The downfall of the house of Leggo

Sinister hand of Jack Irvine.

 

A hand shandy from Jack Irvine, more like......

Cue the awful picture of Leggo's face on the vinegar strokes

 

I've missed this.

 

With all eyes on Rangers football club currently, due to the continued ‘political’ infighting between shareholders and the fan base, public relations for the club is needed more than ever. However, even the PR company used by Rangers – Media House – has come under much criticism and increasing calls from Rangers supporters to be sacked due to comments attributed to Jack Irvine, executive chairman of Media House.

Scotzine editor Andy Muirhead caught up with Jack Irvine, amid a busy schedule for the PR guru, to discuss his time at Rangers and those who are criticising him.


AM: When did you start working with Rangers Football Club?
JI: 2006. There had been huge sectarian issues and the football authorities were going to hammer Rangers. There was a danger the team would be playing in empty stadia and face crippling fines. We worked with the legal team to articulate the initiatives from Martin Bain’s management team to curb the sectarian excesses which in turn lessened the possible draconian punishments.

AM: We heard from Sir David Murray that he was duped by Craig Whyte in purchasing Rangers from the former Rangers owner – from your point of view and of working with Craig Whyte would you agree with Murray’s statement?

JI: Yes I do agree with Sir David. He was led to believe that Craig Whyte was worth in the region of £80million and he had no reason to doubt that.
The Bank of Scotland and their boardroom representative saw no problem with Whyte as a buyer and, in fact, couldn’t get the club sold quickly enough. Craig Whyte appeared to be the answer to all of David Murray’s problems.

AM: You represented Rangers under Craig Whyte’s tenure at the club which ended with it going into administration and subsequently liquidation – looking back what are your thoughts on your role and Media House’s role during that time?

JI: It was a surreal time. I tried to explain to Craig Whyte that he couldn’t possibly run the club himself and I even introduced him to the former Newcastle United Chief Executive Freddie Fletcher who was also a former Rangers man. Freddie would have been magnificent but Craig decided he could do the job himself.
Like many businessmen he was totally consumed by The Blue Mist the minute he walked into the boardroom. Media House’s role was what it had always been. Represent the club and its board and attempt to present the good side of the club to the media and public at large. Of course the bad started to outweigh the good very quickly and it was like pushing water uphill.

AM: There has been allegations made that Media House and Rangers used friendly journalists to publish positive stories about Rangers and Craig Whyte in particular hiding the truth about the Motherwell businessman – what do you have to say about those allegations?

JI: Of course we promoted positive stories – that’s what PR people do the world over. However it didn’t take long for my old newspaper colleagues – and more importantly certain influential bloggers – to find out the truth about Craig Whyte and tell the world. There is no way I could have covered that up or would even have tried to. The dam had burst.

AM: Many Rangers fans are now seeing Media House and yourself as culpable in the demise of Rangers under Whyte and are against your continued involvement at the Ibrox club – claiming that you are not there to represent the club but elements on the board? What is your take on this – what is your role at Rangers?

JI: That is utter nonsense. We can only work with the tools we are given. Craig Whyte ran the club into the ground although you would have to say he inherited a pretty leaky vessel. Our role at Rangers is crystal clear. We carry out the wishes of the board in an attempt to help the business survive and prosper.
However much I sympathise with the agonies the fans are going through, and I speak as one of the original Bond holders, it is not they who instruct me. It is the board. It is naive to think otherwise.

AM: A twitter account called Charlotte Fakes has been publishing emails and other correspondence involving you, Whyte, some journalists and Rangers officials – which seem to paint all parties in a bad light. What is your take on what this person is doing?

JI: It is illegal. It is a breach of the Data Protection Act and the perpetrator faces serious consequences when he is caught. It is frightening some of the stuff that is going on nowadays on the web. I often wonder what it would have been like in the early 90s when there was the coup to unseat the Celtic board. How would social media have treated that? Would Fergus McCann with his bunnet and squint been given a chance to mount his brilliant strategy or would he have been slaughtered by the fans with laptops?
AM: Rangers fans have claimed that the ‘dignified silence’ approach was perpetrated by the likes of Media House and that instead of keeping quiet, you should have gone in all guns blazing. Making demands, threatening legal action etc. What was your approach during Whyte’s reign when negative articles were published?
JI: I seem to remember we banned the BBC and if you knew me at all you would know that I am not slow to tell editors and journalists when they are talking bollocks. Lawyers were regularly involved .
Do I go out and announce this in the Copland Road to the fans? What do you think? I worked with or trained a lot of the current crop of journalists. I’m not going to publically traduce them although I will make an exception for some of the more stupid ones.

AM: Whyte met with several Rangers supporters groups and bloggers who were very friendly to him and backed him to the hilt during his reign at the club – they have now turned on him as if he is the anti-Christ. What is your take on this u-turn by said prominent groups and bloggers?

