Simon Jordan seems to have a few ideas that he likes to push forward on Scottish football.
With Adrian Durham and Jason Cundy for company on talkSPORT it’s no surprise that the former Crystal Palace owner wishes to criticise Celtic at any opportunity.
As he presents himself as the straight talking business lad that knows his stuff it’s perhaps worthwhile examining exactly what his football credentials are.
The words HMRC and administration are quite prominent in the Jordan story alongside self pity for the fates conspiring against him. Sound familiar.
Recalling how his ‘financing’ of the club led to administration in 2010 Jordan told The Telegraph: “I was already £28 million into Palace and thought I wouldn’t mind some funding from elsewhere. I got introduced to Agilo and raised £5.1 million. Agilo were charging 18 per cent on their money – and were being paid.”
News of a tax demand from HMRC caused alarm for Agilo with Jordan more concerned with projecting his image than winning promotion for Palace.
Rather than feed the ego, Agilo put Palace into administration to protect their debt.
Turning on the self pity Jordan recalled: “This administration is outrageous and utterly pointless. I felt royally shafted. I felt devastated, humiliated, embarrassed. I have done 10 years of my life and £35 million on Palace.
“My only focus was trying to pay the players and staff with the Revenue and hedge fund up my ****. I asked the players to wait a few days to be paid; whilst they need their money, a guy on £15,000 a year on the commercial staff needs his money a little bit more.
“I had six months of torture, every morning waking up with dread, fighting to keep the club alive, putting my two-year-old’s future on the line because I believed I could pull this club through. I walked around for six weeks with a disc in my back sitting on a nerve.
“I was in so much pain I had three epidurals but I had to be focused on rescuing the situation with Palace. Within hours of open back surgery, I was on the phone to agents, lawyers and banks.”
With Jordan out of the picture Palace avoided relegation to League One and are now almost an established Premier League side.