If you follow the more prominent blogs at all you’ll know there’s been a lot of talk out there about some looming problems at Sevco, the kind that sends clubs into an administration tailspin. Rumours abound of bills not being paid on time, of mounting panic in the boardroom.
I’ve been doing this stuff long enough now that I don’t automatically jump on every one of these tales.
Some of them are clearly wishful thinking. Others might have a core of truth in them, but they’ve been expanded and added to until the actual facts are lost somewhere in the fog. Many of the stories I hear every day are one or the other.
But there are others which tug at you because they’re so clearly consonant with things we do know for sure, things already on the record. There are some stories which would also shed light on confusing or otherwise dark sections of the map, and because of that they are impossible to wholly dismiss.
Some of the more interesting rumours at the moment surround the future of Sevco managing director Stewart Robertson, who this site has written about on several occasions, most notably in relation to the Scottish Cup Final aftermath and his efforts to be elected to the SPFL and SFA boards.
I’ve maintained that he’s unfit for office, because of his comments and his behaviour in defence of his club’s more psychotic supporters.
There are a few friends of mine who’ve urged me to look again at his position.
He is, as they say, merely an employee. If those above him feed him “the line” then that’s what he has to take. Perhaps, these friends suggest, it would be better to consider his comments in that light, and to re-evaluate my views on him as a man.
They might be on to something; perhaps Robertson is little more than the patsy, the guy they pay to say what others on the board would prefer not to, and if they’re willing to use him in this dishrag fashion what else might they be putting on his shoulders inside the walls?
This would be an intriguing question, even without the current crop of stories. Because according to everyone I’ve spoken to and who knows anything about this guy he’s never been the sort to plumb the gutter in the way he has so far at Ibrox. He’s not a bigot, they tell me, and has no time for the kind of people who are. If they are right those comments he’s famous for were made through gritted teeth, by a guy under very specific orders.
I’ve also been asked to consider the job he’s in.
Sevco hired him as Managing Director in the same week Mark Warburton and David Weir were appointed to run the team. Robertson’s job was far more difficult than theirs. His role was to develop the club’s financial muscle.
When you stop to think about what’s happened since, you wonder how he can stomach the job for another minute.
Because what’s the point of, say, going out and signing a shirt sponsorship deal or a brand new kit manufacturing contract only for those above you in the boardroom to take a big long piss on everything you’ve achieved? If this guy is paid to get results, then he got them, but if his bonus is depending on actual income streams he’s got a good case for thinking his own employer is doing everything in his power so he doesn’t have to pay it.
Now there are stories that Robertson thinks they’re marking his card.
These tales suggest that he’s being hung out to dry, and made the scapegoat for failures he had very little to do with.
One of the more intriguing rumours suggests that it was Robertson himself who proposed that the club sign Joey Barton, for PR purposes first and foremost and to put extra numbers on season ticket sales. On the surface that’s good sense, especially as he was a sought after footballer.
(Or so the media would have us believe.)
Certainly our hacks definitely thought this was great business, and said so. Barton’s past indiscretions were airbrushed out of the narrative. In spite of a Twitter feed with all the finesse of an acid house party and even an appearance on Question Time where the player compared a general election choice to picking from “ugly birds” in a bar, the Scottish press was happy to write nonsense about his “maturity” and growing sense of responsibility.
Putting WATP after every tweet apparently suggests mental fortitude and an understanding of Glasgow.
Now that it’s ended in predictable disaster, the stories suggest that Robertson is being blamed for it, that Warburton is furious for having such a trouble maker imposed on him. Curiously, there is a little circumstantial evidence for this; when you think back, Warburton didn’t even turn up for the press conference to announce the signing. Now, according to the rumours, he’s told Barton he doesn’t want him back in the team at all.
Which, if you believe the stories, Robertson is a little queasy about.
Because this is the club’s highest paid player we’re talking about here and he’s got a contract for the next two years.
Robertson, who views things through the prism of business, thinks Barton is an asset and wants to prevent him becoming a drain on resources for no gain; in short, he thinks the manager should swallow his pride and find a place for the player in the team.
But Warburton, who’s already swallowed his own reservations and come back to Ibrox after a summer where he contemplated leaving, isn’t in the mood for further compromise. If these stories are true then he never wanted Barton in the first place, but was willing to accept it as long as the player was making a contribution on the park.
Now, with the dressing room turmoil Barton’s caused eating away at the club, Warburton doesn’t want him near the place.
As a consequence, the managing director and the manager are now in open conflict with one another over how this matter is to be handled … and Robertson, who clearly has a point here, nevertheless doesn’t think he’s going to win that particular battle.
But Robertson’s problems don’t start or end there.
The club hasn’t moved forward in a financial sense since he took on the role.
As I’ve pointed out, this can hardly be laid at his door, but as the coffers are rapidly emptying it’s not clear how long he’ll survive. As Johnjames said in his excellent blog of the weekend, what’s the point in having a bean counter when there are no beans to count?
The club’s financial position has to be dire by this point.
Cuts are certainly going to have to come, and whilst Barton is going to be offered to every club on this island and beyond in December (after Sevco and the Scottish media have trashed his reputation, branded him a lunatic and cast doubts on his ability as a player; good luck with that) the Ibrox tradition has been to slash and burn everywhere except the football department.
Indeed, there’s little doubt that as we approach the window Warburton will be telling the media that more signings are what’s required, even if the ship starts to go down.
Robertson allegedly thinks that it’s his head that’s in the noose and when the club finally gets around to publishing its accounts that he’ll be made responsible for the failure to bridge the financial gap with our own club; one I’ve demonstrated over and over again is a task far beyond their capabilities.
According to Phil McGiollabhain, they’re already cutting deals behind his back and if that’s true he’s finished.
I don’t have any time for the guy.
Whatever compelled him to get in front of the Scottish hacks and defend criminality and sectarian singing after the Scottish Cup Final, the fact he did it brands him a coward at best and a bigot at worst. Those were shocking comments and unbecoming of a guy who now wants a place on one of the governing bodies.
But even I can see that they’ve already made his job impossible, and that he’s caught in the middle of something he can’t emerge from well.
The media narrative on Barton is so venomous that it has to be co-ordinated, and the next part of that is finding someone to lay the blame on.
Warburton has moved already to make sure it isn’t him.
Over the next few weeks, this is going to be worth keeping an eye on.
If Robertson does go, ignore whatever spin the club tries to put on it. Because the truth is that a hard set of choices are coming and this guy isn’t trusted to make them. His own prescription would probably be too tough to swallow.
As usual, King and others at Ibrox think there are easier options.