“Frustration” was apparently the order of the day for Celtic as Newcastle’s Leon Best decided against moving on loan for the remainder of the season, despite his club being happy to see him go, while a gaggle of other target-men were apparently courted. Frustration; really?
We have Hooper, Stokes and Pawel Brozek fighting for no more than two forward spots, with Moh Bangura still waiting for his first proper run in the team and Georgios Samaras regularly drifting to the striker role from the left. Different formations also call for only one striker with a creative central player, such as Forrest, Commons or maybe Rabiu Ibrahim.
Hooper and Stokes are both playing well, scoring regularly and will be difficult for Brozek to dislodge, not to mention Bangura. Best, who is neither show-biz nor a player guaranteed to score a barrel-load, would either be this year’s Freddie Ljungberg, or if successful, would be improving his own development at the expense of a contracted Celtic player.
I’m as frustrated as I was the day we lost Marc-Antoine Fortune.
196 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- »
JohnnyC
The 5s are being held at Goals in Pollockshaws and the mini golf is at M&Ds!!!!
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo says:
1 February, 2012 at 10:53
All I was trying to answer was how Whyte could borrow money before the deal was done.
As for the rest, I agree, the bottom line for the old guard-in-waiting is for Whyte to take the rap for destroying them and for them to reform after the Fall.
The lies and propaganda from ALL of the media is frightening.
It’s as if someone threw a switch and the focus on Whyte changed completely.
Up pops Murray, out comes W.Smith and suddenly Johnstone, Mc.Clelland and Greig are available for interviews.
Neither pre- war Berlin nor post war Moscow could match them for media management and propaganda.
God help Celtic and for those living in the Glasgow region, be careful.
Snake – I believe the Jambos game is on Sky
I am disappointed we didnt bring in Fojut from Poland
morning CQN & Paul67, had been hoping we might pull a last minute swoop just to pile on the misery but hey ho, we’ve got a good team as it is! all that matters for us is Inverness on Saturday, will need a much better performance than last week!
obviously sitting back and watching the carnage unfold across the city is delightful though perhaps time to focus on ourselves for a spell; that is, unless Ally walks……….think we’ll need Andy from Belfast again if that happened! :)
Hail Hail
Anyone going to the AEK Athens v Panionios game on Sunday ?
Just checked Craig Whyte’s statement, quoted below:
“In the most lurid terms, the Record accuses the Club’s management and, specifically me, of using supporters’ money to help fund the buy-out of Rangers. Not true.
The Club is accused of not paying £5million in VAT. Not true.
I can categorically assure supporters that when I launched a takeover bid for the Club it was funded entirely from one of my companies and that was demonstrated clearly to the satisfaction of the previous owner, Lloyds Banking Group and professional advisers.”
Wavetower/Craig Whyte conducted two transactions:
1. Buying out Murray’s holding in Rangers for £1 – “the buy-out of Rangers”
2. Buying the debt and floating charge from Lloyds for something between £1 and ~£18m.
Technically all that Whyte says in his statement above is that the £1 to buy out Murray came from his own companies.
Ryan\o/D says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:11
Anyone going to the AEK Athens v Panionios game on Sunday ?
………
Picked up my tickets this morning on the way to work!
There used to be a summer 5-a-side competition at Ibrox, in the ole days.
It won’t happen now because people won’t want the ball bein’ kicked against the windaes of their expensive flats.
Petec
most of the teams in that age group will have a full squad.
However a lot of the teams train at Ballerup 3G which would be handy for the Greenhills
and it might be worth heading over there one night and figure out who is training.
My kid played Westwood Rovers 2000’s the other week on Thursday 6-7 on Ballerup 3G pitches
and previously they were looking for players but might be full now.
But if you ask one of the coaches any age group they might know which teams are likely to be looking for players and have contact numbers.
I know coaches of teams in 1999 and 2001 age groups but not 2000.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
petec says:
1 February, 2012 at 07:15
Jobo Baldie
Morning Jobo.
Got a wee day off, so Hi Big chap.
