Burnside Hints At Gers Takover

[BlueSuedeSambas 54,498]

May have already been posted and apologies if it has but I just found this on the Beeb.

Burnside hints at Gers takeover

David Burnside (left) wants to buy Sir David Murray's stake in the club

A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly is heading a consortium poised to launch a takeover bid for Rangers.

David Burnside, the former MP for South Antrim, said he and friends from the City of London were in the "preliminary stages" of preparing an offer.

"I know a number of people interested. We would not be interested in anything hostile," he told Scotland On Sunday.

"It would be up to David Murray to declare himself ready to sell and as yet I have not spoken to him."

Burnside said it was too early to discuss figures for a possible bid, but he believed the nature of football club ownership was changing.

"When you look at what's happening in England with Russian and even Icelandic oligarchs and venture capitalists buying up clubs, it seems that every Premiership club is being looked at, so why not Rangers?

"The club has a special appeal about it because of the merchandising and the very name of Glasgow Rangers, which is internationally-known."

Murray bought Rangers for £6m in 1989 and his investment helped the club to nine consecutive league titles between 1989 and 1997.

Murray stepped down as chairman at Ibrox in July 2002 but returned to the post two years later.

He told the Financial Times last year he would consider giving someone else the opportunity to lead Rangers.

"I'm coming up for 20 years, and I think that will be enough for anybody," he said.

"We've had a couple of people speak to us tentatively, but I would only sell the club if it was somebody who could take it to a higher level."

Rangers' failure to qualify for the Champions League this season took its toll on the club's finances.

The Ibrox club made a pre-tax loss of £700,000 between June and December - compared to a profit of £6.1m over the same period in 2005.

Thoughts?

[ibroxwonder 0]

I was going to post this, it's further down, but would be good to get fresh viewpoints

[rangersross 6,577]

Interesting, good to know he's a big rangers man but will this consortium really be able to put the funds into the club we need

[Stuart_RFC 41]

Interesting, good to know he's a big rangers man but will this consortium really be able to put the funds into the club we need

thats the question

[mark_ni 12]

personally i dont like consortiums as there are a lot of things that can go wrong with them but then again i dont want another romanov. If they can come up with the money to buy the club and are prepared to put in a min of £15m for players in the summer then i would certainly give it consideration despite my reservations.

[Craigy 0]

Get Murray tae fcuk. Hes an arsehole

[cupertinoger 0]

Get Murray tae fcuk. Hes an arsehole

Are you serious?....without Murray there would have been no Souness era no Gazza, no Laudrup... no 9 in a row no Champions league adventures....the list goes on....yes we are in a bad way right now and yes a lot of that goes down to the fact DM showered money on past managers in pursuit of European glory but he at least was big enough to admit it and sort it out...show me any major UK club that has less than 5M debt.

[Craigy 0]

I thank him for all the memories of the good times but honestly believe its about time he stood aside and let someone take over who is willing to take us onto a higher level. I am not asking to go back to the Advocaat spending but just buy decent players like Celtic have with Jvoh and Nakamura instead of going for the likes of McDonald and Broadfoot

[cupertinoger 0]

I thank him for all the memories of the good times but honestly believe its about time he stood aside and let someone take over who is willing to take us onto a higher level. I am not asking to go back to the Advocaat spending but just buy decent players like Celtic have with Jvoh and Nakamura instead of going for the likes of McDonald and Broadfoot

I think he would probably gratefully stand aside but lets face it who (apart from this so called consortium) has shown any serious interest in buying him out... As I have said before there are no US sports franchise owners or Icelandic business men drooling over us as an investment opportunity, anyone who buys out DM would most likely have to be a supporter and be doing it mainly for the love of the club as there is no 30M pot of TV money for us to get each season

[Airdriebear 0]

do you thinka consortium is a better idea than one man?

the consortium will also be run from london, i am not sure if this is the best way to go, however a bit of fresh blood wouldnt go amiss.

