The past decade under Murray, Whyte's shifty dealings since last summer and the pantomime of these painful three months have scarred each and every Rangers fan. Bill Miller has now got the nod from Duff & Phelps but, not without justification, many of our massive fanbase have yet to be convinced that he has our best interests at heart. Whether we like it or not, we are at his and his cohorts' mercy.
Following the Rangers in the twenty-first century has been an emotional white-knuckle ride. We’ve had all the joy of Trebles under Tricky Dicky and Big Eck, while Walter was only denied the same glory by sinister fixture-list manipulation as the Gers embarked on the great march to Manchester. But there has also been the Minted One’s irresponsible financial mismanagement which has taken us to the abyss, Bain’s shameful capitulation on so many issues which saw our club, its roots and its heroes, disgracefully bad-mouthed and the loyal support vilified by all and sundry and, of course, Whyte's dodgy dealings which led us into administration. Calling it a bumpy ride doesn’t quite do this period justice. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't a bed of roses!
For quite some time now we've known there were money problems but did anyone anticipate just how grim things would turn out to be? And as Duff & Phelps have haggled over the details which determine our great club’s future, the most annoying factor of all is that you and me, the folks who shell out our hard-earned cash week after week, had no say in anything. For all their well-meaning intentions, the RST is stuck on the sidelines without the clout to have their views heard, their great love of and dyed-in-the-wool identification with all things Rangers has been pushed into the background as a pair of chartered accountants made up their minds about what our proud institution is worth. What is it my old Granny used to say about knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing?
Seeing the knighted asset-stripper off the premises was cause for much celebration but, of course, even in his absence, Murray was capable of damaging Rangers. You'd need to be pretty dense to fall for his 'I was duped' line when he got involved with Craig Whyte. You don't get to where he was in the business world without knowing everything and anything about the other operators. He knew exactly what he was doing when he handed over the keys of Ibrox to that wee shyster and when the shit hit the fan it was Whyte who took the flak while Murray slipped off into the distance. Now, as Bill Miller is named as preferred bidder, we appear to be at the whim of yet another rich man and that can only be bad news for the long-term future of The Rangers F.C.
So as Miller and his money men put the Rangers' operation under forensic examination and start to negotiate with creditors and the football authorities, we can only hope our club emerges in a better state than we are in at present. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best.
But that massive body of men and women which is the Rangers support, whether or not it is led by the Trust or the Blue Knights or a new body, has to get ahead of the game, look five/ten/fifteen years down the road and get an ongoing strategy into operation so that, when Miller or whoever he puts in charge decides he wants out, real Rangers people are in a position to move in and implement a realistic buy-out plan which can take the club on to the next level.
The landscape of today is a very different place from the 1988 world which enabled a relatively unknown figure like David Murray to cash in on the John Lawrence Group overstretching in the States. Not to put too fine a point on it, he bought up their stake in the Rangers for a pittance. Where high finance talk passed well over most of our heads back then, the average guy of today is well versed in the comings and goings of the corporate world, if only from a distance. We were quite happy to let Souness’s pal take control – we were only interested in what happened on the park – and, when those who were a bit more clued-up about what was going on asked questions about accounts at various AGMs, they were rubbished by Murray and shouted down by the body of the hall. ‘Do you want money in the bank or trophies in the cabinet?’ he mocked smugly.
Of course, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. Not long after taking over, Murray was hoovering up the club’s training ground – the Albion – for a song, turning it into a car park which has yet to generate a solitary coin of income for the Rangers. Always one step ahead, in Follow Follow fanzine no.12 – and reprinted more recently – the sale of the Albion was questioned but we were too wrapped up in winning trophies, unwilling to look behind the veneer of Murray’s arrogant approach. Those with their feet firmly on the ground (I wish I could claim to have been one of them) were dismissed as troublemakers and scaremongers.
Not long after David Holmes (note the surname) had brought Graeme Souness to Rangers, the Saint & Greavsie’s Saturday lunchtime show rolled up at Ibrox to put the Rangers revolution under the microscope. Chris Woods and Terry Butcher were enjoying great success, the English clubs were caught up in the post-Heysel ban from Europe so the Gers were unquestionably recognised as the UK’s number one club and, with the TV programme pointing out that every penny the fans spent on tickets, programmes, catering, merchandise and car parking was automatically ploughed back into the building of a better team, the operation was hailed as the epitome of how a modern football club should be run.
Well, it was a no brainer. By attracting better players to the club, bigger attendances followed, generating greater ancilliary income, then the whole virtuous circle would start again, even better players arrived, even bigger crowds rolled up, even more secondary income was accrued. I never really pictured David Murray as a big TV buff but I reckon he must have clocked the Saint & Greavsie that day and said: ‘I’ll soon put a stop to this nonsense, I fancy a bit of that.’
So the digging started, the hole got bigger, the Albion was just Minty's way of testing the water as to how the asset-stripping might be received, he got away with it, every source of income was subsequently syphoned off, companies like Response Handling, Azure Catering, the Premier Property Group and others (all part of the Murray organisation) grew fat on Rangers’ money. By the time the penny dropped, the situation was out of control and we were well on our way to where we are today. If only those ‘scaremongers’ had the foresight to get together and pool their collective knowledge, business acumen and financial resources into a forward-thinking body they might have been able to put the brakes on Murray’s madness.
