Lee Wallace

[Bothwellbear 1,392]

Gordon Waddell : Selling Lee Wallace could be the only option for Rangers

GORDON believes that Wallace is the only real saleable asset in the squad and ponders whether Ally McCoist has been trying to build a massive lead at the top of the table in case of Admin II. 19 Jan 2014 09:19

Lee Wallace is most valuable asset in the Rangers squad

Alan Harvey/SNS Group

THERE'S a lot of talk right now about what they’re not prepared to do at Rangers.

The players aren’t prepared to take a wage cut.

The manager’s not prepared to be party to a fire sale of his squad.

The fans aren’t prepared to give their season ticket dough to a regime they don’t trust.

In their own way, they’re all absolutely right.

The players signed contracts in good faith. The manager’s agreed a 50 per cent cut and his wage bill is down to 30 per cent of turnover, a totally sound ratio.

The supporters have had successive regimes pee on their shoes then tell them it’s raining.

Why trust anyone?

They do realise, though, that at some point someone is going to have to do something?

Because those behind the scenes? You think they’re going to be persuaded to take their snouts out of the trough?

Graham Wallace isn’t looking at the household budget and deciding they must pull the belt in a notch for a couple of months. Buy value pack instead of Hovis and Lurpak for their bread and butter.

He’s looking at a business run so badly by his predecessors that it could have been doled out as a Primary Seven project to the local schools and it would have come back in better shape.

And each day that everyone refuses to do anything, they lose another 30 grand. That can only end one way. How he can guarantee it won’t is beyond me when he’s trying to do a three-point turn with the QEII in a bathtub.

At some point something’s going to have to give – and if it’s not the sale of Lee Wallace, you get the feeling the other Wallace could get to the end of his 120-day review and say “Y’know what, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

Lee Wallace is their only option. And that’s a sad reflection of the wastefulness of the past two years. The rest of the squad is worth bupkis.

Okay, you’d maybe get a few quid for Cammy Bell. Likewise Lewis Macleod if he was fit enough to go in January. But all the others who’ve been brought in on five, six, seven grand a week?

Once just being a Rangers player would have given you a market value. Or being there would have made you a better player to a point where you’d attract interest.

But honestly, who would come in and actually pay anything for Dean Shiels, Ian Black or David Templeton right now?

They haven’t improved. They’ve gone backwards. They’re not assets at any point outside of the minutes they play for the team, only a drain on resources.

And even if you agreed to give them away just to get them off the wage bill, there’s not another club who would pay them what Rangers are giving them.

So they’ll stay exactly where they are. Won’t they, Mr Cribari?

They know what side their bread’s buttered on – and Graham Wallace knows they’ll settle for nothing less than Lurpak.

But as we’ve already pointed out, the players’ wage bill in itself isn’t a problem. The fact the rest of the wage bill outstrips it is.

As is the fact that it’s another four, maybe even five months before the season ticket cash starts coming in. IF it comes in.

The outgoings are there every month but the income isn’t. The walk-ups on a Saturday simply won’t cover it.

Yes, something significant has to give. And if it isn’t the sale of Wallace, what else is there?

Meantime, the share price falls with the penny-a-share fly-by-nights taking what profit they can while it’s still there.

The irony is that if the fans were organised, they could be taking advantage of a share price that’s come down from a high of 88p to 27p in less than a year.

The supporters could be seriously beefing up their stake instead of letting other institutions and hedge funds plunder them.

Then again, as I said a few weeks ago, they already wield enough power with their threat of a season ticket abstention to put the club back under as it is.

And it’s hard not to be cynical after two years of this – but there’s a bit of you that wonders whether the club might just force an administration again themselves.

That would be one way to shed a cost base they can’t get rid of by any other means, wouldn’t it?

It’s too ludicrous to contemplate though, right? Too many unknown risks attached to it.

Meanwhile the only ‘known’ is they’ll be docked 25 points.

But do it now and they’d still be second, guaranteed a play-off spot at worst.

And they would have 16 games to rein in a single-figure gap on a Dunfermline team they’ve still to play twice with a squad which, even cut in half, would still be multiple times bigger than their rivals.

Ally McCoist was asked about the scenario. Asked if they were in a hurry to get their lead up.

And he laughed.

Not the derisory laugh of someone who thought the idea was absurd. It was the nervous laugh of a man who knew it should SOUND ridiculous, but actually …

***

It’s hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for Ayr’s Michael Moffat.

With his six-game ban for betting on his own team, he’s paying the price for what was a lily-livered verdict on Ian Black’s indiscretions.

But that’s as far as it goes. For all the people talking about the rules needing clarified, they couldn’t be any clearer.

No betting by anyone within senior football on football. Period.

Whether they’re right or not is a different argument.

***

Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a real whiff about Hearts’ decision to let assistant boss Billy Brown go at this stage of the season.

Who or what was behind it?

And despite their clear need to save money, it’s impossible to believe that’s all it was about.

***

The doc at the Australian Open defended their decision to play on in 42 degree heat by claiming: “We evolved on the high plains of Africa chasing antelope for eight hours under these conditions.”

What about the pasty kids who evolved on the high street of Dunblane?

The Murray brothers were far more likely to be sent out for anti-freeze than antelope.

Like too many other sports, money comes first – and it’ll take a fatality or a near-miss to get chiefs to put safety first.

