I think it is fair to say that the last two weeks were rather kind to both the Sevco High Command and their dignified klanbase.
Top of the league going into the international break allowed the Stenography Corps to go full-on into gushing pish mode.
As I have stated here many times before the happiest time for Sevco customers is when there are no football matches to be played.
So far this season has not been a happy one for those in the capital of a maroon persuasion.
As my Jambo buddies will readily attest Levein’s men are seriously underperforming.
Consequently, the trip to Tynecastle yesterday should have been a handy three points for Mr Let’s Go and his Gumtree Galacticos.
Instead, he admitted himself that Hearts could easily have been out of sight in the first half.
When Sevco found themselves at the top of the league at the start of this month someone who works in the professional game in Scotland pointed the following out to me:
“They haven’t played an away game against a top-six side yet. Talk to me in November about this!”
Quite…
However, most of the problems at Ibrox remain off-field.
In the Blue Room, there is now a growing consensus that the Convict Chairman has to go.
However, just like winning football matches it is much easier stated than accomplished.
As in a football match, it is always advisable to equalise first!
Chairman Dave’s inter-galactic PR guru was quick off the mark to get out the pro-King narrative about the Cold Shoulder sanction from the Takeover Panel.
Consequently, it is widely accepted in messageboard land that this was a big win for King.
The rational members of the Sevco High Command have a quadruple problem at the moment:
- All road lead to Dave. The toxicity of the chairman is infecting everything. Yet he refuses to budge.
- The Ashley litigation hasn’t gone away you know. January will come around soon enough.
- Close Brothers are watching developments.
- The current set of RIFC accounts.
The first one on the list is the most important and has an impact on the other three.
For the guys in the Blue Room, the key issue for the long-term wellbeing of the basket of assets is how to get shot of Chairman Dave with the minim collateral damage.
I am led to believe that given his deep love for the seven-year-old club that Mr King would be willing to leave if his shares were bought by his Concert Party colleagues.
However, I’m told that he does have 66.5m of them.
So, if he gets what the Club 1872 chaps gave General Ashley for his shares in 2017 (27.5p) then that’s simply unaffordable for the anti-King faction.
Even if he were to, for the love of the Holding Company Vehicle, only accept 10p per share then it is still a substantial payout.
With all of this in mind, it is no surprise that Mr Gerrard stated that the January window would be mainly about downsizing the squad.
I’m sure that Mr Ross Wilson will know that his main objective in early 2020 will be about shifting players rather than sourcing them.
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The january sales have started with Tav being praised by numerous EPL managers according to Warburton with Morelos the subject of a 20M bid from Crystal Palace. Ignoring the fact that a similar story was manufactured in the summer which came to nothing.
Ross Wilson’s arrived at Ibrox after a 2 year wait. He said it wasn’t time to move. So what’s changed? I have to say it’s the same board with the Lying King still in charge. New Manager SG. Loads of debt that needs to be addressed and cleared.
He’s appointed a new man to recruit players by all known sports reports in The Ibrox know.
Let’s look at Ross’s last 2 years at Southampton. No big named player of recent to move on, including the 3 he raided from Celtic; that’s not going to happen again is it?
Did Ross jump before he was pushed?
No big noises from Southampton on him leaving.
He will have no money to burn in the transfer market; so get ready for the fire sale, and loads of loan deals. Coming to a park near Govan soon.
January transfer window should be a cracker.
Neither team looks convincing away from home. Rangers have got more points away than their performances have merited, and yesterday they got what they deserved. It is clearly going to come down to the 4 league games against each other, and who can improve their away performances. Mood and momentum seems to switch from one week to another. Pittodrie on Sunday will tell us a great deal.
Some brilliant articles recently Phil.
The sheer volume of PR spin and burying bad news with door to door feel good stories and the “legends” capture of the Slippy One during the international break, to the backroom staff explaining Stevie’s Materplan and his daily Liverpool debrief…. was by any stretch OTT.
Their chairman has been cold shouldered ( 4 times in the last 50 years), dangerous corporate governance.
Big Mike, kicked the ball into the long grass tie January. – Where the payoff will be Morelos sold for £10million and not the reported £15million with £5million in add ons that will be push front and centre.
