THE SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE

Hearing Gordon Strachan speak the other day there I was struck by one salient fact as he moped over his lot, and that of course is the failure to acknowledge just why Celtic are in the current financial mess. To hear the manager and club officials you would be forgiven for believing that it was all down to forces beyond the club’s control, the nefarious work of a hostile milieu. The reality is rather different of course, rather than demanding a pat on the back for their rigid austerity program those running the club should try and indulge in a rare attempt at honesty.

Before we get into all that though let me just diverge a bit and express my complete disappointment in Gordon Strachan, not for anything on field I hasten to add or his bizarre public, smacked-lipped satisfaction following the abysmal display at Tynecastle, not at all, rather the fact that he appears to be playing the club yes-man to an unwarranted degree. When I read the following in Darryl Broadfoot’s article in The Herald, Wednesday 9 August , I nearly wept tears of utter dismay: “I deal with Peter [Lawwell] and it has been fine. I know his problems and what he is trying to do - make the club self-sufficient - which it wasn't for a long time. I think they would never like to get in the state they were before, when Jack McGinn was chairman,"

I mean for God sake, this is getting as bad as promoting the Lisbon 1967 whenever the chips are down. Lets get one thing straight, when Fergus McCann left Celtic for a life of drudgery in Bermuda Celtic was debt free or as good as, two years later we were £14m in debt, a year later the debt had risen to £30m, now you tell we who was in charge then.

Strachan’s ridiculous harking back to irrelevant times is symptomatic of the disinformation campaign that oozes from the club. If he considers his knowledge of the club sufficient to draw comparisons with events circa 1993 then how can he overlook more recent events such as those that occurred at the turn of millennium? The last reported debt figure of nearly £20m isn’t the result of some Mafioso type blackmail, rather the cumulative debris left over from the previously mentioned period garnished with the fallout from last season’s European humiliation.

Strachan may bleat over the failure of supporters to recognise the financial realities now besieging the club, but while he pontificates about financially naive supporters causing trouble he seems blissfully unaware of just what he is talking about. If someone came along and cut off your leg, should you then thank them when they rushed out to buy an elastoplast? The Celtic board do not deserve any credit or thanks or anything positive for their current financial strategy, they were the ones who brought us to this pass in the first place. Oh sure their apologists will claim it was Barnes and O’Neill but who threw away money like hyperactive confetti, but who signed the cheques? If the club’s finances did not merit such extravagant spending then why was it sanctioned?

Let’s remind ourselves of just what happened in the summer of 1999. It all began when a novice manager called John Barnes was appointed Celtic coach to the astonishment, and no small dismay, of many. It was ok though because if he screwed up then the emotionally dependable Kenny Dalglish was Director of Football and would step into help the bungling oaf out - such was our football strategy at the time. Nerves were not soothed when the then Chief Executive, Allan “Love me Tender” MacDonald cheerfully announced at the AGM that Barnes was a “high risk” appointment. That high-risk was allowed to go and spent over £10m on two players, Rafael Scheidt and Eyal Berkovic. Consequently Scheidt’s purchase price had to be written off while Berkovic who was brought in for £5.75m left early in O’Neill’s first season for a little over £1m. Nearly £10m poured down the drain on two players alone and remember; in 1999 Celtic’s turnover was only £33.84m.

The June 2000 accounts reveal that £10.36m was spent on the purchase of two players; Sutton and Valgaeren with a total gross investment of £14.72m, and a debt figure of around £15m. A year later the accounts reveal £21.89m was spent on seven players with the debt figure now at a staggering £29.62m. Just what was going on? This of course is the hidden part of Celtic’s financial woes, the airbrushed out of history part which those congratulating the board would rather ignore. The debts we have, the financial restrictions we operate under, are a legacy of this era of profligate spending, not because of any other reason.

There is no point in asking Dermot Desmond why the club spent so much and then so little. In his recent interview with the CSA, Desmond launched into a confusing diatribe blasting away at the suggestion the club should have speculated more after Seville, calling the idea of football speculation is “oxymoronic”, only to then admit the club massively overspent during the O’Neill era. Just what was it doing then if not indulging in speculation?

