With the administrators changing their tune from being able to see out the season no problem to imminent liquidation it’s no wonder punters are confused, angry and looking to put their shoulders to the wheel.
My own view is that if Whyte has done so much damage in his 9 months in charge then there is little to save us from liquidation and in that case there is no point in throwing money down a black hole if the gap between money coming in and covering costs is too big. Pride might dictate some cash to get us to the end of the season but there would be little point in damaging the long-term prospects by frittering huge sums away. Better to save for the share issue that I believe must inevitable come as part of the re-financing of the club.
THE SITUATION WE FIND OURSELVES IN
If the accounts and circumstances are so bad that the figures don't add up then liquidation will happen.
If the debts are such that they are manageable, and I believe they are, then you also need these "loose ends" tied up.
1/ You have to have enough hard cash to do a CVA.
2/ You have to have Whyte out.
3/ You have to have Ticketus playing ball.
4/ You have to have the Revenue confident that the new owners are competent enough to run the club and to complete a payment plan.
Imagine juggling these four balls and trying to land them all safely at the same time. Difficult? You bet. And while I long for an entirely fan-owned club this sort of scenario is why the deal to take us out of administration will be done by very hard-headed men with ready access to lots of hard cash rather than us Average Joes.
But the money men now know that the fans are the goose that lays the golden egg and without them the finances of the club will need that one-in-a-lifetime push to buy shares in the club - and who is going to buy shares in a deal that doesn’t see the club democratised to a huge extent so that no one man can ever again run it on a whim after what David Murray and Craig Whyte have put us through?
The events of the last few days have brought us close to the edge of deliverance or disaster.
Personally I think a deal can be done to get us through a CVA along the lines outlined above - I understand the memorandum of accounts sent to interested parties contains no major new shocks and given the right circumstances we can see the company sold and continue trading.
If things goes drastically wrong then tactics will change but I dismiss all talk that Rangers are doomed. The club founded by four kids on a public park will not die - the families of our absent friends, for instance, have been through far darker days than this, so why should a little financial hardship bother us?
Give what you can - but do it at the right time.