Keith Jackson: Rangers fans will have to decide..............

[ian1964 10,370]

..................... who they trust to put the club back on track

 

KEITH reckons that while Rangers held on to their history, trophies and titles - the club lost its heart and soul after Craig Whyte plunged it under.

 

16 Sep 2013 00:01

 

Rangers interim chief executive Craig MatherRangers interim chief executive Craig Mather

Graham Stuart/Action Images

LET me start with a couple of confessions.

 

First, I don’t know Craig Mather.

 

I have neither met the man nor talked to him. I do happen to know that, in private, he tends not to speak too fondly of me and that’s fine.

 

As someone who has gone to some lengths to expose and condemn the dysfunctionality of the board over which he presides in his highly-paid role as the Rangers chief executive, I would expect nothing else.

 

Mather has made it perfectly clear how badly he wishes to survive in his lucrative position.

 

In fact, both he and financial director Brian Stockbridge have been actively attempting to make themselves bomb-proof from next month’s agm, which is shaping up as a general election to decide the future for Rangers.

 

Perhaps even a defining moment which will determine if this club has much of a future at all.

 

Mather and Stockbridge would prefer not to have to go to the polls.

 

In fact, they wanted desperately to strike a deal with Jim McColl and his group of rebellious shareholders which would have guaranteed their jobs on a new-look board.

 

Perhaps they are worried their credentials will not withstand such a thorough democratic examination and given the mess they have created in their time in charge of the coffers, who could blame them?

 

By Stockbridge’s own recent admission, somewhere between £40million and £50m has gone from the bank vault over the last year or so.

 

This has been an extraordinary cash burn.

 

A £12m injection of funds last summer, followed by £22m from an IPO in December, two lots of £8m from season-ticket sales and various other amounts from commercial deals and hospitality matchday sales. And Stockbridge says only £10m remains.

 

So these men then have already lost a lot.

 

Now though, they stand to lose their own bulging pay packets too and clearly that just won’t do. No wonder they’re prepared to fight in whichever way they can to cling on.

 

And I write this, not only as someone who has personally experienced some dark intimidatory tactics over the past few months, but who has been approached by Rangers employees at both extremities of the club’s pay scale who tell of similar tales.

 

Truly, this club has become toxic beyond belief.

 

After all, for those in charge, it’s all about the pounds, shillings and pence.

 

It’s what brought Mather and Stockbridge to Ibrox in the first instance. It’s what drives them.

 

Mather can hardly sign off on a press release these days without mentioning that he has sunk his own money into this basket case.

 

He did, and in so doing became one of Charles Green’s original backers and trusted allies.

 

Mather handed Green his money and now he wants his pound of flesh. It’s the same with the Easdale Brothers, who were sold a seat on the board by Green, shortly before the Yorkshireman packed up and took his monorail sales pitch to Springfield.

 

All of these characters are hanging around demanding they take what is their due from this club. As is their right.

 

They do not take kindly to being criticised or in some cases even scrutinised. Business is business after all. And Rangers is their business. So, no, I won’t be expecting a Christmas card from Mather.

 

The honest truth of the matter is, for the good of this ravaged and stricken sporting institution, it is my sincere hope that Mather is gone long before then in any case. And that he takes most if not all of the club’s current directors with him.

 

Which moves us along to confession No.2. I DO know Paul Murray.

 

In fact, over the last three years, pretty much since the original Bull**** Billionaire Craig Whyte first appeared on the radar, I have got to know Murray very well indeed.

 

During this time, I have grown to admire the man for his honesty, integrity and sincerity – all qualities which have been in desperately scarce supply around the Rangers trauma.

 

Most of all though I have been struck by his unflinching determination to do the right thing for a football club which has been systematically abused ever since Whyte took it over and forced him off the old board.

 

He is motivated purely by a sense of duty and devotion.

 

In other words Murray is “Aye Ready” to Mather’s “My Readies”.

 

If Mather doesn’t understand what that means he can always ask one of his many spin doctors to explain.

 

They too have to earn their vast Rangers pay checks.

 

And, if nothing else, it’ll keep them off Twitter for a while.

 

That’s where Jack Irvine of Media House, recently reappointed by Mather to fight this dirty war, popped up on Friday full of foul-mouthed, late night insults.

 

Irvine – the man who told the world Craig Whyte was good for Rangers – called McColl a Bull**** Billionaire.

