Walter Smith's interview on Radio Scotland!!

[fraser54 0]

Very intresting but worrying reading !

[Bluedell 5,354]

Thanks for the clarification BD. So my interpretation of what might be going down with regards to SDM & the bank is basically rubbish or do you not know?

 

I can't say for sure, but I find your interpretation to be unlikely.

[gisabeer 409]

You're right, I didn't put it well at all. The rumour is that there could be a very significant business casualty in the near future, one largely based in Edinburgh but with certain interests in Glasgow, unless significant steps are taken to address debt.

 

The bank it seems is saying that if David Murray doesn't find a buyer for rangers within the week that they will find one for him and Muir is there at the bank's behest to ensure a smooth dislocation. Muir is not directly a bank man and has worked closely with the Murray empire already. However, he is not a Murray employee or director and is almost certainly a bank appointee who has the advantage of an intimate knowledge of the Murray group structure.

 

Of course, this may well be the bank exerting leverage on a deal that Murray has been stalling on for some time. It could also be that the hammer is about to come down on the captain of industry himself and the bank is already proceeding to limit their liabilities by forcing peripheral deals where these seem possible.

 

There is absolutely no guarantee that any deal done in this climate will be done in the best interests of Rangers however. Who remembers the blowhard's words about only selling to a buyer he considers 'suitable' - which of course was always just a crock of shite from the biggest scheister this site of sun. He's really looking out for us now eh?

 

It's obviously in the bank's interests to see a deal done asap but unless some new buyer emerges in the meantime, it's unlike to be a deal that leaves Rangers in anything but a very perilous state. Pigeons are coming home to roost folks.

 

It would seem that it wasnt only Rangers football club who benifited from a favourable relationship with the bank! If murray was getting extra favour for MIH as well then our former chairman could be in very serious financial trouble.

[andy steel 0]

I'm even more grateful that we have Walter Smith in charge than ever after all this.

 

He could have come out with quake-like comments about the parlous state of the finances and the uncertainty of the future any time recently, but he waits until we're going through the stickiest of sticky patches, and plays his card at exactly the right moment. Pressure off the team, attention goes (probably exclusively, for this week anyway) onto the board, the bank and Smith himself, who is strong enough to bat away anything he doesn't want to answer on the subject.

 

Masterful.

 

At the same time, we are still (just about) at the top of the league, and showed enough yesterday to suggest there's a bit more fire in the belly. Hopefully that will stay, because it's going to be enough to beat most teams in this poor league.

 

And in all honesty, I'm glad someone, somewhere is doing something about the ownership. I would be (sort of) happy to see Murray remain; I would be happy to see a new owner. What we can't have is a fudge, a middle ground with no leadership, so while it is worrying to hear rumours and stories, at least there's a finality to the whole thing which suggests it might be over sooner rather than later - and that's got to be a good thing.

[maineflyer 0]

I'm even more grateful that we have Walter Smith in charge than ever after all this.

 

He could have come out with quake-like comments about the parlous state of the finances and the uncertainty of the future any time recently, but he waits until we're going through the stickiest of sticky patches, and plays his card at exactly the right moment. Pressure off the team, attention goes (probably exclusively, for this week anyway) onto the board, the bank and Smith himself, who is strong enough to bat away anything he doesn't want to answer on the subject.

 

Masterful.

 

At the same time, we are still (just about) at the top of the league, and showed enough yesterday to suggest there's a bit more fire in the belly. Hopefully that will stay, because it's going to be enough to beat most teams in this poor league.

 

And in all honesty, I'm glad someone, somewhere is doing something about the ownership. I would be (sort of) happy to see Murray remain; I would be happy to see a new owner. What we can't have is a fudge, a middle ground with no leadership, so while it is worrying to hear rumours and stories, at least there's a finality to the whole thing which suggests it might be over sooner rather than later - and that's got to be a good thing.

 

Surely we've lived with a fudge for years now and if the current situation isn't a fudge then I obviously don't know what a fudge looks like. And, in the middle of the most uncertainty even Rangers fans have seen in a long time, what is this finality you speak about - because no one else seems to be able to see it. Just curious.

[andy steel 0]

In a sense the last decade has been a fudge, in that Murray has plainly been wanting out but unable to actually find someone/go through with a deal on some odd moral grounds. However, he was willing to get the hand in pocket from time to time so the club could occassionally spend some money, and function reasonably properly. It certainly wasn't ideal, but it was 'liveable with.' Obviously that's changed of late, and the fudge has turned into a marsh.

 

The finality is that David Murray will be out of Rangers sooner rather than later, and somone else will be in.

[gisabeer 409]

would it be a bad thing if the bank owned the club?

[porno_piper 0]

Does this mean, effectively, that we are in administration? All of our assets are up for sale and the bank is now running the club, although no administrators are involved... yet.

What would the chances be of administration as a club?

 

To be honest I'm not up on all the financial aspects of this so in that respect don't really understand what the current position means to me as a supporter.

[Super_Ally 0]

Of course it's a dig at those fans. The ones who couldn't or wouldn't see where we were heading and blindly put their trust in liar liar. The ones who kept him in make-believe land for much longer than should ever have been allowed.

 

How were they supposed to be able to see this? They weren't in possession of all the facts and even if they were how were they meant to stop Murray?

 

Another example of peopel playing the uberfan card. I imagine you were one of those voices that no one heard back then, apparently decrying the way the club was run?

[Zappa 0]

Does this mean, effectively, that we are in administration?

No, we're not in administration, but things aren't looking very rosy. Here's a couple of interesting posts from another forum. -

 

It is being said that Murray has been given until next week to sell or the bank will sell on his behalf.

 

There will severe asset stripping in January (*asset = players) and the mover and shaker behind this is the new board member, Donald Muir. He is a bank placement. (Does anyone have any background info on this guy Muir?)

 

It's is claimed that a firm of accountants is on standby for next week - they are looking at two firms, one in Glasgow, one in Edinburgh. This firm deals mostly in company liquidations.

 

Guess who owns both firms?

 

Folks............the shit is about to hit the fan.

 

I heard from a pretty good source that McCoist and McDowall knew they were for the chop if the league was not won last season. Thankfully, that turned out OK, but the alarm bells were clearly ringing.

The contract renewals that will now be on offer to any staff who are not deemed surplus to requirements will be based on massive salary cuts.

Our new (acting on behalf of Lloyds bank) board member Donald Muir was also appointed a director of MIH's Premier Property Group recently. As I said earlier, he's a turnaround specialist.

He either saves companies from administration -- or gets as much value as possible for the banks before the administrators move in.

I don't see Rangers going into administration. The club pulls in plenty of hard cash, so a drastic step like that would be self-defeating.

But costs will be trimmed brutally and any assets sold off until as much as possible of the debts are repaid or a new owner comes up with an acceptable price.

 

But one thing worries me . . .

Why would a bank do this to a company with a turnover of 60m or 70m if the debt was 20m to 30m? Surely manageable, I'd have thought.

I've been trashed on here before for saying it, but I'll say it again . . .

I think there are loan notes or something similar hidden within the MIH group that effectively mean we have much higher debts.

Otherwise, this simply doesn't make sense.