Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

[K Dodd]

From a week or so ago.(can't C&P)

http://www.thefootballlife.co.uk/post/112795711946/holding-back-the-landslide-dave-king-and-rangers

[accietilleyedye]

From a week or so ago.(can't C&P)

http://www.thefootballlife.co.uk/post/112795711946/holding-back-the-landslide-dave-king-and-rangers

if you don't wanna click the link

Holding Back The Landslide - Dave King and Rangers

There is an assumption I love. It’s the assumption that Dave “Rangers Man” King is a good thing, as if his club credentials somehow qualify him as a businessman.

But to look at the evidence, it’s plain to see that he isn’t a good thing. He may well have his landslide EGM vote, but what did he do to get it? He purchased a chunk of the club at its lowest possible value and then sat on his hands waiting for the incumbent board to fall flat on their faces, occasionally holding court to rabble rouse.

But this is Rangers - a club so self destructive they could put a gun in their mouth, pull the trigger and still manage to shoot themselves in the foot.

In a series of powerplays, Rangers have been left, one day before the EGM, in an even bigger mess than usual. Powerplay one is, of course, King calling the EGM in the first place. Having taken over two years to saddle up his steed and actually bother to ride in on to the scene like an all conquering hero (a tactic stolen from David Murray’s return to the club a decade ago), he provided the slightly wonky lighting rod through which the Rangers support could conduct their anger through.

Powerplay two was King revealing that he had won a “landslide” victory on Tuesday. The media quickly jumped up and trumpeted a fanfare laying the red carpet out for him in ignorance of two severe stumbling blocks - the first being that proxy voters have the right to turn up to the EGM and change their votes, meaning that any landslide could be overturned and, secondly, that Mike Ashley and pals don’t exactly take this sort of thing lying down.

David Somers and James Easdale had already departed the board by this point in an act that, in retrospect, seems less like self-sacrifice and more like self-preservation. After all, if they knew in advance that King and Ashley were about to start trading haymakers, they likely would have enough sense to get off the scene before the fans went from seething in private to lashing out in public.

Powerplay Three was Mike Ashley’s faction delivering not one, but two, coup de grace. Firstly, they publicised that the second £5m tranche of the loan agreement from SportsDirect would be called upon to cover the bills up to and including the third week of March (one week before payroll, importantly, suggesting wage costs for March are NOT covered) and that SD have a get out clause from it if there are adverse business conditions. Secondly, NOMAD WH Ireland pulled their NOMAD-ship of the company which, as per AIM rules and regs, meant the clubs shares were immediately suspended. While that action in itself is not steered directly by the Ashley regime, it is an indication that they were well aware King was set to succeed and that, as such, they would have to resign due to his chequered CV anyway.

But, handily, both of these force King’s hand in that he now has no choice but to answer the two biggest questions there are to answer and that he has, so far, completely failed to answer (although, in his defence, the Scottish media have completely failed to ask these questions):

How do you intend to fund the club in the short term?

What NOMAD do you have lined up to preserve the value of the club for shareholders?

Question two has now partly been answered by King in that he intends to install Paul Murray as chairman while regulators decide on King’s suitability. The answer it reveals is that King had no plan for the NOMAD issue and is taking a step back. Derek Llambias has already publicly challenged him on this and a theme running in the short time there is to the EGM is to show exactly how much Dave King doesn’t have a plan and send the institutions running to the safety of the current board whom, for all their lack of care for fans’ opinions, do appear to have some sort of financial plan for the club.

The installation of Paul Murray, who was on the board of Rangers in their original descent into administration, as a puppet of Dave King, a convicted tax dodger who was similarly on that Rangers’ board is unlikely to satisfy any NOMAD who value their reputation. This creates another question - just how bad is it that shares are suspended for this reason? As per the investor resource, Inacademy:

“This usually heralds very bad news, although suspension can also be the Exchange’s only effective sanction against a company which persists in breaking its rules.

Shares suspended by the Exchange find it hard to return to a full listing. Sometimes the company in question has gone bankrupt. In these circumstances, shareholders just have to grit their teeth and hope something emerges from the gloom.“

What it’s important for the lay person to understand is that stock markets, by their very nature, do not want to suspend companies. Not only is it not in their interest, they also want to make sure that shareholders are able to dispense of unwanted stock where possible because it is bad for business if shareholders in a company on your stock exchange suddenly find themselves completely out of pocket. In Rangers’ case, the NOMAD has left because the company, under Dave King, would be about to become inherently unstable due to the regulatory unsuitability of him (or, for that matter, Paul Murray) as a director which is, bluntly, about as unsuitable as Craig Whyte’s CV is to being a director of a listed company.

The other question of how King proposes to actually fund the club is made more important by the second tranche being drawn down and the details of that. Essentially, that is that, with the second tranche being able to fund the company until the end of the third week of March, Rangers have blown their way through £10 million in the space of 7 weeks. As far as Dave King is concerned, he may wish to raise money through an open share issue, but that will take a couple of months to organise and complete - in that space of time, he will still need to either a) fund the company to the tune of £10 million or b) stop paying the bills and hope for the benefit of the doubt. Option b) is unlikely which leaves option a). If King can’t/won’t do option a) then the only answer is administration. This further ties into issues on the pitch because there is an expectation that Kenny McDowell will be dispensed with - King’s first day in charge may well see him find a way to not pay Ally McCoist or Kenny McDowell a penny. That the first action of a man who sees himself as a Rangers legend may well be to screw over an actual Rangers legend will get the fans’ backs up immediately.

