"To be a Ranger is to sense the sacred trust of upholding all that such a name means in this shrine of football. They must be true in their conception of what the Ibrox tradition seeks from them. No true Ranger has ever failed in the tradition set him." - William Struth  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Is Stability Still A Pipe Dream?

Written by: Nineteen Seventy-Two
Friday, 14th March 2014

As Dave King arrived in Glasgow this morning following a period of negotiations on the future of the business owning Rangers, he will arrive with the club in complete disarray both on and off the field, and in the support.

Whatever happens via these negotiations, whoever emerges as the string puller at Ibrox, they will have a huge job on their hands.

24 months on from the Administration incurred under Craig Whyte, any opportunities that the club had to rebuild with a long term view of the business and the footballing operation look to have been lost, amidst the gross mismanagement of the businesses controlling the club by Duff and Phelps, Charles Green and Craig Mather.

Unless there is radical improvement under the leadership of Graham Wallace, his name too will shortly be added to that list of shame.

Of course, the immediacy of Mr King's arrival focusses attention on the key issues raised in the last month, following the agreement of the PLC board to accept a £1.5m loan from Laxey/Sandy Easdale, but the loan itself is a symptom of the ills facing the business, not the illness itself.

The basket case of a business owned by David Murray and run by Martin Bain has now been through a bizarre period of what can only be described in polite terms as a calamity, with a series of business leaders seemingly intent on doing everything other than address the complete imbalance of the business.

The Murray owned 'Gers lived out the last few years of his stewardship constrained by Lloyds Banking group trying to recoup the club's debts, HMRC trying to rape the club retrospectively for its tax arrangements, and the club itself requiring the dubious cash flow offered by Ticketus at key times in the financial year. All of this was underpinned by a top heavy business not fit for purpose.

The subsequent events, with the business sold to Craig Whyte, then mismanaged for a year then placed in to Administration, sold out of Admin by D&P subject to TUPE employment transfers, then mismanaged by Charles Green and co has seen little or no positive action taken to prepare the club for a positive future.

Unfortunately while the RIFC business struggles to break off the shackles of the arrangements and commitments of the Oldco business, and the football club, some parties have done very well out of Rangers' financial woes, including Craig Whyte (despite his moans), Duff and Phelps, Charles Green, Imran Ahmad, and several RIFC directors who were gifted penny shares at the RIFC IPO.

I have little sympathy for Whyte for the manner he took the Oldco in to Administration, and while he might be bitter over being shafted by Charles Green, he still lives in luxury and has managed to avoid the attention of the Police, and disgruntled Rangers fans. All in all he hasn't done too badly for twelve months "work".

Because the pace of calamity at Ibrox has been relentless, there has still been little in the way of forensic analysis of Whyte's time at the club, with the Duff and Phelps publications raising more questions than answers. Frankly, I think Whyte can count himself lucky.

Despite him hand picking Duff and Phelps, they too failed spectacularly to address the imbalance between spend and income, despite having more opportunity than the rest put together, and they also failed to return the club to him after the sale of club and assets.

Since the club was acquired by Charles Green and his "consortium", what could have been a lean business without the number of high earning players who left the club in the summer of 2012, is somehow still a lumbering heavyweight of a business on the ropes, with neither Green nor any of his successors seemingly able to balance the books, despite an IPO raising £22M which is all gone.

The figures are astonishing, and while the published accounts do indeed account for that money, they don't explain to the layman in convincing terms that the management have any idea how to manage the club on a day to day basis, never mind have any kind of forward looking strategy.

It seems astonishing now that Green sold the support and institutional investors a dream which was a flight of fantasy, and all the more astonishing that the club paid for Edmiston House and the Albion, with apparently no means of doing anything with them.

It also seems like one last kick in the teeth from David Murray that the club had to pay such significant sums for properties that were owned by the Oldco before Murray hived them off.

