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Mather Interview in The Herald


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Exactly and that is why a few weeks back when D'art posted about not taking "sides" in all this it was the wise choice. Some are blindly following a group or individual because of a certain propaganda whilst others are trying to use fear and intimidation to get their own way. The season ticket uptake part demonstrates that to some degree this has worked. If it transpires that all money has been accounted for, we are in a strong place and we have initiated various money generating developments then where will those who have slated Mather and the board turn then?

Like I have said for months you cant (or at least shouldnt) form an opinion until you have some factual information and hopefully that is now only a few weeks away.

Spot on - maybe someone could work out how much a drop of 172 ST's a day works out at over the duration of a month

Then send the bill to Mini

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IMO that is a very good Q and A. There may be questions which arise from his answers, such as the MH contract ending but that's always going to happen with this sort of thing.

I personally like Craig Mather and can't see what he has done wrong. He is standing firm on the Paul Murray issue as, quite rightly, unless PM brings so,etching to the board then he shouldn't be getting a pay and a blazer.

I like Mather and think he's done a pretty good job under trying circumstances, with the media witch hunt in full flow.

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1. we shouldn't be giving interviews to that rag

2. he appears to not have a backbone

I have serious doubts about you.

Every post you make is negative and anti management. Nothing and no one is right according to you.

There doesn't seem to be a newspaper in Scotland that fans are happy with. So who would you like him to give an interview to, that is mainstream.

I thought the interview was straight to the point and told it how it is.

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I'll get the only negative I have on this out of the way first. I do not like to see that sort of information being released through a newspaper interview. I appreciate that not everyone has access to the internet and am not opposed in principle to newspaper briefings or interviews but........the information provided was so comprehensive that in my view it should have been released to the Rangers website and / or via Rangers TV first. He must appreciate that there is huge scepticism - mistrust and anger even - at the way the media have reported on Rangers so reasons for rewarding them with an interview with this depth of detail are far from clear to me.

I liked what he had to say. This is the first time I have been impressed with the messaging, the details and the way it was put over. Here's hoping for more of the same and an increased quality of transparency and candidness and timing of messages. I hope the EGM can be avoided and that all parties settle down to airing their concerns and resolving their ambitions at an AGM when the financials are on the table along with the Directors' plans for the coming year and beyond. I think he is right that a busisess-savvy big hitter Chairman may not be attracted to the Club until an EGM/AGM is out of the way. But.......if the EGM is ditched and the Board can reach a deal with the Murray / McColl camp before an AGM then a great result would be an AGM where a refreshed Board is voted in and a Chairman unveiled.

At last I see clearer evidence that he and the Board know they need to galvanise themselves to "...... generate revenues, build year on year. " in recognition that finshing 2nd or 3rd is not good enough - it is about winning. And that will take serious money to make that extra difference in winning and in competing well in Europe. The challenge for a Board to generate strong cash surpluses year on year to fuel that ambition is a big challenge so the faster the Club / Board and the requisitioners pull away the quicksands of EGM wrangling and threats of P45s and so on and starts to focus much more clearly on generating additonal revenue streams the better.

A way needs to be found to do the deal that has been in the air since the Ibrox town-hall meeting a few weeks ago. Blin joins the Board. Murray backs off completely from an EGM threat which removes P45 threats to Mather, Stockbridge and Smart which in turn removes the notion of 'sides' and 'winners / losers'. A compromise might be Murray joining as a non-exec director and Walter returning as a non-exec director. Maybe even let Murray chair a remuneration committee that sets the salaries and bonus stucture. Anyhow, it's just a thought - I'm sure they will all be working towards a compromise solution and I hope they get there soon.

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Less concerned about funding as season ticket revenue is not a one-off injection - direct debits will bring money in each month.

MH still leaves a bad taste - tainted with the Greig comment and not even all that effective anyway - no shortage of PR firms out there.

McColl WILL be chairman, not because he will hold the biggest investment, but because he is a credible, successful business voice. Your chairman does not need to be one of your biggest shareholders to be effective.

Overall, Mather's answers were encouraging but I would have liked the Easdales issue to be addressed - I can see nothing but grief while these guys are involved

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i thought that he has given a good open interview on what has and is happening at rangers at present. we know some will make something about who the interview was given to but in my eyes i see the herald as the least of the anti rangers papers at present. mather has come accross as a man who wants to put rangers first and at the moment he has my support.

