A bumper edition of the podcast this week. First up Jim from the Celtic Graves Society joins us with what will hopefully become regular feature. He tells the story of James McLaughlin - one of the First XI. This is followed by an interview with James' grandson and we gain a fascinating insight into the life of oneof the earliest Celts. There will be a memorial ceremony for James this Tuesday (23rd August) at 2pm in St Kentigern's Cemetery in Lambhill.
Next Eddie and Harry have a post match discussion about the Sion game. They discuss the team, the formation and the mindnumbing dullness of it all. They then move onto a rambling conversation about all manner of celtic nonsense including our latest signing targets and the rumours surrounding them. They eventually finish (to the relief of all concerned) with a look ahead to the match against St Johnstone.
And finally Jim returns with another tale from the Celtic Graves Society. This time he tells us of John Glass. One of the founding fathers of the club. John Glass' life will be celebrated tomorrow (Sunday) at 12 noon in Dalbeth Cemetery. Anyone who is heading along to the St Johnstone game is welcome to participate in the ceremony.
The feed for the podcast can be found here . Remember you can subscribe via itunes here .
You can listen to and download the latest podcast here.
The feed for the podcast can be found here. Remember you can subscribe via itunes here. I'd save this one for a very, very long journey.
To get in touch with us regarding any comments, suggestions, criticisms or wildly inaccurate rumours you'd like to see addressed on the next podcast, or if you'd like to contribute with an mp3 you can email, leave your comments below or phone the hotline on 0141 416 1067.
Great listen again guys. I would like to pick up on a point that Harry made regarding debt. He obviously feels strongly about this and probably has a better idea than myself. I am like Eddie in this respect, as in I am clever enough to understand it up to a point yet do not have a grip of the overall detail and intricacies truly involved.
I 99% agree with Harry and his take on why we shouldn't go down the path of getting into debt, and also of the fact that there simply isn't the funds there to do it. However having said this one thing that keeps coming back to me is Jelavic. How can a club 20m plus in debt go out and spend 4m on a player ?. Sure there is still a lot of controversy regarding how that deal was funded (RTC blog goes into detail), but regardless they got him and he played a big part in them winning the SPL.
We find ourselves crying out for a scoring targetman just like him. Surely we could get the finances to fund a deal that would leave us with manageable debt ?
I'm in a minority with this , but I also believe we wouldn't have to get in debt if we were a little bit creative in the transfer market. People will shoot this down , but I believe if we sold McCourt and Ki for good money and reinvested it in a right good striker it would be great business. Sure Ki has been our best player so far, and probably has more potential than anyone in the side right now, but the bottom line is that when everyone is fit , he is not first choice, same with McCourt.
As I said before it is easy to say get ourselves into debt, and I fully agree with Harry that once you go down that road you could easily end up like the buns, but I'm positive we could find a way. The last few months I have been torn between raging at the board one day, to then being philosophical the next and thinking the PLC are doing the right thing. We are so emotionally invested in the club that at times we let it cloud our better judgment, but I know for a fact that come the end of the window, if we have not signed a DECENT striker I will be absolutely raging.
I think Ki has to and has become a first choice even when everyone is fit
but as for the debt, Celtic now have a debt of 500k it seems, this is almost unheard of for a top flight club in any country and it is unbelievable that this is not being universly praised
Eeramacaroonbar - Rangers ability to spend on Jelavic was down to two things - Low wages of the player and the financial management of the club. Jelavic was (apparently) on less than £5k per week in Austria and is now on less than £10k per week at Rangers and they sold players and spent virtually all their budget on him.
Harry I beg to differ, but it was widely reported at the time of the Jelavic transfer that wages were part of the reason why it became such a saga. Rangers were offering no more than 15k a week while he was going to accept 18k minimum. One would reason that they settled somewhere in between.
No way is he being paid under 10k a week. The fact still remains they were a side crippled with debt , yet went out and bought a guy who won them the league.
As I said before I appreciate your reasons for us not going down the same route, but yesterday aside we were crying out for a targetman. There is simply no goals in the side if Hooper is out. Stokes although good on occassion, cannot be relied upon.
We need a route 1 option when our game isn't breaking down the opposition. Ugly but effective, especially in the SPL. For what it's worth I don't think Bellamy would offer us this change of gameplan.He would just enhance our current style of play.
Fair enough, getting sidetracked here on what Jelavic is on.8k, 12k 15 k whatever.
