In The Week The Queen Snuffs It, King Makes His Latest Play For The Ibrox Throne.

The least surprising thing about the week just past was that King played what he thought were his aces. No sooner had their team just been pumped by Celtic but he was on the war-path.

The defeat at the hands of Ajax had him scribbling another furious missive.

The shock was that he chose to release that on the day the Queen died. Not even the death of the monarch stopped Dodgy Dave from making his play to be King of Ibrox.

Even as their forums were howling about respect, he was stabbing at their board in a quest to take the throne.

It’s all so crass and nasty and bitter … and hilarious to watch from the outside.

Let’s face it, we all said many months ago that King was determined to cause them problems and was not going away. He made that clear. He continues to wage war from afar, as “prince across the water”, a rebel, an outsider, having once worn the crown.

This is a man who ought to be used to being thwarted.

After all, the South African tax man beat him. The London Takeover Panel beat him. Celtic’s directors, who showed they had feet of clay in the year after he left, beat him. Mike Ashley beat him so regularly he ought to have a punch-bag with King’s face on it.

This guy might have a few quid, but he’s proved over and over again that he’s no master criminal or Bond villain. Inspector Clouseau would have busted him.

Yet this Ibrox board cannot rid itself of him.

Every time he pops his head up, he causes them grief and they respond with stony silence, perhaps in the belief that he’s a minor irritant and has no actual power to cause them harm.

But they are wrong about that of course, because the “prince across the water” legend survives because so many of those who have been afforded the tag – from politicians to actual deposed leaders (the earliest example of the phrase being affixed to Charles Edward Stuart, of course) – is that they gain ever wider support in times of crisis.

And crisis is where Ibrox is at right now, and he knows it. The more they flap at our feet, the more they embarrass themselves, the more their board makes mistakes with signings and with policies the fans fume over, the more King looks credible to the support.

He has, however, miscalculated this time in his desire to plunge in the dagger.

A lot of their fans find it repulsive that he’s chosen to act right now, at a time when their club is “in mourning” and, at least temporarily, unified. Doubtless this will pass, and he knows it, but for some of their supporters this image of him preening and strutting on the stage whilst the monarch lies on her death bed is one that will stay with them and hurt his reputation.

(Ha! His reputation! Only amongst this lot could that term even apply.)

For all that, King is a real problem for them and as this season, their manager and their head of recruitment continue to circle the drain you will hear more and more from this guy about what everyone over there is doing wrong. Some of it might even be fair comment amidst the self-promotion and general vengefulness of it all.

It’s clear that King will use every opportunity that comes along, and we ought not to be in the least bit surprised that he was wasn’t even willing to take a breather for the death of the head of state, and a time when their fans weren’t thinking about football.

King plays his game in the gutter. He does not care about things like that.

He sees only narrow advantage in the moment and moves in that direction. He will stop at nothing and that’s as fun for us as it’s bad for them. I could get to admire this swine in some ways.

For he is the King of Chaos and he’s focussed on vengeance. Long may he reign.