Spare a thought for those obedient chaps in the Stenography Corps.
Their daily task to spew out feel-good pish to the Sevco klanbase.
Everything is always going to be wonderful, in a little while.
Always just a little while longer…
However, there are days when the extent to which the basket of assets is drowning in excrement is utterly undeniable.
Today was one of those days.
Firstly, the Engine Room Subsidiary said “Tchau” to Senhor Fábio Rafael Rodrigues Cardoso.
Of course, Sevco will receive no transfer fee for this player, yet another financial loss inflicted by Pedro’s hilarious reign of error.
Then General Ashley’s tanks hoved into view today.
An entire armoured division of top-class lawyers specialising in contract law.
It was no contest.
As had been stated here back in June 2017 the devil would indeed be in the retail.
At the time the Stenographers gushed about the great victory that Dave King had won over the Sports Direct chap.
Of course, the Stenography Corps, pathetically grateful to be in the presser, took the Convict Chairman at face value.
Credulous to the last The People rejoiced that Big Mike had been seen off.
Except that he hadn’t.
He had received a £3m pay off that would later be revealed in the RIFC annual accounts.
Moreover, those charitable chaps in Club 1872 had purchased Ashley’s RIFC shares at the very generous price of 27.5p.
This was at the time when the Takeover Panel was valuing them at 20p.
If Big Mike suffers any more “defeats” like this then he might consider retiring!
Now today the Judge found in favour of Sports Direct.
That is another substantial bill for the Sevco High Command to pay.
The amateurishness of the Sevco High Command throughout this little saga has been breathtaking.
There was no need for this litigation if there had been even a modicum of competence in the Blue Room.
Hubris and inexperience is an unfortunate cocktail.
Very much the Dunning-Kruger effect in play.
In message board land The People are soothing themselves with the fiction that at least Ashley will have to match what JD Sports had offered Sevco.
Really?
As ever the devil will be in the retail.
When I know more about this story then I will publish it here.
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I see in Stevie G’s pre match conference he referred to the Ibrox fan base as being educated.
Yep Stevie, that will be the same people that have been duped/lied to by Murray, Whyte, Green and now King, the latest issue being the SDI merchandising contract.
Just as well the fan base is so sharp otherwise they could get the pish ripped out of them.
Stevie, these educated fans think that the Scottish media and SFA/SPFL are their enemies, that’s how educated they are.
Its a couple of days now sine King capitulated to Ashley’s matching clause in the contract.
However it’s unclear, certainly to the Bears, if they can walk into the Megastore today or an SD outlet and buy the full regalia.
That’s either of the 3 Hummel replica versions not the hithertoo unseen 4th one worn last week.
Anyone got clarification on this?
On the Cardoso leaving by mutual consent thingy that could mean anything.
No way his new club could afford his Rangers wages so some sort of deal for the 2 years left on his contract would have to be done.
I’m sure I read somewhere that a final payment of his transfer fee to his previous Portoguese club still had to be made.
Robertson’s head must be spinning with all the ins and outs, legacy payments still being made, transfer instalments to be met, covering wages for those moved on but being paid less than they were at Ibrox.
It’s little wonder that things like the SDI matching clause get missed or turning up in Croatia without Hummel shirts that didn’t advertise a betting company forcing a last minute change to a formerly unheard of 4th strip.
King’s final day in court wrt to COS/TOP is 2 weeks away. He has nowhere else to run to, his excuses for not complying have been thrown back in his face.
For you Dave The Chase is well and truly over, a sad day indeed for your solicitors and their constant Ibrox revenue stream.
Club 1872 contributors must be delighted that their purchase of Ashley’s shares has sent him packing or not as the case may be.
And still not a squeak about the share issue that never was, a corner stone of King’s strategy, or so he told his selected media friends.
I blame the schools.
CCK would have been better off at Saint Margaret Mary’s (and well he knew it).
