News that Charles Green is considering a ‘return’ to Ibrox has been met with predictable anger from the Union of Fans.
The unquestioning BBC ran with the story yesterday morning failing to acknowledge that the group of investors that Green fronted remain in power despite the regularly changing faces fronting the business.
Whether it’s Green, Craig Mather or Mr Graham Wallace that is picking up the chief executive salary and perks the power at Ibrox remains with Green and the penny investors of 2012 which includes current manager Ally McCoist.
Backed by McCoist, Green’s popularity went through the roof when he latched into the mindset of supporters with some off the radar statements that charmed the season ticket money out of supporters pockets.
No stunt was too cheap for the big ‘anded businessman from Yorkshire as he joined in a supporters chant about how much he hated Stewart Regan, made cups of tea for fans waiting to buy season tickets from a caravan, promised to have a better balance sheet than Celtic by 2013, accused the SPL of throwing Rangers (IL) out of the top flight due to bigotry, posed in a tangerine change strip from a decade earlier and told James Traynor of the Daily Record that he’d stay at Ibrox till he heard the Champions League anthem over the PA.
During a worldwide tour of supporters clubs Green explained about a commercial link up with the Dallas Cowboys and how Adidas had earmarked the Third Division club as a replacement for losing the contract to produce kit for Liverpool.
Those efforts helped bring in £22m from a share issue with Green stepping down a few months later after a carefully constructed race row involving business partner and Sevco investor Iran Ahmad.
As the new club slip from one crisis to the next supporters have turned to Dave King as their latest savior but the South African based tyre-kicker has apparently taken a vow of silence since setting up his Ibrox 1972 company.
News of Green’s return has been met with a predictable noise from unhappy fans with media favourite Chris Graham happy to oblige with the angry response.
“It would be spectacularly arrogant of Green to think he could waltz back into Rangers and that the fans would somehow accept it,” said the Union of Fans spokesman.
“I know Green is a fairly self-confident person but he must realise he’s completely toxic now to the support.
“Around 17,000 season tickets have been sold and it’s interesting this news is coming after the deadline because if this had been mooted before then that figure would be lower.”
While the club have claimed ‘approximately 17,000’ season ticket sales the Union of Fans have kept quiet on the number of season ticket holder pledges to Ibrox 1972.
Despite the examples set by Dunfermline, Hearts and Hibs the Ibrox support have failed to make any meaningful protest about the current regime at the club.
Waving red cards at an empty stadium seems to be about the extent of support anger along with statements of protest with no viable alternative being proposed.