I have lose interest! Well so I think?

I agree with everything you've said in those last three posts, ILTC. The number of Liverpool fans in Dublin really brought home to me how much we're suffering as a result of our domestic limitations. You see it in Scotland as well. The number of Chelsea and Manchester City jerseys that you see people wearing now is * sickening. We could end up with a lost generation of supporters in certain areas of Ireland where there's maybe less of a political culture. If you're only interested in the football on show, you're going to look to the English Premier League before you look here.

I think your idea for a regionalised European super League is excellent, as well.

P.S. This isn't anything to do with losing interest in Celtic, really. If you've grown up a Celtic fan and switch allegiances for those reasons, good riddance.

 

I don't know how any true Celtic fan could ever lose interest.....

 

Don't mean to be rude but the Pyramids are still here and the Forth bridge is collapsing....

The EPL's bubble will burst.

 

My next door neighbour always wears a liverpool top. He is a 1st class * of a boy though. What gets on my nerves is the amount of Scots i see wearing england tops. Especially that rancid away top. * is wrong with them?

 

I agree 100%. Our product is frankly rubbish and I think if you take out Celtic and Rangers from Scottish football, you are left with a product that most global audiences would consider in line with Irish and Welsh leagues.

If it was worth more, we would get more.

I share your pessimism, but fundamentally why should a team like Celtic not lose their best players to these teams? Nottingham Forest has just as strong a European pedigree as Celtic. Southampton has brought through more young talent than Celtic has in the last couple of decades, but like us they have had to sell their talent. I see no reason to believe that we are somehow more worthy than they are when it comes to buying and selling players.

People forget that the 60,000 fans we got under ONeil was a bubble period during which the economy was in a bubble, and Celtic was spending more than ever before. Look at our crowds pre-1997. Our average crowd ranged between 15k-30k for pretty much our entire history before that. We enjoyed a bubble period that allowed us to expand our brand and attract more fans to the extent that we doubled our average crowd over a decade.

Why should these teams not enjoy a bubble period in which they out grow us in the exact same way we out grew our rivals in Scotland to such a huge extent? Sheffied Wednesday for example have been decimated in the last couple of decades yet they get an average crowd of 25k or so playing in the Championship. This is more than we got playing in the top league in Scotland during the early 80s and early 90s when we werent winning league titles every year.

People talk about the EPL bubble bursting but that will not happen for a very long time to come, and when it does come you will have teams who have been able to expand their brand and create a history of the own to sell.

I detest the "we are bigger than you" type arguments we see on here sometimes, but I really think we kid ourselves on a bit when we have this assumed superiority over teams like Southampton and Nottingham Forest. No team has a natural right to anything.

 

No they dont, in their whole History Nottingham Forest have only played 50 European games. Samaras has played more European games than that.

We bring in almost as much money in merchandise sales in a year alone as Nottingham Forest do in total in a year around £16-18million.

If we were in the same League as Southampton or Nottingham Forest then they wouldnt even be able to see us over the horizon.

 

I think the crowds pre the redevelopment of Celtic Park are disorientated by circumstance and just the way it was back then. Season tickets were not even half as prominent as they are today and the club didn't sell them as such. Celtic had as big as if not bigger fansbase in Scotland then than now imo..

 

Thought provoking, as always. Probably true, definitely depressing

 

But you are only comparing merchandise sales after we have enjoyed a huge marketing drive and financial bubble that so far Nottingham Forest have missed out on. And I would bet over the next decade our merchandise sales will decline relative to the many smaller clubs in the EPL.

I am not bashing Celtic, and I dont get why people care about how is bigger than who. But the EPL is a global machine, and over the next 10 years or so I believe we will be dwarfed by supposedly smaller clubs who have access to this type of branding. I watched Man City v Sunderland play a friendly in a torrential storm in Hong Kong pre season and the super stadium in which they played was packed by locals. And every one was head-to-toe in Man City and Sunderland merchandise. Of course we have a big support in places like Ireland and the US, but these EPL clubs are so much bigger in the BRIC nations compared to us or almost anyone else. I bet ten years ago you would have laughed at the idea of Man City and Sunderland having tens of thousands of fans in Hong Kong, and random teams like Norwich and even championship teams like QPR fightng to take our best players. I see no reason why this trend will not continue. In fact I think it is a near certainty

EDIT: worth noting that I dont believe this is the main reason why people are staring to lose interest. I think the main reason is having zero competition and tickets being too expensive. But when you have an overpriced league that is poor quality and has little competition in it, having the biggest league in the world on your doorstep doesnt help.

 

Peter Lawell

His favourite bullshit line "big club mentality"


Big on terms of fans

Big on terms of history

But not big on terms of spending or ambitions..


Replacing our best players with *

 

Well this thread certainly has one of the weirdest and most philosophical titles I've ever read on here.

 

The point about the number of Liverpool fans in Dublin is interesting. We've lost a lot of interest from the Irish community in recent years, for whatever reason. My guess is, if you're Irish and don't come from a Celtic supporting family, you're very unlikely to pick us as your team given the blanket media coverage of the BPL.

 

Im just * off in general the now with celtic

 

There have always been more Liverpool supporters in Dublin than Celtic supporters, for a number of reasons (not least the proximity of Liverpool to Dublin, in the same way that Celtic support is concentrated in the northern half of Ireland due to the proximity of and historic migration to and from Scotland).

Support for EPL clubs in Ireland is governed as much by fashion as by passion - while there are plenty of diehard Irish Liverpool and Man U supporters (anyone who pretends otherwise is kidding themselves), it's not an exaggeration to say that those who "support" (i.e., buy the top of and claim to support) e.g. Sunderland one season because of the number of Irish players in it will support the most "Irish" club next season.

Secondly, a lot of Irish people all over Ireland and in the diaspora have a soft spot for Celtic. They identify with Celtic in a passive sense as an Irish club, and indeed many of them buy merchandise as part of this, even if they don't watch the team.

It's common to hear people switch their EPL club and yet still keep Celtic as their "second club".

Also, you don't have to come from a Celtic-supporting family to be a Celtic supporter and the growth of CSCs all over Ireland in the last twenty years is testament to the fact that large numbers of Irish people are supporting Celtic even though their parents and even grandparents may have supported English clubs (or not even followed soccer at all).

I am very optimistic about the position of Celtic all over Ireland.

 

These threads will be hilarious if we win 5-0 on Wed and we sign 2 more players..

Then it'll be the old 'Saint Peter, Pistol Pete done it again' stuff coming out.

Oh to be a football fan!

 

Even if Celtic drop down and become a League 2 side I would never lose interest. Celtic is the only thing that has stayed constant in my life whereas everything else has changed or been lost. I just can't imagine life without Celtic.

 

Cufk the board back the team.

 

This sums up my thinking as well

 

Op, still losing interest ?

 

Is this to me? I sayd earlier In the thread there was many reasons...

1 was the section my stance inside the stadium would I still be there will I even want to go back? Well I'm back in my normal seat happy? Yes I am but I'm still * off at what lawell done and expect it to fully happen again !

2 my second was the way lawell wasn't spending money when we are all investing year in year out on top of probably bringing in the most income for Europe ever with players being sold too we haven't done much! Am I still * off? Yes I am! I think it will change but over he next three days we shall see

Nights like tonight make me forget things like this for a while but by he'll that feeling will fade and ill start thinking like this again IMO come Saturday if we haven't pulled a few faces in and spent money ill feel cheated like many others!

2 weeks ago I was at my lowest with the club things will look up for now but these problems will come back !