ian1964 10,724 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,724 Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 Rangers chairman Dave King must spend now to stop Celtic winning 10 in a row says Walter Smith The former Ibrox gaffer has spoken exclusively to mark the 10th anniversary of his return to the hotseat in 2007, when he replaced Paul le Guen as manager. By Keith Jackson, 06:00, 10 JAN 2017 Walter Smith believes the chasm currently separating Rangers and Celtic is bigger now than at any time during his Nine in a Row reign. And the former Ibrox boss has called on Dave King to stump up the cash required to give manager Mark Warburton a fighting chance of loosening the Parkhead club’s vice like grip on the top flight title. Smith has spoken exclusively to Record Sport to mark the 10th anniversary of his return to the Ibrox hotseat in 2007, when he replaced Paul le Guen as manager. As part of a candid Q&A, the former Scotland boss says Warburton must find a way to stop Celtic's years of dominance before the patience of the club’s supporters runs out. Yesterday the Englishman was tying up one loan deal for Bournemouth’s Emerson Hyndman while hoping to finalise another for Arsenal’s Jon Toral. But Smith believes the man in charge will need greater financial help from above if he is to halt Celtic’s march towards ten successive championships. He said: “Even allowing for Celtic’s circumstances in the early 90’s they still had some good players. They still had a decent enough team. “I think the gap is bigger now than it was in those early stages. And some of the other Scottish teams - Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United - were far better then than they are at the moment. “But for Rangers to get access to Champions League money they may have to take a gamble and risk going into debt. “You can print this, it is an easy headline to say Celtic will go on to win ten in a row. But it is difficult to keep that level of success in any football club, so who can say? “All you can say from a Rangers perspective, is everyone involved with the club knows what they have to do to get there. Everybody can make all the noises they want about being sensible but it boils down to being prepared to take that gamble. “Celtic have done that and their successes are outweighing their failures. “The problem at Rangers is, you’ve got to do it. It’s the same if you’re a manager or a board member, you’ve got to find a way to win. “A couple of the people who are there at the moment have been involved in the board at Rangers previously so they should know what it takes to make Rangers successful. So that’s what they have to aim for and I’m sure they are doing that. “But you don’t get a lot of time. The thing that bothers me is, with not having a lot of time, the longer it goes on is the biggest aspect becomes the deterioration of the support. “The Rangers support has been nothing short of phenomenal over the period of them being in the lower leagues. “But now that they are back and their biggest rivals are in such a strong position, it’s hard for everybody at Rangers to take. But the manager needs to find a way to win and the board have to find a way of getting Rangers back into that position. “It’s not going to be easy. I don’t envy any of them the task at the present moment. ”Historically, Rangers are a winning team. The support expects it. If you are the manager then you have to find a way of getting there. “The board will know they need a level of investment in the team. Print this please, it’s not a criticism. I know the problems they have, everybody knows the problems. “But I keep hearing all the time that Rangers problems were because of debt. The strange thing is Rangers didn’t have any debt when the problems started. “They need investment in the team just now. It doesn’t matter what anyone says and the board has to find a way of doing that. “They have shown they have enough to finish second in the league this season. Whether they do or not is another thing. “But will the Rangers support accept another year like that?” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-chairman-dave-king-must-9593420 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Hes not wrong. I feel this is all stage managed build up to a share issue. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barebear 37 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Not many successful teams don't have debt. But as long as each stakeholder is making money, and the bank is creaming interest, there's not a huge problem. Cash in the bank is a luxurious cushion for most businesses, and it's useless for a football team who constantly need turnover, players in and out. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Hes not wrong. I feel this is all stage managed build up to a share issue. Something going on. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleam 5,948 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I think that there may be difficulties with just "going into debt". Given recent history, current civil and criminal legal cases, and the present attitudes of lenders to 'risk' it is unlikely that (m)any financial institutions will be running to extend loans, or overdraft facilities. Nor will (m)any be queuing to take equity, if there was a shares issue. Is there a raft of bluenose hedge funds out there? Looking to park cash for the foreseeable future? I think that the situation will prevail for some time, medium term, rather than short term. Investment via share purchase, or lending, therefore, in this timescale, will most likely come from those with an emotional commitment to the Club, from individual and aggregated fans. Of course, if somebody such as Red Bull decided to take an interest, then all bets would be off. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,747 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 “But will the Rangers support accept another year like that?” Indeed,but who can tell. For all the right things in that article, it is based on ... ”Historically, Rangers are a winning team. The support expects it. If you are the manager then you have to find a way of getting there. ... and just saying "investment needs to be made" is fine for someone who had the luxury of a chairman throwing millions after him (whether his own or not) and raking in European money on a yearly basis. In the stark reality of the here and now - and these aren't just "problems everyone knows", but hard facts - we have just been promoted to the top flight and our boardroom members are not in a position (or perhaps willing) to spend 10 or 20m to get us to challenge Celtic ... right now. It is all fine for Sir Walter to ask for investment, maybe he can get his backers from the night before the admins sold us to GreenCo to invest? THAT would be more useful than the above. BTW, nice to see Jackson wrote the article of yesterday as some sort of his own musings and now backs "his" views up with one of the Old Stars of Rangers managers ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 While we need a major investment at some point, I still believe this is jumping the gun a bit. As we keep saying, it's a transitional year and that's most obviously because our income, outside season tickets, will not increase significantly until the end of this season. I think this year we all know we had to take the hit of not quite competing with Celtic, although in my personal view, finishing third or worse would be a bad setback. By the season end, there will be noticeable higher income streams from prize money, TV and commercial deals that were minuscule in the second tier due to the way the SPFL work. So it's imprudent to spend too highly while we wait for that to materialise, when we still would be unlikely to do better than 2nd place. There is also the hopeful aspiration of earning something tangible from the Europa League next season which could boost things further. All this addition income puts us in a better basis to borrow or spend cash raised on an improved team and so challenge for the title. Other problems for income come from the high profile court battles with Ashley, where the board seem confident of getting some kind of result in the near future. But then there is also the issue where the board don't as yet have full control of the club: twice they have been defeated on a resolution for them to invest in the club in the way they wish. I think that is putting back the share issues which would allow us the cash to put into the team. To a layman, I would guess that that lack of power also makes it more unattractive for Kingco to invest larger amounts as I can see why they wouldn't want to do that without full control of the club. So I don't think the question should be about whether there should be investment in the team, more pertinently it is - when is the right time? I don't agree that the time is now. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 850 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Is the gap bigger now than it was in 1992-94? Celtic were regularly finishing around 4th for a few seasons while we look set to finished second in our FIRST season back. It took Celtic 2-3 years until 95-96 to really challenge and that's about the gap I expect us to be going for it also, not the 4-5 years that has been mentioned. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,747 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 ... and on a sidenote, Celtic have been carving out results as well. Yes, they are the dominant force, but all things considered, they are having a fine season even by their standards and money. Bad for us, as it makes the reading of the table even more hurtful ... but essentially also a reflection of their means. Whether such seasons (or even this) will continue like that is, as always, anyone's guess. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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