Hoping to get my wee Bhoy into a Saturday morning EK team (2000s) if you know any that are lord lucan, preferably training close to Greenhills.
Green tie day?
Have a Brilliant day m8.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
I think you’re right on the ‘Best’ merchandising front – a bit like signing Dublin, a jersey seller if ever there was one especially in the current climate.
I am happy with the postions our squad is in after the transfer window.
As for needing a player that is big and can take the bumps… even if just to make space for others, then there is something that most people are over looking.
This is direct from the club:
“Efrain Juarez and Morten Rasmussen also returned to Paradise after loan spells in Spain and Turkey, respectively.”
Morten, wasnt exactly great, but he certainly put himself about, and I remember nearly every goal he scored was by putting himself in where it hurts.
Dirty goals. Will he move any of our prolific 2? Hell no.
Is he likely to score the type of goals that they wont? Absolutely!
Lenny
Cavansam (from last thread)
Gsus now you want me to understand how they convinced Ticketus to go along with this cunning plan :-)
Yip, I firmly beleive he hoped to sell a big asset in the summer (say £9m for Jelavic HAHAHAHA) and also get CL money coming in (EL at best) it was the only way he was going to keep the Orcs happy (if that’s possible).
Hey if I wanted to bring down the Huns, I would ask David Murray, he was doing a grand job all on his own.
The MBB has helped things along no doubt. I’m sitting here wondering how I can get in on the action and make some money out of them collapsing :-)
I would then Invest that money into the Thai Tims and the Vanessa Riddle appeal so that we could all be happy that the Huns had played their part.
Mucker
Paul67,
No frustration here, in fact I would have been more frustrated had we landed him, as I would have asked why we need him??
Marrakesh Express says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:10
As RFC lurch deeper and deeper into the biggest crisis in Scottish football history, there is one thing I just cant get my head around. Whether the debt is going to be 20, 30, 40 or even 70 million, why are there no big hitters out there willing to club together and save the ‘institution’ they love. Lets be honest, any ordinary punter’s perception of what £70 million means is too scary to imagine. But in the world of high finance its a relatively small ammount. I know any figure mentioned can only be evaluated generally in relation to turnover/profit/potential etc and thats the crux of the issue. However, why is too inconcievable for a group to come together and ‘chip in’ 10 mill each?
Before anyone thinks I’m on a hun sympathy kick here, well I’m trying to think what our club/supporters would do in the exact same position. Maybe I’m being a bit over romatic here, but I’d say there’s definitely a major difference in the ethos and reputation of the clubs. The journalist Roddy Forsyth (Rangers fan with Celtic supporting sons) said about 4 years ago that [paraphrase] ‘When you think of CFC you see a world wide Scottish/Irish diaspora of friendly fans wearing kilts and shamrocks, a club formed to feed the poor, a club who conquered Europe playing scintillating football’…’When you think of RFC you think of a huge institution blighted by sectarian policy and troublesome fans, and Ulster Unionism’.
I would suggest that the answer to my question lies within that statement. I can imagine the likes of Willie Haughey bailing us out just as he nearly did before Fergus. I can see the Irish Mafia stepping in. There are surely some very rich Irish/Scottish Americans who would grasp the opportunity to rebuild us. Whats in it for these people? Apart from a love of the club and a potential business opportunity, the kudos gained from such a gesture, helping, saving and attaching themselves to this famous club would be the most appealing aspect, in my opinion. Celtic’s name world wide is in a different league to Rangers. We all know the historical reasons, but for me the events of Manchester May 2008, were truly awful, the worst possible PR any football club could ever have, and to an extent this is one rock they are perishing on.
I can just see Theo Paphitis or Duncan Bannatyne now….’You know I’m tempted, really tempted, but for that last reason, I’m sorry to say I cant invest, so…I’M OUT!
HH
Greenjedi,
I should be over in Athens for a few days and am debating going to the game and cannot find an Athens CSC….
Any tips for tickets etc appreciated.
HH
Awe_Naw @ 10:54,
Excellent ~ Nail on Head post
GeorgeORClydefurme!
thomthethim,
ah ok .. sorry never picked that up.
