Hamilton yesterday joined Kilmarnock in labelling Sevco’s derisory offer for one of their players as insulting.
Their manager, speaking to a media gaggle that only had one question on its mind, was unequivocal about no longer wanting to take questions on the subject, in an echo of what Brendan Rodgers was saying elsewhere, as this site urged yesterday.
The Hamilton boss has left any future talk about his player in the hands of the chairman. He told the media flatly that the club would only comment when there was something worth commenting on. And then he launched his broadside against Sevco.
“Until we receive an offer that is acceptable, there is nothing to talk about, and there is nothing on the table that is worth considering.”
Nothing worth considering. An offer from Ibrox which has raised the hackles of all involved at New Douglas Park.
This is the way Sevco conducts its affairs.
Their board may well have proved adept at mining rejects from other clubs on loan, but when it comes to actually securing deals from teams who want to hang onto their players … they are abysmal. You cannot have watched the last week and not seen parallels with the Scott Allen transfer saga, which ended with Hibs refusing point blank to sell him to the Ibrox club for any price, and compounding the punishment by selling him to Celtic instead.
Part of this is down to money of course.
They have none.
But part of it is also down to a distinct lack of class, which coincidentally enough has been highlighted in the nation’s favourite brand of decorative bog roll today in the story about the Accrington Stanley chairman and his anger over the way Sevco did the deals for Crooks and Windass.
Sevco is a club that believes it can bully teams.
It believes it does not have to follow the normative rules of behaviour. They get away with things when dealing with foreign clubs which they don’t get away with here in Scotland, or even now in England. People are wise to them, and chairmen talk. There will have been a lot of talk over the Murphy fiasco.
But it is good to see teams in Scotland digging in their heels and refusing to be intimidated.
On top of that, there will also be an awareness up here of the club’s dire financial position.
Do Scottish clubs trust that they will actually be paid in full for players? It appears not.
Hamilton realised something else. They saw where this battle was headed; they were walking into Trial By Media.
They moved swiftly and shut that down.
Kilmarnock has yet to respond to the Ian McCall and the BBC’s shameful intervention on the Jordan Jones issue.
More fool them if they don’t.