The problem with spoofing about being a big club with plenty of money is that some people might believe you.
That seems to have been the case with Frank Lampard.
Today, a very well-placed source put me right on this one.
He told me the Stamford Bridge icon had three sit-downs with the Sevco High Command.
One face-to-face meeting in London and the other two by some internet sorcery.
Mr Lampard had done his due diligence.
He stated that much of the current squad was not up to scratch.
Of course, this will not be a surprise to the Ibrox klanbase.
Consequently, the ex-England midfielder opined that many of the current crop of Gumtree Galacticos would have to be moved on.
He envisaged recruiting a core of between 11 and 12 players.
Then came the deal breaker.
He told his interviewers that the club would have to fund a net spend of £15m for THREE consecutive transfer windows in order to COMPETE with Celtic!
I can only imagine what effect the figure of £45m within ONE calendar year had on that nice Mr Bisgrove.
So that was that.
In fairness, Frank Lampard OBE ticked a lot of boxes for the Sevco High Command.
He was, like Mr Gerrard, a name with global recognition.
There was also the hope that he could source quality loan players from the EPL and English Championship to the cash-strapped Ibrox outfit.
Instead, in Scottish terms, he wanted a significant financial outlay to catch up with the Parkhead operation.
The rub is that he thought he was in discussions with a club that was in funds.
It is worth noting that the £15m figure that football finance expert David Low has consistently stated is Celtic’s annual starting advantage with the basket of assets.
The glass half-empty bit for those in the Hoops corner is that regardless of who the new chap is, Sevco, he WILL be better than Mickey B.
What will remain extant is the resource landscape which favours Celtic.
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With regards to 72% win ratio, stats depend on the question asked and who’s asking it. Better to check win ratio in big games eg playing Celtic or european games
What is not reported is that most of the instalments are still to be paid on their recent recruits never mind more money spent
It is industry standard for football transfers to be paid in tranches-uusally three.
I think that’s his point, Phil. They would be getting rid of guys who they probably still owe 60%, or thereabouts, of the fees on, with, I’d say, very little chance of getting back what the buying fee was. If you look at the overall careers of almost all of the summer signings, they’ve all rarely been with any club for more than a year.
I don’t know enough about exactly how football agents work to be 100% sure of what I’m saying here, but it looks to me as though agents are somehow convincing clubs that these guys are far better players than they actually are. They’re found out very quickly and punted on ASAP. With each selling club helping to perpetuate the myth because they all want their money back. They’ve all arrived with fairly good reputations, but I’ve seen nothing on the park from any of them to make me think that’s where the reputations were earned.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many people in football (Lampard in this case) do not know that theranjurs are only 11 yrs old and up to their eyes in debt.
They are not going anywhere, other than on a long road of disappointment and frustration that they are not the club they used to be… The gift that keeps on giving. H H
I am not sure that the next manager will be any better. Especially with that group of players. A fundamental error was to go along with the BS inflation of the prices actually paid for these players. Again, you have pointed this out consistently. Beale had a win ratio of 72%. That is better than Walter Smith and without the tax evasion. So I am not sure that the new manager will better those stats
It’s actually, by some distance, the best winning percentage of any Rangers/Sevco top flight manager. McCoist has a better overall percentage by the proverbial ball hair, but most of his management time was in the lower divisions.
As Terry Bhoy pointed out, it was the games against Celtic, and the European games that did for him.
Against Celtic he had a, ‘new manager bounce’ draw, and a dead rubber win, out of SIX games. Two of those defeats also putting them out of the cup competitions.
In Europe it was two each of wins, draws and defeats.
Any manager taking over at ibrokes would need to get shot of the deadwood when there is no interest in any of the players and any loan deals coming in sevco would want the parent club to pay most of their wages as surely uefa would be checking on the finances to make sure any extra wages can be payed without sevco doing an original rangers and end up in liquidation.
Out of curiosity, how long does a liquidation process take ?
The one for the original club was only concluded within the last year. Theoretically it’s supposed to be over as quickly as the number of creditors making claims is established, and the assets sold off, so that creditors can get whatever pence in the pound they’re going to get. Call me cynical here, but I firmly believe that some liquidators spin the process out to maximise their fees.
Not all small creditors bother putting a claim in. If they’re only going 10p or so in the pound back, it’s not worth the price of the recorded delivery postage