Ok so we know that Sevco don’t do transparency, but even others are beginning to see it.
Let’s look at what is going on with the whole Gerrard thing.
You have to look at it from Sevco point of view first.
They knew Murty wouldn’t see next season, and just to make sure they appear to have undermined him as much as possible.
This began with the shoehorning in of Jimmy Nicholl, a guy to keep his eye on the interim coach but also to show how really ran the club.
They need to sell season tickets, and the usual “investment at the door” stories won’t was alone just now.
So they look over the city and see us with Brendan Rodgers and think “oh Stevie Gerrard.”
Now there are those on that board who say “WTF, he no experience and will cost a fortune” and they realise that the chasm will become even bigger if they try this and fail.
But those on the board who think its worth it also say “What we have to lose? He wont come near us and we can get a week of positive press coverage and we can throw in the usual shite about pots of gold then we have our season tickets sold.”
And the added bonus for them may be that other managers, who wouldn’t normally consider their club might think “Mmm, they went for Stevie G, maybe they do have a plan.” It’s a scheme not dissimilar to what they tried to do in marketing Morelos in January.
When you think of it like this, it all makes sense doesn’t it?
Of course, all this was probably predicated on Gerrard not really being terribly interested.
In those circumstances they could say “Hey, at least we tried …” and spin it through Traynor and the press lackeys; “he wanted too much money, in the end he wasn’t experienced enough, but we thought we’d hear him out” and so on and so forth.
They get the credit for showing ambition, and Gerrard gets to tell the world that he had serious interest from them.
Everyone’s a winner, right?
Except someone jumped the gun. Someone (probably Gerrard’s people) have spun it to the media that this is real and it’s going somewhere. And what has thrown them off course is the fact that Stevie Gerrard has said “let’s talk” and the media now has the impression that this is a serious offer … with serious consequences if he knocks it back.
That wasn’t expected.
Doubtless Gerrard is delighted with how it’s gone.
He is the talk of the town all of a sudden, which is no doubt just what he wanted.
In the meantime Sevco are down the rabbit hole here and when Gerrard says no, they will go back to default; tell lies and hide all negatives.
Doubtless, they are hitting Stevie Gerrard with the usual stories about how well run they are and how there is a prince on a blue horse at the door with pots of gold … they have to be, otherwise he wouldn’t even be entertaining them up until now.
But it is obvious, given the time and change in tone, that he and his guys are looking deeper into it, allied with the change in tone from “will be announced on Monday after Celtic game” (Mark Guidi), to it’s only talks, positive talks, ongoing talks etc.
But either way you can bet they have an exit strategy and we can guess what it is.
Look back to when Jimmy Nicholl was installed as number two, the beginning of Murty’s undermining, and how the rumours of Nicholl taking team talks and tactical meetings have been doing the rounds. He here is, a Real “Ranjurs” Man, just what the doctor ordered.
Is Nicholl next to take the job on a trial run basis?
He has it for four games; who would bet on his “steadying the ship” beyond that time?
Sevco knows it doesn’t have to fool all of us … it only has to fool its own fans.
Makes sense doesn’t it?
Not that it matters. Whether it’s Gerrard, Nicholl or so other mad left field appoint, it doesn’t matter, they wont get near us.
David Campbell is a Celtic fan and blogger from Glasgow who can smell the brown stuff all over this.
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