SO THERE they were, a year ago in a London hotel, Sir David Murray, his right-hand man Donald Wilson and his football man Martin Bain on one side of the table and the new buyers of Rangers Football Club on the other.
Not a lot to be said now. No
t a lot of money talk, not a lot of legals. Two months in the making, the transfer of ownership of one of the great institutions of the British game was close to completion. "It's true, we came within a few hours of selling the club," said Murray.
"We were all ready to go. Donald had negotiated it for months with complete confidentiality. Everything was pretty much agreed and then I said, 'Look, gentleman, before we do this, can you tell me how you're going to run this club?'. I'm sitting there with all the legal documents in front of me and they outline their plans, 'We'll carve this up and we'll sell that off' and after a while I said 'Enough, we're not doing the deal'. We got up and walked out. We took our papers and went out the door. It wasn't for Rangers. In my opinion they did not want to take the club forward in a football way. They saw property angles. That's the closest I've come to selling; a few hours last year in a nice London hotel."
It's an interesting story. And a story with a message behind it. Murray's note to the disaffected at Rangers, the ones who called for his head in the wake of the Kaunas defeat and the defection of Carlos Cuellar to Aston Villa could be interpreted as 'be careful what you wish for'.
How many of the Rangers support are truly against him? Hard to say but he knows what they're like. He mentions the Rangers Supporters' Trust. Not much trust there anymore, alas. "The boy David Edgar (its spokesman) has made it very, very personal. Six weeks ago he sat in front of me and said it wasn't personal, we're totally supportive of the club, we want to work with you and then he went and did this. It's an ego trip. The Liberal Democrats don't get as much publicity as David Edgar!"
Edgar is an excitable chap, no question. He accused Murray of asset-stripping the club last week, said it was a rudderless ship, said a lot of things. Said Murray wasn't the man to steer it any longer. Even by the standards of football's most idiotic knee-jerks the pleas for Murray to vacate Ibrox are monumentally thick, the logic of people with bubbles for brains and all the big picture view of Mr Magoo.
Walter Smith has been given in the region of £25m to spend on players and signing-on fees. He's brought in almost 25 players, either as full signings or on loan deals. He has a vast squad, including 10 strikers, and massive support. Shouldn't the manager have enough artillery to overcome a team like Kaunas? So, Mr Edgar, how come you reserve your flak for Murray and not Smith?
The chairmen doesn't need support – he's got a neck plenty hard enough to cope with the stick – but there's been a demented element among the criticism and a hysteria on the rumour mill that has had Murray seething one minute and almost laughing at the lies and the lunacy of it the next.
"Four days on the trot we had four different rumours and the tabloids are so gullible and so busy trying to cut each other's throats they put it in the paper. Ally McCoist having a fight on the floor of the dressing room with Martin Bain. Resigned and walked out the door. You know what I mean? Shaun Maloney at Murray Park. James McFadden doing a medical. People are posting these things on websites and then people are writing about them the next day. No foundation to them whatsoever. James McFadden? 32 grand and six million. Sorry, we don't do 32 grand a week and six million. Total rubbish."
The Cuellar situation is fascinating, too. Another stick to beat the boss with. "Where it was very difficult last week, we sat down with the supporters' assembly and they asked me had we had an offer for Cuellar and I said no but if we do get an offer we'll spend the money on new players. On the Friday night Carlos went to a supporters' do and told them he loved being at the club and the next day we get a phone call saying his agent is coming to Glasgow and wants to see us to talk about Carlos's sale. On the Monday Carlos tells Martin (Bain] he wants to go and play in the Premiership.
"I think Aston Villa were made aware of him wanting to go. From our point of view there was no sign of it coming. I saw him (a few days before]. 'Hiya Carlos'. 'Everything all right, chairman?' He walks along the corridor. Not a word more. What can I do about that? Here's his contract, look. We had to release him if a bid of ?10m came in. And here's the offer from Aston Villa; ?5m on registration, ?5m in 12 months. I didn't want to sell him. I had to sell him. No criticism of Aston Villa, it's football. I don't suppose Portsmouth are all that happy that all of a sudden we've decided to jump on Pedro Mendes the day before the Premiership starts."
Mendes is what Murray calls a real man. When Barry Ferguson returns from injury he says he's got "men in the midfield". Without saying it, there's no question that Rangers lack hardened pros with big hearts. The Paul Hartleys, the Barry Robsons, the Scott Browns are in short supply in the Ibrox midfield. Mark Bresciano, the Palermo midfielder, would appear to come into that category, too, but despite bidding £4m for the Italian it looks like he's staying put. Maurice Edu is a man, too, it seems. Though only 22 and with only six caps for USA and less than 40 games for Toronto FC to his credit, Murray likes the defensive midfielder. "He's been at the Olympics. This boy's a player. We're in negotiations at £2.5m. He's 6ft tall and a wee bit special. So we're not sitting on our backsides."
But let's say the band of critics get their way and Murray departs. Who'll come in exactly? Plan B, anybody? You noisy minority calling for change, you get Murray out the door. And… ? Who'll pay the bills? Who'll take your bile? Who'll soak up the scrutiny and the nonsense and drive on? You think they're queuing up to invest? You think they grow on trees, these chairmen prepared to put 20 years and £100m into your club? This newspaper has given Murray a few kickings in its time but anybody who wants rid of him at Rangers is either delusional or a Celtic fan. They'd love to see Murray depart and then observe the chaos from afar.
And here's the funny thing. The Murray Must Go! lobby? The Murray family are right there with you. They'd shout and roar just as loud and carry the placards just as high if they could. "These fans are right. Murray's happy to go. My family say it to me every week. Walter Smith doesn't know why I do it. He says 'What are you putting up with this for?'. Oh, in the beginning it was ego maybe, a chance to stick out my chest, but I feel huge responsibility to the club. I could just say 'f*** it' and go. I've plenty of things to do. But I won't do that. I'll do my best until somebody comes up with the answers. It's all very well saying do this and do that but there's not been a bad hand on the tiller the last 20 years. If somebody steps forward with a reasonable offer, I'll go, I'm happy to go, I don't need this in my life. But if the supporters want me to go – which I don't think a lot of them do – fine. But they're not making it easy for somebody else to come in."
Important point, this. Listen up Rangers Supporters Trust and all your indignant comrades. You might learn something.
"There are some things that could put off a new owner coming to the club. There's no doubt we have a small element whose behaviour in Manchester was unacceptable. There was unacceptable behaviour on both sides with some of the police as well but that's for another day. Somebody (a prospective buyer] must look at that and go 'oh'.
"They must see the public scrutiny that everybody comes under at such a big institution and must look at the financial underpinning that the Murray Group has done at Rangers. Let's be under no illusions, it's cost us £100m. I'll tell you this, unless you're backed by proper cash this club will have to downsize. There is an economic crisis out there. People should just sit down and take a minute to reflect. When we were running it in the past, probably slightly recklessly in a financial sense, I was criticised for not running it more soberly; I'm now trying to balance the books and I'm criticised again. Other than me going on the park and scoring goals, which I'm incapable of doing, I don't actually know what else I can do."
Some people won't listen. Those who believe that Murray is an asset-stripper, that he is in charge of a rudderless ship, that the series of blows that have hit Ibrox these past weeks are all his fault will not change their minds. So be it.
"We'll all survive. You get the feeling, though, that some of these detractors would like to see us lose because they think some white knight is going to come over the hill with a sword."
In fairness, it would be a useful weapon to cut through all the garbage that comes with the job.
The full article contains 1730 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
