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JohnMc

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Everything posted by JohnMc

  1. JohnMc
    Yip I agree, but these people remain 'fans' they don't go and support another side and that's the lesson business has learned. Even just now, if our side was playing anywhere close to exciting football we'd be getting 30,000. As such they're still susceptible to buying merchandise. This is win-win for Ashley just now. If the side improves, starts playing better and getting results a percentage of the support will return to matches particularly if we start challenging for the title again. If results don't improve the pressure on McCoist will become intolerable and he'll walk. A new manager will bring an increase in interest and crowds, initially at least.
  2. JohnMc
    You're applying normal rules to someone who by all measurements is not 'normal'. I don't mean that as an insult, he's an exceptional person, clearly gifted in many ways, but not 'normal'. A normal person would fear becoming a hate figure and a full-scale revolt, Ashley doesn't. The Rangers support will continue to buy their kids shirts and themselves a top for five-a-sides no matter how we're performing, that's what he's banking on. What big business has cottoned onto is that loyalty to a football club is entirely different to any other commercial venture. Man Utd sold more shirts than any other club in the world last year despite experiencing their worst season in two decades and having enormously unpopular owners. Rangers in the top flight, finishing top three, will consistently draw 30,000 plus crowds, we might think that poor, but it really isn't in the grand scheme of things. That's easily achievable if the club can stay solvent, we'll have a considerably higher turnover than every other side in the country bar one, on that basis any half competent manager can secure second or third. Ashley shouldn't need to invest any money to achieve that, simply make sure we don't go bust in the short term. We're a minor gamble for Ashley, I doubt we take up much of his time or thinking, I assume he'll try and recreate the Newcastle model, where we're self-sustainable, breaking even, beyond that he's only interested in leveraging retail from us, there's plenty of evidence that how a team performs, the relationship the club has with it's support and how a club's directors behave has little bearing on that.
  3. JohnMc
    You vastly over estimate what our support will accept. If Rangers can get promoted then even badly mismanaged we should finish top three in the SPFL most seasons, challenge for one of the domestic cups to at least quarter final stage and qualify for qualification stages for the Europa league. At that stage we can be pacified with 'there's always next season' talk, a change of manager every now and then and the promise that change might bring and the likelihood that the Tim's will mess up every now and then and we might sneak a title. Look at the numbers quoted above, even now, at our lowest ever ebb, the we generate more money than a one city English Premiership side with a famously resilient support. Any success we get will be an added bonus, but I can see no I'm imperative for Ashley to require it or even desire it.
  4. JohnMc
    It's got planning consent for leisure and recreation and it's a big chunk of land in Milngavie. A leisure centre, David Lloyd type of place, perhaps even a Dobbies Garden Centre kind of business would do well there. Plus don't put it past a developer to purchase it and let it go to ruin, become an eyesore and then put in an application to turn it into a supermarket or flats, it's been done before.
  5. JohnMc
    Maybe he means successful like Newcastle.
  6. JohnMc
    I don't mind, Hibs looks like the next free one but if someone else wants it I'm easy.
  7. JohnMc
    Go on then, if you're desperate I'll jump back in.
  8. JohnMc
    Was I a young Christian Slater to your Sean Connery or is it the other way around?
  9. JohnMc
    I told you not to eat that camembert before bed, but you don't listen... Firstly I've no idea if he wants to buy 29.9% or not, neither does the author of the article. It might appease some supporters and it might improve the share price though so factor that in when trying to figure out who might have briefed it. Assuming Ashley does though consider the following. He seems to have total control just now, but that can change, at 9% he could, in theory, be marginalised if someone else was able to either buy shares or create a shareblock from existing shareholders. His contracts aren't in perpetuity, they'll come up for review again in the future (I'm assuming) so they could in theory become less profitable for SD if renegotiated. He can't cut the playing staff wage bill until January when the transfer window opens and that ever so crucial pre-Christmas retail period is past, he isn't going to fire any players but some might get pay-offs to leave and others sold where possible. He doesn't care what fans think or say, he knows we'll buy strips and stuff whatever. But it'll be cut, I've no doubt about that. Forget about the Champions League, that's a red-herring used to great effect by PR professionals on a regular basis where Rangers are concerned.
  10. JohnMc
    I'm not sure Celtic do sell that many and i'd be astonshed if they turnover £60m without Champion's League football but it's a moot point anyway. I doubt the powerbrokers at Sports Direct give much thought to competing with Celtic, that's not why they're here.
  11. JohnMc
    We won't get that £5 million, Sports Direct will. I think the press report is a PR briefing, it's the sugaring of a very bitter pill. Some will still swallow it though.
  12. JohnMc
    We sell close to 100,000 just now and we're the worst we've ever been. With the exception of the big two in Spain, Bayern currently and Man U/City and Chelsea clubs don't sell strips to anyone but their own supporters in any numbers that count.
