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Quote from Ally on BiasedBC, "The last two defeats confirmed what we need to do and add to the squad" Ally McCoist, Rangers manager. For me it's more about removal than addition. We are now a laughing stock. Useless managerial team, useless board. Helpless/hapless/utterly toothless fans groups. We're sinking fast. Heaven help us please, because we seem utterly incapable of helping ourselves.

Statement from NARSA regarding recent events involving the RFFF: "The RFFF voted today that in the event of litigation against Craig Houston, arising from content on the Sons Of Struth Facebook page, a proposal to provide financial support will be taken to a general meeting of fans." Below is the NARSA (North American Rangers Supporters Association) response to the above statement by the RFFF (Rangers Fans Fighting Fund) from Wednesday March 26, 2014. NARSA hereby demands that the seven members of the RFFF who voted in favor of the motion to support the above proposal resign their positions on the RFFF Committee by Friday, April 4th. NARSA feels these seven persons have failed in their duty to use the funds in the manner befitting the original purpose or in the best interests of Rangers FC and the RFFF. Should any of these seven individuals remain on the RFFF Committee by end of day Friday, April 4th, 2014, NARSA and its Member Clubs will demand the immediate return of all monies donated. In addition, we propose that, as NARSA raised and donated funds in excess of $80,000 USD, we have official representation on the RFFF Committee going forward. Our representative would be the sitting President of NARSA, by default.

Genuine question because I think Dave King could get blamed for something he is not totally responsible for. I honestly believe, after speaking to hundreds of other fans, that they have had enough of the complete and utter dross being served up on the park. Nothing to do with boardroom stuff.

Taken from FF The RFFF voted today that in the event of litigation against Craig Houston, arising from content on the Sons Of Struth Facebook page, a proposal to provide financial support will be taken to a general meeting of fans.

We are delighted to announce that Walter Smith has agreed to do a night with us in aid of the Rangers Disabled Supporters Club. I cannot state how immensely proud we are to have secured a night with one of the greatest managers in our club’s history. Tickets £20 and include a bite to eat and are available at http://www.thelouden.co.uk/events.html Doors will open at 7pm for the event with the Q&A scheduled to begin at 8pm. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis and all ticket sales are final and will be collected on the door on the night. One Rangers… No Factions – http://www.thelouden.co.uk, @TheLoudenTavern We Are The People God Bless The Rangers The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium - More than a Pub Official Partner of The Rangers Football Club *We are responsible for The Louden Tavern: Ibrox Stadium, 111 Copland Road, Ibrox, G51 2SL solely and are not involved in the operation of any other premises

keith jackson ‏@tedermeatballs @kevineasson i hear they will be announced tomorrow keith jackson ‏@tedermeatballs 22m Celtic on the brink of celebrating another title. Rangers on the brink of announcing more enormous losses. Interesting 24 hours ahead.

http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/current-affairs/318-take-the-power-back? By Ewan McQueen If you asked anyone who knows me well to tell you something I’m passionate about, it’s almost certain they would reply with the answer ‘Rangers Football Club’. It has been a huge part of my life since I started following the club in 1995. Like thousands of others, I live and breathe Rangers every single day and constantly check social media sites and forums to find out the latest developments inside Ibrox. And now it feels like a revolution is brewing amongst the fans. And for my mind it has been a long time coming. The horrors of administration just over two years ago are still raw and can never be understated. However, it should have been a watershed moment for us fans despite the shock we were in. It should never be forgotten that David Murray got us into a real mess before he sold us down the river to Craig Whyte. That has all been well documented and there’s no need to go over it again here. But Whyte’s reign at the club should have proven once and for all that there should be no more days of one man running the club. Like every Rangers fan, I was stunned on Valentine’s Day two years ago. But we missed an opportunity. To its credit, the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund was a superb scheme and raised a wonderful amount of money when there were huge fears Rangers would die. But the RFFF didn’t go far enough. It seemed as though fans were waiting for a saviour, whether it was the Blue Knights, Brian Kennedy, Jim McColl and Walter Smith or, as it transpired, Charles Green and his cronies. Administration should have provided the perfect opportunity for fans to mobilise to ensure it never happened again. After the simply astonishing squandering of money and obscene bonuses to board members under Green’s regime, Rangers can’t rule out admin mark two which is simply disgraceful. And that’s why it’s time to take the power back and create a situation where fans have proper representation in the club and control a significant amount of shares. Ask yourself this: would you rather see the club you love ran by fans that feel the same way as you or by men like the Easdale brothers, hedge fund managers and the continuously mysterious Blue Pitch and Margarita Holdings? For me it is a no brainer. This board aren’t fit for purpose and none of them have any idea what it is like to live and breathe Rangers. They are in it for themselves. And the fact they are now going to be using season ticket money to pay back a loan at a ludicrously high rate of interest just takes the biscuit. For many fans the loans have been the straw that has finally broken the camel’s back. Schemes like Buy Rangers and Rangers First are to be hugely welcomed. For far too long there have been divisions amongst the Rangers support that have held us back. Of course it is only natural that there are debates amongst any club’s support. I regularly have fierce debates about the manager, players and tactics with friends I go to games with. That’s natural. What isn’t natural is that until now Rangers fans haven’t grabbed the chance to gain real power at Ibrox. Look at what the Foundation of Hearts has done after the Gorgie club was run by shysters. They’ve just announced their 8,000th member while the Rangers Supporters Trust currently has 2,500 members. I am one of them and find that stat very depressing. Rangers First seems to have captured the imagination though. First up, the name is simple and extremely effective. For too long we have been run by men who have never put Rangers first. As fans, by selling 72,000 season tickets over the last two seasons to watch football which has been very poor at times, by raising £5.5m in a share issue before Christmas and by simply continuing to follow the team the length and breadth of Scotland, we have always put Rangers First. Modern football offers far too many opportunities for businessmen and ‘spivs’ to make a quick buck at the expense of the people that truly matter at a football club – the fans. You only need to look at the way Vincent Tan is running Cardiff if you want an example. The next few years need to see a massive increase in clubs becoming fan owned or run as a community interest company. As Richard Atkinson of Supporters Direct says, fan ownership isn’t just about owning shares. It is about getting what you want from the club. There is simply no chance of getting that under this board. In simple maths terms, Rangers fans can easily out do what Hearts supporters have achieved. Say only 20,000 of our fanbase paid £15 a month in direct debits. That would equate to income of £3.6m per year and, at current market levels, 5% of shares could be purchased in three months. Both the Rangers First and Buy Rangers options are very reasonably priced as well. The Rangers First option gives you the option of signing up for as little as £5 per month. The price of a fish supper per month to try and reclaim the club I love? Count me in. And I’ve also signed up to the Buy Rangers scheme of purchasing shares in the club from as little as £11.25 per month. Both schemes are simple and I would urge every fan to do something. It is time to show you REALLY care about your favourite club. The Rangers support can be found in corners all over the world. Quite simply, if we don’t do it this time through these projects, then it can be argued we deserve what we get as a support. It feels like the right time. The financial crisis has reached breaking point again. Whilst there might be criticism of performances on the park, we have strolled to the League One title. We have now completed the first two stages of our journey back to the top but we simply can’t afford to be cut adrift when we return there. Hanging over these schemes is of course Dave King. Now, King’s tax issues in South Africa have been gone over more times than I have had hot dinners but what can’t be denied is that he is a Rangers man. It seems baffling that the board call him disruptive when he is a lifelong fan willing to put money into a club he loves. His idea of a season ticket trust is to be welcomed. Let’s get one thing straight, it isn’t a boycott. It is about, as King says himself, getting transparency from the board over the state of the club. At the time of writing, over 5,600 supporters have signed up to the call from the Union of Fans to back King. Again, that is real and decisive action from a significant section of the support. Key to all this is engaging those fans who aren’t online or those who are perhaps switched off from the turmoil. Indeed, I have friends and relatives in this position. Fan ownership remains a long term dream, but it can be driven forward quickly with the right marketing and information that is delivered to the fanbase. Legendary US rock band Rage Against the Machine once sang a ferocious song which shares the title of this article. When the revolution is led by the people (or in this case, fans), the men at the top can find it nigh on impossible to fight back against it. This particular Rangers revolution has only just started but I’m excited what I see on Twitter, Facebook and various forums. We have woken up big time as a support and credit to everyone who has got involved already. It will take a while and it will require patience but we simply must get rid of this board once and for all. We have a voice and it’s the most powerful inside Ibrox- more powerful than Graham Wallace or Sandy Easdale or even Ally McCoist. It’s time to take the power back.