Mr King has been clear both during Administration, and during his recent statements that the club requires additional investment, and has criticised Directors for cutting costs.

Given that there is a financial shortfall as it currently stands each month, should we assume from these statements that King will personally fund that gap until Rangers are back in the Premiership, and that he won't expect a return?

If the club is to have additional funding on top of that shortfall, in order to invest in the team, will he fund that too?

The answer to both questions is uncertain, but the likelihood is looking increasingly like the plan is a dual equity raising plan, with him supporting a Share issue alongside supporters groups, and presumably you and I as normal Rangers supporters investing independently.

Of course, that will bring the money in, however, fans and investors won't be so easily convinced that major investment won't be spent by the board while this underlying overspend is unresolved.

If King has a plan that will demonstrate that the club can be operated "in the black" in the Premiership and only need short term funding until then, then I think that would be a plan to believe in.

The problem is, can Wallace produce something similar?

Neither party has communicated their intentions in any great detail, yet it's this transparency that the support need in order to have confidence that we can be celebrating a championship within the next three years.

I, for one, will not be holding up a blue card to champion Dave King until he lays out some detail of his plans.

I have to be brutally honest that I don't believe there is enough goodwill or rapport between "both sides" in the boardroom battle, which is a great shame, and I believe King in particular has been let down and is being let down by supporters of his who have absolutely no idea how to positively engage with the current boardroom incumbents, and major shareholders in the PLC owners of the club.

This off the field uncertainty is not completely distinct from the product we pay to see on the field each week, as Rangers have the second most expensive squad in Scottish Football behind Celtic, although I think most fans would agree that we are far from being the second best team in the country, far by a long way.

While various Club Directors have missed opportunities to restructure the business for the future, the footballing side of the business has also been mismanaged, with scouting hammered, and the youth policy widely recognised in youth football circles as being miles behind Celtic.

With an ageing and expensive squad put together by Ally McCoist, the great fear of many fans is that Rangers have returned to the culture of costly short-termism, and that the footballing operation has no vision or ideas. The lack of detail from King also adds fuel to the fire that there is no vision from either side of the board battle to build a footballing infrastructure for success both on the field, and off it.

It's rather disheartening that neither Wallace, King, McCoist nor anyone else seems to grasp the concept of youth development, and the advantages of having a young and dynamic home grown team supplemented with experience.

Off the field, the Rangers support is still at loggerheads, with the most obvious example being the ongoing tête-à-tête between Craig Houston of Sons of Struth, and club director Sandy Easdale.

After months of allowing posters on the SOS Facebook page to slander Mr Easdale and other major figures at the club, we can be under no illusion that the Director has no option other than to take action.

While I am no fan of Mr Easdale's contribution to the club, criticism of any of his dealings should be exactly that, rather than the abuse and nonsense that has been written about him.

Frankly, if I were Sandy Easdale I'd have acted sooner, and would also be looking at the coverage this boardroom "battle" is getting in the Daily Record.

Keith Jackson in the Daily Rhebel, presenting the latest developments as "Easdale vs. The Fans", is misleading and designed to both whip up more anger Easdale, while increasing support for King.

With various daily spats between two groups pushing for fan ownership, and a "union of fans" (that doesn't represent those who they claim to represent) misleading the wider Rangers support, efforts by Graham Wallace to unite the support have failed miserably.

If you don't believe me, try spending an hour on Twitter watching Rangers fans snap at each other, claim the moral high ground and attack each other. This is avoidable.

The people who can put an end to this are those fans' group spokespeople, Mr Wallace and Mr King. If they fail to reign people in or to positively get their message across then I fear for the future of our support, and consequently our club.

What is a football club without its support?

I genuinely wish that an inspirational leader would emerge, willing to tell the support in great detail how they plan to solve all of the clubs issues, and how they will take our club back to the top.

Have any of them got it in them?

 

by BJK Rowling
 
by Admin
 
   

 

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