Keith Jackson: Mark Warburton offers bright future for Rangers...

[ian1964 10,475]

...but financial past still haunts Ibrox club.

 

THEY may be wearing wizards hats in his honour already but the truth is there is no sorcery to Mark Warburton’s reconstruction of Rangers. Or for that matter to the more general restoration of a club that was systematically dismantled over the previous four years.

 

ON the pitch, nothing much more than some TLC, a bit of strategic planning and a great deal of hard work was ever going to be required to make Rangers relevant again. The early indications are that Warburton and Davie Weir have given them all of that. And more.

 

On Friday night they hit the front in the Championship promotion race with a win over St Mirren and it seems possible they will stay there until it is over.

 

This rehabilitation, in a purely sporting context, deserves to be examined in more depth because, for the first time since Craig Whyte sauntered into the Rangers narrative in his scuffed, pointy shoes, there is now a team coming together at Ibrox which is worthy of some serious consideration.

 

For the first time since May 2011, Rangers Football Club – for so long a grotesque soap opera of unrelenting scandal – is primarily about the football again and for that reason alone it is little wonder its supporters are getting a little bit giddy.

 

After all they have suffered surely they can be excused a little excitement? If they want to believe there is magic in the air then what harm can it do?

 

But while all eyes have been firmly focused on Warburton’s slight of hand, there has also been a significant ramping up of activity behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks. And these recent developments will almost certainly hold the key to the wider recovery of Rangers across the board.

 

Intriguingly, it is beginning to feel as though Strathclyde’s finest might be on the verge of something significant as they continue to probe Charles Green’s time in charge of the club.

 

Before a ball was kicked at Ibrox on Friday night, the Daily Record revealed that French whistleblower Sevim Cesim – a former company secretary at Ibrox – had been flown into Glasgow to be interviewed by a team of detectives who have spent much of the last three years raking through the debris from the club’s financial implosion.

 

This is phase two of an operation that has already led to the arrests of five men – Whyte, lawyer Gary Whithey, and Paul Clark, David Whitehouse and David Grier of Duff and Phelps – and it appears to be nearing a conclusion.

 

It could be that more collars are about to be felt and there is reason to believe also that the police may soon show their hand, perhaps even before the end of this month.

 

Certainly, the grilling of Miss Cesim will have been an interesting affair as this softly-spoken lady found herself right at the heart of Green’s grubby little mob in the build-up to a share issue that raised a staggering sum of more than £22million.

 

In fact, over a period of around 18 months Green’s Rangers burned through a total of around £70m and during this time huge chunks of cash were being scattered to the four corners of the globe. The cops will want to know why and to whom in particular.

 

Miss Cesim will not have been able to help them with all of these enquiries as she did not last long in her job.

 

In fact, as soon as she started asking uncomfortable questions of Green, Brian Stockbridge and Imran Ahmad she was run out of town by their regime.

 

On a human level the treatment she received was utterly repugnant and a damning indictment of the character of those with whom she had only just climbed into bed.

 

But she was around just long enough to witness some potentially key events nonetheless, particularly around the IPO share offer that took place in December 2012.

 

Of particular interest to the police will be the deals struck between Green and a bunch of original investors, whose cash bankrolled Rangers for six months or so until old big hands was able to take the shares to market.

 

These early birds – including Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, former Ibrox chief executive Craig Mather and finance firm Eurovestech – thought they were getting in on a bargain but they were all out of pocket when the shares went on sale at 70p, a sum far less than Green had originally indicated.

 

In other words, anyone who had invested, let’s say, £1m in this deal was already £300,000 down.

 

The question the police will be asking here is, did Green make it up to them?

 

And the answers they receive will determine where this story goes from here. By comparison, Warburton’s job is really quite straightforward.

 

He cares more about signing John Eustace than seeking justice.

 

He won’t be turning up at Glasgow Airport any time soon to wave off any potential High Court star witnesses, that much is sure.

 

But all of Warburton’s hard work at Auchenhowie also indicates how badly Ally McCoist took his eye off the ball during his own time in charge.

 

Essentially, what is happening now – the laying down of a new, contemporary template for the way in which Rangers play the game – ought to have been carried out three summers ago when they pitched up in the lowest tier of Scottish football.

 

McCoist missed that opportunity amidst all the chaos. Warburton appears to be seizing it in relative calm.

