Last night, as rumours swept the country that something had gone wrong with the Jamie Murphy transfer to Ibrox, I posted a piece on them. I was not the only Internet Bampot to have tackled the subject; Phil had produced an outstanding piece earlier in the day, and hinted at the utter shambles behind the scenes.
The story they tell is of the Ibrox club literally trying to pay Brighton with nothing; Phil’s piece makes it plain that this is what they offered Brighton upfront instead of the customary one third that happens when you try to pay a transfer fee in instalments.
As I said last night, I think Sevco will scramble some kind of grubby compromise together and sign this guy, as long as the half of the Ibrox board which wonders where the money is coming from gets that answer from the other half (oh yes, this is as FUBAR as it gets). Because for this to fail now … it would be unspinnable, right?
Wrong actually. The Record is already trying.
“The holdup is on the Brighton end,” their most recent article on the subject said today, but before their fans go threatening to burn that club’s stadium to the ground they better get real for a minute. Cause holdups will happen in a deal when you try to screw the other party. They will happen when you blatantly insult them.
Shortly before bed last night I read the first breathless story that Murphy would be on the plane this morning. I asked a mate of mine how much did he want to bet that this would never happen. He laughed, knowing full well that it wouldn’t either.
Who honestly believed a club which hadn’t been paid was going to let its player fly out with another team?
Honest to God, are these people on the same planet as the rest of us?
The credulity – and credibility – of our media is a story for later in the day, but I have read such complete nonsense in the last 48 hours about how this club is showing ambition, how sanity has dawned there, how a corner has been turned, that it was almost inevitable that this deal – which lets not forget defies financial gravity – would run into a wall like a cartoon villain.
Sevco has made a mess of this.
They will probably get it over the line, but nobody should try to pretend this isn’t a farce. The basic fact is that what they have offered Brighton thus far is an insult and if they want this deal they need to start acting like a serious organisation.
And Brighton, which is run by serious people, isn’t having it.
Mark those words; “The holdup is on the Brighton end.”
Ha! No shit it’s on the Brighton end.
That’s what happens when you try to buy a professional footballer with ginger bottles … and then realise you don’t even have enough of those to pay the deposit.