“Crash and burn”. That was the outcome I expected to await Murray International Holding’s (MIH) debt-fuelled expansion in the early part of the last decade. This wasn’t entrepreneurship. Borrowing money to invest in a market which was on a long-term growth spurt, without consideration that your asset values could fall, was corporate vandalism. It was a safe enough bet as long as the commercial property market continued its incessant upwards trend, but the bubble had to burst eventually.
There were other voices out there saying the same thing. In the pre-blog era I remember printed copies of the Dogs Bollox passed around like the potentially-subversive underground insights they were. It was financial madness, writ large, all you needed to do was step back a little to see what was happening.
Celtic Quick News started because the underlying story of the biggest issue in Scottish football – the ability of the two largest clubs to pay their bills – was not being told. Without Murray’s debt splurge, this blog would never have happened.
I gave running commentaries of what to expect of Rangers and MIH accounts when they were released in 2005, the evidence will be there, I told you. I didn’t expect a convenient, and remarkable, property revaluation. It was smoke and mirrors, though Murray inspired such confidence, even among Celtic fans, I remember “Why can’t we just revalue Celtic Park and borrow more?”
Millions were taken in executive pay and bonuses each year, despite borrowings galloping away, while the Bank of Scotland continued to open the vault. MIH wasn’t the only bad bet Bank of Scotland made, but it was the worst.
Rangers were the ultimate vanity project. Tens of thousands of people literally fawned before Murray, he wallowed in decades of deference, controlling oceans of the media. The best parts of history are never written, and what happened at Rangers, and with the Bank of Scotland is no different. While Murray is alive you’re only going to read the parts of this story with documented evidence.
The illegal EBT scandal was typical of how the business operated. Through this, and the also-illegal Discounted Options Scheme, Murray drove a horse and cart through the SFA rulebook. Lord Nimmo Smith found as much. In Craig Whyte, Rangers appointed a person who was not fit and proper to run a football club. Whyte was sine died from the game and Rangers were disciplined, but it was Murray who sold the business to Whyte, despite his personal history. For all the rule breaking, and subsequent havoc he inflicted on his club, Murray has not been brought to account by the SFA, his allies still hold the balance of power, but not for ever.
The knighthood for services to Scottish business will sound hollow to those who invested in MIH pensions, and who were recently told their funds are in trouble. Yesterday’s news that Murray is putting a squad of his businesses into liquidation, or from BBC’s Douglas Fraser that Murray’s family are buying “fire-sale assets” from MIH, which, he explains, “received what’s called “an unsolicited approach from the Murray family”, tells you what you need to know about the man.
If only there was the political will to ask for an inquiry into hundreds of millions of pounds of public money lost to the exchequer, as publicly-owned Lloyds, now owners of the Bank of Scotland, slowly come to terms with how deep the Charlotte Square money pit is. Murray’s acolytes, those who partied hard with him during the good times, remain scattered through Scotland, from Holyrood, to Hampden. It will take years before they slowly lose grip on their own fiefdoms.
Strip him of his title, discipline him for the rule-breaking in Scottish football, and have an inquiry into how his coalescence with the financial, political and media sectors rendered him immune from responsibility.
More later on Gary Mackay-Steven.
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I agree- not a bigot but a crooked ego maniac
Neil Doncaster and Stuart Regan are still in their posts because as long as they take the flak….those far more culpable, including supporters organisations, are safe, comfortable, part of the charade and happy to divert attention by refusing to address the needs of the real fans.
But don’t worry…..weren’t we great in 1967.
Hail hail
Estadio
coolmore mafia
He did end the no catholic signing policy ,probably because it realised it put them at a disadvantage in the transfer market. However I actually think in someways the bigotry got worse under him. Fresh generations of huns came through encouraged to sing the billyboys and simply the best with add ons. He could have stamped on it when they were winning everything and signing top world players but he didnt .
bournesouprecipe
Aye but can he do that on a foggy cold night in Northern Italy:))
Contradiction. Confusion. Incoherence.
The (predictable) results of having one foot in the real world and the other in a bizarre fantasy.
Another day … another example of warped, Sevco thinking …
http://thecelticblog.com/…/my-name-is-norman-i-am-a-rangers…
Re League Cup Semi
I think a bhoycott with a half empty stadium would be great and serve a number of purposes-
1. It would focus attention outside Scotland on the joke that has been the SFA accommodation of ourgave opponents. There would be a stark visualisation of our concerns and the MSM would finally have to discuss that which they have avoided for too long
2. A GIRUY to Doncaster and the SFA and a line in the sand in relation to their future conduct- don’t take us for fools and treat ALL clubs equally
3. A message to Celtic PLC that the ‘Old Firm’ is as dead as a Monty Python parrot and not to tango with whatever version of The Rangers emerges
http://thecelticblog.com/2015/01/blogs/my-name-is-norman-i-am-a-rangers-fan
Would help to post the proper link :)
Murray pandered to the more Hunnish elements of the Deady Bears support.I knew a guy who chucked it within months of him taking control and predicted that Murray’ s bumptious supremacist bullshit would lead to disaster.I occasionally wonder how that guy feels now.
