One of two things are going to happen:
Possibility One:
Dave King will say: “You ain’t got no problem, journos. I’m on the pot. Go back in there, chill them Bears out and wait for the £30m, which should be coming directly”.
Possibility Two:
Dave King will make some irrelevant, vacuous, comment, or make no comment at all, but he will NOT say “Chill them Bears out and wait for the £30m”, because £30m isn’t coming.
If option one happens, Newco has a future. If anything but option one happens, they have no future.
They will need £10m to keep the lights on next season in the Championship – and that’s before any ambitions to improve the football operation. Even more important than keeping the lights on, they need to find £5m to repay Ashley’s loan (yes, getting Intellectual Property off Mike Ashley is more important than staying out of administration).
That’s £15m loan or capital investment needed, on top of ticket sales and other income, to survive the next 12 months, without repaying any of the directors loans and without finding a budget for a better keeper than Cammy Bell.
If they find this money, and they win promotion next year, they will still have a deficit (even with the current player budget) in the Premiership. £30m would be gone within two years, and that’s assuming the millions needed to be spent on the stadium is forgone for a while longer.
While King was building momentum to displace the last board, he was crystal clear about the level of ambition which was a minimum requirement for Newco: compete with Celtic. He was prepared to spend his children’s inheritance, £30m, £40m, whatever it takes!
Now he’s not so verbose.
Last year he issued a statement asking “Does the [Newco] board agree it is unfair to ask fans to buy season tickets before they consider the business review?” Now he’s ‘on the throne’ we’re hearing little about the club’s plans. It’s easy running a football club when you’re criticising the guys currently doing the job, it’s a whole lot harder when it’s you who has to make the decisions.
Mike Ashley’s EGM next week may be a welcome distraction. Mike will be the bogeyman, but only for the permanently gullible (and there are lots of them). His loan is modest compared to the size of the funding gap and it was known about before King urged shareholders to back him.
That Ashley is an uncompromising lender and holder of onerous contracts is no mitigation for King. Ashley is that and more. We knew this, King knew it when he told fans he was the man to turn things around. He cannot act surprised now.
So is the £30m coming? Even if King has the money, I can’t see it, it just doesn’t make sense. Pouring £30m into a black hole, without merchandising rights for 7 years, without a realistic prospect of being competitive on the field, when the only reward is to survive long enough to pour in yet more millions, is lunacy. The dark days of 2012 will haunt Ibrox once more.
It makes more sense to let the club go to the wall, let Ashley run off with the Rangers brands, make him the bogeyman, and use your money to bid for the stadium from the insolvency practitioner. Four or five years down the line Govan United could be a top-flight team. They may even be able to cut a deal with Ashley for rights to the ‘Rangers’ name, which despite all that’s gone on, still has some cachet.
I’m pleased to read Celtic on the front foot again this morning regarding the Offensive Behaviour’ Act. I’d hoped that when the baton passed from Salmond to Sturgeon the Scottish Government’s lunge in the direction of extraordinary police powers, and laws created after curious political considerations, would end. I gather a glimpse of doubt crept in around a year ago, as immediate political realities gave the Government reason to reconsider, but all such self-doubts have since been washed away.
Get used to the Act, police with guns on our streets as a matter of course, and ambitious aims for their authority.
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My girlfriend and I will be in Glasgow on Saturday ( Garrowhill) before flying out to Spain on the Sunday morning. We had intended going into town on Saturday afternoon/early evening. Would that still be a good idea with this Orangefest being on?
JJ
Oops!
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked
I’d avoid the city centre like the plague. Too many of the undead knuckle draggers will be out and about looking for trouble
JJ I would head over to Byres road /gt western rd area to avoid the bigotfest hh
oldtim67
Was charging my phone that’s why you got my voicemail. I’ll try calling you shortly.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked
20:48 on
2 June, 2015
My girlfriend and I will be in Glasgow on Saturday ( Garrowhill) before flying out to Spain on the Sunday morning. We had intended going into town on Saturday afternoon/early evening. Would that still be a good idea with this Orangefest?
