Confirmed - Walter Smith has resigned

[Zappa 0]

It's all a little bit confusing tbh. Take Easedale for instance. You would have thought he'd been placed on the board by Greenco and he made his opposition to Malcolm Murray known as he and his brother were interviewed by scrote. Yet we then get a requisition for the removal of three directors from the anti-Greenco camp and Easedale isn't amongst them. What's going on there?

 

There must be a reason for it and the only obvious one is that they've already got the Easdales on side (for their shares or vote) or come to some kind of agreement/arrangement.

[foggy dewhurst 0]

if ally is forced out Walter will walk away lets hope a middle ground can be reached .

[the gunslinger 3,366]

the green camp making trouble for walter through their pet scrote?

[chilledbear 16]

By Chris McLaughlin

Senior Football Reporter, BBC Scotland

Rangers chairman Walter Smith is on the brink of quitting his post at the club following days of bitter infighting at Ibrox.

The former manager has already indicated to some within the club that he will definitely walk away if boss Ally McCoist is forced out and he may even go as early as this week.

McCoist reacted with fury after former chief executive Charles Green returned to the club as a paid consultant and indicated the manager's position could be under threat.

Green was quoted in a national newspaper saying that McCoist's position might not be safe even if he delivered the League One title - he also reiterated his claim that the current Rangers squad is the worst in the club's history.

McCoist described Green's behaviour as appalling and insisted the man, who stepped down back in April, was an embarrassment to the club.

Charles Green and Ally McCoist

Charles Green and Ally McCoist have had their differences in the past

It is now clear that the pair will not work together and one will have to go before the club can make any attempt to move forward.

That has led to Smith indicating that he may have to step down from the position he has held since May.

The bust-up came just hours after the current chief executive Craig Mather hit out at a group of shareholders who have made steps to remove him from his position.

The group, thought to be led by Scottish businessman Jim McColl, want the removal of Mather and fellow directors Brian Stockbridge and Bryan Smart.

Mather, who has only been in the position permanently since last month, called the move ill-timed and ill-informed.

Some within the club also believe that the rival faction's attempts to wrestle control also leaves the chairman exposed.

Smith was involved in a takeover attempt with McColl last year and will not back Mather in denouncing the attempts force boardroom change.

 

http://t.co/cv1W1ZLSIx

[ian1964 10,761]

CONFUSED Rangers fans want straight answers as to why Charles Green is back at Ibrox.

 

The outspoken Yorkshireman’s stunning return to the club as a “consultant” sparked a weekend of turmoil.

 

Green, left, quit as chief executive in April before being cleared by an internal investigation over claims of close links with former owner Craig Whyte during last year’s takeover. He was back on Friday, but within hours of his return, a Stock Exchange statement revealed a group of Ibrox shareholders were aiming to remove key board members.

 

In addition, Green’s public insistence that manager McCoist must win a domestic cup or face the threat of the axe sparked a furious response from the gaffer after the weekend loss at Forfar.

 

The club has now been plunged back into chaos and Chris Graham of The Rangers Standard believes there is one major question the fans want an answer to.

 

Graham said: “It’s fair for the supporters to ask: Why has he come back?

 

“What has changed in two months that didn’t make him suitable to be here then and suitable now?

 

“The consultant role, I find baffling. If he is there to improve investor relations and then you have up to 30 per cent of investors calling for an EGM, followed by a public spat with the manager, it’s not exactly a brilliant start, is it?”

 

Green’s comments, which appeared on the morning of the League Cup debacle at Forfar, infuriated McCoist.

 

And Graham said: “I don’t think Green had any place to say what he said.

 

“Most fans might well say that Rangers should be looking to do something in the cups this year with the squad they have built. But what right does he have as a newly-appointed consultant to speak to a newspaper ahead of a cup tie?

 

“I find it difficult to escape the conclusion Green has just come back to try to keep the value of his shares as high as possible before he and the rest eventually sell them.

 

“During his interview, I understand he said that he would not have allowed Ally to sign as many players.

 

“But two months ago he was talking about Ally getting £10million to spend.

 

“How do those things tally up? The contradiction is unbelievable.”

