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Hildy

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  1. Hildy
    People on the RST board move on and are replaced by others. Dingwall has gone and so has Edgar. Smillie and Park might be happy to join a consortium to lead a buyout. On the other hand, they may not, but someone should be doing the asking and the RST and Union of Fans probably stand the best chance of making it happen. It's time for some serious jaw-jawing. It may achieve little but if it helped to bring an end to this downward spiral, it is surely worth attempting.
  2. Hildy
    I don't know what relationships exist, if any. I suspect that the RST has had contact with King but I have no idea if this amounts to an ongoing relationship. As for Jim McColl, he may decide to join a group / consortium that would do what he would choose not to do on his own. There is no harm in trying to open dialogue with him. The support is needlessly factionalised. It would be useful if the most credible fan group, the RST, tried to bring a few well to do individuals together to see if there is any way that their talents and resources can be usefully pooled. This constant wailing and weeping over absent fans is not going to bring them back. Dialogue, a constructive attitude, positive action and a healthy outcome, however, just might.
  3. Hildy
    That's perfectly true, but it will help if he is not subjected to some kind of hate campaign. We don't need to form a fan club, but we should be open to the possibility that he might be able to help in some way.
  4. Hildy
    I'm talking about the Rangers support in general. The return of Murray could see trouble in the ranks, but as previously stated, if he has something to offer, and if it helps to extricate us from this mess, we should put personal animosity to one side and see what he has to say.
  5. Hildy
    That may be so, but plenty have issues with SDM, including me. If he offers to help, I would welcome it. Feelings of animosity towards one man must take a back seat if said man can set Rangers on the right course again - and I do believe he'd be open to the idea of fan ownership in the future - as would McColl - and Dave King has probably moved a tad in this direction, too.
  6. Hildy
    This isn't a battle for votes. It's a battle for survival. If David Murray has something to offer, we would be foolish to turn him away.
  7. Hildy
    If he is in a position to help, and if he agrees to help, would you reject the possibility? I want to see this mess sorted. If SDM can help out in some way, that is the priority as far as I'm concerned.
  8. Hildy
    Can we stop the rot? Well, I'd like to see the NO vote win the day in the referendum, but the picture will be bleak for Rangers no matter which way it goes. As things stand, Rangers have peaked. Its best days are over and will not likely be repeated unless there is a revolution at the club, and for Rangers, this is far more difficult to achieve than, for example, at Hearts. Small clubs can pull their fans together much easier than we can. Rangers is perceived to be big time, so individual fans don't really believe that something like fan ownership can work. The expectation is always for a David Murray-type figure to rule the roost, make the tough calls and put his hand in his pocket. If there doesn't happen to be one available, though, things can quickly turn messy. An institution like Rangers cannot survive like this. What is happening was foreseen by the RST and many who signed up to it, but most fans prefer to leave things to chance, which is a recipe for disaster, as we have now seen. When you have 5,000 fans and there is a crisis, it can be addressed by this relatively small number working together. With 50,000 active fans, though, splintering quickly enters the equation. Not only do we have the madness of two share buying schemes, the two singing sections couldn't even work together for more than five minutes. Effectively, then, the Rangers support is paralysed by its natural dysfunctionality. This type of fanbase needs leadership. It really isn't interested in democracy and accountability too much. It is comfortable looking up to a leader to do all the things that it can't or won't do. Essentially, and it sounds cruel to say it, but the Rangers support is easy to seduce with a suit and tie and a large wedge in the bank. Some have used the term 'forelock-tuggers' when describing the Rangers support. Sadly, this isn't a million miles away from the reality. We despise fellow fans for attempting to represent us. What we really want is a boss to tell us what to think, and to tell everyone else what to think, too. Decades of being a big club have removed us from the harsh realities of life. Small clubs are far more advanced and organised than we are when a crisis comes calling. In our present state, which is actually becoming a bit of an emergency, we could certainly do with some powerful assistance, which goes against my fan ownership principles, but as I inhabit the real world, I am aware that a short term solution that can save us is more appropriate than a long term solution that can't be made to work - and by the time that it can, the club could be irreparably damaged or worse. So what to do? I would ask the RST or UOF to approach certain people. Dave King is an obvious choice and Jim McColl is too, but I would also like to see an approach made to Sir David Murray. These guys have the money and the clout to turn this around. King is a fan, Murray has a legacy to protect and McColl came close to meaningful involvement in the past. I would ask them to win the club back, and then, perhaps over a period of five or even ten years, transfer Rangers to the support in a deliberate manner with all details clear to see and understand. I know there is animosity towards David Murray, but if he was prepared to lend his support to help make things right, that's fine by me. As I touched on earlier, in the real world there sometimes has to be compromise and I would welcome David Murray into a small consortium to rescue Rangers. In the longer run though, and assuming the club is saved, it is essential that we move towards fan ownership. It is the only way to safeguard Rangers for the generations still to come.