JJ
Might be just to see a lot of currently unhappy folk (no it is not a misspelling) trying to acr as if they are happy. Personally I won’t be within miles of them.
TTT and the other responders (:-)
Thanks .
A wee bit of nostalgia shared is a good thing.
TT
HKTS
As I thought.
johann murdoch
A definite possibility.
Thanks to you both ( and anyone else who has replied as I type!).
JJ
JJ
not a problem. Wouldn’t want anyone getting caught up in that shite
Blatter’s resigning
Nostalgia aint what it used to be. I myself get nostalgic when I think of trophies won!
Had a really busy day. Take care all and remember It’s wonderful being a Tim. Early night beckons. KTF. And night Night Timland. :-))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
1967.?
I was 17 and really looking forward to going to Uni in 68.
Went to Lisbon expecting to win and was disappointed that Suarez wasn’ t playing .
The times they were a changing – my soundtrack was Wayne Shorter / Sun Ra / Bobby Hutcherson and a pile of Rocksteady 7s – big fave was – Tomorrow’s Children – Bang Bang Rocksteady – choon !.
Things I liked – girls / dope / Lsd ./ speed / clothes / shoes
oldtim67
went to your voicemail again, didn’t leave a message but will try in the morning when Mrs. LB at the Hairdressers.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Does anyone know anything about the Malmo defender we are being linked with?
Someone told me today that they want to have Belfast’s twalfth celebrations designated as Orangefest.
Anyone confirm?
Tiny Tim
Cheers,
Yip, there’s no business model that works, and thus there’s no business.
It’s now down to the main players to decide how much they’re willing to burn, and how much more they can pockle out of less informed others.
The supporters have NEVER shown the appetite to pony up the dough to help out. Even when it was most needed, they managed only modest numbers. I expect there’s less appetite now than there ever was.
You reckon £60M, I’ll take that, although I think it’s >£80M over the coming 5 years to have a chance of delivering a break even model – and that doesn’t include the cost of buying Ashley out of he Retail operation.
But let’s take your £60M.
They have £10M of debt right now, and need a further £10M to see through the next 12 months, plus whatever investment is made in players and infrastructure.
At the end of which period they may, or may not, have qualified to the Premiership.
£20M down now to stay put.
Let’s say they get promoted.
Their payroll is £15M per year atm, set against Celtics of £40M.
If they add £20M to payroll, they’re at parity and no more. Add whatever you might consider reasonable for transfer fees. I’d say £10M.
Irrespective of the outcome of that season in the Premiership, they will need working capital to trade that year. That’ll be the final £10M in the pot, and the end of the £60M.
That’s assuming they get promoted in the coming season.
That’s assuming they don’t repair and maintain their properties.
That’s assuming they don’t spend any money on transfers this year.
That’s assuming whatever decisions they make over the coming weeks all play out perfectly.
And it only works if they:
a) Get promoted this coming season
b) Win the league the following season
c) Qualify for the Champions League immediately following that.
If any one of the three criteria fail, the plan fails, and the money’s gone.
So, on that basis, who’s going to put up the £60M to take the punt?
In terms of Admin and Liquidation, neither serves a purpose. Excluding Ashley’s £5M, the money they owe/will owe is all due to the main players themselves, King’s cohort. There’s no external debt to dump.
In order to avoid Ashley taking the IP by default, they need to pay him off. So they give Ashley his £5M and then pull the plug on their business? Seems incongruous. But Rangers Retail remains outside of their ownership in any event.
Additionally, there’s no clarity as to the position of the ‘onerous’ contracts in an Admin event. Do they manage to cut them loose, or do they survive the Admin?
A Liquidation is the ultimate no no. In that scenario, Ashley gets the IP, and no one but Ashley can create a new newco called “Rangers”. So they lose their money, and they lose their brand simultaneously.
It doesn’t work.
Unless you’re an Ambramovic type looking to obtain some legitimacy in the West, in which case £60-100M is good value.