 

Graham insists the fans just want honest answers and concluded: “The support are pretty sick of all of this. It’s going to develop into another civil war and it is fair enough to say the fans are split.

 

“There are still some who look at some of the stuff Green did in the beginning and think it is no bad thing he is coming back.

 

“But I would say that, after Ally’s comments on Saturday, there should be a few alarm bells ringing among them.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-fans-want-answers-charles-2125418

[chilledbear 16]

And there's more . . . Keith Jackson

 

http://t.co/uvQFpyYfBG

 

Keith Jackson

By

Keith Jackson

Keith Jackson: Charles Green is back at Rangers, so what does Walter Smith do now?

 

KEITH looks at the latest shocking twist in the tale at Ibrox and what Rangers legend Walter Smith must do for the good of the club he loves.

 

5 Aug 2013 08:02

 

 

IT’S time for Walter Smith to go. To pick up his integrity and his professional reputation and put as much distance between them and Rangers as he possibly can.

 

He should not wait a minute longer or put himself through any more pain. There is life beyond the red brick facade of Ibrox Stadium and it’s time for Smith, a doting grandad, to cut loose and enjoy it.

 

He has given most of the last 30 years of his life to Rangers. But now Rangers are sucking the life out of him. For his own good and for the sake of his sanity, Smith must end it all. He must do walking away.

 

And he should do it today because the sooner he does, the sooner he can explain to the supporters who to back in the battle for control. And why.

 

The return of Charles Green to this basketcase of a club is Smith’s last straw. It is also proof that, although he sits at the top of the table as chairman, he’s been rendered almost powerless.

 

With an EGM on the horizon and shareholders openly revolting, Smith has become a hostage to fortune. He is unable to exert any control over those around him as this omnishambles thunders on towards its messy end and so now he must leave them to it.

 

Let’s be very clear. Smith has very little time for Green and others on that board, including financial director Brian Stockbridge who has somehow clung to his job despite being exposed by this paper as a man of dubious conduct.

 

It was Smith who drove Green out as chief executive in April after delivering a speech of Churchillian quality during a Saturday summit at Murray Park.

 

He talked about what Rangers meant to him and many thousands of others. To illustrate his point, he produced a grainy old photo of himself with his own grandad, on one of their first ever matchday visits to Ibrox.

 

He opened his soul on that day while pleading with the rest of the room to abide by the standards which have been handed down through the years by the club’s custodians. Standards which would automatically exclude the likes of Green, Stockbridge, Imran Ahmad and their old associate Craig Whyte.

 

And, although it seemed to some at the time as if Smith had succeeded, the truth is Green never really went away.

 

Yes, he may have used some of the millions he squeezed out of Rangers to set himself up in France but he wasn’t going to sit on those big Yorkshire hands forever. Not when there were more blue pounds to be grabbed.

 

It is my understanding that, last week, Smith stonewall refused to sanction Green’s return to the board. But that he found himself almost entirely isolated.

 

Which is why a compromise was fudged to appoint Green as a ‘consultant’. This was done against Smith’s wishes.

 

No sooner had Green returned than he was running his mouth to a newspaper, infuriating manager Ally McCoist who blamed that interview for his team’s latest humiliating cup defeat at Forfar. What an unedifying mess this club has become. Smith has too much class to stay amongst it any longer. He is not cut out for all of this Machiavellian skulduggery and devious deception.

 

Smith is a straight shooter who prides himself on his own honesty and his love for his football club. But, by staying, he now endangers his legacy at Ibrox.

 

His efforts have been valiant and selfless. He had no wish to get involved and only squared it with himself on the basis that it would be better to be on the inside as a potential whistle blower.

 

But somehow it overwhelmed him.

 

From not wishing to be on the board at all, Smith found himself as its chairman, replacing the bloodied Malcolm Murray on May 30.

 

Now, two months on, there is nothing more he can give. There is no way for him to bring this broken board back together. He is presiding over a chaos which cannot be fixed but which needs to be demolished and started again.

 

Smith should not hang around for such an inglorious ending. Rather, he should help to accelerate it by unburdening himself and telling a bewildered support exactly what has been going on behind the scenes.