Expected big things from the lad today, he was outstanding against rovers at the start of the season. The whole team lacked imagination and I felt particularly let down by him as he is a player who should be making a difference. I for one don't blame Ally and to say we missed out the midfield yesterday would be untrue. We had the ball in front of their defence and all of our midfield players were involved. None of our players seemed to have any ideas or imagination as to how they could break down the opposition. Men like Law, Templeton and Shiels should have been instrumental but sadly they looked disinterested. You cannot blame Ally for that. When a player crosses the line at home in a quarter final you should expect passion and commitment - sadly none if our players showed any.

https://twitter.com/TheSundayLife/status/439897127913656321/photo/1

.....and renew their season tickets. Supporters were alarmed to discover this week that Gers officials were in talks with two investors about a £1.5million loan. They are speaking to the Easdale brothers, James and Sandy, and Laxey Partners, the major shareholders, about the cash injection. The development immediately led to fears that the SPFL League One leaders are in danger of going back into administration. Rangers chief executive Graham Wallace, who is conducting a 120-day restructuring plan, has dismissed that. And McCoist, who attended a board meeting in London on Thursday, has stated he is confident current club hierarchy are on the right track. Fans have threatened to "disengage" with the club in the past by not buying season tickets or official merchandise. But the manager has appealed to them to keep faith in Wallace and his fellow director. McCoist said: "I can understand concerns. Who wouldn't have concerns after what has happened in the last two years? "But at the same time I definitely think that Graham Wallace in particular and the board in general deserve an opportunity to see what they can come up with. "Personally, I feel that I'm building a good relationship with a chief executive who has football experience and I firmly believe will do the best for the club. "I'm in a better place in that respect. There's no doubt about that. The relationship between the chief exec and the manager is the most important at the club. "I feel in a better place with the dialogue I have with Graham. I speak to him a couple of times a day and we meet two or three times a week. "Hopefully in the coming weeks and months a brighter picture will be painted of the long-term future of the club." McCoist added: "There hasn't been a push for season tickets yet, but I think there will be one or two things going on before then that will hopefully point the supporters in the right direction. "For the supporters to buy 70,000 season tickets in the last two years is a staggering statistic. The importance of the season tickets is absolutely vital. "In the coming weeks and months, when we do have the push for season tickets, we will be in a better place to indicate to the fans what the short, medium and long-term future will be." McCoist was told the £1.5m loan is part of an overall business plan at the board meeting and was assured there was no prospect of administration happening. He said: "It's nothing that wasn't planned. It's part of a business plan. The impression that was given to me was that too much has been made of it. It's nothing that wasn't on the agenda. "It was told to me that there certainly won't be administration No.2. That is encouraging because a lot of people are asking the question and I totally understand that." The Rangers Supporters Trust, however, does not share his ease with the current situation. In a statement sent to members last night, the Trust said: "The Rangers Supporters Association, Assembly and Trust have contacted the CEO Graham Wallace to ask for clarification on the proposed loan by directors and/or selected shareholders." Meanwhile, fixtures have been rearranged - Gers v Dunfermline on Saturday, March 15 now at 12.45pm instead of 3pm, live on Sky; Brechin v Gers on Saturday, March 22 now the following day with a 12.45pm start on BT Sport and Gers v Forfar on Tuesday, March 25 at 7.45pm moved back 24 hours to the Wednesday. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/rangers-board-backing-is-just-the-ticket-for-mccoist-153156n.23500951

