“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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Burnley78 @ 20.30
Fair enjoyed that.
BT
I believe BMCUW is correct. ( Read that again 0:-) )
As far as I know, Celtic are bound to use whatever name the SPFL use for this match. On the Celtic site, they can refer to them in any way they wish ( within reason. I am not sure DOB`s would go unchallenged ) but we must stay with whatever the SPFL use when promoting/selling tickets.
Hope you are coping well .
JJ
Burnley78
Liking that…..I sat with my brother in law at Ipox, we got grubbed 4-2. We both agreed that our day would come and that days like that would make it all the sweeter. We always speak about looking forward to the day when Souness, Murray and Smith would be staring at an empty wallet as they wandered down the marble staircase…enjoy.
DD,
Are you going to the semi final? I’ll probably head into the gollwgate when we leave the kerrydale, most likely lynches.
Of all the people mentioned as a Celtic manager, very few named Big Mick McCarthy. Yet he was platey manager at Millwall, until aged 36 he became ROI manager. In my opinion he did brilliantly, never mind Keane, with the Republic. He took Sunderland to the EPL on a shoestring, and was hung out to dry by the Sunderland board refusing him a penny for players. He then did a tremendous job for Wolves–ask their supporters if they’d like him back. Now at Ipswich he took a team that was near bottom of the English Championship last year and has them challenging for promotion. You know what? I think he’d walk to Celtic Park if asked. I would be spreading shamrock on his path.
Jobo/JJ
They are not Rfc
They are trfc
Call them their name
By calling them Rfc we are allowing the myth to continue
Jobo
Call them what they call themselves at least!
The Rangers Football Club.
Got a definite article?
Then use it!
And if the SPFL object, refer them to Rangers International Football Club’s own website.
jungle jim hot smoked
Does that mean the more games you actually see live the better your grasp of players, tactics and formation?
I’ll keep that in mind :-)
SFTB wrote a great post a good bit back about the pros/cons of attending games as opposed to viewing on TV.
Big Vic pulls up. . .hamstring, by the look of it.
Victor Wanyama is a £10m to £15m player in the EPL…..in the Bundesliga , Primera Liga or Serie A , he’s another big atlhletic footballer……there are are a lot of them. Well played us for cashing in……incidentally he is sorely missed in our current team.
BT / Beatbhoy –
thanks to the link posted on the last page I now stand educated! The Rangers it is then. But the rest of my post stands good ;-)
The idea that a paid for opinion in a Glasgow newspaper will influence the wider Scottish football support is as parochial and puerile as the sentiments expressed in it.
The goody two shoes mention of money to charity at the end typifies the Pharisaic quality of the charity doled out by many Celtic supporters.
For the record I am not one of those Celtic supporters.
Hamiltontim
20:44 on
14 January, 2015
jungle jim hot smoked
Does that mean the more games you actually see live the better your grasp of players, tactics and formation?
JJ, you have just lost your next argument with HT
jungle jim hot smoked
20:18 on 14 January, 2015,
__________
Totally agree with you on Scott Brown, he keeps us together on the park, with the tactics RD deploys sometimes we need him more than ever to keep the team balanced.
How on earth is our game on Saturday in doubt already……
Ntassoola-for the record (Daily) you are an interloping Hun if ever I spied one.
Aye aye, Cap’n.
HT
No. It means that Scott Brown`s contribution to Celtic is more obvious, to me, when I am actually at the games.
As regards tactics I am clueless whether at the game or watching TV; formation is more obvious on TV and players performance is more obvious live.
JJ
Sipsini
A game I am happy for my family and I to miss. I will not venture outwith Clydebank that day bud.
Well played Villarreal there 3-2 agg win.
Raymac
20:53 on
14 January, 2015
Ntassoola-for the record (Daily) you are an interloping Hun if ever I spied one.
an appropriate anagram of his name has been pointed out before
Oh oh another shift change and a blast from the past!
JOBO
No argument from me about the rest of your post.
Hail Hail!
John Wark sounds like Billy Connolly!
HH jamesgang
JJ
So that’s a yes then? :-)
burnley78
20:30 on 14 January, 2015
Memories….
Good story…
I was there in 88 (v Bucharest (think) thro business(not my choice) when ‘hospitality’ was starting at bigotdome. In the directors box.
Think Souness tried to do one of their players
Anyway pre game started off at their club – Eddie Munster House where games v Tic were on but when Celtic scored screen went blank.
Anyway – went to the game – Jack Gillespie’s wife was hostess serving drink fae a wooden table in the ‘Hospitality Suite’
Was there when everyone in the directors box all stamped their feet to the usual tunes.
Half time – all the huns in for their pie cake and tea
Steedmans front of the queue.
Oh how I love it now !
Good grief, reading alfie’s posts is like extracts from hitler’s diary.
I’ll definitely be voting SNP if for no other reason than to annoy this ignorant, arrogant up his own back entrance, dinosaur.
JJ 2039
Not sure I agree with you there. CFC can easily call them by their legal name, who can rail against that in any reasonable fashion? Are you going down for the Motherwell game, I may do so, possibly staying the night.
HH
HT
Does the first word of my response not indicate otherwise?
JJ
ntassoolla
Welcome to CQN.
Ps you ain’t read the statement but bought the dummy we sold them.
Burnley 78.
On the contrary, the herald article on the 25th will possibly heal some divisions in the Celtic support, rather than as you suggest cause division.
The idea is not to humiliate or pity anyone, it is simply to state the truth. I fail to see how any Celtic fan can not endorse the truth. Nothing more, nothing less.
HH.
PS : Raymac, Mick McCarthy is one of the better shouts for manager if there was ever a vacancy.
http://www.scotsman.com/business/retail/former-rangers-owner-david-murray-liquidates-firms-1-3660075
winning captains
20:59 on
14 January, 2015
he aint new, for some reason this is a good time to return
JJ
Your second sentence ‘indicates’ otherwise.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
20:57 on
14 January, 2015
I’ve added him to my ever increasing “scroll by” user list :0)
Oh no there’s 2 o them….
Friesdorfer
I am basing my point on some information I was given at the time of out Glasgow Cup (?) game at youth level. I emailed JPT ( The Liaison Officer) and, if memory serves me well,his reply suggested that Celtic had to use whatever name was on the information sent from the relevant authority.
Yes. Going to the Motherwell game ( I find it helps me understand the game better when I am actually there 0:-) ) but not sure about mode of travel yet.
JJ
raymac
20:43 on 14 January, 2015
We’ve got a manager moochacho
i want to claim copyright on using the norman bates comparison first,
i was using it mumfs and mumfs ago.
use it though, its magic/
—————
James Forrest
17:51 on
14 January, 2015
http://thecelticblog.com/2015/01/blogs/my-name-is-norman-i-am-a-rangers-fan
Would help to post the proper link :)