Keith Jackson has opened up on his disappointment over the San Francisco 49ers takeover that he exclusively revealed in February, the Daily Record reporter admits that it has hit a bum note.
With the misery under Phil Clement driving bears to distraction Jackson discovered details of a takeover plan in mid-February, later on it was revealed that Paul Murray was the matchmaker, putting Andrew Cavenagh in contact with Dave King.
That isn’t quite the catchiest of stories and headlines but through a friend of a friend the Daily Record introduced their army of readers to the San Francisco 49GERS with the promise of multi-million pound investment and a splurge in the transfer market.
On February 19 no-one was talking about Andy Cavenagh or swooping for jobsworth players from Bournemouth, Luton and Peterborough.
Had that been the headline the reaction from the Gullible & Deluded would have been muted, instead they feasted on moonbeams, Jose Mourinho, Luka Modric, Ancelotti, Jordan Henderson and Jamie Vardy.
To the surprise of no-one outside of the Ibrox bubble none of those A-listers arrived, instead they’ve had to make do with a Green Party vegan as manager and urged to get excited over Joe Rothwell, Manny Feranandez and Theo Aasgaard.
Even Jackson is struggling to work up excitement for the Russell Revolution.
After covering the job lot of stars from the Championship and League One Jackson admits that his over-hyped Revolution hasn’t quite been delivered, telling Daily Record readers:
There may even be some Rangers supporters out there who are struggling to rediscover their enthusiasm for the season ahead and who feel, for the most part, largely underwhelmed by the beginning of a new era under the ownership of Andrew Cavenagh and the San Francisco 49ers.
It was 30 years ago that these same fans were reaching for the tins of peroxide when Paul Gascoigne was being paraded as their new No.8 and they may have been hoping for a similar level of excitement and stardust from the moment they read in the Daily Record that the Americans were coming to town.
Instead, they were left to require a double take when Martin was given the job of fronting up this latest transformational rebuild.
Whatever they might have been expecting from Cavenagh and his consortium it certainly wasn’t the appointment of an out of work manager, still smarting from being sacked by Southampton 16 games into an abomination of a season in England’s top flight.
Of course, it hardly helped matters that many of them winced at the mere mention of his name, given Martin’s short and inauspicious loan move to Rangers as a player in 2018, working under caretaker coach Graeme Murty. And finishing in third place in a two horse Premiership race.
So they can be excused if they all feel a bit, well frankly, underwhelmed by this recent spate of coming and goings and the rather low key nature of Martin’s summer shopping spree.
If they were looking for bells and whistles on this star spangled, American built revolution then they may be beginning to feel as if they’ve been dealt with a bit of a bum note. One made almost entirely in Britain.
There may be some Daily Record reporters underwhelmed by the Revolution with just eight days to go until a Champions League qualifier at home to Panathinaikos.
On Saturday most of last season’s sinners were involved in a 1-1 draw against Barnsley at St George’s Park.
Giant defender Manny Fernandez, signed for £3.5m from Peterborough was at fault for losing the goal with Liam Kelly not looking the smartest of sweeper-keepers.
So far Martin has yet to sign a winger which leaves Oscar Cortes and Ross McCausland as the only wide options with first team experience.
Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane have yet to play in pre-season with personal terms agreed for moves to AEK Athens and Lille although neither side has got close to matching the transfer fee expected by the 49GERS.
None of last season’s serial losers have been sold, not a penny has been raised in transfer fees while six additions have been made to the wage bill.
Robin Propper, Leon King, Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo and Jose Cifuentes weren’t included in the squad that travelled to St George’s Park to step up pre-season preparations.
Their agents know the desperate state of finances despite the hype surrounding Cavenagh’s power-grab which has taken the 13-year-old club into private ownership.
By sitting tight on their contracts Propper, Cifuentes and the rest can watch the fees being demanded drift towards pay-offs to leave the club much like last summer’s heralded departures which raised just £810,000 raised from five first team squad members.
RELATED READING