  13. JohnMc
    It's about controlling retail Andy, you must have seen some of that in your previous life. When supermarkets sell Nescafe at below cost they are doing it because it brings in thousands of customers who then buy other things with significantly higher margins. That's how Sports Direct operate, get all the Rangers branded clothing exclusive to their shops and watch the quarter of a million people emotionally connected to Rangers walk through the door or click onto the website. Ashley couldn't care less if we win the Champion's League, it's of no consequence and the article is PR bullshit from start to finish. He's learned at Newcastle that supporters will continue to buy merchandise no matter how dire the team are doing, and whilst in the shop they'll pick up a Lonsdale t-shirt and a dozen golf balls too.
  14. JohnMc
    A look at Ashley's history shows someone who buys poorly performing brands like Slazenger, Dunlop and Lonsdale, cuts all costs from them, repackages them and sells them exclusively in Sports Direct. Rangers currently fall into this market, we're a once widely recognised and successful sports brand currently failing. Even simple arithmetic shows why we're attractive to him, selling only 100,000 strips at £50 a go brings in £5 million, if you already own the retail costs associated then the economies of scale are massive, if you own or control the club you control the remuneration they receive too, you're basically only paying for manufacturing the rest goes onto the bottom line. Funding us for a couple of years isn't much of a gamble for him if he can gain control of us and our brand.
  15. JohnMc
    You've far more faith in direct action than I do. Look at the state of the club, if we're not mobilised by now we never will be. I've felt for a while that many in our support simply want someone else to do the work.
  16. JohnMc
    Better someone on the outside being ignored or on the inside keeping watch?
  17. JohnMc
    Word. It's genuine hysteria.
  18. JohnMc
    This, this and thrice this. Well said, I'm embarrassed reading some of the vitriol aimed at McCoist.
  19. JohnMc
    What Ness should have done when he left us was join Dundee Utd and told us it was simply to further his career, that way many in our support would have lauded him and slated the club. Simple.
  20. JohnMc
    Aha, right, so playing for Dundee Utd is the height of his ambition. Fair enough, he's probably better off not being at Rangers then. Seriously? Was it the fantastic facilities at Auchenhowie or the salary he got since he went pro that tipped him over the edge do you think? Here's what I think, the hard-on you've got for some at the club is blinding you to the fact that this boy showed no loyalty, no patience, no willingness to fight for a place and no care for what the fans of Rangers, the people who ultimately have funded his 10 year apprenticeship, think or care.
  21. JohnMc
    Well we're as good as Dundee United at bringing through youth players. I'm surprised you don't think players who spend 10 years coming through owe their club anything.
  22. JohnMc
    Right, get you. That would be of no interest to the club who'd spent 10 years developing him prior then. I assumed you were on the inside on this. Goes to show you. Oh, look, I can use emoticons too. Fixed that for you. You think Telfer gave a fuck if Rangers got 2 bob for him when he was 'being approached' then?
  23. JohnMc
    It's pure PR though isn't it. Cancel something that in the grand scheme of things is a drop in the ocean but will make big headlines. It's almost like they want people to know how tough they are and that they are cutting costs.
  24. JohnMc
    Yes, because Dundee United are only interested in helping him develop his career! If this was only about getting first team football then why not join Falkirk who've got a very good record of player development, or Hamilton Accies or Kilmarnock or Motherwell? Hell, why not ask his agent to see if Southampton would take him on seeing as they've arguably got the best player development record in the UK? Dundee Utd approached him and turned his head, whether it was with promises of first team football, better opportunities, more money or blow-jobs from Steven Thomson every time he scored, it doesn't matter, he still chose to leave the club he purports to support, who'd invested significant resources in him to get hm to the stage he was at and who are extremely vulnerable at the moment. Here's the thing, Naismith, McGregor, McCabe, Davis, Lafferty and Ness all bluenoses and all left Rangers because they were worried their careers would suffer if they stayed at the club, they left and joined clubs who'd 'develop their careers'. They are almost universally lambasted for it, they've pariah status among a large majority of our support, despite contributing far, far more to our club than Charlie Telfer ever has. I've no real issue with Telfer leaving the club, good luck to him, but let's see it for what it is and judge everyone by the same standards.
  25. JohnMc
    That's hardly comparable. Telfer is getting a pretty easy ride through all this. The club is being blamed, it's all the fault of McCoist or the coaches is the accepted narrative. Our club is a mess, but in the end Telfer chose to walk away and sign for a club that's got a serious hard-on for Rangers. Rangers players who achieved and contributed far, far more to our club have been demonised by many in our support for leaving our club in the past, yet Telfer is seen as put-upon soul trying his best to get on in the world whilst being dragged back by big bad dysfunctional Rangers. It's funny how we view some events.
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