I’ll keep this brief, as I want to elaborate on one of the major points of it in a longer piece. For now, let me just remind folk that the vultures are circling over Ibrox again and that they are in real, real trouble. This is a multi-track disaster.
Ignore anyone who says it’s good over there.
Back in the darkness of the early Cold War, at a time when the Soviet Union were pointing scores of missiles at this country, there was an old joke in the halls of the Ministry of Defence, in the department where the staff were paid to think worst case scenarios. It was said that you could tell the optimists and the pessimists easily. The pessimists thought the Soviets could destroy the country with half a dozen missiles. The optimists thought it would take nine.
This is where Sevco are. Their financial position is so precarious right now that they are pretty much relying on everything falling in their favour.
But the disasters have already started to impact them. The moment Katic was injured they lost the chance to sell him and had to think about replacing him at the same time. It hit them as they were still reeling from Ashley’s latest stab at them.
In it, he also revealed a couple of rather inconvenient facts about Castore’s alleged mega-deal, such as that many of the financial rewards in it only kick in if Sevco wins the title.
Oops. They better not be taking out loans on the strength of it, eah?
Phil reminded Sevco fans that as of April this year, Sports Direct were reminding Sevco that any attempt to deal behind their backs was a violation of the commercial agreement which exists between the club and the retail giant. It would not be the first time the Ibrox “institution” has thought they could ignore that and not pay the attendant price.
This time, I reckon they just don’t care. The courts are facing such a backlog that they probably reckon it take years for any case to go the distance, and in the meantime they need the money as badly as they ever have. This falls into the category of “acceptable risk.”
Other risks await them though. If something happens to Morelos or Defoe their need for a backup striker becomes critical, and they are depending on selling the Colombian for as much as they can get, and it won’t be as much as they hope for.
The real trouble – as I’ll explore tomorrow in more detail – is what happens in Europe. The risk is surely real now that they won’t get to the Groups, especially with games being one legged affairs and the club unlikely to have a seeding. They need to get all the breaks going … one slip before the Groups and it’s pretty much curtains for them.
Yet the Groups themselves will be problematic; their club will have to pay all the costs associated with putting matches on at the ground with what are likely to be either drastically limited crowds or no crowds at all. There may be prize and TV money somewhere down the line … but they need to reach that intact, and there are no guarantees.
The thing is, so many things can go wrong over there at the moment that you wonder what they could realistically cope with. In reality, not much. When there are scores of missiles pointed at you and even the best case scenario sees you utterly wiped out if the other side starts launching them it doesn’t take too many hits before the damage becomes irreparable.
What I’m saying is that Sevco is already taking on water. Oh they are working hard with the buckets to try and empty as much as they can, but too much is already getting over the sides and into the hold. Eventually the damage point morphs into the tipping point, and then the ship goes down.
That process is underway. But if they should get hit by something in the meantime …
Enjoy your evening folks.
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