Would-be Rangers owner Andrew Ellis has launched a stinging attack on club chairman Alastair Johnston who publicly questioned the credibility of the property developers bid to buy the club.
Rather than discuss the detail of the takeover/buy-out the two men have got embroiled in a very undignified row over who arranged and who called meetings off.
Johnston was first off the mark claiming: “When Ellis first made his intimations about being interested in buying Rangers back in March, I set up a meeting and was all set to fly out to meet him, when that meeting was abruptly cancelled.”
Oh no you didn’t Ellis responded tonight claiming: “I’ve never had a meeting arranged with Alastair Johnston and he has never requested a meeting with me.”
The Punch and Judy style exchanged continued with the mysterious Ellis adding: “The club have my number but he has never phoned me.
“If I have offended him then I apologise and I apologise if it is taking longer than normal.
“But the next time he is back in the United Kingdom then I will be happy to have a meeting with him.”
That last barbed comment won’t sit easily with Johnston who is now based in the United States.
Ellis decided to speak to the Press Association who provide a subscription service to most news outlets. By speaking to PA his message gets relayed instantly to all media organisations but speaking to Sir David Murray’s favourite paper, the Daily Record, Ellis stepped up his attack on the USA-based Rangers chairman.
He said: “I must apologise if I have upset the man. I understand he is based in America and that’s a long way to go for a chat.
“But I have been up in Edinburgh a couple of times for meetings to learn certain things I need to know about the club.
“However, it’s true I haven’t gone over to the USA to chat about Rangers. But should I have gone there? I haven’t ever received a single phone call from Mr Johnston since my interest was made known so I don’t know how he can say I have failed to meet up with him.
“I have never had meetings arranged with him and yet it would have been very easy for him to have been in touch. You have my number and a lot of other people in Scotland have it.
“I am willing to take calls and I am willing to speak with people. It isn’t as though I’m the hardest person in the world to get hold of so if Mr Johnston wants to speak to me he only has to pick up the phone.
Whatever the outcome of the alleged bid from Ellis it’s obvious that if he does take over at Ibrox there will be no place for Johnston.
A rift in the Rangers boardroom seems obvious with Murray and Donald Muir encouraged by the prospect of an Ellis bid whilst Johnston has publicly declared himself sceptical of a takeover from the former Northampton and QPR director.
Speaking to The Times Johnston said: “I find it surprising and perplexing that, for someone supposedly keen to buy the club, Mr Ellis has had no direct contact at all with anyone at Rangers Football Club.
“On this point, two weeks ago, I made another request to hold a meeting with him, knowing that I was going to be in Britain, but I heard nothing back. So I find all of this conduct pretty surprising.”
Johnston added: “Donald Muir believes that there might be something productive in this (Ellis) deal, but I have to say, I reserve my judgment on that.
“You ask me if I am cynical about it? Let’s just say, once again, that I am sceptical. If there is any imminent development on the Ellis front, I will be very surprised.”
The traditional dignity normally associated with these matters at Rangers has been torn apart by the developments over the last 24 hours.
The detail of any takeover, addressing the club debt, a possible tax bill in excess of over £20m has all been lost as a public squabble breaks out amongst the hand-full of people who know what is going on.
Unfortunately while this is going on everything seems very quiet at Celtic on the managerial vacancy.
No-one wishes to watch a pantomime of candidates pitching for the job but ten days on from the final league match of the season there has been no sign of an appointment being imminent.
Stealing a march while their only domestic rivals are in turmoil would seem to be the obvious move with a new manager getting a budget to give the club a fighting chance of progressing in the Champions League.
With the spotlight on Ibrox let’s hope that the Celtic board have a cunning plan to ensure that Rangers problems are on the pitch as well as off it when the new season gets underway in August.
Talk about exaggeration. How do you have a civil war when one of the parties is not involved in Rangers?
Excellent. Let the “Dignity” continue to shoot each other in the foot, whilst we work away quietly in the background recruiting Lennon, Koren, Reid, Campbell, Bullard etc etc. Punch-less and Judy I should think from them! Hail Hail.
One party is in talks with Sir David Murray about buying out his stake in the club, the other party is the club chairman sceptical of the new prospective owner.
That’s civil war, just like when Brian Dempsey was invited onto the Celtic board then kicked out at an AGM by Mickael Kelly kicking off a ‘civil war’ that ran for almost four more years.