IAN Black has vowed to earn a new deal with Rangers - and help the Ibrox club complete every stage of 'The Journey'. The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hearts man is out of contract at the end of next season. But he is keen to pledge his future to Rangers so he can help them compete against their Old Firm rivals. Black said: "I have been consistent this season and the manager has been happy enough to play me every week. I have been doing something right. "I just need to work hard, keep my head down and try to earn myself a new contract. "I have got this year and next season just now. When you have got a year-and-a-half left then you obviously look to get a new deal and a bit of security for my career and for my family as well. "I just want to work hard and hopefully things behind the scenes can work out for me." He added: "My aim is to play in the top flight. Coming here when we were at the bottom my aim was to help the club get back up. "Hopefully I can be rewarded with getting a deal to play in the Premiership with a club this size. It is up to me to keep playing well and trying to get one." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/black-aim-is-a-ticket-to-ride-on-journey-152249n.23438571

https://twitter.com/TheLoudenTavern

DAVID Robertson witnessed Ally McCoist overcome adversity on more than one occasion in his playing days to become a Rangers legend. And he has backed his old team-mate to tough out the trials and tribulations of being manager at the Ibrox club and make a success of the latest chapter of his career. Robertson, who is now a coach at USL Pro League club Phoenix in the United States, still takes a keen interest in the fortunes of the Glasgow giants. The former left-back has been impressed with how McCoist has fared since succeeding Walter Smith as boss nearly three years ago. And the 45-year-old believes he has the mental strength needed to withstand the intense scrutiny and lead Rangers back to the forefront of the Scottish game. He said: "I still follow how Rangers are doing back home pretty closely online over here and it amazes me when I see the criticism Ally gets sometimes. "His team is unbeaten in the league this season and is still involved in two cup competitions. "It would be a tremendous feat for Rangers to reach the Scottish Cup final this season. It would be a huge achievement for the club. But Ally still gets criticised for performances and results! I don't know what more he can do. "Everybody expects them to win League One this season. I am sure the same will be true next season when they go up to the Championship. "So when they do these things Ally doesn't get any praise because it is simply what is expected of them. But it has always been that way. "When I was at Rangers if we won a league and cup double it was considered a disaster. Even if you won a treble people said: 'Well, you should be doing it anyway!' "Yes, Ally has a full-time squad in what is largely a part-time league and a large wage bill, but I still think that he has a tough job. "The club is still getting 40,000 to 50,000 people coming to their games every week. There is a lot of pressure on him for the team to perform. "I have managed at lower league clubs, at Elgin City and Montrose, without that number of fans and you still feel the pressure." Robertson added: "If you are second at Rangers it is not good enough. At some big clubs you might get away with third or fourth. Not at Rangers though. "I don't think there is any club out there where the pressure is so intense. But Ally has dealt with that pressure for all of his life. "When Graeme Souness was in charge at Rangers he tried to force him out. But Ally loved the club so much he stayed where he was and fought his way back in. "Then Ally broke his leg and everybody said he was finished. But he came back from that as well and was as good as he ever was. "It says a lot about his character that he can remain so upbeat with everything he has to deal with. "There is nobody I would rather have in charge of Rangers at the moment." Scotland international Robertson won six Scottish titles, three League Cups and three Scottish Cups in the seven years that he spent as a player at Rangers. During that time, the cultured defender also played alongside Light Blue legend Ian Durrant. And he reckons there is no better man to help McCoist get Rangers back to the top flight than the former midfielder. Robertson said: "Ian is a real character and real Rangers man as well. "I am sure it will hurt him to see the club in the situation they are currently in and he will be keen to get them out of it along with Ally. "Ally and Ian will be doing everything they can to take Rangers back to the Premiership. "Ally was full of records as a player. So who knows? Maybe he will be a record breaker as manager as well. "Maybe he will be the first Rangers manager to win every league in Scotland." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/robertson-ally-has-been-tried-and-tested-151917n.23419367