  9. Hildy
    It's strange, isn't it, how things change? An older generation of fans has lived through the good and the bad, and their disillusionment is probably greatest of all. Many of them will have been Conservative-inclined and with a belief - not just in the Union - but of the permanence of the Union: Scottish and proud - British and proud. The idea that the blue in the Union Flag could ever fade was too far-fetched to lose sleep over, and yet here we are on the brink. Scotland could hold itself in high regard in banking and finance. The country had a reputation for prudence and our banking sector was a visible and respected part of the British economy. The Royal Bank and its Jacobite cousin, the Bank of Scotland, were pillars of the Scottish establishment and powerful symbols of Scottish identity - and yet they crashed and burned in 2008. Rangers was Scotland's number one football club and enjoyed a degree of secondary support from fans of provincial clubs. These fans followed their local teams but had an affection for Rangers too, and they often turned up at Ibrox on European nights. I wonder, where are they now? Suddenly, the secure post-war Scotland that the older generation grew up with has changed so radically that it must feel that a revolution has taken place. There has been no revolution though - just an erosion of their values and a dismissal of their outlook. Even the national Church has faded into obscurity. The national media is more likely to seek out the Catholic view on new developments and controversial issues. The Church of Scotland, like the banks and Rangers, is slipping away. So much of what was enthusiastically believed in is turning to dust. The new Scotland must seem like a foreign country to some of our old guard. We never were the establishment club but many thought that we were, including many of our enemies. The fixtures and fittings that provided comfort and security to many Scots in post-war Scotland, including many whose allegiance was red, white and blue, are withering, fading and dying. We can prop some of them up artificially, but for Rangers, a club with more enemies than friends, survival is no longer automatic. It has become a challenge, and those charged with meeting it are incomers and strangers. It's a question for everyone, but especially the baby boomers who must be shaking their heads and wondering now: How did it ever come to this?
  10. Hildy
    For a growing number, enough is enough. They held back reluctantly on season tickets but will feel now that their decision was the right one. And some who renewed may be wishing they hadn't.
  11. Hildy
    Rangers, the institution and the football club, has been damaged deeply in the last few years. A full recovery is almost impossible. The club has been cheapened and devalued due to frequent chapters of dispiriting stories which visit depression on us and allow Rangers-haters to belly laugh uncontrollably. This latest tale of woe sums up the ongoing farce that Rangers has become, and it never seems to end.
  12. Hildy
    A five-year deal? A ten-year deal? If this is true, I wonder how long Rangers fans will have to suffer it?
  13. Hildy
    For years, football fans have bowed down to big business believing that it knew best and that we needed its expertise to 'modernise' the game and make it better. It hasn't worked out too well, has it?
  14. Hildy
    The jokes have started already - Ibrox is getting renamed Poundland. Expect this one to run and run.
  15. Hildy
    It's true. Nothing - absolutely nothing - surprises. The club is Scotland's running joke - and it keeps on giving. Even our most bitter enemies could not have scripted this.
  16. Hildy
    I know people who view it like this: The current ownership of Rangers put its hand in its pocket to buy the club. Dave King didn't. It really is that simple. Admittedly, they don't spend time discussing the club on the internet, so they are less aware of the things that trouble many of us, but they will only back King when he digs deep to invest in the club. Until then, as they see it, the rightful owners of Rangers are the people who paid for it. Automatically, that makes them worth backing.
  17. Hildy
    If he thinks he's entitled to the cash, he'll chase it all the way, but what are we learning about this situation? We have directors of the board who can earn - or think they can earn - exorbitant sums of money. We know the business argument about the more he earns the more we make, but does it really work like that? How is this guy justifying this extraordinary amount of money? If he's due half a million, surely Rangers must have earned a pile on top of it due to his efforts, but did it? What benefit did Rangers get - financially - that justifies such a large sum to a former director?
  18. Hildy
    Well, we can blame the messenger of course, because it's much easier to do that than admit that the RST was right, and of course when fan ownership was first suggested, it was perceived to be a ridiculous suggestion so there was always going to be a mountain to climb. These days, it is increasingly seen as an agreeable and more honourable way to progress, but still there are those who long for another David Murray. Dave King will be the answer to their prayers, but unless he moves the club to fan ownership, his tenure, historically, will be remembered as a sticking plaster on a wound that never healed.
