Glenn Gibbons: Whyte’s motives buried in a myriad of confusion

Even to those of us for whom the arcane machinations of high finance will remain forever beyond comprehension, Rangers seem no closer to escaping the morass of uncertainty in which they have been wallowing than they were on the day, seven weeks ago, that they were plunged into administration.

Bafflement would appear to be the commonest conclusion to have been reached among lay observers of the almighty struggle for survival. It is a condition that was first induced and then protracted by the actions and utterances of the representatives of the administrators, Duff and Phelps.

Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, the two men carrying the onerous burden, appear to have taken the old good news-bad news gag to extremes which will have done nothing to reduce the fever that began to rise in the majority of the Ibrox club’s followers with the BBC’s exposure last autumn of the chequered business career of their projected redeemer, Craig Whyte.

Typically, the depressing revelation on Thursday that Rangers’ liabilities will probably climb above £134 million (and that, astonishingly, they have lost a further £2.5m since entering administration) followed an almost jaunty report on the ‘best and final bids’ from prospective buyers of the club less than 24 hours earlier.

This kind of undulating language has been a feature of the tenure of Clark and Whitehouse. The series of strange proclamations includes the barely credible claim that Whyte, the majority shareholder despite whatever discredit may have attached to his reputation, would be “an irrelevance” in any transfer of ownership, only to be followed by the admission that he could, after all, exert a significant influence on negotiations.

Another mystery has been the ever-hardening notion (again, encouraged by the administrators) that the club will exit its present predicament via a CVA (company voluntary agreement), this possible solution discussed as though its arrangement will be a mere formality. The list of creditors and the sums involved released two days ago suggests – at least, to this admittedly non-expert watcher – that agreeing a CVA could be a very lengthy and complex process.

Contradictory claims about Rangers’ condition and the myriad possible outcomes seem to have come from all quarters, each adding to the confusion. But a conversation with legal counsel this week elicited a view I had not previously encountered and immediately threw some light onto a corner that had previously seemed as revealing as a black hole.

It concerned the question of Whyte’s motives in buying the club in the first place. Or, more precisely, how he could possibly make such an ailing business pay.

“If he’s clever, and I think he is, he could walk away with a quick ten or twenty million of profit,” said the lawyer. “The important thing is not his shareholding. That can be sold by the administrators, who have a brief to find a buyer for the company. The real key is that Whyte – or at least one of the companies in his control – holds the security over Rangers’ premises, Ibrox Stadium and Murray Park.

“Any prospective purchaser of Rangers will have to deal with him over those lands, and that’s where Whyte can potentially make a killing. Of course, it’s not going to be very appealing to a possible buyer, which makes me think that anyone taking over Rangers will most likely have to be a wealthy fan simply rescuing the club without much hope of recovering his investment, far less making a profit.”