So, they still think that a magic wand will sort everything out at Ibrox?

All the usual numbskull Ibrox cheerleaders believe that a cool £50 million will make them competitive with Celtic.

In an early morning article today, Scott McDermott of the Record quoted the cost of the “imminent takeover”.

If, by saying “imminent”, you mean the end of May, then fair enough.

But, as reported this morning by McDermott, the figure of £100 million is starting to gain traction in the media.

Before I go any further, I’m going to call a spade a spade here.

The SMSM haven’t got a clue how much this takeover is going to cost.

They’re only quoting £100 million because it looks good.

Round it up, rather than round it down, if you catch my drift?

So, for the shits and giggles, I’m going to play their game.

Which will bring me nicely along to Village idiot Boyd’s La La Land fantasising soon enough.

Let’s just say the “imminent takeover” will actually cost £100 million.

Then, of course, we’re going to have an “Elite level” manager getting signed.

The bookies consider Stevie G as “Elite level”, since he’s now the favourite for the Ibrox job.

The only thing that will be “Elite level” about Gerrard is his sign on fee, and then his wages.

He sure as shit won’t represent value for money.

But don’t tell that to the Gullibillies, they love the guy.

Next favourite is Jose Mourinho, once again, “Elite level” wages, but that’s about it.

Shite talking on an Elite level will swiftly follow.

Pedro and his barking dogs and caravans won’t get a look in.

So, there’s that cost before the playing squad is even looked at.

Because in order to assess and overhaul the squad, and commence rebuilding the team in his image, a new manager has to be in place.

Village idiot Boyd isn’t even taking that into consideration with his big warning on the summer transfer window:

The ultimate aim is to re-establish themselves as a proper challenger to Celtic and end 15 years of near complete dominance from their bitter rivals.

But Boyd cautioned that while new owners, sporting directors and managers are all well and good, R*****s will fall flat again if they don’t start signing players that can get the job done on a consistent basis.

If they don’t start signing players that can get the job done?

Proper challenger to Celtic??

What planet do these guys live on?

These sporting directors and managers don’t cost nothing.

Managers bring backroom teams, “Elite level” managers bring costly backroom teams.

Boyd and all the rest of the cheerleaders really do believe that these guys will walk into Ibrox, spend inordinate amounts of money, wave a magic wand, and suddenly be challenging Celtic.

You know?

Because they’ve shown they can compete with us this season?

A few tweaks, a £50 million warchest, and Bob’s your Uncle and Fanny’s your Aunt.

Boyd seems to have selective amnesia when it comes to the fact his favourite side just can’t compete with the rest of the Scottish Premiership.

So, since I’m going along with the Fakeover theory for shits and giggles and stuff, we’re probably around the £170 million mark now.

Without a ball having even been kicked.

Now, we mustn’t forget that Kevin Thelwell is the latest name being bandied about in the media.

Apparently Paddy Stewart wants him as Sporting Director.

Have look at this:

There’s no denying he has played a crucial role in guiding the club through these troubled times. Despite recent difficulties, Everton is set to remain in the Premier League and the club’s finances are expected to be in better shape after Thelwell managed to reduce the wage bill and attempted to assemble a competent Premier League squad with a net spend approximately £120million less than the nearest top flight constant during his time at the club.

Well then, I guess he’ll be ideal for the role, since he’ll have a much smaller budget to work with at Ibrox.

For a guy coming from the EPL, £50 million is pocket change.

Anyway, as I said, the Yanks are now in a hole to the tune of £170 million.

The next question is this, how long will it take for them to get a return on that £170 million?

If, by some miracle, they managed to beat Celtic to the treble in their first season under new ownership, they’d land £3.5 million in prize money.

The next little set of figures will tell you a lot:

RANGERS ANNUAL RESULTS FOR YEAR ENDED JUNE 2024Revenue up from £83.7m to £88.3m (Celtic = £124m) Total staff costs down from £64m to £61.2m (Celtic = £65.6m) First team wages down from from £42.6m to £40.6m.

They are operating at their ceiling in terms of turnover at the moment.

Their total staff costs in 2024 are only £4 million or so less than ours.

Their turnover was almost £36 million less than ours.

You can see where I’m going with all of this, can’t you?

You can see how I’m showing that the Village idiot clearly doesn’t want to understand what all of this entails.

What all of it will entail.

So, let’s just say they hit that ceiling again in their first season under new ownership with a bit of growth on top?

Say £95 million?

Based on the level of spending they would have had to do to deliver that miracle treble, they would still be posting huge losses.

They would have a higher wage spend on the basis they would have bought a lot of new players.

Thelwell would shop the English market, a market he knows best having operated down there.

Not cheap!

I could go on, and on.

But you get the picture.

The Village idiot and his merry band of cheerleaders don’t, though.

They firmly believe that a magic wand is going to fix everything and deliver limitless finance.

The Yanks will get it right in one summer, and hey presto, they’ll be competing with Celtic for the treble!

They choose to completely forget how long it took Celtic to get where we are now.

It wasn’t a quick fix for us.

It took us until 2001 to really start getting into our stride.

7 years after Fergus McCann had taken control of the club.

We became competitive with the Ibrox side then.

But at a cost.

A cost so steep, that Peter Lawwell was brought in in 2003 to halt the slide.

And while Celtic started to become sensible when it came to spending back then, the old club playing out of Ibrox was well into it’s death spiral at that point.

So when the likes of the Village idiot starts demanding that the Yanks spend big, and smart, to compete with Celtic, the rest of us in the real world know that these sort of demands are simply ludicrous.

There’s also that pesky thing called UEFA FFP, something everybody affiliated with that club chooses to conveniently ignore.

But hey, the magic Yankee money fairy is going to come in and grant all of their wishes.

No questions asked.

Last week, I asked what the end game was here?

There is no coherent plan.

Nor is there an end game.

There will be no big “splurge” on transfers in the summer.

Even if the yanks spent £100 million trying to acquire complete control of the club, does anyone imagine they’ll then go and spend big on players on top of that?

Knowing full well that the chances of a profit will be elusive for years to come?

And nobody even bothers to consider the spending power Celtic has to pull clear again if we needed to.

As I said on our podcast on Monday, they might as well burn that money.

They’d probably get more satisfaction out of it than spending years watching the losses mount in a fruitless attempt to catch Celtic.

Insanity begets insanity at Ibrox.

And there’s no sign of it ending any time soon.

Takeover or not.