Mikey Stewart is definitely an outlier in the Fitba Fourth estate.
He continually asks hard evidence-based questions about the finances of the current iteration of Rangers.
Quite simply, such behaviour is verboten among the local media in Fair Caledonian.
Indeed, flouting this unwritten fiat will see the offender expelled from the Stenography Corps.
I was not surprised when he was challenged on social media by someone who knows a thing or two about the dodgy financial dealings at Ibrox.
Of course, Stewart V Rae was a hugely unfair contest.
The EBT recipient might be among the best that the Ibrox klanbase can put up.
However, the ex-Manchester United player knows that erudite is not a brand of household glue.
This is not the first time that Stewart has pointed out some inconvenient facts about Sevco’s finances.
I recall one BBC broadcast where he simply stated the fact that since 2012 the Engine Room Subsidiary had not broken even and had always made a loss.
My guy at Pacific Quay said that this simple utterance of the truth prompted an angry call from Sevco’s inter-galactic PR Svengali.
I have noticed that Mr Rae gets something of a pass from the Stenography Corps.
For example, it is now a rather long time since January when he made this bold claim.
In a stunning development, the mystery investment didn’t turn up after January.
In fairness, neither did Sevco!
Meanwhile, across the city, there is a well-run club that does its business quietly and efficiently.
For example, this recent notification to the London Stock Exchange by Celtic is a level of scrutiny that would terrify the Sevco High Command.
I contacted Rugger Guy about this, and he explained that this was what he expected of Celtic.
He explained to me that the wealthiest club in Scotland was informing the market that they had a fully costed plan to get through the Covid19 crisis.
As I have previously reported sources close to the action at Celtic have stated that they have in place a sustainability plan that lasts until December 2020.
After that, I’m told that there will be a need for some tough decisions at Parkhead.
However, given that Celtic are listed on the London Stock Exchange, this means that those changes will be announced.
For the avoidance of doubt, Sevco’s holding company the Rangers International Football Club (RIFC) has not been on any listing since the Off Licence Putsch of March 2015.
This state of affairs appears to have been to the liking of the Convict Chairman.
I think that it is fair to say that the Johannesburg based Brogue Trader has had a difficult history with regulatory bodies like the Takeover Panel.
Released from the reporting requirements of the Stock Exchange, Mr King was confident about the ongoing succulent obedience of the local media.
That is why Mr Stewart has done the state some service.
Chapeau!
I see my remarks have generated a response but not a retraction of the original disgusting remark regarding rangers”crapping all over us“, fair enough but,when you post an opinion and include all Celtic fans that irks me,you do not speak for me or any other Celtic fan,you’re opinions are yours alone,I personally have never experienced the feelings YOU express,no one has ever,or will ever” crap“ on ME,this doesn’t mean I accept everything Celtic say or do unquestioningly,we all have our own thoughts on what’s right and wrong and that’s exactly what they are,our OWN thoughts,next time you feel you are being” crapped all over”, don’t include me,Edward Mc Graw in that scenario,yours respectfully.
Events may have overtaken this but as far as Hagi is concerned, it seems to me that the his agent is upping the Sevco fan’s expectations and putting pressure on the club by claiming the deal is done. I would think it would be all over the media were it to be true.
There were no shades of grey with Fergus, he always walked a straight line despite the criticism levelled at him. The poem ‘IF’, by Rudyard Kipling, was sent in by a supporter and his assistant kept it on her office wall. Here are a few lines from it:
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, …
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, …
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
I notice that the Rangers fans are still screaming for their board to take legal action against the season being ended early and Celtic called as 9 IAR Champions.
Perhaps someone should point out to them that the vote was unanimous and therefore the prospect of legal action to protest something that their club voted for is beyond belief.
Hang on a minute, I’ve just read Barasic, if only, ah but, comments in the Daily Ranger.
