The Bank Of Celtic

Tell that to barkas

 

Banks employ specialists in different sectors and markets to understand what to do with the money they are holding. A bank would make a better job of running us.

We use an archaic manager does everything football model, yet don’t allow them control over a budget for transfer and player salaries? The ideal would be a Director of Football who would be allocated these budgets and then it is up to them to decide how they spend it in both cases, keeping in mind it is a their main objective to achieve success on the pitch so giving a few players crazy salaries and annoying the rest won’t achieve that.

The model we have where we have a manager as a defacto director of football without any budget or scouting parameter control goes against everything both a business and football club should do when looking optimise performance.

A Board of Directors for a company with no football experienced should never be setting parameters for scouting profiles of age, value, salary cost etc. They could stipulate that from the players brought in there are expectations that some of these players will appreciate in value and be sold within 3 years for a profit but no further than that.

 

I half agree.

Because we benchmark ourselves to Rangers we seem to consider not going into liquidation as some sort of success. The vast vast majority of teams exist and spend money within their means without a constant threat of liquidation,or feeling the need to refer to the potential for not spending sensibly.

Partly though our good management and partly through Rangers mismanagement, we have transitioned from a duopoly to a monopoly in Scotland. It makes benchmarking tough, but I'm not sure that going forward, just winning in Scotland should be the benchmark. I don't think sitting on a pile of money without spending or investing it is an example of a well run club either - we should be doing more.

 

We shouldn't benchmark against them, rather we should use them as an example of WHAT can happen to a club of similar stature should you live outwith our means (although that said, we probably are too safe in that regards) - unfortunately we are part of a two-team stranglehold on Scottish fitba on a competitive nature, and whilst we play in Scottish fitbe we need to use them as a benchmark, and we're more than happy to do that through our successes (wait till you see the merchandise and party lines when we finally overtake their mythical title as "most successful team in the world"

Again, not seeing our club continually being audited/charged by FFP in a modern-day age when clubs are under this scrutiny whilst being bankrolled by multi-million pound tv deals whilst also being bankrolled by billionairre Sheiks etc, should always be cause for praise.

 

Yeah, don't disagree with that. Ultimately its a balancing act. But I do think what happened to Rangers has become a convenient excuse for Celtic showing a lack of ambition. You can count on one hand how many top tier teams in Europe have been liquidated in the modern era. It's very much the exception to the rule but our board want to refer to it as if its some sort of constant existential threat. There's a huge middleground between going bust and hoarding over 60m pound but going into the Champions League with the likes of Scales and Taylor in your defence. A functioning board should be able to navigate that.

 

Totally agree. We need to open up the purse strings, but again like all transfers it's a gamble.

Although I suppose the issue is how far we are still falling behind in terms of heavyweight football clubs.

Us having say £60m in the bank is like them having £6 in their back pocket...

 

I disagree. Banks take the money you give them and invest it, they don't sit on massive hoards of cash in an environment where inflation outstrips interest. The biscuit tin mentality is a far cry from the world of banking I'm afraid.

 

How much of this massive "hoarde" of cash are we actually sitting on though, and what should it be invested in?

 

Out of interest, what do you consider the criteria to be to be described as a “very very well run club”?

We are in an excellent financial position, and are incredibly successful domestically.

Doesn’t really tell the full story.

Very very well run clubs with our resources and standing do not go 20 years without winning a knockout tie in European football.

We have no real footballing structure and our recruitment policy is outdated, slow, ponderous, and unambitious.

Due to this, we now have limited player assets we can capitalise on. Matt O’Riley, Carter Vickers at a push if he can stay fit.

Not to mention the morality of their decision making, and lack of empathy and proactivity regarding our off the field legal issues which will damage the reputation of the club for generations to come.

None of that constitutes a well run club for me.

 

Because we shouldn’t compare ourselves to a team that went bust just over a decade ago. Of course fans are happy being the lost successful club in Scotland since the millennium, but we would have had to completely collapse not to be given the fact our only real challenger went bust. The amount of trophies has been very impressive however, there can be no denying that.

To be honest, I’m past caring about us being in a great financial position, because it doesn’t reflect the team on the park, which as a supporter, is all that really matters. I want to see the best Celtic team possible. I’m not seeing that because we have a board that are incapable of taking us forward. Near two decades of European failure tells us that. Having a great bank balance doesn’t make up for seeing my team continually getting embarrassed on the park in Europe. A very well run club would have been able to have us far more competitive in Europe than we have been by reinvesting the money in a sensible way. We haven’t done that.

 

Our balance is in the tens of millions and it should be invested in players because they have a higher potential return than interest.

 

From memory last accounts showed around 70m cash. That doesn't include booked future revenue from this year's champions league (another 25m or so)

That's a ridiculous amount of liquidity just sitting there.

 

The main reason we have so much money is match day income and merchandise - ie the fans.
With the odd UCL pot on top.

We are NOT highly profitable on transfers (despite what they'd have you believe - we are outside top 50)

We are also punching very far below comparable sized clubs in terms of sporting achievement v financial resource.

Are we very well run ambitious club who maximise their potential, clearly not.
Do we have a magnificent fan base who basically fund the whole * organisation no matter what, absolutely.

 

What are you talking about?

The club/Lawwell has already come out and expressed sympathy toward victims, and the matter is now in the hands of solicitors and insurance companies - so what else do you want them to do?

The rest of it, yes of course we can do better and we MUST do better. There's no debating.

We are still a very successful club for our size and stature, which unfortunately to say is small compared to massive teams, albeit we are still a recognized club globally.

 

Apologise on behalf of the club, offer free expert counselling, set up a compensation fund, and admit liability.

All of this would have been a good start, years prior to us being the taken to the courts through a class action case.

Instead they went down the separate entity route to try and swerve it all together, despite clear and obvious intrinsic links between the Club and the Boys Club over a number of years.

Vile, but sadly not sursprising.

 

Already been done. Plus Celtic were - I'm sure - one of the first clubs to ensure safeguarding policies/practices at club football.

As said, the matter is in the hands of the solicitors and the insurance companies in terms of any compensation, and the perpetrators were dealt with in criminal court.

Not sure why you're so desperate to force any issue of it being the CLUB'S fault, unless of course you're insisting the club and those in charge were complicit in it?

And to be honest, I think it's quite disturbing that you've even brought this into a debate about club finances and how well it is run...

 

We're hoarding cash to buy up weapons for the final push for Irish Independence.

Puts a different slant on things don't you think?

Up the Dissidents.

 

I'm sure we can all get on board with that.

 

You have absolutely no idea if any of that is true.

These things are highly nuanced and complicated. To boil it down to a criticism of the current board is so short sighted.