McGeoch and business partner Paul Davies have been fronting a consortium trying to buy the club but this has attracted the ire of the Saints board due to the links with Rangers. This has all gotten rather messy in recent weeks with McGeoch being told to resign from the board. He rejected the request so an extraordinary general meeting has been called when he'll probably be kicked off.
McGeoch and Davies have usually responded to media enquiries by issuing statements through a media agency. Tonight, however, McGeoch appeared on Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland. It wasn't the greatest of interviews and we didn't learn a great deal, but here are the edited highlights - things we already know or McGeoch had already said have been left out. McGeoch's comments are in bold, my comments follow and, like all good highlights packages, it comes in chronological order.
"The meeting on November 25 was pre-arranged. We e-mailed the club, there is complete transparency here. The e-mail actually specified Gary Withey's name on it and on the day we had directors actually join us."
The opening salvo, which was McGeoch's response to what chairman Stewart Gilmour said yesterday. Interesting to note another director was in on the meeting – but did that director know about Withey's role at Rangers?
"We'd got to the stage where we'd put in heads of terms. I consider that registering a bid."
Semantics with Chick Young claiming McGeoch hadn't made a bid.
"At the time we asked our bankers to check out to make sure there was no conflict of interest. We do have written statements to say there is no conflict of interest."
Finally getting into details and possible conflicts of interest by using another club's official. The bankers were used as the conflict of interest checks were being used before Withey and his firm Collyer Bristow came on board and therefore so there were no laywers to check the conflict.
"We were given the names of three or four different names of solicitors. One was a Scottish firm. I do a lot of business in London and the team of professional advisers we had put together were all mainly based in the London area and it was considered to be a reasonable move to appoint Collyer Bristow as they had done the Rangers deal, they were knowledgeable of the game in Scotland and we felt it may well push the game through quicker."
The explanation for why an English firm was used to help buy a Scottish club considering the two countries have different legal systems. Good to finally have an answer to that - but why not use one of the English firms that doesn't have a connection with Rangers? Would the deal have been that much slower? In the interests of transparency a different firm should have been used
"In January we still had no idea of the scale of things with Rangers Football Club. When it came to February and whatever was happening at Rangers was starting to come out we became nervous of the situation being connected to Collyer Bristow."
Obviously someone didn't see the BBC's documentary about Craig Whyte and Rangers! Everyone knew something was going to blow up! He later claimed getting shot of Collyer Bristow as soon as Rangers went into administration would have been "shooting from the hip".
"We hadn't decided how this was all going to be put together. We had another adviser out with Collyer Bristow for the finance."
So they didn't know how they were going to get the money together? That's rather worrying - especially when they had apparently put in a bid!
"This was about protecting St Mirren Football Club. The guys had come to an arrangement almost two and a half years ago to sell St Mirren Football Club. 18 months into that deal that hadn't been delivered. This was an alternative for the guys."
McGeoch's response to the inevitable question about this being a front to turn Saints into Newco Rangers. We're still waiting to hear what we're being protected from - is it the CIC or evil people like Craig Whyte?
"Paul's business was involved in a community gym at Rangers Football Club. Paul had a meeting with Raymond Farley who I think was at Rangers. Paul then had a meeting with Mark Dunlop, Richard Atkinson and others. Richard's from the CIC, Mark Dunlop was from the Scottish Government press office and these guys were looking at how to put together a deal for a community gym. This e-mail we're talking about was actually given by Mark to Richard. It's completely out of context. This was about Paul Davies' business it wasn't about St Mirren Football Club."
McGeoch's explanation for the e-mail the board released yesterday showing an apparent link between McGeoch, Davies and Craig Whyte. The interesting thing is that Richard Atkinson of 10000Hours fame not only knew about this in November but was apparently involved in setting up a gym at Rangers. When Gilmour insinuated McGeoch was linked to Rangers all hell broke lose. Well, McGeoch has linked Atkinson to Rangers so can we expect more hell? I won't hold my breath! As an aside, McGeoch didn't deserve it for the apparent link and Atkinson doesn't either, just being fair – although if he did know about the apparent link in November he's taken his time coming forward about it.
"The EGM is not about selling to me. The EGM is very important business for the football club and I honestly believe the shareholders have a right to attend a meeting on such an important part of the football club's business."
Young asks McGeoch why he's not resigning and is forcing the EGM. A rather odd response which doesn't answer the question but suggests he's happy there will be an EGM. Hmmm!
"Personnel documents have never been given to Gary Withey. This was an overview meeting."
So why did the board claim Withey had been access to player contracts? McGeoch says he has "no idea" and says it's another internal problem at the club. Someone is clearly telling lies
"The bottom line is McGeoch and Davies have done nothing wrong."
Well he would say that, wouldn't he?
"No I don't accept that, I'm sitting here laughing actually. I don't accept that."
The response to Young's allegation about being naive using Withey. Sorry, but I have to disagree on that one – and in the interests of transparency different lawyers should have been used.
"If the Rangers things hadn't happened then everybody would be comfortable with this deal and some people may be quite happy that the relationship might have been there."
Really Ken? You think we'd all have been happy about a link, indeed “relationship” as you put it, with one of the Old Firm. I certainly wouldn't.
And that was pretty much that. As far as I'm concerned there wasn't a great deal new. McGeoch said a lot without revealing much and the questions, inevitably, focussed on Rangers rather than other issues surrounding McGeoch's bid and St Mirren.
No doubt the board will have fired another salvo by the end of the week.
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