Tonight, in the run-up to the Spurs game, Ibrox lost its Chief Commercial Officer, who has left the club to “pursue new opportunities.”
He’s the latest in a long line of high-profile departures.
The new CEO doesn’t even start work until after Sunday’s cup final, so this can’t be attributed to him sweeping people out the door. No, this is something else entirely. This is about that club’s inability to retain its people. It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the incoming CEO. It suggests the staff there don’t have much confidence in him.
That club has a nasty habit of making negative headlines at the worst possible times, and this is yet another example of how dysfunctional they are. The news was leaked to a fan site, which is extraordinary in itself and shows there’s no real professional organisation there—just a group of competing interests all vying to outdo one another. A professional organisation would never allow this kind of information to leak, let alone on a night like this.
Yesterday, Barry Ferguson produced his latest column for the club’s unofficial mouthpiece, The Daily Record. In it, he claimed that Patrick Stewart’s immediate task is to sort out the internal mess before embarking on a search for new investment.
Mark Pirie, the writer of this piece of fluff, quoted Ferguson as saying:
“Barry Ferguson insists that incoming (Ibrox) chief executive Patrick Stewart and the board should be focused on appointing a new chairman. The legendary Ibrox skipper reckons that should come before ‘new money’ being found from investors, as he hopes to see the club enjoy stability behind the scenes.”
Because it all looks very stable over there, doesn’t it?
The fact that the search for a chairman has dragged on this long is incredible. As discussed previously, if a chairman’s role is essentially an emeritus position—a figurehead or ambassador for the club—then how hard can it be to find someone?
And yet, this lot managed to publicly court one candidate and still didn’t hire him. It’s flabbergasting and highlights just how out of whack things are.
But as always, everything boils down to money for them.
The idea of simply maintaining their current level of operations seems too horrible to contemplate. I noted yesterday that the reaction to the manager telling the truth about their financial state—and their ability to compete with the likes of Celtic—has been volcanic. He even tried to clarify those comments, saying he still believes he can close the gap. Apparently, honesty is forbidden over there. Instead, he’s expected to keep feeding them some mad fantasy.
What I do find amusing is that Ferguson thinks appointing a chairman is more important than bringing in outside money.
Even funnier is that he believes there will be outside money. He’s not alone in this delusion; plenty of media figures and Ibrox fans on social media talk about outside investment as if it’s inevitable, as though the only thing stopping it is a board unwilling to accept it.
Rumours pop up now and then about takeover bids, often involving people who wouldn’t touch the club with a barge pole. If you’ve read one prominent fan site’s thread about Elon Musk, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Ferguson needn’t worry, though.
At this rate, the Rapture will arrive before any meaningful investment does. Even if money came in tomorrow, their ability to change the footballing landscape here would remain close to zero. UEFA’s financial regulations give Celtic a £20 million-plus advantage that simply cannot be bridged unless Ibrox dramatically increases its revenue.
There are things they could try to grow the business, but at its core, it’s still a West of Scotland football club, weighed down by backward ideas and a toxic, arrogant, and intolerant fan base. Many respectable people wouldn’t touch it with a 20-foot pole, which severely limits its growth potential.
So, Ferguson will almost certainly get his wish. A new chairman will be in place long before new money arrives. And with today’s departure of their Chief Commercial Officer, the size of the rebuild job over there has grown yet again.
The incoming CEO already had an overflowing inbox. By Monday morning, he’ll probably have a manager to sack too.
What a to-do list. Where do you even start?
Watched them tonight v Spurs Sunday will be tough.
Maybe a wee tad worrying that they have hit a bit of form at the wrong time…
Even factoring in Cheatin Beaton and his cohorts if we bring our A game we should just about have enough –
But aye – Your assessment has me a wee tad more concerned Bryan than I would have been before I read it…
Just win this Celtic and finally END THE PATHOLOGICAL LIE !!!
I think the important thing Clach, is not to worry about what they might do, and just focus on what this Celtic team, we love and support is capable of, on any given match day !
A club that is liked by no other!
Fantasy Island has nothing on the wishful thinking at Mordor!
I just watched their game v Spurs…the fact that they deserved to win is a sad indictment on Spurs and/or the “quality of the EPL!”
We shall now hear about a “fantastic Sevco,”
team and how they have progressed so much in the past 5 weeks!
As an older and more pragmatic Hoops fan, I will never assume we have to just turn up for any game, let alone a Glasgow Derby cup final.
However, the most important thing for all of us, is that our team turns up this Sunday, plays our game and gives everything to win this cup final . We have the better players, manager and fans, so let’s do it ! HH
I watched the whole game last night and now feel a little bit less confident about Sundays match.
We will need to be careful with their big punt up the park tactics. Still feel that we are more than a match for them.
Ange’s team were rank rotten.
HH