 

And, as a result, this season’s Rangers are already almost unrecognisable from what was cobbled together before.

 

It could be argued that the Ibrox crowd saw more football being played on the opening night against St Mirren than they have done all the way through this “journey” up through the leagues.

 

Warburton has, in a metaphorical puff of smoke, transformed this team into a unit which is highly organised, well drilled and which operates at a

flat-out tempo. But, even so, the man is no magician.

 

Friday night’s performance against St Mirren, as impressive as it was, also highlighted a few deficiencies in Warburton’s masterplan.

 

His flamboyant goalkeeper will be got at over the season, he badly needs the aforementioned Eustace to offer his defence some protection and he is also missing anout-and-out striker.

 

But, more generally, he is low on players of genuine quality.

 

The group he has gathered over the summer is proficient, technically sound and fit enough to make his system work.

 

For that reason alone Rangers will be worth watching this season and should make light work of clinching promotion.

 

By then Warburton’s template will have been well established but if Rangers are to take the step up into the top flight in their stride then the manager’s budget will have to be given an appropriate bump.

 

Getting serious money out of chairman Dave King has not proved anywhere near as easy as the manifesto had promised. But it might just prove to be Warburton’s biggest trick of all.

[BlueMazza 0]

Getting serious money out of chairman Dave King has not proved anywhere near as easy as the manifesto had promised. But it might just prove to be Warburton’s biggest trick of all.

 

Is this actually the case or is Warbs building a team of future stars by buying young? I haven't heard at any point that Rangers have refused him funds? Normally that's the first thing you would hear as it would be a giant scandal.

I would also question as to whether you would want to spend millions in the championship, or buy & build a team at this level, that by next year is proficient and needs little added to take on the SPFL

[Scott7 5,298]

I see the boy Jackson can't spell "sleight" or maybe it was a subbie.

 

The old hot print guys were a class above that.

[der Berliner 3,318]

We hardly know how much and how any money by King and Co. have been spent since their takeover. So ... much of what the journos write is not any better than fan-board assumptions.

 

What Warburton has seemingly proved is that you don't need "serious money" to create a team that is capable to keep the better teams of the Championship at arm's length. We may splash a few hundred k still, perhaps on Allan, perhaps on Jamie Murphy, or someone else. Should the entertainment values stay the same for a few weeks, I reckon the accountants at Ibrox can look forward to another few sell-outs. Furthermore, should the W&W revolution go on, you can envisage that any new share issue might well end up being quite a success as well. It is, much like the rebuilding of the squad, a one-step-at-a-time scenario. The season is young and fortunes may vary. But it is a good feeling all round these days.

 

 

* a much debatable term, IMHO

Edited August 10, 2015 by der Berliner

[calscot 0]

Seems to me that the board have been incredibly astute so far with their choice of manager, and along with the re-engagement of the fans, this is creating a golden circle where the better we are, the more money we make, the more we can spend and hopefully become even better.

 

Warburton seems the perfect fit for us so far, producing the ideal antidote to make us strong again after the board cut out most of the cancer at the club. The fans have no reason to boycott any more but perhaps needed a stimulus to get them back and that's what's been given with everyone excited about the football again despite still being in the second tier.

 

I don't think we need to spend quickly and after dispatching both our biggest rivals in our league with dominance in the first few games, we are at a good enough level for our position already, with more to come. We are still running at a loss and so judicial spending seems prudent, but if we continue with such large crowds, our finances will improve in time to enhance the team with perhaps a few higher value players in the summer transfer window and allow us to compete well in the SP. Of course a large share issue will be a pivotal factor to the affordability.

 

I already get the impression we'd be capable of second place in Scotland, and if we progress as we are, I'd start to be more confident of a decent result against Celtic in one of the cups.

 

The players we've signed so far may be low key, but they seem to be of the quality we require right now, and are not extravagantly priced.

 

I feel that we're currently on an exceptional path both on and off the field, but there is patience still required.

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

It's very difficult to tell. Warburton's not renowned as a big spender--wasn't an option for him at a club like Brentford anyway and I'd have thought that was a fairly major part of his attraction to our board.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I expect arrests pretty soon.

[colinstein 294]

No one needs to spend large amounts of money to win this league.

I'm happy with that

[limeburner 0]

Last sentance,wee snidey dig,Hes a shitebag always will be,he cant help it.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Spending lots just now would be daft.