Rangers fans would like Mike Ashley to make his intentions for the club clear.
Any such position statement from the notoriously reticent SportsDirect billionaire is highly unlikely, however.
While he does not give many interviews, the Newcastle United owner does at least have a track record for being relatively transparent in his dealings. With more than five years of shady manoeuvrings at the Ibrox club, this in itself is welcome.
Ashley's admirers say he will also bring security and financial stability to Rangers. But that is far from achieved yet. The £2 million loan that effectively delivered him control of the club will stave off imminent administration, but will not be enough to solve the deep-rooted problems at Ibrox. There will be more cash needed, and perhaps more turmoil to come.
Former chief executive Graham Wallace left the club yesterday, having tried and failed to make the necessary savings, while having to work with a divided board.
Mr Ashley is able to bring in his own man, Derek Llambias, who will have to move to rein in the costs that have driven Rangers to the brink once again. Mr Llambias will have his work cut out, as the Glasgow club has contractual obligations, many of which he can only work around.
He will also have to strike a balance between ensuring that the club is financially viable, and also that the team can make progress to the Scottish Premier League. Mr Ashley is likely to need to inject further sums. Yet he may still feel he is getting good value, with control of a potentially huge brand and a cultural institution coming for the price of just one decent player in the English Premier League. For while his motives may be unclear, it is likely that his ambitions for Rangers tally with those of its supporters.
He is known to want to expand his SportsDirect brand into Europe and controlling a team able regularly to compete in the Champions League Group stages would help. Rangers offer an easier route to that competition on a regular basis than Newcastle. Only authorised sponsors of football's showpiece competition can advertise at televised matches but the associated opportunities would be lucrative enough in terms of brand promotion.
However Mr Ashley's stake in Newcastle is a barrier to his taking over Rangers in the traditional sense.
Bringing in Mr Llambias keeps him on the right side of the Scottish Football Association, although the SFA has been made to look largely irrelevant while Mr Ashley wrested ascendancy in Govan. But the set-up is not ideal for the fans, who would like to see more accountability, not less, at the club.
Rangers remain an important cultural and economic force in Glasgow and Scotland. Yet this is a club running out of last chances.
Leeds United is another formerly great club that lurched into financial crisis. That has so far lasted 12 years and is still playing out.
Rangers cannot risk a similar scenario and Mr Ashley is in many ways their only hope.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article