No one complained at the time of course, I certainly didn’t. No one complained because we were lead to believe that this was all the beginning of a Brand New Age (copyright UK Subs). Celtic’s turnover was going through the roof, the club was operating at a profit, the team was holding its head high on the European stage for the first time since the beginning of the 1980s, domestic silverware was fairly flowing in and then in the winter of 2001 Brian Quinn popped up to send the whole party atmosphere into a tail spin. After his December announcement that the big money signing days were over Celtic spent at most £1.5m net in one season on fresh talent (well players anyway) until the appointment of Gordon Strachan. Strachan during his first summer of acquisitions spent less than Martin O’Neill did on his first signing.

So why did it happen, why did a board that so publicly parades its financial prudence abandon all sensible restraint and allow the kind of spending that they say was clearly unsustainable? Well if we harken back to those not too distant days the phrases “EPL” and “European League” should come to mind. I’ve already covered the frenzied efforts by the club to secure EPL participation in previous articles, but just recently I was reminded about the European alternative in an email: “Back in those sepia-tinted days there was talk of the G14 clubs ousting UEFA and expanding the Champions League into a season-long league format, possibly with two divisions. To do that they needed to expand membership of their club thus membership criteria had to be established. One of the rumoured criteria was that clubs needed to have a first team squad of "x" number of players (say 22) that had an insurance value (slightly different from transfer value). I vaguely remember this figure as £80m. I think that some our spending was based on the belief that we could buy our way into a Euro League.”

So EPL or Euro league the fact remains that when huge question marks were placed over both Celtic’s spending suddenly crashed. There can be little doubt that Celtic’s spending was undertaken with an ambitious plan in mind, namely the relocation of the club’s presence to a far more financially lucrative stage. Now there is nothing wrong with that, I’m not bringing that up as a criticism at all, laudable even. What is not so laudable is the subsequent spending collapse and the pathetic refusal to accept any responsibility for the proclaimed financial crisis. Brian Quinn and company can weep into unsold copies of Pravda all they want, until they are honest about why we are in these fiscal straits then they deserve not one word or gesture of understanding.

Since the spending days the Celtic team has declined to an alarming degree, for a while that welcome burst of investment brought forth displays from a team that now one can only look back upon with a misty eye and yearning heart – was it really only three years ago? Unfortunately though when spending isn’t followed up then decline inevitably sets in, and there is no argument about the fact that during the closing O’Neill years Celtic possessed an unbalanced team of expensive stars and bargain basement flops. When Celtic missed the best chance to qualify for the last 16 in the Champions League during the 3-2 defeat in Lyon, the back four consisted of two free signings, a loan and a player played out of position. After the recent Chelsea friendly Mourinho commented that under O’Neill Celtic had a great team, now we have a good team – I think the Portuguese maestro was being a little generous there but the basic recognition of the decline is irrefutable.

Brian Quinn though is obviously oblivious to the fact that being less able to compete, unable to dominate, somehow must therefore mean that everyone else has improved rather than Celtic declining. In the December 2005 Interim Accounts he wrote: “In my Chairman’s Statement in the summer of 2004, I suggested that corrective action by SPL clubs in the face of severe financial pressures could bring about improvements over time in the general quality of the game in Scotland. There are some indications that this is beginning to happen. The dominance enjoyed by Celtic and Rangers is under weekly challenge. We welcome this change, recognising that Celtic has no natural right to prevail over other SPL teams. We accept that they will believe they can win any game, making for better entertainment and greater excitement. It also means that they will feel better able to adopt an attacking approach when they visit Celtic Park; and will no longer see games against only Celtic and Rangers as occasions when a special effort is made. A levelling up of standards, rather than a levelling down, particularly when delivered by younger, locally developed players, augurs well for Scottish football.” Yes but that’s not what happened so why bring it up? As it transpired the league opposition collapsed so does that mean the auguring has gone into reverse?

