The cost of raising yer kids

It’s a wee bit like the scene in Godfellas where Tommy first shoots Spider. In this case, McClelland, Murray, George Adams, Martin Bain etc are all sitting round the table playing cards and it’s me whose serving the drinks. Martin “Joe Pesci” Bain is getting a bit miffed with me as I stammer “But I thought you said these were Rangers kids … so they’re our players … no, but I thought you said we would buy them … but I thought Murray Park was to develop players on the cheap ..”.

And suddenly - Blam! Blam! Blam! - Bain’s shouting “Dance mutherfunster! Dance ya stutterin’ pri*k ya!” while unloading his colt into my metatarsus. Because, as far as I can garner from last week’s pronouncements, our Youth Development plan sounds about as encouraging as Tommy’s method of developing young Spider into a future “goodfella”.

The main problem is that we’re apparently now gonnae have to buy our own young players from the Murray Park conveyor belt which George “Guru” Adams is hopefully setting in motion.

Poor Alan Hutton is being used by everyone as an example - theoretical and actual. Chairman McClelland kept talking about what would happen if, FOR EXAMPLE, young Al was going to Liverpool. Seemingly, Rangers FC would get the Millions from Anfield in that scenario (AYE - it’d be bloody MILLIONS - Alan’s a great wee player) but, as is, Rangers Youth Development Company are now due some dosh from Rangers FC because Hutton’s some sort of retrospective “transfer” from Muray Park to Ibrox??!! Aye? Naw? Am I understanding it …?

Anyway, I’m gonnae throw my hat in with the official reaction from the Rangers Trust, here. Mainly because the Trust seems to consist of about 3,000 chartered accountants, each with an Ibrox Smart Card, a bank vault full of shares and a degree in semantics. They’re saying it’s all a bit of accounting jiggery-pokery and I have to agree … but I will add my own, fully audited tuppence worth.

Why should Rangers make an announcement which they KNOW would bring such lukewarm, possibly even incredulous feedback from press and Bears alike? Even if they have full faith in the fact this buying-our-own-talent policy will come to be regarded as a trail-blazing move and McClelland and his “friends of the Fedora” will eventually be hailed as geniuses, they know for a FACT that the reception NOW has to be bad, has to paint Rangers in a confused light as an organisation.

It looks to me like what would usually be a bit of straight-forward internal budgeting - “For every player who comes through the ranks into a first team, be it ours or another club’s, we’ll set aside some dosh for the running of Murray Park” - has had to be made public to give full recognition to the independent investors who pumped the money into the Rangers Youth Development Company. If Rangers give these folk highly-publicised thanks then maybe they’ll profer more cash in the future … or maybe they’ll bring along a similairly rich friend next time Johnny Mac has his fancy hat held out.

OR, what with all the criticism Rangers hve been coming under of late for their fiscal meltdown under Murray, perhaps McClelland and Bain thought this new type of investor and method of investment in the club would give us all a bit of faith that Rangers still have some cool financial moves up their sleeves. Mmmm …

Murray Park’s upkeep and the youth development (sans upper-case initials) has to be financed. The money we’re spending on it and the fact we get most of that money from other areas of our organisation is probably no different from half the clubs in Britain - it’s just that we’ve decided to give it a name and a bit of publicity. At the end of the day, if we get the players and they get the results - who cares how it happens!

Though I must confess to being slightly miffed about our gaffer trotting off to watch the Madrid and Rome derbies and leaving all us to watch Rangers v Partick Thistle. He could at least have the decency to behave like the rest of us and pretend he cared! Nah - only yoking Mr McLeish - fully appreciate your logic on this one. Get out there and watch these guys in the flesh. It’s all about preparing for next season and he defo seems to have learned from the disasters that were the Capucho, Emerson and Ostenstad signings.

Just gonnae bring us back a pennant, gaffer … or maybe even a replica shirt … a wee Lazio key-ring … or a Roma sweatband … go on … gonnae?

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Published:
04.29.04 / 9pm
Category:
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