Ticketus would not give him that money solely on future Ibrox attendances. Nobody is that stupid but that is exactly what the old regime want us to believe today.
The old regime are calling on the mafia for the mediocre for yet more favours. Delaying favours.
This tax issue should have been sorted … well over two years ago … but the handshakes are still strong.
They cannot delay it forever however and that’s the real issue here.
And based on that alone I expect hun FC with Ally as their manager and Whyte as their chairman to remain in situ until at least April. That would not surprise me. Also an extra delay from the judiciary on the announcement would not surprise me either.
Imagine the nonsense of it all….
Rangers need to cut costs so Jelavic is sold. He reputedly earns K£16 per week.
As a backfill we are asked to believe the seriously wanted Grant Holt and placed a ridiculously low and insulting bid.
Imagine Norwich were daft enough to accept that bid so all down to personal terms…..
Who earns more; the captain of an EPL side or Jellylegs at K£16?
The most amazing part is that some of the hVns genuinely believe Sally seriously wanted him and the tabloids tell us he actually was keen to join the Gers.
Truly a story Minty himself would have been proud of.
Marrakesh Express,
I’m sure there have been discussions about rescue packages. But I think that the history of Murray’s stewardship of the club followed by Whyte’s new strategies (!) makes them even more unattractive than usual.
Would a rich hun or two really want to take over this mess? Or would they rather swoop in when it all goes belly up, pick up the pieces and start all over again from scratch? I suspect that discussions on this option are pretty well advanced somewhere.
What’s the average cost of a season ticket at Rangers?
According to the MG05 form published on RTC, Rangers sold Ticketus the income from 100,339 season tickets over the next 4 years for £24.4m up front.
That works out at little over £243 per season ticket, so anything over and above this goes to Ticketus for the number of season tickets they have secured per year.
The trouble for Ticketus comes if Rangers are liquidated and all they have is a piece of paper saying they own future revenues of tickets that can’t be sold.
Mort
Marrakesh Express says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:15
Your last line nailed it.
Anyone stupid enough to buy the Huns would be left with the horrible prospect of dreading success.
Any success on the park in European terms would mean another Newcastle 69, Barcelona, 72 or Manchester 2008.
The more success they get the more they bring shame on the club.
They are unique in this regard.
Few clubs in the world have fans who thrive on their hatred of others.
It is an extension of Orangeism.
Ryan
Aek Athens had a banner a few years ago slagging the huns… try them….
Chaps, re the Rangers financing story:
During the negotiations with LBG/MIH, MBB required to demonstrate that he had the free funds to conclude the purchase. Of course he didn’t have any, so it appears that he brokered a deal with Ticketus based on the premiss that IF the purchase went through, he’d securitise the season tickets to the value required. That would represent a good sale for Ticketus.
Ticketus are not daft of course, they wouldn’t simply give him the dough on a promise, so the money was deposited with the solicitors under escrow terms: That is, the money was held in trust by the solicitor until such times that defined actions were completed. No deal within a set period of time and the money is returned.
In this manner Ticketus have full security on the money in the interim, while Whyte can show LBG that he has a shed load of money in his solicitor’s client account. The money though remained the property of Ticketus during this period.
Once the purchase was concluded and Whyte had the authority to contract Rangers plc, the necessary paperwork was executed in Rangers name, the escrow terms were satisfied, and the solicitor released the funds as Whyte required.
Whyte then settled the debt owed to Lloyds.
We are led to believe that £24M was borrowed in this way, but there is a proviso here. According to P. Murray, from the documents he was shown, Rangers were unable to settle the first £9M of the deal when it was due repaid in June, handing over only £3M, and mortgaging another £6M of tickets. That looks to me like the original deal with Ticketus was for £21M, with £9M due repaid in June, of which only £3M was paid cash and a further £6M mortgaged, giving the £24M discussed.
