One of the Ibrox directors is in the papers today talking about what a great place the club is in and pushing some highly dubious claims. There are really two of them that I want to talk about in this piece, and they are the ones the press is highlighting.
Neither is remotely credible, but we’re all meant to believe that he’s outlining their future here.
The first claim is that the club could be breaking even in 18 months.
Well, it’s only been up and running for ten years and they’ve made losses in every one of them, including the eight figure loss that they posted for the season before last, the season that was cut only partly short by the global health crisis.
The figures for last season will be off the scale nuts.
They might get to the Champions League Groups. Twice.
And that might let them post profits for the first time, although I wonder if their manager is going to allow them to as he’s already clamouring for more, more, more money. But this doesn’t equal “breaking even.”
The thing you need to focus on here is that in the past three years they have not failed to make the Europa League Groups, and even with that cushion they have lost money time after time. Champions League qualification is not a lock by any manner of means; if they are relying on that to “break even” they are going to lose money more years than not.
There’s also the distinct possibility that their club will just keep on upping the ante, increasing the wage bill as the previous Ibrox club did, and that this will prove to be catastrophic in any season where the European football isn’t there.
Breaking even is about coming out ahead when the worst happens.
They can’t even break even with an extended Europa League run, and the truth is that their fans are now so used to living beyond what they can afford that they couldn’t stop even if they wanted to.
Only another full-scale crisis at Ibrox is going to slap them into sanity.
The second great idea they are floating today is increasing the capacity of Ibrox; it’s a fantasy and one every board in the last 25 years has pushed at one time or another.
It’s a vanity proposal, based on their arrogance and their inability to tolerate Celtic Park having more seats. Those ten thousands seats are worth more money, yes, but that’s not what drives the idea.
It’s barmy anyway.
They’ve done feasibility studies into this over and over again and they know that it’s a massively expensive undertaking, and it’s not something they can even consider at the current time, which is why they’ve not even bothered to put a timetable on it … it’s a vague “maybe one day somewhere down the line” thing.
But the press loves it because it all ties into the idea that this is a club on the rise; it must be great to be able to get positive spin for every nutty idea, no matter how unrealistic.
No-one ever asks how major infrastructure projects are being paid for or who’s writing the cheques … trust me on this, nothing over there is what it seems to be.
All involved at Ibrox are enjoying themselves right now, all but the last week and the scrutiny on their fans.
But serious questions are still being dodged over there, and major structural issues remain.
Today is for the Gullibilly’s only.
The rest of us aren’t buying any of it.