Rangers’ loan of five Newcastle players raises more questions about Ashley
The Newcastle owner holds an 8.92% minority stake in the Scottish club and while he is not breaking any rules, the importation of players from his Premier League club may not sit well with fans or the authorities
Mike Ashley role at Rangers is the subject of a 'notice of complaint' by the Scottish Football Association. The howls of outrage from Edinburgh probably echoed all the way west to Glasgow. With minutes to go before the closure of the transfer window at midnight on Monday, Rangers enhanced their promotion chances by importing a job-lot of players on loan from Newcastle United.
Gaël Bigirimana, Shane Ferguson, Kevin Mbabu, Remie Street and Haris Vuckic are all scheduled to report for training at Murray Park on Wednesday morning after agreeing temporary moves to the Scottish Championship club until the end of the season.
Their arrival has not gone down well at Hearts and Hibernian but with no ban on cross-border transfers, not a single rule has been broken.
Moreover there are precedents for this kind of inter-club relationship. Back in 2013 Watford borrowed seven players from Udinese, which seemed a natural consequence of both clubs being owned by the Pozzo family. Meanwhile, during the Vladimir Romanov era at Hearts, several loanees arrived from another of his clubs, FBK Kaunas of Lithuania.
Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, holds a perfectly legal minority 8.92% stake in Rangers but the extent of his perceived boardroom influence has raised red flags.
Under Scottish Football Association rules no one is allowed to hold a stake in two clubs without its prior written permission. Ashley received such licence before he bought into Rangers with the stipulation that his holding be restricted to 10% and he did not exercise boardroom influence.
With Derek Llambias, his former chief executive at Newcastle, now filling the same role at Rangers, the “boardroom influence” clause has been questioned. Accordingly the sports retail tycoon is the subject of “notices of complaint” which will be heard by the SFA in early March.
More immediately Rangers fans trust the quintuple transplant from Tyneside will help place Kenny McDowall’s side firmly on the front foot as they aim to return to the Scottish Premier League. Right now the fallen giants remain 16 points adrift of Hearts, the leaders, with two games in hand. Hibs, meanwhile, are a point behind Rangers. Small wonder the pair are muttering about the loans being part of an “antagonistic” boardroom manoeuvre.
Olivier Bernard, a former Newcastle and Rangers full-back who has lived in North-east England since retiring, believes the deal is probably almost as important as the £10m emergency loan Ashley recently extended to Rangers.
“Rangers are desperate for points to ensure promotion,” said Bernard. “These players are good enough to see them back to the SPL. Three have already played at Premier League level in England so [they] know what will be expected of them.
“Rangers will finish in the top two now and will be good enough to go through the play-offs, that’s a guarantee. I believe with these five players Rangers will only go from strength to strength.”
Arguably the most talented is Vuckic, a 22-year-old Slovenian forward or attacking midfielder whose initially exciting Premier League progress was interrupted by a series of serious injuries.
At 23, Ferguson, a left midfielder or left-back, has been capped 18 times for Northern Ireland while the 21-year-old Burundi-born central midfielder Bigirimana was extremely highly rated when he signed for Newcastle for £1m from Coventry in 2012.
Streete, a 20-year-old centre half, has yet to play for the St James’ Park first-team but has spent time on loan at Port Vale and the even less experienced 19-year-old Swiss youth international Mbabu can operate in the centre of defence or at right-back.
All were a long way from John Carver’s starting XI but Bernard believes they will do well in Scotland. “Vuckic is a fantastic player,” he said. “Rangers are quite lucky to get their hands on a raw talent like him. He’s not developed fully but he has already played in the Premier League and showed some exciting things, so I think he’ll settle fairly quickly. Streete is a centre-back who has been on loan at Port Vale and is good enough to go straight into this Rangers team. I’d guarantee that those two will feature fairly quickly – the rest are young but exciting players who might need more time.”
Chris Graham, spokesman for the Rangers Supporters Trust, is not quite so enthusiastic. “Are these guys actually any better than the youngsters we already have, because effectively we are now developing another club’s players,” he said.
“I don’t think we are at the stage where we should be thinking that just because Mike Ashley has sent some players up everything is now rosy. The timing of it is irrelevant – Mike Ashley simply does not give a toss about this club.
“The wider strategy is what concerns me. It will be interesting to see if we are paying for these guys because if we are we are just taking money from Ashley and giving him it straight back.”
Things are certainly a little different from 30 years ago when Rangers’s wealth provoked envy in England and a series of leading players including Terry Butcher, Trevor Steven, Mark Hateley and Gary Stevens were lured to Ibrox.
Back then it would have seemed impossible that they would be forced to pin their promotion hopes on five relative unknowns unable to break into Newcastle’s first team.
Guardian
