Ibrox’s CEO claims he represents “the leading club” in our game. Wow.

Ibrox’s leading PR wing, otherwise known as the Daily Record, has been releasing a series of statements from inside the club over the last couple of days. I’m going to talk later about a few of them, especially around their transfer policy.

But first, I want to focus on Jim Gillespie’s astonishing interview, which appears today.

Gillespie is the club’s CEO, hired from St Mirren, and the words that have come out of his mouth are astonishing in almost every way.

As regular readers know well, the Ibrox club have been attempting to organise clubs behind reforms to refereeing. They decided to hold that meeting at Ibrox, basically summoning clubs to attend there as if their stadium is some natural seat of power in the Scottish game.

I wrote about that a couple of weeks back and got the usual stick from their fans. The contention was that there was nothing unusual about one club hosting such a meeting.

Well, actually, as I said at the time, there was something unusual about it. It reeked of an old mindset. A belief that they are special. A belief that Scottish football should naturally gather at their table. Gillespie’s comments today are even more indicative of that.

First, he talks about his view that they are “Scotland’s leading club.”

That is certainly not an accurate assessment of the current power structure in Scottish football. The leading club has won 14 of the last 15 league titles. To talk about being the leading club when your side has just finished third sounds unintentionally hilarious.

Then there is the contention that they want to be considered leaders of a reform movement alongside the SFA.

But a club does not get to put itself alongside the governing body.

That is why we have a governing body in the first place. Its job is to act as the government of the game. This is very much like a quango declaring that it should write the law alongside the legislature.

That is not how these things are supposed to work.

You do not simply get to declare yourself a leader and then suggest that because you have appointed yourself to that position, everyone else should fall in behind you.

The reek of entitlement from these comments is enough to choke you.

The Record claims Gillespie wants to build bridges and take a more conciliatory tone. But turning around to clubs who may already think your institution is a basket case run by lunatics and saying, “We are the leaders, follow us,” does not seem very conciliatory to me.

It seems presumptive. It seems arrogant. It seems a little bit stupid.

It is certainly not the normal way these things are done.

Look at just this one section of an interview almost entirely lacking in self-awareness.

“We will continue to lead,” he says. “We will do that by showing our class and sometimes not holding our counsel, but holding people accountable at the meetings we attend. We will also do it with a level of humility to ensure that everyone is learning. And we hope other clubs will join us and the regulators can get on board.”

The contradictions in that statement are phenomenal.

They will continue to lead, but with humility. They want everyone learning, but apparently from them. They hope other clubs will join them and regulators will “get on board.”

You tell me where the humility is in that.

That is arrogance to an almost breathtaking degree.

They have not outlined any clear vision. They have not outlined any clear goal. They have not outlined any clear strategy. They simply expect clubs to follow them, as if they are special. As if the word “Rangers” carries with it some magical power, like a spell.

I mean, they believe that word brings the dead back to life. But for the rest of Scottish football, the idea that they should automatically be taken seriously because of it is like a bad joke.

I have no doubt this interview will be read out loud in certain boardrooms and greeted with absolute derision, as it deserves to be.

And here’s another bit, in case the point was not already obvious.

“We have a great belief that we are the leading club and we want to be the leading club. We want Scottish football to be the best it can be. Our request is that at the moment regulators and governing bodies start leading alongside us.”

Where do we even go with that?

They believe they are the leading club, so it must be true. But in the same breath, they say they want to be the leading club, which suggests they know perfectly well that they are not. Did you notice that contradiction? They are and they want to be.

Both cannot be true.

Then there is the line about governing bodies, who this blog is forever saying do not lead properly, being requested to start leading alongside them. Alongside them. As though they are equals. That club has learned nothing. That club never learns.

But the game is supposed to learn from them?

This is not the way to do outreach. This is not the way to bring people to your side. This is not the way to persuade clubs that you are serious, stable or capable of thinking beyond your own institutional ego.

You do not build consensus by presuming the right to lead. You do not build trust by acting as if Scottish football is waiting for your instructions. You do not convince other clubs to join your cause by talking as if their role is to get on board with you. That is not humility. It is not leadership. It is not bridge-building.

It is entitlement dressed up as reform.

The really strange thing is that there are legitimate conversations to be had about refereeing, VAR, resources and the structure of the Scottish game. There are real questions about what the clubs pay for, what they get back, and whether the governing bodies are doing enough to raise standards.

But this is exactly why they are the wrong club to front that discussion. Because the moment they do, the issue stops being about reform and becomes about them.

Their status. Their grievance. Their need to be seen as central. Their belief that Scottish football should orbit around Ibrox. That is why hosting the meeting there was a mistake. Not because clubs cannot meet at a football stadium, but because symbols matter. Context matters. History matters.

When a club with their long record of self-importance invites everyone to their place and then their CEO starts talking about being the leading club and having regulators lead alongside them, people are entitled to ask what the real agenda is.

Is this about better refereeing? Structural change? Or is it about the Ibrox club trying to reinsert themselves into the Scottish football power structure after years of failure, chaos and drift?

Gillespie seems to think this language projects authority. It does not. It actually projects insecurity and comes from a place of the deepest delusion. Imagine claiming to be acting with humility and making a statement like that? It’s nuts.

Serious leadership does not need to announce itself every five minutes. Serious leadership emerges from credibility, performance, consistency and trust. It is earned. It is not declared in an interview. It is not bestowed because of a badge.

There is a fine moment in Game of Thrones when a character attending a board meeting of sorts addresses the room with the demand that he be given respect; “I am the King!” he shouts, only to be told by someone who understands where real power flows from that someone who has to resort to that forfeits any right to respect.

Respect cannot be demanded by a club that has just finished third while Celtic were lifting yet another league title.

It cannot flow towards a club that brazenly suggests that it is the leading one in the land when their rival has 14 titles from the last 15 and even accounting for the Survival Lie has eclipsed them in league titles and in trophies overall.

If Ibrox want influence in Scottish football, they should start by behaving like a normal football club. They should win games. Build properly. Stop issuing statements every time the wind changes direction. Stop acting as if every setback is part of a conspiracy. Stop talking as if the rest of the country has a duty to listen.

Then, perhaps, people might take them seriously.

But this? Well, I wrote earlier about Hearts, who at the moment also seem to be labouring under the silly assumption that foot stamping and making demands is how you project strength; it’s “I am the King!” in another guise.

At Ibrox, this is the same old nonsense in a new suit.

A new CEO. A new regime. A new American-backed project. But underneath it all, the same swollen sense of entitlement remains. They still think Scottish football owes them deference. They still think leadership is something they can claim rather than earn. They still think everyone else should get on board.

Nothing about that sounds like humility. Nothing about it sounds like reform.

It sounds like Ibrox being Ibrox. Again.

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