These numbers look awfully like the original £18M for LBG and £3M for the taxman for the wee case. Just an observation like…
I think it is reasonable to infer from the information made public that Craig Whyte had little of his own money at stake in the deal. Only Merchant House and JLT Benefit Solutions are quoted as depositing money with Collyer Bristow. The JLT angle is most likely someone selling their pension fund, maybe Whyte, maybe his father. Someone has though. JLT are adminsitrators, not funders.
The origins of the Merchant House deposit is anyone’s guess, but is small beer in the grander scheme.
The chain of security over loans is clouded by the Wavetower/Rangers Group Ltd involvement, and we cannot tell from the outside which entity owes how much to whom, with what security.
What we can say is that Whyte has mortgaged £24M, paid off £18M to LBG, giving a net cash flow to Rangers of £6M.
Rangers burn £3.5M per month cash, so the deal bought 2 months cash flow in effect, less costs and interest.
The story though points to a difficulty accounting for any VAT due on the Ticketus deal. The nature of the deal, as I undertand it, is a straighforward sale of future years’ season tickets. Property was transferred. Ticketus ‘own’ the tickets. This is an output on which VAT would have been charged, and due declared and remitted with the quarterly VAT Return, so within 3 months of each transaction.
There seems to be some suggestion that this VAT was not declared and/or not remitted, hence the HMRC interviews with P. Murray and D. King this week. IF that is the case, and we should point out that it is entirely speculation at this stage, albeit speculated by P. Murray in the Daily Record following HMRC showing him the documents, then things will get very unpleasant for those personally involved.
Given that HMRC have gone to the extent of obtaining copies of the originating contracts, invoices and remittances from Ticketus, together with the full transaction history of Whyte’s/Wavetower’s Client Account at Collyer Bristow, the latter not easily obtained, we can certainly consider the possibility that HMRC are looking at an irregularity of some some sort.
BlantyreKev, now he’s finished his pile of Tax Returns. might be able to advise what the consequences might be of such an irregularity.
Snake-Hearts game is on Sky.
Marrakesh Express says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:15
Manchester killed any chance they ever had of being bought over as a vanity project.
The whole ethos of the club and their fans is just so out of sync with the times.
The world has moved on and left them behind.
Mort says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:22
My reading is that they didn’t sell the entire season book allocation, just a substantial part of it.
It has always been apparent to me that Whyte was buying Rangers with the fans own money. When one considers the lawyers he used during the takeover were the same people he later gave seats to on the board, does anyone really doubt he went to the people at Ticketus and told them he would do the season ticket sale if he took over the club but needed a hand in getting control?
It sounds perfectly plausible to me.
I see too today that there are people on the blog talking about Rangers being saved again, that some combination of government, SFA or Masons is going to step in and pull them out of the fire.
Let me repeat what I’ve been saying for a while; there is only ONE way that Rangers can be saved, and this is with someone writing a very big cheque. So, is the Scottish government going to write a big cheque to the Westminster government, using our tax payers money, to pay a debt owed to the tax payer? Is the Westminster government going to write a cheque to itself?
Is the Scottish Football Association going to write a cheque to bail out Rangers and make savage cuts to youth football, to coaching and development, to the money it pays out to teams up and down the land? Because their entire annual operating budget would be almost swallowed up by such a fiscal guarentee to save one club. Are they going to open the doors, wide, to any other club which wants the same generosity?
Is the Grand Lodge of Scotland, whether Masonic or Orange, going to pony up a sum which could be anywhere from £40 – £100 million? Do they even have that kind of money at their disposal? And what would they want back for it? Are Scotland’s Mason’s known for philanthropic gestures like this? Is the Edinburgh city grid really laid out in a Masonic pattern? Is the Scottish Parliament building really a mock Masonic Temple from bygone days of yore?
Whoever saves Rangers, if such a person/people exist, will have to be in it for the long haul. This is a club which will need TLC and wads of money for the next ten years or more, in whatever form they emerge. The person who takes it on will need almost a bottomless pit of cash, and goodwill, if they are to get the job done. The reputation of the entire club, along with its infrastructure and playing pool, will need to be rebuilt from scratch.
