Celtic story - with a difference

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Celtic manager Ronny Deila and former payer John Hartson believe that it would be for the good of British football for Celtic and Rangers to join The English Premiership.

Former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan who has experienced playing and managing on both sides of the border, believes that a move for Scotland's top two is inevitable.

There are however many people opposed to this idea as current Dundee manager, Paul Hartley, explains " Moving Celtic and Rangers into any division in England would seriously harm the future of Scottish football. Finances for all clubs would immediately drop by at least 50%!

There has also been a lot of opposition from the clubs in England to this proposed move, current Nottingham Forest manager Stuart Peace had his say "If Celtic and Rangers want to play in England then fair enough, but they will have to start at in the bottom league, at the foot of the football league. No team has a divine right to play in the Premier League.

The other complication for moving the two Glasgow clubs comes with their current finances and strength of squad, which is far below Premier League standard. Rangers will suffer from this problem perhaps more, being in the Scottish Championship doesn't bring the required finances to make such a massive move across the border. They would also need to revamp the whole squad in order to complete in the biggest league in the world, and arguably as would Celtic.

Former Celtic favourite, John Hartson had a slightly different view "i think the two clubs should be playing in England but i cant see it being as easy as just moving straight into the Premier League. In my view, both clubs will have to either form a new club and start at the bottom of the English division or move the existing clubs to the bottom league.

It is thought both Celtic and Rangers have arranged meetings with both the English FA and the Premier League for next week to discuss the possibility of moving across the border.
 
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The Premier League board of directors have rejected the proposal made from Celtic and Rangers to join the English Premier League.

The English FA have sent the following statement:

"The board of directors regret to inform that a proposal made by both Celtic and Rangers football clubs to be transferred into the English Premier League has been rejected.
Although we thought both clubs made some good points during lengthy meetings, we felt it unfair on all 92 Football League teams in England for Celtic and Rangers to be placed straight into the Premier League".

Majority shareholder of Celtic, Dermot Desmond commented:

"although we are very disappointed by this decision, we fully accept the points and reasoning made by the Premier League. We will go back to the drawing board to see if any other options are viable.
Reaching the English Premier League is still the dream of Celtic Football Club".
 
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Talk of forming a new club continues!


The board of directors at both Celtic and Rangers are currently discussing the possibility of creating a new football club which will them allow them to enter the English football league ladder, albeit at the bottom level.

Although the finer details have not yet been discussed, it is believed that the Football Association will allow entry for both new clubs to enter the football league "at some level".

The level of entry has not been discuss but is believed to be the regional conference level.
​
 
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Head of the English Football Association has confirmed they would accept the concept of both Celtic and Rangers forming a new team to enter the Football League "at the bottom level".
This is thought to be at the Conference regional level, 6 divisions below the Premier League.

Greg **** confirmed "a new team set up by either Celtic or Rangers would be accepted by the FA to play in the lowest possible division. We feel this will give added interest not only into that particular division but the whole English League system in general.
We are not yet sure whether this will be feasible from their point of view due to the finances required to set up a new team from scratch, and also how much interest there will be for this from their fans".

Celtic's majority shareholder has released the following statement:
"We are very pleased with the decision the FA have today decided on. Although this was not our fist request, we are still very excited about the challenge that this brings".
 
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CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB ANNOUNCE NEW FOOTBALL TEAM !​

Celtic football club have announced the birth of 'Celtic United' who will enter the English league in the Vanarama Conference North league.

It will be the dream of Celtic United to make their way to the Premier League!

Shortly after this announcement, Celtic FC declared they were prepared to ground share with their English counterparts. This means that both teams will be playing at 60,000 capacity, Celtic Park.


It is thought Rangers will be making a very similar announcement later in the week.
 
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RANGERS UNITED ANNOUNCED !​

Rangers Fc have announced new football club, Rangers United. This follows Celtic's announcement of Celtic United earlier in the week.

Both Rangers United and Celtic United will be starting life in the Vanarama Conference North, the lowest league possible for them.

With the league due to start in just over 2 months, both teams now have a difficult job to get a squad of players cable to challenge for promotion.
 
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CELTIC UNITED APPOINT CELTIC LEGEND AS MANAGER​

Newly formed Celtic United have announced the appointment of former Celtic player Chris Sutton.

