Rope-a-Dope lemmings ready to walk off cliff

Rangers International’s advice to shareholders, issued last night, for next week’s General Meeting is legally spot on.  They have read the contract but they’re not reading the narrative.

As they say, the club would not be bound to repay the £5m loan from MASH if shareholders vote in favour of doing so.  Repaying this loan may not be in the interests of “shareholders as a whole” (I dispute this).

In asserting these views, and winning the vote on the matter, Rangers International will surely not surprise MASH.

When someone as thorough and well-resourced as Mike Ashley puts resolutions in front of you, when his motivations are “not clear to the directors”, you have to consider if you’re in a Rope-a-Dope scenario.

Without knowing anything about Ashley’s plans, I can give you an assurance that he will expect shareholders to vote against his resolution.  He is asking for his money and expects this request to be declined.  He is also asking searching questions about the events which led to the succession of the current board.  I do not expect him to be satisfied with the answer.

The real question is, why has Ashley engineered a scenario where he has made a legitimate request for repayment and been rejected?

If you think next week’s meeting is about winning the vote you could not be more wrong.  The cynic would say Ashley wants justification for what he’s about to do next.

Those shares in Rangers Retail Ltd (RRL) which are due to be returned from MASH to Rangers International on repayment of the loan are currently worth 26% of RRL.  I wonder if they will be worth more than 0.1% of the company this time next month.

This is a classic Rope-a-Dope.  Pay him his money, do it quickly, secure as much of your Intellectual Property as you can, as quickly as you can.  This is not a matter for brinksmanship.  You stupid, stupid, lemmings are walking off a cliff.  Again!