Wake up and smell the napalm. The only way Rangers emerges from this is as a shadow of the club which has over-reached and overspent and slowly destroyed the Scottish game for nearly 30 years. Nothing we have seen in that time will resemble in any way what is about to happen, save for the experiences of the last few days, which will become as familiar to Rangers fans as trips to Hampden will be for us. Yesterday is tomorrow for them.
Open the windows, let in the air. Smile. Whatever emerges from the darkness descending on Ibrox will be a pale shadow of what existed there before unless there is a genuine billionaire Billy Boy out there with Rangers in his blood and King Billy tattooed on his backside.
Otherwise, there is a real chance that this club will die. Certainly, the best case scenario now for their fans is liquidation entire, the end of the club, followed by a messy resurrection. Whyte has assured that, and frankly I believe it was in his plans all along. That is the best they can hope for now. It has been spelled out in technicolour. He has killed them, by accident or design it does not matter. They are facing not one but two potential extinction level events and they cannot survive one let alone both. It is over.
If there WAS a benefactor out there, someone who could save them, he didn’t want to know when the liability facing the club was a tax bill which they could not pay. Now, with potential criminal investigations underway, debts twice that size and no season ticket income or European football in even the BEST case scenario, who in their right mind is going to step up now?
This club is a runaway train heading for oblivion.
Or Ryan could try Panathanaikos
Come on you bhoys in green!
Paul67
I wonder if Aunt Sally still wondering about with a look of frustration and his injury list clenched in white knuckled fist…
Oh!
Anyone else spot Declan commenting on the STV Transfer deadline page.
Hilarious!
HH
Glad we didn’t sign Best, or any other squad filler, last night. The biggest disappointment of the transfer window for me was our inability to rid ourselves of the deadwood we have in the squad, in fact with Rasmussen and Juarez coming back we have increased it.
M.Wilson, Cha (once Lustig is match fit), Loovens, Juarez, Rasmussen, McCourt, Bangura, whether you like or dislike them, are not only unlikely to contribute much in the run in but they are stopping our youngsters coming through getting an opportunity.
Even without the 7 mentioned above we still have a squad of 20+ with a group of promising youngsters as back up.
Good to see Keatings & Toshney on loan getting first team SPL experience.
ernie lynch at 11:27
yep, not the entire season books.
23,154 in 2011-12
27,017 in 2012-13
27,014 in 2013-14
23,154 in 2014-15
Any sales above this will go to Rangers.
Mort
BT< i dont know what you mean….
Dontbrattbakkinanger< Levadiakos v Panathinaikos, Im just going for a city break and athens will be enough for me for a few nights
Thanks anyhoo.
HH
Paul67
Exactly how I feel. I was also worried we would go for bothroyd again, we have more than enough up front with brozek arriving.
Why would anyone with money get involved with the huns right now?
There can be no financial motive. The mess is so deep that it would need an investment of tens of millions simply to get back to zero. And that would be money poured into a hole, never to be recovered.
The only way that makes any form of sense is to let the current structure die. Events will take their course, the liquidation will come and the parties will be held. But that is the time to make a move if you are of that mind. Buy the ground, restart things from scratch and build it up again. And be hailed as the saviour by the hun hoards.
Of course it would be Govan Utd or some other name. It would possibly play in a colour other than blue (can anyone think of a possibility?). But to the fans it would be Rangers Reincarnated.
And if a deal could be done to get this new team into the SPL without the bother of working its way up, well you can see how it becomes attractive.
The more I read about Craig Whyte and his dodgy dealings the more it reminds me of the plot of The Producers, where Max Bialystock can only make money if the play is a flop.
Wee Craigy IS Max Bialystock.
Big Nan says:
1 February, 2012 at 11:23
Good extention to my point, cheers.
Your so right, the dont do normal celebration. Any triumph is an excuse for them to go on a triumphalist/superiority complex/drink fuelled rampage.
And when they get beat its worse!
Just thought of walking from the the stadium in Seville after we’d lost. Hundreds of us were being taunted by about 30 celebrating Porto fans who were across the road. Nothing happened except some shouts towards them. Now imagine if it was that mob.
hh