Rangers supporters left hanging on

IT'S A WEARYING saga and it shows no sign of coming to an end. It is, said one Rangers fan last week, the footballing equivalent of The Mousetrap, the longest running West End play in the modern era.

"Only with us," said our disgruntled Bear, "there's still no sign of the f****** mouse going into the trap."

Confusion reigns – and nobody rules. There are smokescreens and diversions, half-truths and secret agendas, inconsistencies and suspicion. The dramatis personae in the story of the sale of Rangers appear and then disappear, as Alastair Johnston and Andrew Ellis did last week. They're not talking to each other. The only communication between them is through the pages of the newspapers and there is a rancour forming.

You have Johnston, Martin Bain and Walter Smith on one side and Ellis, Sir David Murray and Donald Muir on the other. The former don't believe in Ellis, and so the club is split. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. Nobody. Not even Ellis.

As of last night he was still mulling things over, still saying that his investigations into the viability of a takeover are in the early stages. There's no deadline, he said. So here we all are, waiting and waiting with traps at the ready for a reluctant mouse.

Alastair Johnston's story: "Let's just say I'm sceptical."

When the Rangers chairman dynamited Andrew Ellis last week he placed himself even further into the affections of the grassroots fans at his club. At last, here was a man who was giving some insight and telling it like it is. He was saying things that chimed with many Rangers supporters; namely that Ellis's bid has little merit and, in all probability, won't amount to anything other than a bottle of smoke.

There were some curious things said, though. Johnston remarked that he is not allowed to make direct contact with a prospective buyer. This, we assume, was a reference to a supposed agreement between Rangers and Ellis that the negotiations for the sale of the club would be conducted via Murray's people; principally Muir. Only when details were crystal clear would the bid be presented to the board for analysis. That, according to sources at Rangers, was meant to be the way of things.

But there's an oddity here. Johnston said he is disallowed from contacting Ellis and yet he did try and contact him. "On this point," said the chairman, "two weeks ago, I made another request (as in a second one] to hold a meeting with him (Ellis], knowing that I was going to be in Britain, but I heard nothing back. So I find all this conduct pretty surprising."

So, we can establish that whether Johnston was allowed or not allowed to contact Ellis, he attempted to do so. Maybe it was against the spirit of the agreement, but who could blame him? He is a genuine Rangers man and he has the best interests of the club at heart. He is concerned about the future and wants the situation resolved as quickly as possible.

In the circumstances, it was wholly understandable that he would try and sit down and pick Ellis's brains. Nobody could fault him for that, rules or no rules. It was the responsible thing to do.

But again there is something peculiar here. Ellis's contact details are in open circulation among the press in Scotland. He is not a hard man to get hold of. This newspaper got in touch with him on his mobile at the first attempt. Other newspapers say the same thing. You dial his number and he nearly always picks up. So if he's so accessible, and Johnston is so keen to meet him, why didn't the chairman simply dial his number?

When he became chairman, Johnston made no secret of the fact that his prime duty was to get the club out of the hands of the bank and into the hands of a new owner. That was his main gig. He said it many times. Ellis is the only show in town now. And yet Johnston hasn't spoken to him when doing so is just a matter of tapping out 11 digits on his phone and saying, 'Hello'.

You have to ask, for all his good intentions, why hasn't the chairman made that call? Saying he wasn't allowed just doesn't cut it.

Andrew Ellis's story: "It's still early stages."

Since this thing began, Rangers people have been under the impression that Andrew Ellis is acting alone, that he is not a part of a consortium, that the vast majority of the money he may (or may not) invest in the club is his own. A while back, David Gilmour, a representative of Ellis's, had this to say: "(Ellis] is not a frontman for a consortium... he is the only bidder." Yesterday, Ellis was quoted thus: "I'm not acting alone, no."

Ellis says he has not met Murray, but sources inside Ibrox suggest that the two have met. It's been reported that they are scheduled to meet again this coming week. Clearly, Ellis has convinced enough people within Rangers that he has the financial wherewithal to take the club forward should he so wish. There must be documentary evidence of his worth to back this up or else things would have died a long time ago. Equally, from Ellis's point of view, there must be some merit in buying Rangers, but it's not exactly clear what that is.

The land options seem limited while the club is in debt and has a potential tax bill to contend with down the line. At various stages of this process, it would not have come as much of a surprise to anybody at Ibrox had Ellis announced publicly that he was no longer interested in the project, but at each turn he has reinforced his seriousness about taking the club over, subject to a painstaking process of due diligence.

Ellis is a tricky man to figure out. He is approachable and friendly, but he gives little away. Rangers insiders still view him as somewhat enigmatic. As one source put it: "He's a bit of a reluctant bride but there is still, in certain quarters of the club, more positivity than negativity that a deal will be done. It's just that nobody knows when."

There is also a hunch that Ellis is not entirely sure of what he might be letting himself in for. To express surprise at receiving ten calls a day from newspapers north of the border and to say that he had "no idea how many journalists there are in Scotland" was an indication that he wasn't – or isn't – completely clued-in about the claustrophobic world he may be about to enter.

Johnston not calling Ellis is a curious one, but, in fairness, it is no more curious than Ellis not calling Smith for an assessment of the manager's own intentions and how much he thinks might be required to freshen up his squad, should he opt to stay for a little while longer. Telling Sky Sports News that he would offer the "invaluable" Smith a new deal is all very well, but if he's that invaluable how much trouble would it have been to say it to him face-to-face?

There's not much talking getting done, not between the two camps at any rate. Ellis said there is a huge amount of things to analyse in the Rangers business and he'll take as much time as he needs to come to a decision. He's not apologetic about that. If Johnston is impatient, then tough, seems to be the message. If the chairman has another bidder then go and strike a deal with them. That's, effectively, the thrust of the argument.

There's nobody else but Ellis. He's holding all the cards and, in the absence of a rival, can take as long as he damn well pleases, whether Johnston likes it or not.

Meantime, the pair of them don't appear to have any plans to pick up the phone and talk things through.