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KRIS says he will make contract decision at end of season More...

As Walter Smith has seen off yet another manager across the city, Tony Mowbrayâ��s ultimately disastrous reign draws certain parallelâ��s with that of Smithâ��s predecessor at Ibrox. Paul Le Guen arrived in Govan to much fanfare and acclaim. The relatively youthful manager came to Scotland with a mightily impressive C.V. from his time at Lyon where he continued their domination of French football whilst punching above their weight in the Champions League. The job that awaited him at Rangers was markedly different to that of the French cracks. Rangers were not, at that time, top dogs in Scotland. Indeed we had fallen quite low under Alex McLeish after a couple of years of fantastic success. Le Guen was charged with returning us to the top of the pile in the SPL whilst utilising the nous of a more tactically and technically gifted foreign coach to elevate our performance and results on the European stage. The oft debated question on internet forums such as Gersnet was whether or not our fans had the patience to accept a couple of years of obscurity and a lack of trophies whilst the Frenchman modernised the club; changing attitude and habits and attempting to develop a conveyor belt of youth talent to supplement the squad. Clearly with the global economic crisis affecting the banks generosity putting greater strain on our finances allied to the fact that our income is dwarfed by that of Europeâ��s other top leagues (even the Championship has a far more lucrative t.v. deal than that of the SPL) a change of tact and direction was required. David Murray and many fans believed this bright young manager was the man to facilitate this change. Where this plan falls down, and this is something that confuses me, is how short term failure leads to long term success. We have seen over the last two years how badly we depend upon the Champions League bounty to break even or turn a small profit. Without the short term success, we do not have the financial clout to put in place the long-term vision for the club. An effective and efficient scouting system and a productive youth and modern youth academy requires considerable start up and running costs. Part of PLGâ��s master plan, and that too of Mowbray it seems, was to dismantle the current squad. Weed out the bad influences and those who would hinder the endeavour to completely rebuild and reinvent their respective clubs. Recent media reports suggest Celtic wasted somewhere in the region of �£20 million on Mowbrayâ��s vision including payments to West Brom for his and his assistantsâ�� services, financing his transfer dealings and his subsequent pay-off. PLGâ��s net spend was minimal and he graciously turned down his right to a substantial pay-off. However, he also did not spend all available cash when the problems with the team were easily identified and rectified immediately by Smith. So to successfully revolutionise a team and a club as a whole requires an enormous amount of finance currently not available to the Rangers management team. If our ultimate aim is to build a club and a team capable of sustaining itself and punching above its weight in Europe as the likes of Ajax and Porto have done previously, how then do we achieve that. It seems blindingly obvious that if this reconstruction requires serious financial muscle and Rangers rely heavily on the Champions League fortunes to prop up our balance sheet that our long term target must be made up of series of short term successes. Winning the SPL title year-on-year (as much as that is possible) and securing passage to the CL group stages must be the cornerstones, the pillars of this strategy. Walter Smith may operate with a tried and trusted strategy, a pragmatic approach that many view as safety first. A potential 6 trophies in 3 full seasonâ��s in charge including likely back to back titles will allow us to firstly stabilise, and if success is built upon, strengthen our financial position and build towards a more exciting and profitable future. This idea that we must take several steps backwards to take a large step forward has never added up when analysed rationally. It makes far more sense to build from a position of sense. It is doubtful it is even possible to prepare for long term and greater success without these short term victories. Walter Smith may not be the man to lead the club towards this future vision, but when he hangs up his managerâ��s clipboard he will leave the club in a far stronger position for a forward thinking bright young manager, like a PLG, to realise the clubâ��s lofty ambitions.

DaMarcus Beasley hopes to have his long-term future resolved before the start of the World Cup finals. More...

Madjid Bougherra is ignoring persistent speculation over his future, stating he is only focused on Gers. More...

