Another anti Rangers fairytale by the jackal, how £1 turns into £125m:

[bawsburst 1,381]

Where do you start with this abject rewriting of history, shameless and poor poor hacking by the jackal and his Rangers hating rhag.

KEITH JACKSON follows the money trail at Rangers which reveals the staggering sums of cash that have changed hands at the Gers.

OK, so you’re just back in from the paper shop. First off, congratulations on your purchase, needless to say you’ve made an excellent choice.

Now, turn out your pockets and sift through the shrapnel. Is there a single shiny pound coin in the change?

If so, what do you have planned for it? How far can you make it stretch?

To help out, here’s some research on what you’ll get for your money.

Homer Simpson novelty socks, a pack of chewing gum, a McChicken Sandwich, a three-minute hair colour revitaliser or de-frizz treatment, two second-class stamps, a track from iTunes, a pack of hair-clips, half a dozen morning rolls, two pints of milk or a kilo of sawdust.

Alternatively, you could take it for a punt. Turn it into millions for the price of a pair of Primark knickers. Or, if you don’t fancy the odds of 125,000,000/1 here’s an even better idea.

Buy Rangers Football Club.

There is, of course, an old adage that you don’t make money from investing in football but this ongoing omnishambles at Ibrox bucks that trend quite spectacularly. Just lately, Rangers have been a sure thing.

When Craig Whyte handed over his £1 coin to Sir David Murray on May 6, 2011, (he did hand it over didn’t he?) he was in fact, unlocking a jackpot. He was also opening up a financial scandal.

Ever since, the level of sheer greed around this bloated cash cow of a club has been truly shameful and staggering. Also, it appears to be unrelenting.

Just last week the club announced annual losses in excess of £14m.

This was eye-watering stuff which might just have shaken a massive rump of the Ibrox support to its core.

Yesterday’s protests against the board at Somerset Park suggest many of these fans have now woken up to the fact their club is being milked once again for all of its worth.

So let us strip this story back to its starting point and examine the enormous sums that have come and gone between then and now. All for the price of Whyte’s pound.

There is no precise way of knowing how much Donald Muir, the financial fixer who plucked Whyte from obscurity and delivered him on to Rangers’ doorstep, profited from his seminal role in this debacle.

But given his paymasters at Lloyds wiped out an £18m debt overnight and also freed itself from the spectre of a £50m tax bill, it seems safe to assume Muir’s reward would have been suitably juicy.

It was certainly an extraordinary piece of business. A great deal for Murray and Lloyds, a bargain for Whyte, almost certainly a lucrative pay day for Muir.

But the onset of an unimaginable and unmitigated disaster for Rangers.

And this was only just beginning.

One of Whyte’s closest allies during his takeover was David Grier of Merchant Corporate Recovery. In 2011, shortly after Whyte was in place, MCR was bought over by Duff and Phelps.

Again, it is safe to assume Grier was no worse off as a result of this buy-out. He was also given a leading executive role with Duff and Phelps.

And Grier, having already been paid by Rangers to give Whyte financial advice, was now also about to cash in on the club’s administration. On February 14, 2012, Whyte succeeded in having Duff and Phelps appointed as administrators.

The final bill for their services came to more than £5.5m.

This, of course, was after Whyte had raised £27m from a season ticket deal with Ticketus.

In his nine months as chairman he also stuffed the taxman for around £15m in unpaid PAYE. And the £18m of debt that he bought from Lloyds for a pound?

That disappeared too in June 2012 when Charles Green, the man hand picked from nowhere by Duff and Phelps as the club’s saviour, failed to agree a CVA and liquidated the old company.

Green then picked up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip, which was another astonishing deal given that it was conducted in a closed shop without other offers being invited by the administrators.

OK, so how far has Whyte’s pound stretched by this stage?

Conservatively – and even without that phantom £50m EBT bill – over £70m worth of solid trading has now been accounted for on the back of his initial transaction.

And Green’s big hands haven’t even started rubbing yet.

We know the rest inside out. Two lumps of season ticket cash, fetching a combined total of around £16m. An initial cash injection into the Newco of £12m. In December 2012, an IPO worth a further £22m.