Hopefully murray takes bain with him if he does sell up.

[viennabear 2]

not going to happen imo!! what consortium would buy a SPL club for 60-70 million when you can get an EPL club for less and have guaranteed 30million tv cash each year????

If we win the treble next year and have a good CL campaign how many will still be calling for murray to go??? the man deserves respect for what he has done for our club!

[cupertinoger 0]

do you thinka consortium is a better idea than one man?

the consortium will also be run from london, i am not sure if this is the best way to go, however a bit of fresh blood wouldnt go amiss.

Hopefully murray takes bain with him if he does sell up.

Whether its a consortium or one man is irrelevant, whats more important is what the ambitions the new owner has for the club, if its to try to make a few quid then thats probably not so good, if its a case of speculate to accumulate then we may have something to look forward to, what I would like to see is someone coming in who has ideas of how to market the club better as this is one of our income streams that we need to make more of, Celtic have started with their glamour friendlies but we need to come up with a proper strategy of how to tap into those markets

[Craigy 0]

Murray knows he aint going to get rid of the club in the state it was in 6 months ago. He will make sure we are challengers in the league financially sound as a club with £6m debt isnt attractive and in the Champions League.

[OutsideIn 0]

Are you serious?....without Murray there would have been no Souness era no Gazza, no Laudrup... no 9 in a row no Champions league adventures....the list goes on....yes we are in a bad way right now and yes a lot of that goes down to the fact DM showered money on past managers in pursuit of European glory but he at least was big enough to admit it and sort it out...show me any major UK club that has less than 5M debt.

The Souness era began in 1986; Murray bought the club toward the end of 1988. How do you mean there would have been no Souness era?

How come there would have been no Gazza or Laudrup? It was Rangers' - not David Murray's - money that brought these players to Ibrox and do you believe for a second that great players come to a club because of the chairman?! Did Henry join Arsenal because of Hill-Wood? Gazza and Laudrup joined because of Rangers.

The money that David Murray "showered" on past managers wasn't his money. He wasn't dipping into his pocket and into his personal fortune to fund these signings; he was spending Rangers' money and it was money that we couldn't afford to spend. He had to admit he was wrong and sort it out because he took Rangers to the brink of bankruptcy with daily interest payments of tens of thousands of pounds. Get it into your head: we were going bust.

You may think we have less than five million pounds of debt (this is nonsense since repayments on the 20+million debt begin next season) but we are rubbish on the field. I would rather we had sustainable debt and a decent team that could at least challenge for the league.

And finally: why would there have been no 9IAR without David Murray? Don't you think 9IAR was down to immense hard work from Souness and Smith as well as all of those players? Do you credit Martin Edwards with Man Utd's dominance of the 1990s or do you credit Alex Ferguson and the players?

[Ace 3,556]

Maybe it's just me ... but in the current climate, do we really want a Prominent Unionist taking over the club & bringing the baggage that will come with that link.

I know that there are many out there that will think that a prominnt Unionist is EXACTLY the kind of guy who should be buying the club, personally i think that it will pander to the unpalitable within our club who, in thier own minds, link us with the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland rather than actually seeing us as a football club first & foremost.

[Ace 3,556]

**Deleted ~ Double Post**

[cupertinoger 0]

How come there would have been no Gazza or Laudrup? It was Rangers' - not David Murray's - money that brought these players to Ibrox and do you believe for a second that great players come to a club because of the chairman?! Did Henry join Arsenal because of Hill-Wood? Gazza and Laudrup joined because of Rangers.

