ON THE occasion of his 20th anniversary as the owner of a football club, Sir David Murray has once again raised Scottish football's great what-might-have-been story, picking at the scab of the overwhelming rejection, by Ayr United shareholders, of his offer to buy their club in the late 1980s and turn them, in his reckoning, into Dundee United.
Not literally, but in terms of size, success and ambition. Which, at the time of Murray's attempted takeover of Ayr, was no small promise, given United's appearance in the 1988 UEFA Cup final.
But now Murray has opted once more to treat the direct
ors and supporters of the club he supported as a boy to what might be called his Jim Bowen impression. "Look at what you could've won," said Bowen, with a wry grin, to contestants of the TV show Bullseye, as they surveyed the speedboat they had just come within a thin piece of wire of taking home.
As Bowen later confessed, there was more than a hint of mischief – or mockery – in his famous catchphrase. And so it is – perhaps – with the Rangers owner. What could Ayr United have won with Murray's millions? Would a speedboat – the football equivalent might have been a star striker – for a club without the wherewithal – for "access to water" read "fan-base" – to exploit such a luxury really, as Murray insists, have helped the club challenge for honours?
"I'm sure we would have won a title in that 20 years," said Murray, breaking off from this week's anniversary celebrations to revisit the conundrum. And note the "we".
"They (ah: it's 'they' now] could have been a Dundee United or an Aberdeen," continued Murray. "They might not have had a Brian Laudrup (Michael instead, perhaps?] but they would have got some of the best Scottish talent. They'd have had 10,000 crowds, playing in Europe, that sort of thing.
"Bill Barr (the club's former chairman, pictured right] said I wasn't good for the club and that they'd got big plans. Then, six months into the job at Rangers, I did an interview for a paper and said I was delighted how well they've done to meet all their plans because they'd extended one of the tea bars! The SFA wrote to me about that."
As intriguing as it all is, what concerns those currently in charge at Ayr is less the what-might-have-been question of Murray's bid – skewered when Ayr's shareholders voted 56:4 against his proposal – and more the here-and-now. The bleak truth is that there might not be a here-and-now for much longer.
"I was thinking about this the other day," says Lachlan Cameron, the club's chairman and managing director. "I can tell you this: David Murray would probably have been screwed by (South Ayrshire] Council, in the same way that we have.
"I know David Murray," continues Cameron, "and I think he's a great guy. But even a guy like him would have become disenchanted by the lack of support."
Actually, "lack of support" doesn't adequately convey what Cameron feels. "The council has been obstructive," he says. In his soft Los Angeles accent, Cameron says that his gravestone will read: "South Ayrshire Council killed me."
The most pressing problem for Ayr is a lack of short-term finance. With Barratt having withdrawn from a deal to buy Somerset Park, and with "our whole future hinging on the stadium project", the club is inching towards full-blown crisis. Though the debt is only £1.2m – "most of it owed to my family," says Cameron, "and we're not asking for it back" – they need £250,000 to survive to the end of the current season. In the current climate a bank will not provide it; and neither will the council.
Cameron, who reels off some impressive numbers of youngsters involved in the club's coaching programme, says he cannot fathom why the local authority appears content to let a "community asset" go to the wall.
"We need short-term financing, or we won't be here," he says.
"It's ironic: for the first time in my three-and-a-half years at the club things are going well on the pitch, but unravelling off it."
Even David Murray, he suggests, could not have avoided that, even if for some Ayr fans frustration might linger, with the question of why the club didn't gamble still a tantalising one.
Then again, it might have all ended in tears. As they used to say on Bullseye – to those considering whether to go for Bully's star prize: "If you don't make it, well, you've had a good day out – but you're goin' home wi' nowt."
The full article contains 795 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
