After such a historic drubbing, a club needs to get their messaging spot on.
Today I spoke with a very-well -placed Ibrox source about the untimely departure of that nice Mr Graham.
No, not that one…
Sadly, the Sevco High Command can no longer call on the expertise of their Ulsturr Scatch PR impresario.
I was glad to learn that it was all handled with the customary Unsurpassed Dignity.
You do hear of incidents where people, despite their loyal service, are bundled out of the workplace without care for their feelings.
For example, when a person is told that they are being let go, their first response is to say that they will go and clear their desk.
If the employer is particularly heartless, then this will already have been carried out, and their things are brusquely presented to them in a box.
Of course, there will be a backstory to Mr G’s departure, but the Stenography Corps know the succulent rules.
My information is that not all of the Sevco High Command were huge fans of the DUP chap.
Indeed one of the brethren in the Blue Room was particularly keen to see the back of him.
So much so that I was told today that he had hired an outside PR contractor to work behind the scenes.
There is no doubt that Mr Graham brought a particular style to the job.
The idea that the Ibrox franchise exists in a hostile media environment on Planet Fitba is utterly risible.
However, that was the worldview of Sevco’s Ulster Scot when he took the job.
Bless…
Despite the undoubted fact that he alienated many in the press pack, the Fitba Fourth Estate remained largely loyal to the favoured franchise.
Last night on BBC Radio Sevco, after the final whistle, the tone in the studio was hilariously funereal.
One lasting legacy of his time as the ten-year-old club’s PR chap was the inclusion of several Official Media Partners.
In his immediate post-match comments, I felt for the likeable Dutchman, who had been denied resources to strengthen his squad despite reaching the Group Stages.
He looked like a guy who needed some protection, even from the most supine media on Planet Fitba.
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Mr Graham to resurface at Linfield as General Manager following the resignation of Pat Fenlon, who pipped him to the post previously
I received this PM from a certain Mr. Robertson…..
If we reach the CL Final….
Then go on to lift the Cup….
It won’t be filled with Champagne…..
But with good old SEVEN UP.
Did no one else notice the referee never added the proper amount of injury time in the second half! Only 1 minute 14 seconds. Now taking into account salah scored 3 in 6 minutes, another 3/4 minutes could have seen double digit defeat. 😂
Interesting to observe how the ‘wee free Scottish media’ are reporting last night’s thuggery by Sevco fans. You just can’t trust them to give an accurate account of what actually happened. The Klan threw missiles, and racist abuse at the Liverpool contingent (who were celebrating and did nothing to provoke them)
UEFA are gung-ho at hitting Celtic with fines. Most recently because the GB took issue with a decadent/corrupt monarchy. Attempting to start a full on rammy with opposing supporters inside a stadium is genuinely serious. Suffice to add, the Glasgow constabulary took no appropriate action..
“Sevco” is getting a bit old. How about “Sevenco”?
It makes you wonder if both recent leavers of the football clubs board Mr Graham and Mr Scott left as they know what the late late accounts will show .
When they are eventually released
No doubt with an extremely hard massage .
To soothe the bears
And we all know their default setting is angry .
And they may not like what they see .
What about the neutral BBC apparently paying £25k of taxpayer’s money to RIFC for journalistic access? Any truth? And if so, shouldn’t all other Scottish football clubs just charge the same?
Celtic FC should tell the likes of Daily Record and BBC that as our fans don’t subscribe to their output, that are not required at press conferences etc.
Mc Coist telling the world that 10 years ago they were playing Peterhead and Elgin, now they are in the CL. Wonder if Mr- to be perfectly honest with you- Mc Coist would care to tell the viewers WHY they were playing against team from the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Maybe the Blue Room could have released the RIFC Annual Accounts during the second half last night?
Might have gone uncommented by the foaming bears – and the subservient SMSM? 🙂
Seemed to slip the minds of all the distraught pundits on the BBC that Celtic horsed the deidco 7-1 in ’57
No, you’ve confused them with Rangers, a club that once played out of the same stadium.
Back in High School, our Modern Studies teacher taught us how to read the news:
Is the story positive or negative?
Is the timing of the story significant?
Does the story have a greater impact due to its timing?
Is the positioning of the story in the newspaper significant?
Is the story positioned close to another story which appears to be unconnected but serves to increase the impact of the original story?
I have long suspected that someone on the BBC Scotland news desk, or as I like to refer to them “The Cut ‘n’ Paste Brigade”, was highlighting negative stories about Celtic and giving them more space and greater prominence than they would say, give to a negative story about Rangers.
They have also been down-playing negative stories about Rangers such as the £225,000 fine to Rangers for Price Fixing on their best selling short sleeve replica shirts (Size XXXXXXL) Just because JD Sports and Elite Sports were fined £1.485million and £459,000 respectively, the figure of £225,000 is presented as nothing more than a slap on wrists.
Today, rather than the BBC headline reading “Rangers mauled 7-1 at home by a relentless Liverpool’, Scott Mullen spared their blushes with a soothing headline that read “Six minute Salah treble inspires Liverpool at iBroke”. It’s almost as if this historic home defeat was an irrelevance.
On Wednesday on the BBC Scotland Sports Page, Brian McLaughlin excelled himself with the headline that read: “Celtic fined by Uefa for fans’ anti-monarchy banner in Warsaw”(something that The Green Brigade will most likely consider to be a bit of a bargain): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63212107
“Celtic have been fined more than £13,000 by Uefa after fans displayed an offensive anti-monarchy banner during their Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw last month”, gushed young Brian.
If you can be bothered to read the rest of the article you will see Rangers have also been fined “almost” £13,000, but that’s not enough to share the headline with Celtic.
Surely a more balanced approach would have resulted in a headline that read:
“Both Celtic and Rangers have each been fined £13,000 by Uefa for anti-social behaviour one and off the pitch”.
As we all know, there’s one of those motivational posters on the wall of each of the Scottish News Rooms which reads: “If you can’t write something positive about the Rangers, write something negative about Celtic”
Hail and Hail again!
Great post
Haven’t see Rangers fold so badly since , ….. oh about 2012.
Or maybe around 1957 by the same score….at least the Sky cameramen remembered to keep the lens caps off the cameras this time…..
Paddy Power’s Twitter account beat you to that one by some way…
Mr bronkhurst is basically too nice and a pheasant plucker to keep the poison chalice for long