I can remember the night that Caley Thistle put us out of the Scottish Cup in emphatic fashion at Celtic Park, the night that saw a dramatic shift in the fortunes of Scottish Football. As I look back on it now it is easy to pinpoint this as the stage when the tide changed.
The ineptitude of John Barnes’ only season as a top-flight manager proved to be the catalyst that heralded a very successful period for that club, one that we are still enjoying now.
The subsequent board-reshuffles that also occurred during this time with the introduction of Brian Quinn and Peter Lawwell to the fold shored up the balance books, paid for errors of the previous members and put the Club on a very sound financial footing.
Now that our SPL counterparts have already qualified and got two hands on a potential 15M it is now time for us to take our rightful dominant share of this bounty.
It would have been nice to be the sole representative in the group stages, I don’t buy into the "We need two Scottish Clubs in Champions League" Bollox! We need to maintain our current momentum and continue to accumulate the type of funds that can supply the players to make our dreams come true, and if that means that other teams lose money then so be it!
The lion’s share of the Champions League revenue that we would enjoy should we progress would leave our SPL counterparts with less than half the TV money! That would leave the good ship Dignity in shallower water than had they enjoyed sole qualification.
We could probably survive with non-qualification from a purely financial and fiscal point of view, such was our performance in the money market last season but this is the theatre of dreams, the place where the Champions play. We have earned this right! We do not want to give our rivals a leg-up the financial ladder; even though Murray will not use it wisely!
If you are going to the game tonight I hope you both enjoy and contribute to the best atmosphere in Club football and lets make sure that "Parkhead reacts in the way that only Parkhead can"!
So come on WGS and the Bhoys, give us a show the Glasgow Celtic Way!
"AND THEY GAVE US…………………………………………………………………………."
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt