For those familiar with the goings-on at Ibrox Tuesday's horrible rumour from France would come as no surprise, only with that same sinking feeling we have felt in recent transfer windows. Yet again we find ourselves in a familiar position; our best playing assets apparently being touted around Europe to try and bring in finances to keep the club afloat. Yes, at this stage it is nothing more than a rumour but I cannot help but feel I have seen this all before. Bougherra is a vital player for us, he is not irreplaceable, but this club should not be continuing to have to operate in such a way. Selling our best players from one window to the next just to continue to survive is as embarrassing as it is frustrating.
Don’t be fooled by the players apparent desire to stay at Rangers, in fact do not be fooled by any of the players apparent desire to stay with us. The fact remains, as we have seen in previous years (The Cuellar deal is absolutely identical to this whole situation) money talks, certainly in our Chairman’s world. What has troubled me all day is; How can we afford to negotiate our own TV deal at a cost of at least £12.5 million pounds but be in the position where we must sell our best players to survive? Could it be that for a certain someone, there is money to be made? I think we have every right to be sceptical and fear for the worst.
This is a chairman who has been responsible for our club as we lurched from one financial disaster to the next. David Murray propelled Rangers towards financial disaster in the early 2000s only to be in a position where he was forced to underwrite a massive amount of debt himself. You would think that for such a businessman he would avoid that situation occurring again wouldn’t you? However we find ourselves right back in the mire yet again. It really just doesn’t make sense does it? What saddens me most is it feels like there is almost an air of desperation about our transfer dealings, it feels to a certain extent that we are almost begging teams to come and take our players for a fee less than their true valuation.
By making our financial plight so clear in January everyone knows we are going to be easy to deal with when it comes to taking our players. Now let me get this clear, I do not hate David Murray. I am extremely grateful for what he did for Rangers in the early part of his tenure. However I now feel I am in the position where I am exasperated by his leadership at the club. Where has he been for most of this summer or since the whole January debacle? As supporters who continue to pump in our hard earned cash we are entitled to leadership from the top, reassurance that both financially and on the playing field there is a long-term business plan, not the apparent plod along and make it up as we go attitude we seem to have.
If its not Bougherra this time, then it will be one of our top players before the summer is out, unfortunately I remain convinced of this. No one is going to pay the sort of money we need to ‘balance the books’ for one of our unwanted 1st team players. I’m afraid we must brace ourselves for the almost inevitability that we will be a weaker team, yet again, by the end of this transfer window. That does not mean that we will not be successful, however, as I believe with Walter Smith in charge he will always make us competitive. For some in power at Ibrox this seems to be enough. Yes, Walter has had a lot of money to spend but he has also recouped millions of pounds - also, his outlay isn’t as massive as one would think. When you really consider it all it's hard to understand why Walter receives any criticism at all, but that indeed is an argument for a completely different article.
I also find myself asking: At what point will this way of running the club be enough for the support who refuse to see the light from the dark? Recent campaigns for change have been rubbished and attacked on the back of a league win which prevented a summer not even I dare think about. The league win should not have covered up the true goings on at Ibrox, the true mismanagement which sees the club yet again down a major hole; for some fans it will have. The same fans will be fooled into thinking any money we receive will be invested wisely on the football pitch, we may see an investment in playing staff but in will be minimal and done in a way that budgets will be cut.
It's groundhog day all over again Bears and I fear for the close season ahead.
We are Rangers, an institution, and quite frankly we deserve better than what we are currently getting.