ANDREW CAVENAGH, RANGERS: CRAIG WHYTE 2.0 IN THE MAKING?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
“He’s the real deal!”, “His wealth and business acumen will put Rangers on a new level!” He’s a shrewd operator and a brilliant businessman!”
All of these platitudes and various iterations thereof have been plastered across the Scottish media for months in reference to Andrew Cavenagh, Rangers new chairman, amid his consortium’s takeover of the young club.
However, those of us of a certain age (at least ten years or so older than Rangers), will remember almost identical superlatives being thrown around back in 2011, as the man, the myth, the legend Craig Whyte was preparing his own Rangers takeover.
And we all know how that ended.
Amidst a Total Lack of Media Scrutiny, The Similarities Between Craig Whyte and Andrew Cavenagh’s Takeover of Rangers Become Clearer by the Day
Now, I should at this point, for legal reasons, emphasize something. I am not saying that Cavenagh or any of his cohorts are planning to commit any illegal act of fraud or deception. But then again, Craig Whyte didn’t commit any such offences either.
It is a matter of public record that our hero was found not guilty, of all charges relating to his Rangers takeover, by a jury trial in 2017.
However, Whyte and Cavenagh share a common interest. If we’re absolutely honest, their reasons for getting involved at the Stadium that John Brown played for are identical. They both share a love of accumulating what my US friends like to call “dead presidents”.
Money is their motivation, not any love or respect for the team or the brand that was Rangers.
Additionally, it’s already clear that, just as Craig Whyte before him, Cavenagh’s level of personal wealth, and the amount of which he is willing to put into Rangers has been massively exaggerated by the press.
How can two people like them end up owning the second biggest football team in Glasgow, and yet, to this very day, no one in the mainstream press has any idea of their actual net worth?
On the subject of the press. Isn’t it just a little bit of a strange coincidence that both Whyte and Cavenagh chose the same publication and even the same journalist, to be their cheerleader-in-chief.
It was The Daily Record and Keith Jackson who championed Craig Whyte as the savior riding in on a white horse (no not that one!) to save Rangers.
I think we’re all still waiting for the “I was wrong” article on that one.
Fast forward to February this year, and it’s Jackson and the Record who once again, rather conveniently, land the “world exclusive” on this new takeover and its Kingpin, Andrew Cavenagh.
It’s almost as if Cavenagh knew which publication and even which specific journalist to approach to get the best PR and the least amount of scrutiny.
Because, the reality is, as much as Jackson would love to claim otherwise, he only got that story because Cavenagh allowed him to; because Cavenagh believed Jackson would prove useful.
Andrew Cavenagh is many things, but stupid is not one of them, and much like Criag Whyte before him, up to now, he has played The Daily Record and their sports desk’s Excrement-in-Chief like a fiddle.
Let’s talk a bit about financing and corporate structure. Again, following the Craig Whyte playbook, Cavenagh has managed to acquire control of Rangers and take the company private with very little of his own money.
Much has been made of the 20 million cash injection, a cash sum derived from a share issue.
That’s not quite on the same level of sheer brazenness as mortgaging future season ticket revenue to finance your own takeover, but it’s employing a similar level of financial stealth and cunning.
So, we have two men whose main ambition is to expand their wealth and who saw Rangers as a way to do so, with minimal personal outlay from themselves, and no personal attachment to the club.
We have two men who approached the same newspaper and the same reporter to break the initial story, knowing that the narrative they wanted put out into the public would be released, as and when they wanted, with next to no critical coverage.
We have two men who have employed a series of smart, and as far as I am aware, totally legal, financial means to mask their true wealth and conceal how much money they have personally had to cough up to acquire their own version of Rangers.
They both enjoyed initial acceptance from a desperate fanbase. A fanbase that has aggressively gone after anyone who challenges the notion that their man is anything other than the ultimate Rangers man. That happened in 2011 and it’s happening again now.
This may all just be a series of coincidences. Maybe Cavenagh truly does love the Rangers. Maybe he’s at home polishing his brown brogues as we speak. Surely, this couldn’t be the makings of another Craig Whyte?
It’s a lot of coincidences though, isn’t it?