  19. Hildy
    The RST put fan ownership on the table over ten years ago. It recognised - and was the only group that realised it - that things had to change. Since then we have had various groups coming and going but none are offering a proper and permanent solution in the way that the RST did - and is doing. Yes, the RFFF was a farce, but it was never a true democratic group. Even now, it has people in charge of it who were never elected by the main body of the kirk. How long do they stay in charge? No-one seems to know. I thought the RFFF was a waste of time from day one and nothing that I have seen since has changed my mind. Today we have a former director trying to freeze club assets as he chases a substantial sum that he believes he is due. This is the new-style Rangers. The RFFF may be an imperfect group, but at least it doesn't behave in the way that some directors do. Until the fans own the club, our door is wide open to those who may be inclined to put their own financial interests before those of the club. These days, having faith in the Rangers board simply because it is the Rangers board is an exercise in madness.
  20. Hildy
    The days where fans could leave the running of the club to the board are long gone. Some have come to realise it while others, perhaps like yourself, are clinging to an era that may never return. Our fanbase, and this is the 'we' I'm talking about, has struggled to come to terms with a changing club in a changing world. Rangers has too many enemies for it to function well against overwhelming bigotry, corrupt authorities and a mostly biased media. When we have a board that overpays, under-performs and has about as much affection for Rangers as you do for Celtic, it is naive in the extreme to expect it to perform in line with your expectations for it. It has different priorities from you. You would be happy to serve the club if the possibility arose, but the current ownership of Rangers and its board of directors see the club altogether differently: they are not here to serve - they are here to earn, to speculate and to accumulate. We need to get a grip of a new reality, and until we do, desperation, frustration and even the possibility of annihilation, will never be far away.
  21. Hildy
    Rangers needed a short term loan of a million pounds which an RST member was able to provide. Now it needs time to pay it back. It seeks to raise £4m now which won't even keep the lights on until the end of the season, and before then, even more money will be required. Meanwhile, outrageous sums are being wasted on high earners who are sailing the ship straight for the rocks - again. Assistance is available but as that would require new faces on the bridge, no deviation is planned. If this was any other business, we would all agree on the state of play. We would sum it up quite succinctly - it's f****d. With it being Rangers, though, we pray for divine intervention rather than calling it as we see it. As God has more important things to deal with right now, though, we are left to wait, wonder, analyse, comment and hope - and none of it will do any good. Rangers' fate, which we continually take no responsibility for, will be what it will be, and we are the people who will have looked on and groaned, moaned and wailed while the dismantling of the club occurred before our very eyes.
  22. Hildy
    Details have to be hammered out about exactly how it would work, but right now, no progress is being made because no-one is talking about it. A successful formula can be easily worked out but someone has to take the initiative. As it is unlikely to be us, it might as well be Celtic, but that's not healthy for Rangers. We should be leading - not fiddling as the flames grow higher.
  23. Hildy
    Here's how Walter Smith saw it in 2009: In his first trophy-laden spell as manager of Rangers during a halcyon era for the Ibrox club in the 1990s, Walter Smith scoured the world for the very best players available to him. Most memorably, Smith managed to convince talents as sought-after as Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup to move to Scotland and help maintain his side’s domestic dominance as well as spearhead their forays into Europe. Considering that background, it is not surprising he is increasingly despondent about the current impoverished state of our game and firmly in favour of a drastic change which would arrest its alarming decline. Renewed speculation about the prospect of the leading clubs in Europe’s smaller football nations forming a North Atlantic Super League this week has been met with a roll of the eyes and weary sigh by most seasoned observers. Such plans have, of course, been talked about many, many times before in the past and have always amounted to precisely diddly squat. Yet Smith, whose only summer signing was the late addition of Jerome Rothen on loan, despite Rangers winning the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and Homecoming Scottish Cup last season, feels the need for such a breakaway has never been more pressing. The respected elder statesman of the Scottish game has witnessed first hand how the rich have grown richer and the poor have become poorer in European football during his second stint in charge of the Glasgow club. He believes that joining forces with clubs from the likes of Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Scandinavia is not only a feasible concept, it is now absolutely necessary in the current difficult economic climate. “Less than 20 years ago, it was possible for us to go and compete financially with English Premier League teams,” Smith recalled. “Now it is impossible for us. That will only continue unless there is change. “Look at the number of our players who are going to play in the Coca-Cola Championship because Scottish