RANGERS TAKEOVER: FINALLY AN ADMISSION THAT DEAL IS COLLAPSING
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
I wondered when someone in the mainstream media would finally have the courage to say what we’ve all been saying for weeks on here.
That being: The Rangers Takeover is collapsing.
Yet as I carried out my morning scan of all the daily tabloid news papers (so that you, dear readers, don’t have to) it was the historical fascist-enablers at The Daily Mail, of all papers, that finally seems to have gotten the memo.
Daily Mail Finally Says Out Loud: The Rangers Takeover is in Trouble
Many in the Celtic fan media sphere have already dubbed the long and drawn-out saga a “Fakeover”.
I’m not quite sure if I agree with that, as I do believe there was, at least at some point, some genuine interest from Andrew Cavenagh and his fellow American investors in acquiring control of Rangers.
The whole San Francisco 49ers element of the story was a complete delusional fantasy from day one, but then I’m sure you already knew that.
Anyway, here’s what the Daily Mail had to say.
The American investors are “having trouble” securing the required 51% stake in Rangers that is needed to make their investment worthwhile.
Basically, Rangers have had so many share issues, and diluted the value of their own shares to such an extent, that the sheer number of individual investors that need to be onside with selling up to acquire 51% of the undead club is hard to fathom.
Again, this is all part of normal “due diligence” processes when you’re dealing with business acquisitions.
This was the part that Keith Jackson and the Daily Record conveniently skipped over while they were too busy getting drunk on their own sense of self-accomplishment.
Note that I said acquisition rather than takeover, because that’s what this is.
It’s an American vulture capitalist looking to pick up a distressed business for pennies in the hope he can somehow return it to profit before handing it off to someone even more gullible.
The Daily Mail article singles out Sandy Easdale, as a potential deal-breaker. However, Easdale only holds a combined 2.25% of Rangers shares.
The fact that this small holding equates to 10 million individual shares tells you all you need to know about the value of such shares.
Indeed, it seems my previous assertion that a trip to the lavvies at Glasgow Queen Street Station may be a better investment of your hard earned 50p now appears validated.
The Daily Mail’s public naming of Easdale, a figure long detested by fellow Rangers shareholders Dave King and Douglas Parks, is quite a cynical ploy to try and essentially bully the businessman into doing what the other major shareholders at Snake Mountain want.
However, unlike most Daily Mail readers, Easdale isn’t the type to just fall in line and do as he’s told.
The biggest issue scuppering the Rangers takeover here is that the usual emotion-based shenanigans won’t work this time.
The Rangers board aren’t dealing with “Rangers men” here. They have no interest in brown brogues and staunchness.
As Michael Corleone would say: “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”
My biggest takeaway from the Daily Mail article is the following line:
“No formal agreement has yet been reached and one source indicated to Mail Sport that the Americans could walk away if progress isn’t made sooner rather than later.”
As anyone who has ever conquered addiction issues will tell you, the first step to overcoming your problem is to admit that you have one.
Until now, it seems much of the Scottish the mainstream media has been hopelessly hooked on Rangers Takeover hype, without actually doing any of their own due diligence.
As the first mainstream media outlet to admit to the problem that we have always known was there, The Daily Mail has taken that step.
Getting fanatics like the Daily Record and The S*n to accept it is an entirely different prospect altogether.