........it was really difficult to walk away TIME will eventually heal Rangers' wounds … but the pain remains for Maurice Edu. It is two years on Friday the Light Blues were plunged into administration and the wheels put in motion on a series of events that would see a title-winning squad decimated, Ally McCoist's side drop to Scotland's lowest division and supporters put through an emotional wringer as their club was engulfed in crisis. Edu was one of the last players to jump ship at Ibrox, the American not heading for the exit door until late in August, 2012, as he signed for Premiership side Stoke. By then, a host of his team-mates had long since gone, stalwarts like Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker and Allan McGregor leaving on free transfers. The actions of some players during that turbulent summer left a sour taste in the mouths of many, but the pain on the terraces was shared in the dressing room. "Everyone was in a different situation and everyone's circumstances were different," Edu told SportTimes. "You can't really compare one situation to another and say 'he should have done that or shouldn't have done that'. "From my point of view, I was in a position where, if I left, I wanted to get the club a fee. It may or may not have impacted on the situation, but I wanted to help. "I was in a position where I was able to do that and it was something I wanted to do. I thought it was a good gesture and a way of giving back to the club as much as I could. "But, as I say, everyone was in a different situation, so I can't comment on what the other guys did. "It was hard for all of us to leave. We had sympathy with the fans. It is the club they support and love, and it was going through a hard time. "Nobody wanted to see it happening to Rangers. It was hard for the players. People were saying 'it is just a job for them, they don't really care'. "But when you have been a part of Rangers, especially for as long as most of us had been there, you grow close to it and it is more than just a club. "We were the Rangers family - the players, the staff, the fans. We all felt close to the club, so it was hard for us to have to part ways and leave under those circumstances." Edu's exit brought a premature end to a successful Ibrox career that saw him win several honours following his £2.6million switch from Toronto in August, 2008. A fourth successive SPL title was in Rangers' sights when their financial collapse turned the club upside down. And the American international is confident there will be a bright future at Ibrox once again. He said: "I enjoyed my time there. It was great for me to be winning trophies and playing in the Champions League and I wish Rangers all the best for the future. "Everyone who has played for the club and supports the club is anxious to see them back where they belong as soon as possible. "Rangers should be winning leagues and cups, and I am sure everyone can't wait to see another Old Firm game. I, and I'm sure my former team-mates, want to see them back where they belong. "Hopefully everything can be sorted and the club will be back at the top soon." As part of the squad that, under the guidance of Walter Smith, saw Rangers dominate domestically after the disastrous Paul Le Guen era, Edu is still fondly remembered by the Light Blue legions. And the 27-year-old admits one moment - his dramatic Old Firm winner at Ibrox four years ago this month - stands out as one of the highlights of a successful Ibrox career. Edu said: "Scoring in any Old Firm game is going to be a great moment and a great experience but, with the circumstances of that game in terms of where we were in the table and the fact it happened in the last seconds, made it all the more special. "I couldn't have written the script any better. It was only a tap-in, but everything around that game made it a special moment, not just for myself but for all of us involved." While Rangers have made good progress on their road to recovery, Edu has endured a frustrating spell since his Gers exit. The midfielder only made a handful of appearances for Stoke but, after returning Stateside, will meet an old friend when his Philadelphia Union side face the Vancouver Whitecaps and striker Kenny Miller. Edu said: "My time at Stoke wasn't ideal and I wasn't playing much. It was important for me to get back playing, especially in a World Cup year, so when the opportunity came up, it was an easy decision for me. "It will be good to play against Kenny. I haven't seen him for a while. But I still followed his career and he has done well since coming to the MLS. It will be good to catch up with him." A return across the pond is a timely one for Edu as he looks to kick-start his career and sets his sights on Brazil. And he admits a second stint in Light Blue would be another dream come true. Edu said: "I definitely wouldn't rule it out. You never know what can happen. "I really enjoyed my time at Rangers and it is a club I will always hold dear to my heart and support and follow what is going on. "If I ended up coming back in the future, that would be really great." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/we-were-part-of-the-ibrox-familyit-was-really-difficult-to-walk-away-151744n.23408918

That our squad of players are capable of playing short passing, possession based football with creativity in the final third. Against the second best team in our division. Over to you Ally.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/201292857/One-year-ago Published by RangersTransparency One year ago Mr McCoist had the chance to lead by example. Subject: Ally Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:52:06 +0000 From: Brian Stockbridge To: Ian Hart, Walter Smith, Malcolm Murray, Phil Cartmell, Bryan Smart CC: Charles A Green, Imran Ahmad Gentlemen The Board is being asked by Ally and his agent to approve an increase in his salary to the original level of £750k per annum. Whilst some of you may be aware of the background discussions that have taken place with Ally over his remuneration, some of you may not be so I set out the detail below: Originally Ally had an employment contract paying £750k per annum. In consideration for working with the Club during the difficult early stages and as a condition of supporting Charles, it was necessary for Charles to agree with Ally that Ally would have the same option package as Charles Charles, after discussion with Malcolm, agreed to reduce his own salary by half to £360k per annum. Ally agreed to reduce his salary from £750k to £600k per annum. At the time of the IPO, it became apparent that public disclosure of Ally's salary may be necessary in the Prospectus. Ally was concerned at how the fans would react to his salary level and I understand that he wanted to reduce it further to around £200k but with some sort of guaranteed bonus to make it back up. The Executive did not accept this as it was considered misleading and the disclosure made in the prospectus was for the actual amounts paid to Ally from June to August. The Executive agreed to explore every avenue to avoid having to disclose Ally's current contract and, after lengthy discussion with the Executive and its advisers, the UKLA accepted that no disclosure needed to be made about the level of Ally's ongoing salary. The Executive has recently been contacted by Ally's agent requesting an increase in Ally's salary from £600k back to the original £750k from now but with arrears of £62.5k to be paid in the January payroll (this represents the 5 months backdated pay). The Board is asked to consider and, if appropriate, approve the reinstatement of Ally's salary at £750k per annum and the payment of £62.5k of arrears. If this is approved then Ally's original contract will become in force. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. If this is real then I can see Ally quitting or being sacked.

