Thread: Enough is enough, time to go

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, TIME TO GO
Written by Gaudd

Monday, 12 April 2010
Walking back from Hampden was a rather unreal affair, the whole fiasco seemed too implausible to have actually happened, and I'm not just talking about the result. The team's performance against Ross County surpassed even the gloomiest of predictions, so abject was it that no one could have foreseen such a wretched, dispirited display. We have now not only equalled the shambles experienced under John Barnes, we have dug down way beyond that low point to a whole new subterranean level of rank, rotten incompetence. At least during the Dream Team shambles there was obvious cause for optimism if only the right people were appointed to manage the team, Celtic had some outstanding players after all. Now though? Where's the light in the tunnel? Where's the straw to be clutched? It's not the case now that we have good players badly led, we have bad players badly led and with no prospect of either flaw being addressed. We unfortunately find ourselves strawless.

Yet downing a far from consoling pint after the game, I again heard that mindless refrain being uttered at the bar, "we're well run off the pitch but a shambles on it" - I'm paraphrasing of course. It never fails to amaze that we hear this rubbish being punted about on such a consistent basis. If you believe that tosh you have to heap all the blame for Celtic's dramatic decline solely on the heads of two departed managers, while at the same time determinedly ignoring the very real connection between the policies designed to achieve this perfect business model and the abject state of the team. To really swallow this fantasy takes some doing I would have thought, but many seem to have bought it lock, stock and barrel.


Ok, let's be frank about this, Celtic's 'perfect business model' consisted of nothing more than spending as little as possible while hoping to get away with it without too much of a hit. Luckily, and it was sheer luck, Celtic's downsizing for a while failed to generate the deserved punishment as domestic competition dissipated thanks to financial mismanagement over at Ibrox making itself felt in no small way. Unfortunately this appears to have generated a hopelessly flawed belief by the Celtic board in their own tremendous cleverness, so it was full steam ahead for self-congratulatory parsimony. As the competitiveness of Celtic as a football club declined correspondingly the smugness of those responsible increased. When taken to task regarding downsizing club officials invariably sneered and offered up ludicrous comparisons with insanely run clubs while vowing to forever safeguard Celtic from another bankruptcy event, conveniently forgetting that they sanctioned massive spending and large debt in the past when it suited.

Celtic has certainly seen the profits rolling in handsomely the past few years, and the reasons are perfectly understanable but so too is the short-termism of this unstable situation. Put it this way, it remind me of those high flying types who flit around the business world offering instant solutions by drastic cost-cutting. In the short-term these geniuses can alter a balance sheet by shedding jobs, cutting labour costs and so on, and while this will make a business look profitable for a short period there will be a price to pay in the end; usually long after the person responsible is away wrecking other lives elsewhere. Similarly Celtic's financial strategy saw drastic cost-cutting boost short-term profits as the loot was still rolling in from the as yet unaffected sources of revenue. As I said, domestically R*ngers financial collapse allowed Celtic to remain a winning club despite the abject level of team performances, and in Europe Strachan's side managed to even improve Celtic's standing - for a while.

Much is made of this by the Board's defenders, however as Ross County ably demonstrated, a far inferior team with far less resources can best apparently superior opponents in cup competitions. Celtic under Strachan for two seasons did the same, managing to ride their luck and at other times grinding down startled opponents at home through little more than sheer determination. It couldn't last though, and this is where we view the unstable nature of Celtic's cunning financial plan. Basically grit is a vital weapon of any team's armoury, but it has no long-term future if it exists in isolation without any other qualities to back it up. As Strachan's team relied upon punching above their weight, an inevitable demise was going to occur sooner rather than later. When the inevitable occurred the collapse in Europe was eye-wateringly painful, and this significantly contributed to the fall in Scotland's UEFA co-efficient to somewhere ahead of Andorra but lagging behind Lichtenstein.

Cutting back has a price to pay, and with Europe the price was the loss of automatic qualification to the Champions' League group stage. In future both the league champions and runner-up will face tough qualification rounds, with the runner-up soon to be confined to the Europa competition. A significant chunk of Celtic's income may well be a thing of the past, rather a considerable price to pay for a few years short-term profit. The cunning financial plan also failed to take into account that supporters are not mindless sheep, well in the main they aren't although some certainly qualify. As performances declined so there approached a point where patience would be exhausted and a financial price would have to be paid. The lack of domestic competition delayed this reckoning, but when the game was up, when the silverware dried up, then the bill landed on the doormat. Celtic is now experiencing declining revenue streams in ticket sales and merchandising. As the 'product' becomes less attractive so too will revenue stream decline further. It didn't take a financial genius to see this coming, even a hopeless piss-artist such as myself could predict the outcome of Celtic's financial madness, and on this subject I've played Private Fraser for years. So why couldn't the great business brains running the club?

