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andy steel

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Everything posted by andy steel

  1. andy steel
    I don't have an issue with that. The job comes with a level of pressure which is off the scale and should be highly paid, no matter what wallopers in the media might think. Performance has been terrible, that's what I object to. But the here and now is not what matters. The entire picture is what matters, because until it is sorted there's no prospect of the stability we desperately need. We have to find out who did what and when, so that if - for example, sorry Malcolm - Malcolm Murray is discovered to have sanctioned the 100% bonus setup he never gets taken seriously again as a player. Or if David Murray definitively knew about Whyte's plans, he never gets near the place even to watch a game. And so on. It will take ages and it will be a distraction and it will be hurtful, but sooner started sooner finished. The alternative is years of whispering and factions and enough bullshit to get the rhubarb 10 feet high.
  2. andy steel
    Sad to say, the performances of the team this season will do more to damage Ally than any amount of spin from PR types or The Sun could ever do. Nothing they could say or write would ever turn me against Ally McCoist - unless it was discovered he had a slush fund or something ridiculous - but the rubbish served up has managed it.
  3. andy steel
    It's a fair point - they should have known better than to ask MM along.
  4. andy steel
    Kick-ass!!!!
  5. andy steel
    Ally McCoist's Rangers record: Games 581; Goals 355; Player 1983-1998; coach/manager 2011-2014. Sandy Easdale's Rangers record: Issued legal actions against Rangers fan; gave interview to BBC Scotland, one containing information he had no right to and no right to divulge publicly even if he knew it; was possibly seen by StB's mate going into hospitality at Ibrox. Possibly passed Ibrox on one of his buses. Graham Wallace's Rangers record: Blamed fans for corporate mistakes; took 120 to come up with piss-poor, vague dreamscape for the future; supports another team. David Somers' Rangers record: Nothing as yet. Supports another team. What a weird bunch we are, holding people to different standards!
  6. andy steel
    I knew he was going, at some point, because it was on this forum last week. Given the legal eye which Mr Easdale keeps on Rangers fan mesageboards, they can't claim they didn't know. And bluntly, even if someone turned up with the most obnoxious attitude known to man and a posse of lads wearing Trilby hats with 'press' in the hatband at his heels, it still wouldn't excuse breaking the law. I'd love a Trilby hat. Ah, the class of yesteryear.
  7. andy steel
    Even I can work it out, and that's saying something.
  8. andy steel
    You're going to have your work cut out shortly moderating things because they're bound to get personal, they always do.
  9. andy steel
    It's hard to believe that anyone can read this story and think, 'Nosy bastard!!' rather than clutch their hands tightly over their heads, squat down in despair, and hop up and down on the kitchen floor going 'Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!'
  10. andy steel
    It boils down to whether you can accept that assets would be safer in the legal hands of fans or ex-players rather than a Laxey type vehicle. If Gough is the figure, I can accept that fine. End of story afaic, I can't see what the beef is. And anyway, it seems unlikely to happen anyway, it's a lever rather than an ambition, surely?
  11. andy steel
    A scheme which hasn't been launched yet is being chastised for not having revealed the finer points of its constitution/charter/ whatever the Hell it will be. I'm not in it, probably won't be in it, certainly won't be arguing in favour of it but this is just balls. <Alec Guinness voice> Bandwidth is not infinite and should be used wisely.
  12. andy steel
    Call me an old fashioned dreamer, but when the institutional investors and the fans put money into the Rangers pot, I foolishly assumed that was all Rangers money and would be used to better Rangers. I fail to see what difference it makes where the money came from, it is the subsequent spending for no tangible result I object to.
  13. andy steel
    High horses must be going for a song these days, everyone's got one. Sad day when I am being out arroganted.
  14. andy steel
    Is it possible that they actually agree with him rather than are being conned by him?
