Clusterstaunch

Under the cover of coronavirus, Dave King resigned as chairman of Newco.  Four months ago he said the club needed £10m before the end of the season.  In his farewell statement, released  last night, he noted a hoped-for round of funding “has been put on hold”.  With the postponement of fixtures since last month, the funding requirement could now be as much as £20m.

The statement was unnecessarily wordy, had he got to the point, he would have said ‘The proposed funder has bailed out and so have I.  You’re on your own.’

Claiming he hoped to extend his tenure as chairman until after the coronavirus crisis, but was unable to as South Africa authorities insisted he self-isolate for 14 days, insults the intelligence of even his advocates.  The world is self-isolating at the moment and the rest of us have figured out how to communicate by phone or videoconference.

This football club needs tens of millions to pay the liabilities incurred to get this close to Celtic.  Hopes of selling its player assets for inflated figures have disappeared from their fantasies.  Ex-pats prepared to sink millions into covering previous losses do not exist.

Without Dave King menacing to get his hands on the club within days of Charles Green buying Oldco’s assets, Newco would now be solvent and competitive.  Instead, Green was forced to cut ticket prices and pay Ally McCoist and his squad over the odds in order to keep the fans onside, blowing his business plan apart from the off.

The architect of this clusterstaunch has left the scene, unwilling to be held accountable for what happens next.  Dave, you will be welcome to make the Paradise Windfall draw any time the South African authorities permit you to travel – but I realise you are unlikely to visit Glasgow again.  When the history of our 20-in-a-row, or whatever the sequence becomes, is written, there will be a chapter dedicated to fools like you who made it possible.