Barry Ferguson: It's time to forget the regime........

[ian1964 10,377]

........and get back to supporting the team

 

BARRY says it's vital the re-elected board members are given time and space to fulfill their promises that can take Rangers back into a position where they can challenge Celtic at the top of the Scottish game.

 

 

 

I HAVE no doubt a lot of Rangers fans are angry and disappointed with the outcome of yesterday’s agm which saw the entire Ibrox board survive.

 

But you know what? I am sick to the back teeth of all the fighting, the back-stabbing and the name-calling that has dragged the club I know and love through the gutter for two-and-a-half years.

 

I don’t expect every Rangers supporter to agree with what I have to say today but I’ll say it anyway – it is time to move on and get behind the directors who have been elected in a democratic and legal manner.

 

Yes, we can still scrutinise them and examine everything they do but we have to give chairman David Somers and chief executive Graham Wallace the chance to lead the board and put into place their plans to make Rangers a force again.

 

And we have to give them time to do it.

 

There is very little trust in this board among the rank and file Bears who fill Ibrox every fortnight. I get that.

 

But from even before I could walk and talk, I was told that Rangers fans stick together and support their club through thick and thin.

 

There’s absolutely no doubt they have done that since Craig Whyte set the ball rolling on this awful period in the club’s history and I hope they continue to do it.

 

I hate to hear talk of boycotts and the like. That will cause terrible harm to the team and I don’t see anybody winning out of that situation. Also, it’s not the Rangers way.

 

Look, the directors won the vote. Paul Murray, Malcolm Murray, Alex Wilson and Scott Murdoch did not convince the institutional investors that they were worthy of a place at the top of the marble staircase.

 

That’s democracy and now the agm is over, I hope a line in the sand has been drawn.

 

We don’t have to like the people who are running the club. But it is vital they are now given a bit of time and space to get on with fulfilling the promises they have made and to set in motion business plans that can take Rangers back into a position where they can challenge Celtic at the top of the Scottish game.

 

They have said the current turmoil has held them back from attracting new investment but now the agm has come and gone and all of the directors got through it with comfortable majorities, they can now go out there and find the funding that is needed to make Rangers strong again.

 

I was encouraged by what I read from Graham Wallace after the meeting. He said the board realises that there has to be greater communication with the supporters and that they have to build bridges.

 

Damn right they do but the way to do that is by proving they have the club’s best interests at heart.

 

Chairman Somers also said the playing budget is way too high for the level Rangers are currently operating at.

 

I can’t disagree with that.

 

Let’s face it, the squad Ally McCoist has assembled will skate League One and will win the Championship with something to spare.

 

I say that with no disrespect to the guys who play in those leagues – some of them are pals of mine – but you look at the likes of Jon Daly, Nicky Law, Lee McCulloch and Lee Wallace and they are clearly top-flight players.

 

So I can see where the chairman is coming from when he says that the budget will have to be looked at.

 

Right now, the priority should be to strengthen the financial position by cutting costs from within the club and by attracting new investment from outside it.

 

But here’s the thing. If the directors want Coisty to slash his team budget then they have to take a hit as well.

 

The climate of taking huge bonuses for winning things in the lower leagues has to stop immediately.

 

It was a disgrace that Brian Stockbridge was getting £200,000 and Charles Green more than £300,000 for winning the Third Division last year.

 

In fact, they should announce that nobody at the club gets a golden handshake or a bonus until Rangers are back in the Premiership winning things or qualifying for Europe. That would send out a message that is in line with the fans’ way of thinking.

 

And there is something else Somers, Wallace, Stockbridge, Norman Crighton and James Easdale have to remember as well.

 

If things don’t change – and I firmly believe they will – and if fans and ordinary shareholders continue to feel ignored and angry at how the club is being run, they can still be called to account at extraordinary general meetings and also at next year’s agm.

 

But I hope it doesn’t come to that.

 

As I said earlier, I’m fed up talking to my mates about all the off-field stuff and I can’t wait for the day we are all sitting praising or moaning about the team’s performances on the pitch.

 

Rangers is a FOOTBALL club. Our football club. And that fact seems to have been forgotten over the past couple of years.

 

I hope yesterday’s events can begin to change all that.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-its-time-forget-2945153

[Super Cooper 0]

F*ck off Barry, your opinion means nothing to me. Another one who milked millions upon millions from us but was posted missing when our club needed help.

[SteveC 150]

I know these things are normally ghost-written but the level of thought and language contained therein makes this sound like it is straight from the horse's arse, sorry, mouth.

 

 

I say that having been a big Barry-as-footballer supporter and still with wonderful memories of his performances. As a person to look up to or someone with thoughts worth listening to.............er, I'll pass.