Interesting quotes.... http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/03/10/SOCCER_Rangers_Webster.html&TEAMHD=soccer

Prior to ending his ill fated reign with Celtic this week Tony Mowbray had taken so much on the chin that only Jimmy Hill or Buzz Lightyear could have withstood so many blows to the jaw. From the moment he entered Celtic Park as the new manager Mowbray was struggling to make himself understood and often left listeners and observers questioning his intentions and meaning. It is undeniable that the media hold a large amount of sway over the general public and if you are not able to keep the devious and conniving journalists happy or provide them with good copy then you are facing an uphill battle undertaking such a high profile role in managing one half of the Old Firm. Admittedly the press cannot argue that black is white or up is down. However, if you end up on the wrong side of the tabloid press perhaps they can influence mass opinion and shorten your stay in Glasgow? By manipulating popular opinion a manager may find his time is up sooner (or later) than it should be. Walter Smithââ?¬â?¢s predecessor Paul Le Guen struggled with the language barrier and a fairly diffident approach to speaking to the press as part of official club duties. As with Tony the Fourth, Le Guenââ?¬â?¢s results were atrocious and ultimately led to his downfall; however, had Le Guen enjoyed a more genial relationship with Scotlandââ?¬â?¢s hacks perhaps they might have been able to engender greater good will to the Frenchmanââ?¬â?¢s vision for the future of Rangers. Alas, PLG delivered neither the results not cultivated the media relationships to extend his stay into a second season. Now, those two examples; PLG and Mowbray, it could be argued had to leave as results ensured their position had become untenable. That would not explain the departure of Gordon Strachan. After 3 successful seasons in the East End Walter Smith returned to Ibrox to wrest back control over Scottish football to Govan. Three consecutive successful seasons followed by one poor year would normally give the manager enough credit to have a shot at a re-exerting their dominance. Strachan, though, has always been a prickly character when dealing with the press. Whilst his quips and barbed replies provide amusement to fans across the country, the journalists are less amused at his cutting remarks. Strachan was never accepted by the Celtic ââ?¬Å?faithfulââ?¬Â as he wasnââ?¬â?¢t Celtic minded (an Irish RC bigot) but again a national press normally ever willing to talk up their Celtic friends did nothing to assuage fan opinion even in spite of his success. The previous incumbents of the managerial hot-seats; Alex McLeish and Martin Oââ?¬â?¢Neill were afforded plenty of good will by the journalistic brotherhood. McLeish epitomised everything a Rangers manager should in much the same way as Walter Smith does now. Gracious in victory, dignified in defeat. A Scotland legend and a well spoken and amenable man in dealing with the press. Oââ?¬â?¢Neill, by contrast is much the opposite, the typical Celtic man. He led the club through some undignified stunts (using his opposite manââ?¬â?¢s name in celebratory t-shirt slogans) and is the poster boy for sore losers. He helped fan the flames of bigotry, making a mountain out of a molehill and then some. A softly spoken man who talks intelligently to the assembled media, yet a distinctly dislikeable person. We have seen with Gordon Strachan how Celtic fans will claim not to be able to put aside their footballing philosophy in the pursuit of success. Yet they only turned on Strachan once he failed to deliver the SPL trophy and never complained about the ugly, agricultural brand of football that Oââ?¬â?¢Neill delivered as he tried and ultimately failed to compete with Alex McLeish. Thanks to a fawning media Oââ?¬â?¢Neillââ?¬â?¢s inability to produce a brand of football that was anything close to resembling the total football they profess is their trademark was completely ignored. He had the support of our press, delivered some success (though not as successful as Strachan) and so his faults were ignored. Walter Smith will most likely choose his own time to depart from Rangers for the second time. An ability to pick his own retirement date will primarily be earned through continued years of domestic dominance. It will also owe a lot to his control of the West Coast Sports Writers. A man of immense respect within the game and unparalleled dignity, the journalists know better than to pick a fight with the Don of Scottish Football. Some have tried before and as Chic Young among them will testify have come off a very poor second best.

