This summer, bereft of a competitive football match I had any genuine interest in, my viewing was mainly dominated by an old friend.
Anthony Soprano.
The multi-season series has probably become the dominant mode of long-form storytelling in the digital age.
Like re-visiting a novel, it is a new journey over old ground, and you often see it with a fresh perspective.
I had not appreciated how central the sit-down was to the developing narrative in this everyday tale of Mob folk.
These meetings enabled Tony to keep order in his organisation.
They also helped him to maintain diplomatic relations with dangerously powerful New York.
Negotiating from a position of weakness yet often emerging with an advantageous deal showed that he had genuine political acumen.
My thoughts turned to this timeless gem of Americana as I watched Mr John Bennett attempt to give Churchillian reassurance to the Ibrox klanbase for 22 dignified minutes.
As regular readers will know, he now has the big seat in the Blue Room that’s the one Mr David Cunnigham King once occupied.
At that moment, I imagined, as we writers do, what a Sopranoesque meeting between these two giants of the basket of assets would be like.
Why would such a sit-down assist Don Bennett in his business?
Well, I can imagine that his Stateside consigliere would advise that it would be beneficial to ascertain what the other side ultimately wanted.
From the get-go, I can envisage that such a conclave would be punctilious, not pugilistic.
However, as I’m not David Chase, if I were writing such a scene, I would be tempted to take it in a direction where it would get kinetic with hundred-year-old crockery of the type used at Balmoral, smashed to bits.
I’m not saying that such a meeting has taken place, and it came to blows.
Of course not.
That’s quite preposterous.
This is just the creative imaginings of a novelist who recently spent time with an old friend in New Jersey.
Perhaps it was this storyline that made me make a spurious connection in my writer’s mind between that entirely fictional offering and the shitshow at Ibrox.
Now, I’m not suggesting for a second that there is any issue with asbestos at the building site that John Brown played for.
It WAS a rumour prevalent on Planet Fitba in the absence of Mr Bennett assuaging legitimate concerns about the current construction situation.
Personally, I never gave it any credence.
For the avoidance of doubt, the current Sevco chairman is an entirely law-abiding person whose reputation is without blemish.
Mr King, on the other hand, is a man with convictions, 41 of them to be precise…
I think that Miss Karen Dunbar would descibe this performance in three words, “ I smell shite.” Couldn’t agree more.
Why would a football club – faced with a court case, huge costs’ overrun on scheduled work, unanticipated stadium hire costs, concomitant loss of income via hospitality, staff costs & utilities, substantial wages to a B team participant- grant a manager (contracted to 2026) an improved contract, extended until 2028? Golden handcuffs?
I’m sure the Scottish press will be all over this like a cheap suit…..
Great question – It looks like Clement had them by the balls , if he had walked or downed tools they would have imploded it certainly wasn’t because he has shown how good he is as a manager . Giving him a wage rise and a longer contract is cheaper than giving him funds for transfers and keeps him quiet . He also now gets a bigger payoff if it goes t1ts up . As the very astute Sir Humphrey Appleby once noted “when you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow” .
“It WAS a rumour”
Sounds like its something more concrete, now.
I hope someone’s checking his blood pressure, he looks as if he’s about to pop
Wasn’t it Tony Soprano that told us “Follow the money”?
The term entered popular usage during the Watergate investigation.
Scanned bits throughout the interview with volume off,
to watch Bennett’s body language.
I guess the purpose of the exercise was to confidently reassure sevco
supporters that everything was under control, there was a plan and it will all come
good in the end?
Bennett looked quite tense, with lots of looking sideways, away from the camera,
some nose touching, his head continuously tilted slightly forward and
downwards – and with negligible smiling.
And the “action” shots of the moving crane and the 1 worker on the stand
dragging a cable was unintentionally funny.
🙂
That Bennett interview brought me back to my working days in the Life Assurance IT world.
Cringe phrases like “rising to the challenge”, “straining to get certainty”, “all-aligned”.
And my favourite one – “low hanging fruit”.
Folk that use those soundbites tend to be all show and no substance, and bullies at the same time.
And what makes Bennett even more embarrassing is the fact he used “low-hanging fruit” when he meant the opposite. That £10m loss isn’t the easy thing to get sorted, it’s the difficult thing.
Hope he stays at the helm for a long time.
Jack Buckland sends message to departing Goldson. . . “Can I have my gloves back?”
I thought this interview was a paradise of Johnathan Watson from, ‘ It’s only an excuse.’ Is it for real, dear God!
I think he’s banking on the fact your average Paris Bun thinks a caveat is something you wear round your neck. Something like a sash.
The Caveat Express towing a trailer load of wiffle waffle
As an aside, the outdoor scenes of Tony’s headquarters in The Sopranos, were filmed using the Irish American club in Kearny, home of ‘The Mother Club’ the Kearny Celtic supporters club. So by default, Tony is a Tim!!
ah the memories of that club, Watched many a Hoops game there, getting a couple of meat pies after the game for the Scottish butchers next door.
Oh dear….Gotta walk before you can run John. You are still on rinse and repeat! 😆
Phil,
As Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri would say, “The word Spillage is doing a lot of heavy-lifting here!”
Hail and Hail again!
Slippage, no?
Idah’s Big Toe,
Paulie Walnuts would like to correct his quote to “The word Slippage is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, T!”
He told them nothing nada zilch they are no better informed than they were a month ago it’s just as well we have a free press investigating, the daily ranger the Sunday mason et al
The building site john brown played for…
Priceless mate..