Like a lion-tamer jabbing a chair at the gates of Ibrox Dave King shows no sign of leaving a riled Rangers board in peace. The former director says a second Ibrox share issue is now ‘100 per cent inevitable’ and he expects to be involved. The response from an increasingly exasperated Rangers support – no doubt the directors as well - was a roar of frustration. Put up or shut up was the cry. Show us your money. When it comes to spending other people’s money, of course, football supporters are the wizards of Wall Street. Yet the truth is this. Many show a remarkable inability to either listen to or absorb the line King has consistently adopted on this. He says he has the means to buy Rangers. Shelling out £43.7million to the South African authorities last year in full and final settlement of one of the lengthiest tax disputes the country had ever known, King described it as a ‘favourable’ result. Money: Were King to buy up all 60 million of the shares in circulation at that price he could, in theory, take control of Rangers for £16.2m There are people out there worrying where their next meal might come from. Dave King isn’t one of them. His personal wealth is known only to him. How he acquired it is also a question the SFA could be forced to ask one day. But in the aftermath of the settlement with the South African Revenue Service shares in Micromega, his South African firm, soared. On paper, at least, he appears to be a hugely wealthy man. All of which adds to the bewilderment of Rangers supporters that he won’t simply step in and end their misery by paying the opportunist investors currently running the club to go away. Since last year’s IPO the Rangers International share price has dropped from 70p to a mere 27.25p on Friday morning. Were King to buy up all 60 million of the shares in circulation at that price he could, in theory, take control of Rangers for £16.2m. That’s a sum comfortably within his budget. It’s feasible he could pay twice that price and still have change left over. But that doesn’t mean he will. Or that the people currently running the show will stand back and let him. Supporters speak as if all King has to do is transfer a few million quid to an Escrow account and pick up the keys to Ibrox. It’s not that simple. He could certainly make an offer for existing shares but he has said from the start he won’t put money into the pockets of wide boys. In June 2012 King met Charles Green at Ibrox and quickly established that the Yorkshireman and his faceless backers saw Rangers as the vehicle for making a fast buck. By the time he left Green took close to £1m out of the club. In contrast King is the proverbial ‘Rangers man’. A rarity willing to put millions into buying players for his boyhood idols in the full knowledge he will lose every penny. He put £20m of his own cash into the David Murray regime and lost it all. To hand yet more cash over to the corporate sharks who have landed Rangers in a hell of a mess through their avarice and opportunism, then, would stick in the throat. Neither is there any guarantee Sandy and James Easdale – the public faces on the throne – would sell. Meeting Sandy Easdale at his bus depot in November, King struck up a cordial relationship with the Greenock tycoon. But right now the Easdales show no inclination to hand the reins over to anyone. Their problem, however, is this. Rangers are running out of money. They could sell Lee Wallace, they could cut back the playing squad and they could trim costs across the board. But King articulated a common view among supporters this week. Becoming a team of also rans is simply unthinkable to Rangers. Almost as unpalatable as Celtic reaching ten-in-a-row. Yet unless the Easdales find a way to raise cash quickly it could easily happen. King’s solution is to underwrite a fresh issue of shares and return to the boardroom. For existing investors that’s a last resort option. They would have to dig deep once more or see their power base eroded. They don’t fancy that one bit. But if the alternative is another insolvency event then they may have little choice. Another Ibrox sugar daddy won’t appeal to everyone. The common sense solution would be for Rangers to spend what they earn. To stop throwing good money after bad and live within their means. But, as Walter Smith observed recently, common sense and Rangers finances rarely go hand in hand. Dave King remains hellbent on proving it. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2545705/Stephen-McGowan-Dave-King-showing-no-signs-leaving-riled-Rangers-board-peace.html#ixzz2rP65E6Ui Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

There is seldom an isolated event at Rangers. Brian Stockbridge's departure as finance director is being interpreted as the first example of Graham Wallace, the chief executive, asserting his authority. Yet it also changes the dynamic in the boardroom, reducing the club to four directors and potentially altering how certain decisions are made in the coming months. There is, still, a sense of uncertainty about what the future holds for the club. Rangers' route back to the top flight is still being determined. Essentially, the club either cut back their spending in line with revenue from season ticket sales and, while in the lower leagues, limited commercial revenue. Alternatively, some investment in the coming 18 months would allow the team to be strong enough to compete on its return to the top division, and so quicken the recovery of Rangers' old status. An element of restructuring is required in either case, which is why Wallace has embarked on a root and branch review of the club's business. Philip Nash, the former Arsenal and Liverpool finance director who was recently brought in as a consultant, is expected to take the finance director role in the short-term. How it impacts on the boardroom will also be interesting, though. Dave King wants to lead the fundraising in a fresh share issue. His vision is to generate money from himself and other high net-worth Rangers fans that can be used to strengthen the squad and the football resources so that the team are immediately competitive, in return for influence on how the club is run. The alternative is a longer period spent trying to regain ground. There are complications, though, since a new share issue requires existing shareholders to reinvest to maintain the size of their stake, at a time when the vast majority of them have suffered considerable losses. The shares were launched in December 2012 at 70p, but closed last Friday with a value of 27.25p. This is the ideological struggle at the club, and the decision on the way forward lies with the Rangers International Football Club plc board members - Wallace, Norman Crighton, James Easdale and the chairman, David Somers - and the shareholders. Before either short-term funding, to tide over until season ticket sales kick in, or fresh funding is sought, though, Wallace has to restore the business to an even keel. It is thought to be losing between £500,000 and £1m a month, and costs will need to be cut. The first-team wages are around 30% of turnover, but with one week of the transfer window remaining, Rangers may yet find themselves having to react to offers for some of their players, or seek to incentivise some to leave, although payments would further reduce the cash flow. This is at a time when the team have lost only once in 22 league games. Some fans grumble at occasionally muted performances, but Ally McCoist deserves credit for managing through a series of crises, and for maintaining the standards the club was built on. "There have been times when I've said, 'What am I doing here?'," McCoist said. "But how could you regret becoming the manager of Rangers? I've got my dream job. It's not the dream situation [but] as long as I can look myself in the mirror, I'll be happy. I've made mistakes and I'll make more mistakes. As long as they're done in an attempt to do the right thing then I can live with that." A recent lunch with Graeme Souness and Walter Smith, his friends and former Rangers managers, will have brought plenty of reminders of different, more accommodating times. McCoist is resilient, though. While the club's future direction is being debated, his assessment is that his team needs reinforcements if it is to eventually challenge Celtic again. "If we're talking about winning the top league then we're miles away," he said. "I would hate that to be taken as a criticism of the team because it's not. But it would be very unfair for people to expect these free transfers who have come together to win [the] top flight. Some, if we got help with players coming in, could probably do it. But we would need investment." Herald

