From The Closet Containing The Skeletons to The Sydney Cup Stitch Up…The Lying King Plots his Revenge

You have to give them credit, between them, the Lying King and Jim Traynor can fairly pull off a lover spurned routine when it’s needed.

Following hot on the heels of friendly faces in the mainstream press suddenly finding access to the keys for the closet containing the skeletons, to assist Dodgy Dave’s assault the board who denied him a return, now the apparent target is James Bisgrove – the commercial and marketing guru at Ibrox – you know the guy who oversaw theRangers acceptance as the Tarot Card reader to Celtic’s Lion Tamer on the bill for Ange Postecoglou’s triumphant return to the Australian Big Top?

Today’s weapon of choice is Keith Jackson in the Daily Record. Jackson happily paints the picture of an ostracised Dave King staring longingly into the Director’s Box from his seat in the corporate boon docks of the opposite stand, where thankfully a pal sneaked him into watch a celebration of arithmetical confusion. Diddums.

Yet, while painting the glib and shameless one as a victim is high on the agenda, the real target here isn’t even Bisgrove, although to be fair Jackson does perform and admirable character assassination of the flash chap and his choice of sports car, which he describes as ‘garish’ no less. From a man who dresses like Keith Jackson such a description was probably the word that cut the deepest for Bisgrove.

Instead, Jackson’s piece is all about calling out the worshipful master of a DUP PR man and his inability to create some form of orange order from the mess the Blue Room has created, as he points to Bisgrove having the nous to blame a ‘unanimous’ board decision to accept the dropping crumbs from the Celtic dinner table. Meanwhile the PR man, Jackson hints, was played for a fool by Celtic in allowing the news of theRangers acceptance as a tribute style support act for November’s visit to Sydney to be leaked by the Australian press, then making no official comment themselves, until theRangers were front and centre and dealing with the fallout from their revolting support head on – who he then allowed to be accused of overreacting.

‘But, while he (Bisgrove) was clearly unwilling to be left carrying the can, he was also quick to suggest that theRangers may have been the victim of some kind of stitch up where the leaking of the story of the Sydney Super Cup was concerned.

He smells a rat because word began to trickle out of Australia overnight before Celtic confirmed their intention to participate the following day, while Bisgrove and his buddies were caught in the headlights.

But rather than playing the old paranoia card, theRangers should be looking inhouse and asking exactly why it is that this whole fiasco was mishandled so spectacularly. And by whom.’

And it all paints a picture of pencils up noses and underpants on heads behind the scenes at Ibrox, whilst simultaneously portraying Dave King as being as mis-treated as the fans who also have had their loyalty questioned.

It’s all starting to look like a rather uncivil war the Ibrox boardroom have on their hands. Meanwhile their team needed a penalty pin-box goal, with more than a hint of offside, to sneak past Aberdeen at Ibrox. The timing of the unravelling at Ibrox couldn’t be any sweeter for Celtic, who having got a sixteen-year monkey off the back with a league win at the Tony Macaroni, have a three point lead, alongside a healthy goal advantage, in the title race, and an altogether more harmonious dressing room, and hard as it is to believe, possibly even a more functional boardroom than theRangers.

And it is there Keith Jackson levels his most stinging assault when he writes:

‘It’s actually quite remarkable former chairman Dave King – the man who led the revolution that ensured the club’s 150th birthday party went ahead at the weekend – is also now an outcast and viewed as persona non grata by those now in charge of decision making.

Intriguingly, King was back in the country to rally some of his old troops just the other week having been informed his request for a return to the board has been officially declined by his estranged former colleagues.

That he was not even invited to take a seat in the directors’ box for the 2-2 draw with Motherwell – he watched that match from a hospitality suite in the stand opposite – just goes to show how hostile and fractured relations have become.

A PR man worth his salt would have been all over this visit from South Africa, seizing it as an opportunity to present a picture of unified and stable leadership even if some of the smiles might have been more like gritted teeth.

Instead, the image being projected is one of a club riddled with division and bloated by serial underperformers.

They had better hope it’s not contagious now Van Bronckhorst and his players are swerving into this season’s final stretch like Bisgrove’s McLaren on a skid pan. The last thing they need is another car crash on their hands.’

On the field the hordes can see a team wavering. Meanwhile in the boardroom, the view – which had previously been painted as harmonious to the masses – is now having a different perspective portrayed, as the Dave King and Jim Traynor double act chooses a few selective weapons in the press, now only too happy to help convey a mutually beneficial narrative, as they see an Ibrox Board who has put them into cold storage by charging £25k for media access as being there for the taking, meanwhile the Lying King plots his revenge.

Shaun Riley

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