You would have to have a heart of stone not to feel inconsolably sorry for all of them but you just can’t turn the clock back.
O me miserum.
Going to chuck up my apron in a minute.
Just think…
If it wasn’t for the staunch legal ineptitude rife at iBrokes….
They’d be able to buy 2 Laffertys with just the up-front court costs that they’ve sprayed up the wall in true Sevco fashion.
The ancestor died trying to win the ‘big one’..
The illegitimate child will die chasing second place!
You can read their tiny orange (size and colour) brains… ‘we need a player that has actually scored against Celtic !’
Like that will help them.
I know EBTs and ‘OPM’ were abundant at Rainjurzz .. but I always felt that Klos was signed not because of his partyicukar skills but more that he was available and had won the European cup. Paul lambert had been signed by Celtic the previous season so of course they …
…‘Follow folllow ‘. Rainjurzz just had to have their own Eurooean cup winner in the side.
Same business model now – just different budgets.
2000 – lashing out 13 million on a striker to beat Celtic , money well ‘spent’
2018 – haggling over 50 grand to secure a striker who’s only plus point us that he scored more goals against Celtic last season than Sevco.
What about a World Cup winner?
I hear Claudio Cannigia was spotted in Nachos Bar!
King has not damaged the no surrender ethos and kulture of the club.
Not a bit, this is more total capitulation. King has gone all in with a nothing hand and Ashley has called his bluff.
He’s shit all over King and the smell will be in the air for a long time to come.
Assuming Rangers will clear £5 for every replica strip flying off SD shelves, thats after SD warehousing/distribution/selling/admin costs plus of course their share of net profits, then Hummel get their piece of the cake, Rangers will need to shift 100,000 jerseys just to wash their face with the legal costs bill.
Not every bluenose will be happy at the outcome and on a matter of principle will refuse to contribute to Mike’s retirement fund.
However others will swallow their ‘ principles’ and be forming an orderly queue at SD outlets.
These will be the same fans who, when the players exited the club at admin for no transfer fee, left them without a name but now welcome back McGregor and possibly Lafferty.
All has been forgotten and forgiven, though if your name is Naismith or Whittaker you are still a traitor.
Ah well, what next for King, another court case?
M’lud has made it perfectly clear to King and his brief that they have no interest in how King makes the offer required by TOP/COS, he just has to make the offer.
No more claims of SA exchange rules or not having a UK bank account will wash this time round.
Who knows where Rangers would be today if Ashley had remained an interested party instead of being chased away but without doubt their financial position would be more stable and secure as opposed to the ramifications of failing to secure Europa Cup Group Stage qualification.
If SDI have cherry picked the most lucrative piece of the merchandising, that would leave the scraps available for some other retailer. I can’t imagine that bidders will be lining up for the crumbs which would tend to make me think that the deal big Mike has now signed, is worth less to Sevco than the one agreed with JD Sports.
Of course, big Mike may be feeling charitable and has matched the entire deal. He is that sort of RRM after all.
Would it be wrong to suggest that the statement all but begs Puma not to take them to court. What was it ….. Thanks for your patience or something ? Doesn’t sound promising for them.
Jabba will earn his crust this month hahaha.
Some pertinent maths questions
Q1 How many first kits need to be sold at Sports direct to pay off Fabio Cardosas severance package.
Q2 how many of the white strips need to be sold before you have enough cash to buy big Laugherty.
Q3 how many orange kits need to be sold to pay off Big Mikes legal fees
This is a disaster for sevco, no company in their right mind would let a competitor go over their contracts in fine detail. This vital information must have been withheld from JD sports when they negotiated the deal, if sevco had not agreed an out of court settlement, JD sports would basically be giving too much fundamental detail about their business, my guess is they withdrew their offer and big mike has taken sevco pants down again??. Sevco could find themselves in court again, this time with JD sports for misrepresentation and fraud.
Ha! Love the puns! Keep up the guid work, Phil!
Devil in the retail….reign of error!
