For the "Sack The Board" Brigade

Fair enough, you make some good points there, but in response, heres a few points;

I dont know specifically where specific revenue has gone, but i'm guessing that a large portion went on or is planned for wages, the single biggest cost at celtic (and celtic have the 6th biggest wage bill in britain), and most other clubs, by a long way. So unless you are implying that the board have, literally, lined their own pockets with club revenue, it will be going towards business costs.

I dont think we should take as read that Freddy Shephard is telling us the truth, especially when he said that during the transfer negotiations when its all a game of cat and mouse. Remember that, when it was finally announced that CB was going to blackburn, Shephard then said that celtic had done everything in their power to sign him. I dont think we will ever know the truth around that one.

Wages already mentioned, but if we pay less in wages to someone replacing Juninio, and they can hardly make less of a contribution than him, then i've got no arguments.

I dont recall anyone ever saying that we would have a £15m transfer budget - £15m was the value of the share issue they were talking about and everyone just assumed it was destined solely for transfers. I might be wrong, but that is my recollection of it.

It may or may not be realistic that we will ever play in the EPL, but I dont believe the board are lying about it, I think that is genuinely their aim. They see it, rightly, as a far better business environment for celtic to operate in, and are trying everything to get there.

I agree, they have to start being more proffessional about contract dealings.

I've no idea how many shirts were sold, and you're right, as a PLC i'm really surprised how little information is available publically about such matters, and there should be more accountability and transparency.

I think the carling £9m is about the best we can hope for to tell you the truth, and if someone was willing to offer more money, why didn't they?

I'm not a defender of the board, and i've been critical in the past and no doubt the future, but I think its easy to jump on the 'biscuit tin' bandwagon and ignore the facts/realities, and unless the critisism is constructive, fans are in danger of just being dismissed as a bunch of moaners. Critisism should be made constructively where its due, but so should praise.

 

I think it's just that we had our hopes rocketed soo much with MON coming in and signing Sutty, Hartson, Balde, Thompson, Lennon etc - Sutty and Hartson cost £6m EACH, so u can't say they were a waste - but now we're spending £4m in total. We should've been like Porto and capitalised on Seville, but we've went totally backwards, we cruised the league and now we can't even do that.

 

You really shouldn't worry about the transfers. Celtic needed a good goalkeeper - you have Boruc now ( you will be amazed to see what he can do ), you needed a world class striker - you bought one of the best strikers in Europe ( Żurawski ). You have more than solid defence, strong and creative midfielders plus very impressive attack. Stop worrying. Championship is Yours this season easily. It's only a question of how far you will go in Champions League.

 

Thats not how it all works out in Celtic, we could have the best players in the world but the worst luck.

Edit: Not excuses or anything just, why does it always happen to us (( ?

Scott Mcdonald, baldes handball against lyon, larsson leg break, rab * douglas.

 

Not posted here in a while,but the £4 million transfer spend is closer to £8 million.

Zurawski - £2 million
Nakamura - £2.7 million
Virgo - £1.5 million
Aliadiere - £500K season long loan
Boruc - £400K season long loan
Telfer - £200K(Not sure about this signing to be honest)

That's before agents fees and signing on fees.Most clubs in the Premiership aren't even spending that kind of money.

You could argue about spending nearly £1 million on loans,but by the same token you could also argue that MON spent too much money on wages.You pay your money and take your choice but I don't think the board can be accused of not splashing the cash this summer.

 

Nakumura was not 2.7m, he was 1.8m so that´s a million less before i even begin. Boruc has cost us nothing as it is a season long loan with the option of buying him for 400K.

 

Boruc cost us 800k (not sure if that was Euros or £ though) and had an option to buy for a fee that I have forgotten.

 

I can't vouch for the maths here, and I haven't done any research myself, but this seems quite a compelling argument to me. Its from celtic quick news at http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/2005/07/celtics-29million-investment.shtml

Biscuit Tin? Doesn't seem like that to me...



Celtics £29million investment


During the last five years accounts are available (seasons ending 2000-2004) Celtic’s total income was £267,067,000.

In that period they spent £152,396,000 on wages. They spent £89,378,000 on operational costs (which includes everything from police to rates, electricity, catering, telephones and a million other minor items). They also spent £9,827,000 servicing debts, which includes interest payments and all dividends.

Forget about all that amortisation business for a minute which changes how transfers affect the accounts, we are talking cash here; they generated £12,647,000 cash from player sales and paid £57,382,000 cash during the period for players coming into the club.

Total cash spent was £308,983,000, total cash generated was £279,714,000, leaving a shortfall of £29,269,000, making this time at our club one of the most expansive periods of investment in world football history (albeit shadowed by the excesses of Inter Milan during the late 1990’s).

During the period this shortfall was bridged by an increased in year-end debt from £2,169,000 to £15,805,000 as well as the 2001 share issue.

Many in the Scottish media spent this period flogging a duplicitous story the Celtic have under spent their income.

If they acted alone they would cause only limited damage, however, they employ the services of quisling former players and supporters of the club to bellow ‘where is all the money’ as though any doubt ever existed.

Whether these people are too stupid, too lazy, or a bit of both, to accurately report Celtic issues is not important. What is important is that the ‘divide and rule’ strategy which has been so effective in recent years is seen for what it is.

This summer, Celtic are the eighth biggest net spender on transfer fees in world football. While their most immediate competitor have shrunk from the challenge and denied their manager resources, Celtic have renewed their forward push.

They embark on the future with a firm trading position, capable of generating football investment, and with a stadium which will have close to 60,000 supporters at every game – and this is before any moves away from the SPL.

To those who make it their business to knock Celtic; take £29million overspend, over £7million current transfer spend, the Japanese commercial market, near to 60,000 attending fans, seven new players, the Fifa and Uefa Fair Play awards and stick them in the yawing gap that generates most of your coverage.

Celtic will prevail, with or without your stupid and lazy scheming.

 

give the new blokes a chance before raving on
about sackings.hasnt been the greatest pre season
but the team needs to mould.