‘Invisible chairman’ ‘snarling faced diplomacy’ ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ Keith Jackson calls out Ibrox chiefs

Keith Jackson has launched another attack on the Ibrox board, wrapped up around his hopes that Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side can see off Braga on Thursday night. 

Since revealing that Dave King had offered a loan to cover the £3m on offer for playing in the Sydney Super Cup the Daily Record reporter has been increasingly hostile to the men in the Blue Room. 

After protests at matches from fans the club announced that they were pulling out of Ange’s Homecoming Tour but that embarrassment was quickly replaced by the Old Firm makeover for the visit and defeat from Celtic. 

Pitchside advertising and a cardboard archway all looked small-time and while supporters initially lapped it up they quickly turned it round to attack the Ibrox hierarchy. 

Picking up on those themes with nothing to add to them, Jackson tells Daily Record readers: 

And that’s why Rangers were guilty of repulsing their own fans by producing ‘Old Firm’ flags and building a special centrepiece for the mouth of their own tunnel for Celtic’s players to run out of ahead of last Sunday’s derby. 

The whole thing was so horribly misjudged and spectacularly botched that it made Rangers look like a needy ex-boyfriend. 

But if they are turning their own fans against them, is it any wonder that those who exist way outside of this bubble are also shaking their heads in dismay? 

As a matter of fact, it’s becoming more and more difficult for the broad collective to keep a sense of balance and perspective where Rangers are concerned given that the men in charge seem so determined to isolate themselves from the rest and pick fights for no obvious reason. 

From threatening to torpedo a £9m league sponsorship deal with cinch and hitting 41 other SPFL clubs in the pocket on their own doorstep to facing a potential £5m lawsuit for breaching a contract on the other side of the planet, they are causing serious damage to their own reputation. 

By sanctioning this ‘no-one-likes-us-we-don’t-care’ approach to going about their business, invisible chairman Douglas Park and his increasingly beleaguered board have turned their club into some sort of pariah. 

Their snarling faced diplomacy has turned Rangers into the paranoid schizophrenic of Scottish football, seemingly convinced that the world is out to get them. 

It’s an unwanted, unhelpful legacy of what the club has come through over the last decade or so. Perhaps understandably, Rangers have been riddled with trust issues ever since they were turned over and taken to the brink. 

Unlike the Daily Mail and Times, the Daily Record won’t be invited into van Bronckhorst’s zoom call to preview Thursday’s match against Braga.