 

And all of this just a few hours after Mather had attempted to humiliate Murray in public with the release of a statement questioning the credentials of this lifelong Rangers fan and former Deutsche Bank high flyer.

 

It was another classless, mean-spirited attack from the club’s own Politburo, in which Murray was made out to be a troublemaker on some sort of vanity project to force his way into a blazer and brogues.

 

Murray responded on Saturday evening when he appeared on BBC Radio to slap Mather back down.

 

And yet, throughout, he maintained a sense of decorum and good manners which seem beyond those currently in charge of the club.

 

Few who listened could have failed to be impressed by the way in which Murray handled himself, or the strength of the message he delivered.

 

He spoke well, his words from the heart and with honesty.

 

Murray stressed that he’d walk away from it all tomorrow so long as he was able to rest at night knowing his club is back in safe hands. Despite the recent smear tactics, I remain convinced that peace of mind is all Murray wishes to gain from this sorry and increasingly spiteful saga.

 

In the end it will all boil down to a matter of trust.

 

The Ibrox fans and the club’s investors will have to decide next month if they trust McColl and Murray. Or if they would rather place their faith in those who continue to recklessly damage Rangers’ reputation.

 

At a time when so much is made about the current status of Rangers, about whether the club died last year or whether it survived the liquidation of the company which owned it, a far more important debate is being ignored among these petty attention seeking squabbles.

 

The truth is, when Green picked this club up for a pittance after Whyte had plunged it under, Rangers held on to its history, its trophies and its titles.

 

Trouble is, it lost its heart and soul somewhere along the way.

 

Perhaps it’ll take men of Murray’s calibre to wipe the ugly snarl from its face and make Rangers recognisable once more.

[Frankie 8,114]

Some fair points but it lacks any detail.

 

Up to PM to provide it.

[JTP 0]

Trouble is, it lost its heart and soul somewhere along the way.

 

Wrong.

 

The heart and soul are still here. And that is US, THE FANS.

 

Toxic board members and regimes will come and go, and by god we have been tested these past few years but i will tell you this Keith ........ the heart and soul will ALWAYS beat.

 

Never under estimate us.

[chilledbear 16]

Some fair points but it lacks any detail.

 

Up to PM to provide it.

 

It would be nice to have more details or some insight of their thoughts for the future, something I have wanted from Rangers Boards for many years.

 

Of course it might come down to a vote without anything more being revealed, it might come down to, as Jackson says, who do we trust most.

 

I know who gets my trust.

[der Berliner 3,212]

Read the headline of the article and thought: are we "off track?" The media milks the boardroom struggles to their hearts' content and make it appear as if the club was heading against the wall. Apparently on no better evidence than we have access to. Which amounts to conjecture at best. In essence, there is "company-struggle", not "club-struggle". The latter may (and that is a capital "may") come into it, should all the doom-reports about running out of money prove to be correct. What the media relish is the "election-type" hype that is going on ... and one should never become unfocussed by this.

[Frankie 8,114]

It would be nice to have more details or some insight of their thoughts for the future, something I have wanted from Rangers Boards for many years.

 

Of course it might come down to a vote without anything more being revealed, it might come down to, as Jackson says, who do we trust most.

 

I know who gets my trust.

 

It might well come down to that but I'm confident it won't. And it shouldn't.

 

The dilemma in that respect for McCollco is do they react to Irvine's dirty war and fight fire with fire? Or do they try a more positive route and engage directly/openly with fans? I'd hope it's the latter but as some point they may well have to resort to party politics.

[chilledbear 16]

As I say, more details would be good, but how much can they plan ahead without seeing the books.

 

We should also be asking the present Directors about their plans, at least/perhaps they might know the money situation.

[Frankie 8,114]

As I say, more details would be good, but how much can they plan ahead without seeing the books.

 

We should also be asking the present Directors about their plans, at least/perhaps they might know the money situation.

 

I'd imagine all the accounts will do is raise more questions rather than alleviate concerns but I'd certainly agree we need them asap.

 

The club's refusal to detail their plans and explain their recent actions (e.g. retaining the likes of Irvine) remains a source of real concern for me.

[Tumshie RFC 0]

Sooner the accounts are published and the AGM is called the better. All this off-the-field nonsense is taking away from what has been a good start to the season (with the exception of Forfar).

[the gunslinger 3,366]

i am not overly sure what detail people expect. the reaquisitioners have not seen the books.