The Record catches up with the Celtic sites on Farke, but offers no further analysis.

It’s always amusing when the Scottish media finally catches up with a story the Celtic fans have already done to death — especially when they slap a thick layer of spin on it. The kind of deplorable, ridiculous spin that manages to change the entire tone of the piece even while admitting we were first to the punch.

Today it’s the Daily Record doing a piece on Daniel Farke and the Leeds situation — the same story we covered on the podcast last night and which I also wrote about.

That piece originally came from The Guardian, who had a proper exposé on what’s going on at Leeds United. And one of the major things going on is that Daniel Farke has the noose tightening around his neck because some people at the club no longer think he should be manager.

The Guardian pointed out that there are over 100 separate investors involved through the 49ers group, and they’re apparently at each other’s throats over Farke’s future. But the Record added their own little flourish by claiming that one of the reasons Farke is under pressure is because he hasn’t bought into the club’s strategy — specifically, the strategy of data-driven signings.

It’s the same strategy I talked about last night and in the article. The same one that’s coming to Ibrox. But while the Record admit that part, they won’t touch what it means for that club. They’ll go deep into the weeds about sponsorships, stadium expansions, transfer spending, potential new managers, and boardroom reshuffles — but when it comes to this, they just chuck it in there like it’s no big deal.

But of course, it is a big deal. In fact, it might be the most significant development since the takeover began. This number-cruncher, Moneyball strategy is what’s coming to Ibrox. As I said in the piece yesterday, this isn’t a new concept.

The biggest clubs in the world already use it — and not the watered-down version either. They’ve got the cash to hire the best analysts, set up vast scouting networks, and pair the data with actual eyes on players.

The idea that Ibrox is suddenly going to hit some revolutionary breakthrough with this stuff is laughable. And here’s what no-one wants to acknowledge — and it’s crucial. Ibrox is already using a half-baked version of this model. They switched over as far back as September 2023, when they binned most of their scouting department and moved to an analytics-based approach. We’ve already seen the kind of signings that’s produced — like Bahrami.

If the Leeds owners come in and turbo-charge this system — if data becomes the metric for signing players — that’s going to bring problems. Data is great, but only if you’ve got the money to back it up. The less you can spend, the further down the list you have to go, and the more your options shrink. Under a data-driven model, narrowing your pool means narrowing your quality.

Clubs adopting this strategy automatically exclude thousands of potential signings because they don’t fit the data profile. That’s limiting right from the start. And when you’re in competition with other clubs using the same model — most of them with bigger budgets — then you’re constantly scraping further down the line, further and further away from top-level quality.

Forget about attracting a top-tier manager too. No self-respecting boss wants to work at a club where everything’s decided by spreadsheets and data points instead of scouts and proper football minds. Maybe the most honest thing in the Record piece — even if it lacked any real analysis — is the idea that Farke himself isn’t thrilled with this system. And who would be?

And once again, the Ibrox support hasn’t given any of this a moment’s thought. Is this really how they want their club to be run? Too late now if they don’t. They’ve allowed this to unfold around them without asking a single hard question, without examining any of the consequences. They’ve stood idly by during the most significant change to hit their club since it crawled out of Rangers’ grave… and now it’s too late to do a thing about it.

As I’ve said before, the Trojans were at least warned about wheeling that big wooden horse inside the gates. They just chose to ignore it. This is much worse. These people are cheering this thing through the gates. It might be the most shocking dereliction of duty I’ve ever seen from football fans in this country.

And I haven’t even gotten into the media’s role in all this yet. But as the truth about this takeover begins to emerge — if it even comes off — it’s already clear that it won’t resemble the fantasy being peddled by the club or their fan-media echo chamber.

They’re all complicit in selling the lie. And they’ll all be complicit in what happens next when reality finally crashes in. The writing’s on the wall, in letters a hundred feet high. They can’t say they weren’t warned.