In the military it is drummed into young officers during training that “a bad plan is better than no plan”.
Some people make a good living drawing up business plans.
Well Dave King wants to get himself a plan.
In fact he says he won’t leave his home town without one
I suspect that his preferred plan would be one that gets control of the home dressing room at Ibrox without parting with lots and lots of money in the direction of the current shareholders of Rangers International Football Club (RIFC).
Well Dave there’s your problem right there.
The only way to get control of the stadium that John Brown played for is to buy shares in RIFC.
Now Mr King can do that on his own or with others.
However, the people who are currently operating the Ibrox franchise will want to profit from their effort and their investment.
A share issue (like the IPO) would raise extra funds for the company.
However that would dilute the shareholdings of the current incumbents of the Blue Room.
Only they can agree to such a share issue-it cannot be imposed upon them.
There have been several shares issues at Celtic since the first under Fergus McCann, but they weren’t forced by people who had no shareholding in the club.
I took part in the first one after the Bunnet had bought out the old board.
I’m still a shareholder, but that original share in the club has been diluted down because I didn’t take part in subsequent share issues.
So, once more, Fergus McCann BOUGHT out the old board to gain control of Celtic.
It cost him MONEY.
He also cleared all the debts to the last penny, everyone got paid because anything else would have been undignified.
Of course in 2012 the then now and forever same club different company thingy left behind 276 creditors stiffed for millions including the Ambulance Service ,Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and a long list of local suppliers and family run businesses.
That shameful episode doesn’t seem to have had any moral impact upon the home crowd at Ibrox.
It would appear that when it comes to debts they seem ok about Doing Walking Away.
Now?
Dave will have to buy shares in RIFC or stand outside the front door at Ibrox with about as much authority as Paul Murray at the AGM last December.
The Requisitioners attempted to get onto the board despite the fact that they weren’t major shareholders.
They failed.
In the run up to the RIFC inaugural AGM there was gushing copy in the Scottish tabloids about the Requisitioners.
It created an atmosphere where The People got all excited.
Bless.
No one pointed out the inconvenient truth that the Requisitioners actually needed to buy shares to have a hope.
Well that’s not strictly true dear reader, your humble corespondent pointed it out, but as usual The People thought I was wrong.
However, as usual, it was the Dignified Ones who had miscalculated.
Like Craig Whyte and Charles Green their slavish need to believe in powerful leaders had them befuddled by a cruel world.
If Dave King won’t buy out the current majority shareholders then his only card, it would appear, is to organise some sort of season ticket strike.
Of course, if successful, that would collapse Sevco (RIFC’s loss making subsidiary) into insolvency.
The club will of course be fine as a football club never experiences an insolvency event, only the holding company.
Honest.
Moreover, only liquidation wipes out the shareholders in any company.
In administration the administrators run the company on behalf of the creditors, but if the CVA is approved then the company survives and the shareholders regain their power.
The only hope that Dave King has of getting the keys to Ibrox and not giving some money to the folk in the Blue Room for their shares is by dealing directly with an administrator or by buying Ibrox in a liquidation sale.
Dave needs a plan, but the chaps who are currently defending fortress Ibrox will have some moves of their own.
Young military leaders are required to study the wisdom of General Von Moltke who was Prussian Chief of Staff under Otto Von Bismarck during the Franco Prussian war.
He sagely noted that “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy”.
No one who has experienced the chaos of war since then has ever thought to contradict him.
In the battle for Ibrox it might come down to who has the best plan.
