13 May 2024 19:42:46
Seeing MoN in the media a bit more it would be good to find out how he managed to entice the Board to part with the money they spent on most of the 2003 squad. Even compared to where we are just now some heavy, heavy money was spent.
13 May 2024 19:57:31
I seem to remember we finished the previous season to MON's arrival 21 points behind Oldco and he would have had a very strong case. Another factor may have been that Lawell wasn't CEO until 2003?
13 May 2024 20:35:03
Dermot Desmond employed P L to undo the harm that M O ‘ N did to Celtic shorty and medium term finances . M O’N spent a comparable amount to what Rangers had spent in the three yrs previously bu Rangers went off on a massive spending spree backed by EBT’s whilst Celtic had to cut back their spending.
13 May 2024 22:59:36
Martin O’Neill (Jun 2000 – May 2005)
47 Craig Bellamy, (loan) from Newcastle, Jan 2005 [BBC]
02 Stephane Henchoz, free from Liverpool, Jan 2005 [BBC]
56 Teddy Bjarnason, free from KR Reykjavik, Dec 2004 [BBC]
53 Kjartan Finnbogason, free from KR Reykjavik, Dec 2004 [BBC]
07 Juninho, free from Middlesborough, Aug 2004 [BBC]
27 Henri Camara, (£1.5m loan fee) from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aug 2004 [BBC]
35 Paul Lawson, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jul 2004 [Link]
43 Jacob Lensky, unattached, Jun 2004 [BBC]
46 Aiden McGeady, promoted from Celtic Academy, Apr 2004 [Link]
01 Danny Milosevic, free from Leeds United, Jan 2004 [BBC]
11 Stephen Pearson, £350,000 from Motherwell, Jan 2004 [BBC]
02 Michael Gray, (loan) from Sunderland, Sep 2003 [BBC]
49 Scott Cuthbert, promoted from Celtic Academy, Aug 2003 [Link]
45 Jim O’Brien, promoted from Celtic Academy, Aug 2003 [Link]
44 Stephen McManus, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jul 2003 [Link]
37 Craig Beattie, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jul 2003 [Link]
23 Stanislav Varga, free from Sunderland, Feb 2003 [BBC]
48 Darren O’Dea, free from Home Farm, Feb 2003 [BBC]
26 Javier Sanchez Broto, free from Livingston, Jan 2003 [BBC]
16 Ulrik Laursen, £1.5m from Hibernian, Aug 2002 [BBC]
21 Magnus Hedman, £1.5m from Coventry City, Aug 2002 [BBC]
62 Scott Fox, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jul 2002 [Link]
38 Rocco Quinn, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jun 2002 [Link]
12 David Fernandez, £1m from Livingston, May 2002 [BBC]
33 Ross Wallace, promoted from Celtic Academy, May 2002 [Link]
40 Michael Gardyne, promoted from Celtic Academy, Jan 2002 [Link]
10 John Hartson, £6m from Coventry City, Aug 2001 [BBC]
30 Steve Guppy, £700,000 from Leicester City, Aug 2001 [BBC]
03 Mohammed Sylla, £700,000 from St Johnstone, Aug 2001 [BBC]
21 Michael Herbet, free from Paris Saint-Germain, Aug 2001 [BBC]
06 Bobo Balde, £900,000 from Toulouse, Jul 2001 [BBC]
18 Neil Lennon, £5.75m from Leicester City, Dec 2000 [BBC]
36 Ramon Vega, (loan) from Tottenham Hotspur, Dec 2000 [BBC]
20 Rab Douglas, £1.2m from Dundee, Oct 2000 [BBC]
08 Alan Thompson, £2.75m from Aston Villa, Sep 2000 [BBC]
17 Didier Agathe, £50,000 from Hibernian, Sep 2000 [BBC]
22 David Marshall, promoted from Celtic Academy, Aug 2000 [Link]
09 Chris Sutton, £6m from Chelsea, Jul 2000 [BBC]
05 Joos Valgaeren, £3.8m from Roda FC, Jul 2000 [BBC].
14 May 2024 00:03:08
Some list not many on that though that would be invited to events! Even like who? And through my time. It's like Varga, Balde, Lennon as I skimmed? I'm fickle.
14 May 2024 00:10:42
Roughly £6million a season and pl was brought in to stop that? . no wonder we've become outside of spl also rans who can't compete in the third tier of European tournament.
{Ed007's Note - Celtic took out a long term loan to fund MON, a loan we only paid off 12/18 months ago, there were players back then getting paid more than some of our current Star players. One of MONs final acts as manager was sanctioning a £30k + a week deal for Balde even though there were signs he was on the decline. After MON left both WGS and Peter Lawwell accused Balde of being not interested in training/playing and only after the money, Balde played 33 times under WGS in his first season and played 14 times over the
final 3 years of his mega deal.
Celtic were a financial mess under MON, that's just cold hard facts.:
14 May 2024 07:50:03
Cheers Pedro free duds aplenty in that lot.
14 May 2024 09:29:55
My memory was Lawell treated Balde appallingly simply because he refused a transfer when he wanted him off the wage bill. Balde refused ( quite rightly ) because the new terms were about 6k per week and no settlement. Strachan was then ordered to send Balde to train with the kids. Strachan’s remit was to reduce the playing wage bill while Lawell’s salary and bonus’s went up, with the usual consequences, remember the Neuchatel Xamax humping?
To be fair, Strachan worked wonders with restraints he had to work with.
14 May 2024 11:23:16
Gordon Strachan did a brilliant job after O’Neill.
Gordon had 2 main goals in his 1st season.
To obviously win the league and to bring down the huge average age of the 1st team squad.
Strachan went on to have a brilliant record as the Celtic Manager and I reckon his squad of players is easily the fittest team I’ve seen at Celtic.
Strachan still received criticism because our fans wanted more entertainment, but his results were good.
14 May 2024 12:14:57
Yes, GS was very good for us. An example of how it doesn't have to be a Celtic man at the helm. Lots of respect for him.
14 May 2024 13:15:40
Everything often has a need and a use. We needed the MO'N method when we got him because Rangers and their cheating and at that time Rangers were planning their EBTs and thought they were so superior. Murray was good at telling the very attentive SMSM his plans to make Rangers a worldwide star club. Maybe if it wasn’t for O’Neil, Murray wouldn’t have made Rangers the worldwide laughingstock.
Martin brought the belief back amongst fans and players. The club were no longer looking up at Rangers. He destroyed Dick Advocaat and although he grossly overspent, maybe we needed that money boast. But fair play to WGS he was a hero, despite what Rangers continued to spend, he kept Celtic more than competitive.
Media tried to cause division between him and fans, but WGS kept up the good work and destroyed them with his one liners. Since MO'N money has never been spent so freely, but Celtic have always sat at the top of the top table.
15 May 2024 00:20:46
Despite PL big and greatly overpaid salary, it still wouldn’t have paid a decent salary for a decent player . We could have saved up to £600K per year by paying PL a modest salary . That amounts to about £1200 per week which doesn’t entice a ny better than an average player to us.