letters 114

takeover imminent?

Dear NTV,

Recent reports in the Scottish press have suggested that ex Celtic director, Willie Haughey is poised to sell off his refrigeration business. Reports suggested that this could make him up to £300m. If this was to happen and generate that kind of money, could Haughey use that to fund a takeover of Celtic?

Perhaps that is one reason why the board are so keen to reduce debt and so unwilling to finance new signings? It would help explain, for instance, why the board paid a £6m tax bill, payment of which was not necessary this year. That bill could have been offset against future profits and paid in future years. The less debt the club has the more attractive it may be to a potential buyer. The less money a potential buyer has to use to take care of debt the more, in theory, they can offer to current shareholders. Reduced debt for the club could mean extra money for the largest shareholders i.e. people (sorry, supporters) like Dermot Desmond.

Surely our caring, sharing, Celtic Supporting directors would not be so cynical as to put potential financial gain ahead of expenditure on new players?

Yours in Consolidated Zinc,
ADAM SMITH
by e-mail

they embarrassed the hoops

Dear NTV,

How about reviving 'They Embarrassed The Hoops' featuring the Celtic Plc? The loan deal they offered for McFadden certainly embarrassed me.

Better not to offer the deal in the first place than to give the Hun press a laugh at our expense.

Yours in the Hoops,
SIMON FRASER
Northants

Summer Transfer Activity

Dear NTV,

Over the Summer the Scottish meedya have taken the utmost delight in waxing lyrical about Rangers' Super Summer signings while at the same time denigrating Celtic for not bringing in any new players. Let's sit down and see how the two clubs stack up.

Rangers Transfers
Out
Amoruso - £1.5m
McCann - £1.5m
Caniggia - out of contract
Ferguson - £6.5m
Numan - out of contract
Konterman - (shamefully) released

Rangers In
Egil Ostenstad - 1 year loan from Blackburn Rovers reserves.
Emerson - on a last minute Bosman free
Capucho - 750k from Porto reserves.
Vanoli - Bosman free from some Italian club no one has heard of.
Berg - Bosman free as Blackburn bought Amoruso to replace him

As can be seen Rangers have lost several first team regulars, including their captain, Barry Ferguson, who up until his transfer was proclaimed by their supporters as their best player. They have replaced these 'stars' with a motley selection of ageing, unwanted has-beens available for nothing as Bosman signings. So astute is Big Eck's tactical genius that he sold Rangers' (and don't laugh) best defender Amoruso to Blackburn and replaced him with Henning Berg, the man Blackburn bought Amoruso to replace.

They squandered what little cash they had on buying Capucho, a Porto reserve player who is only here to top up his pension. They celebrated their £7.5m bonanza from qualifying for the Champions League by taking Ostenstad, a Blackburn reserve forward on a year's loan. How ambitious is that?

So Rangers lose six of their best players from last season and replace them with a selection of has-beens yet the Scottish press seem happy to portray this as some sort of improvement. Truly it is indeed a wondrous sight watching the way the Scottish Media Loyal rally round their club in its time of need.

Celtic - Out
nobody

Celtic - In
Liam Miller breaking through from reserve team.
Michael Gray - on loan from Sunderland.
Varga - Kept on after loan period expired

Celtic have retained all of the squad that got to the UEFA Cup Final last season yet are derided by the Scottish Media for not moving forward. In addition Celtic could reasonably be said to have added another three players to that squad with Miller breaking through and the additions of Varga and Gray.

Sure, we would all have liked Celtic to have signed a couple of players who could strengthen the starting 11. For instance, I would have loved us to sign McFadden - but given how close the team came to glory last season it's reasonable to suggest there ain't much wrong with the status quo. Why should MON feel pressurised into buying yet more squad players like Fernandez and Laursen; players who pick up big wages without commanding a regular position in the first 11?

As Ewing Grahame put it in The Herald of 1st September: 'With five goals racked up for the second successive home league fixture, and with Hartson and Sutton both due to be available for the visit of Motherwell on September 20, things are looking up for Celtic, even if - in terms of transfer budgets - the board persist in treating their manager with the haughty disregard of Victorian mill owners. 'I can't remember the last player I signed,' the manager joked afterwards.It was, in fact, Stanislav Varga, preceded by Javier S‡nchez Broto, Ulrik Laursen, Magnus Hedman, David Fernandez, Momo Sylla, Steve Guppy and Hartson. Perhaps that was the point the directors were trying to make.'

