Celtic Banter Archive September 10 2014

10 Sep 2014 17:08:30
Guys 3 things been runnin about my head. The ills of Scottish football and how to find a solution. Problem 1: Teams going into admin.Now it may be difficult to prevent this but surely can be prevented from happenin again. Solution: Once a team goes into admin a person from the SFA/SPFL be appointed onto the new board after they come out of admin to make sure it never happens again and the said Club lives within its means.
Problem 2: Lack of money, again a huge problem not easily fixed.Solution: For me the problem is SKY, the SPFL/SFA must stand up to these people and be counted.Now Scotland gets practically nothing compared to the billions England gets.Per Capita we have much more subscribers to sky. SO they should say enough is enough we are actively going to publicise to all football supporters in Scotland to cancel their subscription and we will set up SPFL Tele on pay per view.Watch the subscriptions drop rapidly and see sky panic.I imagine the threat would be enough for sky to think again about their paltry sum to Scottish football.
Problem 3: I said years ago when we were signing 6 m players we were doing the wrong thing. What we should of done is get a 6M manager (Wenger). Now that may have not been realistic but you never know. with a manager like that consistently finding gems he would a made the club a lot of money and we could a had some top class youngsters playin for us.Now that prob not going to happen, so why not scour Europe for the very best 1 or 2 youth coaches who cannot only make our youngsters better but bring the best youngsters to us.Will pay for itself and more. Now these solutions are not going to be easy but at least they are solutions. Wud be interested to know any of yours guys.

You are correct about sky to me its near to robbery what they give to Scottish teams compared to England (sounds political but not trying to be)
as for teams going in to administration in my opinion you should get one strike then you are out Not fair to the small businesses that you are not going to pay solution a team that goes in to administration can't bring in Any player for 3 years apart from youth then a stringent look at there books for another 3 years to make sure they are living within there means if they can't do that then you have to leave the league for at least 3 years before you can a play again

Are we not scouring all over Europe as it seeking young gems . Surely we need to source more gems and less average or below average young players .

Rayman you make some very valid points and the BEST part of your post is that you are SOLUTION driven; there may be other solutions (some better than others!) but at least you are thinking about solutions…

why is scottish football famished?

why is everyone so keen to go elsewhere?

why are crowds so low?

why is sponsorship so paltry?

why does or youth performance soar up to 15 yrs and drop off a cliff thereafter?

another problem is that VERY FEW (if any) actually support and talk up our game and its merits and potential!!

Take Numan for instance IE VVD should go now….he is not alone. Jackson, Guidi, Keevins, Dodds, McCann. I could go on….they are all quick to question the "ambition" of good players who want to stay.

what do our newspapers add to the game? what do our radio pundits add to our game? Do they make you want to go as a result of reading what they say or tuning in nightly? They will respond by saying that they are calling it as they see it, but they (and the SFA/blazers) are complicit in Scottish football's current slide….

why, why, why why, why ….

Most things can be fixed. I was thinking the other day about something called a CONTRACT (say) between Celtic supporters and the PLC. Let us say that CFC "strategically" decided (post consultation) to increase season ticket sales and let us say that a season ticket binds you to a strip purchase and pre-paid match day food /drink vouchers (IE if you don't use them then the club benefit!). I know this may sound really silly (and unaffordable) and slightly draconian "and not in there spirit of CFC", but let us just say that CELTIC FANS and THE CLUB acknowledged that the only way to get the right/competitive product on the park (via better players on more lucrative contracts) would require an turnover of (say) £60m…(Manchester United for 2013/2014 just fit £433,000,000) for clarity…


The CONTRACT would be very simple. IE with that commitment/revenue we have the following ambitions

league championship
1 domestic cup
ECL qualification
Group qualification IE last 16 minimum
Europa last 8…

(or better)…

If we "targeted" this revenue and worked out how we get to that level of revenue, it would be interesting to assess HOW FAR WE AS CELTIC FANS would be prepared to sacrifice (financially) to have a team on the park that plays wining football, stays together, competes on all fronts, and is not necessarily raided every transfer window….

How far could Celtic push their revenue via

season tickets
match day specific sales
sponsorship
food and drink
retail
TV (national and international)
prize money

One of the issues I think is that WE ALL KNOW WHAT WE WANT and there will be a high level of consistency, but without an Abramovich, we THE FANS are the only ones (as customers) who have the means to raise revenues…

Obviously people can afford to pay more than others and I haven't thought that one through yet, but in lieu of TV/sponsorship and high level prize / appearance money, we can only look forward to dwindling revenues, lack of interest, inferior product and a DIMINISHED celtic…


Going back to your initial point, when revenue is stretched and diminished, you have to work it VERY HARD to make up for this real disadvantage….commitment to youth IF you have the world's best youth coaches ….we could go that way but would CELTIC FANS have the patience to watch players grow (and make mistakes) knowing that they will be punted on at 22….

I fear that the only way to see a competitive Celtic (on the park) is to generate a sufficient level of revenue to make it possible. There will be weird and wacky spells when 3 young players come together and punch above their weight ….making us competitive off a low cost base . but it would be foolish to rely on it every year

how much would we require to turnover and what would the average 1st team weekly wage need to be (in terms of optimum "capacity") to have the above noted ambitions and CAN we get there or more to the point do we have the means and the stomach and desire to help the Board get there…


armchair fans who don't attend …and don't buy merchandise and don't put a penny in to the club (can call themselves "fans" and run around the house when a goal goes in and punch the air) but when that type of fan dominates the Celtic fan spectrum in % terms, that is when we are headed for problems….

it is a 2-way street and we have no right to make demands re investment if we are not prepared to generate the wealth (let us call it the fighting fund) to begin with .

Guys I am amazed sometimes. Tim puts in post about womens football albeit tongue and cheek and gets 13 replies. I put in a post about the serious problems of our game and get 3 replies sums it up really.I really hope we have not turned into Sevconians and do nothing any more. Thank goodness we rose up in the 90s under Matt McGlone or where would we be.I really hope fans have it still in them when the problems are staring you in the face.

Rayman the scottish game needs a total revamp. SFA wasted £ on that weapon henry mcleish producing a pointless audit into the game, producing answers we already knew.

For me its the league structure, far more beneficial adopting pyramid system. My reason for saying that is there is a lot of players in lower leagues who can do a job in SPL that are overlooked.

10 Sep 2014 13:28:57
With everything else going on at our Club let's not forget to take a few moments to remember the man who gave us our greatest triumph in Lisbon. Big Jock passed away today in 1985 RIP big man. Hail, Hail.