King’s statement, what it told you and what it didn’t

Loved Dave King’s statement, absolutely loved it, as Kevin Keegan would say. On the positive side for Newco fans, “Rangers” beat Celtic 2-1 on the mention count. Well done, Dave, excellent result.

In short, Our New Hero confirmed five points:

The manager he appointed in 2015, Mark Warburton, was an improvement on Ally – I’ll tell the fans anything for money – McCoist, but he was not good enough when up against top-flight clubs.

He didn’t get a resignation from Warburton and his management team. There are now two club statements out there earnestly trying to convince you otherwise, but both are clear on the subject – there was no resignation.

They have burned £18m in less than two years to get into this mess.

“Our realistic expectation [for this season] was to come second”.

There will be jam tomorrow.

Warburton and his management team were sacked in the most dignified manner conceivable: informed by a journalist who read they were out of a job on the club web site.

Let the sacking sink in for a moment. Management were informed they were sacked by a journo who read an article on a web site! Years from now no one will believe such a thing could happen.

Who behaves like this? Sacking someone is never pleasant, but if you don’t have the cahonas to do the job in person, get out of the employer business. You have to wonder where their moral compass is.

The club appear to have acted after it became clear Warburton & Co. were not getting the Nottingham Forest gig and there would be no chance of a compensation payment heading to Glasgow. Forest didn’t buy the soiled merchandise, there’s no resignation letter nor even a meeting where a verbal resignation could have taken place. Not a concern if they don’t remain in business long enough for the legal process to run its course, though.

I’m pleased King made the financial facts clear: this is what overinvestment looks like at Ibrox. £18m shovelled into the furnace already, and there’s a good chance pushing that figure up to £30m will not be enough (according to King).

What “enough” is, is the question.

Their realistic expectation was to come second! Less of this “Going for 55” nonsense, please, you’re “Going for second place”, we all know it. There is no shame in this, the cold fact is that Celtic are out of reach.

Going for second place is a high watermark from now on. Pushing the £18m up to £30m or more will do nothing more than make the battle with Aberdeen and Hearts more interesting.

This season alone Celtic will earn £50m more than any other Scottish club. £30m, £50m, £70m over three or more years will still not bridge the gap at the top.

Then, when the last of these loans are made, the unpleasant business of reigning costs back to breakeven point will take place. What you didn’t read in King’s statement was any awareness that football clubs have to pay the piper. Financial responsibility is a foreign language.

Given his past football directorship, you’d think……..