Two weeks ago Andrew Cavenagh was sweet talking Ibrox shareholders and the media messengers about his exciting plans to make ‘Rangers’ Great Again.
On Sunday Club Brugge visited Ibrox for the first match of Cavenagh’s reign as Chairman, for whatever reasons the ‘pharmaceutical tycoon’ had better things to do that watch his new toy in action.
Every sound bit from Cavenagh was celebrated, it was the new broom that the club needed with respect for the past, the heritage and history of the 13 year old club with Ibrox lovingly referred to as a castle.
In person and online the bears lapped it up , even though their cherished stadium was referred to as being old and crumbling.
The promise of investing £20m into the business was enough to convince almost all of the bears that Cavenagh and his mate Paraag Marathe had the best interests of the club at heart.
When Marathe teased them over surprise signings not many bears were expecting £3.5m to be spent on Manny Fernandez of Peterborough.
Ahead of playing Panathinaikos in a Champions League qualifier just one public friendly has been arranged for Russell Martin’s side.
On the team sheet Max Aarons on loan from Bournemouth was the only new signing selected, making his debut alongside Robin Propper and Leon King in defence- what a welcome but at least Aarons turned up.
Soccer fanatic Cavenagh was nowhere to be seen, certainly not in the Directors Box accepting the handshakes and gratitude of the wealthy and connected bears.
For years he had dreamed on owning a real life soccer club, at the June 23 EGM he took full control of the club, shifted it into private ownership registered in Delaware with a promise to be opaque about the finances. Oh how the bears loved it.
Neil Doncaster and SPFL Chairman Murdo MacLennan were in the Directors Box watching one of the newest SPFL clubs.
After his charm offensive at the EGM Cavenagh then fed the media messengers the type of story that they love relaying to their audiences.
The Sun reported:
I was on the upper east side of Manhattan outside a coffee shop about to go to a New York Yankees game.
I’ve known about Rangers forever as a football fan. So when the phone call came to ask if I’d have an interest, it was a lightning bolt moment.
The call was from Les Allan, a banker in New York. I had met him six months prior and he knew our group was interested in a rare but good opportunity in football.
Les called me and I said ‘absolutely’. Three seconds later I was on the phone to Paraag Marathe.
Two weeks after the EGM Cavenagh had more important things to do than watch his cherished soccer club.
There are many things about this club that are attractive. But the big one is the supporters – the breadth and depth of the fanbase is incredible.
We’ve not seen many other clubs in Europe with this sort of scope and passion.
Ibrox is an incredibly magical place to attend as a supporter. And the competitions in which we play, the league, the cups and Europe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, almost as if he was reading from a script discarded by Disney because it went too far fetched.
After the exciting news of a transfer revolution Cavenagh is discovering the reality of average soccer players being on overpaid contracts. They don’t do walking away.
None of last season’s Ibrox flops have been sold, those sent out on loan have returned with little prospect of having their salaries matched elsewhere. Jose Cifuentes is ready to make his mark and flopping under Micky Beale and Phil Clement.
Kev Thelwell and Paddy Stewart are left in day to day charge of running the club while Chairman Cavenagh keeps his thoughts and plans to himself.
Naturally there has been no comment from any media outlets about the new Chairman not turning up to take in the first match under his watch.
Since the EGM two weeks ago and a round of media interviews to keep the messengers happy there hasn’t been a word about the whereabouts of Chairman Cavenagh- which is exactly the way that he likes it.
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1 Comment
by Dando
There’s the biggest clue yet in what their intentions are for the embryo club.
“So when the phone call came to ask if I’d have an interest, it was a lightning bolt moment.
The call was from Les Allan, a banker in New York”
Why is an American banker contacting an American business owner to invest in a annual -£10m deficit Scottish football club?
HH