The Rangers saga still shows no signs of slowing down.

In the last twenty-four hours we’ve been told that NBA franchise owner Robert Sarver has put together an offer to buy a controlling stake in the crisis hit Glasgow club.

But if fans were about to celebrate the thought of new investment or a new regime consisting of Sarver, Dave King, Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor taking over from the current beleaguered board. Then they were in for a rude awakening this morning, when it was confirmed that Rangers football chairman Sandy Easdale had loaned the club £500k just to keep it afloat for the immediate future.

As ever, with Rangers Football Club these days their always seems to be a one step forward, two steps back process ensuing.

The club seems to be in an extremely precarious position once again, almost lurching towards administration.

Surely the time has come for all the main characters in this miserable ensemble piece to step forward and make their intentions clear and work together and save the business.

The Ibrox side are currently indebted to shareholder Mike Ashley, who has already handed the club two emergency loans in recent months. Those loans have allowed him to gain a stronghold in the boardroom, which has infuriated the fans. The move has also raised a few eyebrows of the beaks at the SFA. They have come out and blocked Ashley’s move to gain 30% of Rangers shares, they don’t want anyone having dual ownership in sides both north and south of the border. The fact that these loans are secured against the Albion car-park and Edmiston House also worried the Ibrox faithful.

We now need to know what plans Ashley has for the club. With the SFA’s latest moves it seems that he cannot own Rangers while he still owns Newcastle United. Now his company Sports Direct have a lucrative five year deal concerning Rangers merchandise rights. This could be the biggest sticking point but it could also be the solution to all the problems.

If that particular deal is Ashley’s main concern then Messrs Park, Letham, King, Taylor and/or Sarver will probably have to concede that Mr Ashley is allowed to keep that deal in place. That could then see Mike step aside and allow the new guys to dispose of the current Pro-Ashley board.

This outcome could be extremely beneficial for Ashley and Sports Direct as the new board would gain support from the fans as they are seen as Rangers men. That would see an increase in crowds and hopefully within time more success will appear on the park too. All that would lead to more enthusiasm around Ibrox and you’d probably see bigger interest in Rangers goods thus meaning more money in big Mike’s pocket.

Now could Mike Ashley’s ego stand in the way? He might see this as a huge challenge and/or potential failure. He wouldn’t like to be seen as walking away from a fight. He can still influence the board and might try and throw as many obstacles in the way of potential investors. That could see him push the club closer to the  precipice. Remember he isn’t a Rangers man and isn’t a businessman that has a long yearning to be liked.

We also still have no idea if King will work with Park, Letham and Taylor. Or if Mr Sarver is willing to come in as a member of a consortium or wants the full club to himself. Even if they all decide they can work together they will they need to find out what they need to do to keep Ashley happy.

They will also then have to come up with some instant funds to keep club afloat, bring in a new management team (unless they decide to bring back Ally McCoist) and have plenty of new ideas to get Rangers back challenging for the top honours in Scottish football.

Rangers once again stand in-between doom and hope but as always with this story, you get the feeling that we could see a few more twists and turns before the dust settles and we see what is left behind in Govan.

Posted on January 5th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article