Every Penny Counts

Derek Llambias has been speaking in his new position North of the border and what he’s had to say about Rangers will be familiar to Geordies from his time at Newcastle.

“We’ve taken a tight review of the business and we will continue to cut costs and our improve commercial revenue.  Every penny of that will go onto the park. That is the only way we can prove our commitment to the club.”

For those unable to remember, what he said at Newcastle  back in February 2011, having sold Andy Carroll for £35m was

“Mike Ashley has only ever put money into this football club; he has never taken a single penny out.  And he won’t take a single penny of this £35 million either – all the money will go to the club and we are already working on identifying transfer targets for the summer.

So can Rangers supporters take Llambias at his word?  Of course they can’t.  First of all, every Newcastle fan remembers the clubs failure to make any major moves in the transfer market that summer.  Vurnon Anita came in for £6.7m and the club recouped £5m from the sales of Leon Best and Fraser Forster.

Furthermore, the staunch defense of Ashley not taking a penny out of the club rings hollow when he’s pulled 1,100,000,000 pence (£11m) out of the coffers in debt repayment.

From the published accounts, we can see his loan being reduced from £140m to £129m…