Peter Lawell ,Your View.

Yes I agree that Lawwell has done a great job reducing the club's debt, but let's not forget the part that the majority of the Celtic supporters have played in backing the club since Fergus Mc Cann walked away with his pockets full of money.

My concern is that it's swung too far in the other direction, I don't think many of us would disagree that the current pool of talent at Celtic Park is the poorest we've witnessed, two million of debt is nothing compared to our annual turnover.

I want them to back Tony Mowbray by investing in his ideas for the team, they brought him in, now back the manager.

 

you cant have it both ways we are either financially prudent or not and spending money that we arent gauranteed is not what i would call great fiscal policy

 

I've touched on it in another couple of threads but I think it's hard to deny that Peter Lawell has been anything other that GOOD for Celtic.

There is however a slight danger that the impatient element of our support, just like there is at every other club, will not understand that we can't spend big anymore.

In a world where we are fed a 24-hour diet of football from all over the globe, it's " chelsea spend big ", " man utd break the bank " , " Real Madrid's Glacticos ", " CSKA's 20 million brazilian striker ", fantasy stuff, a position we'll probably never ever be in. Some fans see these teams splashing the cash and think, why are WE not doing that ? is that not what football teams do ? well, some do, but we cant.

It's Lawells job to make sure we continue to exist at a level that's reasonable considering our resources.. It's a hard job and I think he's done it particularly well.

 

I'd agree that it's not prudent to spend money not guaranteed, but if it wasn't for our fiscal policy then we wouldn't have been able to afford to back Tony Mowbray in the summer, so our prior prudence enabled our current overspending :icon_mrgreen:

 

I think he has set about - with the rest of the board - to turn Celtic into a company rather than a football club, a club founded on very different principles to those being adhered to today. I'm rather new to the forum so i don't know whats been discussed before in regards to Politics etc, but I feel that this change of emphasis is doing more harm than good, it's all very well have a nice balance sheet but unless we are spending money to improve the squad the club won't make as much money. If the punters get fed up of finishing second year in year out they will stop going, reducing profits and making it harder to muster a decent team on the park. Money must be spent in order to remain competitive, and more emphasis on the club's historical mission must be considered.

 

Absolutely spot on pal, Lawwell and the board don't give a * about the fans anymore. I dislike them greatly.

 

I agree here

 

There must be continual investment in the team but we must not overspend. We are limited in what we can afford, whether all fans can accept that is a different matter.

The Celtic Charity fund continues on the historical mission of the club and nowadays we do a lot more for charity through this and the Celtic in the community programmes than we ever did under the Kelly's.

 

I agree that we must be wise with money, but there is being wise and then there is not spending enough to be better than the worst rankers team I have ever seen.

The Charity fund, also, is a commendable part of the club. The nature of the club however has been diluted in my opinion, I don't know if it is taboo on here to discuss the poppies, John Reid's role in Iraq or whatever but that puts a huge question mark over the boards commitment to the founding principles IMO.

 

Why do people always say this ? No one is asking to overspend and put ourselves into tens of miilions of debt. However money does need to be spent.

Continuing with our charity work is the least I would expect tbh considering the history of our club. But our fanbase has certainly started to change over the years which saddens me. Due to the extortianate ticket prices we see less and less of the working class at games (and more middle class suits) as they simply just can't afford the prices set by Lawwell and his cronies, who are also continually trying to shove the "product" down our throats. They disgust me they really do.

 

The political aspects of the club can be discussed on the forum freely in the appropriate threads, if you have a look you'll see plenty of political discussions either in Celtic Chat or the Pub section

Spending 6 million on players plus 2 million getting the manager in is spending money imo - especially when we had no guarantee of any European income at the time and the collapse of the TV Deal. So to spend 8million in a time when no other club in Scotland is investing anywhere close to that shows they are committed to improving the team.

They made a mistake in January, I hope they've learned from it, time will tell on that front.

How much would you suggest is spending enough?

Unfortunately football as a whole has changed, that's not the fault of the Celtic board, throughout the UK atmospheres have deteriorated partly because of the change in demographics of those attending.

