der Berliner

Fair enough. He does not say that he cannot bear that deficit though and was willing to pay a substantial fee/wages for Holt. That he does not want this deficit to stay longer than necessary or to grow is clear enough. But I do assume that he knows that should we retain the title, there's the prospect of a CL jackpot. Hence spending some money now and do it sensibly might actually get us into the draw for that jackpot. We could stay with what we have, yet, on current form, it means that we not even draw a ticket.

To be fair it is somewhat difficult to interpret the situation when the chairman himself has said there is a £10million deficit in our finances.

Unless I am mistaken, he did not say that there is currently a 10m deficit, but the income we generate does not equal the expenditures over the whole financial year. More a general statement that he was aware of when taking over, a deficit he targets to bring down in the longer run, not necessarily at the end of February 2012 for the running year. Not that he can do this by using the Jelavic money anyways.

BTW, I do expect that as soon as we get the tax case off our backs on way or another, investors might be more willing to come forth.

The problem with the BBC is that they are self-controlled. No Ofcom et al making sure they stick to basic principle, only a BBC Trust looking into that, AFTER you have complained to the BBC directly and are not satisfied. It is essentially not very different to what UEFA did with Sion, i.e. asking an UEFA selected "independent" court of arbitration to settle the issue, rather than the Swiss law courts. You could as well ask the Vatican to act as an independent tribunal in a dispute between the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Church of England.

In any case, people have to make the first step and complain to the BBC, the BBC Trust and make Ofcom aware of BBC Scotland's antics. For AFAIK, Ofcom is challenging the BBC hard for their aloofness and "being untouchable" (when they long since have ceased to be solely dependent on license fee payers) ... and need ammunition.

Assuming there's any money available to offer contracts.

*whack over the head* ... We've sold McMillan and have his wages. We've sold Jelavic and have his wages. We've loaned and released nigh a dozen and save their money. We offered 1m to Norwich for Holt and had a decent amount of wages set aside ... so please try not to follow the garden path the press as cut.

Well, according to transfermarkt, there are some 900 strikers out there, about 3/4 of which are very (as in very low-key) folk. But you also get quite a few Brazilians as well as Barcelona B players. (Interestingly enough also a few Rangers u19 strikers ... ) All without contract.

IMHO, Whyte has said what has to be said about the issue. If King or Traynor doesn't like it, so be it. Neither these two or, matter of fact, the supporters have any more "right" to know more than what Whyte has done. Guiding Rangers FC and their finances has never been done with the consent of the press or the support, nor their full and detailed knwoledge. King and Traynor just mobilizing the disgruntled masses and knock their press freedom about ... in the search of another story. THAT should be clear here.

He should be making a payment on account to stop the interest clocking up.

As far as I understood it, that has actually happened when the amount was frozen in our accounts?

Methinks with regards to the small bill, he does not contest it as such, but the (in his opinion) far too heavy penalty ... after he found out about it and gave the relevant info to HMRC in the frist place. While the tax people can demand penalties to their hearts content, it does make you wonder that they go at us with all guns blazing here. When, as has been said, Vodafone et all got off the hook very lightly. (And yes, the penalty was imposed before HMRC got told to sharpen up late last year.) Since we know not much about the small deal, we as much as Traynor can hardly debate on a decent level about it. Since we have a right to appeal the penalty and it is not in our hands when the appeal etc. is being heard, I doubt that the fee as such will increase while it is in that state.

On a sidenote, here's McMillan celebrating his Pars deal. Maybe tells its own story ...

With regard to trials ... it is always about what the respective clubs want (position, role) and what e.g. Riordan asks with regards to contract lengths and wages.

Traynor and King again asking the "must tell the truth" and "supporters must demand" stuff. It seems unless Whyte (whom Traynor jovially calls "Craig") tells them what they want to hear - e.g. Rangers are in deep shyte and I'm guilty and will burn in hell for this - they will not listen and read and think about what the chairman has to say. For that reason alone I hope the HMRC case bursts and Whyte waives the 18m debt stored in the Rangers Football Group.

