Ian Black - It's all about the money. Cash is King.

[Super Cooper 0]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/gordon-waddell-rangers-players-shrug-4678381

 

ALL for one – and every man for himself.

 

Clearly Ian Black’s motto for Rangers’ new era.

 

If ever you needed confirmation of the mink-lined vacuum some players live in, the Rangers midfielder was happy to provide it last week.

 

“The only time it affects you,” he said, talking about his club’s off-field circus, “is when it gets to the stage when you’re not getting paid.

 

“That’s the only time it will affect the players. Until then we don’t really pay attention to it.”

 

Ten staff made redundant, 10 lives ruined six weeks before Christmas, 10 families thrown into upheaval.

 

But as long as there’s unleaded for the Bentley and foie gras for the dinner table in the Black household, eh? Talk about being detached from reality.

 

A month of Black’s wages would have kept a couple of those staff – his fellow employees – in jobs for a year.

 

It never works that way, I get that. It’s never that simple.

 

Like when Gers plunged into admin what seems like a lifetime ago and the players took pay cuts on the guarantee that no staff would be emptied.

 

It was flawed logic at the heart of an even more flawed administration – but at least it showed the dressing room had some kind of conscience at the time, a little integrity. A base layer of decency.

 

Clearly not the case these days.

 

And perhaps wholly indicative that the complete Ashleyfication of the club is moving ever closer.

 

The ‘he said, she said’ debacle between the Easdales, David Somers, Dave King, George Letham, Brian Kennedy and the entire ensemble cast has become a daily weeping sore, a little more pus seeping out every few hours on the wires.

 

The court actions against those at the centre of the club’s shambolic descent.

 

The giant cartoon sticking plasters that are Mike Ashley’s temporary loans, covering over one burst financial pipe only for another one to spring a leak right next to it. Fred Quimby would’ve had a field day with this kind of material.

 

And those job losses. Always the staff, usually always the good guys who plod away in the background trying to keep the place ticking over while the bombs drop around them. You end up asking yourself who’s going to be left to switch the lights on and off, make the place function on a day to day basis, so many of them have been given deals.

 

Then again, is that all part of the plan? If there is a plan?

 

A few weeks ago, this column indulged in a little bit of devil’s advocation, asking whether a profit-oriented pragmatist such as Ashley wasn’t exactly what Rangers needed to get them running on an even keel, rather than the regimes who openly admitted to blowing £67m in 18 months.

 

What price will they pay for it, though?

 

Are Rangers just going to become a footballing branch of Sports Direct, a strip-lit, soulless outlet, centrally administered by faceless call-centre minions?

 

What will become of the Rangers Charity Foundation? What about all the work in the community they do? The Rangers Study Support Centre?

 

Are all these things still going to be funded, or will they be stripped away? Are they about to become a bare-bones operation without a care for what or who they represent?

 

Will they have any values, or is it simply about value?

 

From everything you hear about Ashley, he won’t give a toss about the periphery and the frippery.

 

But they are questions that need answers because these are all things that make a club. They’re constituent parts of something that’s bigger than 11 players, four stands and two goals.

 

Look at Celtic’s agm the other day. Look at how much is made of the culture of the club, its history, when it comes to things like the living wage and their staff being looked after.

 

Look at an organisation like Big Hearts and the amount they do in the community, how much retaining its reach meant to them when they emerged from admin.

 

Then look at Rangers and wonder what they’re going to look like when this is all done. If it’s ever all done.

 

Wonder at what point an Ian Black WILL care about what’s going on outside his cocoon and whether there will be anything left of them to care about anyway.

 

*************

 

Ian Black, your time is also up. Never have i disliked any Rangers player so much. The very definition of imposter. All this after the betting scandal and him asking fans "what the fuck do you expect" ? embarrassment.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Super Cooper

[Gazza_8 233]

He's just like any employee employed at any company around the world, he wants paid. I honestly don't see the problem. the reason why you're taking offence is because he's a footballer at the club we support.

[trublusince1982 243]

marketing dept must be on low wages if twenty grand covers a couple of the. Being paid off is horrible ,remember when it happened to me a month before xmas.Was a kick in the balls but it didnt ruin my life.

 

not a fan of ian black but was the guy not working as a painter or a builder to make ends meat not that long ago?

 

The DR have cost the club more money by printing false one sided negative stories than ian black will ever cost us.

 

Obviously the DR would rather we cut costs from the football side rather than the admin as that suits their agenda of trying to kill us off. First team wage ratio is the lowest in the country i would bet,but shhh.

[Super Cooper 0]

marketing dept must be on low wages if twenty grand covers a couple of the. Being paid off is horrible ,remember when it happened to me a month before xmas.Was a kick in the balls but it didnt ruin my life.

 

not a fan of ian black but was the guy not working as a painter or a builder to make ends meat not that long ago?

 

The DR have cost the club more money by printing false one sided negative stories than ian black will ever cost us.

 

Obviously the DR would rather we cut costs from the football side rather than the admin as that suits their agenda of trying to kill us off. First team wage ratio is the lowest in the country i would bet,but shhh.

 

Footballing costs are well over 50% of turnover. Probably nearer 70% of this years turnover which could be our lowest in 25 years. Unsustainable and unacceptable.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

marketing dept must be on low wages if twenty grand covers a couple of the. Being paid off is horrible ,remember when it happened to me a month before xmas.Was a kick in the balls but it didnt ruin my life.

 

not a fan of ian black but was the guy not working as a painter or a builder to make ends meat not that long ago?

 

The DR have cost the club more money by printing false one sided negative stories than ian black will ever cost us.

 

Obviously the DR would rather we cut costs from the football side rather than the admin as that suits their agenda of trying to kill us off. First team wage ratio is the lowest in the country i would bet,but shhh.

It doesn't really matter what our wage ratio is because either way we're broke and struggle to pay our wages each month.

 

Also, regarding Black. I've no idea why he still gets a wage given he admitted to betting against us. I find that bizarre.

[Calgacus 8]

How has the Daily Record cost the club money? A lot of their stuff turned out to be true.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

How has the Daily Record cost the club money? A lot of their stuff turned out to be true.

Most of it did.

[Scott7 6,002]

I'm disappointed that Rangers ever signed Black - poor player and not the sort of man that Struth would have had around. The sooner he's gone the better.

 

But we don't know what question he was asked when he said the words quoted. Was it: "Hey, Blackie, are you sorry for the guys who lost their jobs?" Or was it: "The team were poor on Saturday. Is all the financial turmoil getting at you?"

[buster. 5,184]

It doesn't really matter what our wage ratio is because either way we're broke and struggle to pay our wages each month.

 

Also, regarding Black. I've no idea why he still gets a wage given he admitted to betting against us. I find that bizarre.

 

I think his approach to betting on our games gave an example of how he views Rangers, it's strictly business and that he's passing through with no emotional ties to the club.

 

In some ways you have to salute his honesty in what he says in the article. If that is what he thinks, then he has told the reporter straight without any of the usual bullshit spin attached. At the sametime, I find what he says abhorent but confirmation of how todays society operates. Do they really call it all "progress" ?

 

Part of the feeling against Black is down to him abusing the Trade Descriptions Act, being called a hardman but being made of chocolate and being part of a central midfield unit that has very little creativity, but then that is down to the manager.

[Frankie 8,562]

The painter/decorator stuff was invented by Black and didn't actually happen.