Only now, when the possibility of being wiped off the football map altogether is seen as a possibility, is there a wise-after-the-event determination that things should never be allowed to get this bleak again.
The fans might be helpless now – no might about it! – but those who want nothing more than the very best for the Rangers have to be brought around the same table and a very definite plan of action, realistic but always sensibly ambitious, formulated. Egos have to be binned, petty jealousies must be forgotten, there can be no place in the operation for any self-serving interests, whether they be driven by financial or career advancement considerations. It must be all about the Rangers, first and foremost always, with sacrifices willingly made for the greater good of the club we all profess to love.
One need only check out the wide range of posts on the FF Messageboard of late to recognise the problems which will be encountered when trying to bring such a diverse support together. We are a broad church – but non-sectarian, LOL!!! – and everyone is entitled to an opinion, whether it be about how things have been or how we move forward. I hear various RST spokesmen speaking very articulately on the fans’ behalf, only to log on to the site a few minutes later and read that ‘He is too fond of the sound of his own voice.’ Well, would you rather have Andy Cameron speak up for us?
It is all a matter of trust, with a small ‘t’. With such a huge fanbase, nobody is ever going to please all of the people all of the time so there must be give and take on all sides of the debate. The emphasis can only be on what is best for Rangers. The new owners’ first target must be to get all subsidiary income back ‘in house’, every penny a Rangers fan shells out in support of his team must filter back to the club, rather than be channeled into another company’s coffers. It would be a great start to the Bill Miller era if he moved in this direction.
The support must not, however, take its eye off the ball again. If Miller surprises us all by doing the right things we can break into a brief round of applause but our current plight came about because we were not conscious of the bigger picture. Surely we have learned a lesson. The new man at the helm must be made aware that there is a massive movement out there and, sickened by Murray and Whyte, each of us will be watching every move like a hawk, determined that our great club is never again at the mercy of anyone who fails to place Rangers’ best interests at the top of his list of priorities. In a peculiar sort of way, if the sinister manipulation of our club for so long has at long last opened our eyes to the damage which can be done, it might turn out to be worth all the grief.
It would do the new owner's credibility no harm whatsoever if he quickly engaged in constructive discussions with representatives of the support. When the Government recognised that football fans had been effectively disenfranchised by club owners, football trusts were forced upon clubs but the Minted One, knowing his asset-stripping had been rumbled, headed the RST off at the pass and gave his nodding-dog creation, the Assembly, a place at the table. From its inception, the RST was at loggerheads with the man at the head of the house and, no matter how many meetings were held, agreement was never a realistic possibility.
No barriers exist to prevent a productive relationship being established between the Trust - or any other body from the fanbase - and the new regime. But the knowledge that the support is fragmented should be enough to see those with the greater good at heart doing all in their power to bring all the elements together. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, namely an ambitious, thriving and successful Rangers.
This is a glorious opportunity for a fresh start. Whatever deals are done behind the scenes over these next two weeks, they are beyond the control of us ‘mere’ fans but NOW is the time to engage in discussions with all interested parties to plan for the future. The Blue Knights caught the fans' imagination but I suspect Bill Miller always had the edge, if only for his previous dealings with the Whyte-Ellis camp and their connection with Duff & Phelps. But the Blue Knights need not walk away with their tails between legs, they should further cement their relationship with the fanbase, get talking to the various factions and start to accrue a war chest for the next time there is a chance to influence events within Ibrox.
Sure, the RST’s present share-ownership plans are worthy of nothing but praise but clearly, unless somebody within the corridors of power is willing to heed the voice of the support, a more ambitious, more radical way forward has to be plotted. There is the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund, we have the Saverangers pledges, why not pool it all together and form a recognised body which would be in a position to finance a buy-out sometime in the future? It might not be to everyone’s liking but, so long as it is transparently obvious that the good of the club is the one and only issue on the agenda, how can any sensible Ranger resist involvement in such a new venture.
Another of my old Granny’s adages was ‘As soon as money is involved, there will be trouble’. Well, we are talking about a helluva lot of money here, enough to turn many heads and attract sticky fingers, so transparency (non-existent throughout the Murray era) has to be the key. Any investment in the new body can only be made with the long-term intention of bringing the company into dealings with Rangers. Anyone who invests in the holding company, then has second thoughts, should not have any stigma attached to the withdrawal of his cash. Hopefully, his investment would have grown, the shares should be sold for their market value, ideally being snapped up by fellow investors within the operation to guard against any implosion in the stability of the holding company.
This is all pie-in-the-sky at the moment, just an idea I feel is worthy of debate. There are intelligent Bears out there who can put meat on the bones of this loose draft but, by coming out of nowhere, the Blue Knights showed they can bring people around the table, albeit to no avail in this instance. A new operation would have the great benefit of being driven, not by the desire for profit (although don’t knock it!), by the great passion to see the famous Glasgow Rangers rising to the top of the heap both at home and abroad.
Discuss…
LITTLE BOY BLUE