Now admittedly, this is back of a fag packet accounting but even so these figures add up to £50m.

And yet last week the club’s financial director Brian Stockbridge signed off on a set of results and admitted almost all of it had vanished. In fact, a mind-blowing total of around £6m of the IPO cash was emptied out the back-door on ‘fees’ almost as soon as it had come in through the front.

By June of this year, according to Stockbridge, £11m was all that was left in the Rangers’ account.

Green, meanwhile, was buying himself a retirement castle in France (What is it with Rangers? How come everyone ends up in a castle in the end?) after trousering more than £1m in wages, bonuses and pay-offs in less than a year.

In fact, he was sent on his way with a £600,000 goodbye when he should have been sacked for gross

misconduct and told to leave the premises with nothing. Well, nothing more than his £3m worth of shares.

The ever-generous Stockbridge signed off on that one too, having just awarded himself £200,000 for watching Ally McCoist win the Third Division title. The Rangers manager, of course, was also handsomely rewarded, with wages of £825,000 for winning the one title this club never previously had ambitions to win.

And yet McCoist came cheap at half the price.

Were it not for his public validation of Green then a wary Rangers support would not have rushed to stump up for 38,000 season tickets.

And without this phenomenal level of backing, Green’s plans to make a killing on a hurried share issue would also have been up in smoke.

So what is the Ibrox totaliser standing at now? £125m? Maybe a good deal more? All divvied up on the back of a one pound deal. Yes, this Rangers story is a disgusting tale of sickening greed, dragged out over a sustained two-and-a-half year period of obscene scavenging.

All the while the club itself continues to drift towards the rocks for a second time with those at the helm seemingly too busy barricading themselves in to notice the imminent danger.

And, really, who could blame them?

In this shameless orgy they’ve enjoyed quite a bang for their buck and groped a great deal of flesh for a pound.

[Bothwellbear 1,392]

Yeah a load of people are making a shit ton of money out of Rangers. We know this. Some think it is ok. Some don't.

[Blue72 1,179]

So many glaring errors and omissions! Charles couldn't have failed to agree a cva, this was down to hmrc. In addition he couldn't have put rangers into liquidation because he was not the appointed administrator!

[Young Bob 1,360]

"Green then picked up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip, which was another astonishing deal given that it was conducted in a closed shop without other offers being invited by the administrators"

Has Jackson ever commented on this before and if not why not?

He seems to imply that McCoist was complicit in Greens plan and rewarded handsomely. I wonder if Keith will have a follow up article on that particular subject.

[Bad Robot 21,512]

I'm sure the figures aren't adding up right in this article with the ticketus money counted twice.

He is right in the fact we are being used as a cash cow.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

The rebels were incandescent when Mather spoke of back of fag packet calculations

I wonder if they will exhibit the same ire at this lot

[stfu 596]

Don't know where to start with some of the lies in that.

"Green then picked up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip, which was another astonishing deal given that it was conducted in a closed shop without other offers being invited by the administrators."

What utter bolocks. How do these rags get away with printing such obvious lies?

[Albertz 78 918]

Every Monday you can pretty much anticipate the same crap being printed by the rebel/jackass.

This failing rag seems to be on a mission to alienate the Rangers support.

Funny how Jackass a sports writer not an accountant never seems to rant about the "Booming" Premiership and how the entire level of corporate sponsership for the Scottish league stands at an eye watering £1m split between 42 clubs right now?

All Jackass wants to do is stir up more anti-Rangers feeling by just plucking any old figure out of the air and scribbling down on a bit of paper.

[boss 1,941]

What a bombscare of an article - it wouldn't pass muster for a football forum. Numbers double counted, some with no basis, scattergun approach to blame. Wacko Jacko is so far up the rebels' collective backsides I doubt if he'll find his way back out by Christmas.

And that passes for journalism?

[Carson's cat 744]

I think it is a useful article. Hopefully, it will be read by a number of shareholders.

[scarkev 3,540]

What a bombscare of an article - it wouldn't pass muster for a football forum. Numbers double counted, some with no basis, scattergun approach to blame. Wacko Jacko is so far up the rebels' collective backsides I doubt if he'll find his way back out by Christmas.

