SteveC 150 Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 it's the pay of and pattern that are the issue. but it has to be said wallace has done nothing since he came in. not one thing. Not true, he's lied, denied, distracted and delayed any chance of progress. He's done what he has been and will be paid for. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangersitis 0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Wouldn't help any either though, alas Oh, I'm under no illusions about that. They will simply roll in the next candidate and go down the business review route and lay the blame at the last lot. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledbear 16 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Keith Jackson on twitter. Thought for tonight. Sandy Easdale and Jack Irvine have spent two days in London with Ashley and his people. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,246 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Mike Ashley’s possible takeover of Rangers moves one step closer after he buys more shares The Newcastle United owner is now the second biggest investor in Rangers but increased his holding without putting extra money directly into the club The emergence of Mike Ashley as the buyer of 4.26 million Rangers shares – via the French bank, BNP Paribas – is the most powerful evidence yet that the Newcastle United owner intends to make a move on the Ibrox club. The fact that compels this inference is that the 20p per share he paid Hargreave Hale for the bulk of their holding is exactly the same as the share price when Rangers raised £3.1 million from their open offer last month. However, had Ashley chosen to buy shares during the open offer, the money would have gone into Rangers’ coffers and given a much-needed boost to the club’s cash flow. Instead, the offer fell short by £900,000, although Sandy Easdale, chairman of the football club board, has since bought a further £250,000 worth of shares. Laxey Partners, the opaque Isle of Man-based hedge fund, remains the biggest shareholder with 16.3 per cent of the equity, while Easdale has 5.21 per cent – although he has the proxy voting rights for the Laxey block. Ashley, though, is now the second biggest investor at Ibrox and controls 8.92 per cent of stock but by a ploy which strengthens his hand while weakening the position of the existing board. The principal losers, of course, are Hargreave Hale, who have taken a £2.13 million hit on the investment they were induced to make by Charles Green during the flotation he launched in December 2012. However, the current Ibrox regime – and former director and would-be owner, Dave King, who remains silent in the wings – now have considerable food for thought about how the long game is going to play out. Ashley is already the conduit through which some existing Rangers revenue flows, through the contract which sees club merchandise sold through his Sports Direct chain of stores. His purchase – in a deal regarded as notorious among the Rangers support – of naming rights to Ibrox Stadium for £1, can certainly be assumed to be no casual act. Ashley has, of course, declared that he will not sell Newcastle before the end of next season at the earliest – a promise that has not gladdened the hearts of the Toon Army – but he would dispose of United if a suitable offer came in at any time. Rangers supporters are no more enchanted than their Tyneside counterparts at the thought of having Ashley as their owner and many in the Light Blue ranks cling to the belief that the Scottish Football Association will block any attempt by him to increase his stock above a 10 per cent limit while he still controls Newcastle. Indeed Ashley has signed an undertaking not to increase his holding above 10 per cent. However, Rangers asked the SFA last month if Ashley could take control of 25 per cent of the club’s equity – they, in fact, requested a response within 48 hours – and the answer was not a negative. Instead, Telegraph Sport can disclose, the SFA asked Rangers to make a business case for the proposition but never received a reply. The SFA has to take into account the possible consequences for a club if it runs into cash flow difficulties – as Rangers warned the Stock Exchange would be the case if the open share offer failed – and there is only one potential buyer. Should that scenario emerge – and there is no certainty that it will not happen in the second half of the season – then the SFA could be forced to vote on an Ashley ownership bid. Such a situation might yet trigger action from King, who lost his previous £20 million investment, in Rangers, in which case the South Africa-based businessman would have to master his distaste for paying cash to existing shareholders whom he believes deserve no reward for having placed the club in financial jeopardy again. Another scenario predicated on the chances of Rangers running low on funds after New Year is that the board could return to Sandy Easdale and prominent supporter, George Letham, who advanced £1.5 million in soft loans, securitised against assets such as the Ibrox car park. Those loans were paid off this week but might be requested again. In that case the strategy would be for the existing regime to remain in control until Rangers are promoted, in which case the value of the club would rise with the resumption of the old rivalry with Celtic, as would income streams. However, that prospect, which was blithely taken as a given while Rangers were making their way back through the lower divisions after liquidation of the original business in July 2012, now seems much less of a certainty following the 3-1 defeat by Hibs on Monday night which, following a loss to Hearts on the opening day, means that the Ibrox side have now lost at home to both their likely promotion rivals. Ally McCoist’s players were made aware of predators this week. The Ibrox board now knows exactly how that feels. Daily Telegraph 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 We are screwed and we only have ourselves to blame. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,415 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 keith jackson @tedermeatballs · 8h 8 hours ago Thought for tonight. Sandy Easdale and Jack Irvine have spent two days in London with Ashley and his people. https://twitter.com/tedermeatballs 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,415 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Rangers fans lash out after Mike Ashley snaps up another 5% stake in Ibrox club weeks after refusing to invest in emergency share issue. Oct 03, 2014 07:21 By Keith Jackson ASHLEY was confirmed as the buyer of 4.26million shares from hedge fund Hargreave Hale but supporters group chief Craig Houston says it shows he doesn't have the club’s best interests at heart. MIKE ASHLEY confirmed the latest stage of his Rangers power grab yesterday after holding another secret round of talks with Ibrox big wig Sandy Easdale in London. The Newcastle owner announced to the stock exchange that he was the mystery buyer of a five per cent stake in the club which was dumped on the market earlier this week by investors Hargreave Hale at a cut-price 20p per share. And the £850,000 deal means Ashley now owns a total of 8.92 per cent of the crisis ravaged club through his company MASH Holdings Ltd. Record Sport revealed last month Ashley – having snapped up the naming rights to Ibrox Stadium for just £1 – had struck an alliance with controversial director Easdale and had flown the Greenock bus tycoon to Manchester on his private helicopter for strategic discussions on the ongoing power struggle for control of the boardroom. Now we understand Ashley and his representatives held further talks with Easdale and his PR guru Jack Irvine in London ahead of yesterday’s LSE announcement. Easdale has given his public backing to Ashley while, behind the scenes, strongly opposing a rival bid from Dave King. This has led to a breakdown in relations with chief executive Graham Wallace who believes a huge cash boost from King represents Rangers’ best chance of short-term survival and long-term stability. While King still hopes to buy a controlling interest via a new share issue, Ashley has now taken up almost all of his maximum allocation under SFA jurisdiction which forbids him from owning more than 10 per cent of any Scottish club. But, having also recently seized full control of the club’s retail division through his Sports Direct firm, his influence inside Ibrox continues to grow despite announcing to the Stock Exchange he had no plans to invest in last month’s emergency share issue – which fell £1million short of its £4m target. But now, two weeks on, Ashley has handed over his cash to Hargreave Hale to buy 4.26million shares – as the club continues to teeter on the brink of yet more financial chaos. And this has infuriated fans’ protest group Sons of Struth who had already floated the idea of a boycott of Ashley’s sports stores. Group leader Craig Houston said: “This shows Ashley does not have our club’s best interests at heart. “He knows Rangers are experiencing financial difficulties and had the chance to help by investing in the share issue. Everyone knows how badly the club could have done with an extra £850,000. “Now just a fortnight later he’s paid the same price to buy the same amount of shares from a bunch of hedge fund managers. And we are expected to believe he is concerned about Rangers’ wellbeing? “As we have already stated a boycott of Rangers Direct will come into effect after October 11 should the stadium naming rights remain with Mr Ashley. That deal was hard enough for the fans to swallow. But now we are expected to accept he’s refused to help the club at a time of need? “As Rangers fans we were well warned about Charles Green by supporters at Sheffield United. We chose to ignore them. Well we’ve had the same warnings about Ashley from Newcastle supporters so are we going to ignore them too just because the guy is a successful businessman? “There’s a reason Ashley is a billionaire – and it’s not because he likes giving his money away. He owns our stadium naming rights, he owns our strips and he owns our superstores. If there are any Rangers fans out there not concerned about what his intentions are for our club then they should be.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-fans-lash-out-after-4370515 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,246 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 "fans lash out" ... well, there probably is very much controversy and disagreement amongst the support itself about this and I doubt that Houston is the mouthpiece for our opinion. As has been said before on here, hardly anyone can be sure what Ashley's deal with HH was and when it was set in place. So claiming "he's not the club's best interest at heart" is rather strange indeed. For a) he like anyone else will know that this is not the case anyway, and b) as said before, he knows next to nothing about how the deal was set up. Nor any intention Ashley may have for Rangers. Jackson also ignores the thing about the club asking the SFA for a 25% stake as revealed by Forsyth earlier. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,150 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 "fans lash out" ... well, there probably is very much controversy and disagreement amongst the support itself about this and I doubt that Houston is the mouthpiece for our opinion. As has been said before on here, hardly anyone can be sure what Ashley's deal with HH was and when it was set in place. So claiming "he's not the club's best interest at heart" is rather strange indeed. For a) he like anyone else will know that this is not the case anyway, and b) as said before, he knows next to nothing about how the deal was set up. Nor any intention Ashley may have for Rangers. Jackson also ignores the thing about the club asking the SFA for a 25% stake as revealed by Forsyth earlier. Of course you're right to highlight that none of us know what Ashley's intentions are. However, neither can we say with any sort of confidence that he has the club's best interests at heart. Not when he pays the £800K straight to an investor and not when various contracts are weighted very much in his favour. The stuff about him creating retail companies with regard to RFC is also a concern. Juxtapose this with how many, many Newcastle fans feel about his contribution to their club then Ashley's intentions are very much in question and some of his actions can be described as strange and/or difficult to interpret. Once again, Rangers fans are after boardroom transparency and engagement more than anything else I'd say at the club - Ashley will not bring that so it's not a surprise he's being viewed with suspicion. Nevertheless, he's certainly stepping forward while others stay in the periphery so it's difficult to criticise him for taking the initiative. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Green should have got a 7 figure sum of cash out of Ashley for the naming rights to Ibrox no matter what the reasoning behind the deal. Regarding the reasoning though, it's possible that Ashley only wanted the rights so that they couldn't be sold off to another company. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.