Popular Post 26th of foot 6,082 Posted November 27, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2018 "Toto, I've a feeling we're no longer in Kansas anymore". The production of the Wizard of Oz in 1938/39 is best remembered these days for bacchanalian depravity on and off set. The film had five Directors and ten screenwriters. The Munchkins were regaled as, 'pimps, hookers, and gamblers', the police regularly attended the hotel accommodating the actors to extinguish drunken violence and take statements on alleged sexual assault. A teenage Judy Garland was hooked on both uppers and downers, was touched up by a couple of members of the Lollipop Guild, and suffered regular bouts of violence from one of the Directors. The continuing willingness of folks to slip their feet into Dorothy's sparkly red slippers indicates their attraction to a certain darkness. The phrase, "Toto, I've a feeling we're no longer in Kansas anymore" is both an acknowledgement of change in circumstance and a celebration of arrival on the cusp of pernicious darkness? I remember reading a piece a dozen years past, it was an interview with the last surviving member of the Lollipop Guild. He opined the tremendous difficulty of shooting the long sequence of Dorothy's introduction to the Guild. It's a crowded scene requiring fixed smiles, dialogue and singing, choreographed movement amid changing long shots and closeups, and timing had to be on the money. There was an ever present threat and administration of violence, the cast were both punched and kicked. You could argue with the Director and his Overseers but there was no point, they had the Bullhorns, their amplification intimidated everyone. Simply, the Wizard of Oz is a homage to the Hectors in life. The biggest Bullhorn in the country resides in Pacific Quay, BBC Scotland is the NATIONAL broadcaster. The Lizard of Ouse resides by the river, brooding and soaking up the weak winter sunshine. She allows her Overseers to broadcast with impunity, the bullies are in control. DrStu' utilised the megaphone to name Jim Traynor for the third week in a row, and to ridicule a PQ colleague, Kenny McIntyre for the fifth week in a row. Cowan read out an e-mail from John of Uddingston(the show's Producer) proclaiming the biggest cringe was listening to McIntyre presenting a nightly version of Rangers greatest heroes, or Sportsound as it's formally known. DrStu' supported the drama by theatrical guffawing, culminating in, "absolutely"! It sounded scripted and rehearsed. Why is Donalda MacKinnon allowing DrStu' to continually bully a colleague? DrStu' does not allow his own vanity to be impinged. On Saturday, another e-mail from an Aberdonian was read, it identified DrStu' as a constant critic of Alex McLeish, the national coach. Further, this criticism was personal and to the detriment of the national team, finally asking for DrStu' to consider his position at BBC Scotland. Clearly, DrStu' does not see the responsibility that comes with access to the megaphone. Anyways, DrStu' came back to that particular e-mail twice in the next five minutes, he was concerned he was being isolated and he has a right to a different opinion. He supported Jum Spence's view that McLeish should not be appointed because he has an EBT(how does he share a studio with Billy Dodds and Steven Thomson) and voices off regularly about Big Eck's big house in Fulham. This all goes to prove that DrStu' has a first class ego, and a second class mind. BBC Scotland celebrated forty years of specific broadcasting last week, DrStu' has been at least a weekly fixture for two thirds of that time. He has survived a lot of changes because he is a Toadie. When Donalda MacKinnon was appointed, he announced, "I've met her once, I like her, I like her a lot". In his sixty-seventh year he has learned to hate more carefully. In 24 years he has gone from sneering at license fee paying Rangers supporters or, "h-u-ns and typical orange wankers" as he called us; to rocking his maternal Donegal born grandmother's name as a nom de guerre on the RTC Blog for five years. DrStu' no longer has to claim Rangers supporters ransacked Barcelona's cathedral in 1972, preventing a Rangers supporting colleague from sharing access to the microphone is sufficient to achieve his aim, 'a cleansing'. Accusing DrStu' of bullying will be met with his tell all retort, "not at all" but he remains consumed by hate, why is he intolerant of Kenny McIntyre? DrStu' views Bears as Munchkins and he knows the value of holding that Bullhorn. Another colleague, Chris McLaughlin has been a long term fixture at Beeb Scotland, he has never appeared on 'Off the Ball'. He refuses to do so, and has been promoted twice. DrStu' also knows the value of the off button on that Bullhorn. 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Roberts 246 Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 Bill Young at Rocksport has recently commented on the situation with the BBC. He says he'll discuss it in one of their shows, sometime soon i guess. Give him your opinion on twitter. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted November 27, 2018 Share Posted November 27, 2018 4 hours ago, stewarty said: Sums up about 90% of Scottish football pundits No kidding. Motherwell fans were complaining about Michael Stewart who had said that much of their win at the weekend was due to the performance of one player (cant remember his name)…. a player who had come on at 76 minutes and when the game was all but over. A player who Motherwell fans have said hasn't kicked a ball since the 2nd game of the season. Motherwell fans were adamant that Stewart couldn't possibly have watched the highlights. Muppets and, worse, paid muppets. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 19 hours ago, craig said: No kidding. Motherwell fans were complaining about Michael Stewart who had said that much of their win at the weekend was due to the performance of one player (cant remember his name)…. a player who had come on at 76 minutes and when the game was all but over. A player who Motherwell fans have said hasn't kicked a ball since the 2nd game of the season. Motherwell fans were adamant that Stewart couldn't possibly have watched the highlights. Muppets and, worse, paid muppets. big·ot /ˈbiɡət/ noun 1.a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions: Bigots and worse, paid bigots, to be be more accurate. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
26th of foot 6,082 Posted November 28, 2018 Author Share Posted November 28, 2018 19 hours ago, craig said: No kidding. Motherwell fans were complaining about Michael Stewart who had said that much of their win at the weekend was due to the performance of one player (cant remember his name)…. a player who had come on at 76 minutes and when the game was all but over. A player who Motherwell fans have said hasn't kicked a ball since the 2nd game of the season. Motherwell fans were adamant that Stewart couldn't possibly have watched the highlights. Muppets and, worse, paid muppets. Michael Stewart is a stupid person's idea of a clever person. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleam 5,939 Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 32 minutes ago, 26th of foot said: Michael Stewart is a stupid person's idea of a clever person. He certainly seems to think himself clever.........Aaah,....I see what you mean........ 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted November 28, 2018 Share Posted November 28, 2018 6 hours ago, 26th of foot said: Michael Stewart is a stupid person's idea of a clever person. If that eejit was looking in a mirror, his reflection would be the more intelligent one. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,744 Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 Quote Ibrox: Dave King and his Going Concern By Douglas Fraser Business/economy editor, Scotland 28 November 2018 Scotland business Share this with Email Share this with Facebook Share this with Twitter A big financial loss at Rangers International Football Club reflects big errors in spending, meaning a new regime for picking players The club does well at selling tickets, but it lags Celtic in other earnings Banks don't bankroll RIFC, so its directors and investors are doing so. For how long? There are lots of numbers in the accounts of Rangers International Football Club, as you would expect. The playing squad, in the year to last June, was up from 59 to 66, with total staff at Ibrox up from 179 to 202. Average attendance at home league matches was up to 49,200. The numeral that ought to relieve fans of the nearly-eponymous football club more than most is that it is now 65 months since Craig Whyte last threatened legal action. How do the numbers stack up? The former Ibrox chairman's gas seems to be at a peep, and the humiliating memories of the Craig Whyte fiasco are fading in the rear view mirror. When I say the football club is nearly eponymous, it's worth explaining to those outside the Old Firm orbit that this matters a lot, to some people. To refer to the corporate entity as Rangers Football Club is to, as the club's critics see it, to concede the claims of fans at Ibrox that the current crop of boys in blue are from the same lineage as the corporate entity of that name dating back to 1872. So the word "International" matters here. The corporate entity, created in 2012 to buy the Ibrox assets out of liquidation, is Rangers International Football Club. Whether the playing entity carries forward the older tradition, and its record of winning silverware, is not for me to judge. Or to care. That international monicker is an uncomfortable fit, because being International is what RIFC has most lacked in recent years. Having made it back into the premiership of Scottish football, Rangers had its first foray into European competition last year, with high hopes ( the only variety the faithful will contemplate ), and it bombed before the real season had even started. That helps explain why the numbers that really mattered at the club's Annual General Meeting in Ibrox were coloured not in black or blue, but in red. The club reported a £14.7m loss last year, which wasn't far from half of its £32.7m revenue. That income figure was up 12%, which is nice, but at the same time, expenses were soaring. Why? Another number: two managers took charge at Ibrox last season. They had a dismal time. They were spending on players with expectations of being far bigger than the club they are. You can see this as investment for the future. But it was a particularly poor investment, by the admission of the chairman Dave King. "Something went wrong," he concluded. The investment didn't lead to a commensurate rise in performance. And not only did the players not perform on the field: that shortfall made them less valuable in the transfer market. The accountants are able to measure just how bad it was. They account for the value of player registrations. As