FEW FOOTBALL clubs embrace their own mythology quite like Celtic. They hang on to the folklore like a drowning man would a raft, speaking of the Celtic Way while telling themselves they are somehow different to the other lot, the vulgar team in blue with their anti-football and their negativity and their grinding performances that rarely allow for free spirit and flights of fancy. Celtic, goes the fable, are about beautiful football, about "success with flair" as John Reid, their chairman puts it. It's their way of things, their duty to the deities in their past. On the day they unveiled Tony Mowbray as the successor to Gor ADVERTISEMENTdon Strachan there was a feeling in the room, emanating from Reid and his chief executive, Peter Lawwell, and also held dear by the few fans allowed through the door, that Celtic were going back to their traditions. Mowbray, they said, had strong emotional connections with the club. He was, they stressed and re-stressed, a proud member of the Celtic family whose philosophy on how the game should be played chimed perfectly with the history of the place. Nobody said that Strachan hadn't possessed these qualities, but nobody needed to. Everybody knew that he wasn't Celtic minded. Talking later to some journalists, Reid acknowledged Strachan's great success in winning three consecutive SPL titles as well as two separate visits to the last 16 of the Champions League, but the chairman also allowed the impression to be formed that the brand of football Strachan had deployed wasn't in keeping with the story of the club. Mowbray promised to bring artistry to Parkhead, as their roots supposedly demanded. "The great enemy of the truth," said John F Kennedy, "is myth ââ?¬â?? persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." Lawwell and Reid bought the myth. They endorsed Mowbray's hair-brained notion of spending a season or two rebuilding his team even if it meant the likely loss of trophies. Even when the folly of his vision became abundantly obvious to anybody with eyes in their head, Mowbray received Lawwell's and Reid's public support. Reid said the club owed the manager its "moral backing" as he continued the redevelopment of the team. This creation of his would be carefully sculpted and reborn as a great footballing machine sometime in the future, a team full of elegance and craft, some kind of throwback to the way things were at Parkhead, circa the Tommy Burns years, which produced a whole load of lovely football but just one piece of silverware. The truth is that most of Celtic's greatest days in recent times were delivered on the back of the self-same qualities Walter Smith has brought to Rangers, qualities that Mowbray, in his befuddlement, seemed to demean in the wake of his epoch-making loss at St Mirren ââ?¬â?? namely, pragmatism and organisation and desire. A dogged refusal to get beaten was the raison d'etre of Martin O'Neill's Celtic. Sure, he had fabulous footballers at his disposal. And there was majesty in the ranks, no doubt about it. But above all other things ââ?¬â?? guile and goals ââ?¬â?? it was their manly acceptance of the pressure of Old Firm life that made them a success. They were fine players, but more than that, they were stand-up guys. Same with Wim Jansen's team. They didn't play particularly cosmic football, as Strachan would call it. But they played winning football. Strachan was cut from a similar cloth. When they appointed Mowbray and gave him the go-ahead to rip asunder a side that had won three titles and that had taken a fourth to the last day of the season, Lawwell and Reid forget their history. Celtic's prime duty to their fans and their traditions is not pretty football, but successful football. That is it. Full stop. End of story. Glorious failure (Burns) is in their DNA, and it is celebrated, but the thing they crave the most is victory. If the play is attractive into the bargain, then great. But every legend who ever walked in the door of the place would tell you that their primary