As regular readers will be aware I have an ongoing interest in any outbreak of journalistic scrutiny on Planet Fitba.
Consequently, this contribution from Mikey Stewart on radio Scotland on March 18th was especially welcome.
You can listen to the preamble from the start or scroll to 11.26.
Mikey Stewarts expresses surprise that Steven Gerard took the Ibrox job in the first place.
When the anchor Kenny McIntyre asked the ex-Manchester United player if there is “strategy in place to deliver anytime soon?”
Stewart, in his answer, states the basic financial realities and at 12.19 he underlines his point by stating “…they’re losing money at an alarming rate”.
The other two contributors in the studio, Darryl Broadfoot and Tom English do not demur when Mikey points this out.
I can only take it that their silence denotes acquiescence on the matter.
Of course, none of this is will be breaking news to regular readers here.
The monies recently borrowed from Close Brother was at least the amount that the yearend RIFC accounts stated that would be needed to see out the season.
That was before the boat was pushed out beyond the financial horizon in January with the loan deals for Davis and Defoe.
Those two are now almost certainly the two best-paid players in the SPFL.
Unclever…
Next month General Ashley and his legal tanks will ask the High Court in London to award them damages greater than the sum that Sevco have just borrowed from Close Brothers.
Across the Clyde, Celtic had a shambles of a summer transfer window and then only partially righted the ship in January.
The champions then lost their manager at a crunch part of the season.
Despite that, as was stated by Tom Englis, Celtic are “coasting” to the title despite not having had a good season.
On the same day of this broadcast, the richest club in Scotland told the London Stock Exchange that they now had more money than they had previously forecast due to the compensation for Rodgers et al from Leicester.
Celtic will only be toppled from their preeminent position in the domestic sphere if they behave like the original Rangers.
Put bluntly, because of the disparity in finances Celtic have a significant margin for error.
However, Sevco has to get everything massively spot on all of the time.
That, in essence, is what Mikey Stewart pointed out.
The fact that this is in any way newsworthy says so much about the general lack of forensic scrutiny on matters Ibrox.
So a hat tip to Mr Stewart.
I hope that his straight talking honesty on air about the financial situation at Sevco catches on amongst his colleagues.
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English was probably scared he would spill his soup …
Let’s get one thing straight – Steven Gerrard has done a good job. To say he has not is delusional.
Let me explain – for me there were three key objectives this season.
1 – Forget Celtic – catch Aberdeen who have finished second for the last four years.
2 – Beat Celtic – just once in four league games would be a massive step forwards.
3 – Do well in Europe – reaching the group stages would be amazing.
All three boxes have been ticked. A cup win or even a cup final would have been the icing on the cake.
Gerrard is averaging 2 points a game in the league – Pedro didn’t and nor did The Magic Hat. Stevie G has done very well, especially for a rookie manager.
The problem is that the mainstream media and the TV and radio pundits – save Stewart – still see the club playing out of Ibrox as Rangers who died in 2012.
As Seneca said, Unrealistic expectations are the undoing of us all”.
For an almost seven-year-old club I think they are doing pretty well. Take a bow Stevie G!
Am I wrong?
They are presently ahead of Aberdeen in the League but they are NOT a better team. They are simply, so far in the season, a more consistent team. Despite SG’s assertion after the opening game of the campaign that they were a “class above” them, in five attempts since, they have managed only one win. Aberdeen have beaten them three times. Twice on their own midden and once on a neutral venue.
They reached the EL group stages by being drawn against teams any decent Scottish Junior team would have beaten. They then managed only one win in the softest group any Scottish team has ever been in. His record flatters him. Mid table Russian and Austrian teams plus a Spanish team who were in the relegation zone.
Compare that with the group Celtic qualified from. Salzburg, the perennial Austrian Champions. Rosenberg, who completed the Norwegian treble in December. Leipzig, sitting fourth in the German league behind three teams with twenty-six European finals between them.
I see where you are coming from SHP and those 3 objectives have been achieved – however there would have been at least a 4th of winning a cup which they failed abysmally at, not even getting to a final.
There is no doubt that they have improved slightly but they are above Aberdeen as the dons have less points than the last few years, Gerrard has 2 more points than Pedro after 30 games and something similar with Warbiola. They beat us which in itself is an achievement for the new club who had failed in 12 previous attempts v BR but they didn’t beat us with a superb, dominant performance….they beat us as we were extremely poor on the day, missing key players, others playing out of position, etc. + don’t forget a helping hand from Mr Crown Bar Loyal! Having said that it is still something others didn’t manage and qualifying for the Europa groups was obviously a big improvement.
.
Why I don’t agree that he has done a good job (and it’s not delusional to say he hasn’t been great) is that after signing 19 players, including 2 “superstars” and massively increasing the wage bill, he is only 2 points better off at this point.
His record v Sheep/Hibs/Killie is 3 wins from 15 games
2 cup wins over Killie
1 win from 9 league games
That could have been 0 from 9 if McGregor had been correctly sent off v Aberdeen and they scored the resulting penalty.
Against clubs with vastly lower budget. We don’t win every game against teams with lower budgets but 3 from 15 / 1 from 9…..that’s horrendous! And the manager has to take the blame. When he has come up against better managers he has failed miserably
Stewart has ALWAYS been honest in my opinion. He may not ALWAYS be right, but then again no one is. He calls things as HE sees them from the facts he has available to him. He may on occasion draw the wrong conclusion from the available facts but he does so honestly and, as I’ve stated here before, the man who has NEVER made a mistake has NEVER made anything.
