Simon Jordan is not known for holding back, and the former Crystal Palace chief executive has decided to take on the Leeds United owners, the 49ers, for their shoddy running of Rangers.
Leeds chairman Paraag Marathe became the vice-chairman at Rangers in the summer once the American consortium completed the majority takeover of Rangers, and a new board was installed.
The first big decision the 49ers made at Rangers was to bring in Russell Martin as their new manager. However, it turned out to be a disastrous appointment, and the club had to sack him earlier this month.
Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat declined offers from Rangers this month after detailed discussions with the club, and the Glasgow giants finally appointed Danny Rohl as their new manager on Monday.
Jordan, who previously welcomed the involvement of the 49ers at Rangers, is not a fan of how they have run the club since taking over.
Simon Jordan takes the 49ers and Paraag Marathe to task
Jordan claimed that the Rangers sporting director, Kevin Thelwell, is a huge problem for the club as he doesn’t feel people are too keen to work with him anywhere.
He admitted that he expected better from the 49ers as they had the experience of running a big club such as Leeds efficiently, and helped them return to the Premier League.
The former Palace supremo expected them to translate that to Rangers, but it hasn’t happened, and he feels they deserve to be blamed as they have not appointed the right people at Ibrox.
“I’ve talked about the people in there, whether it’s Gretar Steinsson [49ers technical director], who’s a so-called de facto advisor for the 49ers that seems to be making lots of decisions”, Jordan said on talkSPORT.
“Or Kevin Thelwell, and the backdrop of everyone who seems to have worked with him. I mean, [Sean] Dyche didn’t want to work with him, did he?
“So there’s a constant theme about the sporting director that I don’t think people think much of him. I don’t, and it’s been echoed by those who worked with him previously. So, that then goes to the ownership model. I always made a case that the 49ers would know what they were doing.
“Not just because I wanted it to be the case, but because they’ve got experience. They own a very big club in Leeds United. Leeds United are a huge football club and comes with similar pressures as Rangers do, scale and size, worldwide well-recognised football clubs with big histories. So I expect them to be able to translate. It appears to me that they don’t at this moment in time.
“It appears to me from the chief executive, to the sporting director, to the appointment of Russell Martin, to this situation. Where is this ‘best in class’?”
The Rangers mess should concern Leeds fans
Farke is under some pressure at Leeds after a run of one win in seven and back-to-back Premier League defeats. A defeat against West Ham at home on Friday night could earn him the sack.
However, the way the 49ers messed up replacing Martin, there are concerns that a similar destabilising period could take place at Leeds as well.
The owners enjoy the stability that Farke has brought in, but they could be forced to change if results do not improve soon.
Leeds fans can only hope that the 49ers learned their lessons from their Rangers debacle and do better at Elland Road.
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