responsibility was to win. That was lost under Mowbray. But it wasn't the only thing that was lost. Celtic's thinking has become distracted. Their famous paranoia was in danger of spiralling out of control had Mowbray stayed. Somebody needed to start banging heads together, but there was nobody. As sure as their board of directors bought the myth of the Celtic Way when opting for Mowbray they also bought the fantasy that everybody is out to get them; referees, journalists, the Scottish Football Association. They wallowed in the face of bad luck and awful refereeing decisions. A few weeks ago we stated in this space that their woe-is-us mentality, their apparent search for people to blame for their failing plight was a form of sporting cowardice. They had a bad situation on their hands and the way they opted to deal with it was to whinge incessantly instead of knuckling down like good professionals and trying to do something to arrest the decline. One of the problems is that they are so wrapped up in their own myth as victims nobody seemed to stand up. Certainly nobody stood up at St Mirren when things were going horrendously wrong the other night. What was that if not a shameful capitulation? That's partly because Mowbray cleared out a lot of the men who might have said or done something in these circumstances. Paul Hartley might have tried to snap them out of their self-pity. Or Stephen McManus. Or Gary Caldwell. Or Barry Robson. Or Scott McDonald. But those guys aren't around anymore. Some Celtic fans will tell you that most of that lot needed to go, that they weren't good enough for Celtic. Not good enough for the fantasy Celtic of Mowbray's imagination, perhaps. But plenty good enough to go to St Mirren and get a result, no? Finally, on Friday, we heard the things that needed to be said. We heard straight-talking and none of the fanciful guff of Mowbray's misguided months. The brutal honesty and the sharp focus came, of course, from Neil Lennon, a strangely peripheral figure in the Mowbray regime. Maybe he was too grounded in reality to be welcomed into the inner-circle, but he's the man now in any event. Maybe his inexperience is going to catch him out in the short term, but there was power in his words on Friday, there was a defiance and a straightforwardness about what he said that smacked of his great mentor, O'Neill. "I have told them that Wednesday night was totally unacceptable," said Lennon. "I never want to see that again. I made it pretty clear what is expected of them between now and the end of the season. I want them to play from the gut. They have their professional pride to play for with ten games left. They need to restore the club's reputation and their own. I think there is a softness about us. I'd like to eradicate that. I think mentally we're not as strong as we should be. Rangers have shown over the course of the season that they are quite able to grind out results and we've not been able to do that, we've only done it sporadically. I think there should be more of a tempo to our play as well, more concerted pressure, which I don't think we have enough of." Lennon spoke of wanting his team to have the same mentality as O'Neill's, wanting them to play hard, professional football and not accepting defeat. He didn't talk about the Celtic Way or his duty to entertain or his intention to win matches down the line at some stage. He knows how things are in Glasgow. The first step to being true to Celtic's traditions is to win. It's not rocket science, though his predecessor made it so at times. The board will be hoping against hope that Lennon can make a fist of this. Whether he has the coaching nous remains to be seen, but he's got a lot of other things in his locker, things like hunger and passion and commonsense, commodities that are far more relevant than the things that Lawwell and Reid saw in Mowbray on the day they presented him as the returning Messiah. Now that they've got their head out of the clouds again, maybe they can move forward.