Unless I am mistaken, Cousin is 35 now and while leading the line for Gabun (?), is playing for Gabunese side Sapin. They have a deal standing that he can go "without condition" if a European team happens by, but I'm not sure how thin that contractual ice is going to be.

Riordan is still a freebie, would probably jump at the chance to play for a big team again, but a) this rumour is just that, and b) many Rangers supporting boarders do not want him "because he's a ned off the field". (You wonder what people thought of Gascoigne at the time ... when he was not a Rangers players ... and no, I do not suggest that Riordan is anywhere Gazza's quality.)

It makes the decision to get rid of McMillan a crazy one. He looks a far better RB than Bartley.

I do suspect that there were differences between the club and McMillan that might have let to him being sold rather than loaned. He's said to be a fiery character and there was probably a reason that he was not used as a first team player by now, despite his age (and injuries).

I'd get Jaager in to cover the right back slot. Bartley ain't a solution there, but we need him as back-up CH and defensive midfielder.

We desperately need a creative midfielder and another striker. The sooner these slots are filled, the better. And Ally should finally give McKay a game, he simply can't be worse than what Davis and Edu deliver time and again. ... they, btw, need a smart kick up the backside. You can't have a couple of good games, then get back to a level that makes us look like a pub team.

Davis might be captain, but I would hope that Bocanegra takes up more responsibilities in that department and gives the players a good roasting when required.

It was quite ominous that Bedoya and McKay weren't involved in the Arbroath game.

Keep playing like we did today and the S/T sales will plummet.

 

Then where will we be ?

Did the season ticket sales plummet after the horror January of 2011?

... on a sidenote, Bedoya played for the US of A on the right hand side during the Gold Cup, and was hailed by one of his colleagues as a right-sided all-round worker. He was not even on the bench, but we had Kerkar, Wylde, Wallace, Papac, Aluko, and Celik there, all essentially left-sided players.

All that said, these players performed on quite a different level during these last 14 days. And I will not start questioning Ally time and again after every dropped point. We are neck deep in trouble. We know it. We knew it. There will not be a great deal of improvement during the rest of the season unless the players get their act together. They are good enough, now they have to show it. Most of those we have are through it all already.

But now it is also the time where we have to show our loyalty and support them through this thick times. We always proclaim that "we welcome the chase" and want to be more than just another football supporter. Now it is also the time to stop the lamenting and show the dignity that befits our institution.

dB, Whyte's comment about the £3.5m a month running costs was in reply to the question of where the £20m of mortgaged ticket money has gone. We got over £15m in revenue from Europe last season and a very sizeable chunk of that Euro cash didn't come in till after Whyte took over. I just think it would have been good for Tom English to ask about that money while conducting this Q&A session. It's a valid question to ask while asking all those other questions about the club and Whyte finances. I mentioned it to Tom English on twitter this morning, so you never know, he might include it in his next Q&A and get even tougher with the questioning....

IMHO that was clear enough. I doubt that all these 20m from Ticketus will be solely used for these running costs. And even if, which was my point, how long will these 20m last? Hence my reply that Whyte will make sure that all income will be used to keep the club as such running, pay off any out-standing issues and keep a decent amount handy for any possible HMRC bill (even though we apparently can cover the small bill with the money frozen in the accounts).

As I said before, Whyte has no (as in: NO) obligation to give a reporter (or us) a detailed account on how he uses the money. No chairman this side of Saturn's rings does that and I simply cannot understand the constant harassment of Whyte in the press and on the boards to release figures so blatantly confidental. All figures that need publication will be posted on the annual accounts (once they are handy). And you will get hardly any more info than in the annual reports from any chairmen either. In that respect, Whyte is much more forthcoming than most.

(On a sidenote, do keep in mind that despite probably being in this business for the better part of a decade, he is still pretty young (i.e. 40, which is younger than me) and thus bound to act and react differently than e.g. a Marlborough, Murray or the like. And no, that is no excuse, just a statement.)