Thanks for the reply. Personally, I can’t figure out a way to make it work. I can divine no model that isn’t simply a bonfire of vanities.
TBB
Blatter`s resignation .
Marvellous news.
Can`t wait for the revelations.
Time for E.U.F.A. to take control.
hughkeevinstalkssense
20:35 on 2 June, 2015
Just read on one of the servo sites that they should do everything in their, ( trying not to laugh) power to sign Scott Allen and, wait for it Didier Drogba. The only issue they had in signing Drogba is that many of the zombies believe he might be a bit too old. They really are a deluded bunch.
——-
Wouldn’t they have a wee problem with Drogba crossing himself after scoring?
Or would it all be okay cos the plan is that he’d be a ‘non scoring striker’ as that’s been the foundation of Celtic’s recent domination.
JJ – no. No. West End! Sorted.
HH jamesgang
hughkeevinstalkssense
21:03 on 2 June, 2015
Does anyone know anything about the Malmo defender we are being linked with?
6’4″, left footed centre half, can play defensive midfield, Swedish international, CL experience with Malmo, looks like Mikel Lustig/Jack Sparrow
WeefratheTim
21:01 on
2 June, 2015
Had a really busy day. Take care all and remember It’s wonderful being a Tim. Early night beckons. KTF. And night Night Timland. :-))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Now Weefra theres early nights ……where are you sneaking off to ?? :-))))
glad your still doing well my friend
HH
I remember many moons ago there was a Norn Ireland tourist office in Glasgow.
Old doll who worked in it asked me if I was going over for ‘Celebrations’. Her sour gub got even sourer when I told her that the area I was going to regarded regarded the ‘Celebrations’ in a fashion that was a sour as her gub.
Even then, forty years aGO, they were trying to peddle the Folk Festival line
gary67
Cheers. So it’s looking like this guy and boyata at centre half this coming season?
Still feel we need a left back to rival Izzy and a good right winger
The Battered Bunnet
Personally, I can’t figure out a way to make it work. I can divine no model that isn’t simply a bonfire of vanities.
TBB
If you cant find it “T” then I believe it cant be found…., end of :-))
They are toast……….
HH
TT,
You are welcome.
It’s good to shake up the old memory bank now and again, before it deletes itself.
I see the accusation flying about, from the uninformed and the under-researched, this morning re the Weekend Cultural Celebrations that Glasgow Council and Scottish Labour never did anything about this (but hey! – no pointing fingers at any Scots Government Folk now!).
For those that quickly forget recent history, here’s a C & P from the Scotsman in 2009 ( I don’t expect I’ll get anything pasted about SNP attempts in this arena, will I?) :-
“OVER the past two centuries, members of the Orange Order have worn through countless shoes on Scotland’s streets.
What began in 1798 – when Scottish soldiers were sent across the sea to put down an Irish Rebellion and served alongside the Orange Yeomanry and returned to protect Protestantism and king from the tyranny of Rome – has strode confidently into the 21st century. Swords and stitched jerkins have been replaced by smart suits and rolled umbrellas, and always the Orange sash.
While Republican marches do take place in Glasgow, at just 19 during the whole year, they account for less than a tenth of Orange parades
Across Scotland, 500 lodges are today attended by 50,000 members who all love to march. No other organisation is responsible for more public marches in Scotland than the Orange Order, which has been exercising its right to stride down high streets from its lodges to a local church since the 1890s. In Glasgow last year, the Orange Order marched 183 times, while related organisations, such as the Apprentice Boys of Derry, marched 40 times and the Black Institute, 24.
Yet it is now set to stumble and fall. Glasgow City Council is planning to cut the number of marches by up to 90 per cent to about 20, on the grounds of cost and public disturbance. If the new policy on demonstrations goes through, next year’s July Orange Order Boyne Celebrations – the largest Orange parade in Scotland – will be diverted away from the city centre.
The council is also looking at banning the popular “return parades”, where individual lodges and bands return to their areas from the main demonstrations.
