Gers warned not to risk existence to stop Celts’ 10

David Low was the financial guru who helped Fergus Mccann save Celtic from bankruptcy in 1994, and was his adviser for his five years at the club. Mccann had a fiveyear plan to rebuild the club, and refused to bow to pressure from fans who wanted him to run up a massive overdraft in order to stop Walter Smith’s Rangers side reaching nine-in-a-row.

Celtic are on course to reach that milestone, at least, under Brendan Rodgers.

Rangers have just announced losses of over £14m for the last year, and Low has warned chairman, Dave King, and his board that an obsession with preventing their greatest rivals reaching 10-in-arow could see the Ibrox club go to the wall again.

Since sliding into administration and then liquidation in 2012, Rangers have lost almost £40 million, and Low (above) claims those figures are unsustainable.

“Rangers have failed to make a profit since they imploded six years ago,” he claimed. “By my reading, their losses since then have totalled £38.6m – and that’s just madness. “Never mind the football side of this. As a financial guy looking at their accounts, their business model makes no sense. Spending more than you earn year after year – how do they get their money back?

“Their cash is due to run out again early in the New Year, and they’ve admitted another £4.6m in loans will be needed, with another £3m required next season.

“Yet Steven Gerrard is talking about signing more players in January.

“However,afterthose horrendous accounts, the only way he’ll be able to do that is by wheeling and dealing, shifting some players out in order to bring others in.”

Anxious punters will pile the pressure on King to spend even more next year if Celtic make it eight in a row this season. But Low argues that it’s more important to sort out the club’s debts.

“When Fergus took over at Celtic, a lot of fans didn’t like how he dealt with Rangers being on top,” he said. “They wanted us to go into the red to strengthen the squad, but Fergus refused to do that.

“He told me: ‘I can’t get hung up on this nine-ina-row thing. We have a stadium to build and a long-term plan we need to stick to. This club is going to be around for the next 100 years and I’m not going to put that at risk just to stop Rangers reaching 10.’ “We were lucky enough to be able to stop them doing that under Wim Jansen, but it was never the be-all and endall for Fergus and Celtic are reaping the rewards of that now.

“And unless some oligarch buys Rangers, they cannot compete with Celtic.

“The Parkhead wage bill is currently £59.3m, almost double that of Rangers’ turnover of £32m. That buys you better players. Celtic’s turnover was over £100m last year and they have £27m in the bank.

“The financial gap between the clubs has never been bigger, and Rangers are closer to Hearts than Celtic.”

Low also argues that Rangers need to balance the books sooner rather than later.

“How does it end, and at what cost?” he asked. “Does money literally not matter any longer? I can’t see the logic in their approach.

“Financially, Celtic are unassailable. There’s no glimmer of light for Rangers.

“It’s as bad as it’s ever been for them, which is why they need to rein in their spending.”