Sutton made over 200 appearances for Celtic between 2000 and 2006 scoring an impressive 86 goals.
During this period, Sutton stuck up a great partnership with another Celtic legend, Henrik Larsson where they won 3 SPL titles, 3 Scottish cups and one Scottish League cup, as well as reaching the Uefa cup final.

Sutton began his career with Norwich, breaking into the first team in the 91/92 season. Sutton soon became a fan favourite at Norwich, making 127 appearance and scoring 43 goals in his 4 years at the club.

Sutton then became the most expensive player in English football history following his £5million transfer to big spending Blackburn Rovers. Here Sutton struck up a wonderful partnership with Alan Shearer, described as the SAS. In his first season at Blackburn, he and Shearer helped the club to the Premier League title, their first for 100 years. Blackburn never saw highs like this since, with the departure of Alan Shearer and manager Kenny Dalglish, Sutton also suffered a number of injuries during his time with Rovers. In total Sutton made 199 appearances, scoring 62 goals.

In the 1998/99 season, Blackburn were relegated from the Premier League, this alerted many top sides to the availability of Sutton. It was Chelsea who beat several other teams to his signature, paying £10million for his services. Here, Sutton experienced a very disappointing time, scoring just 3 goals in his 1 and only season at the club.

He was later sold to Celtic for £6million.

Injuries cut his Celtic career short as he struggled to keep fit and struggled for game time. In 2006 Birmingham snapped up the Englishman following the expiration of his Celtics contract. But once again injuries hampered his progress, making just 10 appearances and scoring just 1 goal. Birmingham were relegated at the end of the season.

Sutton then had one last chance in the Premier League, this time with Aston Villa, again signing on a free transfer. Again he struggled with serious injuries and made only 8 appearances, again scoring just the 1 goal.



Chris Sutton has got some managerial experience, albeit brief. In 2009 League 2 side Lincoln City appointed the Englishman. Sutton experienced some success in his first season, Sutton led Lincoln to the FA cup third round for the first time since 1999, they lost 4-0 to Bolton. Sutton also led Lincoln to survival in League 2. At the end of that season however, Sutton declared that for personal reasons he could not continue with his work.


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RANGERS UNITED APPOINT ALLY MCCOIST AS MANAGER​

Newly formed Rangers United have appointed former Rangers manager, Ally McCoist. McCoist joins the newly formed team following him leaving Rangers after an on and off relationship with the Gers fans.
McCoist made a total 418 appearances for Rangers and managed them for 3 years following their relegation to Scottish Division 2.
 
Great idea mate, have always wanted to try something along these lines myself. Should be very interesting!
 
So, now we've got the news side of the story out the way, i can actually explain what I'm trying to do here ...

As you've probably guessed, I've created 2 new teams (Celtic Utd and Rangers Utd) who will start life in the Vanarama Conference North. I'll be playing as Celtic but will obviously be keeping an eye on Rangers United development.

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So as you can see, the newly formed clubs are here with their division now confirmed. With no players yet at either side, a captain has not yet been decided. Kits for both sides also resemble those of their parent sides.


Now, to enable both teams to be able to enter the league I had to substitute them with Lowestoft and AFC Flyde (sorry to their fans). I chose these two sides simply because they had the lowest reputation and smallest budgets in the league.
So before the season started both the new teams were the favourites for promotion:
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Both Celtic United and Rangers United are massive favourites for promotion, both teams coming in at 5/1 for promotion, the next best side (Harrogate) are a massive 10/1 in comparison.


So, as i mentioned earlier, both sides will be playing in the Conference North to start with. As you can see, we're a long way off the Premier League which has to still be the main aim.

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Now as you can see, both teams have been entered into the lowest possible league (without downloading a lower league database), the Vanarama Conference North. At the start we're in the 6th division of English football and 5 promotions away from the promise land which is the Premier League.

Targets for save:

Okay, so this will be a fairly long term save with the ultimate aim being to reach the Premier League.

Season 1
Our aim for the first year has to be to win the league! We're joint favourites with Rangers Utd to win the league anyway this target is fairly straight forward. Id also like to reach the 1st round proper of the FA cup, I don't know how feasible this will be as it all depends on our draw in qualifying.
Season 2
Again, I think promotion will have to be the target here, this will then enable us to play in the football league which we need to do ASAP. 3rd round in the FA cup will be another target for this season.
Season 3
A safe position in league 2 will hopefully be the aim here along with a decent cup run in either the FA cup or League cup.

