Celtic have lost in the game immediately after three of their previous four European games, shipping nine points which could be crucial in determining the destination of the championship, so it was not surprising they were below par for much of the game yesterday. Fortunately, the Aberdeen goal came early enough to allow Celtic time to raise their game and respond.
How Celtic respond after European games will become even more crucial in the weeks ahead as they have visits to Motherwell, Dundee United and St Johnstone due after our next three Europa League games. Any slim championship aspirations will be extinguished in these games if Celtic are unable to improve performance for the league challenge.
Ally McCoist is defying early predictions and grinding out impressive results for Rangers, who will seldom have started the league with such an impressive defensive record. Six away wins from six games without conceding a goal is the kind of form it takes to win leagues.
Our more immediate challengers, Motherwell, dropped two points on Saturday, meaning we can go two points clear of them if we win our game in hand, however, the teams meet at Fir Park a week on Sunday (three days after Celtic play Rennes), in what looks like being a key game in our season.
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The Glorious Revolution, 1688
Myth: The revolution was glorious
The Catholic James II (“dismal Jimmy”, as Nell Gwynne called him) came to power in 1685, but lasted a mere three years before fleeing to France in what came to be called the “Glorious Revolution”.
James’s flight and his replacement by the Protestant William of Orange was viewed as an example of pragmatic, bloodless reform, in contrast to the current and future convulsions elsewhere in Europe.
William of Orange’s legacy is still revered by many
The truth is a little different. It was bloodless only because James capitulated. William’s Dutchmen invaded illegally and with main force, from a land with which England had only recently been at war.
He brought a huge fleet of 463 ships and some 40,000 men. Parliament had not requested such an invasion, the King clearly hadn’t and the “invitation” from six peers and a bishop was constitutionally irrelevant. England was attacked by a foreign ruler to usurp a legitimate monarch.
The invasion was clearly treasonable but, as the saying goes, “if treason prosper, none dare call it treason”.
Kayal33
What does the Rangers tax case report? I cannot access this site at work.
Morning bhoys.
Hope we are all well.
HH
Good morning CQN!
Got home to a bleak and wet Glasgow last night, but it was very nice to wake up in my own bed this morning.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their messages, texts and e-mails over the last couple of weeks. They really mean so much to me.
canary bhoy
Where did you read that?
JJ
GordonJ welcome back.
Hope you are well
HH
Good to see you back on here Gordon_J
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon says:
25 October, 2011 at 08:55
Good morning Gordon.
Get oot yir bed ya lazy sod!!
Rangers Insolvency: Is it inevitable?
25/10/2011 BY RANGERSTAXCASE 27 COMMENTS
16 Votes
Sleep has become a precious and rare commodity in recent weeks and I find myself trying to pry my eyes open to absorb the details of a data-packed Excel spreadsheet. For any normal, well-adjusted person, thoughts of forcing one’s eyes to move cell-to-cell, checking formula-after-formula, deep into the small hours of the morning would evoke a dystopian nightmare from A Clockwork Orange. However, this is not just any spreadsheet. This material has me transfixed. Commonsense says “leave it until the morning”, but I cannot sleep.
This is Rangers’ cashflow projection for season 2011/2012.
Naturally, I cannot disclose the origin of the data in the spreadsheet. However, I have confidence in its authenticity and its accuracy. I believe that it portrays genuine insight into Rangers’ cash flows for the current season. While I anonymise the data and figure out a way of presenting it on a blog, I will just give you the conclusions.
Rangers FC face a cash shortfall by the end of this season of about £19m
Without a fresh cash injection, Rangers will run out of money in October / November
And most significantly:
Without a fresh cash injection-
Rangers will be insolvent before the result of the EBT tax case is even known
Whyte’s new-found candour has him admitting that there is a crisis at Rangers, and that insolvency is a distinct possibility. However, it is tempered with the narrative that he inherited a mess. Any crisis, according to Whyte, is a result of the EBT dispute with HMRC which goes back to a time before owning Rangers was even a gleam in his eye. Whyte has started to spin insolvency as drawing a line underneath the club’s longterm problems. His hints that he might not appeal a decision against Rangers in the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) could be a clue to his real strategy.
To blame the previous regime at Ibrox requires that insolvency can be staved off until the judges sitting on the FTT return with their findings. However, Mr. Whyte will probably be mistaken if he thinks that the tribunal will return a result within a few days of it concluding. An insolvency event prior to that point would reveal the nature of the immediate problem: Rangers failure to qualify for the Champions’ League group stages. The arrestment of almost £3m by HMRC and Bain & McIntyre (ex-directors) intensifies matters.
