Dave King, Dave King, Dave King ….
There’s not a lot I can write about this man which the South African judiciary, in its withering denunciation of him, hasn’t already put down on paper for posterity. But today has been a landmark day in the history of his new club.
His fans better mark it down for future reference, because in it lies the heart of everything that’s gone wrong at Ibrox.
Chris “Union” Jack, one of the chairman’s favourite pets, was tweeting all the way through King’s AGM speech this morning. Now it might just be that he was simply picking highlights, but if it was then he was desperately unlucky in his selections.
Otherwise King lied or tried to deflect with almost every word that came tumbling from his lips.
First up, he asserts that the board was not in a position to appoint “truly independent directors”. Eah? Is he for real? So none of the current directors is independent? Independent of who? Yes, you’ve guessed it, he means the old board where Ashley and Easdale held sway, the “bullies” the whole club must stand up to.
I mean, seriously ….
How long can he keep getting away with blaming every failure at Ibrox on these people, and on Ashley in particular? Who’s he trying to kid? This kind of trick is one known to every dictator and dodgy leader on the planet; create an “enemy” and keep people focussed on them. But it must be tiresome for their fans to listen to this guy passing the buck again and again and again. Ashley and Easdale haven’t influenced the Sevco boardroom in nearly two years …
King must think everybody listening to this drivel was an absolute fool.
He then claimed directors fees had been reduced to zero, from £300,000 last year.
We won’t know if that’s true until we see the accounts next year (if we ever do) but mark that one down for future reference too because I don’t believe it at all. And my money is on him not covering expenses in that statement, which I would wager have rocketed. We’ll see.
Auchinehowie has been “reconstituted” and is now “fit for purpose.”
What does that even mean? Any explanation given for that statement?
It sounds to me a little … glib?
And what do you know, along comes shameless on top of it.
He says he won’t be satisfied until the club is at “the top of the game” but that this goal has been hampered by the “Sports Direct agenda.”
Go figure. There I thought it had been hampered by signing crap players and the manager’s tactical naivety, coupled with King’s own inability to balance the books or invest cash. Wow. And it was Mike Ashley’s fault all the time, eah?
He then goes on to blame the players, in total contrast to his blaming Sports Direct just before it. After saying investment in the squad was up 60% (I am dying to know what impact that statistic has on their profit and loss statement next year) he then accuses them of not having done it on the pitch.
This guy … you have to hand it to him.
He’s great at deflection. Not a single morsel of blame belongs elsewhere.
During the Q&A he was even worse.
He said Resolution 11 is designed to give the fans greater control of the club.
He actually said that, just as this site predicted yesterday. It’s all about giving the supporters the chance to participate more fully in the club’s future. What a brass neck. What it will actually do is give them more shares, but with less full voting power, at a cost. It will also let existing shareholders convert their “interest free unsecured loans” into shares … so there’s part of the share issue that won’t be going towards running costs or transfer funds.
This “promise” to the fans is worthless. Coming from King it’s less than that. If I were one of their shareholders and my own lawyer gave me a signed document guaranteeing my rights I still wouldn’t trust it if it was signed by Dave King.
He said the business plan was independent from the funding plan.
Eah? Are you serious?
When is the SFA going to take a proper look at the “funding plan”? Because if it’s separate to the “business plan” what exactly are they basing their annual licensing requirement projections on? One, the other or both? There is no scrutiny of what this club gets up to.
He said he and the board would have to spend more than the club earns to close the gap with Celtic; as ever the obsession is on one club and they’ve totally ignored the rest, but the rest should not be ignoring this. This is the chairman, talking about them going above and beyond what the club can afford, to take away European places and prize money from their own teams. When do they get a grip on this and insist on Financial Fair Play rules?
The fact is, that club could live within its means, spending only what it earns.
But it would rather be bombastic and arrogant and try to recapture the “grand old days of yore.”
When do other clubs stop letting this happen?
Change in this area would be for their own good. Why isn’t that computing with their fans, and their directors?
On a final note, one moment of half-truth escaped his lips during the course of the event. He was asked about “outside investment.” He admitted that the club would love that, but then he offered a bizarre caveat for why it won’t happen. He told the AGM that the club had to be wary of “non supporter shareholders.”
Yes he actually said that too.
That the club doesn’t really want investment from those who aren’t fans. He is suggesting that he wants only Real Rangers Men in charge, and on the board, at Sevco which is parochial and small-minded enough … but it’s also categorical bollocks but designed to disguise the real message behind the words.
Try as he might to hide it, the message is pretty clear.
It’s the one this site has been hammering across over and over again, and he’s as good as confirmed it today with his comments. It’s the fans who are going to be expected to pick up the slack here. It’s their shoulders the weight of this will settle on.
He’s telling them to get their wallets out, to protect the club by spending their money.
It’s the one truth they didn’t want to hear.
I can understand why he spent the rest of his time on evasions, lies and the blame game.
Because aside from that cold message, which none of their fans wants to hear, it’s really all he’s got.