We are not continuing the charitable arm of the club, we've restarted it as it was non existent for years.

 

While i'd love to be spending big money on players and paying them top wages,i know in the current climate that is totally unrealistic.So i have to say that while sometimes it's infuriating(last Jan)i have to take my hat off to the way Lawell has systematicaly brought down our debt and made funds available to keep us successful.Just ask yourself this,how good does it feel to see the financial mess that the huns are in and know for a fact that while Lawell is doing his job theres no chance of us being in the same predicament.Balance sheets mean * all to supporters until they read £30 million in debt!!

 

i know not a lot about the money side of celtic ,but i think that by tighting up on the money front to keep the club at a level that they dont go into dept has two sides to it ,,one its working ,as we are not in danarageos dept,and two its counterprotave as we have not got the players to challange the leauge ,never mind the other euopean cups ,,so as we clear our dept ,we also slide into decline with results on the field ,,now with that ,i think that we should go for it in january,,,,, and buy ,buy and buy ,,, then we get back to cleareing up our dept,,from ferbary onwards ,,we a able to do it again ,as we have done with our dept berore ,,but this time we have a team that will be playing at the hightest level,and contestings cup finales and we will recoupe some of the money spent in january,,slan

 

The neighbours might be in a financial mess, but they are top of the league. They won't fold, you know that and I know that. With a little ambition we could dominate Scotland for years to come, the interest payments on debts is less than the tax from running at a profit, so a sustainable debt is beneficial in the current climate. Spend just shy of 10 million including that from outgoing players tranfer fee's and salaries, that isn't unrealistic. Lawell is creating his "company"with complete disregard to the paying customers, how would you like it if your mechanic used old brakes on your motor because they were cheaper for him? Same goes if you buy cheap, stop gap players while still increasing the prices for season tickets and individual match tickets. In another company his stlye would be seen to be good, but his policies and practices aren't suited to a football club or any other kind of company of similar function.

 

We got our debt down before because of share issues that the fans subscribed to, there's only so many times you can do that, and in this financial climate where everyone is feeling the pinch it would not work.

 

The only team in Scotland I care about is Glasgow Celtic, I don't really care about how much other team's spend.

I hope they have learned from it as well but the cynic in me thinks that they have not.

I couldn't suggest an exact figure, however the fact is that it is a necessity we spend money on improving this current team. There is absolutely no escaping it.

It has indeed but our board should be doing more to accomodate the rank and file of our support - the working class. The constant forcing of the product down our throat also * me off and the way in which they try and pull on our heart-strings with all this "Faithful through and through" rubbish is despicable. They actually try to guilt trip is into spending our money on the team.

 

My season ticket has been the same price now for 3 seasons (in fact this season it was a lot cheaper but that was due to the good exchange rate I got :icon_mrgreen

We spent £8million in the summer, not far off the £10 million you suggested so where you happy with that?

Also would the £10million include wages (better players would want higher wages than those leaving the club so the shortfall would still have to be made up)?

 

The 10 million I suggested is to improve the squad we have right now. And this would include wages. I don't think the recent additions to the squad will be on the same wages as the likes of Gravesen, Keane, Naka, Sutton, Hartson, Larsson, Thompson, Balde, Petrov, Lennon, JVOH who were all on salaries around the 30k mark. If the board was still reducing debts at this point then surely there will be some breathing space within the wage budget to the tune of around 300,000 left over from these players?

 

I agree that a sustainable debt is not a problem,i also think that your analagy about cheap brakes is more to do with the manager spending the money not the chief exc sanctioning the amount, lawell didn't spend £1.5m on Adam Virgo for example.There has been Millions wasted by managers in recent years that goes for MON and WGS.Ultimately Lawell is answerable to Desmond and the other shareholders so he might be willing to spend more only to be told no.Also what type of players are we going to get for these millions the days of big names coming to SPL are over

 

Well the manager can only work with his budget, i'm sure if there was more flexibility then we wouldn't need to loko at the likes of Virgo in the first place. In regards to signing these new players, research and scouting can unearth hidden gems, remember that two of our best players of the last 20 years, Lubo and Henrik didn't burst the bank.