As Alistair Darling prepares to delight us all with more stealth taxes and minimal financial comfort for British citizens, Gersnet thought it would be good fun to find out how Rangers could go about such an initiative. With the debt we have and the various spending cuts we've seen during the last decade, the country's situation does mirror that of Rangers to a degree. As such, some medium term planning to secure our club's recovery and invest in its future would not go amiss and as the season ticket 'tax' payers, how would we like to benefit as a result? In addition to the club's offerings, there are various people linked with buying the club, so as proven committed investors, what kind of changes/initiatives would you like to see for you to 'vote' for your 'party' of choice this summer during the Rangers General Election? Where do supporters organisations fit in - what should be in their manifesto? So, could Martin Bain deliver 'a budget to secure the recovery, tackle borrowing and invest in our club's future'. At its heart could there be 'a growth package' to help individual areas of the club, 'promote innovation, invest in infrastructure and key skills'. And could this package be partially paid for by going to the supporters and invite them to become real members of the club? I look forward to your replies!

Another excellent bit of thought-provoking prose from Andy... http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=233:orwell-would-be-a-rangers-man&catid=1:articles&Itemid=67 Eric Blair = Teddy Bear! Simple when you think about it. Should you need further proof, however, read on. Writing in the magazine Tribune, in an article called 'The Sporting Spirit', the great English essayist pondered the 1945 tour of the UK by Moscow Dynamo. That tour included, of course, a game against The Rangers at Ibrox. Orwell mentions that game, not positively: "The Glasgow match, someone else informs me, was simply a free-for-all from the start." Does anyone else have any knowledge of bad feeling during this game? That, though, isn't the writer's main preoccupation. He is concerned with international politics and sport, which is where it connects with we Rangers fans and especially, our rivals from across the city. Given the way the Old Firm (and their fans) have attached themselves to Scotland/Britain and Ireland, they can in a sense be said to represent nationalism. Orwell would probably have laughed to scorn our public persona of British, Unionist and Protestant - but if he'd been presented with a 'take-it-or-leave-it' choice between us and them, I think he'd choose blue. At any rate, I think that the recent uprating of political activity at Celtic to 'official' status, with the general belief that either Mr Lawwell or Mr Reid were behind the pre-Old Firm game 'concerns' story, makes an examination of whether either club is wise to engage with such an area timely and valid. A lifelong Socialist, some might think of Orwell as more likely to lean toward the other side of Glasgow. I doubt that, though: he was well aware of the difference between talking and doing. And especially perceptive when it comes to the chasm that lies between actually following a team, and dousing it in extra significance. Consider this passage from Orwell's piece: Does that not sound like an Old Firm game? It does to me. Orwell's analysis of why this should be and his opinion of it makes for sobering reading, should you be a tricolour draped Declan from Dennistoun, or a Union clad Billy from Bridgeton. It is not the players who are to blame, he says, but the fans, and the 'larger units' they stand for: countries (and in our case communities), those: In my utopia, we still have the rivalry with 'them', but everything that was connected to events outwith the football stadium would be left behind. Dominating Celtic would mean dominating Celtic, and have nothing to do with religion or politics. The dangers of getting involved with such areas are addressed by Orwell - what he calls 'the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige.' We are well aware of what some Celtic fans are like, attempting to drive the news agenda onto areas of Rangers-negative interest and finding fault with media or officials to explain away failure. Therein lies the danger of Celtic's recent move to adopt fan paranoia as a club mission statement: having already firmly tied their mast to the Irish diaspora, the sense of persecution becomes more than just a tale of sporting inequality. It moves into another level, one of national identity and 'larger units.' And when a fanbase moves into delusional levels of support, the whole point of sport is forgotten. Something our neighbours would do well to consider the next time they decide to campiagn on whatever mad scheme they hit upon next. Granted, Orwell was writing over 60 years ago, but I would argue that his words still carry weight: if you have to resort to chicanery or fast moves, your victory is no victory at all. Overall, though, I think his words have the effect of highlighting their behaviour as the childish and frankly ludicrous antics of people with far too much time on their hands, and also act as a warning to us not to get too involved in the flag waving and posturing. I know from experience that 'questioning the flag' or not enjoining wholeheartedly with Rangers tradition will lead to angry messages in response. I'm not trying to deny history, nor convince anyone to change their mind. My point is that attaching added value to sporting contests, where there is already plenty at stake, rarely leads to a positive outcome. There's plenty of scope to have a fierce rivarly with Celtic without getting wrapped up in matters of nationalism, and I think that we, in the main, occupy that ground. I would have written, until this last few weeks, that the majority of Celtic fans, and the club itself, were the same. I'm not so confident of that anymore. Orwell's analysis offers a clear-eyed appraisal of the dangers inherent in sporting clashes. We can learn, too, from Celtic's behaviour of late. It's not a road I would expect or hope to see Rangers going down, and under David Murray we can say that, if nothing else, he conducted his and Rangers' affairs with dignity. The image of the future, wrote Orwell, would be a boot stamping down on a human face, over and over again. In our little corner of the world, the image of the future may well be a Celtic official or fan spluttering down a telephone, complaining about perceived injustice, over and over again. Let's leave them to it. Let's enjoy the football for what it is, without feeling the need to ladle extra significance onto it. For those interested in reading further on Orwell, please click here: http://www.george-orwell.org/

From the times: Remember seeing a fan on SSN screaming abuse at him as he came out the club around the time they were in court with HMRC. That bloke was quite right imo.

Rangers boss Walter Smith admits his future will depend on club ownership rather than success. More...

