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Ich denke, jetzt wird klar, warum wir keine 5 Mio-Spieler kaufen.
Ich weiß nicht, irgendwie hätte ich ein schlechtes Gefühl, wenn Lawwell geht. Alles in allem denke ich ist er der richtige Mann für den Job.
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How do you respond to the criticism about lack of investment?There is no pile of cash sitting there that we could look at, watch, feel and touch. It doesn’t exist. It’s fantasy.
We have a wee bit of cash reserve which gives us stability and we have money we can invest on the right players.
Lenny spent more than ÂŁ30million, wee Gordon ÂŁ38m, Martin was over ÂŁ40m and Tony Mowbray was even ÂŁ13-14m.
The frustration is these facts do not get through or people do not want to listen and are not taking them in.
Three years ago we were being told Celtic need Rangers, disaster, Armageddon the whole thing is going to fall apart.
We have lost millions over the period in terms of Rangers not being here and the way Scottish football is at the moment – the league does not have a sponsor and we do not have Rangers, so in order to keep our numbers up in the last two years we have given £4m back to the season-ticket holders with the £100 discount.
So the way we have maintained our revenues is by making a profit in selling players.
If you look at our accounts there is no massive pile there that is being stockpiled. We can not be clearer. We can not give more than everything.
Over the period in my time ... if you get away from this madness, this frenzy in the West of Scotland, we are recognised wherever you go in Europe as one of the best run clubs in Europe, if not the world.
That is off the pitch and on the pitch in the last 10, 11 years – my time. I have been 11 years – if we win the title this year we have won it eight times, we have been in the Champions League group stages seven times, the last-16 stage three times and at the same time Rangers and Hearts have gone bust.
Do you agree that the quality on the pitch is less than it was two years ago?For Fraser Forster going, we’ve got Craig Gordon. For Kelvin Wilson we got Virgil van Dijk. For Gary Hooper? Have we replaced him? Good question. But it’s not for the want of trying or investment. That’s judgment and you do get some things wrong. Every club does.
We could buy a ÂŁ4m, ÂŁ5m or ÂŁ6m player who is value. But the consequences of that are he would want the ÂŁ50k to ÂŁ70k a week he would get elsewhere.
In the context of Scottish football a £50k-a-week player would actually be more than Aberdeen, Dundee United or any other Premiership club’s wage bill by himself.
What do you say to the Celtic fan who says he isn’t getting value for money?We still have just under 40,000 season-ticket holders. Number one, a Celtic supporter supports the club through thick and thin.
He is supporting a team which is the best in Scotland by a mile, a club which has ambition and which is one of the best run clubs in the world.
But it looks like downsizing.Well, in order to keep Celtic at a level with revenues dropping we are looking at our wage bill.
Every other club in Scotland, perhaps with the exception of Aberdeen at the moment, are doing the same.
So downsizing? No. We are still investing the same amount of money. Our wage bill is still the same and we’ve been able to maintain it on the profit from selling players.
If Rangers were challenging would your spend be different?Our income would have been different so yes. Rangers going out has taken a lot of money out, not just for Celtic but out of the game.
With Hearts going out of the league too with Hibs that’s taken money out of the game.
But a £15m profit has been made in the past two years. Is it too simple to say half of it should be invested in the squad?Selling players now, in effect, pays the bills. It keeps Celtic Park at the level it’s at. It keeps Lennoxtown at the level it’s at and maintains how we treat our staff, everything.
Have you gone for the £6m-£8m player and what are the difficulties?Let’s take Steven Fletcher, who would cost £6m to £7m and is on £37,000 a week and is 27. That is a huge investment.
You would go for Fletcher if there was a deal to be done for him on loan or such like. But the difficulty of getting someone up here at that level is that. We have had knockbacks from much lesser players than that level. If they want to come and play here there is then the difficulty of their salary.
But paying £2m for players is always a gamble, particularly for a striker, no?There are errors we have made and the striker is the most important position. We have made errors but I don’t think it’s a gamble.
For all the wrongs we’ve had Wanyama, Ki, Hooper, van Dijk, Adam Matthews, Lustig.
But the striker is a fair criticism. Last year when Hooper went you would think what we brought in could have done better than we have.
That is accepted but it happens. And at every club.
How has Ronny Deila handled his first few weeks?I think he is following a great Celtic manager, a Celtic legend, which brings its difficulties.
He is young. He has a lot of fantastic ideas. He’s progressive, he’s intelligent and he develops players, which fits what we’re trying to do here. Nothing prepares you for Celtic, nothing.
He is going to build his team and do what he wants to do without that short-term pressure. Hopefully he’s got that year in order to go and test things and take things on.
Can you handle the personal abuse?You have to look where it’s coming from firstly. There is a silent majority of the Celtic support that do appreciate because the facts are there.
If people scratch the surface they will see what is being done. It’s not just me, it’s the board.
In terms of the abuse, I’ve been a Celtic supporter all my life. The pain hurts, in terms of results. In terms of my family - my brothers, my kids, my wife and cousins who all go to the games are who I feel for. I feel responsible for bringing that on them. 
So what keeps you here?I love the club. This is my club. Anything else would be a job, this is a passion.
von Lubo » Fr 30. Mai 2014, 11:26 
MARTIN O'NEILL - LEGEND 
