Paul Hartley is hoping that the Alloa players will force him into permanent retirement.
Two years after leaving Celtic and following spells at Bristol City and Aberdeen the midfielder has moved into management in charge of the newly relegated side.
The job title says player/manager but if the midfielder gets his squad right he’s hoping to spend all of his time in the dug-out.
He admitted: “If I think the players need a helping hand and a bit of guidance on the pitch then I will play but I hope things are going so well I will not need to name myself in the team.
“I’ve not been off my phone in the past 48 hours, speaking to my former managers and contacts about players.
“I’ve also been arranging places to train for the new season and organising a pre-season schedule for training and games. I’ve been thinking about budgets.
“I must have made almost 100 calls and I’ve had some really good conversations. I’m excited and I’m confident but I’ve not been able to sleep the past two nights.
“I’ve had 101 things running through my mind and I’m trying to deal with them all and prioritise things.
“I’m only a day into the job but I’ve already realised how important it is to be organised, manage your time properly and delegate.
“That’s why I will work with my own people, people I trust and respect. Paddy Connolly falls into that category.”
Hartley added: “I’m very excited about it. This will not be a part-time job. I will treat this as full-time post and I will work seven days a week.
“At the end of the day my neck is on the line and I need to be successful. I want to establish myself as a manager and I need to win games to do that.
“I hope this is the first day of a long and successful career.
“I think this an excellent opportunity. Alloa are an ambitious club and the aim is to win the title and get straight back into Division Two.
“Everyone is disappointed at being relegated but we have to move on. Every player is out of contract and I expect there will be a quite a big turnover of staff in the coming weeks.”
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I like Paul Hartley, I felt it was a mistake Mowbray letting him go.
Was a bit of a surprise when I heard he retired, I hope it all works out for him, Maybe you should contact him Joe with some of the young Celtic lads names who where released from the Celtic under 19’z recently.
What does that say for the rest of Scottish youth football when you have a team who done the league and cup double and all those players got released, what’s the quality of the rest of the teams like.
Makes you realize how much of a blunder it was to scrap the reserve league.
Hail Hail
Alloa may be an option to send players on loan to but Third Division football is more brutal than educational.
The five players released by Celtic have all got good offers, SPL clubs are interested in them and there is also decent interest from England.
They need regular first team football and will get that at a level higher than Alloa, I’d guess that most Scottish First Division sides would jump at the chance of any of those freed players.
At the beginning of the season Joe there was a bit of chatter about both Celtic and the Hunz putting a reserve squad into one of the lower divisions, is that going to materialise or what or Is it just more talk,I thought it was a decent idea, give the lads a better quality of opposition on a regular basis.
Rangers can barely raise a squad and have been well beaten recently by Celtic at u-17 and u-19 recently.
The SPL document for reconstruction has six places for colts teams but that proposal will need a 10 team SPL.
There’s been talk of a reserve/colt team entering the SFL for 40 years but it’s never happened.
Finding a way to bridge the chasm from u-19 to first team is essential to develop Celtic players all the way through.
During the 80’z I preferred it when I was going to watch the Hoops and the whole team where either Scottish or Irish, mainly all players who knew the real meaning off playing for the jersey.
Most of Scottish football was like it back then and the competition and quality was much better than it is today, then the 3 player foreigner rule came in and it all changed, don’t get me wrong there has been some great foreigners who have been a great Success in the Hoops, but I’d rather we got back to relying on our Bhoys coming through the ranks or as it was back then it was teams like Eastercraig And Edina Hibs who provided the talent.
I can’t see Scottish football ever recovering to be honest if it continues the way it is, I seen a great article written by Paul67, it was about the Pan European league idea, a lot of thought put into the article, I’ll try looking it out so you can have a wee read at it, that’s if you’ve not already seen it.
I know that Everton’s Davie Moyes is trying to set something up with regular competition with the English reserves and the Scottish reserves to get them playing competitively, I’d be all for that myself.