 

He should confess to allowing his name and his reputation to be hijacked by others who have no interest in doing what is best for Rangers. Only for themselves.

 

Smith could also take time to explain what really is going on with chief executive Craig Mather, who was shoehorned into Green’s old job on an enormously lucrative contract despite having no obvious qualifications.

 

What is the deal with this guy who, to all intents and purposes, appears to have bought himself a job when he became one of Green’s investors?

 

Do Smith and McCoist really believe in Mather? Or have they been encouraged to endorse this man by the club’s internal Politburo?

 

Mather embarrassed himself on Saturday with a statement that called for all involved at the club to get back to focussing on football – but which, conflictingly, was released half an hour before kick-off in Forfar.

 

Without being bold enough to name names, he also launched a malevolent attack on Paul Murray and Jim McColl, who have united along with a hefty percentage of the institutional investors to take on the board.

 

McColl and Murray have been given a mandate by the big hitters in London to sweep aside Mather, Stockbridge and non-executive director Bryan Smart. In other words, to clean up the mess around Smith.

 

Both are wealthy men. McColl topped Scotland’s rich list just a couple of years ago and, although there is something jarring about using this word to describe anyone around the post-Whyte Rangers, is a confirmed ‘billionaire’.

 

So they are not in it to make money or for ‘self gain’ as Mather claims. Also both Murray and McColl did more than anyone else to try to save Rangers from the clutches of Whyte and then Green. But they were denied that chance because of the closeness of the relationship that bound Whyte, Green and administrators Duff and Phelps together.

 

The sale of Rangers was conducted in a closed shop and maybe if Mather knew anything about the depths that were stooped he wouldn’t chose to come across all high and mighty now.

 

Mather was attempting to rewrite history with his words (they were HIS words right?) whilst making himself out as the one man fans could trust.

 

A Johnny-come-lately associate of Green versus McColl, Murray and Frank Blin, three lifelong Rangers fans with impeccable business backgrounds. Good luck with that.

 

But again, it is essential that Smith’s views in all of this are aired in public.

 

Sitting in silence and despair is no longer an option for the man who may in time be regarded as the greatest contributor of all to this club’s history.

 

Smith may have thought, in order to protect that legacy, he had to stay and fight the good fight on the inside.

 

But the longer he stays gagged and bound by stock exchange regulations, the more damage will be done around him. For Rangers’ sake and for his own, Smith must go. And he must go with one almighty bang.

[Cotter 0]

I'm not sure I've heard stronger words spoken by a football manager than Ally's post match catharsis on Saturday. Regardless of the unacceptable result, you have to wonder how the fuck we can possibly be split on this issue. Green is rotten. Walter and Ally say so - end of story. The sooner he sells up and leaves the better.

[der Berliner 3,798]

BTW folks, we should be in the clear that the sports media in Scotland, after we handed them the story of their lifes, pounce on ever uttering that echoes from Ibrox (which is sad enough) and will milk this all as long as they can squeeze a drop out of it. I for one will not believe a word that comes out of Scrote, even if he tells me that today is Monday. The rest of that horrible lot, as you can read above, followed suit. For all we know, much of that info comes from Scrote, probably via his suggested link to Easdale? Am I to expect that Smith talks to Easdale and all his other fellow directors (especially of the "opposite" faction) all the time and about him going to chuck it? Obviously, we all know that even the Green-faction will think twice ere sending Smith away or let him harbour thoughts of going. For it would be a massive PR disaster. That aid, even if that's the case, what would happen?

 

BTW, do we actually know how the requisition was tabled? By the sound of it, it looked rather agressively. If it was done that way, bad enough. You would have thought that these men talk to one another. If it was done after some talking took place, was it more the "opposition's bluster" that got all folk animated? Mather's outspoken statement was rather unexpected.

[Super Cooper 0]

Rangers are keeping the media alive. The only show in town.

[ian1964 10,761]

Personally I don't think WS should leave,especially if the rHecord & Jackson is saying he should!. The board room battles are raging and will continue and the reason WS is there is because he is a Rangers man and has the trust of the fans, when any of the Scottish mHedia tells me one thing I automatically think the opposite.