Rangers shareholders will be looking for answers

Another week and still the focus remains firmly on Rangers with the Ibrox club’s AGM scheduled for tomorrow.

Ally McCoist is still in place, albeit on notice, and has stated he is unclear whether or not he will be present.

Either way, I don’t think there is any doubt the people who are running the club are going to get a hard time of it.

Many of the shareholders are supporters and as such can be guaranteed to make use of the opportunity to express their displeasure at recent events.

With the SFA questioning the extent of Mike Ashley’s involvement and the SPFL chasing the club for a sum of £250,000 there is a desperate need for clarity.

The shareholders will definitely want that and I would expect the following key questions to be tabled.

Exactly who is running the club?

Where is it going?

How is the financial issue going to be dealt with?

Never mind the short-term plan, is there a long-term strategy?

What is going to happen with Mike Ashley and his interest in two clubs?

These are forthright questions which address the most-important issues. They deserve forthright answers.

I believe the appointment of Derek Llambias as Chief Executive on Friday actually goes some of the way to addressing the first point.

Mike Ashley owns only 9% of the shares but with his right-hand man in charge of operations, he is the power behind this particular throne.

Lambias, of course, has already been involved in cost cutting at the club which has led to 10 redundancies with more expected to follow.

Given that, I am slightly surprised at the timing of the announcement. While I am sure he will usher in more cost cutting, I am not sure it will come right away.

His predecessor Graham Wallace took a 120-day review to go through all the finances and Lambias will want to be thorough.

The two-club issue does intrigue me.

We can’t be sure but I think Ashley might view Rangers back in the Premiership and back in European competition to be a more-attractive long-term proposition than Newcastle.

They are a bigger club and don’t have the handicap Newcastle have of being forced to compete against the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United for the Champions League and Europa League places.

And Europe is very important because of the potential marketing opportunities it offers for Ashley’s firm, Sports Direct.

That, though, is some way off in the future. Rangers need to get their Championship campaign in order and do so now before it is too late.

Some of the players have been taking a measure of personal responsibility for the poor performances at Alloa and Queen of the South. That is a step in the right direction. Now they need to do their talking on the park and do so over a sustained period.

Football is a fickle game and a few positive results would make a big difference in terms of morale. As would a successful share issue to meet the £8-million shortfall needed to be raised in the next year.

But we need to know what is going to happen with the manager and we need to know what is going to happen in the boardroom.