I posted this on RM, I'd be interested in any thoughts about it on here too:- There has been a lot of debate about the job Ally is doing, most of it understandably (this being a discussion forum) based on subjective opinions about the 'type' of football we are playing. Most of these debates seem to be argued by using extreme absolutes with helpful terms like 'shite', 'clueless', 'going nowhere', 'useless', etc, etc. Using subjective terms like those certainly makes for fiery and occasionally interesting discussion but I feel that the three major points that get lost in all this is the fact that we have clearly improved from the dross served up last year, that we are currently meeting objective expectations on the pitch and whether our manager will be the answer long term. The last point remains to be seen and can only really be argued in the subjective, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the objective side to the first two points. We are currently averaging 3 goals a game and have only conceded 8 whilst winning 20 games out of 21 in the league. We've played some good stuff in spells this season whilst scoring hatfuls of goals, we've also played poorly at times and struggled to break teams down whilst still winning the vast majority of them - I think it's safe to say that at the moment he and his squad of journeymen and free transfers are meeting any objective expectations you would wish to ask of them in the League. As far as the cups go we have had one major disappointment in the League Cup after crashing out at the first hurdle. There are more encouraging signs in the other two cups however - we are in the final of the Ramsdens Cup and have a very winnable tie in the 5th Round of the Scottish Cup. There has been a lot of debate about the players brought in. I think they way transfers are viewed are pretty archaic, people seem to look at them in terms buying players to bolster a squad. They should, in my opinion, be looked at in terms of buying wins. Especially when you consider the importance of 3 straight promotions whilst operating under a transfer embargo (I used to term 'buying' wins for conversational ease). We can all have opinions on how we look as a team in obtaining those but, again, these are just opinions. I don't think anyone can dispute that Bell, Mohsni, Law and Daly are the spine of our team. All of whom were recruited in the summer and the stats for the games they have appeared in are pretty impressive. There has been a lot of claims (baseless) that players have 'regressed' under the current Manager and coaching team this season but, again, the stats don't really reflect this. Bell has kept numerous clean sheets in 15 appearances for the club this season, our impressive defensive record bears that out. Mohsni, as part of that defensive line up, has also played a major role in that record whilst scoring 8 goals and making 5 assists from Central defence - very impressive. Nicky Law has had numerous man of the match awards whilst weighing in with 9 goals and 5 assists from the centre of midfield. Jon Daly has contributed 18 goals and 8 assists whilst continuing to be the focal point of our attack. Two signings which receive the most ire on this board are those of Foster and Smith. Both have been derided as 'needless' and a 'waste of a wage'. The stats for those two are a lot less impressive but suggest that both have played their part this season. Foster has played 12 games and weighed in with 2 assists - of those 12 games we have won all 12. Smith has made 6 appearances and, once again, we have won all 6 games. Both were signed as back up and a combined total of 18 games by Janurary isn't too bad. For what it's worth, I don't think the performances are good enough, especially for what I'm paying for a season ticket and getting to games. That said, I find the facts impossible to argue against and until someone can show me a measurable and objective target which this team is failing to achieve this season then I will stick with the view that we are currently meeting expectations. McCoist has shown little so far to suggest he is a world beating manager, but he hasn't shown that he is a totally clueless fool either.

Excellent article by D'Artagnan - Scapegoats & Scaremongering (Walter Smith) It is particularly difficult writing an article which disagrees with one of your all time heroes but difficult times call for difficult decisions. Whilst Walter's synopsis is a popular ideology it lacks in financial reality. We may well still be Rangers but we are a Rangers operating with with vastly reduced revenue streams in terms of income from season ticket sales, sponsorship and commercial hospitality as a consequence of the league we have been forced to operate in. It's easy to say this is still Rangers if you don't have to, or are not responsible for picking up the bill for operating as in days of yore. The financial state of our club is once again the subject of much speculation, which has been exacerbated considerably with the news that a 15% reduction in player's wages was muted a cost cutting measure. The subsequent anxiety which this caused amongst our support, and the treatment (perhaps scaremongering) of this story in the media, resulted in the search for the inevitable scapegoat. I'm not convinced that two of the eventual "suspects" put in the frame - Ally & Brian Stockbridge - were placed on the list of potential suspects with reasonable suspicion - or consideration of all the relevant facts. Let us start with Ally - I'm sure most of us agree that his wage was excessive for our current league position in fact the whole expenditure with regard to the costs of our coaching staff would be worthwhile of critical review. Furthermore as is now common knowledge Ally has agreed to take a considerable pay cut. Perhaps even more unfair is the suggestion that the current squad along with the wages and contracts of some of our players are too high – and it's Ally's fault. This would only be a valid criticism if Ally had negotiated the contracts in question, and the overwhelming evidence appears to suggests this was in fact done by others. The suggestion that Ally should be a scapegoat for our financial woes is further usurped when you consider our playing staff bill as a percentage of our club's overall operating costs. That is not too say either our squad is too big for the current demands upon us , nor that there are not players on wages which are as unrealistic as our manager's wages were, simply that it is unrealistic to lay the blame with Ally Brian Stockbridge presents considerably more of a challenge in terms of offering a defence - he is after all financial director of our club. Furthermore he is on record as saying our wage bill was sustainable when quite clearly it is not, not if a 15% wage reduction is being considered as an option. In fact, had it not been for Ian Hart's recent interview, I doubt very much I would be offering any kind of defence. Whether Hart's defence of Stockbridge is merited is open to debate – it would perhaps have been more cut and dried if Hart's interviewer had asked more probing questions regarding the remit and expectation of our Financial director. Whatever your view of Brian Stockbridge, perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves is would the immediate sacking or removal of Mr Stockbridge bring an end to the culture of excess which has befallen our club for far too many a year ? I think we all know the answer to that question. Some will have already made up their minds about the competency or incompetency of Brian Stockbridge as a financial director, or Ally as manager, and perhaps with good cause. But to lay the blame for our financial woes at the feet of either of these gentlemen is merely skirting over the more serious issues affecting our club. We need to eradicate the culture of excess at our club from top to bottom, from directors to tea lady if required. Let us not allow the settling of old and tired arguments, or other agendas distract us from the challenging and possibly painful task which lies ahead. We don't need scapegoats – particularly when some of our financial failings are clearly cultural and process driven – we need honest assessment and a willingness to be prepared to accept the necessary changes. It wont be easy nor do I suspect it will be painless. Our new CEO claims he is up to the task – I hope to God he is right. Link to article - Scapegoats & Scaremongering

