On Rumours Of A Take-Over Move For Glasgow Rangers
Added on 30 October 2009
Today Long Midnight Publishing artistic director, Elvis Shackleton, talks to Douglas Lindsay about rumours sweeping the web that Long Midnight Publishing are about to make a daring and exciting stock market bid to take over ailing Scottish football giants, Glasgow Rangers. ES: There’s all this talk on the internet, on the news pages and in chat rooms, that you’re thinking of taking LMP out of its safety zone and into the world of professional football. Can you confirm your interest in Glasgow Rangers at this point? DL: Well, it’s no secret that my dad used to take me to Ibrox when I was a lad. I can remember seeing Colin Stein score against East Fife in my first trip to the stadium. ES: Those must have been happy days. DL: Well, you know, it was the early seventies. Everyone was miserable. ES: And now you could be the next owner at Ibrox. What is your vision for the club? DL: Well, Elvis, I think everyone in Scotland has to be realistic. The Old Firm cannot hope to compete on financial terms with the Big Four in England. And, in an aside, let’s be honest there’s not a Big Four in England, there’s a Big Two, with a few other pretenders. But financially, not only can Rangers not compete with the Big However Many, they can’t compete with Wigan or Bolton or Hull. There’s just so much money down there now. Why would any player worth his mince sign for Rangers or Celtic, when they can have three times as much money and guaranteed trips to Old Trafford and Anfield? ES: So what’s your vision for the future of Rangers? DL: We have to draw from within. We all do in Scotland. We have to invest in youth football. Not one academy, several academies. We need to invest in grassroots football all across the country, we need to get youngsters away from the computer and out there playing football. We need a countrywide approach to football talent, we need two hundred, five hundred, a thousand youngsters every year at every age group, trying to break into the Rangers squads. And then, obviously, we at Rangers would take the cream, and the others could then filter through the rest of Scottish football. ES: And the game as a whole would benefit. DL: Exactly. We need to get away from the fans getting excited about our next new signing, and getting excited about the new players coming into the team from the reserves. And obviously we need to get the reserve league back up and running. That’s where the money needs to go. And when we have that level of talent coming through, then we’ll start to see Scottish clubs compete in Europe. And then, once that happens, you’ll see many of these players signing for big English clubs, with the beneficial effect on the national team. ES: So you think Scotland could then win the World Cup? DL: Absolutely. I think it would be a realistic prospect by 2022, if not 2018. It would be exciting. ES: Gosh, that is a fantastic vision. So they’re saying that Rangers are currently around £30m in debt. Just how much of an offer would you be thinking of putting forward at this stage? DL: Well, we’re still in negotiations, but right now I can say that there’s a firm off of £7.25 on the table. ES: £7.25 billion? DL: No. ES: Million? DL: No. £7.25. It’s all we can afford. ES: And have they rejected the offer? DL: I’m afraid so. We may have to double it, but I’m not sure we can go that far.