ascender

If you can't believe an agent, let alone one like Willie McKay, what's the world coming to eh? As for those quotes..... Why ask about how different it was 8 years ago? Not shit stirring or looking for a cheap dig while making the pervious regime look good by any chance? Boumsong? Not one thing about that deal stunk to high heaven, no sire. Of course people like him like SDM and won't say a bad word about him because he was chucking money around like he was the sultan of brunei. I shudder to think at how much agents like McKay have made out of deals involving Rangers over the last decade.

They're trying to discredit Whyte as a businessman and call his character in to question. It just so happens he's also the Chairman of Glasgow Rangers. Its a perfect storm for the Scottish media.

How many supporters groups are there now and are they all going to request a meeting with Whyte to ask the same questions? Is now not the perfect time for us to get some sort of united front in place, especially as Whyte seems very keen to talk and I guess in case the tax decision goes against us.

That seems to be another one from the Walter Smith school of management along with playing people out of position. There is some merit in McCulloch's inclusion for those reasons but where would you play him? In the middle with Edu hasn't gone well so do you stick him up front instead? Or drop Edu? I know I'll get pelters for this but when Goian's form started to dip I'd have been tempted to play Weir if he was fit as he was one of the few players who always showed some fight and leadership on the pitch & seemed to take it personally when we lost.

He certainly doesn't seem to be dodging any of the issues there and is proving to be much more transparent than Murray ever was, not to mention being timely when it comes to responding to criticism and questions that need answered. He clearly has a plan for the tax case and is determined to run the club within its means, so surely he deserves our support?

What I don't understand in all of this is that before Whyte took over, the same media campaigns containing the same messages were being run then - I.e. we're all doomed; administration is a very real possibility and the main one being that the bankers were running the club and as a result we had no money to spend and our hands were tied. Yet now, in some comments from those who were on the board at the time and involved with the club, those times are almost being painted as the "good old days". But I can't just be me who remembers all those dire warnings about how the club was being run? Now we're being told that Lloyds weren't that bad after all and even some fans on forums seem to be buying in to this piece of revisionism.

There was always the risk that would happen though, either based on the financial position or the way the season has been going (and the lack of impact made by some of McCoist's signings this far) or a combination of these. If you had money, would you trust the manager to spend it wisely? Just seems like madness that we never signed Boyd when he was available for no fee. Even a short term deal would have suited both parties and he could have done the last few weeks as a pre-season if he's short of match fitness. Bizarre really.

Frankie, I think the biggest challenge to any owner is going to be the readjustment of supporter expectations. I still think there's a lot of fans who don't care about the financial side of things, no matter what the consequences, just so long as don't finish second. That's been proven time and time again over the last however many years. There's no quick fix to the mess we're in financially, or to the setup off the park in terms of how the club, coaching and scouting are structured.

Good statement IMO. One of the biggest criticisms of the last 5 years+ is that our leadership took ages to ever respond to articles like the DR one today (if in fact we ever got a statement). He's come out fairly quickly and responded to those points succinctly and the ball is back in the court of the journos to refute. I don't know his long term plan but he talks a lot of sense and appears to be fairly honest in his appraisal of where we need to be given the financial limitations of playing in the spl. We might not like it but we need to be living within our means and not relying on Europe to feed the bottom line.

I don't think SDM wants the club back, but it wouldn't surprise me for a minute if he was involved in smearing Whyte with the aim of helping one of his associates who has a long term plan, possibly post-tribunal ruling. I don't buy into conspiracy theories, but the timing of various recent media statements is very strange and seems to be building up a head of steam so I do wonder what's going on.

Actually, they might bring Bain back and it'll be just like old times.

I see there's quotes from Paul Murray in the record article today. What are the chances of him, SDM and/or Dave King just waiting in the wings for administration?

So, cutting through all the hyperbole and sensationalism, is this as bad as it sounds or is it just a businessman borrowing against future projected profits?

The strange thing is that the Murray at Auchenhowie non-story comes out on the back of Smith's comments and then Traynor & Young saying that there's much more to the mess we're in than is currently in the public domain. I think its all shit stirring personally and its funny to see when football fans choose to believe the very media that they usually think are completely against them for the rest of the time. There's no doubt certain people in the media are absolutely loving the mess our great club finds itself in just now and are taking every chance to gloat.

With the financial limitations we have and the lack of proven finishers surely he's worth a punt until the summer?

I wish they'd get a move on, otherwise we're going to be left scrabbling around on deadline day trying to replace him.

I think its all about the balance of our midfield. Ally seems afraid to change things when they're not working and leave players out of the side. Not sure why he's persisting with Wallace at LM and think its unfair on the lad, but something we seem to make a habit of. Davis has been out of sorts for a while, so add in an under-performing two from the other usual suspects and its no surprise we've been struggling. I think Aluko brings something to the side that we don't have in terms of pace, directness and is difficult to play against, but players like him are a bit of a luxury so you need to make sure you've got the right blend of more workmanlike players in there as well and someone creative in the middle. Edu has done ok this season and looked quite good in spells, but that's all relative by his own low standards he's set. Davis has never been the most consistent, but this season he's particularly out of sorts. I've no idea how he was given the captaincy. I know we don't see the players day to day in training, but I can't believe McKay, Ortiz, Fleck and Bedoya haven't featured more. Ness and Hutton are another pair who must be wondering what they have to do to get a chance (injuries notwithstanding). Who knows what's going on with Jelavic, but its always a bad sign when we're relying on one player above all else to get us through games. Healy and Lafferty just aren't consistent enough and Laffs is another one who people seem to rave about when he starts doing what some would consider as being the minimum for a decent striker. I'd be tempted to see if Boyd would come back as we'd be stronger with him, even if he was just coming off the bench. Even if he does only score against the diddy teams, that would be a step back in the right direction given how this season is playing out.

There's always scope for negotiation with HMRC in terms of payment of anything due but he's not going to say that in public given the press they've had about that very subject. I guess the bottom is that we still don't know how much the club could potentially be held liable for. As to the rest, the club clearly needs to live within its means so that can only be a good thing long term. Problem is we can't be sure of Whyte's long term plans until after the tax case is resolved.

He's another player who I'm amazed hasn't had more of a run in the team. Why keep him on if we were never going to use him?

KB is one of those players who gets a lot of flak from fans but in reality is a hard worker who very rarely hides in big games or lets you down. I remember reading that he was also one player who was always keen to do extra fitness training when everyone else had gone home for the day. He might not be an exciting player, but given how erratic Whittaker is, I'd have given him a run at RB.

Good topic title btw

I agree with that, but unfortunately that comes with the territory of being in charge of Rangers (or Celtic) and as for them not proving themselves, part of that problem is down to him not changing things around earlier or given other players a run in the team earlier in the season imo.

Doesn't make much sense. Of course game time and experience will be good for them, but why not give them a chance here when our midfield is clearly out of sorts?

If we lose the tax case will that 7.5M not be taken off us by HMRC?

There's a few sellable players (McGregor, Whittaker, Davis and Jelavic spring to mind) although their values have probably taken a downturn this season. I'd argue you could sell a couple of them and replace them with perhaps twice the number of players for less wages, but would the team suffer as a result or not?