An interview in the Herald. Since it was done by the discredited journo, I spare their site the hits. Obviously, Spiers has his little snyde remarks, but it is rather useful to read Hart's quotes. No doubt, people will come and give all sorts of views on that, but for me such "insider knowledge" puts it all a more into perspective. Not least with the high octane hysteria levels these days ...

Charles Green may have *exited Ibrox but the club still reverberates to the sound of his old cronies feeding at the trough. Yesterday we learned the identity of the person who sold 2.2 million shares in Rangers International Football Club plc – Richard Hughes of Zeus Capital, one of Green’s chums right from the start and a former commercial director of the club. You know that old stock exchange warning about how a share price rises and falls? Well, that doesn’t really apply to the likes of Hughes or anybody else who bought into the club at 1p a share. When you’re in the door at 1p then there’s really no way you can lose. The Rangers share price has tanked with a devastating speed leaving those who bought at the top end in a hole to the tune of God knows how much, but the only relevance of a share price collapse to Hughes is that his profit is not as large as he thought it might be. He sold up and walked away with a return of more than half a million pounds. Another one who has done very nicely out of Rangers, thanks to Green and chums. The steaming mess that is Rangers’ financial plight has now been dumped on to the desk of Graham Wallace, the Rangers chief executive. As an outsider, Wallace must be incredulous at the freewheeling ways of his predecessors, not just the way they sanctioned a first-team wage bill of £7.8m while in the Third Division (contributing to a financial picture so bleak that it made the eyes water) but also the apparent inability of some to accept that things needed to change profoundly. One of these characters was Walter Smith, a man who brought huge glory to Ibrox when he was manager but whose attitude to the finances, during and after his stint as chairman, belonged to the distant past when Rangers thought they had money, when in actual fact all they had was credit and mountains of debt, most of which they torched. At the risk of dredging up events of the past (the recent past, albeit), it’s worth recalling what Smith said in the wake of the Rangers accounts being published last autumn. Commenting on an operating loss of £14.3m including payments to Green of more than £930,000 with £825,000 going to Ally McCoist and more than £400,000 going to finance director Brian Stockbridge on top of that first team wage bill of £7.8m, Smith almost shrugged. He said: “People come out and say ‘Ah, it’s not necessary for them to have those players in that division’. But it’s not just the division that matters at Rangers, it’s the fact that you have 45,000 people coming to watch something on a football pitch…they are still losing money. But when you make a decision to be involved at Rangers, there is no common sense to it. The financial bit of Rangers Football Club and common sense don’t often go *together.” Why not? What makes Rangers so different that financial common sense has no place at Ibrox? Smith’s analysis was plucked from the David Murray era; freakonomics born of hubris. No common sense? He’s right, there hasn’t been. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be or that there can’t be. There must be. It’s just as well that Wallace has arrived and seems determined to cut costs. Somebody had to shake the club out of its economic time warp and bring certain people to their senses. It is estimated that Rangers are losing about £1m a month and that come April they will have just £1m in the bank. Around that point they will be going to the supporters looking for season ticket money for 2014-15, a support that they are continuing to refuse to engage with despite their lofty talk at the agm last month of some new spirit of openness. There hasn’t been any contact, unless you count a letter from a lawyer acting on behalf of some board members to a fans’ group. The upshot of the communiqué was that the Sons of Struth supporters’ lobby felt they had no option but to shut down their Facebook page. Somebody should be talking to the fans. Wallace, you can forgive, because he has so many other things to be doing, most notably speaking with McCoist about cost-cutting. The questions are obvious but the solutions are less straightforward. According to their website, Rangers have 56 full professionals or professional youth players on their books. According to Celtic’s website, they have now got 50, including their newest recruit Stefan Johansen. Wallace will, no doubt, be asking about this. “Why are there so many players here? How many are worth what we’re paying them? How many can we lose?” Why are there so many? That’s one for McCoist. In the summer he signed Steve Simonsen as his reserve goalkeeper. Simonsen is a fine goalie and proved as much at Dundee last season, but Rangers didn’t need him then and they don’t need him now. They have Cammy Bell and they also have Scott Gallacher, a 24-year-old who has been at the club since 2006 and who has played only a handful of games. For the less than arduous task of *sitting on the Rangers bench and, very, very *occasionally, covering for Bell in matches, why not go with Gallacher and save yourself the expense of *Simonsen? We don’t know how much Simonsen is being paid – more than Gallacher for sure – but whatever it is, it’s money for old rope given that his sum total of minutes played since joining Rangers stands at zero. It’s easy to envisage Wallace going through the Rangers squad and continually asking a simple question. Steve Simonsen – why? Emilson Cribari – why? Dean Shiels – why? David Templeton – why? Richard Foster – why? Steven Smith – why? Ian Black, on those wages, why? All of these, and others, are on more money than they could expect to get elsewhere and won’t be in any great hurry to leave. So, for now, Rangers are stuck with them because they can’t afford to make them redundant. This is the legacy of the club’s scattergun accumulation of players they didn’t particularly need to meet the challenge they were faced with. Namely, the Third Division last season and League 1 this season. Wallace is having to deal with the consequences of such financial waste. He is surrounded by “money men” at the club – Stockbridge, Ken Olverman, Andrew Dickson and the accountancy firm Active Corporate – but he has gone outside Ibrox for a financial advisor in the shape of Philip Nash. On one level that looks like more waste. On another, given the state of the club, you can understand why he’s looking for fresh thinking on the fiscal front. The incumbents have not exactly *covered themselves in glory. For years, Rangers celebrated men – Murray et al – who spent vast amounts of money and improved the team. The guy they should be celebrating now is the one who calls a halt to the financial waste and makes the club face its reality, even if his actions run the risk of putting him in conflict with his manager. There will be bleating, but only by those who are mired in the past. Those who truly conform to that much-abused description of “having the best interests of the club at heart” would say bring on the cost-cutting to stave off disaster. In trying to move on from the damage of the past, Wallace knows what the club needs to do. But it promises to be a tough and lonely journey for him.