Simple Arithmetic dictates that the more squad players you have picking up big wages without playing then the less money is available to bring in new players. I, for one, would prefer MON to focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to acquiring new players. Too many of his recent purchases add nothing to the overall quality of the squad.

One question which could do with answering is why MON seems so reluctant to pick players up on Bosmans? If you need squad players then perhaps it's better acquiring them via Bosman than forking out a transfer fee? Despite what the Huns with typewriters might imply (wish?), it seems obvious to me that after a Summer in which Rangers have lost the heart of their team and Celtic have retained all the players who came so close to European Glory last season, it's Celtic and not Rangers who will be celebrating domestic glory this Season.

Question Time If Murray Park is such a good investment why did Celtic's under 21s win their league again for the second season in a row last year? Also how did Celtic, a club the Scottish Meedya Loyal like to make Fun of due to what they see as their inadequate training facilities, manage to win the double of the under 18 Youth League and Cup?

DAVIE DIMBLEBORE
Edinburgh

champions league coverage

Dear NTV,

I would like Not The View to make Celtic fans aware that there will be no coverage of Celtic games on Wednesday nights for cable customers with Sky Sports. Celtic games will be shown on Sky Sports Extra which is not available on Telewest or NTL. NTL and Telewest customers pay the same and sometimes more for Sky Sports and I feel that it is a disgrace to be treated this way.

This will also affect Rangers and Chelsea fans with Man Utd and Arsenal games being shown on Sky Sports 2 which is available on cable.

Regards
ALAN CLINCH
by e-mail

cards

Dear NTV,

Another Rangers player learns the hard way in Europe! When are guys like Maurice Ross going to realise that in a light blue strip in the SPL you can kick everyone all through the game and the brethren in the black don't notice (gosh!), but when it comes to performing in any shade of blue abroad in front of real referees, you've actually got to try and play the ball occasionally, or else you get a thing called a card.

Or are the Germans, under Rudi Faller (!), just dirty big cheats??

C.D.
by e-mail

green web

Dear Not the View,

A few years ago, not long after we'd set up our CSC Website, we began to receive some emails from fans of Panathinaikos in Greece telling us of their support for Celtic, and hoping to establish some kind of link between both clubs. (Despite what some people may think, this has been ongoing for over two years now and not just since the draw for this season's Champions League!)

We both play in Green & White, they have a shamrock on their badge while we have the 4 leaf clover, we both have fierce rivals in our respective cities (they obviously feel the same way about Olympiakos (the Gavros) as we do about the Huns), and we both have extremely passionate and dedicated supporters.

Like the Celts, PAO (initials for Panathinaikos Athletic Union) fans also like to sing - indeed they sing a great song that goes something like 'PAO ole ole PAO ole ole PAO ole ole , trifyllara mou trelainomai (my big shamrock I am going crazy) PAO'

. The Green Web Fans website, PAO (greenwebfans.com) now has a section on its Celtic Brothers, and they also have an English message board which often mentions the Celts. After the recent Champions League draw, we've had more emails from Greece than ever before. It would seem that a great number of the Green Web Fans will be travelling to Glasgow to see their team beat the Huns, and while they're here they'd love to meet up with some Celts to help build the link between PAO and Celtic by exchanging flags, scarves, shirts etc. and of course by drinking lots while talking about football! So, if any Supporters Clubs or other Celts that aren't travelling to Lyon in December feel like meeting our Green Brothers from Greece, this would be the ideal time to strengthen our friendship.

We suspect there may be almost as many Celtic jerseys in the Broomloan that night in December as when we fill it ourselves!!! You can contact the Green Web Fans by email: mail@greenwebfans.com or green_web_fans_@yahoo.com or by leaving a message on their English Board here: They also do a nice line in t-shirts, including one with a Celtic badge on: http://www.greenwebfans.com/exclusive/t-shirts.asp

Lastly, here are just a few of the messages of support we've received in the past week!

Hail!Hail!
The Bothwell Bhoys
www.bothwellemerald.co.uk

From: HARIATHAN Hello Bros. If any of you will be there during our game, it would be great pleasure to have a meeting - Just let us know! Check our new tshirts dedicated to shamrocks!!! http://www.greenwebfans.com/exclusive/t-shirts.asp

From: PETRASKI13 Hail Brothers! I'm a fan of Panathinaikos FC and I 'd like to wish you good luck in Champions League and promise you that we will win both games against Rangers

From: Green Web Fans Best of luck for this season. Shamrock pride. Panathinaikos - Green Web Fans http://www.greenwebfans.com

Ed's note: These were some of the printable messages. For the others you'll just have to check the site for yourself.