Keith Jackson: Taking a risk is part of life in football...

[ian1964 10,761]

...........just ask Ronny Deila, Malky McKay and Rangers investors.

 

TAKING a risk is part of daily life in football but while Ronny Deila will probably get away with his team selection at Inverness, George Letham may regret loaning his money to Rangers.

 

IF anyone out there needed reminding football is for the risk takers at least the events of the last week will have served some kind of purpose.

 

On the face of it, some gambles make sense based on sound logic, like Ronny Delia’s decision to sacrifice Kris Commons to stiffen up Celtic’s chances of accessing the Champions League’s hole in the wall. Others not so much.

 

(I’m looking at you Brendan Rodgers – the only manager in the world who might see the appeal in selling one of the game’s two greatest liabilities, then replacing him with the other, much less talented one.)

 

Some of them will work. Some will backfire spectacularly, like Deila’s decision to take his reserves to Inverness at the weekend.

 

All will be forgiven, of course, if tomorrow night a revitalised Celtic complete the job they started in Maribor last week and bank the club another £20 million of UEFA’s loot.

 

With that kind of cash at stake Deila had every reason to prioritise the return tie, especially given the extent of Celtic’s dominance in the domestic league.

 

In fact, this one will only come back to bite him on the bum if ICT are still sitting top of the table with four games to go, rather than with just the four played.

 

But, when all’s said and done, they’re all punts at the end of the day. Football is jam packed with punts.

 

Just look at Malky Mackay who didn’t even realise the risk involved in sending ‘inappropriate’ text messages from his company phone until it was too late and Cardiff owner Vincent Tan had got his little leather gloves all over them.

 

Mackay is now in the horrible position of trying to defend the indefensible while pleading for his professional career.

 

Many will argue he deserves all that’s coming to him which is perfectly understandable given the shockingly prejudiced nature of the remarks which were swapped in private but which have now been consumed by a horrified public. And they may well be correct.

 

But should it not also be possible to feel sympathy for Mackay on a human level without being branded as some kind of apologist or even worse a like-minded bigot?

 

There is no defending the language used in those exchanges between Mackay and his then colleague Iain Moody.

 

In fact, some of it is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the inner psyche of whoever was responsible. That man may even be in need of some professional help.

 

But, even so, there is also something grotesque and – in many quarters – hypocritical about the feeding frenzy which has been triggered by the release of these exchanges.

 

A blood lust has developed here and Mackay the man is being savaged on an endless loop on 24-hour TV.

 

It should be difficult for us all to watch but these days too many people care more about demanding their pound of flesh than in showing any sort of human compassion. And all this over a risk Mackay obviously didn’t even realise he was taking at the time.

 

There are football managers out there, some of them a lot closer to home, who may now be breaking out in cold sweats at the thought of what the IT crowd might uncover if ordered to go trawling through company phones and computers by their superiors. Some might even get involved in charity stunts in the hope of winning over a dubious public.

 

At this point I should probably thank James and Sandy Easdale for the Ice Bucket Challenge nomination which came my way on Saturday night. Challenge reluctantly accepted by the way.

 

The irony here is that, at a time while apparently everyone inside Ibrox seems so keen to splash around for good causes, Big Sandy might be about to have to take an altogether different and far more painful bath before the week is out.

 

Back in February of this year Easdale first showed his philanthropic side when he handed Rangers £500,000 in an emergency loan to keep the floodlights switched on.

 

Big-hearted hedge fund managers Laxey Partners (now there’s an oxymoron) were also prepared to pony up a further £1m as part of the bail-out package until, that is, concerned Rangers fan George Letham stepped in to offer up the same amount on far more favourable terms.

 

Letham was doing his club the ultimate solid. Handing over an enormous sum of money and protecting it from a potential asset grab by Laxey who demanded security against the Albion Car Park and Edmiston House as part of the conditions.

 

The loans were supposed to be repaid as soon as the club had banked its first £1.5m in season ticket sales and by no later than the close of the last business day of August.

 

Well, by my reckoning, that means the Rangers board now has until around 5pm on Friday to settle its debt with Letham and Easdale while also meeting another monthly wage bill on Thursday.

 

If indeed it was the intention of chief executive Graham Wallace to repay this cash from money raised by a new share issue – and he did say it would be launched in August – then he is running out of time.

 

Once again the situation behind the scenes at Ibrox is becoming dreadfully serious but while Easdale can afford to play it for laughs in his position at the top of the staircase, Letham must be wondering why on earth he was prepared to take such an expensive risk in the first instance.

 

Is that an ice bath or an iceberg dead ahead?

[Frankie 8,662]

The issue of the Letham/Easdale loans is an interesting one.

 

We've supposed to have sold circa 23,000 season tickets so why weren't the loans paid from that? There has to have been some sort of negotiation made between the club and these guys but we may not find out what until the next share issue is finally detailed.

[True_Ger_1872 2]

The issue of the Letham/Easdale loans is an interesting one.

 

We've supposed to have sold circa 23,000 season tickets so why weren't the loans paid from that? There has to have been some sort of negotiation made between the club and these guys but we may not find out what until the next share issue is finally detailed.

 

Was there not an option for these loans to be repaid in shares? If so, would we have known by now if this option was taken up via an LSE announcement? Or would such an issue of shares to pay for these loans require shareholder approval?

[Rangersitis 0]

Even if there has been a renegotiation of the terms, there will never be a good time for them to repay those sums. It's like a householder using one credit card to pay off another - all it is doing is digging a deeper hole.

[Frankie 8,662]

Was there not an option for these loans to be repaid in shares? If so, would we have known by now if this option was taken up via an LSE announcement? Or would such an issue of shares to pay for these loans require shareholder approval?

 

Yeah, that's kind of the point I was making (badly) by mentioning the share issue.

[buster. 5,257]

The issue of the Letham/Easdale loans is an interesting one.

 

We've supposed to have sold circa 23,000 season tickets so why weren't the loans paid from that? There has to have been some sort of negotiation made between the club and these guys but we may not find out what until the next share issue is finally detailed.

 

One way or tuther there should be news of whatever the current situation is this week.

The markets will surely need to know what is going on regards the loans/securities as the deadline passes.

 

As for the option re.shares

IIRC it didn't apply to the sum that was loaned.

It was an option regards accumulated interest.

 

Rangersitis

I'm due you a reply in the Lounge: will try to get it done today.