Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the cesspool …
Congrats again to Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, who saw today coming a mile off …
Sevconia is in meltdown today as a stunning development rocks their languid, high hoping summer.
Remember when the Castore deal was announced and the papers said that Ashley had been shunted aside and that the club had “wrestled back control” from his grubby paws?
Phil summed it up best when he poured scorn on those who believed that nonsense, when he quipped that “the devil is in the retail.”
He deserves great credit again for having gone right to the horses’ mouth and asked one of his friendly moles at Shirebrook what the status of things was; “He laughed like a drain,” is how Phil put it at the time.
Oh I know exactly what he means …
At around about the same time Phil wrote that, I asked the question as to whether or not Sevco was, once again, telling lies about its arrangement with Ashley and hoping that their fans wouldn’t notice.
The other possibility seemed to be that Sevco might be pressing ahead with their business regardless, and daring the Sports Direct boss to see them in court.
Was it possible that Sevco had lied to the media and to their own fans?
Was it possible that Ashley still had them in his grip, and that they had decided to risk another round of court battles, which they would almost certainly lose?
Could they really be that stupid?
Well, of course they could, and they are.
Because today Sports Direct announced on its Facebook page that they will be exclusively stocking the Sevco kit from 1 August.
As Phil has pointed out, note that word; exclusively.
There is no mention of partnerships with Castore or any deal to allow any other retail partner the rights.
The cash Sevco has spent renovating their big shop would all have been for nothing … that word brooks no compromise.
It cannot be misunderstood in any way.
Sports Direct is claiming, through one of its official channels, that they still hold this contract and that they have every intention of enforcing it.
Note that word too; enforcing it.
If they’ve done this in public you better believe Sevco already has the legal letters.
The whole strip launch is a scam, a desperate attempt to focus people on the spectacle whilst the fine print still gives Ashley total control.
It’s exactly as Phil and a handful of us suspected it to be.
Sevco has decided to open a new front in a war with this guy, a war they can’t win and will impact on the deal with Castore as it did on the deals with Hummel and Puma … I am guessing they don’t believe Castore has the muscle to cause them trouble over it.
And what even to say about the media up here?
The Scottish press has been done up all over again, fed the lines although those sending them out knew they’d ultimately have to choke on them.
Like Pavlov’s dogs they slobbered their way to the dinner bowl, unquestioning, acting on the usual instinct.
The bell rings at Ibrox and they come running.
The word “contempt” seems insignificant to sum up the lack of regard we should have for these jokers, who believe whatever they hear out of Ibrox no matter their history of acting like, and being treated like, absolute mugs by subsequent boards there.
Sevco is apparently going to make a statement on this later; do not expect a mea culpa.
Indeed, in order to cover their lies they now need to tell even more lies … when you’ve doubled down and are still losing there’s an awfully big temptation just to go “all in.”
When you’ve spent this long suspending disbelief you simply cannot admit that, not even to yourself.
I used the analogy just recently of the cartoon character walking across the gully; it only works as long as you don’t look down, because that’s an encounter with reality and its reality that causes the fall … that’s where Sevco is right now, that’s where Sevco lives.
Who said the Banter Years were over?
They are never going to end, folks.
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