He appears to be of the opinion that Rangers didn’t vote to end the current campaign as the gap could have been closed.
Funny that, and how the Rangers fans in general seem to be of the same opinion, and don’t seem to get what unanimous means.
Perhaps their club’s desire to get their mitts on the final SPFL pay out trumped all other considerations.
Perhaps Jackson could clarify the matter for Barasic and anyone else a bit confused about what Rangers say and what they do?
Not seen nor heard anything in the Scottish media from Gerrard congratulating Celtic on 9 IAR.
I wonder, with other teams mathematically being able to overtake Liverpool, is Stevie G of the opinion that the EPL should be called null and void.
This was his current club’s preffered option in Scotland, but like Dominic Cummings, is it different rules for different folk?
Of course it would take a courageous member of our media to step up to the plate and pose the question so I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Still not a spoken nor written word from our media questioning Rangers part in the SPFL unanimous vote last week.
It appears to have also missed the attention of their fans that, despite all the moaning and groaning coming out of Ibrox re the league being called early, their club voted in favour.
It’s all very strange to be saying one thing then do something else.
With 9 IAR in the bag 10 is now the holy grail.
If the Rangers players couldn’t cope with the pressure of stopping 9 then they won’t know whats hit them next season.
The minute Celtic open up even a small gap at the top the pressure on the players, Gerrard and the board will be off the scale.
Who wants to go down in history as the manager and players who failed to stop 10 IAR?
Lol you don’t honestly think the failure will be in charge of the club come the start of the season . Slippy is Joe the Toff .
Scud old son, you’ve been saying that since this time last year……….. I always find that a kind of contradiction of terms.
Wee Barry EBT goes into the press demanding Park spends spends spends for Sevco.
Did a Board member tell the DR that Park was doubtful over buying Hagi and needed a nudge?
We later learn that SEVCO is about to buy Hagi.
They’ve got Old Park over a barrel.
Who would want to be a Sevco owner.
The truth is that Sevco went backwards after bringing in Hagi. He got subbed off and was absent in so many games. Together with Kent, a pair of expensive duds. Inexperienced Lightweights.
Both bought on the never never – debt. It catches up with you in the end.
Yet another financial and footballing error by Sevco.
It’s all on debt this year to stop the ten. Then it goes bust and into Administration. Mission accomplished. Stop the ten at all costs. Preferably other people’s ’ costs.
Anyone giving credit or loans to Sevco this season had better beware.
They go all in this year and easily risk financial collapse. Stopping ten is pathological, all rational thought has deserted the ship.
Would now be an opportune time for Craig Whyte to do an encore at Ibrox? 🙂
Or another, totally unknown yet incredibly successful businessman – who is simply desperate to invest in The Rangers…?
Is that guy Gibson or the mysterious ‘Asian investor’, (the same person?), not due a return visit?
God knows the bears need someone new to focus their attention on… to give them hope and to deflect from the slowmo car crash at Ibrox.
Just burst out laughing when reading Hagi’s agent saying that the player had just signed for Scotland’s equivalent of Juventus.
Someone better have a quick word with this roaster before he comes out with any more tripe.
Juve have just completed yet another Seria A campaign as Champions, 9 IAR I believe.
I think that tops a Petrofac Training Cup win!
On the other hand is his agent comparing Juve’s banishment/relegation/whatever from Seria A for bribery and corruption to the fraudulent UEFA licence waived through by the SFA to aid the Ibrox club?
Juve are hated throughout Italian football and the fans of other clubs go out of their way to remind them of the industrial bribery and corruption that saw them expelled from the top league.
At least Hagi’s agent got one thing right!
Brilliant pal HH
Oops, make that 8 IAR for Juve.
I like Stewart, he talks a lot of sense, unlike the EBT gang who pollute our screens and newspapers picking up a few bob here and there helping them to reduce their liabilities to HMRC.
I’m presuming they are paying up!