Hull City have confirmed Phil Brown has been relieved of his duties and been placed on gardening leave. As revealed by skysports.com earlier on Monday morning Hull have decided to part ways with Brown as they look to secure survival in the Premier League. Brian Horton and Steve Parkin have been placed in charge of first-team affairs following Brown's exit. A club statement read: "Hull City AFC confirms that Phil Brown has been relieved of his managerial duties at the club and has been placed on gardening leave with immediate effect. Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will take charge of first-team duties until further notice. Thanks "We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Phil for the major success achieved during a period of four seasons in charge at the club and wish him every success for the future. "Promotion to the Premier League in 2008 and retention of our status on the last day of the 2009 season are unique events in the history of Hull City AFC and both were achieved under Phil's stewardship during a period which will never be forgotten by all connected with the club. "However, retention of Premier League status is paramount and the board believes that a change in managerial direction is the correct option at this time. "The club will complete supporters up-to-date in respect of any managerial appointment but, in the meantime, Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will prepare the team for our important game at Portsmouth next Saturday." Brown took charge of Hull in 2007 and guided them to the Premier League in his first full season in charge of the club. After a stunning start to life in the Premier League the Tigers managed to avoid relegation on the final day of last season. However, Hull have continued to struggle this season with the side finding themselves in the drop zone for most of the campaign. http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11714_6028351,00.html

Just one question for the money guy's. On reading that Ellis isn't that rich would it be possible just to buy DM out and still leave the club in debt.

Big DJ has gone down a long way in my estimation, why he continues to put his name to such pish is beyond me, the paper and I use the term loosely is every bit as bad. "0 commentsPublished on 12 Mar 2010 Six months ago Rangers were a club without troubles to seek as the threat of administration loomed large." Furfuxsake DJ give it a rest and write some facts. :brick: http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/sport-columnists/derek-johnstone-smart-money-on-a-future-that-counts-1.1012950

With talk of a takeover looking on the horizon, there may be change afoot. But nevertheless, and it relies on a lot of assumptions, are Bougherra and Wilson the future of our defence? Who knows, maybe Bougherra will stay after all (our personal feelings on his character notwithstanding) and hopefully Wilson will too - unless we're all wrong and Weir really CAN go on forever, there will come a time he has to stop playing. Wouldn't be the worst replacement partnership in the world.

The SPL has defended plans to increase the compensation for clubs whose youngsters are poached. More...

Ally McCoist admits he is unsure if he will have a future at Rangers if any takeover goes ahead. More...

Interesting days ahead.

EDU keen to put past behind him ahead of United cup clash More...

Barry Ferguson has spoken to STV Sports Centre about the ââ?¬Ë?Boozegateââ?¬â?¢ scandal and the lasting effect it has had on him. In the full interview he speaks of his regret over the ââ?¬Ë?Vââ?¬â?¢ sign incident, his admiration for Craig Levein and how he still has to consider his future for Scotland. Ferguson spoke at length about his career at length, from his early days when he feared he may be too small to make it as a professional footballer to the current success he is enjoying at Birmingham City. The former Scotland captain also set the record straight on the scandal that saw him excluded form the national team and insisted he did not direct any gestures at the Tartan Army. ââ?¬Å?People were having a go, saying 'that's to the Scotland fans and the Tartan Army',ââ?¬Â he said. ââ?¬Å?Well, if that was to the Scotland fans, I'm doing that to a lot of my pals because they were in the stand. It was nonsense and it was nothing to do with the fans. ââ?¬Å?It was 24/7 cameras and press. It wasn't fair on the other guys, who were trying to build up to a big game on the Wednesday. I want to slap myself every time I see it.ââ?¬Â "I was stupid, I was first to admit that," Ferguson added. "The biggest thing I admit was the thing I did on the Wednesday night. I look back now and I cringe. That's the one thing I would turn back. "Every time there's something about Scotland, that's flashing up. I want to smash the TV every time I see it. But what can I do? It's happened and I can't change it. But what I can say is that I was totally wrong. I admit that." Ferguson also spoke about Rangers, the club that remains closest to his heart. The midfielder has been watching his former team-mate Kris Boyd banging in the goals at Ibrox but admitted he would love to team up with the striker at Birmingham. The former Rangers skipper insisted that Birmingham were his top priority but said he still checked for Rangers results every weekend. He admitted the club will always be important to him. ââ?¬Å?It was time for me to go,ââ?¬Â he admitted. ââ?¬Å?Time for me to make a clean break but listen, I was at the club from eight years old. You always want them to do well.ââ?¬Â Plus video interview: http://sport.stv.tv/sports-centre/161771-full-interview-barry-ferguson-on-his-scotland-regrets-rangers-finances-and-how-he-almost-quit-football/

Kris Boyd has revealed the uncertainty surrounding Rangers is stopping him from signing a new deal. More...