The operating accounts are well into revision 5 and 6 ahead of availability.
and the Rookie has just stated – it’s the worst start mentality and more worryingly attitude since his time at the club. …..oh dear. But lets ignore ALL that.
Well I said a few weeks ago when the November and early Dec, fixtures come out with a step up in pre and post European workouts we’d see if he indeed he had the dressing room with him..
The one the the Ego One is trying to desperately plug the cracks in the background.. Not having such an easy a time in Europe this season, (Feynoord will exact revenge\) YB will hold their own, but Porto , will in effect look to seal their progression in the next two matches against them, SO, if he slips up any time over the 3 league matches and the unthinkable happens and they bow out of the semi and Porto rubbing them – then there is real problems.
He’s been blaming everything to referee decisions, “not turning up”, individual errors, injuries, number of fixtures, plastic pitches, KO times lack of VAR etc. meeee squad is too big (you bought them) and generally been at the receiving end of some helpful MIB help in regard to pens and red cards.
When the bite really comes in that jan-apr tunnel where, there is no more ST money and the pressure of not getting a prize is being dished out. I think he will terminado Ala Brendo style.
If his players are leaking pre match boards, and now not displaying the best of attitudes, the red line he drew with that comment, is both naive and thoughtless at best. – so when they start losing more games or dropping points, and it’s worse than a point at Tynecaslte…….. have the players “downed tools” has he ” lost the dressing room” because it is now no longer than an attitude and a one off will the rank n file ask the question then?
What then Blue Room? – madman chairman, Mr E-go, Big Mike, Close Brothers,Elite, No shirt manufacturer other than Sevdico a winger you paid 4 x over the odds for, a want away petulant striker( who was told knuckle down for 6 months and you can go – break that promise and you’ll have Marco Negri back) 3 players with a combined age of 106 all getting big money extensions. ……. and oh wait, staring down the barrel of 10.
The 1p shares will be the least of the problems. After all – Stevie, doesn’t listen to Emile Heskey interviews, except the ones saying he will be great as the new Liverpool Manager, at least he can re-read that on the way to Lime Street.
Seems like there could be a metaphorical standoff in the Blue Room currently,
with an unsmiling King on one side of the boardroom table – facing his fellow Directors on the other side.
…waiting to see who blinks first?!
And the funny thing is: they’re all b*ggered!
Shouldn’t gloat…too much. 🙂
Surely if anyone buys a dud from King they also risk being cold shouldered themselves for doing business with him?
Phil, Can the SPFL do anything to The Lying King? He is chairman of the holding company and not the club. Personally think the holding company thing is hogwash but they will use this as a reason to claim they can’t touch him.
The SFA has on a number of occasions censured clubs, mainly the diddy ones, and removed shadow directors/ chairmen who were pulling the strings at their club but had not been tested by the Fit and Proper nonsense.
King is clearly calling the shots at Ibrox and it will be no surprise if the SFA ignore the facts and rely on him being Chairman of the holding company therefore no case to answer M’lud.
There is no end to the corruption at Hampden.
Ffs one of their executive held shares in Hearts and Rangers at the same time and when he was called out on the matter passed the shares to his wife.
Wow!
Thats what passes for good practice at the SFA.
Maxwell’s appointment has been a disaster. He’s invisible, has nothing to say about anything yet he’s pulling in hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in a job for which he has no obvious qualifications.
Ffs the man’s lack of education was laid bare for everyone to see in correspondence where he couldn’t put the words complaint and compliant in the correct context.
It’s staggering that he got the job in the first place, perhaps there are other factors at play in the selection process that us ordinary mortals are not privy to?
Are you aff your nut, holding company and not the club. They are the same thing. What is business of the holding company & what is the business of the club?
Holding company OWNS the club. Unlike last time round. They CLAIM, it was the holding company who went bust not the club. Last time they were one n the same. Anytime a sevconian pulls that argument with me, my reply is simple. “What was the name of the holding company?” This usually resultes in the same sevconian walking away muttering something about fenian bastarts under his breath.