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Aye, a good positive interview overall. You really just need to decide whether you believe what he has said. May be some irregularities Re Media House and I think he has had enough on his plate to not immediately have picked up on the John Greig email especially as it seems to be from a couple of years ago but he has now and appears to be have someone looking into it.

Everything he said seems feasible and as he said the wheels have been set in motion for the AGM where I'm guessing we will get the answers we are all looking for. As we have going through all this shit for so long now I'm prepared to wait a few more weeks.

I really couldn't care who is on the Board as long as they always put The Glasgow Rangers first, second and third! If by doing that they make money themselves then so be it, they will deserve it.

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A lot of the doom mongrels, twitterati and poisonous bloggers are willing, begging and praying things are bad to push their own agendas

They have nailed their colours firmly to a particular mast and are now unable to even contemplate that they might actually be wrong

There may be some omelettes on some faces come accounts time

Which might be why they want to undermine the club before the accounts are published

Paul Murray's CV clearly impresses no one but the rebels

I said this the other day Swally - they called for Walter's leaving statement to be "clear and unambiguous". It was, as was his strongly worded endorsement of Maher and his ability.

But some seem to think they know better - better than the legend which is Walter who worked alongside Maher and was able to judge his ability and his jib cut, at close quarters.

Suddenly Walter's endorsement of Maher is not good enough for them - they seem to think their judgement of Maher is more accurate than Walter's.

I think they fail to realise how arrogant and stupid this makes them look.

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I said this the other day Swally - they called for Walter's leaving statement to be "clear and unambiguous". It was, as was his strongly worded endorsement of Maher and his ability.

But some seem to think they know better - better than the legend which is Walter who worked alongside Maher and was able to judge his ability and his jib cut, at close quarters.

Suddenly Walter's endorsement of Maher is not good enough for them - they seem to think their judgement of Maher is more accurate than Walter's.

I think they fail to realise how arrogant and stupid this makes them look.

One has to hope this is there last chance saloon and they shut up causing mischief for the Board. No need to name them

as it could get me banned ..........Just a smidgen of good old Glasgow banter :7325:

But they have been noticeable by their absence this week on the BD.

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Mather comes across pretty well in that interview in my opinion. He certainly seems to talk a good game. I can only hope that there is action and ability to support that, but unfortunately that is hard to judge at the moment.

There's been a lot of negativity surrounding our finances, and justifiably so given the information in the public domain, however I sincerely hope that Mather's views of our finances are accurate and that things aren't perhaps as bad as many, myself included, had thought.

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I read the article down to this point.

Charles would never have come back if it wasn't for the egm coming in. There was never a discussion regarding Charles until the egm came in.

Did you have a relationship with Charles pre-dating Rangers?

No, I didn't know any of them.

And then i remembered a previous quote he made.

When he was appointed Director of Sports Development did he not state

.

“I met Charles Green a while ago and we have a few common contacts.

“He put the idea to me and I’ve always been a lover of football.

Yet again, i just don't know what to believe.

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1. we shouldn't be giving interviews to that rag

2. he appears to not have a backbone

Certain parasites in our support won't like this, nor their leader Mini.

Surprise surprise ..... knobjocky 1 and knobjocky 2 think the same , admin please get these two to fuck , its obviously the same person ffs !! Every thread it's the same pish getting spouted !!

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Spin, agendas, gravy and blazers – let's set all that aside for right now and deal in some hard facts.

We know Media House has been contracted by Rangers to do work on behalf of the board. Simple fact, no question. However, in his interview with The Herald that dropped this morning CEO Craig Mather said, "Media House were here anyway. Media House had a contract here that came to an end in August and we renewed that."

Purely a misconception on behalf of the wider support, various media outlets, bloggers being fed info by Media House and Jack Irvine himself. For, if you remember, on 14 August various media outlets had reported that Media House was confirming an end to its contract with Rangers. It was said that the PR firm which had failed us so consistently had ended its relationship dating back to 2006.

Two options:

1) Media House and the board were lying and the contract had a renewal clause that had been activated as Mather said today, none of which had been hinted at in any report prior or acknowledged by the Club.