***

It was a brave decision by Dundee United gaffer Jackie McNamara to ship John Souttar and Ryan Gauld off to Spain for a few days and out of the firing line – but the right one.

There aren’t many managers selfless enough to put the welfare of young players first – and their own crushing need for results second.

[Getstiffed 8,863]

[wully 47,321]

Being honest i never cared when we signed Lee, didn't rate him (said the same about Aluko and Bocenegra, Ally's decent signings.)

Proper upset though if he was sold after the loyalty showed by him.

[wully 47,321]

shitey double post.

[RFC55 108,801]

A lot of that rings true. Bell, Macleod, lee Wallace and law are about our only sellable assets player wise, possibly templeton.

We are a mess, how big of a mess well I'm no sure but I'm still nervous about all of this.

We've brought in players from the top league on money no other club other than the club who like waens could afford. Daly, jig, cribiari, foster and smith. If we got rid of them and the deals they are on I'm pretty sure it would come down, but the "other" wage bill is a concern throughout the club. The directors were on too much (don't know what the new ones are on so can't comment) we have a lot of staff thorughout the club as well).

I dunno if ed house or the Albion car park could be sold again but as I said the other day for what we've done to ed house we'd have been as well buying a crater on the moon.

I wonder if another share issue is the last option but then would folk snap it up? It will be a hard sell for Wallace to convince folk we won't need to keep doing this every so often just to keep our heads above water

[Bad Robot 21,148]

I stopped reading this pish after a few lines.

[elephants stoned 2,994]

Yeah we have been trying to win every game just incase of admin what a muppet the "journo" is, another shitstirring article with outlandish ideas that have no place in the minds of anybody who understands football.

[Malvern 11,329]

Yep stopped reading too, nothing unusual in the basic scare mongering there.

[RFC55 108,801]

Yep stopped reading too, nothing unusual in the basic scare mongering there.

I suppose it's all good in the hood and everyone is at it.

If none if you are in the least bit concerned then you'll need to give me so,e of your confidence

[North Rd 2,860]

Lee Wallace is going nowhere according to his agent.....

[The Monk 3,207]

Only option fuck off

In all honesty I'd be devastated if we lost Wallace, would rather lose 8 players than him. Not only do I love the guy but he's the only player we have currently who is better than anyone else in Scotland at LB and in the future could be huge for us winning the league

[RFC55 108,801]

Lee Wallace is going nowhere according to his agent.....

Let's hope not.

The rest of the problems ain't going anywhere fast either

[ForeverBlue_Since91 2,895]

One thing he is right about though is who would buy players like Cribiri foster and smith?

This is one of the reasons why no one was happy about these sigings. As most people knew from the start it was going to end up like this.

[PaulReid 184]

Lee Wallace is about the only player truly enjoy watching play. The only player with any consistencey and I believe will go to the top at some point.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

I'm a bit concerned about the heat at the Australia open myself but the rest was a heap Of nonsense

[allgers 735]

How many more articles are we going to see that tells us, the Ibrox faithful, we are unsure about buying season tickets, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the aim of these articles apart from filling column space.

[Right_To_Censor 1,951]

I suppose it's all good in the hood and everyone is at it.

If none if you are in the least bit concerned then you'll need to give me so,e of your confidence

it's a case of burying your head in the sand mentality rangers fans seem to have when situations like this occur, we have no money "its the taig media scare tactics" we might face admin 2 "what a load of shite from the taigs" "nothing to see here". what happened the last time something like that happened? oh yead we went into administration.

[nachothelegend 1,932]

No it Fucking is not.

Lee Wallace is going nowhere And there are Players on the fringe and out of contract who should be moved on first.

Fuck off with this pish it's his opinion and not ours so lets stop this shit at source.

[Davey_RFC 122]

Yeah we're just trying to win games in case we go into admin again FFS ::

[nachothelegend 1,932]

Let's hope not.

The rest of the problems ain't going anywhere fast either

I've told you guys this all along.

Believe me he isn't I live across the Road from him and the big Man has a family and his missus a new business and he is absolutely settled here.

He is going to the Top with us that's a fact guys.

[Malvern 11,329]

it's a case of burying your head in the sand mentality rangers fans seem to have when situations like this occur, we have no money "its the taig media scare tactics" we might face admin 2 "what a load of shite from the taigs" "nothing to see here". what happened the last time something like that happened? oh yead we went into administration.

Last time we did not have investors or a board made up of educated people, still we could go down the route of panic I suppose, I am sure PM and MM will sort it all out and buy the club should we get to that stage again. I am confident they may find some money this time, honest.....

[50ShadesofBlue 667]

They want us to sell Lee Wallace so we're weaker. That's all.

[Bad Robot 21,148]

They want us to sell Lee Wallace so we're weaker. That's all.

The scummy papers were trying to sell him before the news of the 15% came out. So called sports reporter writes shite. Nothing new here.

[Ger77 742]

Gordon Waddell is a shit-stirring waste of space who makes a living out of peddling pish about Rangers to avoid criticising his own shitty little team (such as Falkirk fans mocking a dead Dunfermline player).

He is simply muck-racking however I personally think Wallace is one of our best players but will not improve further until he is playing against better quality players each week, whether that is in the top division here with us, or down South.

I would be happy for any player to leave if it was proven to be beneficial to Rangers and the player. The on-going sustainability of the club must be of paramount importance.

[paisleyroad 894]

the media are desperate for us to sell Wallace