Our favourite googly eyed con artist has resigned from the directorship of several of his companies and is apparently now in Costa Rica. Who don't have an extradition treaty with the UK.
EDIT - Firstly, some history. In the 1930s Arsenal gifted Rangers 16 shares in the club (Herbert Chapman and Bill Struth were Masons-in-Law or something). These have been held in high esteem by the Rangers support ever since, being one of their "Struthian traditions" and such. Craig Whyte sold them for £200,000 and pocketed every penny.
Mr Whyte today also admitted that, contrary to his previous statements on the matter, that he used the £20m (£24.4m when including VAT) from Ticketus to pay off the £18m debt owed to Lloyds TSB following their purchase of the Bank of Scotland. £6.4m odds still unaccounted for. Basically:
- The Bank of Scotland goes tits up in the banking crash. Lloyds TSB buys Bank of Scotland.
- Lloyds TSB take one look at Rangers' dealings with the Bank of Scotland and says "no way, we want our £18m loan back please."
- Lloyds TSB forces David Murray out of the Rangers board and puts their own man on it to get their money.
- Craig Whyte says to David Murray, "I'll buy your shares for £1." Murray says "piss off."
- Craig Whyte then says to Ticketus, "I'll sell you four seasons worth of Rangers' season tickets for £24m up front if I buy Rangers."
- Ticketus says "kerrching!" and puts £24m into a holding account.
- Craig Whyte gives David Murray the details of the holding account and says "There's my money."
- The Rangers board find this all pretty dodgy and don't want Whyte to buy the club.
- Lloyds TSB says to David Murray "he's agreed to pay us our money, the sale goes ahead or we close down the club."
- Craig Whyte buys Rangers through his holding company Wavetower.
- Ticketus deposit £24m into Craig Whyte's holding company as it changes its name to Rangers FC Ltd.
- Craig Whyte gives Lloyds their £18m straight from Rangers FC Ltd's accounts. The remaining £6.4m vanishes.
The questions in all this are now how did Ticketus end up funding a leveraged buyout of an insolvent company and how is their money secured here? Assuming that they weren't stupid enough to not know that Rangers were in trouble, what is their stake in all of this?
And that's just what happened last May. There's eight more months of this to go through and, although details on some things are hard to verify right now, I sense a great disturbance in the Force...
edited 21st Feb '12 6:28:32 PM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Celtic 2-0 Dunfermline
(Mulgrew, Forrest)
Two going on two dozen, really. We had 27 shots on goal and 72% of possession and only two of them went it. Centre back Charlie Mulgrew
scored a wondergoal from thirty yards out in the first half before James Forrest scored the second with 15 to go.
We also had a big game of pass the parcel to kick start the party - with an actual big present! Banners were also unfurled taking the piss out of the "Big House" Hun
.
That win puts us 20 points clear of Rangers in the League and takes the swing to 35 overall - and counting! Whatever way you look at it, that is an astonishing turnaround for a team that was 15 points behind on the morning of 5 November. Not taking into account the possibility of Rangers dropping points, five more victories takes the title.
Motherwell, meanwhile, are now only 3 points behind Rangers having beaten Hibernian 4-3 in their game in hand. Sadly we play Motherwell on Saturday so they won't be overtaking Rangers quite yet but I really see it happening before the end of March.
EDIT - Former Rangers director David King is being touted as the possible saviour because he's already put £20m of his own money into the club in the past. But where did The Lying King get his money from?
edited 22nd Feb '12 5:42:50 PM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Rangers' directors Ali Russel (the marketing guy) and Director of Football Gordon Smith (of "Smith must score!" fame) have been the first to be given the chop at Ibrox.
I don't think that Wigwort Smith's role in all this is done yet, though. Until 2007 Smith was an agent and it is believed that at least one of his clients signed for Rangers in this time. If so, that would mean that Smith had to have been aware of the existence and use of EB Ts at Rangers. In 2007 he became the CEO of the Scottish Football Association and failed to report that he was aware of definate financial cheating and potential illegal activity at Ibrox - in fact, he went as far as to suggest that there was "an agenda against Rangers!"
