Dave King Has Been A Good Chairman Who’s Tenure Has Been Positive.
Absolutely reeking of lunacy this one, and yet a lot of them believe it.
Let’s start with the headline fact. Since King captured the Ibrox throne he has sacked four managers; Ally McCoist, Stuart McCall, Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha.
McCoist had to go because he was so spectacularly out of his depth even running a football club at all that it was painfully embarrassing to watch. Painful because of the sore sides we got from laughing at it. McCall was a disastrous temporary appointment who consigned them to another year in the SPFL Championship. Warburton was hired in spite of a single year as a manager … a ludicrous and idiotic move which was highly costly.
Pedro Caixinha takes the prize though. Hired via Skype without the chairman ever meeting him, there are still rumours that he was brought to the club because people were convinced his time in UAE had put him close to sources who had money.
King’s latest managerial hire is Steven Gerrard, a famous name who had, nevertheless, never managed a single game at the senior level before he rolled into Ibrox. In any other industry a guy with that hiring record would have been drummed out the door ages ago.
You can measure King’s impact on Sevco by the following fact; in five years between their founding and their landing in the SPL Celtic had won a slew of titles but dropped a lot of domestic trophies as well. Since their return – under the stewardship of this genius – we have won the lot.
Three trebles in a row.
He has thus far been powerless to stop us.
Their financial position has not improved one iota on his watch.
Any corresponding rise in income has been offset by ridiculous levels of spending which have sent him back to his fellow board members for money time and time again. Indeed, the club still has no overdraft facility. They have no Stock Market listing. They don’t even have a NOMAD.
And King loves litigation.
He has been in and out of court since the day and hour he took over.
He has not won a single legal battle. Think on that. Not one.
That is quite incredible. As I’ll cover in another section, Ashley – his nemesis – remains as hooked into the club as he ever was, and you could argue now has a tighter hold on it than before.
King has lied and dissembled in his dealings with the fans.
His promises to be more open, transparent and ready to listen were barefaced falsehoods for which he has never been held to account. His plans for the shareholders were being shrieked from Celtic fan sites right from the moment he pulled the company off the AIM Exchange … and nobody listened.
The fans organisation Club 1872 heralded their reaching 10% of the shares in the club only two years ago; since then they have seen the power of those shares diluted at least twice. In spite of having spent another £2 million they own less of the club – around 5.4% now – than they did just 24 months ago. And King has the authority to dilute them further anytime he likes.
King’s love of the courtroom has placed him in conflict with the club’s commercial partners. He has torn up agreements, dragged them into his mess and he now faces the prospect of being sued by at least one of them, perhaps more.
King has not solved the problems in their stands; UEFA fines and partial stadium closures testify to that. He has not made the club more open and inclusive. Miles from it. His tenure has seen them pander to the outriders of hate more strongly than ever.
And today, as everyone is aware, just to cap it off, the City of London Takeover Panel has acted decisively against him and “cold shouldered” him for four years, effectively telling every company in the Square Mile that he’s as far from “fit and proper” as you could get.
No-one can realistically present a shred of evidence of where King has made Sevco better than it was when he found it.