Stewart has been calling out Levein for years. Perhaps if Budge had the former at her side advising her on football matters instead of the latter Hearts would be in a much better place and nowhere near the bottom of the league?
Budge is to Hearts what King is to Rangers, totally useless, but without the court cases and criminal convictions.
It’s rare that I disagree with you Phil but I will on one point. You say that Alex Rae gets a pass from the klanbase. Well the other night on SSB on Radio Clyde he-committed a mortal sin in the eyes of swallowswallow. Yes a sin so dangerous he is roundly condemned. His sin well he congratulated Celtic on winning the title. This sent the Klan into a rage.
1. Apparently Celtic were awarded the title and didn’t win it.
2. Apparently if a former Rangers players make any favourable comment about Celtic he risks being unmasked by the Klan as a closet taig.
What a poisonous support base Sevco have. I say well done to Alex Rae for congratulating Celtic on WINNING the league. It’s called basic human decency even if said through gritted teeth. Indeed the truncating of the season only served to save Sevco further humiliation and ensure Stevie G is still boss going into the 2020/21 season. Now onto M Stewart
As you rightly point out Stewart has shown commendable intelligence in pointing out the obvious deficiencies in Sevco’s finances. The Klan again are spitting. It so appropriate the old club had ANGER within the spelling of its name. You will not find a more sick twisted bitter set of fans in world football than the Klan. It is beyond their collective intellectual capacities to consider the possibilities that Stewart might have a point. I’m waiting for his mother to be criticised for giving birth to him the vitriol is so bad.
No wonder Murray, Whyte, Green, King, Park have been able to fleece the klanbase time and again.
A more intellectually challenged klanbase you will not find anywhere in the world other than the brethren on south side of Glasgow.
In terms of clubs and finances I would argue the tide turned in Celtic’s favour the day Fergus McCann took control in 1994. We didn’t know it then but he set in train events which would see our beloved Celtic set on a footing of financial solidity based on good business principals and a cracking business plan. Hail Hail Fergus!
Listened to a wee bit of Radio Snide last night. Someone, it may have been the aforementioned Mr Rae, pointed out that the financial advantage enjoyed by Celtic gave them a head start over everyone else. Oh how the worm turns.
Erudite is not a brand of household glue – had me laughing out loud. Great line Phil.
There are major similarities of 2011/12, the real situation will be if there is a directive to play the season for say 6 months behind closed doors. Effective nationwide testing will not appear this side of Christmas in way to warrant full capacity stadiums and all that goes with that.
Their Admin 2 would be enough to have minus 15 applied, It’s up to us to let Sutton and MON etc do the public mind games on behalf of Neil Francis Lennon. He is right to block the noise, and focus one game at a time.
Michael Stewart, Phil and Co, will do that a service. and after 10 IAR is done, the only thing left to win is Res 12 and Celtic Fund that to CAS. before some Hybrid British League gets Sky involved and they hit refresh on the search bar. Albeit the Res 12 guys must stay the course during this time, – institualional cover ups are not knew in the UK.
It’s highly unlikely League 2 and 3 will make it out to play next season.
The Scouse one will be gone. Maybe even sooner if he gets told at their meeting next week, that the recently released superstars wages will not be ploughed back in……
I Write as an avid reader of this fine board,although I seldom comment I simply must ask why anyone claiming to bea Celtic fan would talk about rangers” crapping over us”, aside from the very idea being utterly disgusting,it’s also patently untrue,I’m not about to launch into some diatribe to prove a point,to anyone who would talk about Celtic in such disparaging terms,there’s nothing I could,or even wish to say.Ill simply continue to give our glorious club my full support,others may do as they please.
I could give you 100 examples from referee jim callaghan in the sixties to the shame game to most recently when morelos should have received 3 red cards in one game to ryan christies’s 2 match ban for his “brutal” tackle on morelos.
Rangers knowingly, deliberately and systematically cheated over 12 seasons and in over 400 games and so far the celtic board have said nothing.
