Blair Malloy of the Rangers Review has given away some trade secrets over the comical search for a new manager at Ibrox.
Sixteen days after Russell Martin was chased out of Falkirk protected by mounted police Danny Rohl has been appointed as manager.
Last Wednesday the Rangers Review broke the news that Rohl had walked away from negotiations for the job. Instantly the media focus was directed towards Kevin Muscat.
Not for the first time the Daily Record jumped the gun with a claim that the Shanghai Port boss had accepted the job. Early on Sunday evening Muscat dropped out and suddenly Danny boy was back on the dance floor.
PLAYING THE MEDIA GAME
All along the media has been kept sweet with a steady supply of updates, all of the good news variety. The bad news is given out as an exclusive to one outlet, within 10 minutes everyone else is in on the message.
Raman Bhardwar enjoyed 15 minutes of fame last Saturday when the STV veteran got the Gerrard EXCLUSIVE. A reward for long and loyal service.
Sky Sports got the EXCLUSIVE that Muscat had also walked away, soon afterwards the Sun had Rohl on the brink of taking the job.
The supply of information out of Ibrox has been constant.
CAUGHT OFF GUARD
During podcasts reporters can often give away too much information. On the Rangers Review podcast Malloy admitted ‘we’ve been fed this line’. Exactly.
Kept in the loop, passing messages on to their audience while having serious doubts over what they are being ‘fed’.
Apparently Gerrard and Andrew Cavenagh had talks in successive days in a London hotel.
At least a dozen outlets published details of the discussions, on Friday October 11 they all claimed that the talks had been constructive. At 8.18pm on October 12 Gerrard had walked away.
Not one publication managed to get a picture of Gerrard or Cavenagh. Obviously both together would be BINGO but no pictures emerged. How unusual…
14 minutes
It comes back to the point I was making a couple of weeks ago. The board has completely lost the trust of the fans. The fans do not believe in this board any more. They don’t trust them to make right decisions.
And. Now we’ve (the Rangers Review) been fed this line the whole way along the whole managerial search of ‘Rangers are looking at multiple candidates’.
That is what Rangers always say. Rangers always say that ‘we are looking at multiple candidates’.
But the optics of this managerial search are so bad that you cannot come out at the end and say ‘well we were always interviewing multiple people’ because the trust has gone and people are just not going to buy it.
The fans are just not going to accept the fact that this has been a protracted search and that they’ve ended up with the best man because Rangers have completely let the optics of this run away from them and they cannot claw it back.
STAYING ON-MESSAGE
As a supporter Malloy is clearly frustrated and angry at the executive management at Ibrox.
As a reporter for Newsquest he better not get too mouthy about the cosy relationship between the company that pays his wages and the club that they depend on.
The looks on the faces of Derek Clark and big Jonny McFarlane as Malloy gave away too many secrets was priceless. They feared that he was about to cross the line.
Fairly quickly the Rangers Review has established itself as the main source for the club to get information out in the public domain. The main Ibrox messengers. Remaining in the loop is essential.
The old school red tops commanders used by Dave Murray have all moved on. The Rangers Review is at the front of an operation that also includes the Herald and Evening/Glasgow Times.
Staying in the loop, preferably first in the queue is essential to the Rangers Review sustaining itself. Allowing a reporter to discuss ‘we’ve been fed the line’ is going into dangerous territory. It is unlikely that Malloy will venture there again.