I'm sure that Wiggy will have a job on Radio Scotland assured before our game on Saturday, though. Jobs for the boys and all that. The question is, will he be backing his fellow Hun Stuart Mc Call (Motherwell manager) against Celtic or will he back the enemy to beat Motherwell and prevent them getting any closer to Rangers? Decisions, decisions!
SFA Vice President Campbell Ogilvie - George Peat's heir apparant - is in an even worse position right now, if you can believe that. Ogilvie was on the Rangers board from 1974 to 2005 and must have been aware of the creation of a dodgy EBT scheme in 2000. Approxomatley £27m had been put through this scam before Ogilvie left Ibrox in 2005 and, of course, this was never reported.
The more this goes on, the more correct our suspicions about the SFA are beginning to look. I don't know whether to feel vindicated or disappointed.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Fernando Torres has finally fallen out of favor with the Spanish national team and has been left out of the squad (first time in five years) named for an upcoming friendly with Venezuela.
Even with David Villa out of action with a broken leg, Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque decided to pick strikers Alvaro Negredo (from Sevilla) and Roberto Soldado (Valencia). Torres' last goal for his national side came back in September 2010, against the mighty Liechtenstein. His place in a EURO 2012 squad is unknown but definitely, as of now, uncertain.
edited 24th Feb '12 1:12:14 PM by SeanMurrayI
Well, Chelsea won their first match in what was starting to feel like forever, although they were playing Bolton.
Anyway, I'm hoping that the good times keep on rolling as Milan is gonna be clashing with Juventus in about a half hour or so. The winner of this game may very well decide who will win Serie A; I'm sure Old Man Crudeli is gonna have a strong, emotional interest in the proceedings.
edited 25th Feb '12 12:11:01 PM by SeanMurrayI
Celtic 1-0 Motherwell (Hooper with the only goal)
23 points ahead now. If we beat Aberdeen next weekend and Rangers lose 6 points from their next three games (Inverness away, Hearts at home and away to Dundee United) then we can win the League without even playing (potentially on St Patricks day when they play United). If they drop 2 points and we beat Aberdeen then we can win the League at Mount Doom itself.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)A night of controversy (and wigs) in Milan.
Milan scored two goals in the first half, but only the first was counted because none of the officials saw the second one cross the line. Juventus, meanwhile, managed to keep their unbeaten streak alive after managing to get an equalizer late in the second half. Come to think of it now, Juventus, too, could've been awarded two goals, but their first was ruled offside, although I thought the goalscorer was onside. Suffice to say, the officiating was pretty lousy. Final score: 1-1
Choice Highlights:
- 0:50 Milan's goal that counted.
- 2:20 Goal?
- 2:55 Replay shows it was certainly a goal.
- 5:25 Juventus goal.
edited 25th Feb '12 2:47:22 PM by SeanMurrayI
This English League Cup final is something else. Cardiff score first through Joe Mason, Skrtle equalises in the second half. Liverpool take the lead through Dirk Kuyt in the second half of extra time and Ben Turner makes it 2-2 for Cardiff from a corner three minutes from time.
Alan Hanson is very >:| on Match Of The Day Live.
Just going into penalties now.
- Gerrard's penalty saved. Liverpool 0-0 Cardiff.
- Ex-Celt and ex-Ranger Kenny Misser hits the post. Liverpool 0-0 Cardiff.
- Ex-Ranger Charlie Adam skies it. Liverpool 0-0 Cardiff.
- Don Cowie, formerly of Inverness, scores. Liverpool 0-1 Cardiff.
- Dirk Kuyt scores. Liverpool 1-1 Cardiff.
- Gestede misses. Liverpool 1-1 Cardiff.
- Downing scores. Liverpool 2-1 Cardiff.
- Whittingham scores for Cardiff. Liverpool 2-2 Cardiff. Sudden death.
- Glen Johnson scores. Liverpool 3-2 Cardiff. Gerrard must score.
- Anthony Gerrard misses. Liverpool win 3-2.
edited 26th Feb '12 10:44:20 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Gerrard's penalty saved.
edited 26th Feb '12 10:39:29 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)I missed the Carling Cup Final. I had other day plans today and just wasn't around. A shame though, I wanted to root for the Cardiff underdogs just because I like rooting for underdogs in cup games. Glad to hear they put up what sounds like an entertaining fight though.
