Rangers legend Derek Johnstone discusses the EBT fall out, the Ibrox accounts, the Championship game against Alloa and his preferred defensive partnership

Ibrox
Rangers are adamant that no titles will be taken from them and that we will keep all the championships and cups that we won during that period.
It doesn’t matter what a player earns, it is about what they do on the pitch. In the years Rangers won the league and won the cups, they were the best team and deserved to win them. There is no outcry over the seasons when we didn’t win anything.
Money can’t buy you success. You have to do it on the park. There are a lot of teams that have spent huge amounts of money and not had any success. 

Those honours were won and earned through the efforts of the players, not because of what or how they were paid.
There will be people who are up in arms and demanding that they should have their medals taken off them. It is absolute rubbish. 

The EBT verdict this week attracted a lot of headlines and sparked a lot of debate and it is an issue that has been ongoing for years. It is the future that is most important, though, and there is nothing that can happen to Rangers. It is all about David Murray and BDO, the liquidators of the oldco. 
When this case was brought up at first, it went against HMRC, then it went to an appeal and it went against HMRC again. Now we have a third hearing and it goes for HMRC. That is what will baffle a lot of people. How can two cases go against HMRC and then the third one, with the same details put forward, goes in their favour? 
For Dave King, the board and for the club, this is not their problem. It is for the Murray Group and the oldco to worry about. 
Whether they want to appeal again, and want to spend the money that is needed for that, I don’t know. We will have to wait and see.

We will find out in due course whether the oldco and BDO decide to take it any further. There is still another stage where this case could go and the outcome of that, if it does go on for longer, will affect the creditor’s pot for the oldco. 
Having seen the first two judgements go their way, there might be a feeling that it is worth continuing this case. Only time will tell.
It is a very complicated case and it will take a lot of time, and a lot of money, to take it to another appeal. If this is the end of the Big Tax Case, fine. It has gone on for so long and the focus has shifted at Rangers. 
I would imagine we would know soon whether it is going to be contested or not. Hopefully there is a definitive end to all of this sooner rather than later.

It is a couple of years now since David Murray sold Rangers and the outcome on Wednesday won’t have helped his rapport with the fans. For all the good that he did, you had kids growing up watching Rangers win nine-in-a-row and some great players, the way he left club and what has happened subsequently mean some fans will never forgive him. 
During that time, it was great for the fans but the last few years have been tough for them and many will hold David Murray responsible. His reputation with the majority of supporters is in tatters. 
I don’t know if he will be bothered about that or not. He is someone we haven’t heard from for the last few years but I would think we would hear from him in the next few days or couple of weeks to tell us how he feels about this.
Is he going to do anything about it? It will come down to money. A decision has to be made quickly because we can’t have this going on and on and on. 

The important thing is what the board do going forward. It has been a turbulent and traumatic time for Rangers and the fans.
We need to look to the future and what will hopefully be another step in the right direction for the club as Mark Warburton’s side look to get us back to the Premiership this season.

Rangers' focus has to be on the football after another week of headlines

ON the back of the first league defeat of the season against Hibs on Sunday, we have had a lot of headlines surrounding Rangers once again. Come kick-off tomorrow, the focus has to be on Alloa.
There are a lot of new players who will have had no idea what was going on at Ibrox and hopefully everything that has happened in the last couple of days doesn’t affect them when they get back on the park. It shouldn’t do, that’s for sure. 

The important thing for me is how the players react when they are reading all of this stuff about their club. They would have had an idea of what happened to Rangers over the last few years but not a lot of the detail, I wouldn’t have thought.
Hopefully it doesn’t affect them in their preparations for Saturday’s game, or for the rest of the season.
It is up to the manager to sit them down and say ‘look, this has been going on for a while, it is nothing to do with us. We are here to get this club back to where it should be’. 
They have to buckle down and focus on the football and the Ibrox crowd will be looking for an immediate reaction to the defeat to Hibernian at Easter Road.

There will be players in the dressing room that know bits of what has been going on but for the lads that are new to the club they won’t really know. They will want to know because it is their club.
But any time they are on the training ground or on the park, they have got a job to do. They have to concentrate on their goal and that is getting Rangers back to where they belong and that starts again on Saturday.

Cash will be King for Rangers

THE accounts for Rangers International Football Club plc released on Wednesday showed a £7.5million loss and were the final insight into how the old board were running Rangers. Next year, the picture will be a lot different.
Dave King and his fellow directors have only had a couple of months at the helm and it will be in twelve months’ time we will be able to see what they have done and what progress has been made off the park and behind the scenes.
Rangers were always going to make a loss this year and the directors have again confirmed their commitment to put their money in going forward and to fund the club.

Rangers will be funded to the end of the season, and beyond, and we will see what money Mark Warburton is given to strengthen his squad during the January transfer window.
Then, in the summer, there will need to be more cash invested in the squad for what we hope will be a Premiership campaign. This is a good squad but it won’t challenge once we get up another league.
We need another handful of players that can come into the starting line-up and make an impact and that will mean money will have to be spent.
Mark will know he has to strengthen again and he will be looking at the board to help him bring in a higher quality of player.
It will be down to the board and the directors to make that investment and then we will see how the books shape up in a few months.

Question Time for DJ: Who should Rangers play at centre back on Saturday?

Stewart Stephens from Wishaw asked DJ who he thought Mark Warburton should play at centre back against Alloa on Saturday?
What Rangers do need at the heart of the defence is someone with a bit of pace and two players that will go and attack the ball in the air.

For me, Dominic Ball and Rob Kiernan are probably the best partnership we have right now. Danny Wilson is a good player but he hasn’t had the start he would have been hoping for this season. Ball is better in the air and is quicker so if we are going back to a 4-3-3 on Saturday, which I think we will, then he should get the nod to partner Kiernan.