Gordon Waddell : Selling Lee Wallace could be the only option for Rangers

[ian1964 10,761]

GORDON believes that Wallace is the only real saleable asset in the squad and ponders whether Ally McCoist has been trying to build a massive lead at the top of the table in case of Admin II.

 

THERE'S a lot of talk right now about what they’re not prepared to do at Rangers.

 

The players aren’t prepared to take a wage cut.

 

The manager’s not prepared to be party to a fire sale of his squad.

 

The fans aren’t prepared to give their season ticket dough to a regime they don’t trust.

 

In their own way, they’re all absolutely right.

 

The players signed contracts in good faith. The manager’s agreed a 50 per cent cut and his wage bill is down to 30 per cent of turnover, a totally sound ratio.

 

The supporters have had successive regimes pee on their shoes then tell them it’s raining.

 

Why trust anyone?

 

They do realise, though, that at some point someone is going to have to do something?

 

Because those behind the scenes? You think they’re going to be persuaded to take their snouts out of the trough?

 

Graham Wallace isn’t looking at the household budget and deciding they must pull the belt in a notch for a couple of months. Buy value pack instead of Hovis and Lurpak for their bread and butter.

 

He’s looking at a business run so badly by his predecessors that it could have been doled out as a Primary Seven project to the local schools and it would have come back in better shape.

 

And each day that everyone refuses to do anything, they lose another 30 grand. That can only end one way. How he can guarantee it won’t is beyond me when he’s trying to do a three-point turn with the QEII in a bathtub.

 

At some point something’s going to have to give – and if it’s not the sale of Lee Wallace, you get the feeling the other Wallace could get to the end of his 120-day review and say “Y’know what, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

 

Lee Wallace is their only option. And that’s a sad reflection of the wastefulness of the past two years. The rest of the squad is worth bupkis.

 

Okay, you’d maybe get a few quid for Cammy Bell. Likewise Lewis Macleod if he was fit enough to go in January. But all the others who’ve been brought in on five, six, seven grand a week?

 

Once just being a Rangers player would have given you a market value. Or being there would have made you a better player to a point where you’d attract interest.

 

But honestly, who would come in and actually pay anything for Dean Shiels, Ian Black or David Templeton right now?

 

They haven’t improved. They’ve gone backwards. They’re not assets at any point outside of the minutes they play for the team, only a drain on resources.

 

And even if you agreed to give them away just to get them off the wage bill, there’s not another club who would pay them what Rangers are giving them.

 

So they’ll stay exactly where they are. Won’t they, Mr Cribari?

 

They know what side their bread’s buttered on – and Graham Wallace knows they’ll settle for nothing less than Lurpak.

 

But as we’ve already pointed out, the players’ wage bill in itself isn’t a problem. The fact the rest of the wage bill outstrips it is.

 

As is the fact that it’s another four, maybe even five months before the season ticket cash starts coming in. IF it comes in.

 

The outgoings are there every month but the income isn’t. The walk-ups on a Saturday simply won’t cover it.

 

Yes, something significant has to give. And if it isn’t the sale of Wallace, what else is there?

 

Meantime, the share price falls with the penny-a-share fly-by-nights taking what profit they can while it’s still there.

 

The irony is that if the fans were organised, they could be taking advantage of a share price that’s come down from a high of 88p to 27p in less than a year.

 

The supporters could be seriously beefing up their stake instead of letting other institutions and hedge funds plunder them.

 

Then again, as I said a few weeks ago, they already wield enough power with their threat of a season ticket abstention to put the club back under as it is.

 

And it’s hard not to be cynical after two years of this – but there’s a bit of you that wonders whether the club might just force an administration again themselves.

 

That would be one way to shed a cost base they can’t get rid of by any other means, wouldn’t it?

 

It’s too ludicrous to contemplate though, right? Too many unknown risks attached to it.

 

Meanwhile the only ‘known’ is they’ll be docked 25 points.

 

But do it now and they’d still be second, guaranteed a play-off spot at worst.

 

And they would have 16 games to rein in a single-figure gap on a Dunfermline team they’ve still to play twice with a squad which, even cut in half, would still be multiple times bigger than their rivals.

 

Ally McCoist was asked about the scenario. Asked if they were in a hurry to get their lead up.

 

And he laughed.

 

Not the derisory laugh of someone who thought the idea was absurd. It was the nervous laugh of a man who knew it should SOUND ridiculous, but actually …

[Crimson Dynamo 128]

If we are really losing a million a month, then how would selling Lee Wallace solve that we'd make a profit for what? A month, maybe two?

[ranger_syntax 4,422]

The irony is that if the fans were organised, they could be taking advantage of a share price that’s come down from a high of 88p to 27p in less than a year.

 

The supporters could be seriously beefing up their stake instead of letting other institutions and hedge funds plunder them.

 

Then again, as I said a few weeks ago, they already wield enough power with their threat of a season ticket abstention to put the club back under as it is.

 

So simple that even a journalist can understand it.

[D'Artagnan 173]

So simple that even a journalist can understand it.

 

And if that happened RS I could see Whyte emerging from the shadows to claim credit as the architect of this ! ;-)

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Gordon Waddell is one of the better journalists; but selling Llee Wallace (a) wouldn't solve the problem and (b) isn't going to happen because he doesn't want to go anywhere.

 

A forced administration, highly unlikely but not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility.

 

However, Graham Wallace going if he can't get the job done; that's well within the bounds of possibility.

[der Berliner 3,803]

It is interesting that all and sundry focus on player sales and wages cut. How many have actually though about the idea that investment might come in too, as Wallace and Somers have their contacts in the wide world too? That, shock horror, the Easdales plough in those 20m? What sort of headline grabbing the journos would have to look after then? Once this wave of media-pushed semi-hysteria is over?

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

It is interesting that all and sundry focus on player sales and wages cut. How many have actually though about the idea that investment might come in too, as Wallace and Somers have their contacts in the wide world too? That, shock horror, the Easdales plough in those 20m? What sort of headline grabbing the journos would have to look after then? Once this wave of media-pushed semi-hysteria is over?

Cool dream.

[Zappa 0]

It is interesting that all and sundry focus on player sales and wages cut. How many have actually though about the idea that investment might come in too, as Wallace and Somers have their contacts in the wide world too? That, shock horror, the Easdales plough in those 20m? What sort of headline grabbing the journos would have to look after then? Once this wave of media-pushed semi-hysteria is over?

 

20 million what though? 20 million pennies? 20 million 5p pieces? 10p pieces? Used bus tickets?

[barca72 440]

It is interesting that all and sundry focus on player sales and wages cut. How many have actually though about the idea that investment might come in too, as Wallace and Somers have their contacts in the wide world too? That, shock horror, the Easdales plough in those 20m? What sort of headline grabbing the journos would have to look after then? Once this wave of media-pushed semi-hysteria is over?

 

All of them seem to want the Rangers support to accept the idea that we are handicapped and should accept this, hence slowing our rise to the top. No thank you, Wallace himself said there is no chance of administration 2. Deal with the situation but move forward and upward.