11 Jul 2015 14:52:20
Dear All,
I just wanted to say how fortunate/lucky we are to have this well-administered site. All views, no matter the viewpoint, are promptly listed and debated and it is a cracking example of how a fans forum should operate.
The more we post and debate, the more inclined I am to pop on and see what's what. Our Ed has some very "fixed" ideas on the rights and wrongs of our club's workings and the abilities (or lack of) of certain players and that, in itself, makes for a colourful debate, Ed never being shy to weigh in with his customary dose of sarcasm!
At the end of the day, its all about varying points of view, but this forum provides me with a phenomenal barometer of "where we're at" as a fan base in terms of mood, current thinking, and connectivity with the team and the board.
It still never ceases to amaze me how we all interpret the same events differently. Again, it just goes to show how we consume, process and interpret information differently especially when posting on player ratings and influence etc.
We may not have the capacity to accommodate marquee signings, and we may play in the SPFL with its obvious drawbacks, but we do have a great little thing going here with our forum and I would just like to thank the people who make it possible.
The "celticrumours" website is now a part of my daily online diet. I won't list the monikers that I follow and who's views I like to keep track on, but if you are posting keep on posting because I read all of it and enjoy it immensely.
Ed, any chance of a poll that deals with fans current view on Peter Lawell and his performance as Chief Executive. not sure how you would word the question without it being loaded.
Hail Hail
11 Jul 2015 17:12:03
Good post as usual mate I beginning to wonder if you do this just to get on my Post of the year competition lol. Re Lawell though he seems to be taking flak about not signing better players rightly or wrongly. I think if you spoke to fans of Barca, Real, Manchester United they would probably say the same thing. Now let's imagine for 1 minute we went out and bought that 5M player, and everything is wonderful and he turns out to be everything we imagine. Now that player will not be on 15-20k it will be more like 30-35k. I am no mathematician but with say a 4 year deal with the usual costs (Ed will know better than I)this player could cost us anything between 12-14m.Yes there may be a residual value for the player but there is no guarantee, he could lose form, get injured or we might not make CL in those years and his value drops drastically. Now the question is it worth the gamble or is Lawell looking after the best interests of the club? I like every other supporter want the best players possible playing for us, but we have to be realistic and accept at the price we currently paying for a player (2M)it is already a gamble but at least he won't be on silly money if it goes pear shaped.
11 Jul 2015 19:13:45
PW bang on about this site, part of my daily football diet:
rayman: Our issue is this we work within our budget, and PL tries to balance the books.
1 x £5m player would cost a fortune( Wages and all) and yes we do have the money,however do we want to spend it?.
A £5m player in our league is a run of the mill player in England. So we then look to the manager to enhance then team and the current players we have from within, and turn them into £5-10m players. Now I know that over the piece we will only have a few players who make that grade, but its the team we are interested in not just individuals.
In RD we have a manger that can see a player that fits his ethos and a players that enhances our team.
1 bad £5m player and the knives are out.
lets be careful for what we wish for.
11 Jul 2015 19:18:07
Good posts guys. I think that a lot of our fans need to understand where we are. We are,without doubt, a big club. There are clubs in the EPL,and indeed the Championship if they just came down,who have an income that dwarfs ours. We just cannot compete with what they will offer a player.
That being said, our clubs change of direction with regards to coaching and playing youth, if implemented properly, should help us prosper. If we can coach,and more importantly play them,young players to a first team level at age 19-20 then we will keep them longer.Financially we are not at the races.factor in the league we play in and the attraction to come here diminishes. quickly.
We have to work the system to our advantage.Pick up young talent who see us as a place where young players thrive.A place where they can play CL football,which sadly in my view is now a total cash cow and has lost it's integrity. But it remains the place every player wants to be.We also have archaic rules regarding young foreign players to compete with. As for the finances.
We would all love it if we could spend £5-6m on a player,but I do believe Mr Lawwell was being a touch deceitful on that one.I would like him to explain how that would work.I certainly don't expect it any time soon.Not since Desmonds soft loan to help MON splurge have we even considered that level of investment.Then there is Lenny.Even his biggest fans have to admit he blew a lot of cash,in Scottish terms. Lastly,Mr Lawwell himself.
I,like many other fans have had occasion to doubt some decisions,no question. His salary has had many questioning his worth. Take it from me,his salary is not excessive compared to some who do the same job only not as good. He runs Celtic the business. people need to separate the two.Without access to full accounts we do not know the financial lay of the land. My opinion is let him get on with it,let Ronny get on with the playing side and let us back both.
11 Jul 2015 20:21:05
Agree GJ, though I think you will find with Lenny though he may have "blew" a few million he defo brought in more than he spent.
11 Jul 2015 20:32:42
@ rayman: Good point mate and helps prove mine. if players see VVD,Victor and Forster making their name it makes us a good option for advancement. European exposure is vital to put yourself in the shop window.
11 Jul 2015 21:01:52
Green jhedi, I think that the only way that Celtic can progress is to qualify for the Champions league year on year, as much as I love winning trophies in Scotland, it does very little for our bank balance or our ability to attract better players.
As you say we can't go out and spend £5 million players, the question is are we doing enough?.
The riches we would earn from the Champions league is such that I'm surprised Peter Lawwell doesn't make it his number one priority every season, the way the draw works, we don't have to play teams from the major league's to qualify, out of all the teams we could play in each round we are probably the biggest club in there, so to get past these teams shouldn't be beyond us, to me it's just about showing a little ambition.
In my opinion Lawwell is more scared of failure, rather than taking the positive view of seeing the riches that are there waiting for us, and make sure we get there, we're not talking a huge amount of money.
I'm all for developing young players, but this can only take you so far, if you just rely on that, we are just going to be a bigger version of Crewe Alexandra, they produce good young players, but never benefit from them themselves, it's other clubs who reap the rewards.
I just find it difficult to accept, that although we play in a poor league, we can't do a lot better than that.
11 Jul 2015 22:04:56
@gerryc: Of course CL should be the number one priority,the cash earned from qualification to the groups sees to that, But the variable is the coefficient. We are trapped,very much like the Scotland team,in a cycle of poor results like St Johnstone the other night. We also have the hazard of playing teams well ahead in terms of competitive games. Qualification is not a given.
I can see your point about the riches on offer but we must never assume we will get to the group stage.Then their is the players,sign for us we MIGHT be in the CL? Between wages and a maybe CL it's a hard sell.
12 Jul 2015 09:59:12
I love the way fans just assume if we leave the Scottish league, we'll be challenging Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Why do we come to this conclusion?
Liverpool have a massive fan base and so do a few other Clubs around the world - would fans be happy this, maybe next year?
Why do we assume PL is holding us back or something, I feel indifference towards him - don't know him, don't dislike or like him. He runs a business and a football club, who on here has done that?
I know I'd be quite poor, I'm a heart ruling head kinda person and we'd have Stevie G on loan this January 😛