Popcorn sales among Celtic fans set to soar as King continues to provoke Ibrox civil war.

Last night, I wrote about what I believe is Dave King’s ultimate objective in his ongoing attempts to undermine the Ibrox board. I suggested that his aim is to force a situation where he can justify selling his shares, and that this has been on the cards for a while.

My suspicions seemed validated when, in a remarkable move, King gave an incendiary interview to a national title in which demanded that the Ibrox board call an emergency general meeting to determine who is really running the club.

King is a destructive personality, and under normal circumstances, no one would want to see him succeed with these tactics. Except at Ibrox.

Yet, even if he doesn’t get the result he’s after, he will not walk away and his spirit will hover over everything the Ibrox board does. This is thanks, in part, to the media and a section of the Ibrox fanbase, who will enable him, despite his motives being entirely self-serving. None of this benefits the current regime, or the club, in the slightest.

At this juncture, it’s hard to imagine anything more damaging to the Ibrox club than the return of this guy, sabre-rattling and making demands. Make no mistake: King is not offering solutions. He’s speaking in vague terms about a plan that he doesn’t even know if he can execute, and to which he’s not contributing a single penny of his own. What he’s offering is a pig in a poke, an insane promise that someone else will fund the “revolution” he claims to envision.

The difference this time? Last night, he put a price tag on it. How much will these mysterious investors need to stump up after they’ve bought shares, or whatever method King envisions to get them onto the Ibrox board? A mere £50 million.

Only someone completely divorced from reality could believe that unnamed, unknown investors will throw £50 million at a squad rebuild to try to win the SPFL.

Even if you ran the club perfectly, you’d never see that money again. And it’s clear that King has no intention of running things properly, even if he were allowed back.

He won’t get his EGM on the terms he’s demanding either, and he knows it, so this is nothing more than an attempt to rouse the mob.

His proposal is ludicrous. He wants the current directors disqualified from voting. He claims he won’t use his own vote either, leaving the decision, he says, in the hands of the fans—presumably through the supporters’ groups that he controls.

It’s the ultimate in turkeys voting for Christmas.

If the Ibrox board entertained these “proposals,” they’d be committing professional suicide. They wouldn’t stand a chance of winning a vote on such terms, especially not with King dangling the carrot of a £50 million rebuild. On the fan forums, there’s a lot of support for King. The whole thing is almost Trumpian in its detachment from reality.

Without a major shareholding, nobody is putting serious money into that club.

Even if they were, it would be to gain control, not to invest in a squad. King is still acting as though he’s living in a financial dream world, ignoring UEFA’s sustainability regulations. A £50 million spend would blow them so far over the allowable limits it’s laughable. Even with costs cut to the bone this year, I reckon they’re still on track for an eight-figure loss.

This weekend, they’ll return to a nearly completed Ibrox.

They scraped through their last game, but they won it. The club is in a tough spot, but there’s at least some sense that, for the time being, they can focus on football. The transfer window is shut, and there’s no uncertainty left about the squad.

Meanwhile, the board needs to get on with the job of replacing the chairman and finding a new CEO. Believe it or not, they’re doing this properly—they’ve hired a major recruitment firm to identify candidates. It’s a move I’ve criticised our own board for not making in the past, and King’s slating of their professionalism says more about him than even his ludicrous £50 million pipe dream.

The board needs time and space to deal with its issues and set the club on a better path. These are precisely the things King is determined to deny them. He’s intent on waging war in the boardroom, and his campaign to win over the fans is already underway.

How amusing, then, that his goal appears to be little more than causing as much chaos as possible. The manager will no doubt be asked about this at his next press conference, and he’ll give some predictably dismissive answer, claiming it doesn’t bother him, that it’s none of his concern. And, of course, the media will let it slide.

But King is trying to spark a fan revolt to overthrow the board. That will lead to unrest inside the stadium, directed at the men in the director’s box, creating an ugly atmosphere—exactly what a team trying to find its footing doesn’t need.

This isn’t unique, of course, but what makes this situation truly destructive is that King’s entire platform rests on the idea that the current team isn’t good enough and the fans agree. How is the manager supposed to function with that going on? Which brings us to the other salient point; King hasn’t offered a single word of support for the manager.

So, it’s not just the board that King’s campaign is undermining. In the same wildly damaging interview, he’s sung the praises of Steven Gerrard again, claiming that the current regime forced him out. Forced him. As if the offer of a job in England didn’t entice him.

If that doesn’t destabilise the manager, what will?

This saga doesn’t have a happy ending, not for anyone—except maybe for we Celtic fans. Because we get to laugh, we get to mock them, and we get to dance on Rangers’ grave once again. And if the SFA allows King’s return, in the unlikely event that he wins, we’ll have even more reason to celebrate. But let’s not get complacent—his return all but guarantees another long period of chaos at the club that’s supposed to be our greatest rival.

There’s a warning there too, then. We must be on our guard.

That said, this stuff is undeniably funny. It’ll take a heart of stone not to enjoy it. King’s latest attempt to throw bombs at Ibrox risks destabilising them completely, turning what’s already a turbulent season into an outright meltdown. And when it complete destructs, King will blame everyone but himself. The fans will back him, and the cycle will continue.

There isn’t enough popcorn in the world for a show this long-running.