I see the ignore and denial has started already with the Sevco fans, one post even went as far as to say they are now getting 50/50 with SD… so Hummel pay Sevco a tidy sum to sponsor their kits and they just make them and give them away to Sevco and SD for nothing!…. on that note I will leave this here for all the Sevco lurkers. There is only one winner here and that SD and Big Mike.
THE ACTUAL VALUE OF SHIRT SALES TO A CLUB
The official price of a kit usually ranges from €40-70 per shirt (with most being on the lower end of that scale). Taking the average in that range and multiplying it, it would seem that Manchester United and Real Madrid could conceivably make €88 million per season from official shirt sales, which sounds great and looks like a massive source of revenue.
However, there’s a catch. That price of €40 is the retail price of the kit. Most of the revenue from it goes to the manufacturer (which is why they agree to the huge sponsorship deals in the first place, as sponsorship of a club essentially creates the right to sell their kits). The revenue is also shared between various shipping companies, and often the player himself (which is why image rights exist).
There aren’t too many sources available as to the exact amount that the clubs receive as a cut from the retail price, but the most educated guesstimate is around €12 per shirt (as detailed by the absolutely excellent blog The Swiss Ramble).
Running those numbers, we arrive at an absolute maximum of €19.2 million per season (remember that this is based on Real Madrid or Manchester United selling 1.6 million shirts per season, a figure that is very optimistic, and is more likely to be around the 1.4-1.5 million range, so the monetary figure would probably be even lower)
What is wrong at that club when they don’t even know what details are in the agreements they sign?
Are they trying to make everyone believe that Sevco and Rangers* are and always have been institutionally inept? Is it to make us believe that those side letters really were just a bureaucratic mistake after all?
There is something not quite right about the detail of the previous contract with SD.
It’s beyond belief that the Rangers board signed up to the SD contract unaware of the matching clause, ditto the solicitors who would have read every line.
Even if they ‘missed’ the clause and as a result JD Sports had no knowledge of it as they engaged in negotiations to take over the retail operation from SD, that will be no defence in a court of law.
JD will already have incurred costs preparing the ground work for taking on the contract, no doubt including some hefty legal bills of their own.
Effectively they have been strung along completely unaware of the matching clause, which if they had been notified of in the first place, negotiations would have been terminated there and then.
No doubt JD Sports will be considering their position.
It’s incredible how alike this evenings TRFC Ltd. statement is to the version they released when they last ripped up a previous agreement with Sports Direct – now how did that work out for them?! Today suggests not very well at all.
Have they learned anything at all or did they strengthen their bargaining position at all?! Securing only Hummel as kit manufacturer suggests they are in a lesser position than when they had Puma on-board.
Me…I can’t doubt the veracity of a statement straight out of Ibrox – our days as top dog could well be numbered. 😉
Problem is, if Sports Direct get to cherry pick the best bits of the merchandising, who will be interested in picking up whatever’s left?
And now that all this is out in the open, who’s even going to bother bidding for the strips – next year??
So, did JD Sports and Sevco seal the deal with on of those contract thingys? If so, that would be interesting. Was the Ashley clause disclosed to JD? What are the Scandinavians thinking about their prize catch? Ach well, they’ve got a training pitch named after them. They really are the gift that keeps on giving.
Spare a thought for the poor guys at JD Sports.
I have no doubt that they’ll probably take this one on the chin and move on. Hmmmmmm maybe aye maybe naw.
Ha ha ha ha!! Dear oh dear! My mind drifts back to those protests against big Mike (see link to video below). Join in now, in as high a pitched squeal as you can … “if ye hate Mike Ashley clap yer hands!” Side splitting!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Set3WTHC1hg
Ra Berrs in ra den were wondering how many tops they’d have to sell to pay the £500k. Someone claimed to have done research and discovered that Premier League teams get £3 from each £50 top.
When i was at school that would make the 7% in the old Rangers Retail a good deal!