IT was somewhat surprising to hear the Rangers manager, Ally McCoist, break his self-imposed omerta on non-footballing issues to implore Dave King and Mike Ashley to play nice and wonder out loud why everyone jostling for position at Ibrox just can't get along.
Silence reigns, though, where it matters. In this labyrinthine soap opera, that is no great shock. Nothing is easy where the Glasgow club is concerned. The £16 million offer made by King and his associate, George Letham, for a stake of just over 50 per cent, created through the issue of new shares, and the voting rights that would go with that, has been lying on the boardroom table since Tuesday.
As of yet, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no official response to the terms contained within. King, based in South Africa, remains on these shores enjoying some R&R as he waits for white smoke, if you like. His stay is not indefinite, but it does suggest he shares the growing opinion that the long game he has played in attempting to gain power is reaching its critical point, with cash-flow issues central to developments.
Meeting October's wage bill is not expected to be a problem after £3.13m was scraped together in a recent Open Offer, but it is common knowledge that Rangers are running out of money.
Will November's payroll prove difficult to meet? Those voices most critical of the existing power base have, for some time, painted Christmas as the point of no return.
The club's accountants, Deloitte, will also have to judge its worth as a going concern in time for the Annual General Meeting, to be held before December 31, and that could be tricky without fresh funding guaranteed.
Ashley, owner of Newcastle United and Sports Direct, has been described as "parking his tanks on Edmiston Drive" after upping his shareholding to the 8.92 per cent mark. He is also trying to oust the chief executive Graham Wallace and finance director Philip Nash, understood to be supportive of King's prospective involvement.
Of course, this may simply be some form of retribution for refusing to grant him ownership of the club badge as part of a loan agreement, but the truth is that few know what his precise intentions really are.
He has an agreement with the Scottish Football Association that prevents him from holding more than 10 per cent of Rangers. That could be reviewed, of course, should Ashley be the only answer to keeping the club afloat, but King putting his cards on the table alters the landscape somewhat.
It would be a surprise if King and Ashley had established contact at this delicate juncture but is McCoist's vision of them working together so far-fetched?
Ashley already controls Rangers' retailing arm. He seems willing to provide loans with conditions but supporters would almost certainly rally behind a King-led takeover and that would, most likely, lead to sales of merchandising rising along with season tickets.
An alliance seems unlikely, but business is business in the end. Certainly, something meaningful in this impenetrable poker game has to happen soon.
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