New Rangers Regime Are Still Struggling For Credibility
It’s nearly been a full month now since the new custodians got to grips with the chaos that is Rangers Football Club.
Now that might seem a bit early to judge them on what they’ve done, but this is Rangers and the fans can’t afford to go on trust alone.
When Dave King, Paul Murray, John Gilligan, John Bennett and Douglas Park entered Ibrox in the early days of March they were heralded as saviours but the momentum seems to have slowed down a fair bit.
The board have until Saturday to appoint a nominated advisor and to also convince the authorities in London that the company are worthy of another chance at entering the Stock Exchange.
The fact that the business has made significant losses in past few years and have had so many boardroom battles since 2012, will certainly count against them.
And if truth be told, will those in that run the ‘City’ be convinced by King and company on how things have went in this opening month?
The appointment of Stuart McCall as head coach is one of many short-term plans that can only be judged at the end of the season. Should he manage to get ‘Gers’ promoted into the Scottish top flight, then his appointment will be deemed a success. If he fails in that task, many will forgive the board as they at least gave the club the one chance they had this term.
Dave King always has that cloud of tax issues in South Africa hanging over him. Which may or may not be overlooked but we still don’t have that answer, from the Stock Exchange authorities or the SFA.
Then there is the Chis Graham affair. The prominent fan was brought onto the board as a fan representative before resigning within a week, due to extremely questionable social media practices. As a board I suggest they didn’t do due diligence when hiring Mr Graham. He created quite a few enemies and they were quickly out to get him. The whole saga embarrassed the club from the get go.
The new regime have already accepted an emergency loan from director Douglas Park and his associates George Letham and George Taylor for £1.5m. All though I am sure this loan is better than the one Mike Ashley proposed earlier in the season, the fact that Rangers are still dependent on such such short term loans is worrying.
It seems slightly bizarre that this new regime would scoff at the continual need for such short-term loans during that last year, yet its one of the first things of financial note that they’ve done themselves. They also stated that what was really needed was long-term significant investment, that they could provide. Yet we still haven’t seen any evidence of this.
What happened to the £30m Dave King said he’d invest into the club?
Some will say it will be folly for him to splash out before SFA approve him. Interim chairman Paul Murray said as much himself.
But Mr King has previously stated he’ll be investing no matter what. So why not do it now and lead the way? It would be a sign of leadership that could attract potential investors to do the same.
By waiting is he respecting the SFA process? Or is he trying to undermine it and hold them to ransom? Or are his pockets not as big as he suggested?
All legitimate questions, that some Rangers fans are currently asking themselves.
When the new board rolled into town they did so promising transparency. But has that been true in the last month or so?
Not really is the answer.
Now I get they have a tough task on their hands, the last lot would have left plenty of problems for them to deal with. But when you set out a campaign based on certain promises, then you need to keep them. Yet apart from a statement from the far from convincing interim chairman ironically about transparency, we’ve heard very little from the boardroom.
That silence creates unease and rumour.
Talk around town suggests that not all is well amongst the new custodians. That tends to happen. Look at the Celtic takeover in 1994, when three directors left within months of arriving. Everyone comes together against a familiar foe but once the dust settles and you win the war, you look around and realise that you can’t really work with some of your allies after all. A bit like the end of the Second World War, when the west and east fell out.
It’s that sort of rumour mongering that needs to stop at Ibrox but only true transparency will stop it!
Another mess the new regime has to deal with, is the ever increasing divide that they’ve helped to create within the fan-base. By being so vocal in their appreciation towards the fans that stayed away from Ibrox this season, they’ve annoyed the fans who decided to go to the matches. The whole reason for these fans going to the games was to support the club and the players, yet they now feel like outsiders looking in. At this stage the club need to bring all the fans together and stop any feuds.
As I’ve previously stated Murray, King and the rest have a tough task dealing with the mess that was left by the previous board, that was supported by Mike Ashley. The news that only one of the five loanees that came from Newcastle United would be fit enough to play this season was announced by McCall. That revelation was soon followed by the fact that Rangers were paying part of these players wages. That was also followed by more bad news, if Rangers secure promotion then as part of the deal to bring in these loanees they’ll pay a substantial sum in bonuses to Ashley’s Newcastle.
Now these are all woeful pitfalls that will show all Rangers fans that they were right to get rid of the last shameful board. But these incidents can’t be all that the current board tell the fans, they need to be followed up with strong long-term plans that the supporters can back.
To be honest the start of this new era at Ibrox has been a bit inauspicious. The new Rangers regime will say that they are very busy assessing the main issues that cloud the club and that they are working on plans to solve these problems.
But based on their arrival promising long-term plans and transparency, I think Rangers fans would have wanted slightly more from this first month.
Unfortunately after so many years of broken promises and tales of recovery, the Rangers supporters are now an impatient group and won’t be fobbed off with excuses, even legitimate ones.
Dave King and his board beware, stalling will just create even bigger problems in the stands!
Posted on April 1st, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article
Jesus! Whingeing from the start. Give them some breathing space. Transparency is one thing but babbling about everything is another. King said at outset he would invest if no one else did. New share issue is essential as buying current shares puts no money into club.
Board are just in the door and have already progressed a number of things, despite finding a cesspit left behind by shysters in suits.
It took years to get us into this mess and will take years to get us back out of it, but make no mistake, we are on the road to recovery so look out all who kicked us when we were down.
Mistakes will be made, but at least they will be mistakes and not deliberate transgressions against the club.
Alan – I am not whinging, I’d say its more constructive criticism.
I get that they are starting out but in business the start is always vital.
Boy – Yeah I totally agree with the fact that mistakes are better than deliberate transgressions, but you also need to keep mistakes down.
The new co took over an almighty mess financially of the field and also on the field a demoralized side that lacked direction. Surely its not difficult to see that Rangers can only be great through forward looking people with rangers in there hearts and i believe that this board have all the attributes to make rangers a great club as they were once. We must support them they know that there will be stumbling blocks on the way but im convinced that we are already seeing movement and you better believe it the investment is coming and when it does it will come in thick and fast. support dont knock
Kenny – To be honest I am not knocking and I don’t need to support. The point of the blog was to highlight a few issues. Problems in the past have been made worse with people looking the other way or not asking questions.
I understand that time has been tight but you should still be allowed to question a few things.
Laughable! The board were unable to compete any due diligence prior to ousting the previous mob so only now can they obtain clarity on the extent of the damage. New manager and loan from 3 bears are short term tactical deployments whilst developing longer term strategies to ensure sustainable success. Fair play to them.
King will invest by underwriting he share issue in the summer, us not going to donate £30m. This strengthens his position and weakens any pros
Prospect of a return by the previous crooks.
The business is on life support and the treatment needs to be well considered. I back them.
Perhaps the way out of this financial mess would be to sell Ibrox and enter into a ground sharing arrangement with Partick Thistle.