Dave King is, to be perfectly honest, someone whose involvement with the Newco would never come to anything simply because of how utterly unsuitable he is. Dave King, unlike a David Murray who saw chucking millions at Rangers as an investment in his own corporate and personal legacy and unlike a Mike Ashley who is throwing spare change at the club, is not able to blow the £20-30 million it will take to get the club into the 2015-16 season out of his own pocket without some kind of return guaranteed which, with most of Rangers’ assets in the hands of Mike Ashley, is unlikely for a considerable amount of time. It leaves him with one option - administration. It is the easiest way to attempt to get the club out of the contractual bother it is in and also the easiest way with which to get costs down before the club is either massively indebted or before King has spent any of his own money trying to salvage a wreck.

There is no point avoiding the truth - Rangers are a wreck and are, likely, trading insolvently. This is not the fault of Mike Ashley and his cohort, nor is it the fault of Dave King - it is the fault of the men who resurrected the club in the first place and built the club in a manner that was unsustainable assuming they could ride out any storms that came before Premiership football because the fan would always pay up. However, the votes on share issues at AGM’s landed the wrong way for them and it left the club saddled with a business plan that depended on being funded by other people’s money - much as David Murray himself took ENIC and Dave king to the cleaners. Whatever Dave King’s history, his failure to answer the really important questions that need answering is his downfall. Fans who have voted for him in the EGM have been duped by a man who hasn’t got answers for the question of how to save their club. Mike Ashley isn’t much of a saviour, but he has stumped up the cash when it’s been needed and, right now, that’s surely the only quality in an owner that matters.

Because if Dave King can’t or won’t pay, the club surely will.

[Henrik's tongue]

Stuart McCall ... like a tramp dressed in Oxfam's finest ...

Why is wee Stuart wearing Charlie Chaplin's suit?

[GreenockRover]

Stuart McCall ... like a tramp dressed in Oxfam's finest ...

That's fat Sallys' suit is it not ?

[Double Drag Back]

Someone mentioned Chick Young earlier and it reminded me... Did anyone ever read his short lived blogs on the BBC Football website? They were hilarious - unfocused, lacking is any substance whatsoever and written in his light hearted signature 'bantery' style which sounds even more dated transcribed than heard live on air. Of course they were always accompanied by 100 or so comments, most of which got deleted for profanity, all highly critical of his fly weight level of journalism to which Chick never responded once. Chick, if you're reading this, and let's face it - you almost certainly are - please come back. It was glorious.

[pozbaird]

Stuart McCall ... like a tramp dressed in Oxfam's finest ...

Why is McCall playing Gazza's flute?

[Monkey Tennis]

Showing himself to be a bigot...Welcome to the Crusade MT.

Nothing here to undo my opinion of Cosgrove as something of a daft wannabe.

Nothing either though, to place his behaviour alongside that of Graham.

[scottxs]

Stuart McCall ... like a tramp dressed in Oxfam's finest ...

Its almost like the suit david Byrne ( talking heads) wore in the 80's

[BinoBalls]

I believe Chris Graham did the right thing. He knew the MSM were never going to let this go and for the good of the club he resigned.

Here was me thinking he resigned because he published a tasteless and offensive picture.

Whether the MSM would have pursued him over it is neither here nor there.

Hopefully Rangers can appoint someone fairly normal in his place, and not some angry guy with paranoia issues.

[scottxs]

david Byrne

[nsr]

I like how people associated with The Rangers publicly accuse people of being their Enemies, then act surprised when those people don't like them.

[THE KING]

Graham was using a religious figure to rip the pish out of Choudray.

And the media used that same figure to rip the pish out of Graham, thats CGs beloved freddom of speech in action.

[GreenockRover]

ImageUploadedByPie & Bovril1426488453.146892.jpgdavid Byrne

Road To Nowhere........ resonance.

Mind you Byrne is a thin guy in a fat boys' suit.... The Mullet...well, just look..

[No8.]

Nothing here to undo my opinion of Cosgrove as something of a daft wannabe.Nothing either though, to place his behaviour alongside that of Graham.

So it is Ok for a public funded company to employ a failed football hooligan who is a raging bigot?

Chris Graham was taking the piss out of a terrorist. Chris Graham was there to represent the Rsngers fans and the vast majority fully supported him.

I am sorry but your opinion or the opinion of any other hater means absolutely nothing to me regarding this. Very similar to when one of the countries top lawyers was forced out of our club for singing a folk song.

[Ken Fitlike]

This Cosgrove stuff is just a bit desperate and pathetic.

[jagfox]

Here was me thinking he resigned because he published a tasteless and offensive picture.

Whether the MSM would have pursued him over it is neither here nor there.

Hopefully Rangers can appoint someone fairly normal in his place, and not some angry guy with paranoia issues.

Mark Dingwall?

[P45]

Why is McCall playing Gazza's flute?

I thought he was trying to make himself sick to get out of the job.

[nsr]

Are the Visigoths still defending this Chris Graham clown? When closing ranks during a siege, you really ought to look around at the calibre of those alongside you and ask if you really want to be standing alongside such individuals.

[10menwent2mow]

Very similar to when one of the countries top lawyers was forced out of our club for singing a folk song.

I think that's pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

[aofjays]

I think that's pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

Shows he's either (a) on the wind up trying to derail the thread, or (b) such a bigoted simpleton that he actually believes it. Either way there is no point in engaging with him and doing so will probably get the thread locked eventually.