fee but the wages over the term of the contract, therefore this can't just be ignored.

I remember reading a while ago that Celtic don't budget for income from European football as it's never guaranteed and as they operate on a 3 year rolling budget is never factored into their budget plans so to say the loss of £30million from Europe affected our ability to buy players isn't as big a factor as first seems.

The board haven't been perfect and have made their fair amount of mistakes, as has the players, the management teams and dare I say it the fans (those that no longer go because they can't be bothered, not those that can't afford it or have other commitments) but by and large they've done a decent job. They've ensured in a time of great financial instability throughout the world that we remain financially stable, no easy task in this day and age.

although we would all love to see better players at the club, with the poor revenue streams open to us and the non existent TV revenue then there is only so much we could do, and paying the likes of Robbie Keane 65k a week for any more than a short term is not something we can afford.

This current squad looks young, focused and with some skills, if we can develop them and keep them together for a few years then I think the future looks very bright.

It's been a tough few years as we downsize our wage bill (and hence the quality of player) and concentrate more on youth and riskier unheard of talent but over the next few years I can see that patience begin to show dividend.

 

OK lets do this again and again and again, the man cannot put any of his fortune into Celtic because, now listen, we are a plc, end of * story.

As for miss management of our funds in the respect that some people took our global support for granted, well thats another story.

 

im not mocking your opinion but your quote is nonsence ! you reckon the board only had to spend £22m for that team? hartson , thompson, lennon, balde , sutton, lambert , valgaeren, larsson! take these 8 players from the squad ! they were all earning between £28k and £45k a week ! so say an average of about £35k a week means celtic were paying £280k a week and over the year £14.5m! so 8 players alone out a 1st team squad of over 20 players were costing us £14.5m in wages. thats were the problems started. our wage bill was humungous and most of them had no resale value. this was us overspending! we went £30m in debt at that time and we coudnt go any further or we would have ended up like leeds or rangers. the figures you are quoting dont make sence. personally i think you have been playing too much champ manager. i suggest you do a little research next time before you start posting more nonsence.


BHOY81
""do you think that romam at chelsea will make all his money back or the people who have spent over a billion at city will make money back?

your not telling me if you had that sort of money you would not spend it on celtic.....

if i did i would spent alot on celtic, yeah we only play in the spl but still would spend money..... ""

and you dont think between £60 - £80m is spending ? roman and the city owners are in a diferent league money wise to desmond. get a grip will you.

 

The year we went to Seville there where hoops all over the planet, we were at a peak.
MON left and took all the wannabe fans with him.
We then had to cut the budget like any house hold and we did, but you see some people within our household made a vast mistake for they thought that the global support was there for ever, this was before the credit crunch, what a mistake.
I wish I had Peter Lawwells job at that time, money pouring in,attendence,overseas revenue, money coming from every corner, whoops what happened.?

 

what happened was we were £30m in debt ! we had to cut our budget so thats what we did ! quite simple

 

what "wannabe fans" are you talking about? I know plenty of celtic people that dont go anymore because they cant afford it for the whole recession business people i know personally, I really dont think celtic has many glory hunters..

 

this whole football club sugar daddy business is just another problem with todays modern football,

give me a team with 11 diehard passionate football players over 11 mercenarys any day of the week...

Celtic F.C should not give in to the way football has become, dont get me wrong about foreign players playing for celtic I love it, but if we ended up like your english premiership teams i'd be pretty gutted because at the end of the day your football team is your "team" and shouldn't be that case only because they are winning

 

look at the crowds ! we have glory hunters just like everryone else. this i cant afford it nonsence is just an excuse. had bellamy, keane and campbell all signed before the deadline there would have been a q to get season tickets the next morning. we all make sacrafices to follow celtic so im sure 90% of the stay away fans if they really wanted to afford it they would.

 

Isn't comparing now and Seville a bit unfair, considering the hugely different financial climates?

 

Look man im no trying to argue with you, but even my dad had to give up his season book because he couldn't afford the £500 quid so did numerous people i know, but alot of them are still buying the odd ticket for away games etc but they are out of work because or this "recession" and the way things are going atm it look like a wont have a job soon either and will probaly have to give up my book aswel..

 

so you , your dad and numerous people you know all out of work? the 20,000 missing off the gate and the 10-15,000 supposedly on the waiting list a few yrs ago are all out of work. come on !

 

It's not about just being out of work - most people in the country are winding their spending in just now, even those with jobs.

 

didnt say my dad was out of work,,, but alot of people i know are out of work aye

Maybe has to do with the age because majority of them have not long been served there time as tradesman and as the saying goes "last in first out"

 

you either support your team or you dont. if we had the larssons, suttons, petrovs , bellamys and keanes all here we would have 60, 000 every week. that i have no doubt ! its fair weather supporters. supporters that have been spoilt with recent success. they can all use the same old excuses but thats just exactly what it is .... excuses !!

 

How the * can you go to the game if you dont have the money too?

 

* bless DD he is you're modern day Fergus McCann, If he puts a fiver in, everyone expects him to spend tenner............

Well wait a minute who in there right mind would put hundreds of millions of pounds into a Scottish club without holding nothing but passion for the club.

 

You might want to rethink that. There's plenty of us that can't afford to go games.

If not going to games makes you less of a supporter that's fairly ironic, considering Celtic was set up to help the poor!

This is getting off topic btw, should probably get back OT.

 

Good for you dazza, that you're financially well off enough that the current financial state of the world hasn't touched you, but you're being incredibly * arrogant to look down on people that have had to stop coming because they can't afford it, yes I'm sure there are a few spoiled fans who only come when we're winning, but there are a * of a lot that genuinely can't justify the money right now and have had to cut back on their spending, get off your high horse saying they could afford it if they really wanted, that's out of order.

 

C'mon man any supporter over 20 had to endure the 90's regime and if they went to parkhead when we where winning a dont hold any grudge against them, i just dont think celtic attract glory hunters at all haha cmon, a scottish team getting support from people that are only after glory?

At todays prices for football i see myself as being the idiot for actually paying it ..