After this point our targets are pretty difficult to project as it all depends on how the first 3 years go. However i would like to reach the Premier League by 10 years which will give us 2 years in each division before reaching the top league.
 
I mean ... you create players with our data and add the team that everyone wants
 
As a Lincoln supporter, god help Celtic Utd with Chris Sutton in charge.

EDIT: Love the idea though mate, I'm looking forward to keeping tabs on this one.
 
Last edited:
Godfish93 said:
As a Lincoln supporter, god help Celtic Utd with Chris Sutton in charge.

EDIT: Love the idea though mate, I'm looking forward to keeping tabs on this one.
Click to expand...

Haha! I did have second thoughts about using him as the manager but i really struggled to think of someone who had Celtic connections and would manage at this level. Hopefully his Lincoln experience will help us .... we hope! :)
 
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TRIAL DAY AT BOTH CELTIC UNITED AND RANGERS UNITED

Both the newly formed Glasgow sides, Celtic Utd and Rangers Utd, have set up mass trial days at their training grounds in order to get a squad ready for the start of the new season.

New Celtic Utd manager, Chris Sutton, made the announcement:

"These trials are set up to give the club the best possible chance of starting the season in a months time with the best opportunity. We're looking for local lads to come down and showcase their talents, previous experience is not important".

Trials will commence from the 14th of July 2014 and will last for the full week.
 
So, after the trials at Celtic Park our squad looks like this.

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I'm actually pretty pleased with the squad at this stage, although its not a massive squad we've still got a month or so to fill it out a little.


CRAIG CLARK -
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Craig Clark is one of the best players to come out of the trials, the young center half will surely be one of the most important players for the club. At 6'2" he should be able to command his area well.
With 15 for heading and marking, 16 for bravery and 13 for both concentration and positioning he should be the ideal center half for this level.
My assistant manager, Paul Hilton certainly agrees, giving him 5 star current ability! And also thinks he could be a leading player for Sky Bet League 1.

LEE MACLEAN -
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Another very promising player to come to us is right winger, Lee Maclean. The 27 year old has great attributes for a winger, having 15 accelaration, 13 pace, 17 for flair and 12 crossing.
Yet again, my assistant agrees giving Maclean 5 star current ability believing he could actually be performing in League 2.

BILLY FERGUSON -
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Another quality player for this level. Ferguson favours the defensive midfield role but can also play central midfield and even center half if required. Ferguson's best attribute is his tackling (17) followed by his strength (14).
Once more, my assistant agrees and yet again gives Ferguson 5 star current ability and says he's already good enough for Sky Bet League 2.

KEVIN LOWDON -
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Lowdon is the last player good enough for the first team to come from the trials. Lowdon's favoured position is right back but is capable to play at center half if needed. Lowdon has good physical attributes but really will need to improve his technical stats if he wishes to move up the leagues.
My assistant has only given Lowdon 2 stars for his current ability but 5 star potential. With Lowdon already 23, I'm hoping it wont take too long to reach his full potential.

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The rest of the players are all good youth prospects but not really good enough for the first team, and chances are they wont be for a number of years.
Gary Hamilton is probably the closest one to reaching the first team, with Paul Hilton giving him 2 star current ability and 4/5 potential. Robert Donnelly has been given the same.
Kevin Kennedy also looks a very good prospect with 4.5 star potential ability, but as you can see, he's still away off being good enough for us straight away.
Rae and Strachan both look decent but once more just arent good enough yet. I'll be trying to arrange a loan for a few of these lads but I'm not sure what kind of interest we'll receive.

How often i use these players this season will all depend on the rest of my recruitment during pre-season



Feedback and advice is appreciated here, I'm interested to see what people think of this idea and whether you have any advice for managing at this level.
 
So are you actually affiliated with Celtic? Any chance of loaning a few of their youngsters?

If so it will be interesting to see how that relationship develops as you progress through the leagues!

As for advice, i'm next to useless so i'm afraid you're on your own there but i'm very interested to see how this plays out. :)
 
I found a target man to be absolutely vital for me when I was down this end of the pyramid, thankfully Lincoln had Jordan Burrow who was pretty capable.
 
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