Hail Hail
Celtic’s FUTURE, Re-energise in Europe or DECLINE, ( Written Article By Paul67 )
Three years ago, shortly after the current FA Premier League TV deal was announced, I published my vision for a Pan-European league.
At the time I said:
“Teams in the lower half of the English league will earn tens of millions of pounds more from television than Celtic. This will affect our competitiveness, our ability to recruit and keep players, it will push up the cost of the players we do attract and, will condemn Celtic to a future of being perennial plucky losers in the early stages of the Champions League.
”Escape from the Scottish Premier League into a better playing environment is not just important, it is crucial for Celtic. Every other business problem the club faces pales into insignificance when judged against this objective.
“We face some harsh truths. The FA Premier League television deal will leave Celtic as an even more peripheral European club if we remain in the Scottish Premier League. If this is our lot, and there is nothing we can do about it, we are as well looking each other in the eye, and cutting our aspirations down to match.
We know only too well how all of this feels now.
This season will see our wage costs reach a new peak, but the calibre of squad you get for £40m per annum is less than it was when we last peaked five years ago. Our regular place in the Deloitte Top 20 is in the past, we will never be in this list again until a fundamental change happens in European football.
Prospects of a change of environment emerging through an invitation to join the English league system requires us to benefit from the as-yet un-manifest breakdown of their financial structure. We are, however, not alone. Rangers, Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Ajax, Feyenoord, Eindhoven, Bruges and Anderlecht face exactly the same problems and should therefore provide support for change.
What makes a successful league?
Before agreeing to move anywhere, the first thing Celtic should consider, is what properties does a league need in order to produce successful European teams. There are a few key elements:
A large population capable of providing a significant television audience.
Well run clubs, capable of filling large stadiums.
Wealthy economies, ensuring TV and sponsorship rights are worth a lot of money.
In Europe, wealth and large populations exist in five national football regions, Germany, Italy, France, England and Spain. Populous countries like Turkey (population 74 million) and Russia (145 million) do not have the economies to support lucrative television or sponsorship contracts, although the latter is showing some promise.
Remarkably, well run football clubs, capable of filling large stadiums seems to be the least important factor. The top French league now attracts fewer spectators than the lower division ‘Championship’ in England, and there are only three clubs in Spain who fill large stadiums. It is only really in England and Germany where both massive spectator attendances and wealthy economies are found.
If a Pan-Euro League is to succeed, it must have the demographic, financial and football elements necessary to enable its clubs to compete from a position of strength with all other European leagues.
The Pan-Euro League
I’m going to give you a scenario here, but don’t get too hung up on the details and come back with reasons why a league cannot start in October, for example. The detail will be resolved if the vision is there to see it through.
The league would have 16 teams, drawn from the seven countries, Scotland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Denmark, with the initial constituent clubs promoted to the league based on their Uefa coefficient. The better countries would have more competitors. From the current coefficient table, the initial competitors would be:
The Netherlands: PSV Eindhoven, Ajax, Alkmaar (proving Feyenoord and the rest need to be on their game).
Portugal: Porto, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon.
Belgium: Bruge, Anderlecht, Standard Liege.
Scotland: Celtic, Rangers, Hearts or Aberdeen (they are on equal points).
Switzerland: Basel, FC Zurich.
Austria: Austria Vienna.
Denmark: Copenhagen.
Each club would play 30 fixtures, which leaves scope for a short, 10 game national qualification tournament starting in August. This tournament would involve the top six clubs from each country playing home and away for their national championship, Champions League qualification and entry into the Pan-Euro league.
Again, don’t get too hung up on the detail of this, there are several viable alternatives, although each would benefit from discontinuing the various second national cup competitions. My initial plan had a scenario for promotion to and relegation directly from the Pan-Euro league feeding from national leagues, but I stripped this out this time as too many people got hung-up on the fine detail, which is not necessary at this point, however, direct relegation and promotion remains a possible scenario.
