HOW RANGERS MISSED OUT ON A MONEYBALL REVOLUTION Billionaire McColl was approached by Liverpool owners to make move on Ibrox
JIM McCOLL, the wealthy Scottish businessman, has revealed he was approached by the owners of Liverpool about the prospect of taking over Rangers and using Moneyball techniques to transform them into the dominant club in the country.
McColl, who is one of Scotland’s richest men with an estimated personal fortune of £1.1 billion, was part of a consortium, which included former manager Walter Smith, which tried to buy the Ibrox club from liquidators BDO back in 2012.
The Clyde Blowers chairman (below) was subsequently involved in attempts to oust the former hierarchy at the 54-time Scottish champions and donated
10,000 shares to supporters’ group Rangers First in 2015 in a bid to facilitate regime change.
In an interview with author and entrepreneur Rob Moore on YouTube, McColl admitted the Fenway Sports Group, who own Liverpool and baseball franchise Boston Red Sox, had contacted him about getting involved at Rangers again and using Moneyball to resurrect their fortunes.
John Henry, one of the Fenway Sports Group’s founders, became fascinated by Moneyball, the Michael Lewis book about the Oakland Athletics baseball team’s general manager, Billy Beane, after it was published in 2003. Beane deployed the “sabermetrics” principles originally devised by Bill James – a method of using analysis and statistics to identify and purchase players who are undervalued – and the Athletics enjoyed great success as a result.
Henry was inspired by what he believed was an economic and efficient approach to recruitment and promptly hired James for the Red Sox. Since Michael Edwards was appointed sporting director at Anfield in 2016, Liverpool have targeted young players with world-class potential at smaller clubs who have impressive performance statistics – including Scotland left-back Andy Robertson.
Liverpool, bought by the Fenway Sports Group for £300m in 2010, have flourished as a result. They won the Champions League last year and were on course to win the Premier League before football was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this month.
Steven Gerrard, the
Liverpool great who gave up his role as coach of the Anfield club’s under-19 team to become manager at Rangers in 2018, has been repeatedly tipped to succeed Jurgen Klopp at the English giants when the German departs.
Asked about his involvement with Rangers by Moore,
McColl said: “At no time in my mind was I going to buy it. Although, I might think differently now because I was learning about this technique that was used in Moneyball.
“That is what’s happening in Liverpool. It is the same technique they’re using. You see them 22 points ahead of everybody else [Klopp’s team are 25 points clear of Manchester City] using this technique. So that’s a thought.
“In fact, we were approached recently to see if we were interested in looking at it again. The people who have invested in Liverpool would be interested in looking at it with us and applying the same techniques. Not that I’ll ever do it, but it’s nice to think about them being 22 points ahead of Celtic.”
There is no prospect of McColl, who has repeatedly declined to invest in Rangers over the years in order to concentrate on his other enterprises, coming on board, but the interest shown by Liverpool’s hierarchy is intriguing in the current climate.
Dave King, who, along with John Gilligan and Paul Murray, ousted the former regime at Rangers at an EGM in 2015, stood down as Ibrox chairman on Friday night.
The South Africa-based financier revealed that plans to raise £20m from a share issue this summer have “been put on hold” due to the shutdown of Scottish football.
His personal statement seemed at odds with the
It’s nice to think about them being 22 points ahead of Celtic
announcement published on the official Rangers website stating that Douglas Park had become chairman on an interim basis and John Bennett had been made deputy chairman.
It read: “RIFC is pleased to confirm that the funding plan announced at the recent AGM is well advanced, with significant investment already received and further commitments in place.”
King is a Liverpool fan as well as a Rangers supporter and was occasionally been sighted at Anfield cheering on the Reds during the five years that he spent as Ibrox chairman.
There are no rules outlawing dual ownership of clubs in the Premier League in England.
The SFA’s articles of association currently prevent someone being involved at one of their member clubs who “may at the same time either directly or indirectly: (a) be a member of another club; or (b) be involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management or administration of another club; or (c) have any power whatsoever to influence the management or administration of another club”.
However, the SFA are believed to be prepared to relax their guidelines in an attempt to encourage investment in Scottish clubs – and both Hearts and Motherwell have rebuffed approaches from Barnsley co-chairman Paul Conway last week – during the coronavirus crisis.
In a wide-ranging interview with Moore on his business career and interests, McColl talked about his past experiences with Rangers. He said: “I didn’t nearly purchase it. What happened was Rangers Football Club had been taken over by people who were exploiting it and were out to asset strip it, in our view.
“People from outside
Scotland don’t understand how important both Rangers and Celtic are in Glasgow and I’m a Glaswegian. We couldn’t allow this to happen. It did a lot of damage. But myself and one other, a chap called Paul Murray who ended up on the board, we decided that we were going to get rid of the people who were in there.
“We held a special shareholders meeting, we managed to get them put out, we ran up quite an expensive bill. I wasn’t a shareholder before all this happened, but I bought shares so that I could go to the AGM and the special meetings and in fact call them. Then when we finished I gave the shares to the supporters’ club, I gifted them to them.
“We paid the hefty tax bills, between me and Paul, and we got it back onto an even keel. But at no time in my mind was I going to buy it.”
placed in lockdown – Russell said: “It’s weird. “I remember thinking on Thursday, ‘Today we’re supposed to be playing one of the biggest games we’ve had in a generation – but I’m just sitting on my couch’. “Obviously health comes first so hopefully we’ll get this sorted then we find the time for football after that. “I think they should – and I hope they will give
– us enough time after the shutdown to make sure we’re all back at full pelt.
“I can’t see them rushing back into these play-offs. There’s no reason for that now that the Euros have been put back a year. What’s the reason to rush it?
“Obviously we want to get the game played but we also want everyone competing to be at their best, fully fit and raring to go.
“I’ve no idea when they will finally schedule it but I’d imagine they’d give us at least a couple of games for our clubs first.”
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