There's a great deal of noise and confusion around Rangers at the moment. And, as is so often the case, not very much of it makes any kind of sense.
A drubbing at Celtic Park on Saturday leaves Giovanni van Bronckhorst ’s side five points adrift of their rivals and wondering if the rampant champions are about to disappear completely out of sight – just three months after making it to a European final. And all this on the back of an anti-climactic end to the transfer window when the men in charge resisted any temptation to spend some of the cash which has been piling up inside the boardroom over these past 12 months.
They might argue they got their business done early this summer given that van Bronckhorst has seven new players in his squad. But only two of them were in the Dutchman’s starting 11 on Saturday and both were subbed off as Celtic’s turbo charged players went up through the gears from a lightning fast start into overdrive, with the Gers flops simply having no answer for it.
So with all this in mind, it’s pretty remarkable the embattled Ibrox hierarchy have taken such a hostile position where a potential new American investor is concerned. Kyle Fox has made a written pledge to pump £75million of cash into the vaults over a five-year period if she is successful in acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the club.
But rather than embrace this potential gift horse, Rangers have strangely chosen to sue her in a Miami court. This approach appears to be an inexplicable stance even if there is a natural sense of caution around would be investors given some of the chancers who have sauntered up and down the marble staircase over the past decade or so.
If there is a danger Miss Fox is promising more than she can deliver then, of course, it would be incumbent upon the likes of chairman Douglas Park to conduct thorough due diligence just to make sure she’s as good as her word. But clubbing her with a lawsuit over the unpermitted use of a Rangers logo on a document, does seem like a highly curious overreaction to what seems a very generous offer indeed.
According to sworn affidavits lodged in the US legal system, Miss Fox – who describes herself as a female finance professional – has been scouring Europe in search of the ideal football club in which to pump her millions as a strategic investor. Miss Fox claims to have had a ‘positive and constructive’ two-hour meeting with deputy chairman John Bennett in London in July during which she confirmed her intention to ‘achieve some level of ownership’ in the club.
Having originally hoped to buy a 75 per cent holding at 25p per share, Fox decided to up her offer to 40p for a 25 per cent stake, which would make the 49-year-old the club’s major shareholder. She also pledged, as part of the package, to hand over £75m as an additional capital commitment.
It is her belief that, by Americanising the match-day experience and restructuring the marketing side of the club, Rangers could rake in a small fortune in new revenue. It’s hard to fathom why the old guard in charge would take such a belligerent stance against this modern approach to making some good money.
Fox clearly believes she has enough interested parties already at the table to scoop up her 25 per cent target – and she plans to re-engage with these willing sellers as soon as the current legal dispute has been resolved. In the meantime, Rangers fans must be scratching their heads and wondering what is really going on behind closed doors.
The absolute savaging of their team at the weekend will hardly have helped improve the general mood – especially given the lack of investment in van Bronckhorst’s first 11. A player trading model is all well and good as Brighton continue to demonstrate with spectacular success in England’s Premier League.
But without the right recruitment levers in place, it begins to look like the asset stripping of a team to the obvious detriment of its manager. No wonder then van Bronckhorst looked as if he’d just been visited by a ghost after watching his players capitulate at the home of their neighbours at the weekend.
He’d have bitten Ross Wilson’s right hand off to have a Calvin Bassey or Joe Aribo in his line-up. And he too must be baffled as to where all that excess cash raised from their sales has been stashed over the summer.
Let’s not forget, even before banking a multi-million pound compensation package for Steven Gerrard and his backroom team from Aston Villa last season, Rangers trumpeted they were on target for financial self sustainability. Then they sold Nathan Patterson to Everton for £11m – and raked in a fortune on the run to Seville.
Even a back of a fag packet accountant can work out that somewhere in the region of £100m in unexpected income has swollen the club’s account over these past 12 months. So it’s little wonder then that Rangers supporters are looking across the city in considerable dismay, flummoxed at how Celtic have managed to outmanoeuvre them so rapidly.
That they were fortunate to get out of Parkhead with only a four-goal beating at the weekend, only heightens the feeling these two teams are now moving in completely different directions. While Van Bronckhorst is attempting to cobble something together from odds and ends, Ange Postecoglou has all manner of options tucked up the sleeves of his favourite jumper.
So intense and so explosive is his side’s style of play that Celtic supporters will feel that anything might now be possible – even when Real Madrid come calling tomorrow. An opening night victory might seem like an extraordinary ask given the Spaniards are currently the champions of Europe but there is serious reason to suspect Postecoglou’s side can trade blows with the very best and give them a scare or two along the way.
For van Bronckhorst, however, a visit to Ajax looms large and the manager had better hope his players can at least keep their wits about them after having their senses scrambled on Saturday. Then again, perhaps it’s better to expect the unexpected where Rangers are concerned.
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