Rangers are dead. Vindication for you, for Celtic
My friends in Celtic, the day has come. Rangers are dead. The Old Firm existed for many years but we all now know that particular duopoly was terminated years ago – on the day Murray International Holdings bankers tried to put Celtic out of business, to be precise.
Today, we stand proud and alone.
“Celtic are in an exceptionally strong financial position. They can survive the vagaries of football fortune, or economic downturn, without the threat of cutback should income dip.
Conversely, Rangers are in dire trouble. This year will not be financially the worst Sir David Murray has bestowed on his club, but it will make for horrendous reading to any prospective buyer of the club and provide further evidence that they are hopelessly adrift of financial security.
Winning the league this season and qualifying for next season’s Champions League will not provide succour from their structural problems, it would only result in a temporary slowdown in decline.
Rangers debt has risen inextricably, and is set to continue to rise, at a time when bank facilities have become more difficult and expensive to acquire.
Should new HBOS owners, Lloyds TBS, take fright at the property-to-football conglomerate, Murray International Holdings, which includes Rangers, frankly, the consequences are so dramatic, I don’t think we should discuss them, as I have trouble sleeping when I get too excited.
We live in a time when things which simply cannot happen, happen. When some of last year’s most credit-worthy companies in the world have gone into receivership; when one of the centuries-old pillars of the Scottish business community crumbled in days.
No company dependent on a significant increase in its debt is safe.
Rangers Football Club, 1873 – 20??”
The years since 2008 have been hard for Celtic fans. We watched our team lose three consecutive league titles to a former club, who despite their self-evident mortal danger, continued to fund a league and Champions League challenges.
We stuck to budget and lost trophies. This was a hard decision but it was absolutely correct. Football regularly throws up clubs who will recklessly burn cash. You can indulge in their lunatic ways, or sit it out, tell your fans you cannot afford to spend more, and hope that in time your judgement is proven to be right. Today is vindication for all those hard years.
I’m not a financial analyst and never actually spend too much time reading Rangers accounts but the above synopsis was inescapably obvious – and this was years before I knew about the EBTs. Rangers directors would have known this at the same time, if not before. If they were blind to it, they were equally useless. Only God above will know why they didn’t rein the horses in, lose a few leagues, but kept their football clubs in business.