Walterbear

The Board told us at the AGM and in the accounts ithat £7m willl be pledged by directors to meet our operational costs and infrastructure investment for the remainder of this season and next season. They said there would be an uplift in merchandise but I don’t recall a figure being put on it and yes if there is an uplift beyond their worst case estimate then this will partially offset their commitments (loans for shares). Happy to be corrected if I picked that up wrong. The £1m (and I am suspect about that given the collapse in the mcinnes deal at the last minute) would have been partially offset against PC costs and his team I would imagine. But the bottom line is they made that statement about £7m being pledged and it is not coming from footballing profits or commercial activity. Of course they all may suffer from a collapse in rational thinking and put a bucket of money into the club but if it isn’t washing it’s face then they are likely to lose it along with the money they have already put in. I’m no expert but I would imagine the last thing the directors want is admin2 because they will lose small fortunes. What we desperately need is an uplift in commercial activity but that comes with football success. I’ve mentioned stadium naming rights before but Ibrox Nike Arena or whatever will attract more money if we are in Europe and cup finals and are attracting large TV audiences. Investment in commercial activities around the stadium would also go hand in hand with success on the pitch. It’s not going the way the board expected when MW and PC were appointed and it’s not obvious what plan C is. There might not be one which is grim.

We don’t have any money. £7m is required from directors over the next 2 seasons just to keep us afloat. It’s unlikely Allen and Murty can get rid of dross and replace it with quality and spend no money. This is easily the worst Rangers team I have ever seen.

If ever a game was set up for the long ball and Herrera and Morelas with 3 at the back and two full backs sitting defensively this was it. I’ve no idea what we were trying to do but it was obvious early doors in the second half this was going badly wrong. Defence and midfield again non-existent. If you were watching that game and forgot for a moment the team in black was Rangers you would have thought it was Kilmarnock v Dumbarton. It was that bad. We look like a bottom 6 team.

He doesn’t have an option. He must offer buy them at 20p if someone or everyone wants to sell their shares at this price. His share holding will almost certainly be increased but at the expense of liquidity for the club. He could have done it earlier but he pretended he wasn’t part of a takeover. It’s a waste of money for him and Rangers but not for those who have shares they want to sell and perhaps were given them for nothing by people like Charles Green. I

If this all goes t*ts up the one person who will be blameless is Murty. He has conducted himself impeccably and got some decent results in the circumstances. These next few months could be the making of him. It won’t destroy him. He will only learn and if it doesn’t go well I hope he can step back into development roles at Rangers with a lot more feathers in his cap.

I think that sums up the problem dB. We’re always looking for sieine to cover someone else’s deficiencies. I wish we could just sign a couple of good defenders. I can’t believe there aren’t any somewhere in the world.

Technically of course he is correct. King and the TOP both previously have said it’s a matter for King and not Rangers but when we can’t sign decent players and when we need cash to keep afloat in the form of loans and when we are in danger of slipping further behind Celtic it indirectly affects us that our wealthiest board member has to go through this charade and divert cash that could otherwise be given to the club. I suppose SR had to say something to prove he can still actually talk. It’s a pity his first utterance for some time is to take us all for fools.

Yep the only real aggression from HMRC against EBTs was Rangers. It would be no surprise if a certain Celtic former director wasn’t involved in this given the proximity of senior civil servants to government ministers. However with respect to the TOP that was David Somers who complained and King who fecked up. One thing is sure that for all the shenanigans in football no one is getting hit like us. Even the TOP had never actually cold shouldered anyone before Rangers.

He has to put together an offer package with prospectus, etc and underlying admin associated with a share issue. No doubt somebody brokerage involved. I think the cost is likely to be six figures and there will be little benefit except to those for example who had penny shares (and brokers etc). It’s unlikely to benefit the club and by definition the majority of shareholders. It seems this is an example where common sense is not being used by the law. It would have been more understandable if he had been asked to cough up the market rate.

I think if I was looking for a positive it would be that King is cash strapped (other directors are stepping up to the plate) but knowing that there is little money we are giving what is available to Murty and Allen in January rather than spend it on a new manager and his entourage who will then not have any cash to improve the team. One thing I would trust Murty in is his ability to spot a player. He’s not a Walter Smith but he’s nobodies fool in terms of understanding football would be my assessment. Hopefully the TOP is the last big issue but it’s frustrating that again it was self inflicted damage and is delaying recovery.

John can’t defend. The 3rd goal St J got was pathetic from his perspective. He can only play in an advanced role but he has the type of pace and timing which is more suited to an attacking full back. It’s a puzzle for me. His signing on ly makes sense if we have a strong defender in behind him. Perhaps GM has a formation in mind.

Candeias maybe the one whose going?

Yet another payday for the penny share charlatans.

Now more than ever probably.

Probably waited for CoS announcement.