If this wasn't bad enough the celebrated vision announced by Celtic, namely the much ridiculed Diamond In a Midden strategy, was doomed from the start. Lacking the required major investment, yes done on the cheap as usual, Celtic's plan to stock the club with fresh-faced hopefuls from the four corners of the globe looks to be another Cambuslang announcement. Such a scouting network requires both a lot of time and money, Celtic allocated neither. Similarly youth development has been such an abject failure that any hopes of the Celtic transforming into a selling club only has some value if you consider our market is, at best, the lower English leagues where money isn't exactly flowing. The clear out of young players every summer to lower leagues is hardly a ringing endorsement of Celtic's youth development, which as we heard may be axed anyway as it the board consider it not cost-effective.

Then we come to the curiosity of another aspect of Celtic's cunning financial plan, the efforts to tap into potentially lucrative markets by signing up players from Asian markets. Just who is responsible for this? Can we really believe that the manager, either Strachan or Mowbray, was instrumental in bringing relatively unknown players such as Ki Sung-Yong and Du Wei to the club, and if not then isn't this a open and shut case of boardroom interference in the management of the team? Didn't Jock Brown attract the attentions of the car park lynch mob for far less? As it is the policy, as with all others, appears to be failing miserably. Only Nakamura has been a success out of all the Asian players, and it's difficult to see how his financial pulling power can be topped, but he hardly set the bank vaults groaning under the weight of gold bullion.

At this point you may be reading this wondering why acclaimed business brains can have presided over such a inept mess when even by their very presence on the board they must possess at least a modicum of competence (I of course exclude ex-politicians who of course progress in their careers due to their ability suck ass rather than through merit). The question is answered by realising that football is not a typical business. It does not conform to normal business rules and it does not have a standard product/customer relationship. In fact if it did then the vast majority of clubs would go out of business overnight. Disasters happen when boards lose sight of football's unique qualities. Investment has to be made with these qualities in mind, get it wrong and there is a mess to be cleaned up. The Celtic board have got it wrong, big style, they just do not have the guts to admit it. They just have not realised that a football club cannot be run as just any other business, they appear to believe there is no difference between Celtic Football Club and Primark.

I could go further into the failings of Celtic's cunning business plan but the abject failure is simply too noticeable to really require any further explanation. Simply put Celtic has been run into the ground by a board that have no vision, through questionable managerial appointments, suicidal fiscal austerity, a boardroom arrogance that beggars belief and a crippling disconnection between club and support. Celtic cannot extract itself from the current malaise without addressing the root cause of the disaster. It cannot turn things around while the same people responsible for the decisions which led to this horrendous mess remain in charge. Sacking managers is a pointless exercise while the main instigators of our woes remain in place, what's the point? The abject failure of those running Celtic can be witnessed in its total craven splendour by the fact that since the sacking of Tony Mowbray there has been no statement from either the CEO or the club chairman. Not one club official, save Neil Lennon, has had any public comment to make since Celtic was trounced by Ross County. Can you believe that?

Celtic needs change, it needs change desperately. It needs change from top to bottom, an overhaul of the whole structure and an end to the massive failure that is the Plc. Without such a bold move I do not believe any decisions by this discredited board will result in anything positive. They have failed the club, they have failed the support, it's time for them to go.

http://www.etims.net/index.php?optio...2860&Itemid=29

I agree with Ryan about ZZ. Not good enough.

I've seen enough of Ki so far to make me think he'll be a success though played again like Brown and Crosas in the correct formation.

None of them are close to being Celtic class, if we are going to improve then we need to ship out the mediocrity.

Originally Posted by clagan

nonsense about zhi btw, but so what if we sign asian players and it sells some product in the east? w are a business after all. we wouldnt be the first and its not like the players are complete FUD's

We could of got James McCarthy instead of clowns like Ki and Zhi.

The Hamitlon chairman was saying if McCarthy went to Korea to play for 3 months then maybe a club from this country would then be interested in him...but all Hamilton were ever offered for him was £200k.

Spot on and now Wigan are going to sell him for 12 million.