soon as you sign a player, the value "amortises" - that is, it declines until that contract is complete. In addition, there is impairment, which is the underperformance of assets, lowering their value beyond the effect of amortisation. Last year alone, directors had to accept an impairment on their playing assets of £3.3m. Along with amortisation, that contributed £7.6m to the 2017-18 loss, up from £1.8m the previous year. Meanwhile, the total wage bill was up from £15.8m to £21.5m. Selling players on Out of interest, how does that compare with another club with a similar sort of stadium size, fan base and aspiration? Let's take, for instance, Celtic Football Club. The Parkhead accounts for last year show amortisation of £8.8m. It's a bigger number if you have a more valuable squad. But Celtic's business model is to increase the value of its players and sell them on. Last year, it made a profit of more than £16m on the selling of players - or what accountants like to call "intangible assets". Such numbers can go up and down a lot, as big sales make for lumpy flows of moola. The other big numbers that matter at Celtic Park include merchandising, which last year hit £17.7m. For Rangers, that element of income is a sorry tale of dispute with Mike Ashley and Sports Direct. At Celtic, "multimedia and other commercial activities" include TV rights and sponsorship. That topped £40m last season - almost as much as the £43.6m from "football and stadium activities", which includes ticket sales. In total, the wage bill at Celtic was £59m to Rangers' £21m, its revenue was £101m to Rangers' £32m, and its profit was £17.3m to Rangers' £14.7m loss. For Rangers, there is always hope and expectation, and it seems this season to be pinned on psychology. According to the chairman, Dave King, there wasn't much method to the recruitment of a strengthened playing team. He attributes a happier run in Europe this season to the review carried out by director of football Mark Allan. "Very importantly, we have now incorporated key personal character traits that have to be present for anyone wishing to play for Rangers, or to be part of the management of this club. We have seen that technical excellence alone is insufficient to perform at a club like Rangers." In other words, modern sports psychology and management has finally made it to Ibrox, and is now being marshalled by manager Steven Gerrard. Digging deep RIFC now has Metro Bank on board, having lived without much banking support for several grim years. But that's not where it can look to bankroll losses. For that, it has directors, ploughing in loans and occasionally swapping them for equity. By the end of its financial year, in June, total external loans had mounted up to £23.4m. That's not a particularly healthy figure, as Rangers fans ought to know by now. It's lower now, because of a debt-for-equity swap worth £11m, carried out earlier this autumn. However, more money will be required - £4.6m more this season, with the first tranche required in January, and a further £3m more in the 2019-20 season. The more of that transferring into equity, the more dilution there will be of other shareholder stakes. The club might continue a Europa league run meets the fans' high expectations - we'll find out more about that on Thursday evening against Villarreal - and the added broadcasting rights with gate receipts could offset those numbers. But the accounts spell out very clearly that RIFC can only be considered a going concern because directors and other investors are willing to dig deep, and have promised to keep doing so. One big question is how long Rangers can afford to live beyond its means. Or to put it more positively: how long and how much will this investment strategy require before it delivers profitable results? It was a question put to Dave King at the AGM, to which the answer came: "As long as it takes". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46362087?__twitter_impression=true Scrote has left the building, but enough partial and biased chaps are still around. The first few paragraphs could have come straight from a Yahoo board and are essentially in no relation to the AGM he is reporting about. Have we seen a similar article by him about the Yahoos? Comparing profits and losses of Rangers and the Yahoos his also a pointless excercise, since if he takes out the CL money and multi-million transfer gifts from the EPL et al, to get a comparable picture, the Yahoos would be in serious trouble too. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewarty 2,025 Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 Virtually no insight into the accounts beyond a high level look at the headline numbers and plugging away at the negative headlines already seen. No discussion of the constraints the club is working within regarding Sports Direct, mention of the share issue and the potential for others which will underpin any future losses. Sure we can't continue to sustain high levels of loss in perpetuity, but the context is pretty important and at least a nod to that would be an appropriate way for the BBC to report on our AGM. Fraser clearly likes to sup on the teat of his BBC Sport colleagues. Utterly pathetic. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
26th of foot 6,082 Posted November 29, 2018 Author Share Posted November 29, 2018 Douglas Fraser is a Hibee. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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