2) Mather lied in his interview today by saying that Media House had been here the whole time.

In either case, Rangers are now employing two PR firms, one of which, Keith Bishop Associates, appears to be nothing more than a £130,000 per year rider attached to the Sports Direct deal, and the other of which has been an abject and much derided failure in defending the Club, its supporters and its interests during its seven year stay. Not to mention our Communications Director Jim Traynor who was brought in to run the whole show.

All told, we have three separate entities being paid to produce PR work for Rangers at the moment. We should be seeing a release (or a BBC exclusive) at the top and bottom of every hour at that rate.

Next fact: Mather in his interview says, "We bought Edmiston House for £1m, we bought Albion car park for £1.6m..."

Let's revisit out old friend Imran. You know, our ex commercial director who reportedly plans to sue the Club for £3.5m just to sink it back in out of "principle."

Imran in his <a href="http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/imran-the-deals/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(209, 35, 42); font-family: 'Droid Serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" target="_blank">figures given to Bill McMurdo stated that Edmiston House was purchased for £1.5m and further claims that when developed it will generate fully £2m per year in revenues for the Club.

So is it £1.5m as the ex commercial director and man behind the dream team on the board claims or is it £1m as our current CEO who decided to re-hire/re-new the contract of Imran's PR team claims? And in either case, who gets the five percent kicker?

To the Albion, Imran in the same blog from McMurdo claimed categorically that he "saved the club £3.5m over 10 years as lease was an astronomical 350k per year."

As pointed out by many prior, why not claim a savings of £35m over 100 years if we're working in such terms, even though Imran's claims in his intended suit are based solely on realized "cash profit" for the Club.

So we have another pair of points here:

1) If the figure stated by Mather is correct, Imran's claim is garbage as he would have saved the club merely £1.9m over ten years (or £33.4m over 100).

2) If Imran's figures aren't correct, and remember he's openly planning to sue Rangers (just to put the money back in), why have none of our three PR arms refuted this ridiculous and well reported claim? Media House is there "to defend Rangers Football Club" according to head honcho Jack Irvine. Surely spurious claims from former commercial directors would be in their sights, no?

Back to Mather, who touts further savings as "We have brought security back in house."

"In house" is a relative term, is it not? For the "in house" security firm is a separate entity, Garrison Security Services Ltd, featuring Charles Green and Brian Stockbridge as its sole directors. Now of course we have to wait for those audited accounts to see just what the savings are and what the outlays to this firm have been. In either case, calling it "in house" when it's a separate entity overseen by a current Club director and our ex CEO is perhaps a bit misleading. Or is it in fact "in house" and Charles still has a say on operations?

On to the return of Big Chuck, where Mather says, "I looked at the views of our fans and reacted quickly and decisively to address that."

This was decisively addressed by first bringing him back over a weekend, days later sitting in front of assembled fans and saying that the position of a consultant, presumably answerable to the CEO himself, would be considered within the week, then delaying this meeting until the week following the stated deadline, upon which Charles resigned. Decisive action indeed.

On the John Greig email from the Whyte era: "I do not know anything about that but I have asked people to go digging on that and come back with a mini-report so I can judge that accordingly."

Here's a link to the email. In fact, here's the direct quote about the man you yourself call a "legend" (we didn't need reminding): "Greig is just thick and contributes nothing."

The man who got you this interview (allegedly) in The Herald today wrote that two years ago. The man whose company you either variably ceased doing business with or continued to do business with despite their saying that the contract with Rangers had expired. The company that failed us with UEFA, the Scottish media at large, shilled for Craig Whyte and now represents you (or has the whole time). So hopefully you now have enough information to comment further.

Asked, "What about spending £80,000 on an egm while paying Media House to defend you too?" the response again presented the same Media House Complex™ that seems to be an issue here: "Media House already had a contract. This is a renewal."

Renewal or expired and re-hired, either way it was a choice to retain Media House's services when we already pay for one do-nothing PR firm and our own Director of Commutations. How one turns the cost savings of an egm into "It's okay for us to pay for three wholly separate PR outlets" is a bit strange. But hey, we're still rolling in the money right?

