THE phone call between Dave King and the Rangers PR department on Friday must have taken hours.
His statement, more a novella really, came in at just under 1300 words and left Mark Warburton without a name. It was veering on disrespectful.
The situation at Rangers remains a mess. It's also far from over. King obliterated Warburton's reputation. The Englishman has money for the best lawyers in the land. Another court case may beckon.
What it did show was that it is possible for someone in South Africa to communicate directly with someone in Glasgow without too much bother. This will have surely come as a surprise to the now ex-Rangers manager whose non-working relationship with his boss was, in part, down to distance. Of course it was.
Here are some highlights.
King began by talking about the club's aims and said: "On season two (this one) we would further invest to be competitive in the Premiership and qualify for Europe at the end of the season. Our realistic expectation was to come second. This was to be achieved by signing five or six players of a quality that improved the squad that won the Championship.
"In season three we would again invest in five or six players that further improved the squad to compete for the title and progress in Europe. I personally estimated that we would require an investment of £30 million over that period to achieve our stated objectives.
"We hired, at short notice, a relatively untested management team that recruited a number of players and introduced a style of play that was pleasing to our supporters. Significant investment was made on and off the park and the Championship was ultimately won in some style. The season was an unqualified success and the management team was rewarded with a vastly improved contract."
A few things here. King has put £18million into the club so does this mean around £12m will be spent on transfers and wages next season, or just transfers?
King's regime took control of the club on March 6, 2015. He knew a new manager was needed long before that date so why was this, the most important decision, apparently made in a hurry. Even with the play-off still to come, that heavy defeat to Motherwell, there should have been a process already in place which would have led to an appointment
And why go for inexperience in the first place? Hindsight is marvellous but it was an avoidable mistake.
Oh, and Rangers lost a cup final and while promotion was won at a canter, there were enough warning signs that improvement had to bee made within the squad. That's not unqualified success. It is what was at least, the very least, expected given all their advantages.
King continued; "This season we did not stick to our plan of signing five or six players because the manager appealed to the Board for additional signings. Despite the concern about departing from our plan of prudent phased investment, the Board backed the manager’s request for accelerated investment.
"This placed us significantly above the football resources available to our competitors (other than Celtic) and was expected to ensure that we finished a strong second in the league and had a squad that could be added to, close season, to make a strong impact in the Europa League qualifiers....following from the above it is clear that we are behind our target for next season but, given that we recognise this, it is the duty of the Board to take steps to get things back on track."
That's all down to Warburton says the owner. Forget the magic hat, King has just thrown him under a magic bus. He wasn't finished.
"Ahead of the Board meeting at the end of January, I advised the manager that the Board wished to review our recruitment plan and performance over the previous two windows. This was a routine request and was timely given the concerns that everyone at the Club has with regard to the high level of wages we were paying relative to the performance on the pitch. In particular, a large portion of our wage bill was not even seeing regular playing time.
"Under normal circumstances such a review would remain confidential. However, in this instance, your Board’s routine questioning of management was leaked to the media and conveyed as being a negative reflection of the Board’s attitude to the manager and the recruitment department. It was confirmed to me that the leak did not come from a board member.
"Irrespective of who leaked confidential information, it is clear from subsequent media comments that the manager did not respond well to the Board reviewing his recruitment activity. This is a strange position to adopt and, in my personal experience, is not a position that a more experienced manager would adopt. No manager in the world can reasonably expect to be beyond scrutiny."
So what King says is that Warburton leaked to the papers. It will be interesting to see, if Warburton makes an issue of this, whether he can prove such a serious accusation.
And, obviously, this means that no other employee at the club has ever leaked information to the press. Hmm.
And now it gets interesting.
"Things moved quickly from that point. There were rumours that the management team (presumably their agent) was negotiating with English clubs and, in one instance, I was informally approached to ask if the Club would waive compensation if the management team was to leave. While this was unsubstantiated by direct confirmation from the Club (Nottingham Forest) in question, I was alert to a conversation that Mark Warburton had with me after joining the Club in which he advised me that his long-term ambition was to manage in the EPL and he viewed Rangers as a stepping-stone to achieve this. His comments to the media simultaneously reinforced his present unhappiness at the Club.
"I was therefore not surprised when the management team’s agent approached the Club’s Managing Director Stewart Robertson to request a meeting which was held in Glasgow on Monday this week. The outcome of this meeting was that the agent subsequently offered that Mark, David and Frank would resign with immediate effect without compensation as long as the Club, in turn, agreed to waive compensation from any new Club that they signed for.
"After discussion the Board accepted this offer and employment was immediately terminated. In order for us to achieve our ambitions we need employees that, like your Board members, will always put Rangers first.
"While we were dealing with the admin and press releases relating to the resignation the agent again contacted us and asked to defer the resignation until the management had secured a new club. I assume that the new deal had somehow collapsed at the last minute. The Board met to consider this request but resolved to hold them to the original agreement."
So as last of Monday, Warburton, Weir and McParland were no more. If so then why was he allowed to speak with RangersTV? Why was he put up to the media as normal on Friday, during which he himself said there were "mischievous" people leaking the oh-so-wrong story that McParland was for the off.
Why was he taking training? And did Weir, a bona fide club legend, view Rangers as a stepping stone? Did he not put Rangers first?
This might just be about to get ugly.
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