JI: I presume you have certain groups in mind. I can’t think who you are talking about but let’s be fair. The fans loved David Murray then grew to hate him. Ditto Craig Whyte, Ditto Charles Green. So it’s not only bloggers who changed their minds.
The economist John Maynard Keynes is alleged to have said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” If that concept was good enough for him I hardly think we can criticise the bloggers.

AM: Given the amount of flak, hassle and abuse you have taken – if you could do it all again would you still represent Rangers and Craig Whyte?

JI: I have taken flak, hassle and abuse since May 1987 when I launched The Sun in Scotland. I thrive on it and the more I get the stronger it makes me.
The answer to “Would you still represent Rangers” is obviously yes as I have just signed up for another season. I come from an East End Rangers family so I guess I’m stuck with it. Would I represent Craig Whyte? Not if I had known what I know now but it’s easy to be clever after the event as I keep reminding certain fans and journalists. Hindsight is a wonderful gift.

AM: If you could stand in front of the Rangers fans today and talk to them what about the club and the way it is working and those wanting to take over – what would you say?

JI: Give the board a chance. The Chief Executive has sunk a million of his own cash into the club. Fellow director James Easdale and his family have put in even more.
Let’s all be mature. I know Frank Blin and Paul Murray are passionate about the club but to quote Mr Churchill: “To jaw jaw is always better than to war war.”

 

Popcorn-y one-off update.

Leggo's last blog (about the fraud office getting involved) has been pulled and the rumour is that he, Graham and Gow are facing bans from Ibrox.

They've been in a ding-dong with Agent Orange's afterspunk and he's meant to be right in with the new board.

Check this

http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/falling-short-of-the-standard/

Basically, it's a go at all the writers on the Rangers Standard but includes the fantastic couplet

 

Naughty.

 

Jesus, pass me a sick bag. What a crawly bumlick Graham is.

 

THE BLUE PITCH AND MARGARITA MYSTERY CONTINUES
It was only fit and proper that Paul Murray should have once again have raised the issue of who it is who really owns a large chunk of Rangers.

For without knowing who they are, there is no way of knowing what their motivation in investing in Rangers was and what their intentions are. (Jesus, once again I have to ask, how did this guy ever hold down a job as a journalist?)
The two major players who continue to hide behind a cloak of anonymity, who keep cowering behind collective names and who operate in the shadows without any clarity are Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita Funds Holding Trust, who, between them own more than 10 per cent of Rangers. (Margarita time?)

As things stand the combined Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita stake in Rangers are votes in the bank for chief executive Craig Mather and financial director Brian Stockbridge as they fight to keep their well paid jobs. (Well-paid should have a hyphen)

The assumption must therefore be that Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita are pleased with the way the board’s only two executive directors – particularly financial director Stockbridge – are doing business inside the Rangers boardroom on behalf of their investment.

That, despite the fact last month Stockbridge was stampeded into (Stampeded into?) going public with an admission that, of the money from two years of season ticket sales, plus various other substantial income streams over the past year, along with the £22.5M from the share issue in December, only £10M remained.

The current Rangers directors have been keen to get to the bottom of who it is who is behind the Jim McColl-Paul Murray led moves by concerned institutional investors from the Square Mile to unseat them at next month’s Annual General Meeting and they have had them jump through hoops. (Jim McColl and Paul Murray I would guess?)

However, McColl and Murray have been happy to do so. For they are businessmen of absolute acumen, complete probity and reputation. People, just like those institutional investors, with nothing to hide. (You will note that Leggo uses the same words over and over again, Acumen, Probity as if he has some financial or legal expertise)

On the other hand, the Rangers directors have continually refused to reveal to the rest of the club’s shareholders, including those Square Mile institutional investors (And there he goes again “Square Mile institutional investors “ )who are dissatisfied with the way they are running Rangers, just who it is who is behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita.

Why? If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding it? ( Just awful)If the shadowy people who lurk behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita have nothing to hide why do they continue to hide? (You have already asked that question)

A year ago the man who was then the main representative on the Rangers board of Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita, former chief executive Charles Green, denied that Arif Naqvi of Abraaj Capital, was the man behind Blue Pitch Holdings. Green, however, tellingly admitted that Naqvi was a personal friend and that he had approached him to become involved in Rangers, but that he had not invested.

Green then named Mazen Houssani as the front man for Blue Pitch Holdings. But then again, as we know from many of his pronouncements - Dallas Cowboys and Manchester United, anyone? – Charles Green says more than his prayers.

Something else which Charles Green said, was that the Scottish Football Association were made aware of who all the beneficial owners of Rangers were at the time of them granting Rangers a licence to play.

Perhaps there may be some legal option open to Jim McColl and Paul Murray to get a sight of the list Charles Green says he gave to the SFA.

Or, perhaps the SFA, in the interests of honesty and openness and in the interest of a founding member club’s safety and continued good financial health, may feel they should take the bold step of revealing who all of the beneficial owners of Rangers are.