SOT
The orange strip.
bournesouprecipe
17:41 on
14 January, 2015
Celtic go for the Juggler
————
There’s quite a few videos on youtube of outrageous bits of play by GMS. So much natural ability. Sign him on a Bosman and send him up a Ronny Deila Mr. Motivator dvd so he’s in prime condition for pre season.
starry
One trick ponies.
1. liked the pictures of next season’s New Balance (NB) Celtic top … if they are real
Some of NB’s strips are pretty awful, including what are allegedly NB’s Liverpool strip for next season, which makes me concerned …. .
http://www.liveforfootballshirts.com/new-balance-liverpool-kits-201516-leaked/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+liveforfootballshirts+%28Live+For+Football+Shirts+-+For+Fans+of+Footy+Shirts+New+%26+Old%29
2.
jamesgang
16:21 on 14 January, 2015
mike in toronto
Black and Tan squirrels?
I detest those bassas!
***
Ha! Didn’t pick that up when I was posting… you gave me the best laugh of the day!
JonnyRambo
He’s a ginger wee Jamesie ;-)
mike in toronto
Looking forward to the ole New Balance Friday’s.
South Of Tunis
17:40 on
14 January, 2015
Evening Citizen.
A choon buying obsession necessitated that a teenage me had a variety of part time jobs.One of them was delivering the Evening Citizen and the Evening Times.I got bigger tips from houses that took the Evening Citizen – Fact !
——————————————————————————————–
Fair doos. The Citizen was twice the size of the Times
We will pay for GMS, help us in getting option for Stuart Armstrong in the Summer.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
jamesgang
16:21 on 14 January, 2015
mike in toronto
Black and Tan squirrels?
I detest those bassas!
HH jamesgang
____________
HaHa…you are a nutter. HH
……..Sorry dear just coming………must dash Waffen Command CSC
mike in toronto
17:57 on
14 January, 2015
1. liked the pictures of next season’s New Balance (NB) Celtic top … if they are real
———-
Which one you about? I’ve seen a few but not sure if they are just fan mock ups
BSR
Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it?
However, you got me thinking…. what was the best Nike Friday?
Johnny Rambo … .it was posted on here earlier today. sorry, I cant remember by whom or when it was posted. Someone else might be able to point it out.
But it was a pretty simple hoops design … classic.
” in the first decade of this century.” hahahahhaha Clyde are wonderful….
“The club believe they should not be forced to pay the fine, which was issued by a commission appointed by the Scottish Premier League to look into the use of
Employee Benefit Trusts (EBT) at Ibrox in the first decade of this century.”
please distance ourselves from this oh so ancient legalstuffy!
Huntertainment for a good whiley yet ….braw
This is Radio Sash with some buy rite information
This is Radio Sash can’t we get those huns to listen
2 questions for awe yooz jeeny asses
1. Why cant you get a taxi in new York when it rains?
2. Why were returning WW2 bombers reinforced in those areas that had no damage?
Evening Citizen.
That takes me back.
I sold that paper in pubs all over West Lothian over 40 years ago. My mate and I were driven around in a Citizen van and we ran in and out of the pubs shouting Souvenir special, or as I remember, er ra souvenir speshul which was a colour supplement of a current Celtic player on one half and a current bun on the other, and we made quite a few quid, mostly tips. We also sold it around the wards of Bangour General Hospital where our tips included sweets, chocolate and various types of fruit. Good memories .
SPD 1956
Fancy skills by GMS there but no end result.
Sips
Mike in The Outback
Aye but I’m a Tim nutter.
Train mayhem this evening.
HH jamesgang
Erica, aka MISS TALLYBHOY, has asked me to thank all those who sent in birthday wishes earlier today.
HH!!
http://tinyurl.com/mhe3ykp
New top ?????
James Forrest
This is not just affecting sevco 5088 but the governing bodies
Syd Neg
He falls right at the very end.
I think RD will do a superlative job stitching the Celtic team and tactics together
between January and the end of the season. Those gems that make the tic tick will be
well placed to be sold (preferably to the EPL) next summer.
More executive bonuses all round and more shite for you and me.
bournesouprecipe
” The Orange Strip “.
Indeed .He ramped it up.The choons on the tannoy.The band .The songs .The Red White and Blue..******* Tina Turner. There was money in it for Murray plus giving Ra Berrs honey kept them from checking the contents of the rapidly emptying cupboard.
A mate of mine tells a great story about being in a Bearsden X tea and pastel coloured cup cake place when the Deady Bears are dead story broke – a classic Bearsden blue rinsed woman opined – ” there was always something fishy about him , it wouldnt surprise me if he really didn’t need the wheelchair “
estadio,
Why two stars? HH
bournesouprecipe
He’ll fit in well then. :-)
mike in toronto
I liked it too your dream Hoops kit probably from here. ;-)
In my opinion, Murray played them like a fiddle, the first of a gang of band leaders who knew they were a gullible cash cow to be milked to death. Craigy Bhoy and Charlie Bhoy just mopped up the dregs. Shame? Ha,bloody ha!
Half-Hun, Half-Mongoose on STV sports news doing Hearts team talk for them.