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The Streets of Coronation

Anyone been watching Coronation Street lately?

Theres been a slow burner of a storyline where by a notorious sleazy crook named Phelan, comes back to the Street after years away due to a money grab scandal where he left quite a few folks lives ruined and claimed to be a victim just like everyone else impacted by the deceit.

Is the dodgy character back with humility and a sense of turning his back on his old ways?

Of course not.

Over the last wee while we have watched as hes sleazed, schemed, schmoozed his way into gullible ( and often decent) peoples affections and once against gained their trust despite mindful others shouting “DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN!”. The shouters have been increasingly marginalised and mocked as more and more people see the return of Phelan as “A good thing for everyone” and only joy. The “negative” people were derided for not giving the guy a  chance and his victim status replaced with one of sainthood. Phelan’s fans ask if only his down-criers had his courage to come back and be a real man taking actions when needed. They gloat in his presence and wish that only more and more people could be like him.

The neysayers waited patiently and continue to ask one question “Why is he REALLY here?”.

They feared the worst.

They feared history repeating itself. They feared a greedy, selfish rat would use his charm and deceit to fleece good people out of their hard earned money and break both their hearts and bank balances by his actions while he once again got them to pay for his lifestyle before heading off into the sunset with bags full of cash and his excuse of a conscience barely touched.

Phelan played dumb when they asked “Why is he REALLY here?”.

He was in no rush.

He waited until he was ready.

Phelan had spotted an opportunity and Phelan had a plan.

Not just one simple plan though.

No

A grand Master plan.

First of all Phelan would get himself into a role of trust. He would win over the people around him and then work on the larger community. The long game. The long con.

Once that was complete, he knew the doors would open, blinkers would come down.

That was when he  would look to access funds.

Soon enough he was helping out, he was looking out, he was available if needed to help look after a business.

His deceitful ways ensured that he didn’t even need to ask for control, the people around him heralded his arrival and thanked him greatly by taking him into their home and their hearts.  The people felt so good at this man of experience being on board they handed over control, the keys and access to the bank account.

They wished him well and stepped away, knowing the new-sayers were idiots with their cries of “Danger, Danger!”

This was only stage 1.

With his base solidified, it was time for Phelan to up the stakes and move in for the bigger prize.

Phelan spoke to the people of a grand vision. He painted pictures of luxury and a lifestyle befitting the very best. He gave them a glimpse of what could be, if only they believed in themselves,

He didn’t make demands, he simply showed people what could be if they were willing to walk the walk alongside him.  The bright range bright future was just over the horizon, “Get what you deserve” said Phelan.

He promised to make the people  part of the wonderful project and talkedof how everyone would profit from the rewards.  All the people would have to do was input some cash, as much as they could afford, nothing crazy,  of course he being such a nice generous guy would take on the burden as well as using all his knowledge, expertise and vision to carry everyone forward on a wave of grand returns.

The people smiled and handed over the cash.,The down-criers shivered but were cast to the shadows.

Sadly for Phelan though, the grand plan is starting to unravel.

His business partner has stopped taking his calls.

The bank account is empty.

There is no cash coming in.

The people are wondering just exactly when the promised rewards will come to fruition as nothing concrete has appeared yet.

People are starting to get hurt.

The exit strategy is hard to see and the walls are closing if not crumbling. The roof is literally falling in.

So, What next for Phelan?

Who knows for now. Hes already started the counter attacks and blaming absent others for all the problems that people are becoming wary off.  Will people believe him? Hey, they did before, a few times, so why not again?

Will he last till Xmas, who knows?

All that can save him is one big push, one big deceit of promises that results in more fools being found to put in more money to more pipedream schemes that will only result in Phelan looking at a nice comfortable Long Haul ticket out of sight forever, carrying bags of cash of course.

Its gonna be dramatic viewing but it just goes to show what can happen when good people let their good nature be taken advantage off. It is a fine morality tale in how people will believe what they want to believe rather than stop and question reality, even when its staring them hard in the face. Its well worth a watch over the next few weeks\months that’s for sure.

Enjoy.

Desimond

PS : Apropos of nothing, its the Rangers AGM this week, Davie King may be in town.