It’s coming up for three years since Madjid Bougherra left Rangers, but despite leading Algeria to their second ever World Cup this summer and embarking on a new life in Qatar, the defender still has his mind on the Ibrox club. With his current contract at Lekhwiya nearing its end he’s targeting a return. Rangers might not have seen the last of “Boughie”. “My ambition is to go back to my favourite club, Rangers,” he explains. “If there’s no money, I don’t care. I want to go back at some point. It doesn’t matter to me what division they’re playing in. I’ll play for nothing! That’s how much I want to play for Rangers again. It would be the best way to finish my career.” The Algerian was an integral part of the team that won three successive league titles between 2009 and 2011, also getting his hands on the 2009 Scottish Cup and 2011 League Cup. They were the good times before the bad. “It feels like ages ago since I was at the club,” says Bougherra. “That’s just because so much has happened at Rangers in that time. It’s sad to see them where they are just now. “Over those three years we managed to keep the same team, apart from maybe one or two changes,” says the defender who made 81 appearances for Rangers. “It was the best atmosphere and best group of players I’ve ever been involved with. We had very good players and plenty of experience, so it was a shame that it had to come to an end.” The former Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday player still keeps in touch with a few of his former teammates, namely Maurice Edu, Salim Kerkar and Steven Davis. However, things ended a little sourly for the defender, or so was reported at the time. The offer of a new contract with Rangers was below Bougherra’s expectations, raging that the terms made him “feel sick.” “It wasn’t just that the contract wasn’t good enough,” he reflects. “There wasn’t the security in the offer that I needed, and you can see why that was the case. “I was happy that Rangers got some money for me before my contract ended. At first I wanted to stay as long as possible but the situation at the club changed. We were talking about a four-year contract but the club couldn’t commit to that because of the finances. It was sad for me when I had to leave because I loved the team and the city but it wasn’t possible for me to stay.” Interest from the English Premier League never resulted in a solid offer, and although the chance to move to Paris Saint-Germain or Russia presented itself Bougherra instead opted for a switch to the Middle East. “I can’t lie, I wanted to go to the Premier League. That was my aim after Rangers but there was never a genuinely good opportunity to do that,” he elaborates, despite managers like Arsene Wenger expressing their admiration for the defender. “I could have gone to a team near the bottom of the Premier League but I had no real motivation to go to a club like that. “After being at a club like Rangers you want to play for a team that can win trophies. It’s difficult to play for a successful team one day and then play for a team fighting relegation the next. It didn’t appeal to me so I started to think about different options.” While still at Rangers, Bougherra visited Doha on something of a personal scouting mission, checking out Lekhwiya’s set-up and the city. He was impressed. “It’s a great place to live,” he affirms. “There’s good weather, it’s quiet when you want to relax but there’s also plenty to do. For my family it’s perfect.” Of course, Qatar has found itself at the centre of much scrutiny since the 2022 World Cup was awarded to the tiny Gulf state. The ruling Emir has committed vast levels of resources to making Qatar a major player in the soccer world. So did Bougherra go for the money? “Obviously there is money out here but I don’t know what the fuss is about,” he responds. While the domestic division in Qatar might not boast the same quality as the top European leagues yet (Bougherra says the style is “very French”) the Asian Champions League is where Gulf clubs can gauge their true success, and it’s a competition in which Bougherra has made his mark, reaching the group stages for the first time in 2012. “There’s a project here,” Bougherra continues. “They want to win the Champions League here, which is what it’s all about over here.” But after two and a half years in Qatar Bougherra is now free to sign a pre-contract with another team as he enters the final year of his deal with Lekhwiya. The defender seems unsure of what his career will hold for him next as he steps deeper into his thirties, but for now his focus is firmly on the summer. Algeria’s place at the World Cup was secured thanks to Bougherra’s winning goal in the qualification play-off with Burkina Faso, which he describes as a highlight of his career. “I can’t wait. It’s going to be unbelievable, with it being hosted in Brazil,” he enthuses. But it could be Bougherra’s last bow on the international stage, as he plans to retire as Algeria captain after the World Cup. “In my head I want to finish at the World Cup, although I might make it as far as the African Cup of Nations in 2015.” Who knows? By then he might be a Rangers player again. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/madjid-bougherra-i-d-play-at-rangers-for-free-1-3265774

Not because it's not deserved, but because Walter played terrible football too but nobody really seemed to care. It used to annoy me that people had such a short sighted view under Walter. The football he played was never going to get us anywhere in Europe (bar 2 successful seasons over both stints, the second success due to playing 10 defenders in the UEFA Cup) and while it won domestic trophies, it wasn't the type of long term philosophy that was going to see the club prosper, without throwing money at players. In Walter's first stint we hardly developed any youth talent and he left the squad in a mess. Is it the case that the football is so poor now that nobody can ignore it any more? Or is it because we are playing such poor opposition now? The common line under Walter was that winning is all that matters. Well we are still doing that.