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Genius Jackson lays out his plan for Ibrox. And it sounds very familiar …

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Image for Genius Jackson lays out his plan for Ibrox. And it sounds very familiar …

I don’t listen to the Daily Record podcast—why on earth would I? It’s hard enough having to read Keith Jackson, but listening to him would make my ears bleed.

Yet, now and then, I’m pointed toward what they’re discussing, and yesterday was no exception. The suggestion came that I check out their latest episode, as Jackson had some “interesting” things to say about our favourite word—investment.

Boy, oh boy, investment is a tricky word for the media here, isn’t it? After all this time, they still don’t grasp what it means or use it properly. And, once again, they’re talking about it in relation to the club across the city. As usual, Jackson is sharing his vast intellect, broad knowledge, and imagination, and the results are just as embarrassing and hilarious as you’d expect.

“They need outside investment,” he said. “They don’t need to be run by committee.” What does he even mean by that? A dictatorship would solve their problems? How exactly would that make things better? He followed up by saying they need fresh money from fresh investors, not the same old faces with the same old ideas.

This is where I had to laugh. When Jackson talks about investment, what he really means is a sugar daddy swooping in to throw cash at the problem. He might claim to want new faces, but the ideas are as old as they come. This is the only play they’ve ever had.

Isn’t it incredible how they’ve never outgrown this mindset?

It’s literally what killed Rangers. The belief that someone should come along, spend money they don’t have, and fund the dreams of the fans. But eventually, that money dries up, and, worse, it has to be paid back. This is when clubs get into real trouble.

We’ve all wondered how long Ibrox can stay in this state, how one club can continuously spiral from crisis to crisis. And this is the reason. This is the answer to the riddle.

There’s a quote, often misattributed to Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” He never said that, and it’s not even accurate. But you get why people repeat it when they look across the city and see these people living that concept out loud.

They really do repeat the same mistakes over and over. But remember where it comes from: nearly 30 years of behaviour. Three decades of operating under the belief that someone else will foot the bill. Many Ibrox fans, especially younger ones, have never known anything different. They grew up on tales of their club buying top players, not recognising that those days are long gone and were unsustainable even at their height.

Even the older generation clings to this distorted version of the past, unable to accept that it wasn’t real or sustainable. They’re stuck, unable to live in the present. They look back with rose-tinted glasses, or they project into the future, waiting for some miracle investor who’ll rescue them. It’s fantasy.

But this mindset isn’t going anywhere easily. When you’ve been fed the same story for 30 years, rejecting it requires a serious reckoning. It’s tough to break away from an article of faith that’s been drilled into you for so long.

That’s why their future is full of pain. If they think the present is hard, wait until they face what’s coming. The idea of investment is a pipe dream. The notion of a billionaire swooping in to buy the club and turn it around is sheer delusion.

Their reality, as I’ve said in a previous piece, is that Celtic’s domestic superiority is critical. The changes coming to the Champions League and the collapse of Scotland’s coefficient mean qualifying for the group stages will become harder in the next five or six years. However, Celtic must have the opportunity to do so, and every year we make it, the gap between us and the Ibrox club will be measured in tens of millions of pounds. The structural deficit will be enormous, affecting everything from what we can spend to what they can spend.

Ten years from now, one of these clubs will look radically different, and my money’s on it being theirs, caught in an endless spiral of downsizing.

The problem is that they’re not ready to face this reality. The next year or two will likely see them retreat even further into the past, projecting into the future with hopes of some magical investment that’ll solve everything.

Even if that money did come, it wouldn’t save them. They’d blow through it, just like they always have, and end up right where they are now. Because the other addiction they have is to the quick fix, the easy answer. Spending money is the only solution they know, but it’s also what’s ruined them time and time again.

Jackson and his colleagues aren’t doing them any favours by spouting this nonsense. He can talk all he wants about fresh faces and fresh ideas, but what’s really at the heart of it is fresh investment—someone else’s money.

That’s not new thinking; that’s the same old thinking that got them into this mess in the first place. And it’s the same old thinking that will cast a long shadow over their future.

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11 comments

  • John mcghee says:

    jackson is the tit of page 3 in his scumhun paper the RATS daily hun record who will die just like oldco cheats at liebrox..

  • John McKay says:

    This piece reminded me of the £20m loan they took from Joe Lewis. The same loan that Celtic rejected. Since then they’ve used a lot of paper to cover the cracks.

  • Tom says:

    Quite simple
    Billionaire give millions to therangers
    They give him scraps of papers with ranjurz sharez wrote on them.

  • SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS says:

    No sane investor is going to touch Ibrox with a barge pole.
    Venture Capitalists would balk at the prospect and even the most unprincipled among them would think twice about it.

    If anyone did decide to go ahead it would literally be a death sentence for the Tribute Act.
    They would use their Investors money to acquire an at arms length controlling interest.
    Put their own Board in place. ( bean counters in charge of foootball matters, sounds familiar.)

    Write up their investment on the Books as a debt due by the Club. With annual Service Charges, Maintenance Fees and Interest Charges. Meanwhile The New Board would institute’Austerity’ within the Club to pay off these charges while gutting the wages bill,
    No Transfer Budget for several years while they extracted as much Cash as possible from the annual Revenues.
    Season Tickets would increase markedly.