The point which I don't think has been addressed is why can a side in such dire straits as Rangers go out and spend money with INTENT, like they mean business, like they actually want to win the title, and we can't ????????
Please don't take that as , we need to go out and spend 5-6 million on a player, but as I said before we need to either be creative in the transfer market or at least decide to take on some manageable debt.
We don't need to go to ticketus. As I mentioned previously sell Ki and McCourt and then get a decent CF. We may even have enough left over to stop us going in the red.......God forbid.
If we are not going to use McCourt fair enough not fair too keep him,Ki is a different story i would keep him,surely getting Murphy/Samaras/Rasmusen of the the books would be a better bet although Murphy can take a penalty
Getting Murphy , Rasmussen and Samaras off the books is a given, but if you read Harry's newly posted article it does a good job of explaining why it is easier said than done.
Although Ki has been in great form the fact remains that when everyone is fit, he is not in our starting 11. Kayal and Ledley (regardless of whether Ki is better or has more potential) are our best partnership in the middle of the park.
Ki is the only one who will generate really decent money (which can then be re-invested on a striker) while not diminishing the strength of our best starting 11. It is a no brainer for me.
In an ideal world we would find suitors for all the deadwood and get transfer fees for the lot of them, but that is never going to happen. Although if you can get a team to spend over 1m on McManus and Caldwell then anything is possible.
Comments
I 99% agree with Harry and his take on why we shouldn't go down the path of getting into debt, and also of the fact that there simply isn't the funds there to do it. However having said this one thing that keeps coming back to me is Jelavic. How can a club 20m plus in debt go out and spend 4m on a player ?. Sure there is still a lot of controversy regarding how that deal was funded (RTC blog goes into detail), but regardless they got him and he played a big part in them winning the SPL.
We find ourselves crying out for a scoring targetman just like him. Surely we could get the finances to fund a deal that would leave us with manageable debt ?
I'm in a minority with this , but I also believe we wouldn't have to get in debt if we were a little bit creative in the transfer market. People will shoot this down , but I believe if we sold McCourt and Ki for good money and reinvested it in a right good striker it would be great business. Sure Ki has been our best player so far, and probably has more potential than anyone in the side right now, but the bottom line is that when everyone is fit , he is not first choice, same with McCourt.
As I said before it is easy to say get ourselves into debt, and I fully agree with Harry that once you go down that road you could easily end up like the buns, but I'm positive we could find a way. The last few months I have been torn between raging at the board one day, to then being philosophical the next and thinking the PLC are doing the right thing. We are so emotionally invested in the club that at times we let it cloud our better judgment, but I know for a fact that come the end of the window, if we have not signed a DECENT striker I will be absolutely raging.
but as for the debt, Celtic now have a debt of 500k it seems, this is almost unheard of for a top flight club in any country and it is unbelievable that this is not being universly praised
No way is he being paid under 10k a week. The fact still remains they were a side crippled with debt , yet went out and bought a guy who won them the league.
As I said before I appreciate your reasons for us not going down the same route, but yesterday aside we were crying out for a targetman. There is simply no goals in the side if Hooper is out. Stokes although good on occassion, cannot be relied upon.
We need a route 1 option when our game isn't breaking down the opposition. Ugly but effective, especially in the SPL. For what it's worth I don't think Bellamy would offer us this change of gameplan.He would just enhance our current style of play.
The point which I don't think has been addressed is why can a side in such dire straits as Rangers go out and spend money with INTENT, like they mean business, like they actually want to win the title, and we can't ????????
Please don't take that as , we need to go out and spend 5-6 million on a player, but as I said before we need to either be creative in the transfer market or at least decide to take on some manageable debt.
We don't need to go to ticketus. As I mentioned previously sell Ki and McCourt and then get a decent CF. We may even have enough left over to stop us going in the red.......God forbid.
Getting Murphy , Rasmussen and Samaras off the books is a given, but if you read Harry's newly posted article it does a good job of explaining why it is easier said than done.
Although Ki has been in great form the fact remains that when everyone is fit, he is not in our starting 11. Kayal and Ledley (regardless of whether Ki is better or has more potential) are our best partnership in the middle of the park.
Ki is the only one who will generate really decent money (which can then be re-invested on a striker) while not diminishing the strength of our best starting 11. It is a no brainer for me.
In an ideal world we would find suitors for all the deadwood and get transfer fees for the lot of them, but that is never going to happen. Although if you can get a team to spend over 1m on McManus and Caldwell then anything is possible.
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