The Right Man At The Wrong Time - (latest from McMurdo)

[Zappa 0]

Latest blog from McMurdo.........

 

The Right Man At The Wrong Time

September 8, 2014

 

Rangers fans should be in no doubt that the present rights issue announced by the club is emergency funding which will only be a sticking plaster solution to the club’s financial condition.

 

So how did this come about?

 

Back in July, with the stranglehold on season tickets imposed by recalcitrant sections in the Rangers support, Graham Wallace tried to raise £10m. He failed miserably with only Laxey and Miton out of 20 institutional investors saying they would hold their corner. Step forward Mike Ashley who, upon hearing this, said he would then underwrite a share issue for £4m and provide a further loan of £4m with the strict stipulation that the club was to live within its means.

 

Like other shareholders, Ashley was concerned at the slack controls on spending imposed upon team manager Ally McCoist. What happened next was that the SFA predictably said no to this option, due to dual ownership rules – “rules” which I understand there to be a dispute concerning their existence officially. But that is a whole other story…

 

The SFA’s nixing of Ashley’s involvement along the proposed lines has meant that the board has no option but to run with the emergency share issue. Other funding options spoken of in this blog have not, I understand, been brought to actuality in time.

 

Shareholders are, rightly or wrongly, fuming at Wallace because the rights issue will only stave off looming financial pressures.

 

There is also consternation that Wallace put out a statement to the Stock Exchange prior to the rights issue that there were no more 1p option shares. This is clearly not the case. Charles Green has 2 million option shares at 1p although he has not yet stated whether or not he will ever exercise them. This is hard to miss as it is in both his contract and the IPO prospectus.

 

Jim Traynor is also understood to have 300,000 option shares at 1p.

 

There is mounting dissatisfaction with Wallace’s performance among the shareholders. It is also the worst-kept secret in football that the CEO is growing increasingly distant from the rest of the board.

 

Wallace came to the club with glowing references. However, you get the feeling he perhaps came a year or two too early. At the moment Rangers need more of a rainmaker, something that is not really in Wallace’s locker.

 

It could be argued that to more bureaucratic CEOs like Wallace fall the lot of having to clear up after the rainmakers. Raising cash, sourcing investment and generating revenues is messy work and not for those who enjoy crossing i’s and dotting t’s. Wallace may feel he is being harshly judged given he is dealing with the fall-out of the previous pioneering regime. But that was the job he agreed to undertake.

 

To be fair to Wallace, he has had to operate under intolerable pressure thanks to the constant interference of the UoF and SoS. How he dealt with this has perhaps been his undoing, choosing a policy of appeasement rather than stiff resistance. As a result, Wallace lost the support some time ago of those fans who back the board. Isolating yourself from your core support is a stupid move.

 

Now Wallace is paying the price. He appears to have bought into the prospect of Dave King being the club’s saviour in a new shares issue. This prospect is considered a flimsy one, even by some King supporters. King’s popularity has plummeted among the support after his ludicrous season ticket fund idea, which proved to be a laughable attempt to hold the club to ransom. Wallace’s seeming alignment with King has damaged his own standing in the eyes of many fans.

 

As I blogged previously, this has all resulted in shareholders looking to replace Graham Wallace in the very near future.

 

This is sobering stuff and not the kind of thing Rangers supporters would want to be reading about in this critical season.

 

However, at a time when getting right the off-field personnel is as critical as the players on the pitch, it is to be hoped that Rangers can make the right decisions, even if it is tough and uncomfortable to do.

 

We must remember that it is not about personalities but about the good of the club.

 

It would be easy to say that the board appointed the wrong man to the position of CEO.

 

But maybe it would be kinder and more accurate to say they got the right man.

 

Just at the wrong time.

[rbr 1,256]

Here we go , the start of the end for Wallace and as you can see he is getting the blame for the whole mess , whilst the rest of the board and wee Bills masters get of scot free , who'd a thunk it eh !!!!!

[Rangersitis 0]

It's incessant now.

[buster. 5,200]

McMurdo, a man (or Judas Blogger) who has burnt his bridges.

 

Bear in mind that his info comes from the same Toxic man who helped design the fans board/membership scheme.

[Zappa 0]

Here we go , the start of the end for Wallace and as you can see he is getting the blame for the whole mess , whilst the rest of the board and wee Bills masters get of scot free , who'd a thunk it eh !!!!!

 

I agree rbr, but I'm struggling to defend Wallace at all because he hasn't done what he immediately said needed done when he arrived almost 10 months ago, which is significantly cut the Club's cost base. If he's cut it at all it's only by a relatively small amount because we're still making absolutely massive losses of reportedly WELL over half a million pounds a month.

 

The other killer blow for Wallace is that if he and Nash conducted that 120-day business review (which ended up being overdue) and didn't find out about Green's Sports Direct naming rights deal with Ashley or that Green still has share options he can exercise, then what else has been missed? What other skeletons are still to be found when someones opens a cupboard that hasn't been opened in a while?

[barca72 440]

I agree rbr, but I'm struggling to defend Wallace at all because he hasn't done what he immediately said needed done when he arrived almost 10 months ago, which is significantly cut the Club's cost base. If he's cut it at all it's only by a relatively small amount because we're still making absolutely massive losses of reportedly WELL over half a million pounds a month.

 

The other killer blow for Wallace is that if he and Nash conducted that 120-day business review (which ended up being overdue) and didn't find out about Green's Sports Direct naming rights deal with Ashley or that Green still has share options he can exercise, then what else has been missed? What other skeletons are still to be found when someones opens a cupboard that hasn't been opened in a while?

 

In fairness, as soon as this SportsDirect thing was made public, I immediately thought that this was one of these 'onerous contracts'. It must be a real burden to men of the calibre of Wallace and Nash to be denied the ability to enhance any income streams that may be available.

p.s. This is NOT and endorsement of the present board.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Wallace was never going to survive doing what was right for rangers not greenco.

 

Mather didn't and he was on the inside.

[forlanssister 3,114]

The IPO gives Green's salary as £360k with options to the value of twice that which assuming like Stockbridge's is @ 70p = 1,028,571 shares.

 

One has to wonder what is the most incompetent McMurdo's arithmetic of Deloittes omitting the facts from the accounts?

 

There is the possibility that thinks God will turn it into 2,000,000 if Green ensures the timely arrival of the stipend .

[craig 5,199]

"previous pioneering regime"

 

Seriously, WTF ? "pioneering" - Did his spell check auto-correct "profiteering" for him and he missed it ?

[Rangersitis 0]

Wallace was never going to survive doing what was right for rangers not greenco.

 

Mather didn't and he was on the inside.

 

What has Wallace achieved that can be described as 'doing right by Rangers'?