Readers of the replies section of this blog will be aware of the complicated permutations that face Whyte. Delaying an insolvency filing to beyond 60 days after an arrestment weakens the claims of a secured creditor (himself) to reclaim that cash. Delay also requires Whyte to up the ante and provide additional working capital. In return, his reputation would survive the mauling that would accompany a filing without an adverse result in the FTT to hide behind. Whyte also faces uncertainty over the timing of a response from the judges. If Rangers maintain a staunch defence to the end, it is possible that the FTT findings might not be published until February or March 2012. That would require pouring in more cash to survive to this point. (Surely Whyte would not countenance “throwing the game” in the last days of the tribunal to arrive at a speedy conclusion?)
It is worth explaining cash flow for anyone who has not spent much time thinking about the monetary needs of a football club, it is extremely uneven. Cash accumulates over the summer months as season ticket holders renew in great numbers and drops over the autumn as players are paid their monthly salaries and bonuses. A good European run bolsters cash receipts in the short evenings and if post-Christmas European football is on the calendar, then a good season is had by all. Without significant European cash after September, Rangers (like Celtic) face a long period of outgoings being in excess of incoming cash. This funding gap can only be filled by a bank overdraft (short-term debt), a loan, or with the shareholders throwing in more equity. Traditionally, Rangers (and Celtic) have dipped into their overdraft facilities to pay wages and other bills during the months of negative cashflow. There is a problem this season however: Rangers do not have a credit facility with any bank.
Since buying Rangers’ debt to Lloyds Banking Group (who were desperate to escape from the headache of being Rangers’ primary creditor), Whyte has failed to open another line of credit. It would appear that no bank wants to lend to a club facing crippling tax bills or one that has a fan base who will organise a boycott it has the nerve to ask for its money back. (While discussing Rangers’ debt, a much forgotten fact is that Lloyds were not Rangers’ only creditor. An additional £4m in creditors is still on Rangers’ books bringing to total debt to about £22m when we include the money owed to the club’s parent company).
Are Rangers facing imminent insolvency? If Whyte, or his backers, decide to pour in cash to delay the filing then obviously not. Without additional cash infusions insolvency seems inevitable within the next month.
In coming posts, we shall examine the cash flow projections for Rangers in more detail and ask some of the questions that naturally follow about this case:
Did Whyte really just gamble on Rangers qualifying for the Champions’ League group stages? Was insolvency part of Whyte’s plan from the beginning? How can Whyte hope to make a profit from his £18m + £1 investment in Rangers?
As this blog has maintained from the outset, the story being parlayed from the top of the marble staircase does not make sense. We now have a few more pieces of the jigsaw and will be able to make more sense of this case as time goes on.
The Green Brigade did not seem to have either their usual numbers (nor their usual enthusiasm) on Sunday. If that really was the case, anyone know why?
JJ
If RTC is correct and Rangers will run out of money shortly it will be a day of fun and games when they finally get theirs.
I would LOVE IT it if they go out of business, their history is wiped and they must start again in division 3 – four years AT LEAST in the wilderness unless the usual suspects alter the leagues to get them back quicker. Either way there is no chance in hell if they go bust that they can win the league. They cannot pay the players without money and they cannot run the club without it either.
If they sink so low then it will never be low enough but it is a start.
It will not take away the pain of the last few years but it will certainly make up for it in some way.
Imagine them scrambling about to get a team and having to go to places like East Stirling to play their football. Hilarious.
The usual halfwits will tell us that Scottish football is now doomed but in fact 1979 – 1987 was arguably the most competitive period of Scottish football with no Rangers in sight – just another also-ran. Bring it on I say.
We might lose a few more games and struggle but with superior finances, we’ll still win it and lord it over them as we should. 4 years of titles and then they can only try to stop us. Now that is what frightens them to their core and why they are in denial about their problems.
If this comes to fruition it is a great day for Scotland and Scottish football – good riddance to a rancid football club and their vile supporters (even for a short time).
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
delighted for you that you are home well
Bryan
Jungle Jim says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:06
I left the stadium at the exit where the G/B gather
On the concourse underneath police had arrested a young Celtic fan
gordon j
Welcome back,bud.
Put yer feet up and recuperate 100% before trying anything arduous like work or washing the dishes,etc.
Tell them I said it was okay….
Jeg er Neil Lennon-Greeninbingley says:
24 October, 2011 at 18:39
googybhoy says:
24 October, 2011 at 18:55
Boys no malice intended – but help me out – not sure that my comments were aggressive or derogatory ???
67ECW
UEFA have announced that the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) will hear the Sion case on 24th November.
