Mike Ashley and Sports Direct are back in town-putting a massive dampener on the scenes of joy that greeted the arrival of the bespoke Castore kit deal.
A heart-touching video early on Wednesday morning had bears worldwide reaching for their bank cards with stock of XXXXXXL taps quickly running down.
On line fans shared their order number and the time of purchase at £60 a pop, more if you want Kent, Jack or Goldson on the back of your shirt.
And then at 5pm a message appeared on the Sports Direct Facebook page, liked by over 2,000,000 shoppers. Mike Ashley’s company would be selling the high-end bespoke kit in among their boxes of grey joggies and sports socks. It wasn’t quite the image that the Phil and Tom Behan had shared with various Ibrox social media outlets as they played Staunch Bingo.
Suddenly the mood of the Ibrox punters changed, many down multiples of £60 to demonstrate their loyalty to Steven Gerrard’s group of serial losers.
At 9pm they got the statement that they craved, the majority of fans nodded in agreement. The club has a deal with Castore, who the Scouse Likely Lads deal with is their business.
Castore and Sports Direct have a very close working arrangement. Castore has two shops in the UK, one in Liverpool and the other in London.
With Sports Direct on every high street in Scotland big Mike will be sweeping up with sales assuming Tom and Phil are able to get their ‘best never stops’ kit to market.
Rangers fans have pre-ordered almost 50k new Castore home kits, available exclusively at Sports Direct. That’s a new world record for purchases from a store you’re boycotting.
— Sevvie Gerrard (@SevvieGerrard) July 1, 2020
They’ve all spent a fortune on waterproof hoodies and have been pre-ordering kits off the Castore website all day after being assured Mike Ashley was out of the loop, and now Sports Direct have announced they’ll be exclusively selling the kit in their stores. pic.twitter.com/vV2m255t8T
— Marc McArdle* (@marcmcardle1) July 1, 2020
Why haven’t the club cleared this up? We trusted ITK accounts saying Ashley had fully gone and now on kit launch day Sports Direct is back selling our kits in their stores. Any clarity?
— Curtis (@1872Curtis) July 1, 2020
Sports Direct claim they will sell Rangers’ new home kit ‘exclusively’ from August 1 following Castore unveilinghttps://t.co/iTvkAdUtwv pic.twitter.com/xQApuRBYia
— Glasgow Times (@Glasgow_Times) July 1, 2020
Arfield, looking in Sports direct’s windows. ?? pic.twitter.com/wEqVvXQxpP
— Free Rogic. (@celticforever9) July 1, 2020
Ashley’s Sports Direct just announced themselves as the official merchandiser for Sevco’s new range of kits ?????
Not even into pre-season and the banter has gone up a notch ?????
Millions down the pan ??
Fair play to @Pmacgiollabhain who called this ages ago ??
— Celtic Nation(Welcome to the party)? (@CelticNation67) July 1, 2020
Statue defenders across Scotland have been told to divert to sports direct stores and await new instructions. @Richiestoke @ETimsNet
— Joe (@onekinghenrik) July 1, 2020
Coming soon to a Sports Direct store near you pic.twitter.com/rokckapHZ1
— Cluster One (@ClusterOne2) July 1, 2020
Sports Direct always good for they big mugs… some cuppa oot them.
— Chris Bungard (@CowaBungard) July 1, 2020
WHAT. Sports Direct will also be launching the new Sevco strip.
Put the strip on presale, get the fans to pre-order to get the money in and then tell them.
Pfffff.
Mike Ashley, Castore and the Sevco directors have rode their fans like bitches. Again!!
Unfuckingbelievable. pic.twitter.com/4VzSqcUstB
— 9inarow.net ? Celtic Merchandise ? (@9inarowdotnet) July 1, 2020