Roger Mitchell and Keith Jackson’s Speculation is “Absolute Nonsense”

Roger Mitchell, the former CEO at the SPL, is a Celtic supporter.  These days he lives in Italy and among other activities he has just released a book about finance in sport. Yesterday, quite unprompted, he put his hand into the fire on social media, speculating about the reason Celtic seem to be stockpiling cash rather than backing Brendan Rodgers in the January transfer window.

This came after the results on Saturday where Celtic dropped points at Pittodrie and theRangers beat Livingston at Ibrox to narrow the gap at the top of the league to just three points, with the latest Ibrox club having a game in hand.

In a subsequently deleted tweet, Roger Mitchell had this to say:

“God the Celtic twitter is angry today. Slamming the Board.  I’ve done that myself over many years but what if they’re just being prudent, with 70m, in cash for a reason.  Class actions are expensive when you lose. Why doesn’t anyone ask where the boys club legal stuff now sits?”

As mentioned above Roger deleted this tweet after the ‘obsessed’ latched onto to it and Celtic supporters challenged him.  Asked if he had deleted the tweet Mitchell gave an explanation for his decision to do so. Replying over two tweets Roger Mitchell said:

“Yes I did. I’d promised myself to avoid commenting up there but I was actually trying to be balanced on a day the Celtic Board was getting hammered. So much for being nice. The bile every time I venture up there! I feel dirty, I really do. It’s a poisoned place. I deleted.”

And then…

“I deleted it coz I just don’t need Glasgow sectarianism in my life. I’m getting a lot of nice feedback in my social media, on the book, ayne, on yesterday’s column,.what I call a reminder of human warmth and friendship in horrendously ugly times. I don’t need more “ugly””

This speculation as to a plausible reason why Celtic did not splash the cash in the January transfer window to back Brendan Rodgers amid a title race that had emerged over the past few months as Celtic’s form became inconsistent and theRangers under their new manager gained real momentum, gained momentum of it’s own when Keith Jackson referred to it in his Monday column in Daily Record today. Keith Jackson wrote:

“If the men in charge of handling Celtic’s financial affairs are quietly squirrelling money away to create a rainy day fund then they should come out and say so. For example, they may have legitimate concerns over the legal ramifications which have been left behind by the monsters who used to prowl around the club’s inner sanctum in their guise as coaches with the boys club.

“If the putrid legacy of these toxic individuals is about to land the current incumbents with a bill for a small fortune then there is nothing to be gained by carrying on and pretending it’s not a real and live issue. Or, if that’s not a genuine concern, then perhaps Celtic may have other plans to spend big on a long overdue refurbishment of the dilapidated and dreary main stand at Parkhead, potentially running into the tens of millions.”

So Jackson is surmising that Roger Mitchell could have been onto something or perhaps it’s something to do with the Main stand needing replaced. On the latter point, if Celtic were minded to do this, the PLC could easily borrow against the majority of the cost and pay it off over a mortgage term, and the additional revenue would easily cover this. That’s possible and is probably what is going to happen in the medium term, rather than anytime soon.

But Jackson’s first potential reason for Celtic’s lower than expected spend in the January transfer window, coming after Mitchell’s tweet, looked like this was an opportunity that the former CEO at the Scottish Premier League had given the Record man that was too good for him to miss.

If Celtic supporters – intelligent, well informed  ones like Roger Mitchell – are buying into this nonsense – then we really do need to address it. Mitchell’s book is about finance in sport and his pitch includes his insight.  We have written about the terrible abuse cases in Scottish football before and have told the Celtic support that our understanding is very clear and that any pay-out will come from the insurance company and not from the club’s bank account. That is the factual reality and you don’t need to be an expert on finance in sport or an award winning sports journalist to find that out.

Having read Mitchell’s tweet last night and Jackson’s article this morning, we thought we should double check (maybe something both of them could also have done?) and can 100% confirm that there is no substance whatsoever in their speculation regarding Celtic stockpiling cash to pay for any class action pay-out. In fact it’s “absolute nonsense”.

Roger Mitchell tried to explain his motivation for the initial tweet that he clearly regrets. Jackson is just doing his usual thing and if he went about checking much of what he writes then his columns would presumably be considerably shorter. We can rule out any compensation pay-outs directly from Celtic as a reason why the club didn’t invest in the January transfer window in the way that they could have had they really wanted.

Of course that leave the question unanswered. Why didn’t Celtic spend more in the January window?  Maybe the reason is that the quality players the manager has asked for won’t be available until the summer window and the gamble has been taken that there’s enough in the current squad to get the league won. If that’s the reason that it’s a huge gamble to take given the guaranteed Champions League prize pot for the Scottish Champions this season.