Ok. we know our place. We will sit at the back of the bus.
You are exactly the type of Celtic fan that Celtic PLC needs to keep things like res12 in its Secret box.
An attitude of unquestioning loyalty gives them the freedom to do things (or by NOT doing things) that run against the ethical roots of the club.
That’s the attitude of ‘the berrz’ and is one that allows the Sevco board to fleece them of bloo pounds ‘ad infinitum’.
We mustn’t be the same…
You CAN celebrate Celtic FCs supreme achievements AND criticise Celtic Plc’s actions/ inactions without compromising your support of the club.
It is now an unequal contest. Despite the MSM, SFA, Referees being all partial to the Ibrox club, Celtic are much more successful in every sector. The Boardroom with Peter Lawwell in charge continually out doing their Rivals; on the pitch last 11 trophies to the Hoops; financially Celtic outperform Sevco with Commercial contracts like Adidas etc.. Celtic Fans continue to support their team and regularly fill their much larger Stadium.
David Murrays pursuit of the Big Cup involved desperate illegal means bumping the Taxman and the banks resulted in their death and Liquidation
Their most recent incarnation, Sevco, has overstretched itself and could soon go the same way. Their ham fisted Board has continued to make mistake after mistake and they are struggling to stay on Celtic’s coat-tails. Making a loss season upon season trying to catch Celtic
Celtic and their fans will ensure that they stay far ahead of any Ibrox club. For the immediate future the lumpen proletariat who will have to accept second best or third or fourth. It’s no contest
The thing is the new club will continue to get with what they want . No further action regarding licence being given the all clear in 2011/12 . Deferring wages for players and other staff until June but in the same breath purchasing a player for £5 million, running at another loss from last season as well as needing £10 million to get by the end of this season . The SFA will turn a blind eye to this years accounts the same as in 2011/12 to give the new club the licence they need . So Celtic can show as much paperwork and accounts that are all above board , while sevco produce made up fake ones and get away with it and laugh at Celtic. We only have ourselves to blame .
I agree with you. They are laughing at us.
Nimmo Smith asked Sandy Bryson what should he say. Just tell them imperfectly registered and no sporting advantage. But will they accept that asks the good Lord. Of course they will says Sandy. It’s celtic. We’ve been crapping over them for one hundred years.
I’m not a frequent commentator here,more of an avid reader,however,when I read of how rangers have been” crapping over us for a hundred years”, I’m compelled to speak up,it’s beyond me how any Celtic fan could say such a thing,if that’s truly how you feel,perhaps you should look for another club to follow,we have just won 9 consecutive titles and this is the best you can come up with?, really?, have a think.
Nice vista!
It’s a combination of sevco AND the sfa that have been getting the better of Celtic’s laidback approach which has seen a series of ‘honest mistakes’ for over a century,that IS the problem.
The sfa are the ones facilitating sevco’s passage since their bastard inception,they ARE the ones to blame in all this.Their pet team gets preferential treatment for kick-off dates and times,late or nonexistent audits handed in when they please,leniency when dealing with players,granted ‘special enquiries’ etc etc too many to list.
The weird thing was,I thought for a couple of days that sevco were going to bring about the demise of the sfa with their screaming and shouting of corruption.Then I remembered where these accusations came from and knew they were/would be baseless.However,imho,that has always been the problem,the sfa bend in any way they can to help sevco including,quite literally,the rewriting of the rules.
As mentioned in previous articles the sfa cannot mark their own homework and are unlikely to want this to go any further(CAS) as it will show them up as thoroughly incompetent.So,collusion and incompetence are their main two traits,those traits won’t change,they’ve been going on far too long,for me,that is a fact.
We need a new governing body to dispel the old one of those traits,without that,we will be going round in circles and we will return to this time and time again.Ad nauseam,
God gave us a chair to watch the shot show.