Juancornetto

Wee Craig is doing a real hatchet job on HMRC. I don't get how people can see it any other way. This is not going to be pretty, our staff and squad will be trimmed even further and we are going to be dragged through the mud again and again but what is new there? Craig Whyte is the secured creditor. If the figures are correct then he has underwritten £45m of debt (or his companies have) and so he holds 75% of the debt. He can then then cut a deal with himself and take us out of administration. HMRC are not a secured creditor as we are led to believe so this is really a pre-emptive strike to ringfence the debt and assets from them. We have been insulated from the real impact of financial strife for years, it's time to bite the bullet and sort it out. There is a clever wee guy in there doing that at the moment and if he and Rangers come out the other end smelling of roses then I wouldn't begrudge him making some money for his efforts.

This is true, there's nowhere he could go and hide without feeling under threat for his life.

I'm trying!

How could he? We were unable to source financing as it was and now all bets are off as far as creditors go and that could includes HMRC. The crux of this is now how Mr Whyte has structured things to best deal with administration. He's been down this road many times before so in that sense he's the best man for the job.

The only thing that is worse about this news is the hundreds of poor misguided folk out there that haven't the first idea what Administration is.....I for one am pretty calm about it. This may be the first step to Rangers becoming a successful functioning football club again.

Amen brother! I've just joined The National Secular Society in the UK who have several campaigns centred around secularising politics, education and law. I strongly believe this is the way to go. £29 gets you an annual membership if anyone's interested. http://www.secularism.org.uk/join-and-renew.html

His legal bill for attempting to defend the claim wouldn't be far off that to be honest. HMRC spent £18m trying to get £180,000 from Harry Redknapp...one wonders what the bill will be for their lengthy pursuit of Rangers?

Agents are the scourge of football and McKay is the slimiest of the lot.

This is the key in Whyte's modus operandi for me. We would all like him to write a cheque for £25m and pay it in to the current account but in the murky world of high finance this isn't how it's done. Most self made tycoons got there by investing borrowed money.

This is the key in Whyte's modus operandi for me. We would all like him to write a cheque for £25m and pay it in to the current account but in the murky world of high finance this isn't how it's done. Most self made tycoons got there by investing borrowed money.

There is definitely a coup de ta underway. IF Alistair Johnson is right and Whyte used mortgaged season ticket money to finance the takeover it means that Whyte flat out lied to us and the rest of the world.

Glad to see more optimism on show than I had expected. Zappa's excellent synopsis above show that it's a big ask but not an insurmountable one.

Mid week on a freezing night at tynecastle...these are the nights that dictate titles.

I don't always go for the conspiracy theories but when it comes to the BBC I am convinced there is an ongoing campaign. The way anything remotely negative or damaging to Rangers is given top billing and the various negative Celtic stories are, at best skimmed over and at worst ignored altogether speaks for itself. If this makes me a zealot or an extremist then so be it.

These are the points that worry me...

No doubt it would be special given the circumstances if we could but in your honest opinion....can we win the SPL?, or is it a bridge too far this season. Opinions and reasoning behind it please.

The most sinister thing about is what motivates intelligent professional people to cast aside their common sense and engage in this type of public witchhunt? Their job sand careers are at stake however I'm sure they would, if push comes to shove, say it's all about rivalry etc but we all know that it's just raw sectarian hatred. Unfortunately they have done such a good job of painting "us" as the bad guys that whatever they do now could be explained away as proportionate.

This is why I can't really take Leggo seriously...no doubt he put the kids names in to highlight how Irish sounding they are when there was no need. The Dairmid O'Hara part illustrated that clearly enough to me. That aside, I've long thought that someone in BBC HQ would eventually start asking questions, let's hope that is the case.

Danny's got the conspiracy bug! Next thing you know he'll be protesting outside the BBC with one of these:

Think about this : Craig Whyte doesn't take over the club and instead Paul Murray and Alistair Johnstone take over by default. The £18m debt remains in the club AND the new owners finance working capital from Ticketus for this season possibly giving McCoist some money to spend in January and keeping Jelavic?? Fleck, Ortiz, etc) on the books. The wage bill goes up, the debt gathers interest and Lloyds remain holding the purse strings indefinitely. HMRC case plods along in the back ground but now instead of being technically debt free we are in £23m + of debt and growing heading towards an HMRC judgement with an expensive squad and paying huge wages to PM, AJ, and possibly Bain. I fail to see how that scenario is better than the one we are in now.

I honestly don't get the clamour for Bedoya to play, when he has come on or he's offered nothing and is terrified of a tackle. McKay I do understand to be fair because he does look neat and tidy and seems to be able to keep the ball. Maybe his physical stature is working against him? He is the height of nonsense after all.

It's easy enough saying "Clear out and start again" but start again with what? Start again with whom? Rangers by and large don't sack managers and this one deserves the season to show that he is capable after all. It would be tremendously disruptive to the club to put McCoist out of a job along with his buddies Durrant, McDowall et al. Don't get me wrong I'm as unhappy with his record as anyone, going out of four tournaments and especially the way we have is not a good indicator of being able to go and win a league title but let's jsut see the season out win or lose and see where we are in May.

The key to how Whyte is operating is that he is not using his own money unless it is secured. He will use the season ticket money as working capital as this is not "secured" by it's very nature however the original debt of £18m has been taken on by his company as that is secured in the event of an insolvency event.

I agree with dB in some ways. Why should Whyte have to explain every business decision that he makes when doing that could potentially scupper any future plans? The Fergus McCann comparison isn't really apples for apples but the similarities are obvious, I seem to remember wee Fergus making every penny a prisoner and frustrating the fans with zero spend on the team. Look how that turned out.

Give them hee haw, if we made the same mistake do you think another club would be so benevolent to us? Not if the "barmy bloggers" had their way.