The leaked plans are seen as a pincer movement against the Orange Order, as they come just three weeks after the chief constable of Strathclyde Police revealed that the bill for policing three Orange Order events in July came to almost 1 million, a sum the force can ill afford, as it is facing a 200m deficit.
A full report on policing parades will be published next month. About 100 officers had to be deployed to prevent a riot when just six members of the Royal Black Chapter – an elite wing of the Orange Order – paraded with a band through the Gallowgate area of Glasgow, where there are a number of bars popular with Celtic fans.
“How many parades does one organisation need? These groups may have important dates in their calendar, but hundreds of them? We need to look at new methods of parading around the city centre, not through it,” said council deputy leader James Coleman.
“We will allow and protect the right to demonstrate, but we need to strike a balance.
“Our responsibilities extend beyond upholding the rights of the Orange Order or whoever else. What was acceptable in the past is becoming untenable.”
So is the Orange Order march still defensible today? Or is the only way to banish the violent, anti-Catholic bigots who follow in its wake to ban the parades?
Professor Steve Bruce, author of Sectarianism in Scotland said:
“For me, the key point is the balance of competing rights. Any ideological group has a right to demonstrate its distinctive beliefs. I have a right to go shopping. How far should we allow the first to constrain the second? ‘Not far’ would be my answer.
“I suspect that most people who object to Orange walks do so on ideological grounds. They just don’t like what the Orange Order represents.
“The price of free speech is that we may occasionally have to see and listen to people with whom we disagree.”
Historian Ruth Dudley Edwards, author of The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions, said the problem often lay with the critics.
“It is the reaction to the march that is the problem. It’s not the march. I have a great respect for Ian Wilson, the Grand Master. He is as sane and decent a man as I have ever met.
“He addressed the antisocial element in Orangism; he addressed the bigotry in Orangism; he has fought hard to bring it into the 21st century and be just a celebration. I have found what seems to be a very begrudging reaction in Scotland in the secular and Catholic world.
“If they are violent or troublesome you penalise them for that – you don’t just penalise them for being Orange,” she said.
“How much of this protest is just touchy neighbours with an agenda?”
It is a description Monsignor Peter Smith would strongly reject, on the grounds that it has been the Orange Lodge and its followers who have been less than neighbourly.
As the parish priest at St Mary, on Abercrombie Street, a popular thoroughfare for marchers, he has had to contend with 15 marches this year, including three in the past eight days. “When the march passes the dregs are left behind and it’s very unpleasant – they happen without warning, at times when weddings could be taken place or bodies arriving for funerals, and regardless of what they say, their attitude towards Catholics is appalling.”
Msgr Smith points out that the Catholic Church abandoned its only official march, the Ogilvie Walk, in 2000, on the grounds that times had changed. “It’s time for them to be cognisant of the community and call it a day.”
‘We are more pro-Protestant than anti-Catholic. Everyone likes to celebrate their culture’
THE Grand Lodge of Scotland is to mount a publicity drive to convince critics that it is a noble Christian organisation with an illustrious past.
The organisation plans to dispel the image of drunken bigotry that surrounds the marching season by inviting the public to dancing displays and band competitions.
Robert McLean, an executive officer of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, admitted not enough has been done by the organisation to promote a positive image.
“Over the years we have been slow to educate people on our culture but in the past two or three years we have been handing out leaflets trying to educate the public. Only this year we have taken out advertisement for other events, not just the parade. We had Scottish dancers and pipe bands. We want to let people know what the culture is about, and it’s not just about taking to the streets.”
The organisation is extremely concerned about Glasgow City Council’s plans to cut by 90 per cent the number of marches that take place each year. However, he said the criticism had brought new members. He said: “The Orange Order in Scotland has been around for over 200 years.
“We are older than most of the political parties and if people think we are going to curl up and go away they need to think again. We will be here for many years to come. We are getting stronger. The more the media hype this up the more new members we seem to get.”