He asked Whyte some tough questions, but he forgot to ask where our European money from last season vanished to. He could have slipped that question in a number of times, especially when Whyte started telling us what the mortgaged ticket money has already been spent on.

Methinks you may find the answer to that in this reply of Whyte:

A: We’ve got running costs somewhere in the region of £3.5m a month.

And, as I said before, it could well be that he keeps an account handy for the small tax bill as well as any small bill that HMRC gets in the big case. Just MHO, of course.

... Hemmings, who is back in training for a while, but according to his own words (twitter), about two weeks away from the first team.

On a sidenote, Aluko can play in the free-roving free-shooting Laudrup role, though I would assume that Ally saw that Wylde is not that much of a help on the right. Hence I would give Aluko the right wing slot (with some freedom), keep Wallace on the left (with the order to attack and shoot from all angles), and use Celik as an inside left just behind Healy. All midfielders though should get the order to have a go at the target.

Russell's statement was reported as it was issued. Ally's press conference was on the radio.

 

However as we don't like what's being said, let's pretend that we don't know don't really know who said what. Perhaps someone impersonated Ally?

 

There can be a lot of crap written, but this isn't one of them. Just because it happens sometimes we shouldn't blame the press when we do cock up.

Fair enough. Do you know what was said to Russell and by whom, at the time? Just out of interest. As I said, it might well/simply have been a communication problem between what was said by Jela at the time "to" Russell via Whyte, and to McCoist. Not that these circumstances during the last days/hours of the transfer window can change quickly. Be that as it may, "More lies from the management" is hardly a true story, nor one that should be tolerated. We should keep to certain standards and dignity ... even if there are some things that do not match up.

Sidenote: we do not know what fee was agree in total, add-ons, sell-on clause and whatnot. So we likewise should refrain from "assuming" that we sold him on the cheap, or cheaper than other bids.

As I said above, the reporter will turn the words to get his story. We hardly know what was told by whom and to which person. And we do not know how much of said stuff above is actually true or not. But for some reason, which was my point, it appears that with everything that could be regarded as something negative with regard to the chairman and the management, "we" are all too happy to accept it as near fact.

... yep. It was bound to happen though and while we did indeed have a had a few replacements in our sights, apparently time was a factor. All that said, there are still freebies about who can be looked at, and I do believe that there are enough out there who would do a job for us in the SPL (for at least six months). On a sidenote, Lafferty and Hemmings will be back soon and I would hazard a guess that Aluko and Celik will chip in with some goals.

Edit: @ Bluedell ... so you take the words of the press for being the truth then?

A pretty bold topical header.

All what is in there might just have been a problem of understanding - after all, you do have to keep in mind that Jela does not speak English that good and the odd slip may lead people listening to different ideas. Not - and we always have to keep this in mind - that the press tries to make astory out of this: after all, selling our star striker "has to cause some upset" amongst the management, the support, the players or whatnot: at least according to the press. Hence they milk it to the core.

The more important issues with this article is, as I intimated on the day, that McCoist did not have a bust up with Whyte, and that he apparently spoke to him hours before the picture was taken. It could well have been news that none of the targets he had on the day were willing to come ... or that his better half informed him that his mother-in-law was staying overnight.

No dignity whatsoever, nothing unexpected though.

Of course, even during these last years of financial restraints, his lot was not good enough and despite having twice as many superstars at his disposal, he hardly gets any great success or runs away with the title. And no matter what, should his lot actually does it this season, it will always remembered as the title we had to relinquish because of troubles off the field, not on it. At least by any sane football supporter.

... sometimes you wonder, though, whether these press people actually think that e.g. McCoist is a newbie who is desperately looking/seeking/wanting advice from ... oh wait ... their former colleagues, who have about as much real experience in management and coaching as I have in cricket.

As one German politican once put it: Journalists are a only peripheral figures of the wood-working industry.