Which brings me to a final point, and one with Mather did not address. How is it leaked December accounts (might want to pin down who's running the Xerox, by the way), the ones which I presume are at least in part the basis of the "everything's okay" argument Mather put forward in this interview, show a projected net gain of over £7m for the commercial operations of Rangers? And need I remind who was in charge of those operations at the time? How, if that is viewed as a reasonable outlook of the finances, and given the figures Brian Stockbridge presented to us in an exclusive interview not long ago, can we believe that there is nothing to worry about?

Mather went well out of his way to talk up revenue streams but failed to once mention or even hint at what the outgoings were. Was he unaware that a document was floating around Twitter showing anyone who cared to read just what was going on with the money? Should his new/old PR team not have briefed him on this prior to the interview?

In the end, there were a lot of "facts" that were woefully unrepresented in today's first effort by Media House to show us why it's all okay and that they've got it all under control. They were here all along, mind. Except for when they said they weren't.

So let's wait for the next "it's all okay so long as you ignore the small details" exclusive. Or maybe a tweet or two from the well regarded (at least in some PR circles) BBC journalist Chris McLaughlin.

Maybe by then they'll have their facts straight

Taken from The CRO it's a good article imo but will probably create more division at a time when as a support when we really should be united

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This must put some worries to rest, I have always felt that we should wait for the accounts.

Surprised that anybody would want to turn this into a negative, Mathers has always come across well, I am finding it difficult to reconcile Jim McColls statement that he does not want to be involved in the running of the Club with a Motion to remove half the board.

The collapse in the uptake of season tickets is a negative though, why have we had all this shit now, could these lame brains not figure out this would happen, From Mr Greens reiteration of HIS claim that this is the worst Rangers team ever, that was not needed and the defense of it by some on here was lame. To the call for an EGM and Mr McColls claim we were heading for administration again.

Sometime you get the feeling we do not need enemies.

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Exactly and that is why a few weeks back when D'art posted about not taking "sides" in all this it was the wise choice. Some are blindly following a group or individual because of a certain propaganda whilst others are trying to use fear and intimidation to get their own way. The season ticket uptake part demonstrates that to some degree this has worked. If it transpires that all money has been accounted for, we are in a strong place and we have initiated various money generating developments then where will those who have slated Mather and the board turn then?

Like I have said for months you cant (or at least shouldnt) form an opinion until you have some factual information and hopefully that is now only a few weeks away.

Although the facts we do have are that someone is lying to us reagrding Media House.

Craig Mather was poorly prepared for this interview in my opinion and has raised more questions than answers.

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This interview has just re-inforced my view that Mather is being unfairly targeted. If his breakdown of the financials is fairly accurate then we can all rest slightly easier(just as long as the accounts reflect this also). Why are some people still failing to see that we had alot of one off costs last year and that is why we went through alot more cash than we will this year? It would certainly seem on the face of things that the club is being run alot more prudently and, all avenues of cost cutting are beig explored.

I was also pleased to hear about discussions regarding development of youth and scouting, FanZone(albeit tentative) and also a vision for Edmiston House, whether we need a casino though, im not so sure.

Another positive is the willingness to look at a membership scheme. There have been several threads on this and overall i think it would be backed wholeheartedly by us if the club run it properly and set out a clear proposal as to how the money would be utilised.

I think we just have to hope that all can be resolved sensibly at the AGM, i think Blin being appointed would be of great benefit as he could quite clearly 'bring something to the table' and things can all settle down and the boards vision can be put into action.

I do hope that we keep Mather, both Ally and Walter have put their name behind him and that is as good an endorsement as you can get at the club in my book and certainly McColl, based on his letter to Mather, does not seem as cold toward him as the media has portrayed.

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Less concerned about funding as season ticket revenue is not a one-off injection - direct debits will bring money in each month.

MH still leaves a bad taste - tainted with the Greig comment and not even all that effective anyway - no shortage of PR firms out there.

McColl WILL be chairman, not because he will hold the biggest investment, but because he is a credible, successful business voice. Your chairman does not need to be one of your biggest shareholders to be effective.

Overall, Mather's answers were encouraging but I would have liked the Easdales issue to be addressed - I can see nothing but grief while these guys are involved

Despite his repeated statements and pledges to his own shareholders that he will not spend ANY time on any business other than his current interests?

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