Keith Jackson on CEO Graham Wallace

[chilledbear 16]

RIDDLE me this.

 

It’s a priceless commodity and yet it costs nothing at all.

 

It cannot be bought but its every ounce must be thoroughly earned.

 

If Graham Wallace could solve this puzzle then his task as Rangers chief executive would be made a great deal more easy. The answer, of course, is trust.

 

And it’s been his biggest issue ever since he agreed to wade into the quagmire that is the Ibrox boardroom.

 

Simply by willingly associating himself with the board which appointed him, Wallace was up to his knees in inherent suspicion from the start.

 

But his long-standing professional reputation bought him a bit of time. To many, he was the acceptable face of an otherwise intolerable regime.

 

Five months on, however, Wallace’s mask might be starting to slip. Because on Thursday of last week, just hours after putting his name to the Ibrox club’s latest declaration of multi-million pound losses, Wallace found his integrity being called into question by the very supporters he has been struggling so hard to convince.

 

The Union of Fans – an umbrella group made up by various factions – accused Wallace of “misleading” season-ticket holders and shareholders alike over the true state of Rangers’ finances. And all at once the CEO became a busted flush because if he really has lost the trust of his own customers then it’s hard to see any way for him to claw it back.

 

His silence, as well as that of chairman David Somers in the five days since, has been of the deafening variety.

 

Then again how exactly is Wallace supposed to talk his way out of this one? How on earth can he explain why he stood up at the club’s agm on December 18 and insisted robustly that all was well when, with the benefit of hindsight, the whole world can now see that plainly it was not.

 

 

 

 

For the record here’s a taste of what Wallace told the assembled shareholders: “There is sufficient cash in the business to fund the ongoing needs of the club in the near term. There has been speculation in the Press that we are teetering on the brink of administration. That is categorically not the case. There is sufficient funding to continue to trade as we normally would.”

 

Now Wallace may not have been attempting to mislead about any of the above. If, by the near term, what he meant was really the next three or four weeks. And if, by categorically pooh-poohing the risk of another administration, he already knew how he was going to raise the money needed to plug a £4m black hole for the rest of the season.

 

It could also be argued in Wallace’s defence that he himself had been misled, perhaps by the then financial director Brian Stockbridge who lost his job very soon after. And none of that can be discounted. But, if you believe it then you must also ask how it could be that a man with Wallace’s credentials as a financial big hitter, would allow himself to be placed in such a position.

 

If, when he stood up to speak at the agm, he really wasn’t armed with the full extent of the club’s dwindling cash reserves, then what does that say about his own competence as a CEO? And here’s the really tricky bit.

 

What if, less than a fortnight after the agm, frantic discussions were taking place behind the scenes, not just about how to keep the floodlights switched on through February but also how best to keep everyone else (particularly those in the market place) in the dark about this need to raise emergency funding?

 

In fact, what if the board had been preparing for precisely this penniless scenario since as long back as last September, when they first opened negotiations aimed at raising £2m against assets such as the jumbo screens at either end of the stadium?

 

The truth is, it was only after this potential deal collapsed, at around the time of the agm, that the Rangers board was forced to look at alternatives and ended up agreeing controversial loan deals for £1.5m with two shareholders, Laxey Partners and Sandy Easdale.

 

And yet on February 25 in an exclusive Q&A with Record Sport after this arrangement had been announced, Wallace said: “Football is a very cyclical business, with big incomes generated early in the summer which progressively run down. So this is not a crisis move. It’s not a last-gasp policy.

 

“We have some fairly significant income streams that will arise in the summer. So this is just a short-term facility. We have no bank debt, no overdraft and a balance sheet which is probably the envy of a lot of football clubs but yet consistently everybody talks about us being in a crisis.”

 

Wallace added: “The need for a financial facility is no different for Rangers than for any normal business. We need time for people to see how the business is being operated and to rebuild people’s trust in Rangers as an organisation and trust in the credibility of those who are running it.”

 

There’s that word again. Trust.

 

In little more than two weeks’ time Wallace will have another chance to start earning it, or at least winning some of it back, when he delivers his 120-day business review.

 

It will be interesting to note if he will put his name to one particular plan which has already been floated at boardroom level. It involves not just a huge hike in season-ticket prices but also asking fans for additional cash payments which would be ringfenced and used for spending on their team.

 

Now that really would be one test too many for the patience of this support which is already hankering for Dave King’s millions to give the club an easy fix.

 

Given the hand-to-mouth existence of Wallace’s club, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand why the man in charge is not shifting heaven and earth to bring King’s money in house. Immediately.

 

The longer King is kept at arm’s length the less trust these fans will have for Wallace and his regime. It really is that simple.

 

And you don’t need a badge in riddle solving to work out where that leaves Wallace and Somers with these supporters.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/keith-jackson-its-matter-trust-3303691

[the gunslinger 3,366]

This 120 day review is going to be hilarious imho.

[Frankie 8,136]

Clearly, we're not going to find out more until the review is published. Not ideal but fair enough.

 

If Wallace and the club are serious about engagement, hopefully immediately afterwards a full and open Q&A session will be organised for Mr Wallace to explain his performance over recent months as well as outline how he expects the club to move forward.