Battle in court is looming for King
I told Caixinha I wanted his job one day and I’ll never know if that cost me chance of an Ibrox return Barry Ferguson
From Back Page and chooses to toe the line he could face prosecution on a contempt of court charge.
The authorities initially ruled King was leading a “concert party” when he teamed up with fellow fans known as the Three Bears – George Letham, Douglas Park and George Taylor – to corner 30 per cent of the club’s shares in March 2015.
King appealed against this decision but his argument was booted out last month when he was given a 30-day deadline to offer to buy all remaining shares at a price of 20p.
That deadline passed at close of business on Wednesday.
By Thursday morning the Takeover Panel had invoked section 955 of the Companies Act seeking a court order demanding King stumps up enough cash to cover the full potential cost of the offer.
They released a statement yesterday which read: “On 13 March 2017, the Takeover
MALKY: MEN MISSED A TRICK WITH SHELLEY
I MAY have not have gone for many job interviews in my life but even I knew this was the moment my chances of a role on Pedro Caixinha’s coaching staff might have hit a bit of a buffer.
But I’ll tell you this much, if I was back in that office this morning and asked again where I saw myself in five years, I would say the exact same thing.
Of course I want to be the manager of Rangers one day. I would have been lying to the man’s face if I said any different.
Look, I don’t know if that had anything to do with his final decision and I must say also I’m delighted for my old team-mate Jonatan Johansson who was the successful candidate. He was the right man for the job for the simple reason he obviously ticked all the boxes that Pedro needed filled.
But I would like to take this opportunity to make clear that if I had been selected for his staff, I’d have done everything in my power to help Pedro be as successful as possible.
There is no way I would’ve gone into a job like that looking to stab him in the back.
I want to get that off my chest because, over the last few weeks, I’ve seen a lot of people bringing up what went on all those years ago when Paul le Guen was the manager.
To this day I’m still accused of undermining the guy.
That’s absolute b ****** s and I’m sick to the back teeth of hearing it.
I was working under a manager who accepted losing matches. If it’s a crime that I wasn’t capable of accepting that then, yes, I’m guilty.
But I don’t see it as a crime. I never will.
I was simply brought up on the tradition of winning football games with Rangers and I feel passionately about it.
The good news is, after meeting the guy in person last month, I think Pedro feels exactly the same way.
It has been a tricky few weeks for me because everyone knew I was part of the interview process, including the guys in this newspaper. But I didn’t want to write about it out of respect to the club. I’m grateful to the Daily Record for respecting my position because, as a columnist, they could have put pressure on me to spill the beans.
But there was an understanding that I would not mention anything about it until after the position had been filled. Now that JJ has got the job I’d just like to congratulate him and wish him all the best.
From my point of view, of course I would have loved to get back in there and help Pedro try to turn things around.
Like anyone else from any walk of life, if you go for an interview and aren’t successful then you are disappointed. But I’m not going to sit in a corner and start crying about it.
I’m not one for feeling sorry for myself.
Yes, I would have welcomed the chance to help Pedro and the players but I completely respect his decision to give it to Jonatan. There’s certainly no ill feeling on my part.
All that matters as far as I and the rest of the fans are concerned is that Rangers get back to winning trophies.
I was excited about the chance to help them do that.
When Stewart Roberston called and asked me if I would go in for a chat with the manager I was obviously delighted to do so. Let’s face it, everyone knows how I feel about the club and how honoured I would be to go back there in any capacity one day.
So, yes, I don’t mind admitting my stomach was churning when I drove back through the gates of Murray Park to go and meet with the manager at the training complex.
We spent an hour and 40 minutes talking about his philosophies on football and the way he wants to do things. He also asked me about myself and my career but he already knew most of the answers as he had done his homework and was very well prepared. It was an enjoyable chat. But it’s fair to say that when I was making way home I wasn’t sure that I was going to be his kind of guy. My gut feeling was that I was not what he was looking for.
There was a point when he asked me about my hopes and ambitions for the future and I looked him in the eye and told him the truth. One day I hope to
The truth is, for whatever reason, I left the meeting feeling I wasn’t