AuthorJeffEyesRimmer They once mixed it with European elite, but have suffered liquidation, limped back from the grave, fought their way back up through the leagues and now sit second in the Scottish Premier League. Rangers are a club trying desperately to reclaim its former heights, could they reclaim top spot in Scotland once again? I say once again because growing up in the 90s meant that it was Rangers who were the dominant force in Scottish football, not Celtic. I remember players like Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne plying their trade for Rangers. Rangers fall makes for unpleasant reading and a cautionary tale; one with poor financial management, tax issues and administration which eventually led to liquidation. Rangers – the club - as we know it now is technically a new entity, formed in 2012. The previous incarnation is long gone but not forgotten. Sir David Murray, a Scottish self-made businessman, bought Rangers in 1988 and immediately pumped money into the club. Murray made a lot of his wealth off of debt, with assets in his business empire Leveraged against the debts. Murray used the same method with Rangers and for a long while this worked. However, it all started to unravel from 2001 onwards; and in 2003 Rangers net debt reaching an eye watering £82m. Also during this time players were paid using Employee Benefit Trusts, which basically meant players were loaned rather than paid their paychecks. This was all to avoid tax, of which they avoided millions of, and this path led to HMRC pursuing Rangers for unpaid tax and lots of it! In turn Murray tried to sell the club, but with the HMRC at the door for many millions and a huge debt no one wanted to take on, after three years being up for sale Murray sold Rangers to Craig Whyte for £1 (and yes, you did read that right!). Whyte led Rangers down the path to administration; this annoyed the HMRC further, with administration meaning them not having to pay VAY or PAYE. Eventually this all led to the liquidation of Rangers in 2012. As disastrous as the 2011-2012 collapse of the club was, it did - and has - given Rangers a second chance to rebuild (many clubs don’t get that chance). Although some disgruntled banners were spotted in the stands on the weekend, with a fans banner stating ‘No fight, no pride. Nowhere to hide. Incompetent on & off the pitch. We deserve better’. With all that being said Rangers do sit second in the league currently, with a decent manager in Graeme Murty at the helm and youth prospects coming through like Ross McCrorie. The team are the highest scorers in the league with 69 goals, but they need a little help in defence where they are just the 5th best in the league (room to improve here with think you would agree for a club with title aspirations). There is plenty to work on but at the same time Rangers have a solid foundation with which to build on the pitch. In addition the club has indicated that they have a five year plan to develop youth prospects and actually think that the influx of foreign talent to the EPL down south of the border will allow them to recruit better youth prospects looking for first team football. If they can stay in second they will also enter into the Europa League qualifying stages for next season and while the cash injection for that competition is small in comparison to the Champions League (Celtic won around $25million for this season) any money will help bridge the gap between them and Celtic. However, while they are doing well on the field at present, behind the scenes there are still issues around the financial situation of the club. Last year there was around £20 million loan debt that still needed to be addressed. Some of that loan debt will apparently be converted to shares, but the debt will remain an ongoing concern for fans that have seen it all before.
The next step now for Rangers is more consolidation and aiming to win the domestic cups again on the pitch with more direction and stability in the boardroom. If they achieve these at least that then they will be then in a position to challenge Celtic. They do still have a long way to go to match their big rivals, the recent 4-0 thrashing showed that but Rangers appear now to be back. To be honest Celtic are a long way off at the moment, but with some sensible recruitment and living within their means they can start to rein them in. I think in the near future a lot will have to do with whether Celtic can keep hold of Brendan Rodgers. He may be tempted back to the EPL (Arsenal are heavily linked with him at the time of writing this) and with that lack of stability and potential future manager change at their cross town rivals Rangers might be able to catch up. For now though Rangers need to play the long game and not be sucked into the same issues that plagued them in the past. While I doubt we will ever see the nine successive championship wins in a row again, the most successful club in the world (Rangers have the most trophies – 54 in total) are back and challenging Celtics dominance, that can only be a good thing for Scottish football. |
AuthorsJust Some Fans Writing About Football. Archives
June 2018
Categories
All
|