bigy

That's one of my biggest disappointments this season. I'd have loved to have seen us go with a team along the lines of: Alexander Cole Hegarty Perry Wallace McKay McLeod Hutton Aird Little McCulloch We have lots of boys coming through, and had we given them the chance we'd have all got right behind them. Not that we haven't, but it was a great opportunity to develop more players. By signing 7/8 experienced players we've taken that chance away from some, and I don't think the signings are all that much better. I also think that if we'd went with a 'youth' team that the support would be much more sympathetic to away draws as we'd understand the development process we are in.

What a surprise, but the fact they're now having to admi this could suggest change is in the air.

They'd probably need more than one top to be fair!! I'm not overly keen either, but it I for charity!!

What do we all think? £40 is a bit steep when it'll hardly ever be worn, but then it is for charity. http://www.sportsdirect.com/umbro-rangers-pink-shirt-2012-2013-377320

Just added by BBC.

If its 21 of 42 it's not exactly a minority. Not before time!!!

But how much is retained by the current shareholders/owners? If you bought the whole £20m in shares you wouldn't own 100% of the company. Those £20m shares are only for a proportion of the company, and those who have already invested will retain the rest. What we don't know is how much has been retained by the current investors, and how much did they have to pay to get that amount of stake in the club.

Sorry, I meant I don't think he's said what % of the club the £20m is for, hence he's not stated what they value the club at.

I don't think he's said what the £20m is for!! It's certainly not clear at the very least.

Green (off the record) has said he will be challenging the transfer embargo because it was signed under duress (ie he was blackmailed), but he needs to wait till the right time to challenge it. He's also said he's looking for investment to do up the surrounding area.

He told the RST AGM that while he was CEO Rangers would never play in the SPL. He also said that reconstruction would be forced through in the near future so I doubt he expects it to be an issue.

It'd be interesting to see how much the investors had put in to the club and how much they want out. It cost under £6m to buy the club, and if you had the legal and other costs associated we could round this up to £10m. Other than this how much money has actually been pumped in by these investors?

Green is on record as saying we'll never play in it again while he's CEO. Okay, he might not be here that long, but i don't think Rangers will ever accept an invite to the SPL. The league will need to be reformed.

He's hoping that banks/financial institutions really get behind it. That's where he's hoping to make most money.

That's what puzzles me. He keeps saying that nobody can own over 10%, but if over 10% of the shares are left unsold who do these go to? I think he's right to an extent. A debt free Rangers, a club which owns all its assets, which will be in Europe again soon, and which has huge development opportunities around the ground is a hugely attractive prospect. When he talks about the plans for redeveloping the area it sounds great, and we now have huge potential to grow. What I still don't understand is why restrict it to Rangers fans? He knows how suspicious we are, he knows that finances are tight for everyone right now, so why not open it up? Or, if it's about money, why not endorse a fans ownership model which could potentially raise that kind of money and which would entice a lot of us? A lot of what he's doing doesn't seem to make sense to me just now. But in saying that, he does come across as open and decent. I have no problems with him at all, i'm just sceptical when I don't know the full facts.

If the RST get 40k new members those 40k will decide who runs it and what the objectives are. It's not a dictatorship where new members get forced in and told what to do and think. It's one of the few fans groups that allows all members to vote and elect the representatives,, so it's a bit unfair to suggest they'd be taking your voice when depending on how much you choose to contribute the opposite is true.

Fan ownership doesn't mean fans running the club on a day to day basis, it would be up to shareholders to vote on a model. That could mean, for example, a management/supervisory board being voted in to appoint and supervise something along the lines of the current structure. So you could still have a Charles Green running the club, but rather than being accountable to anonymous investors he'd report to a democratically elected board representing the fans. I know there has been a lot of in-fighting between various groups, but to m mind this is representative of only a minority of our support. The RST is one of the biggest groups and only has a few thousand members. If you had 50,000 or 100,000 or 200,00o fans electing a board it would be representative of more mainstream views, and the extreme elements would be frozen out or on the peripheries.

Other thing Green said that may interest some is that our wage bill is now £6m a year compared to. £30m last year. Used an example that if we added 10 players in £1m a year our bill would still be roughly half what it was.

Our biggest problem is the support is so fragmented. We need to be more together but because of politics, past goings on, inflated egos and petty bickering we get nowhere. As a support we need a say in the running of the club, even if we're not fully supporter owned, and that say has to be democratically elected by the support. One thing that was mentioned at the meeting was the fact that individual shareholders got screwed with what happened, but if individual shareholders had their share through an umbrella body we could have held Whyte more to account. Greens doing a great job just now on the PR front by standing up for us and making the right noises, but people were similarly convinced by Whyte. I don't believe Green has anything but good intentions for the club, but we do need a coordinated approach to hold him to account.

He said at the RST meeting shares would only be available to season ticket holders (past and present) or members of supporters groups. I've no idea how workable that is or why he'd do this, but that is what he said. To be honest it makes me more suspicious.

I'm not an expert, but the way I understood it is he's selling £25m worth of shares to a broker, who sells them on to the fans and financial institutions. It just makes no sense that you'd restrict it to fans. We are a debt free club, we have huge potential, we'll be in Europe soon enough, and on paper we are a good investment - so why restrict it?

I think we're being too accepting of Green. It's great that he's standing up for us and saying the right things, but on the financial side there are still questions. He says nobody can own more than 10%, and £25m in shares will be made available to fans and financial institutions, but if that remains largely unsold will someone not end up with over 10%? We still don't know the names of many investors, and if he's in it for money why restrict the sale to season ticket olders and those connected to supporter groups?

Lewis MacLeod is an 18 year old boy who has been one of our best players this year. The young boys will lack consistency, but they are the only ones showing drive and passion. They have been let down by more experienced team mates and a lack of trust by the manager.

Hutton in midfield with MacLeod, MacKay up front with Shiels. Faster pace of play.

On the football pitch we need to start concentrating on football, and decisions need to be made based on the best way forward for the club. As an ambassador and figure head Ally has been fantastic, but as a manager he's been terrible. He threw away a massive lead last season before the problems, our away form last year and this is horrific, our cup performances disgraceful, and the ttitude of the players away from home unacceptable. He persists with big lumps up front, never changes tactics, always sacrifices the young guns who have been our best players this season, and persists with senior players who are not contributing. If it was a on off it'd be one of those things, but this season Brechin took us to extra time, Queen of the South put us out the Ramsdens, we struggled to beat a Highland league team, have drawn with Peterhead, Berwick and Annan and been beat by Stirling. All of this and there re no signs of improvement!! Anyone tolerating this is on drugs, a tim or completely deluded.