For as things stand, the men inside the Rangers boardroom seem hell bent on ensuring that the rest of the club’s shareholders cannot decide for themselves just why two far eastern based, seemingly shadowy organisations, should want to invest substantial sums in Rangers when it is almost certain there is no opportunity for their investment to provide any substantial profit.

Therefore, if making a substantial profit is not the motive for the Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita investment, just what is their motive?

That is the question which should be troubling and exercising the minds of all of the other Rangers shareholders, individual fans, supporters organisations, others such as Mike Ashley and institutional investors alike.

At the moment, the only way of getting to the bottom of what may give the appearance of being the sinister purposes of the Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita investment in Rangers, is for the current two executive directors to be voted off the Rangers board at the Annual General Meeting and men who will get to the bottom of this sordid seeming tale and who will unmask who is behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita Funds Holding Trust, voted on.

He should write a poorly thought out detective novel…oh wait.

 

One year ago it was:

Two years ago it was:

The man's a complete moron

 

^^^^

Leggo's shock that the Ranger's Directors don't want to hold a meeting with a few hundred angry Rangers supporters.

 

Is Leggo suggesting that in old Rangers' dying years, the three-in-a-row/ got them into the CL players should have got more than a £200k bonus? Surely that would have been more financial mismanagement, similar to Super Ally's "I don't know what I get paid, I just sign any bit of paper put in front of me. My agent? He tells me **** all, by the way. Takes 10% of what I earn, but even he doesn't know what I earn"

The The Rangers directors are right to speak to the organisations privately. What good would a bun fight with a rabble of a couple of hundred fans achieve? I have the suspicion though that if someone was to take the minutes of said bun-fight, they would read as clearly as your average Leggo rant.

Finally, Sons of Struth? FFS - nice to see the fans of The Rangers looking forward.

 

Well, who'd ah thunk it! From Paul McConville's blog......

Guess Which Blogger Has Been Taken to Court by Rangers?

As I often say the Scottish courts website is a great source of information and often provides scoops for those happy enough to plough through its pages.

A quick look today revealed a new case on the “calling list”. This means that the action has been raised and served upon the defender, and because at least 21 days have passed the pursuers want to make progress.

Whilst it is not clear precisely what the action is for, I think it is noteworthy that Rangers have taken action.

Who is the lucky blogger to fall victim to Biggart Baillie, the lawyers for Rangers?

Is it one of the serried ranks of “Rangers haters” as we (I number myself amongst them, not because I am but because I am classed as one) are known?

No.

Is it the star of TV and radio, Mr Chris Graham of Rangers Standard and “Enemies of Rangers” fame?

No.

Is it Bill McMurdo?

Of course not.

So who has proved to be such a thorn in Rangers side that it considers it necessary to spend the time and the money to pursue him?

Yes – Mr David Leggat – prolific author, blogger and master of the “inky trades”.

The note reads:- The Rangers Football Club Ltd, Ibrox Stadium, 150 Edmiston Drive, Glasgow and another AG David Leggat.

What is noteworthy is that the action is being raised by the “football company”. There is reference to “another” pursuer which may be the PLC, or it could be an individual.

Mr Leggat may of course choose not to defend the court action. He may feel that he should not have to trouble himself with the time and expense of defending a court action. On the other hand he is someone who frequently challenges people to “see him in court” if they do not like what he writes.

He might feel that he has been betrayed by being sued by his beloved football team – perhaps the first to take up his challenge?

He might feel that he is being gagged and decide to speak out in the spirit of free speech.

Whatever happens, I am sure he will seek good legal advice and speak out frankly about what the case is about.

I must say that, in principle, the sight of a major company pursuing an individual over what they have said or written (which one assumes is the basis of this case) is not a good one. It smacks of heavy-handed restriction on liberty and free debate.

That does not give writers carte blanche to say whatever they like, of course, but suing people who disagree with you seems, in the absence of clarification about the precise basis for the case, to be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Maybe Mr Leggat will become as famous as the McDonald’s Two who stood up to the giant corporation in the McLibel case?

One thing is certain – it will be a while before Mr Leggat gets the chance to promote another of his books with a launch event in Ibrox!

We can but wait and see…

There will be more…

Here…

Soon…

(Or else in court)

Posted by Paul McConville

 

Leggo's got a new blog up.

Now even worth posting though

 

Sued by his beloved. It's a divorce that can only get messy.

No doubt he'll find someone Catholic to blame for it.

 

Still hasn't stopped him brown-nosing (blue-nosing?):

The same Walter Smith who spent tens of millions on players and didn't ask any questions such as "how the hell can we afford this?"

 

Also the same Walter Smith who recently said the only way for Rangers to progress is to get in more debt.

They should keep wheeling the clueless clown out in the media as most Rangers fans lap up anything he says like mewling kittens at a saucer of milk.

 

They've got King returning to the huns , was he not a board member of the club thst died and would he pass the fit and proper test ?? Over to you sfa

 

"Whit ludge are yie in?"

That's the test Harry.

 

So who is merlin? The lap dog to the attack dog (even though a merlin is actually a bird!)