James Traynor of the Daily Record has issued a stark warning to Rangers fans that their club might be killed off.
The scale of the financial crisis at Ibrox remains unknown but in September in an exclusive interview with Craig Whyte Traynor revealed that the club wagebill had increased by 20% since the billionaire bought the club from Sir David Murray.
With no European income to supplement the clubs’ cashflow Whyte issued a grim warning about the financial situation regardless of the on-going tax worries.
“I didn’t buy Rangers to watch the club fail,” the new chairman claimed in September. “But hard decisions will have to be made and we’ll start making them very quickly.
“I put myself in the position of owning a football club so I cant moan about it now, although the payroll every month is not something I find enjoyable.
“Decisions will have to be made and there will be pain but no matter the outcome of the bigger tax case we will still be here. Rangers will still be playing at Ibrox and moving forward.
“Yes, we have inherited a mess from the previous management and there are a lot of issues we are working through.
“But the main thing is we have to get real we are stuck in Scottish football and our costs are significantly more than the income we bring in and that has to be dealt with.
“We have to get to the stage where we can at least break even and live within our means. We’re very far from being there at the moment.
“We are geared up for being in the Champions League every season that’s the cost base we’ve got.”
The reality of that cost base, the uncertainty over the tax bill and a sustained title challenge from Celtic has changed the landscape since Whyte’s arrival as new owner in May.
Fergus McCann is possibly the only person to have made money out of Scottish football with others such as Murray, John Boyle and Pearse Flynn finding that their success in other business fields can’t be transferred into the unique world of football. That reality seems to be dawning on Whyte.
As Ally McCoist and the Rangers support plead for further investment the likelihood is that it will only be outgoing business for the club this month with the price for players such as Nikica Jelavic and Steve Davis unlikely to match the value that Rangers currently place on them.
In an opinion piece this morning Traynor warns: “Rangers, as they’ve been known for more than a century, might be killed off and a new club born from the fall-out and recriminations.
“A ruling on the HMRC case is expected this month but there may be a feeling within Ibrox that no matter the outcome of the tax dispute, the best way, maybe the only way, forward is administration or some form of liquidation.
“However, that would require a lot of explaining. All those fans who bought into the new regime but who have since been trying not to think of worst-case scenarios will finally be demanding answers to questions they should have been asking months ago.”
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Happy New Year Joe. 🙂
The questions Traynor suggests the Rangers’ fans should have been asking, are they not the very same questions we Celtic supporters have been asking and answering, for the best part of a year now.
Once again we have been shown to be miles ahead of our rivals. Our intrepid “journalists” have turned a deaf ear and ignored the questions that were being asked.
Thanks must go to Phil MacGiollaBhain and RTC in particular. After all the ridicule from the mainstream media, they must be feeling a degree of satisfaction.
The same degree we are all feeling.
Happy New Year.
Instant Kharma’s gonna get you….lol, ironically lyrics by a certain Mr. Lennon (that’ll be John)
HH 1NL YNWA TAL 😀
Can not wait its like the abolition of slavery getting rid of this establishment HAIL HAIL
I’ve known this for over a year by simply not buying a newspaper anymore, I use the Internet. Succulent lamb Trayner has obviously been instructed to inform the Rearangers support it’s time to sell some players or go bust (he he) that’ll be those peskie Chelsea fans again.
You wouldn’t think the world economy was in such a state it would effect the Motherwell born billionaire to this degree.
After years of dodging tax (allegedly) it’s nearly time to pay the piper. Wonder what the SFA will do if the tax case decides that Rearangers have been cheating all these years. Over to you Mr Regan.
rangers goin out of business would be very bad!!
well for me anyway as the week of intense drinking and partying would probably kill my liver!!! hahaha!!
Happy New Year Joe…
Where did Traynor get the cojones to write this…??
This apology of a journalist has tip-toed his way round the Rankers’ crisis for over a year now..
while finding plenty time to ridicule and scorn Phil and RTC .
I said the the Laptop Loyal were as guilty as Murray or anyone else in keeping Rankers’ supporters in the dark regarding the mess …and I for one , wish to thank them for that.
What goes around …comes around Mr. Traynor…
I now look forward to you dining on fine Buckfast wine and succulent Spam.
Mike, I suspect that the heirarchy at the Record have noticed a huge drop in sales in Scotland due to the bias and bigotry shown for years now. They used to be able to fall back on rangers and the organizations within the establishments connected but the powerbrokers now see a distinct possibility that this is diminishing. They need readers! Plain and simple, and they have lost so many of us. Time to put the bigotry aside for them.
Methinks and me hopes …it’s too late for them…
they are doomed…..
and Hell slap it intae them…..
Traynor (the self-proclaimed ‘voice of authority’) is doing exactly what Gordon Waddell was doing in his column in the Sunday Mail but with a little more subtlety. These two mugs aren’t ‘telling it like it is’ they have had ample opportunity to do that and haven’t, so what’s changed?
Well their beloved club has squandered a 15pt lead, are now two behind and are looking increasingly vulnerable. They were happy to tip-toe around the ‘Whyte Knight’ while R*****s were ahead but now they are using their columns as a rallying cry to put pressure on Whyte to step up and splash the (imaginary) cash. Waddell’s column in the mail wouldn’t have looked out of place on follow follow for god’s sake.
These two couldn’t look any more transparent if they were standing outside ibrox holding a banner emblazoned with the word’s ‘WE DESERVE BETTER’
are those the same questions you should have been asking a year ago fatty nae neck?
when is top scorer in portugal coming or has lawell done it again
It just shows you how gullible these journalists believe people are, this is Traynors article he will save on file and put in his safe, 6 months from now when the poo hits the fan at Ibrox he will be dusting it off and giving it “I told you so”. In reality he has been as silent as the rest bar this article/insurance. A few weeks back on Radio he couldn’t talk about anything to do with Rangers finances because he doesn’t know enough to comment.
Living here in Thailand I wonder if its possible that fat Traynor has got any fatter? Would you get in a lift with him and DJ?
Some brilliant comments…especially from Jimmy G (never a truer word spoken…class comment!!!), and Jebus (I’ve not stopped drInking since the Huns game…so true again!!!!).
I suppose the truth is what all Celtic fans have been driving at … to get rid of them…from the PEOPLES game!!!!!
And may they rot in hell with the rest of the scum