The middle group of teams from the national leagues, such as Aberdeen, Hibernian and Hearts would have a real opportunity to progress to a higher level, and, if they are well enough organised, rediscover their former European glories. And while Hearts, Alkmaar or Standard Liege might not float your boat the same way as Ajax and Porto do, the most popular league in the world thrives with Wigan, Hull and Stoke.
The example of Villarreal, a well-run club from an affluent league who were able to reach the Champions League semi final, demonstrates what is possible for smaller clubs from the candidate Pan-Euro League countries.
The Clubs
The clubs entitled to compete in the initial Pan-Euro League have been European Champions 11 times; until recently more than any other league in Europe.
Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, Feyenoord, Eindhoven, Benfica, Porto, Bruges and Anderlecht could make the Pan-Euro League the best attended in Europe. There is no telling what this level of opportunity would do for clubs like Basel or Austria Vienna.
The Economics
The proposed seven countries who would make up the Pan-Euro League have a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $1871 billion (UK billion), higher than the GDP of England, France, Italy or Spain. In Europe, only the German economy has a higher GDP.
They have a combined population of 64 million, again, only Germany is more populous from the major European leagues.
With the second largest TV audience in Europe, and the second largest economy, TV income for most of the 16 competitors would at least match, and probably exceed, most clubs in the current top five leagues.
Sponsorship deals would also increase in value in line with the better TV exposure.
The league would be geographically spread, but not as much as in Russia, so all games could be shown live on television outside the local territory of the game to cater for away fans unable to travel.
The eight games per weekend should fill four timeslots, two on Saturday and two on Sunday, allowing TV viewers to choose from one of two games at each timeslot. This television model has been pioneered by the Champions League, and would mean more live television, and therefore more advertising and sponsorship space to sell, which would further enhance TV income.
There would be a total of 240 TV timeslots per annum, with revenues shared between 16 teams, the Champions League has 25 timeslots and the FA Premier League has 138, playing to a smaller domestic audience and shared between 20 teams.
It remains to be seen how much such a TV contract could generate, but frankly, if it did not generate enough income to spectacularly
blow the proposed competitors current deals out of the water, and allow them to compete with the best in Europe, the sales agent would have failed badly.
Who will gain from this?
The Pan-Euro League member clubs have more than just money to gain; they could rediscover their reason for being; to become a European superpower.
Mid-range clubs from the candidate countries would have the opportunity to make real progress towards a better level of competition.
After jettisoning the Pan-Euro clubs in the autumn, national leagues across the candidate countries would rediscover genuine competition, long lost for most of them, as the remaining teams compete for a trophy in May.
Small clubs from candidate countries would be financial beneficiaries in a league structure above them generating much more money than anything they have known in the past with scope for meaningful revenue share opportunities.
Uefa frequently express concern at power being concentrated in ever fewer hands, this is an opportunity to empower the disenfranchised, and to make European football more inclusive.
The first step
Calculating sports media and sponsorship values is not a black art. Sport is a mature industry, so an assessment of the value of media and sponsorship rights can be made. This will amount to tens of millions of pounds per club per annum.
As a first step, a report on the value of this league should be commissioned – by Celtic alone if necessary. A report showing a potential bounty of tens of millions of pounds on the table is an excellent way to focus minds across Europe.
Dozens of clubs could gain from this plan, but Celtic have more to gain than anyone. They could become the biggest fish in what might prove to be the biggest pond.
If we measure our progress by my comment from 2006, “Escape from the Scottish Premier League into a better playing environment is not just important, it is crucial for Celtic. Every other business problem the club faces pales into insignificance when judged against this objective”, we have made little progress.
Operationally we have the best run football club in Britain, possibly in Europe, but if you consider the seeds of our domestic domination were planted well before 2006 (our G.o.D. was declared here in 2004), I cannot point to any evidence of strategic progress since.
It’s time for Celtic to stop pressing their nose against someone else’s window and show us they have not run out of vision for our future. Re-energise, find the spark that will drive us forward, without which we can only manage decline