teams can’t afford to keep them here. That again is a measure of a steady financial decline. The Championship teams are able to pay more money than the Scottish teams. “Scottish football will always be there. But in what state? There has been a gradual decline. We can’t compete with other teams in Europe now. Championship teams are taking our players now. I believe they have around 60 of them. “If we don’t keep a high profile, with a heightened European presence or something else, then we are in danger of being dragged down. People must see that there is a decline. Unless something happens to arrest that decline then it will continue.” Smith continued: “It is not just Rangers and Celtic, it is bigger clubs all over Europe. I think the first adjustment must be to these bigger clubs in the smaller countries. They are unable to gain a level of finance which will allow them to be competitive. “Two years ago we went to play Red Star Belgrade in a Champions League qualifier. They have an average gate of below 10,000 and yet they get 75,000 people for a local derby and for European games. That is a huge disparity for any club. “It forced them into a situation where they signed three players for €15m. Then, when they failed to qualify for the Champions League group stages, they immediately sold them. That is the financial situation clubs are being put in. “Football over the last 10 or 15 years has become dominated by finance. In Scotland, it is Rangers and Celtic, but in every other country it is the same teams who are dominating. Look at England and the rise of Manchester City. They are not going to compete with the top four clubs unless they spend the money they have.” Smith also maintains that joining forces with the top clubs from nations outwith the traditional football superpowers of England, Germany, Italy and Spain is a better plan than joining the Barclays Premier League down south. “This [the North Atlantic Super League] is more realistic than joining the English Premier League,” he agreed. “Teams in England are not going to vote for two clubs to join which are going to be bigger than the majority of them are.” Unlike many senior figures in the Scottish game, Smith has no fears for the wellbeing of the clubs Celtic and Rangers would leave behind in the SPL if they did move on to help form a new league. In fact, he is adamant that other clubs having an increased chance of winning the national title for the first time since Aberdeen back in 1985 would result in vastly increased gates and general renewed interest. He also stressed that entry to the new competition would be open to the winners of the SPL, not just the Old Firm clubs, and would be an enormous added incentive for them to succeed. “The team which wins the league should have the opportunity to get into that league playing off against the teams which are already in it,” he explained. “If, for example, Aberdeen win the title, and can meet the criteria for a European league, then they should play-off for the chance to be a part of it. There would be benefits for the whole of Scottish football.” Nor does Smith envisage Rangers or Celtic abandoning Scottish football altogether. He reckons reserve or even youth teams representing the Ibrox and Parkhead clubs could still compete in the Scottish domestic leagues. “Rangers and Celtic would still field teams in Scotland even if they left to join a European league. They might have to start at the bottom division and work their way up again. But they will always have a presence in Scottish football.”
  24. Hildy
    If a new Atlantic League was linked to domestic leagues, theoretically, every club in the league could qualify so rewards would be high for those that made it. An Atlantic League could become a top league if it had Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese and Scandinavian opposition etc. and potentially, it could become more lucrative than, for example, the French League. It might even be awarded three or four places in the CL. Travel would be harder, but is that really such a problem? Going to Amsterdam, Lisbon and Bruges would be better trips than Alloa, Livingston and Brechin - or Pittodrie, Tynecastle and Tannadice. Doing three expensive trips might be more attractive to many than doing seven or eight domestic ones. The club can't allow itself to be held back by away fans who are actually a small percentage of the fanbase. If the vast majority of fans want it, and there is agreement that it is going to happen, Rangers can't afford not to be there. Fans will adapt and find ways to maximise attendance at away games. Clubs will adapt too. I could see Rangers and Celtic working on a deal with airline companies. Meaningless mantras? We are the people. Can you explain it to me? What is it supposed to mean? People have droned on for years about how bad thing could never happen to Rangers because 'we are the people'. Worryingly, some people believed it.
  25. Hildy
    An Atlantic League could be set up in a way that is linked to domestic leagues. Hearts and Dundee United could play their way in if it was designed to benefit slightly lower ranked teams as well as the bigger ones. This would benefit Scottish football. Rangers and Celtic, as the two leading clubs, and with a common interest, should be working together - and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. The RST wants fan ownership. No-one else does. It's about everyone getting involved - not just RST members. The RST wants fans to have a say in who governs the club. This is a major advance on the God-forsaken state that we have to contend with currently. We have to endeavour to advance the club instead of clinging to meaningless mantras that only serve to give people a false sense of security.
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