I think they get in each other’s way and can leave us exposed as a result. Unless our midfield defence covers better and we have more pace at centre half to cover. Certainly McRorie has the attributes to cover but need s couple more like him defensively.

Maybe we negotiated his salary down and allowed him to keep it. ?

We don’t have any money is the answer I think.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the 2 announcements are unrelated in terms of cash availability for the football team and manager. King will have had the court announcement as a worst case scenario hence the apparent lassitude with respect to managerial appointments. Obviously the sensible thing to do but doesn’t bode well for the long term. At least the TOP is coming to a head and one way or another we will be closer to another share issue or Kings departure (done a good job but unless he’s putting his family fortune into us his time is up). However the share value of any further issue will be further diluted by the pay back of loans for shares so not sure we will be able to raise much from that either. I really wish we could do a renaming deal on the stadium and anything else going. I think folk will need to adjust expectations on what is sacred. We desperately need cash to invest in the club and team or we really might become the 3rd force in Scotland.

Exactly. Ask 15 questions and what do you expect? First question has to be ‘what have you achieved in your current role as MD and what are your personal targets for the next 3 months?

With respect to question 8 about the BBC there is an absolute impasse. There are no ‘ongoing discussions’. The BBC asked how it could be resolved and were told by Rangers it couldn’t if McLaughlin was the BBC reporter. The club quite rightly perceive bias and the BBC understandably reject censorship of journalists and the inevitable industrial action that would follow. Just say as it is Rangers. Scotland is a small place. Being ITK isn’t difficult.

Spot on. Findlay put Rangers on trial and Whyte walked because in such a murky world of corporate governance such as football clubs everyone is ‘at it’ and reasonable doubt was all that Findlay required. The EBT announcement on its judgement was delayed until this case was concluded in case it influenced the verdict in a criminal case, but even without that negative judgement in his back pocket Findlay managed to drive a horse and cart through the credibility of some former Rangers men. In all the drama about our new manager and our current erratic form on the park the lessons of the past and the incoming charlatans who fleeced us should not be forgotten by anyone with any positive interest in Rangers and Its not that long ago and it’s not been easy to fix. As a priority good corporate governance and financial sustainability must be the first goal and I suspect our recent history of carelessness is leading to extreme caution or perhaps even paralysis on the managerial front (there will be the added complexity of individual agendas on a board which has rich people who are investing / lending equally). I suppose all of this was inevitable in the fall out from the administration and liquidation process of oldco (which isn’t finished). When you look at the colossal mess perhaps it’s not too surprising we are still in very stormy seas. The board just can’t afford another year of scrap and rebuild and that’s the reality. But what we do need is far stronger visible leadership. If I’m sailing through a storm I prefer my skipper to be in the wheelhouse and highly visible rather than below deck. They are leaving themselves open to every half wit that populatesthe airwaves (Hi BBC!) snd this in turn causes more damage and makes the long term job of restructuring the club more difficult. But for the very reason of the difficulty there is surely even more need to employ better credible people to lead us on and off the park. So who does that leave on the football side? It can’t be a here today gone tomorrow lower grade EPL type, and it can’t be a gamble on a continental, and there are very few managers in Scotland who fit the bill of being a heavyweight in terms of contacts, knowledge and ability to work to a low budget. Perhaps the answer is staring us in the face. I’m just about coming round to nicking Steve Clarke off Kilmarnock. Might put a bet on. Should be interesting on Saturday.

First time this week I’ve smiled on this forum ?

I’m no lawyer but when they raised the prospect of a judicial review and I googled all about them it was clear they wouldn’t get one. John James actually has the fools sussed ?

The Board aren’t employing the best people (Traynor, Robertson, no-one as first team manager) and they should be doing much better on that front. My sense is there are a few people of equal standing who have put similar amounts (millions) into the club and who are clearly capable in their own fields but bringing them together is leading to a vacuum of leadership which the MD is not filling particularly well. The Board have done a fantastic job in removing Ashley and keeping our club out of administration but we surely can expect more than hoping to take advantage of the inconsistencies in other clubs. I understand the club needs to be sustainable which is why I would have concerns about £100m sugar daddies as much as I have concerns about low investment but one thing the club (the rich board members) should be able to do is appoint the very best people to manage it and it’s obvious they are not doing that. Perhaps there is a secret plan but the AGM was the time to be more open about it. Based on what DK said about a year ago he seemed to be quite keen to limit his future time and involvement in the club but my guess is he wants his money back before packing it in. Given the time he gives to Rangers instead of developing his other businesses that is perfectly reasonable and he’s an extremely durable tenacious man, but if he employs lower grade people to manage affairs (or no one) it’s going to take a long time and the playing inconsistencies are more likely to affect us than perhaps Hibs, Celtic or Aberdeen. We already have provision for £7m of soft loans over the next 2 years which for me doesn’t equate with rapid success or for that matter stories of £100m investments.