Anyway, Goal of the Week—Christiano Ronaldo
It really does take imagination to come up with something that no one would expect you to do. Thumbs up for Christiano Ronaldo, even though I've never been a fan of his.
Yesterday (Finnish time,) I was checking out the BBC live text feed on Arsenal-Tottenham.
I like both teams, but Arsenal is my favourite team in England and obviously I wanted them to win - and they had to win, because if they're not in the top-4 in the Premier League at the end of the season, this one will have been the greatest failure in the recent history of the club. Actually, it kind of already is, but not making it to the Champions League would be a disaster, for both morale and club finances.
When I started checking out the live feed, it was Arsenal 3-2 Tottenham, with more than a half an hour left in the game. Then, in about 10 minutes, Theo Walcott, one of my favourite English players, got 2 goals in and secured Arsenal's victory. My heart was beating so hard when I kept checking up on that page that I'm pretty sure it exited my body a couple of times, and I wasn't even seeing the actual game, just the text feed of it!
I really hope that this victory will give Arsenal and Wenger the push they needed to see this season through to a satisfactory close with a place in the Champions League secured.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.I could watch him do that forever.
EDIT - Celtic's Daniel Majstorovic has ruptured his knee ligaments in training while on duty with Sweden and is out for the rest of the season. He is also expected to miss the European Championships in the summer.
That could the end the career of a player who is still able to put in 90 minute shifts every week and who was on course to help his club win a domestic Treble and to represent his country at a major international tournament. All because of a stupid international friendly: the most pointless fixture on the calendar.
edited 28th Feb '12 10:55:50 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)This is a ridiculous time to be holding international friendlies, when most leagues are entering their most important stages. We play on Saturday at noon away up in Aberdeen but the manager wont get to see most of the first team until Friday morning!
Both James Forrest and Charlie Mulgrew are starting against Slovenia tonight in what is a complete nothing game for Scotland. Absolute waste of a week and a totally unnecessary risk.
EDIT - also, none of this rolling around in agony rubbish from Big Dan I see. Ruptured ligaments? Just get up and stretch that shit off! He did the same when he shattered his cheekbone earlier in the season, just got up and walked away like it weren't no thing.
edited 29th Feb '12 8:15:28 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)
Technically speaking, wouldn't a "secured" promotion spot be 2nd place or higher? Not a lot of promotion-related matters are secure if you're only going in a playoff position. I take it this would just be Wednesday's polite way of saying they believe a different manager can get the squad through the playoffs.
Anyway, England lost to Holland 2-3; Arjen Robben netting the winner in injury time, 2nd half.
And a white rapper
scored the only goal in USA's surprising 1-0 victory over Italy. If any evidential trace of certain legendarily awful recordings from an American match commentator
weren't erased from the Internet, this would be the part where I exclaim such phrases as "GO CELEBRATE WIT YO PEOPLE!!" and "WOW WOW WEE WAAAH!!!" and it would have been kinda funny.

However much of that should be Carlo Ancelotti's fault, I don't know, but fact is, Ancelotti lost a great assistant and got stuck with a player that he most likely didn't want all thanks to his owner's decisions.
Hell, if Torres didn't turn out to be such a terrible investment, Chelsea would be having fewer problems. But there's no way a Chelsea manager can get rid of Torres and find another committed striker; Torres' shit form and Abramovich's huge investments in him mean that everybody just has to deal with it as the club desperately tries to see if they can get the awful investment to actually pay off. Just over the summer break, Abramovich bought Spanish national teammates and former club teammates just to help Torres get more settled down at the club and make connections with on the pitch; that got us Juan Mata and Raul Meireles. Six months later, Juan Mata has proven to be a stellar addition to the squad, Meireles has been... meh, and, most importantly, Torres has continued to be a disappointment and do nothing to justify what was paid for him.
If it were up to me, I'd just decide to cut my losses, sell off Torres for whatever I could get and invest it in getting a real player, but Abramovich is gonna try and wait it until a broken player just... fixes himself, I guess, and no matter who is manager, they're gonna have to deal with it.
edited 21st Feb '12 4:32:17 PM by SeanMurrayI