Have you seen the latest proposals involving the Ibrox club’s redevelopment plans around the ground?
These bear a striking resemblance to those which Celtic posted for consideration, and got planning permission for, some years back. We never got them off the ground, and to be honest I don’t know why we bothered to put them forward in the first place.
Ibrox has an expedited timeframe for theirs; they are claiming this “150 anniversary” nonsense next year and they want all this stuff ready for that.
But as we found out, planning for it and actually building it are two separate things.
Aside from trying to keep a team going when they are already relying on director’s loans to survive, where is the cash coming from to complete all these infrastructure projects?
Regular readers will be aware that I have no fears about a Champions League run over there fixing everything for them as if by magic; the club there will spend every penny it earns without worrying about the future, and this is yet another example of them doing just that. Only this time, it’s even crazier because their club is spending money it doesn’t have yet.
Before this season began, they bet everything on winning the title, and that paid off for them because they did.
But the gambler instinct over there is strong, and they are reckless with it.
Ibrox has always attracted these lunatic wire-walker types and it always will, especially as those are the only types of people who would willingly climb into bed with such a club.
It’s clear that they are readying themselves to make an even bigger bet; to bet everything on getting to the Champions League Groups this season and to win the title again and guarantee a place next time around.
The reward is enormous. So are the risks.
Nobody at Ibrox cares all that much about risk, it seems to me.
But if they put these plans in motion and commit to spending the money on them and something goes wrong – and next season will not even resemble the present one – they are going to have significant problems because if they don’t have that Champions League money, how do they intend to pay for everything?
In case you have missed it, Gerrard is not talking about selling key players.
He’s talking about adding to the squad.
He wants Kent on a new deal to prevent a sale.
He wants to give Defoe a new contract although he’s only a bit-part player.
He’s already put a few of his players on improved terms … this guy has the board over there right where he wants them.
But as much as we all might crave nice things, you can never have it all. You can never have all the nice things that you want. Something has to give, and he doesn’t know that because nobody at Ibrox has told him to stop yet.
More than £30 million has been spent.
Nearly 40 players have been signed.
They have sold one footballer for a fee higher than £2 million … and it wasn’t much higher.
He has bought three full teams and he wants to spend this summer building a fourth.
Nobody has pulled that guy aside and shared reality with him, and nobody will. Because reality is a fluid concept over there, and so they will remain locked on a perilous course.
And you know what? If they qualify for the Champions League Groups that’s the first part of the gamble paid off.
If our club doesn’t get its act together they might just secure the second part of it as well.
We are certainly not behaving like a club which takes that threat seriously, and so that’s a concern and it will remain a concern until we get it together.
Yet Ibrox’s risk is no less great because of that.
It depends, in part, on us remaining a mess and I wouldn’t be confident in their shoes that we will do that.
It depends on their having as good a league season next time around and there is no way you can depend on that, not when Gerrard’s record before this campaign was patchy at best.
They love to walk the wire over there; say whatever you like about them, but they leave it all out on the field.
But that’s a dangerous place to put all your chips.
It only takes one bad night or a series of them to turn out your lights.