    Auchenhowie, sold off, Edmiston House would be open 7 days a week to further rinse the punters. If there was any ‘pushback’ they would just sell it off.

    After 3/4 years if they felt there was no more ‘Meat on the Bone’ they would sell up. If no takers for the Hollowed out entity then Admin and then Liquidation with the Venture Investors names as Prime Creditors for any funds realised post Liquidation.
    Nothing illegal. It’s been done in other Industries, Sports, including Football. Refer to the modus operandi of people like the Glazers when buying Man Utd and how it impacted the Football Division for several seasons. Man Utd still haven’t fully recovered from it.

    Sevco would not stand a ‘snowball’s chance it Hell’. It would be a death by a thousand cuts and fuck all that they could do about it.
    Give up and walk away and the Undertakers bill would be due immediately. No cosy ‘Brotherley’ arrangements with the Liquidators
    The Stadium would be razed to the ground and the ground sold. End off.
    ( The current owner of the Ground would have been taken ‘Care’ of when the Venture Firm acquired the Club. Whatever the Cost, it would just be added to the Debt owed to the original Investors).

    There is no quick fix. No magical panacea. They have wasted 12 Years and over £100,000,000 to bring them to this point.
    It remains to be seen if there is any more ‘Staunch Money’ out there eager to be trashed. Or even if there is the appetite amongst the ‘Brown Brogue’ wearing fraternity to persevere along this path.

    Whatever the case may be, we know that the support don’t have patience or, despite their avowed ‘Staunchness’, whether they have the resolve to take the prescription and swallow the ‘Red or Blue ‘ pill.

  • JimBhoy says:

    Maybe they change into a charity and receive donations…..

    Agree James this quick fix, Jam today mentality will anchor them for years to come. Any investor would have to buy the meaningless shares and that would mean nothing to the club finances or player investment.

    Fresh blood would need more revenue streams to earn more to invest in the team but you covered that already they want an instant fix on a sand foundation.

    Their fan base is limited and dwindling and interest will wain without the success of the past.

    They need real Ranjurz men at the helm to keep with tradition. They may get the occasional positive jolt as personnel change but that’s their lot. Short term positivity soon to be quashed when things dont go according to plan. Pitchforks and torches.

    HH

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    It’s patently obviously why he wrote this…

    He is an out and out Sevco fan to the core (and Liverpool in England) – A glory hunter when both clubs were doing well no doubt so his pain has certainly been palpable since The Millennium and pretty much for the best part thereafter as well for sure –

    How do I know he us one of The Sevco Hun Hoards ?

    Well there’s the info kindly supplied by The Celtic Blog of course – However ma sister was pals with the partner of an ex Sevco player (well to be truly accurate ex ‘Rangers’ player as that’s what they were known as then) and when Jackson wanted wishy washy comfort blanket tales to take to his dwindling by the day illiterate readership he didn’t do it through ‘The Taxpayers Thief Park’ (Murray Park) he did it at their West End House…

    Now my sister ain’t into football and probably thinks offside is a tyre in her motor but she heard what she heard and Jackson made it plain where his loyalties lay – One might think careless over a good few drinks and it normally could be seen as, However with what’s reported on here he clearly doesn’t try to hide it in any case…

    Incidentally – My sister is of exactly the same mindset as Jackson and The Sevco Hun Hoards – Enjoy the glorious trappings in life and have someone else foot the bill for it – Albeit certainly not on a football field of play in her case , more like designer clothes, holidays and the like !

  • Bob (original) says:

    ibrox has never done ‘investment’, in the real sense.

    “They don’t need to be run by committee.”

    Jackson omitted something there:

    “They don’t need to be run by a Bowling Club committee.”

    Bennett did a runner on the basis of health problems.

    So, he is replaced by an even older chap – a 71 year old pensioner.

    But, he is apparently being ably assisted – by another pensioner?

    And things have got worse off the pitch since Bennett left.

    Who needs a dynamic, energetic, turnaround specialist CEO…?

    ibrox is never going to attract better replacements without the cash.

    The downward spiral has just accelerated at ibrox! 🙂

  • Valentine's day massacre says:

    The tribute act continually live beyond it’s means because our Governing bodies turn a blind eye and allow the malpractices to happen …every season ,one after another . If these so called ‘ administrators (oops), were up to the job of organisation and running the game properly and fairly in wee Scawlin , certain members would have to cut their cloth accordingly or face the appropriate punishments and penalties (oops again ) .

  • JimBhoy says:

    Maybe he is looking for an Ibrox media job….

  • Thomas Cochrane says:

    It’s the same old same old with everyone over there,Jackson, Soorness…and any number of old has been irrelevant nonentities, the keep harping back to the past just as you have said and the can’t see that time has moved on and they……simply have not, ach well long may it continue.

  • Fat mike says:

    The dream scenario would be aberdeen to finish second and fluke their way through the champions league qualifiers next year, now that would bring a whole new reality upon the klanbase!

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