HAVING a sizeable section of your customer base actively boycotting your stores and refusing to buy your merchandise would be alarming to most high street chains.

Seeing hundreds of potential consumers protesting angrily outside the front door of one of your main outlets would be concerning for the vast majority of businessmen.

Unfortunately for the Rangers hierarchy and their supporters, they are involved with Sports Direct and a certain Mike Ashley.

There can be no doubting the acumen of an individual who has built up hugely profitable nationwide empire and accumulated a vast personal wealth in the process. However, his methods are, to put it mildly, mercurial.

It seems inconceivable that, despite the growing disaffection about the tie-up between the club and company, an amicable resolution to the stand-off will be reached.

Dave King, the Rangers majority shareholder and chairman, has rightly declared that the sale of replica jerseys would be substantially increased if a new deal could be agreed.

That seemed to be an enticing prospect given that - after accusations that Rangers only received 75p from every £10 spent on their official goods at Sports Direct - a diminishing number of strips were being bought.

What was Ashley’s response? He tried to have King jailed for allegedly breaching the terms of a High Court injunction which prohibited him from speaking publicly about a contract which has been described as being “onerous”.

A negotiation team comprising Kofi Annan and Henry Kissinger would struggle to broker an acceptable compromise with the enigmatic and ruthless billionaire.

The bizarre “flash mob” protests which the Sons of Struth protest group organised outside several Sports Direct stores last season were ridiculed. But they ultimately achieved their objective and received extensive coverage both online and in national newspapers.

Was it, too, a coincidence that Ashley gave up the naming rights to the stadium he had acquired for just £1 during the Charles Green’s tenure as chief executive not long afterwards?

Sandy Easdale (remember him?) informed a meeting of the Rangers Fans Board (remember them?) that supporters had “not celebrated this enough”.

Ashley, though, is not the kind of man to do something for nothing. It has since been alleged he received a greater share of the trackside advertising and future control of the shirt sponsorship deal in return.

So will supporters groups urging fans not to part with their money have any significant impact? Will the demonstration outside the Rangers Megastore at Ibrox before the Championship game with Alloa on Saturday prompt anyone to enter into meaningful discussions? It seems unlikely.

The existing arrangement is a sweet one for Sports Direct and Ashley. By all accounts, Rangers require to buy back any products which go unsold. If that is the case, it is immaterial if fewer people are handing over their hard earned. Why would he alter it?

Before King and his associates seized power at Rangers at an EGM back in March, Ashley effectively controlled the club.

He had Derek Llambias and Barry Leach, despite claims by former chairman David Somers that they were appointed chief executive and financial director respectively due to being the outstanding candidates, representing him on the board.

He won't have taken the loss of his influence well. He is not the kind of chap who will engage with those he deems responsible. For him, a backward step is a sign of weakness. His preference is to, regardless of the opprobrium he attracts, go on the offensive.

Rangers last week announced losses of £7.5 million in their annual financial report. The board is optimistic that figure will be greatly reduced next year due to increased season ticket sales, improved home gates and additional income from other areas.

Can they recover to an extent where they are living within their means and challenging Celtic for the major honours in the Scottish game without control of their retail division or income from shirt sponsorship? Even King has admitted it will be difficult, if not impossible, for them do so.

Llambias told the Rangers Fans Board the intention was to put Ibrox club “into the Sports Direct machine”. Extricating themselves from it will be problematic. But they will not be able to function fully until such a time that they do.

AND ANOTHER THING 

THE appeals to the SPFL to launch another investigation into the use of EBTs by Rangers in the wake of the Court of Session ruling in favour of HMRC in the so-called “Big Tax Case” in order to bring closure to the whole sorry episode last week raised a smile.

The independent commission chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith in 2012, which concluded that Rangers had gained no unfair sporting advantage from their deployment of the controversial tax avoidance scheme between 2001 and 2010, hardly drew a line under the affair did it?

Essentially, the argument breaks down as follows – supporters of Celtic and other Scottish clubs say Rangers cheated and should be stripped of the trophies they won in that period while followers of Rangers say no SFA or SPL rules were broken and their titles were won fairly and squarely on the field.

It is a boring and ultimately futile debate – right up there with the interminable Rangers new club/old club one – which will never be resolved one way or another.