He denied, however, that the organisation was anti-Catholic. “The Orange Order is a Protestant institution and we don’t apologise for that. We are not anti-Catholic. We are more pro-Protestant than anti-Catholic. At no time have we openly come out and said we are anti-Catholic. Everyone likes to celebrate their culture. I don’t see why people are trying to target the Orange Order – is it that we are now the soft target?”
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
21:05 on
2 June, 2015
Blatter`s resignation .
Marvellous news.
Can`t wait for the revelations.
Time for E.U.F.A. to take control.
Given some of the shite we have seen come out of EUFA what reason have we to believe that Platini’s mob will be any less corrupt.
I am a Glaswegian and would like to go into my town centre on Saturday but an event is taking place which, at best, would spoil the day if I decided to visit. There will be many others facing a similar problem. Why, therefore, have the City Fathers allowed this to go ahead? The mob who arrived at the Square at the time of the Independence election showed us what to expect from the Union jack crowd. Sheer lunacy at a time when Glasgow has won so much praise of late.
JJ
Why stop at Drogba…. Roberto Baggio and Gabrielle Batistuta aren’t doing much these days either.
Sign them all up Sevco…
TBB
On the money …I like your style
I’ve given the Sevco conundrum much thought …..whilst you express conclusion much better than me…I’m in complete agreement
They’re burst …what do you think King will do
I have no sympathy for Glasgow City Council or Scottish Government on Orange Demonstrations issue.
However, as I posted earlier today it is only four or five years ago that West Dunbartonshire Council got its fingers and pockets burned when it tried to ban an Apprentice Boy’s March through Dumbarton,
Eaven if the Scottish Goverment stepped in the Orange Order would take the matter to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg and in all likliehood win.
JJ
I wonder what the traders who own pubs and restaurants around George Sq think of Saturdays abomination
https://rangerssupportersloyal.wordpress.com
Let them have their walks ….but ….Police Scotland should apply the law
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked
21:13 on
2 June, 2015
I am a Glaswegian and would like to go into my town centre on Saturday but an event is taking place which, at best, would spoil the day if I decided to visit. There will be many others facing a similar problem. Why, therefore, have the City Fathers allowed this to go ahead? The mob who arrived at the Square at the time of the Independence election showed us what to expect from the Union jack crowd. Sheer lunacy at a time when Glasgow has won so much praise of late.
JJ
Interesting you mention the aftermath of Referendum.
Now almost nine months after the event I still await a reply from Jim Murphy to a letter about the matter.
dena29
21:07 on 2 June, 2015
WeefratheTim
21:01 on
2 June, 2015
Had a really busy day. Take care all and remember It’s wonderful being a Tim. Early night beckons. KTF. And night Night Timland. :-))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Now Weefra theres early nights ……where are you sneaking off to ?? :-))))
glad your still doing well my friend
HH
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Good evening “G” I hope you are well. Seriously I’m totally knacked tonight. Don’t know why, slept for 8hrs last night. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. (It is true). Lol. The old body is responding well. Hahaha.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Oldtim
Great to see you posting again, but with that memory of yours I thought you had forgotten about CQN entirely.
Like many, I’ m glad we don’t have to face them in the League next year. I had promised my brother the ticket for the game, should it have come to pass, but thankfully Motherwell done us all, including themselves a favour. It was only going to be the 1 game I missed, as there was no way they were making the top 6 even if they had come up.
If the 44,000 ST are an accurate figure, then that is extraordinary so early in the year, this in itself will have a knock on effect, with those that were swithering maybe deciding to come back and be part of our new adventure under Ronny.
EC final I was 10 and watched it engrossed on an old B&W Decca TV which my dad had to keep feeding with precious shillings. I still remember the euphoria after the final whistle.All the kids gathered outside and were chanting Celtic Celtic, Whilst my old man borrowed 10 bob off my mother and he and a few neighbours headed for the nearest watering hole called the Casbar., he returned some hours later worse for wear and the 10 bob note intact. The only tiime he claimed a pub gave away free drink.
Keep well Oldtim and keep posting
HH
….PFayr supports WeeOscar
Nae wonder that guy that has been camping there pissed off
Love