And that passes for journalism?

What interests me is, should mini et al get their way and scaremonger their way onto the board, would the likes of wako jacko suddenly start printing positive stories about the club? Doubt it! He is happy to print the rebels propaganda now but what happens when the need for propoganda ends.....if it ever will?

[scarkev 3,540]

I think it is a useful article. Hopefully, it will be read by a number of shareholders.

so blinded by agenda it's not real! "Useful article"????

[Ger_onimo 20,488]

Utter nonsense. A McChicken sandwich costs way more than a pound.

[Carson's cat 744]

so blinded by agenda it's not real! "Useful article"????

I support change to the Board. If you consider that to be an 'agenda', so be it, but it's no more of an agenda than wanting to keep the existing Board in place.

[bawsburst 1,381]

I think it is a useful article. Hopefully, it will be read by a number of shareholders.

Thankfully people treat what you think with total derision.

[bigblueyonder 11,158]

What a pile of shite..

[8Ace 49]

Thankfully people treat what you think with total derision.

Why post the article on here in the first place if you can't accept that some people will agree with it? How are the numskulls doing today?

[Arfuf Phuxache 190]

I think it is a useful article. Hopefully, it will be read by a number of shareholders.

If you think Jackanory's article is useful, what with his made up figures and unfounded allegations, I think says as much about you as it does about the tripe he spouts.

[bawsburst 1,381]

Why post the article on here in the first place if you can't accept that some people will agree with it? How are the numskulls doing today?

To show that no depths are too low for you or the rebels fhanboys to stoop to, invention being your favourite tool.

[Carson's cat 744]

If you think Jackanory's article is useful, what with his made up figures and unfounded allegations, I think says as much about you as it does about the tripe he spouts.

What figures has he made up? I deliberately described the article as useful rather than good because I actually think the underlying thread of his argument is rather facile. However, I don't see any glaring factual errors.

[RFC Eagle 4,888]

What figures has he made up? I deliberately described the article as useful rather than good because I actually think the underlying thread of his argument is rather facile. However, I don't see any glaring factual errors.

Well apart from:

1) Duff and Phelps did invite other bids, CG et al stumped up cash for an exclusivity period (others could have done so).

2) Brian Stockbridge didn't 'award himself' a £200K bonus.

3) There was only £4.5 million of 2013/14 season ticket money banked at the point of the accounts.

That's 3 'glaring' errors by this apparent 'journalist'. A more balanced article could have easily raised concern (the board is by no means perfect) without the poor quality of the evidence gathering and presentation. It does seem that there is a concerted campaign to destabilise the club. The motives may vary but it seems they are all working together to achieve this aim..

[legalbeagle 3,734]

It's a rather stupid article. If it's planted then it is just seeking to continue the Whyte / Green links nonsense.

Amusing that everyone is slated for making money except the manager.

We need this nonsense to stop, and anyone helping the press to make a mockery of our club should be ashamed.

[Carson's cat 744]

Well apart from:

1) Duff and Phelps did invite other bids, CG et al stumped up cash for an exclusivity period (others could have done so).

2) Brian Stockbridge didn't 'award himself' a £200K bonus.

3) There was only £4.5 million of 2013/14 season ticket money banked at the point of the accounts.

That's 3 'glaring' errors by this apparent 'journalist'. A more balanced article could have easily raised concern (the board is by no means perfect) without the poor quality of the evidence gathering and presentation. It does seem that there is a concerted campaign to destabilise the club. The motives may vary but it seems they are all working together to achieve this aim..

1. You will find that there are a number of insolvency practitioners who think that new bids for the assets of the oldco should have been invited once the CVA was rejected.

2. Semantics. He was a member of the Board which decided the directors' bonuses.

3. I agree with you that he has over-estimated the season ticket income by £3.5 million.

[eejay the dj 31,964]

I think it is a useful article. Hopefully, it will be read by a number of shareholders.

fuck off .Most shareholders have a brain unlike your shower of sheep

[jjcale27 46]

Agree with most of this article #spivsout