Celtic plc Interim Report

A loss isn't unexpected in Covid times, but it could have been a lot better if they hadn't sacrificed European revenue through a total lack of ambition in their managerial appointment.

 

Not a mention of the belter of a Christmas advert

No wonder we are *

 

Loss was always expected, but I think the sale of Frimpong, Elhamed and Hendry will offset that. Add in Christie, Edouard, Ajer and Ntcham leaving in the summer for around £35-40 million and we should be pretty healthy financial wise.

Doesn't excuse anything that's happened this season of course, and we need to take into account that we're most likely missing out on CL revenue again next year.

 

We'll be in the Europa next season, of that there is no doubt.

The Huns will be in the CL, their route is basically a bye.

They'll be in a better financial state than us next season.

That is Lawwell, Lennon the rat, and Desmond's legacy.

 

Another slap in the face, I can think of something(someone) else having a damaging effect.

"The prolonged summer transfer window, the impact of Covid-19 and, crucially, the loss of our passionate support at matches have undoubtedly had a damaging effect on our performance levels in domestic and European competitions, but we recognise that our performance has not been good enough"


How does an elephant that size fit in the boardroom?!

 

Not at nearly a grand that a lot are paying just now

 

They won't be losing 60K season tickets if Lennon stays. There will be at least 30K who will still renew. There's a bigger problem here than just the manager. The club and other football clubs in the 90% of leagues throughout the world will be suffering big time financially with the fall out of the Pandemic. The future is not looking great for the majority of clubs like us who do not play in the Big 4 leagues.

 

I agree we were so far in front money wise of the zombies and now to this * in the league this season and the mismanagement at the club has been heart breaking .
Now we have a major rebuilding job in the summer with maybe 50 million of talent going out the door and how much will the board invest in new players is it a down sizing job we are about to see and that would be a slap in the face to the supporters .
We will see the ambition of this board who they appoint as manager and that will give you a idea what kind of players we will be targeting .

 

If we have to sell our best players to survive going forward in the short term then how are we going to replace players like Edouard & Ajer. We still need to stay strong on the player front. The loss of match day revenue and from merchandise will hit us just like 95% of football clubs out side of the BIG tier of clubs

 

Being honest given we signed so many players in the summer and only sold Kouassi I was expecting the loss to be far higher than £5.9m.

I know in the interim results we normally have an operational profit at this stage before falling to a loss by the end of the season (without CL football) but given the current circumstances the fact there is a small loss is no surprise.

The reason for the overall loss is more to do with no player sales compared with £25m for Tierney the year before whilst we spent £13m vs £15m last year.

The cash at bank being £19.7m is not bad either as I would have expected that to be lower but the majority of that will go in the second half of the season. However, this will have been somewhat replenished by the sale of Frimpong so I would expect a end of year position to still be positive having offset our transfer spend and operational losses.

As others have mentioned, we also have the likely departure of Eddy, Ntcham, Christie and Ajer to bring in some cash, say hypothetically you get £18m; £5m; £8m; and £15m respectively for those that’s £46m back in. That’s not counting selling most of those out on loan if their options are taken up and the likes of Bitton and Rogic who have been linked with moves away which combined could raise a further £7.5m-£8m in.

It leaves a massive rebuild but I cannot see the current management team being there to do that (thankfully) the club know they will be well down on season ticket sales if they do which they can’t afford. We will still need to be clever though in our transfer dealings picking up players on bosmans and complimenting that with 4 or 5 signings other signings. We have postponed this sort of rebuild to try win ten to long and ended up where we are due to poor recruitment across the football side both in terms of managed, coaches and players.

If something like the above can be achieved it should still leave the club in a very sound financial position for the longer term with the big caveat fans can return late this calendar year.

 

* the finances. This club is being downsized to improve profit margins in the long term.

 

It would appear we've had our review. You actually couldn't make it up.

 

If by some miracle we win the cup this season...

... would they try to claim we’d one it twice this season?

 

What the * does a ‘prolonged transfer window’ have to do with how * we are?

 

60 seconds of my life I'll never get back reading that snorefest..

 

They can stuck their review up Lennons *..

My review.. complete and utter neglect and failure

My action.. Not a single penny more..

 

Loss was hugely expected, just watch other clubs losses too, I have a feeling -£6m is a walk in the park compared to some clubs.

 

I agree we have a huge job on our hands here and have made a shambles out of what should have been a certainty but I do believe a lot of this chat about Rangers financially surpassing us and it being long term are a bit premature.

Rangers like us, in fact more so than us will post a considerable loss this season. What is failed to be mentioned in the revenue catching up chat is that their operational expenditure has raised to close the gap to ours as well.

They have never really sold any players to date which they have admitted themselves they will need to start doing. They have racked up over £60m of debt already in the form of convertible soft loans and that’s before the Covid effect is felt. They are currently doing more share drives to try get money in again to keep them going.

They also have the limiting factor of being able to sell in the region of 8,000-10,000 less season tickets and are more reliant on match day than us. I laugh at how lucrative the Europa League is being made out this year as they have done well in it, when any other season it is dismissed as second rate. Don’t get me wrong it is necessary as a minimum to get to the groups but like us they will have lost out by not being able to sell any ticket packages. They will have made some more European income from prize money but will have a cost base not dissimilar to our own now, their season ticket sales will be worth less than ours. They can’t let fans in and their commercial deals aren’t as lucrative.

The big disaster is the fact they will have a crack at CL next year but that would have been the case anyway, though it is through the easier champions route rather than the other. However given what they have done to get to this position much like dead Co is massively speculating. They will need to qualify for CL in order for in the first time in their existence be in a position where their revenue covers their costs.

The only way we would be in a much better financial position than we are now is if we had qualified for the CL more regularly. In Scotland the revenues hit a glass ceiling other than inflationary rises pretty quickly. Merchandise, sponsorship, TV money and prize money all have a pretty low ceiling. The only other thing that has potential to be a game changer is player sales.

 

Shambolic that it takes a side question to the SLO to get confirmation that today was the results of the "review"

The "review" was that poor and useless the * couldn't even bring themselves to admit this was it.

Honest to *, this club is a joke at present. This season needs to * end already and a clear out to happen.