  15. andy steel
    Ugh, starting the day agreeing with Keith Jackson. <shivers> Just like with the UoF statement I don't disagree with the sentiment but I'd have preferred it not to be made, because it gives the people who support the board to give it the 'no lessons on financial prudence from him' shtick. I'd have advised a brief statement noting the investigation into Mr Wallace and stating that, should he ever be in a position to do so, he'll set up a legal review of the last three years in fine detail. Leave it at that. Let the law do its work and avoid the spectacle of a man with legal history berating others, which is 'a bit rich', frankly. That would be a good ironic article title on King, btw.
  16. andy steel
    Not Fulham! I like Magath, he reminds me of Penfold off Dangermouse.
  17. andy steel
    Seeing a McMinn on a Rangers team sheet has lightened my grim mood.
  18. andy steel
    I'm afraid the line about altruism will hang around Danny's neck! Whatever the reasons for misleading statements - by people on this board, dB, not the last one - it certainly isn't altruism.
  19. andy steel
    True, yet the situation can be altered to provide both a return for major shareholders and a stable, progressive future for the club. Of course, if we knew who the major shareholders actually were we could gauge their intentions far more accurately, but on the assumption that they are institutional leeches we can present them with two choices: carry on as you have been and watch your investment dwindle to nothing, or hand over the running of Rangers to actual Rangers supporters (what a novel concept!) and see a return. The more pressure that is brought to bear on Krusty & Sideshow Bob the sooner scenario 2 can happen.
  20. andy steel
    That smilie makes it looks like he was forced to sign at gunpoint.
  21. andy steel
    I mean...I don't actually disagree with much of that but I think it gives fans on 'the other side' so to speak, an excuse to avoid the content and focus on the UoF again. It might have been better to let their actions and words reveal them without going in all guns blazing.
  22. andy steel
    In response to a number of threads which kinda veer into polarised positions, I'd like to set out why I think the running of our club is in the wrong hands at present. I avoid calling them 'the board' because it's hard to remember who is actually on which board at the moment, who is responsible for what and who gets to lock the safe, so to speak. That in itself is a criticism of those at the top & I haven't even started! The two people who are most often seen & heard as our main people are Sandy Easdale & Graham Wallace. To begin with Mr Easdale: he's had a struggle to be accepted, since he came with baggage. I would be the last person to insist that to be a Rangers fan or official you need to sign up to the whole manifesto of beliefs. But when it comes to blazers, I do feel that 'not having been to jail to VAT fraud' is a broadly non-controversial opening qualification. This raises the philosophical debate about whether jail is for punishment or rehabilitation: as a lapsed socialist I see it more as the first than the second, since those who are there tend to have harmed society and, bluntly, society deserves to get a kick back. Even, however, if you lean toward rehabilitation, does Mr Easdale strike you as rehabilitated? The world of West Scotland's bus garages may not sound like the sort of place to find Sonny Corleone tied to a chair, but neither is it a clear, visible symbol of someone having learnt a hard lesson and overtly trying to do better. You could liken it to a pimp who is jailed, does his time and buys a strip club; not criminal, but not much use in persuading folk you are a reformed character. All this is speculation and could - who knows? - be most unfair on Mr Easdale. Nevertheless image counts and his image, which is now tied to our club, is not a good one. Coming with such baggage, he would have had a hard fight to get some fans, maybe puritan ones, onside in any event, but he has decided that steady, unobtrusive work with tangible results is not the way to go and plumped for issuing legal threats to fans, questioning the loyalty of fans, and blaming fans for the club's problems. Whether you agree with the man that he was being impugned unfairly, threatening Rangers fans while ignoring the libelous attacks of fans' of every other team in Scotland is, bluntly, an insane policy if the aim is to promote yourself as a trustworthy figure. The lack of the ability to think a situation through and deal with it is dismaying; when the UoF or Sos were at Murray Park last week for a photo-opportunity it showed how anyone with any sense ought to have dealt with it. His remarkable access to ST sales figures and the financial status of a plc of which he is not a board member could, you might argue, point to a searingly sharp analytical business mind. Graham Wallace certainly made it clear that Mr Easdale was speaking in a personal capacity as shareholder last Thursday; I wonder if every shareholder, should they chap Mr Wallace's door, would receive such detailed information as Mr Easdale apparently gets? Mr Wallace, Mr Wallace. His deflection of Mr Easdale's blatant