Kris Boyd gives strongest indication yet that he expects to remain at Rangers beyond the summer. Graeme Macpherson Published on 20 Feb 2010 Boydââ?¬â?¢s contract expires at the end of the season and a new deal said to be worth Ã?£18,000 a week has been tabled by the Ibrox club. The striker is yet to give a formal reply to that offer, with Middlesbrough, Birmingham City, and Newcastle United reportedly all waiting in the wings to see what transpires. Boyd, though, yesterday suggested he believes a deal will be eventually secured that would allow him to extend his stay with Rangers. ââ?¬Å?Iââ?¬â?¢m sure that will be sorted out in the near future,ââ?¬Â he said. ââ?¬Å?I just have to get on with my football and getting results for this club. The contract will sort itself out shortly. I am not being distracted with it. The club and my agent will take care of that and sort it out. ââ?¬Å?I just want to play football, score goals, win games and pick up trophies. That is a realistic ambition over the next couple of months, which I hope to take part in, and hopefully we can do that. I think everyone knows my feelings towards this club. I enjoy myself here and I enjoy my football. Iââ?¬â?¢m sure something will be sorted out in the next wee while.

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=225: Ten points clear; still in both cups; �£13million interim profit reported; singing sections standing together in front of hospitality; different people from different websites working together on relevant issues; our chairman answers questions raised by protesters; Celtic can't beat Aberdeen; Aberdeen can't beat Raith Rovers; Celtic making a loss while 'rebuilding' with expensive players on temporary loan deals;the sun shining as the nights get longer; life is good if you're a Rangers fan! Or is it? A cursory look at most Rangers sites will reveal that despite the positive signs above, many bears are still worried about the future. Indeed, examine the recent official comments from Alastair Johnston (and the less official ones from Donald Muir) then you can interpret the words differently depending on your own viewpoint. Certainly the contrary opinions from our management team don't help, while the 8-10 day plans touched on by the chairman, subject to change depending on what happens SPL/CL wise in 10 weeks time, suddenly make the brightness of the winter sunshine seem less satisfying. Investment is required then - and soon if we're to retain key players and remain competitive for the coming years. But where from? The new Tennent's deal is positive but worth less than the existing Carling one. The retail and replica strip side of our commercial activities are limited for another 5 years at least. The naming rights to Ibrox are not to be considered said Mr Johnston at the AGM. Any sale or leaseback of the stadium or training facility would be cause for serious concern for any fan. Ticketing and hospitality revenue is down from previous years with no money to make stadium improvements to increase the numbers. Flexibility for the board is a huge problem and investment difficult to find. A new buyer then? Would such a person or persons solve our problems? Graham Duffy poked his head up late last year and the fans were quick to research then castigate his background. Rightly so it seems - even if his intentions may have been interesting enough. Dave King remains a figure who does have the net worth on paper but he seems no closer to a resolution with his peers in South Africa. An enforced withdrawal from the debate from him as it stands then - though I guess that may change. So that leaves us with the usual conglomerate of Members' Lounge supporters of whom most bears know. It seems Douglas Park is the most likely leader from the names we all know there - the Lanarkshire based transport tycoon being a well kent face at Ibrox. Owner of the popular bus company and several car franchises, the Park family are popular within the support. Whilst their wealth may not be in the same league as King; their financial support of that bid may be crucial to win over fans who doubt King's reputation. Moreover, if King is unable to step forward, Park may be the one of the few names left capable of doing so as the leader of a consortium. Unfortunately, despite the 'in-the-know' rumours of his involvement across the supporting community (on and offline), he seems reticent to stand up and define his interest as one the fans could buy into - literally! Having the respect of so many bears - even though, like me, they may not know him personally - is surely a good place to start when looking to become the new owner during such difficult times. That respect would only be increased if he involved the supporters in aiding his bid to do this. Strange then, rumour and counter-rumour about his alleged involvement notwithstanding, nothing more concrete has arisen. To that end, the last week has seen various initiatives undertaken by many sides of the debate unsure of the status quo. From protesters at matches using banners and flyers to pressurise the club into action; from the club using other influential supporters to put across their point of view in retort; the debate took a turn for the worse when opposing viewpoints ended up in the usual tedious arguments between those scrambling for information. That in itself helps no-one as the ordinary bear has nothing to believe than the usual conflicting rumours and the usual generic sound-bites from the club. And it isn't always as simple as believing one over the other. Hence, that's where someone like Douglas Park can come in. If he's really interested in buying Rangers FC, he'll be more than aware of the tension surrounding the club/fans and will have a plan to ease this tension. If the rumours about him working with other fans to buy the club are true, if the rumours about him performing six-figure sums on due diligence are true and if the rumours about him making informal enquiries about buying are true, why hide in the background? Why not step forward, lead from the front, be open and unite the support? Of course you'll gain some unwanted publicity but Sir David Murray did OK out of that increase in profile. Of course you'll get some fans writing you off because they may not know what colour of underwear you favour. Of course the questions may prove difficult to answer to appease everyone. But how else can you gauge genuine interest in what you have to offer? Here are five legitimate questions you could answer to make your position clear: 1. Are you serious about buying Rangers Football Club? 2. What are your plans therein considering the challenges ahead? 3. How will our activities be underwritten going forward? 4. How do you plan to involve the supporters; is a wide-ranging fan ownership scheme viable? 5. Can you deliver and maintain ongoing competitiveness and success in the face of the modern football era? Now, I won't pretend for a minute that these questions are as easy to answer as they were to ask. However, you'll be asked tougher ones by more intelligent people than this writer. Especially if you want such people to part with their cash and buy into your ideas and aspirations. What is clear though is that our club and our support needs clarity and leadership. That is the minimum required for the future and for any buyer to immediately gain the credibility and respect needed for such a demanding role. We need - no we insist upon - potential buyers to show us the future of our football club is something that will be guaranteed by ongoing investment, by innovation, by transparency, by representation and by mutual respect. The challenge is there and the mission isn't impossible. Do you accept? :spl:

BOYD admits Smith's long-term future will play big part in his own More...

Is it debt or a rolling facility, AJ's interviews would have been hard to have been bettered by the master of waffle himself SDM. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hugh MacDonald, Chief Sportswriter 0 comments Published on 17 Feb 2010 H MacD: Why has the debt not been published? AJ: There is no requirement by the plus markets to declare your debts. That is not to say we are trying to be crafty in any way. The debt levels are impacted by cash and cash availability and our debt to Lloyds Bank is actually not a debt but a line of credit. That means it goes up and down day by day according to our requirements. Our only obligation is to reduce that line of credit by Ã?£1m a year. 
There is not a whole lot of incentive, in all honesty, to reduce the debt. There is an incentive to pay off the players [transfer fees] that we haven’t paid for in previous years. At the end of last year we had Ã?£9m of player debt to pay for players we have acquired in previous years. We have been able to pay almost all of that off with the cash we generated. That is particularly satisfying, because these are the issues that go under the radar. What is your message to the fans, particularly the ones who have strong feelings over the presence of Donald Muir on the board? Right now, we need Lloyds Bank who have been supportive of us. The bank is certainly disciplined and it does not want to be exposed to archetypal football club practices of buying players and not worrying about the next day. It does not want to be dealing with fans’ reactions, either. I am hopeful that the bank will continue to be collaborative in negotiations with potential owners who have an ability to invest in the club. I would hope too that it will be reasonably more flexible on the business plan that both Walter and I are concerned about. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Clarity you gotta be kiddin. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/rangers/the-next-10-weeks-could-define-rangers-future-an-interview-with-chairman-alastair-johnston-1.1007305