Glenn Gibbons: Desmond's designs on England a distant dream

Published on Friday 3 September 2010 14:44

IF THERE appears to be a certain dreaminess about Dermot Desmond's re-stated conviction that the Old Firm will, ultimately, join the Premier League in England, the impression will almost certainly derive from his admission that Celtic are the subject of the first thoughts to enter his head on waking.

Whatever the probability or otherwise of the attainment of his ideal, however, the Parkhead club's biggest individual shareholder - and the most powerful and influential voice on the board of directors - is at least as consistent as any other would-be Moses at Celtic and Rangers, with their assurances that moving south would represent entry to the fabled land of milk and honey.

To those supporters of limited means, the exodus may be more appropriately likened to the hardship of banishment to the godless land of Nod, to the east of Eden.

Desmond, like the respective chief executives at Celtic Park and Ibrox, Peter Lawwell and Martin Bain, left the hidden "penalties" for such a transfer unspoken. The clue to the possible drawbacks arrived last week, in the form of a report on the finances of members of the top division in England.

The most jolting statistic to emerge was that the bottom club in the Premier League would receive considerably more money from domestic television alone than the entire annual turnover of Rangers, the Scottish champions. The actual figures would be 50 million against 39m.

Even a moment's dwelling on the implications of that disparity makes the corollary obvious. If Rangers had access to the TV revenues of England - minus, of course, the 15m or so they will have enjoyed from the Champions League the past two seasons - their turnover would leap to around 74m.

That figure would hardly take them out of the bottom quarter of the Premier League. In order to climb even as high as the lower reaches of the upper half, their income would have to increase dramatically.

Celtic's turnover has been conspicuously greater than Rangers' in recent years, but they, too, would require a significant rise in revenue. Supporters already uneasy over the cost of a season ticket would surely be paralysed by the prospect of their outlay being doubled or trebled to meet the cost of "competing" in the Premier League.

Of all the assumptions made by those who advocate defection to England, however, the most ludicrous is that top-quality players will be lured to Glasgow in bunches simply because the Old Firm would be able to afford them. In this regard, no thought seems to be given to the location of the clubs in a city which - however appealing it may be to its proud natives - does not chime like London, or even Manchester, in the foreigner's ear.

This argument is supported by precedent.In 1995, the Celtic managing director, Fergus McCann, believed he had secured the signature of the French forward, David Ginola, only for the latter to join Newcastle United for less money than he would have earned at Parkhead.

Ginola did not especially favour Newcastle over Glasgow, but saw it as a stepping-stone to his first choice, London, an ambition fulfilled two years later when he moved to Tottenham.