Look out for coverage of that special new resolution that will allow the The Rangers Board to issue more shares which will raise money for the club but could actually be used principally to pay off the current loans (and interest accrued?).

This new motion has  the backing of the Club1872 Group, that’s the fans group which has its origins in fans share schemes. Those were schemes set up to protect the club from the dangers of share shysters and Corporate swizzkids. The Rangers fans schemes raised a lot of interest from their clubs fans.

Lots of interest usually also means lots of cash.

The nice folk at the Rangers Board then charitably took the idea of fans-share ownership schemes under their “wing” and duly  amalgamated the various fans share scheme groups into Club1872.

Club1872 loudly states that it is totally independent while it just happens to be housed within Ibrox and has a Rangers Board member on it’s board, and clearly there are no issues of conflict of interest there whatsoever.

It seems that Club1872 sit on quite a bit of supporters money, I’m sure its in safe hands, what could possibly go wrong?

 

PPS: Next time you hear someone slag the Celtic Board, don’t sigh or moan about moaners. Smile knowing its good to have people always asking questions and demanding validation!

nothing

 

 

 

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mike
7 years ago

That Phelan that you get,when you ken that history can repeat itsell,but surely the peepol arny that gullible,once bitten,twice shy and all that?
But mibbee it can repeat itsell,you would think that his partners,or the media,the governing body,who sanctioned the program in the first place,would warn them.
Who cares? if they dont why should we bovver,after all its only T.V.a piece of light entertainment,a laugh.
Res. 13 for thems,the devils number,an unlucky number.
Res.12 That!s all that matters,how lucky we are to have,educated,caring intelligent bhoys,thay ask the right questions,it is the right answers that we must get.
H.H Desi,yer a guid mahn.

Tim Buffy
7 years ago

Nice analogy, Desi.

broxburnbhoy
7 years ago

Desi, the brass neck of the current sevco board an their surrogates defies belief and yet there it is. When the “free” press actually pay attention to it there is a wonderful scoop here of a scandal on a systematic and massive scale. Actually the Scottish press are aiding and abetting they scandal. They are part of it. From the chronic debt still rising (giving and unfair sporting advantage through ability to pay higher wages ) the ridiculous same club myth and the continuing insistence that they can challenge Celtic, the arrogance goes on. The denial continues and soon enough there will be a crash of reality. Regan is now an enemy and I can only imagine he told them no more bail outs in any shape or form. some think King can blackmail him and maybe he can plug the plug on sevco. Mutually assured destruction. I think the SFA have to act now as this new club continues to borrow from individuals to survive and spends that money to acquire players and stay in 5 star hotels on the road. I believe that other clubs especially Aberdeen, Hearts and so on need to bring this to the SFA. They are the ones suffering most from sevco making it to the SPL with borrowed money.

Monti
7 years ago

Desi,

P
I
S
H

🙂

BondiBrian
7 years ago

Fool me once shame on you…fool me twice…

Pensionerbhoy
7 years ago

Desi,

I did not get a chance to read this till this morning. I am totally confused about who and what you are writing about :). If my “paranoia” of old made me sick, this current stuff makes me pukingly nauseous. Some may think we over-work these “rangers” issues but that is what France and Britain (England – without bias!) maintained about the Nazis and look what that led to. If football is to survive in Scotland, these issues must be a constant in the supporters psyche and that applies to any club or chairmen or others that want to play by their own rules.

H H

Pensionerbhoy
7 years ago

Desi,

Sorry I did not get to read this till now. I used to be heartily sick from paranoia but now I am constantly puking with all this – no other word – crap. There are those, including our own, who criticise us for “harping” on about the Rangers and “the rangers” issues; who maintain we should let it go and concentrate on ourselves. We are. As a member club of the SFA and SPFL, we are very much involved in what goes on around us; in any mismanagement, duplicity or downright cheating in any club or governing body and at any level. To simply let sleeping dogs lie – and that is a telling verb – is to wave a little white billet doux like a certain PM in 1039. Look how that pacification worked out. No, keep up the pressure and we might just avoid that Armageddon that was once mentioned.

H H

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