Gordon Waddell Weekly Anti Rangers Rant

[ian1964 10,724]

We have £40million in the auditorium, £40m…any advance on £40m?”

“£50m, you say, sir?…FIFTY MILLION from the pre-match presser…not going once, not going twice…are we all done?”

Here’s hoping.

The fantasy auction for Alfredo Morelos this week has been quite something. All the figures that no one has ever bid and possibly never would being refused for a player apparently not for sale at any price anyway.

Which, in a nutshell, is why Rangers are still posting annual figures whose bottom line has a minus in front of it.

It’s the 21st century equivalent of David Murray’s Rangers tenner for every Celtic fiver. The ‘We Are The People’ vanity that says you don’t have to be a viable business, as long as you can stop Celtic.

Sorry but if someone bids even close to these figures for one of your players, you bite their hand off for it then shout it from the rooftops that you did.

Because it’s what makes you a success and persuades the next Morelos to come.

The post-agm headlines reminded me of a conversation with Ally McCoist back in the dark days at the start of ‘The Journey’.

They were playing Stranraer on the Saturday, a bog-standard 3pm fourth-tier league game, a 90-mile, two-hour luxury coach trip down the road from Murray Park.

Yet their entire squad and staff, vastly over-resourced for the level they were at anyway, were spending an overnight on the Friday at five-star Turnberry to prepare.

It was pointed out this was the kind of unnecessary profligacy that had put Rangers under in the first place. Maybe they should cut their cloth.

“Until someone tells me we’re not Rangers any more,” McCoist said, “We will continue to behave like we’re Rangers.”

Maintain the facade. At any cost. Which is exactly what this artificial peeing-up-a-wall contest on Morelos’ value is.

Your entire club has been a loss-making exercise, ‘strategic’ or not, soft loans or not, since you got back in the game in 2012.

At some point that has to change and since we’re not getting a billion-pound TV deal any day soon in Scottish football, and the Old Firm aren’t being flown on private jets straight into England’s top 20, this whole ‘not for sale at any price’ schtick is brainless.

Of course he is, and so he should be. If someone wants to give you £40m for a player you paid £1m for, damn right you sell him, you balance the books and you reinvest in the next guy – or several guys – who are going to do exactly the same.

The trouble is, they’re still slaves to the wrong mentality, they’ve never created a culture the way Celtic have done with their fans, where they understand that THIS IS WHAT THEY DO! They scout, they sign, they develop, they sell, rinse and repeat. Of course you want to build and keep your top talent, see how far you can take them, but when the money gets crazy and you’re operating with an eight-figure annual deficit?

Because if that’s not their model then what else is going to get them to break even or make a profit once the attitude that losing money every year isn’t a problem is on the flight back to South Africa for good?

European money should be the gravy, not your bread and butter. You can’t bank on it.

Morelos should be the flag bearer for modern Rangers. They took a chance on a kid from Colombia, in the outpost of Finland. Didn’t speak the language but hell, he could score goals.

Look at him now. Bargain of the century.

His two goals the other night were outstanding, like most of his others.

The concentration and physicality required for both showed a striker at the absolute peak of his powers.

He’s brilliant – powerful, quick, hungry and – thanks to gaffer Steven Gerrard – far more disciplined.

The trouble is, instead of saying ‘this is what we do and this is how our club is going to work’, they’re still in the mindset of thinking all they have to do is stop Celtic. Not fix Rangers.

It has been their problem since day one of the post-liquidation era. Using another club as their yardstick instead of creating their own. So, sure, if a big bid comes in January, when you’re in a fight for a title and trying to deny them nine in a row, the timing would stink.

But you’ve got class cover in Jermain Defoe and you’ve then got a pot of millions to find a replacement, who presumably will be on a list Ross Wilson has in his drawer. Ideally you’d do it in the summer but needs must.

This is what it comes down to. That’s what Rangers’ business has to be.

Which brings us to Dave King’s standing ovation at his announcement he’s off. Does he leave them in a better state than he got them? Absolutely. Better management, infrastructure, academy. Team challenging on all fronts. All good.

But all the talk of statues and his name on buildings? Spare us. Then refer back to the underlying issues that all still need fixed.

Still in a legal fight with Mike Ashley and without a retail deal worth the paper it’s written on, perma-losses on the balance sheet, no major trophy, no title since 2011.
He’s had fans queuing round the block with his ‘they’re all enemies of Rangers’ rhetoric and they’ve lapped it up without much critical appraisal of their own direction of travel.
For a while the fact he simply wasn’t Craig Whyte and wasn’t Charles Green was good enough.

But a true legacy doesn’t just mean leaving the place looking tidier than you found it.

 

 

 

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Rabies shot time!

[Gonzo79 15,294]

Do people still read The Daily Record?

[Gaffer 1,665]

3 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

Do people still read The Daily Record?

He will continue to write for those that buy that rag, and going by this moronic piece it's clear who the target audience is.  I read it but what sensible person reads something like this, no matter how much you want to hate us, and thinks it was a good article?!?  Tick, tock ..... because this just demonstrates time and time again why these organisations will die off.

[26th of foot 6,084]

A dozen years past, Gordon penned an article where he said something akin to this, it's a paraphrase :

 

'Rangers are a club that inspires you to lift a brick and never stop hitting it on the face'.

 

I am sure someone will trace the exact quote, if they can be bothered? Gordon has lost the protection of his brother, Bruce Waddell; who was then the Editor of the blatt. His latest piece is a plea to continue his employment, he is giving his master what he wants. He will improve once he admits Peter's cock in his mouth, is the obstruction.

[Uilleam 5,948]

3 minutes ago, 26th of foot said:

A dozen years past, Gordon penned an article where he said something akin to this, it's a paraphrase :

 

'Rangers are a club that inspires you to lift a brick and never stop hitting it on the face'.

 

I am sure someone will trace the exact quote, if they can be bothered? Gordon has lost the protection of his brother, Bruce Waddell; who was then the Editor of the blatt. His latest piece is a plea to continue his employment, he is giving his master what he wants. He will improve once he admits Peter's cock in his mouth, is the obstruction.

To even see the keyboard in such circumstances takes talent, one has to admit.

 

 

[compo 7,048]

Horrid man 

[JFK-1 1,693]

This guy is all over the place beneath a blanket of claiming concern about the financial health of Rangers. You have to wonder if there's another motive hiding in his apparent angst.

 

What's the mockery mockery of suggested asking prices for Morelos about when the club to my knowledge have never quoted one. The vast majority of those prices he's mocking come from people like him, the media.

He's babbling away as if we're in the midst of some sort of closing down bankruptcy sale when even the recently declared shortfall is going to be made good by directors. What's this frantic desire to sell Morelos about?

 

I expect among the yahoos/sheep etc there actually is a frantic desire to see him gone. Is perhaps the underlying motive of this media yahoo the same as theirs? And as we all know the yahoo/sheep desire to see him gone has nothing whatsoever to do with the financial health of Rangers.

Alfie is money in the bank. There is no urgent need to make a withdrawal. Hell if he could drive us to the title and the CL groups that would provide the £50 million this undercover yahoo is mocking and all while we had the one he so wants to be gone still on the books.     

[Gonzo79 15,294]

10 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

You have to wonder if there's another motive hiding in his apparent angst.

Not really.