I dont agree, guys like Laudrup would not have signed had it not been for the DM sales pitch, the private jet and Sean Connery treatment, do you also think that PLG decided to come just based on Rangers Football Club, and your example of Thierry Henry is also a poor one, Henry's stock was at its lowest as Juventus tried to play him as a winger, and I am sure it was Wenger who just happens to be French that was the major factor rather than Arsenal as a club being the attraction

[OutsideIn 0]

I dont agree, guys like Laudrup would not have signed had it not been for the DM sales pitch, the private jet and Sean Connery treatment, do you also think that PLG decided to come just based on Rangers Football Club, and your example of Thierry Henry is also a poor one, Henry's stock was at its lowest as Juventus tried to play him as a winger, and I am sure it was Wenger who just happens to be French that was the major factor rather than Arsenal as a club being the attraction

Way to ignore the other points.

So what you're saying is that without David Murray to bring Sean Connery along, we're f***ed when it comes to making decent signings? A top player signs for a football club because some Scottish actor comes along for a chat; are you mental?

If you don't think the lure of Rangers was enough to entice Laudrup and Gazza then you're supporting the wrong club mate.

[granty72 0]

do you thinka consortium is a better idea than one man?

the consortium will also be run from london, i am not sure if this is the best way to go, however a bit of fresh blood wouldnt go amiss.

Hopefully murray takes bain with him if he does sell up.

tom hunter and alstair donald will take over at rangers at the end of the season

[Dillinger 0]

I dont agree, guys like Laudrup would not have signed had it not been for the DM sales pitch, the private jet and Sean Connery treatment, do you also think that PLG decided to come just based on Rangers Football Club, and your example of Thierry Henry is also a poor one, Henry's stock was at its lowest as Juventus tried to play him as a winger, and I am sure it was Wenger who just happens to be French that was the major factor rather than Arsenal as a club being the attraction

Way to ignore the other points.

So what you're saying is that without David Murray to bring Sean Connery along, we're f***ed when it comes to making decent signings? A top player signs for a football club because some Scottish actor comes along for a chat; are you mental?

If you don't think the lure of Rangers was enough to entice Laudrup and Gazza then you're supporting the wrong club mate.

It is money and European football that attracts players and Rangers can't compete with the EPL, end of story. Gazza, Laudrup et al were signed in an entirely different set of circumstances from today's market. The reputation of Rangers had nothing to do with it. In fact our Euro reputation would plummet throughout the 1990's.

Let's face it, a mid-table EPL club can offer more cash than we ever can.

Back in 1986 it wasn't Ranger per se that attracted the big England players, it was European football, the Heysel ban and money. What chance would Rangers have in signing anm England goalie or an England Captain today?

[Stuart_RFC 41]

how much are this mob worth then? compared to SDM

[cupertinoger 0]

I dont agree, guys like Laudrup would not have signed had it not been for the DM sales pitch, the private jet and Sean Connery treatment, do you also think that PLG decided to come just based on Rangers Football Club, and your example of Thierry Henry is also a poor one, Henry's stock was at its lowest as Juventus tried to play him as a winger, and I am sure it was Wenger who just happens to be French that was the major factor rather than Arsenal as a club being the attraction

Way to ignore the other points.

So what you're saying is that without David Murray to bring Sean Connery along, we're f***ed when it comes to making decent signings? A top player signs for a football club because some Scottish actor comes along for a chat; are you mental?

If you don't think the lure of Rangers was enough to entice Laudrup and Gazza then you're supporting the wrong club mate.

Way to ignore my point on PLG, and no I didnt say that.. my point is that I believe DM played a significant part in bringing a lot of the big name players....

[Muff 245]

Wont happen!

[leftyger 0]

Maybe it's just me ... but in the current climate, do we really want a Prominent Unionist taking over the club & bringing the baggage that will come with that link.

I know that there are many out there that will think that a prominnt Unionist is EXACTLY the kind of guy who should be buying the club, personally i think that it will pander to the unpalitable within our club who, in thier own minds, link us with the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland rather than actually seeing us as a football club first & foremost.

Good post. An Ulster Unionist MP is the last person we need leading our club in the 21st centuary

[docspiderman 1,262]

Unlike the EPL and the championship there is no money to be made in the spl so I wouldn't hold my breath for any change of ownership and certainly not any sizeable investment.