presence as eminence grise didn't do much for his credibility either, which was a shame because he at least of all the players who have high-kicked their way across our stage in the last two seasons seemed to come without baggage and with, it seemed, the tools to get the job done. He didn't have to lay out his credentials, they were there to see. However, trying to sell the most obvious of nutmegs over Mr Easdale's position did not leave him looking very sharp and counts against him. If it has been disappointing to see him bullshit us over Mr Easdale's interview. It has been doubly disappointing to find out, a day after the event, that far from Rangers credit facility being withdrawn due to the actions of fans or agitators, it was withdrawn because credit companies see us as a bad risk. I'd urge you to consider for a moment that credit firms - the leeches, the parasites, who cause so much suffering by lobbing bales of cash at people in no state to repay them - even these people don't want to touch us. This is not, in my book, an achievement which goes down in Mr Wallace's 'debit' account and, although it cannot be exclusively laid at his door as 'his fault', his dealing with it has been pitiful and serves only to erode both trust and credibility. His legal case seems a little vindictive; frankly there are deals and tranches of missing money more deserving of investigation. I think Mr Wallace dealt well with the media following the 139 Day Fantasy press conference last Friday, and in an ideal world he could probably do the decent job we all hoped he would. But you have to assume he sanctioned or was at least asked about hiring Paul Tyrell a day before he announced job losses; on the one hand we know we have to cut costs, on the other cutting them to pay someone to defend he and the rest of The Keystone Kops seems grotesque. You have to assume he is going to take a bonus unless more pressure is brought to bear, since he declined to answer questions on the subject and that seems grotesque; you have to assume he was aware that it was not fan issues which led to the credit situation described above but decided to blame them anyway. That's a lot of assuming, but since Mr Wallace won't answer the questions what else can I do but assume? So my view of the 'current lot' is one person with a dreadful reputation and image who constantly engages in battle with the people he then asks for money and trust from; and another person who is either massively out of his depth or finds clarity and transparence subtle concepts to be moulded as needed. Neither inspire any confidence in me, not because I desire Dave King and his millions to bail us out, nor because I have a reflex condition which means anyone in office is immediately a crook. There's no doubt we're heading for complete division as a fan base between those who back the board (beyond belief in my view but it's a free country) and those who perceive that the malaise lies at the boardroom door(s) and until they are cleaned out we're going nowhere. As a lonely handwringer these many years I am not especially freaked about splits in the support: but it's going to be sad to see nonetheless. Anyhoo, that's how things look from here.
  23. andy steel
    Do you know all I want them to do? Be honest. That's it. Your examples are above are ludicrous. If they were investing money to discover where the money had gone, not a single Bluenose could complain about that. To clear up the shambles right away I would have suggested some staff redundancies, a lot of player redundancies (bit more protected but still a shame) and most strongly, the curtailing of salaries at executive level. They have had half a year to present to the wider business community some form of plan which suggests living within means and operating without suspicion and they have failed. That's completely unacceptable. Hiring yet another PR guy while we teeter on the brink is a disgusting piece of self-preservation of the self while the business struggles. Bottom line is you are prepared to accept their behaviour since they got in and I'm not. I kind of have, I think. While sorting out the contracts is welcome, it has to be balanced against their failures, which you must know: dodgy info at AGM's, people not on the plc board sitting at the top table of a plc AGM, ludicrous legal cases, PR against fans, extremely selective interpretation of 'loyalty'...there have been some good things but they are more than outweighed by the bad. Tbh your constant depiction of fans who mistrust the board as people who will never see any good they do is a bit insulting. If they do something good, I will say so - only Wallace has done anything, and I gave credit in this thread. But I'm able to weigh things up in the round and in that round they are failing.
  24. andy steel
    Ach, you're quite right. I'm just sad that sooner or later we're going to end up with name calling and lasting hostility. Plus, I was a bit far gone last night. Not really my business anyway.
  25. andy steel
    Is there any chance you could rise above the type of personal attacks people dished out to you? It sucked when you got it, it sucks when you are doing it too. Just asking.
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