Jim White baffled by Celtic board as Simon Jordan takes issue with 'nonsense' argument amid statement furore
The pundits at talkSPORT have been reacting to Celtic controversy in the last week.
talkSPORT duo Jim White and Simon Jordan have been left debating a controversial Celtic statement that has sparked protests at the champions.
A poor transfer window put the club board under the microscope and votes of no confidence are being lodged from key fan groups. In a statement last week, a nameless explainer blamed UEFA restrictions, the media, social media and more for why more business could not be done. It has become the centre of debate of White and Jordan’s mid-morning show this week with the former puzzled as to why more could not have been given to boss Brendan Rodgers, with Celtic eventually dumped out the Champions League by Kairat Almaty
White, in a lengthy intro, put to Jordan: “I think within Celtic there is a feeling within the club that in the last 25 or so years the club has been stabilised financially. It wasn't the best previously, the club has won 40 or so trophies, tens of millions have been spent on the squad in the last two or three years. Nonetheless, many of the fans say it's not enough. When you needed to move at a time you needed to move, in other words, to eliminate a minnow like Kairat Almaty you didn't give the right resources to the likes of Brendan Rodgers to do that.”
Simon Jordan on Celtic statement
Jordan couldn’t get on board with that, but did disagree with the UEFA element of the statement. He said: “That's utter nonsense. I mean are you telling me that Brendan Rodgers didn't have a good enough team over two legs to have laid a glove on these minnows? I agree with the idea that you need to strengthen your teams. I Agree with the principles of statement saying that the transfer window has been commoditised. Of course it has.
“It's a main industry now in terms of people talking about the content around transfer windows and what's happening in football clubs. It's part and parcel of the business of show. It doesn't and it doesn't also necessarily have the accurate facts half the time. So that's nonsense. So the observation about the commodification of the transfer window is absolutely right. The challenges that I have with their statement is that they're making UEFA's governing rules part of the reasons why they can't do certain things.
“Well Celtic made 35 million pound profit last season and 11 million pounds profit the previous season. So the 60 million losses that they're allowed to have under UEFA sanctioning isn't irrelevant to this conversation.
Jim White reacts to Celtic statement
So when they use the fact that they've got to run their football club sustainably which I don't suggest that they shouldn't and when they suggest that there's certain restrictions upon wages and transfer fees because of UEFA's governance they're absolutely right.
“But what's that got to do with Celtic's position? Celtic are nowhere near the challenge of UEFA. UEFA allow them to lose 60 million euros every three years. Celtic have made 44 million euros profit over the last two years. That would mean they're somewhere in the region of 110 million euros with a difference if not more. So I'm not entirely sure why they feel the need to wheel that in because it's not true.”
White concluded: “You see what baffles me about a statement like this and the points I've made of it from within Celtic are actually true. The club has been stabilised financially. The club has won 40 or so trophies. Tens of millions have been spent in the squad. But when they say unfortunately it's not always possible to conclude transfers either within the timescales that we target or at all. Well I'm afraid that's what the window's all about. And that's the responsibility not of the fans but of those at the top of the club. It's all about outcomes.”