I listened to the programme as broadcast that evening…
Kenny McIntyre is the BBC Scotland’s chief Sevco ambassador and loves a leading question to promote his club at any opportunity.
Have you seen his SPFL ‘team of the week’ picks?
As you say Phil… it’s at least something when there’s a bit of honesty in the media… English and co. diidn’t argue against the points… but didn’t offer support either. That would have been even more welcome as it then becomes a discussion point. Monologue is quickly lost to the airwaves.
It’s another case of EVERYBODY knowing but nobody actually wanting, willing or able to state the truth.
The only ones who either genuinely don’t know or are in utter denial are the Gullibillies themselves.
As we know, there IS no reasoning stage with ‘them’. When it all goes awry again they will go straight from ‘being ra peepul’, ‘rightful place’ , ‘55’, ‘worlds most successf…..’ blah blah …
….. to “why weren’t we told?”
“Who’s done this to our club?”
Etc etc etc
What would be truly breathtaking to hear broadcast – would be if someone like Mr Stewart was prepared to state the root cause of these ‘secret’ , not to be discussed financial woes and their consequences on and off pitch…
That being the fact that the club in question is not one with 146 years of history and 54 league titles to its name..,
… but is a new club of 6 years with no top flight trophies and is infesting the decayed husk of a club that consumed itself through greed, cheating, bigotry and the desire to be ‘simply the best’ at any and all cost.
Mr Stewart inadvertently hinted at this with his subsequent comment about failure of the ‘marquee signings’ and recruitment errors during ‘the journey’.
“Signing players to develop and to be there in years to come.”
Only 5 years too late. Nothing about paying a manager 750k a year to pick the ball out the Brechin Hedge.
It is something at least although I suspect only slipped through the Sevco feelgood filter because the programme was live.
Meanwhile over on Radio Snyde…
You won’t hear any such slips.
Everything is rosy over Govan way and Sevvie G will be given 30 million £ to burst in summer from the sale of Morelos and the ‘best defender in Scotland’.
BFDJ will absolutely NOT hear any negatives about money.
“There is no doubt Steven Gerrard will have a large pot of money to spend”
“I know for a fact that there is healthy incoming investment. I don’t know where from. But I know that there will be investment.”
I don’t know about yourself or others…
…But I find the presence of Darryl Broadfoot on these shows (and with increasing regularity) to be worthy of suspicion.. His close links with the SFA renders his comments on any related matter dubious at best.
His more recent links to a certain rotund and pointy fingered PR chap make him an even more untrustworthy character to be allowed a broadcast voice.
But then I was born with a strong streak of cynicism running through me!
Phil , I listened to that broadcast in its entirety and , like you , was struck by the honesty from M. Stewart and the silence from the rest when he raised the issue of finance at Ibrokes .
What is it with the media here that they cannot address important ( to some football fans ) financial matters concerning a major institution ( even if it’s in its second incarnation ) ?
If these ‘journos’ secretly support Sevco ( or not so secretly , like Chick Young – hee , hee ! ) surely they would want to avoid the club committing the same financial Hari Kari that killed off the original Rangers ! It appears not – Ostrichitis is still afflicting so many in the SMSM .
As a Celtic supporter , of course , I derive some delicious delight from observing the Klan confirming the old Einstein maxim re. doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results .
Not going to hold my breath on the stenographers suddenly becoming righteous. Not so long as they have to play at a different Level….
‘Called sg to apologise’ as they say,…WTF‼️
Not as rare as We may think,indeed,new to me anyway,but it’s usually the refs boss that makes the calls,I wonder ‘why’ it was handled differently this time? Of course,there would never be any instructional bias or favouritism,that would be against the rules.Rules that they bend,break or invent according to their results.It was always thus,and all We can do is hope for real change,and quickly,at a snails pace would be about apt.
Why not just give him the whistle and let him referee the match,ye never know it may even stop him biting his fingernails;all the way to his elbow.🇮🇪TYVM Phil.
Phil – Is there any likelihood that billionaire Jim McColl could help the ibrox club that he supports stop Celtic winning 10 in a row by buying them or investing heavily in them? I’d like to know your opinion?
Ted – isn’t McColl having his own problems to deal with in relation to government interference pushing up the cost of the ferries he’s building? If it is as he says, I’m guessing he is more concerned about the future of his company, rather than the future of sevco.
Cue another mass demo at BBC Pacific Quay led by the Union Bears.
Will enough turn up to fill a bus(single decker) ?
They couldn’t fill a mini-bus, Joe. HH
They couldn’t fill a Belfast bap!
There were so few the last time that Kenny McIntyre had to come out and help hold the banner.
Michael Stewart is spot on – “rangers” aren’t even in a position where there is absolutely no margin for error… effectively, whatever they do, it must be pre-approved by those with a financial interest. Signing Dafoe and Davis was a “spiffing wheeze” that, as results and performances since the closure of the January window clearly demonstrates, are just two decisions that are proving to be catastrophic to Club 2012. There are still too many in the Blue Room that are letting their collective hearts rule their heads. What they need is a real hard-nosed businessman. They actually had one, in the shape of Mike Ashley, but we all know what happened there! Hubris got the better of them, so it is somewhat ironic that their arch-nemesis could potentially drive a stake through their heart in the coming weeks. By the way, I deliberately referred to driving a stake through their heart because, as any Hammer Horror fan will tell you, this is how to kill the undead. Also, because vampires do not reflect in mirrors, this could perhaps explain why their fans smashed up the toilets at Celtic Park.