Phil – maybe you could ask your Square Mile contacts if the current Sevco share price would be adversely affected should the SFA decide that King is persona non grata. I’m sure there must be some mechanism in place in the world of finance should that scenario play out.
I have done already done that Steven.
Because RIFC shares are not listed then it is difficult to tell.
For example if the Club 1872 chaps were to purchase some of his shares through a private placemnet then their motivation for doing so is emotional and not financial.
I suspect that Club 1690 would be stupid enough to pay King’s asking price, which he would, no doubt, over-inflate.
Steven – I doubt they have anything remotely resembling the financial wherewithal to purchase the Lying King’s shareholding, otherwise they’d have been milked of it on some other pretext long before now…
Phil, Steven and D Mhor. I think each of you nailed it in turn.
The Ibrox club have a few more tricky away days ahead of them over the next few months. Let’s see how that plays out.
It would appear that Gerrard, his backroom and playing staff, and the fan base are currently unaware of the magnitude of the tsumani heading their way.
Close Bros and Big Mike might not be making headlines in the MSSM thanks to the sterling efforts of our so called journalists who, almost to a man, would rather ‘die in a ditch’ than report anything that could be construed as negative about their pet team.
It will be fascinating to see how the annual results will be reported by the media and the notes to the accounts from the auditors and the GASH will make interesting reading.
You can put your money on no one questioning as to why the 6 monthly positive unaudited numbers written on the back of a fag packet have once again turned red!
As Dave has a 26% shareholding to sell , any of the current board members that hold more than 4% would then be obliged to offer all other shareholders the same price for their shares . At 27p there would be a stampede for the exit , at 20p due to the dilution there would also be a majority looking to cash out. At 10p the revaluation of the company at that price would be sounding the alarm bell. They cannot afford to buy him out,they cannot afford not to buy him out . They have to have a fire sale in January and hope to raise in excess of 30m to have a slim chance of finishing the season. As an aside, any update on those roof repairs? is everything ticketyboo there?
timtim, I was thinking the exact same thing when the sale of King’s shareholding was mentioned. Catch 22 at Snake Mountain…
WHATEVER DK is, he’s NOT stupid. He knows his shares are not worth 27p. He also KNOWS the shitstorm heading his way. If it comes to losing EVERYTHING or salvaging something, DK WILL take the latter route. If he can get 10-15p a share or get zilch, he’ll take what he can get. AND he doesn’t HAVE TO sell them all to the same guy, thus getting round the 30% rule.
No one is saying he’s stupid Charger, but he has previously demonstrated an unshakable obstinacy in his years of litigation with the SARS, where he obviously believed that he would prevail with his ill-gotten fortune more or less intact. Who’s to say it’s not this same pig-headedness that we’re currently seeing at Sevco – because no-one seems to be seeing a master plan anywhere? For me, this situation is reminiscent of David Leggat (remember him?) and his assertion that no-one could second guess Craig Whyte’s master plan for Rangers (RIP) because he was a poker player of the highest order, who kept his cards very close to his chest. We all know how that one turned out!
DCK’s obvious flaw (obvious to all but himself) is his belief that he’s the smartest guy in any room and this was ultimately his undoing with SARS. He’s also been stupid enough to initiate a vendetta with Big Mike and it would be my contention that seeing what the Takeover Panel have done won’t be enough for Big Mike – he’ll want to send out a message Tommy Shelby style.
Further, as regards any sales of shares by DCK, of course they won’t all have to go to any one individual or corporation, however it would be foolish to imagine that TOP aren’t going to be monitoring any activity very closely and they’ll especially be watching for anything that has the slightest hint or smell of concert party involvement. Any individual or business carrying out due diligence at Sevco are going to be waiting for the next instalment of Mash -v- DCK in January and hanging on Lionel Persey’s every word before even considering sinking one farthing into the corporate morass down Govan way. Why pay 10-15p per share (and certainly not 27p) for something that might be effectively worthless?
Forgetting to mention the obvious too – what should be the imminent release of the audited accounts. Those will make very interesting reading…
I can see another revenue stream being punted here soon for Ibrokes and the klan to lap up, a DVD “Two weeks at the top”