Jungle Jim says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:06
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Maybe, just maybe……the penny has dropped amomgst the GB that, what with the PLC board donating 10k of, ‘our’ money to the Poppy-day thingy that, no matter what atmosphere the GB create inside CP, we the Celtic fans, the biggest investors in Celtic FC will forever be looked upon by the PLC board as a bunch of mugs!
The solution for change is simple…don’t give the PLC board ‘our’ money and, the PLc board will have to leave!
Try it and see!
Or, do we have to wait until the huns get to 6 iar AGAIN ?
Isn’t it possible that the SFA could advance Rankers some money to help them through any imminent cash flow problems? Wasn’t this done for Gretna at one point?
Anybody got a link to the BBC Craig whyte program????
If they go bust before Christmas (PLEASE) what happens to them?
Do they get booted out of the league and a first division team is brought up with their points?
Sydney tim
http://youtu.be/xaKR13_2QX4
Kevin says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:18
It looked as full and as enthusiastic as usual to me. The response towards them from the rest of the crowd was more subdued though.
67ECW
I don’t think the comment was deliberately malicious,but it could easily be read that way. Sometimes what you’re thinking doesn’t come across the same way in print. I’ve had the occasional slap for similar myself,and only on reading it again did I realise how it COULD be read.
A specific interlude with Dick Byrne and Bournesouprecipe is still a fresh and painful memory….
Lionroars67 and Kevin
Thank you both,
JJ
SydneyTim
don’t think this works outside the u.k.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016bh4z
hide your IP if it doesn’t
When did the cash at Gretna run out? We are not even mid-way through the season and the running costs to prop up Them to the end of the season must be more than the value of the “winnings” due even if they did win.
Dont forget they are still putting a team on the pitch that they couldn’t afford to buy or run without financial doping. Only when that gets broken apart can the relative strengths of the remaining teams in the SPL be assessed.
Kevin,
don’t fret yourself son, the huns are soooooooooooooo screwed it is beyond funny, it is screamingly hilarious; However every right minded person recognises it is so deserving.
Six in a row? That’ll be their directors in Barlinee you are talking about there… isn’t it?
Snake Plissken says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:08
————————————————————————————————————
If you recall last season there was a lot of talk about, league re-construction and, almost overnight….there was no more talk about that subject ?
You have to wonder why it was put on the back burner ?mmmmmmmmm
P.S. Spiers said on the Clyde phone-in last thursday that he would expect some sort of government intervention if the huns went under! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
P.P.S. It is now coming clear why Murray started voting SNP!mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Hey Gordon,
Good to have you back on the blogosphere.
kitalba says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:27
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Two things you wont find in my locker……
1) A set of PLC cheerleader pom-poms.
2) A pair of PLC beer-goggles.
Snake Plissken –
They would immediately be deducted 10 points and carry on under Administration, which would mean with a makeshift team. They would also need to guarantee that, even with a youth team, they can fulfill their SPL fixtures, otherwise they would be expelled/suspended from the SFA and kicked out of the SPL. If it is a lack of cash that forces Administration, then they won’t have the money to carry on in the SPL, so they would disappear until the end of the season, at least. They would then have to re-apply to join the SFA next season, in the 3rd Division.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon 25 October, 2011 at 08:55:
Second to Cadizzy, who is permanently missing and yet to be found, you must have been the most sought after missing poster in the history of the blog.
Get well soon.
Kevin
The league reconstruction last year was because the teams in the bottom half wouldn’t sanction going back to 10 team leagues.
The truth is though that if they do go bust and disappear there will be changes to the league overnight. That much I’ll give you.
What can the SNP government actually do?
Tthey cannot spend money on them because they don’t have it to spend.
I know where you are coming from but I cannot see them being saved in that way.
Tom McLaughlin @ 09:34
>> They would immediately be deducted 10 points and
>> carry on under Administration, which would mean with a makeshift team.
What about players? Could they be transferred (for money) outside of the transfer window?
Tom McLaughlin
Thanks pal but should they disappear what will happen to the league – is it a top 11 or bring up a div 1 team?
weeminger says:
25 October, 2011 at 09:22
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Apathy is looked upon by the PLC board as acceptance of their stewardship !
Sack The Board Now!!!
Or, heaven forbib, we’ll pass the huns on the way down.
Take the GB out of CP and, CP could be renamed…”The Library Stadium!”
Rangers will probably go into administration, they might even be liquidated, BUT, they are still running away wityh the SPL due to the fact that we are crap. Even if they go bust, we are still crap, if they get liquidated we are still crap. They could go into administration and still win the league, why? Because we are crap!!!!
I’m situated along from the Green Brigade and they were in pretty good voice . Also their effect is spreading with more and more pockets across the whole stand joining in.