Whether Celtic wins the league this season is neither here nor there when it comes to discussions about the worth of the current team. Last season, aside from a purple patch in October, Celtic’s performances averaged out at mediocre yet we won the league at a canter, this season with three competitive games under the belt performances don’t look as if they will be any better. Simply put being the least worse of a very poor lot is not a vindication of club policy, yet the club appear to be believe just that. They also appear to believe that the knock-on effects of the team’s reduced effectiveness can be forever borne without too much pain, however the lack of any meaningful European football combined with high prices for a substandard product may well see a corresponding financial penalty. We may already be experiencing the fallout from downsizing with the lowest attendance at a first league fixture since 1998 and reports allege that season ticket sales took a 4,000 tumble [stop press: the 2006 Interim Results claim a record standard season ticket sale of 50,595 yet in 2001 54,253 season tickets were sold. This is of course the first time that I’ve seen the reference to standard season tickets in the accounts].

The European slow lane may be one that few would wish to peddle along, but there is little prospect of a change in policy. The club was severely rattled by the Basle debacle in 2002, so rattled that Brian Quinn admitted that several big name players were being lined up for the push with only the UEFA Cup run saving everyone’s bacon. It was clear from statements made by club officials that such a financial calamity could only be avoided by not getting into the position of it being a calamity in the first place. The only way to do that of course is to take European income out of the equation, Consequently Celtic are firmly parked in the European slow lane which Martin O’Neill warned us all about and after this season’s Champions League fling it will be a lot harder to participate in that big money spinner.

Once again any winner of the SPL will face at least one qualifying round and there is no guarantee of progression. The recent match between AEK Athens and Hearts revealed one possible European opponent that I wouldn’t fancy our chances against, and considering it was pretty much the same Hearts team that ran Celtic ragged a few days before any false confidence about sailing through the qualifying rounds should be abandoned. Qualification is also a mixed blessing if there isn’t a team in place capable of competing at an adequate level. Whether this group stage is watched by peeking between fingers or not, the money generated is unlikely to find its way to Gordon Strachan. If the club is to exist on SPL income alone then players can only be brought in who can be funded by said income, since that is limited so too is Strachan’s room for manoeuvre . The bulk of Champions League income will instead be directed at reducing Celtic’s onerous debt burden but this hardly makes for a ticket-buying incentive or sells many replica kits and hideous engraved bricks won’t make up the difference.

Many supporters are fully aware of the issues surrounding the club so we hardly need to be lectured at by Gordon Strachan. We are fully aware that the club has a debt problem and that financially we are in a bind yet we‘re also fully aware that this didn’t happen by itself. Praising the present incumbents for avoiding gambling Celtic’s future fails to acknowledge that they may have done just that in the past and now the bill is being paid. Until there is some recognition from those running the club that our financial problems are their responsibility, that they did not all rush out on holiday when the decisions were being taken, a level of considerable suspicion and cynicism will exist. If that results in supporters annoying the manager by asking “stupid” questions then I’m afraid the answer to that isn’t to belittle the questioner, but to engage honestly with the support.

The problem with those at Celtic Park, is that they build up expectation and then react in an outraged manner when supporters look at the unfulfilled expectation and ask those “stupid” questions. Celtic spent massively during from 1999 to 2001 raising expectations and heralding a new era, why even relocation to a big money league was said to be just around the corner – every club official told us this including Dermot Desmond and Brian Quinn. Suddenly it all came to a crashing halt, we were informed that the spending was over and financial realities had to be faced. The team though put together during that high spending period was still in place, albeit with a couple of flaws, and of course their momentum kept the ball rolling for a couple of seasons. Raising expectations in such a manner isn’t easily reversed and without adequate explanation little understanding can be expected – and by adequate explanation I do not mean the condescending sound bites offered up by club officials. Those officials claimed the club was losing money hand over fist yet supporters wondered why if this was so the debt level remained relatively static. They said the team’s wages were unsustainable yet they were well within the accepted safe margin as a percentage of turnover, so much so in fact that the club was often singled out for special mention when this topic raised its head in the media.

If club officials are tired of “stupid” supporters getting it all wrong then perhaps instead of sneering they should try a little more honesty and a lot less spin, and Gordon Strachan should engage in a little more understanding of the club’s recent history. Would it not be better to have genuine discussion and explanation, however awkward in the short-term, rather than irritating spin? Perhaps that way a sensible relationship can take root instead of the current mutual suspicion. I won’t hold my breath though.