“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.
[calameo code=0003901718eccc6101c78 lang=en page=1 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
1,115 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- ...
- 30
- »
Loving Cup ( Flood update )
via bada bing
Dallas
Apart from having hair, he is very like me in looks and character. Hahaha
hehehehe a wee bit o watter will do them all good….do you think they will be on the dog and bone to oor hero to get it fixed ? his track record isnae that great when paying for roof repairs :) castle grant etc etc court appearance for not paying the roofers….hahahaha
maybe they can spin it into a “wethunashleytop” contest …..
braw ….
Minging in the Rain
Sipsini
I remember that susie minty interview. Bad karma now. :))
GaryG…, OG,
Thanks.
Nothing altruistic ever came out of those clubs.
Kicking and screaming is their method of transport to enlightenment.
The Comfortable Collective
Superb
BSR-Ta
NB
As long as it’s no Holy Watter sent by The Unseen Fenian Hand?
They will be happy.
Braw ;)
marrakesh express
They really are sick people, there should hold no place in a civilised society, the mind boggles when you compare ttheir behaviour against the victimisation of our support.
Maybe they should put the floodlights on?
Sipsini, souness and murray knew what they were doing when they signed the ginger minger that judas still is.
It was a reak kick in the rab haw’s for us.
5* stadias don’t leak……shoorly
That was a fair size unit of a cop apprehending the racist with the specs.
marrakesh express
22:04 on 14 JanuaRyan,
I’ve only ever had one hun admit it was murray that killed them, the rest still glorify him…as in we wouldn’t have got nine in a row.
Fickle, sad and delusional.
Is that the Willo Flood window?
neustadt-braw
The rain will keep the dust down that they’re blanking!
Topkat
5 star victorian lavvy that leaks like a sieve. You meant surely. ;)
Delaney’s, i always thought you were unique but i’m delighted ryan is a chip off the old block.
Syd neg- braw!!
Bhoys ,
Brilliant deathstar leaking pics , thanks for posting them………
DD………………. :)
the perfect storm is brewing ….the next load of watter will be awfy awfy hot …..
Huntertainment for all roll up roll up….
qfirasongcfc
The comfortable collective
:):):):):):):):):)
Good night all, sleep well even though its a howling gale here in ice staion zebra ( east kilbride)
Good times thinking of watching their demise close up …..
When one of their own from N Ireland scored 3 at Ibrox in a 3 nil Hibs win and my old mum could not keep herself seated on the blue side of the directors box when the 3rd went in.
Or when my daughter, then 12 but now 21 refused to stick to protocol (rangers players only) and put down Henrik to score the first goal in an old firm (remember them) game. Her prize of a signed ranjurs football was not her best ever win, nor was she popular in the Greig Suite that day. We won that game 2 1 but it could have been 5 I recall.
Or when 4 of us wore Old Aloysian ties to the Blue Room when big bad john scored in the 46th minute and we were the only ones back in the directors box to witness it, never mind enjoy it.
Roy Keane putting their gas on a peep for Man U. He of all people.
Or when I was caught on TV shaking Laporte the Barca President in front of Sir David after they had fluked their 0. 0. Draw. My mother didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as Murray showed his frustration at not getting the limelight.
Best of all was sat in the Directors Room. As opposed to the Blue Room. This was for Directors only. I would often nip in midweek to use it to impress ranjurs customers as few could ever go there. Old wooden table. Only 1 chair with arms, grandmother clock ticking fireplace in corner. Pictures of past chairmen looking down breathing and asking in unison “what is that catholic” doing in our midst ?
Of course sir David was the only one whose picture was in colour !
Brown brogues and last days of a dying institution.
Our day has come. Enjoy it.
Seb Rozental ?
Memories of a couple of steamers in The Hayburn Vaults bemoaning how ******* useless he was but at least he wasn’t a ******* Catholic
NB NB gie us a braw song! :)
Angry White and Proud on C4 now
Just a crowd of sad pathetic middle aged men with nothin better to do with their time
Sevco top spotted in the crowd
Sipsini
He wanted to beat 9, failed. Who was second man on the moon and all that.
He wanted 2 big cups, cheating allowed, failed again.
A chant of ‘We arra people’ now
Been thinking a lot about whether we should go for Armstrong based on our current midfield.
With RD in charge we will always look to play either 433 or 4231. At present our 3 in midfield consists of Biton, Brown and Johansen with Henderson, Kayal and Mulgrew as back up.
One of the reasons we may not consider signing Armstrong is his similarities to Henderson who is a fantastic young talent. I reckon both Armstrong and Henderson are probably better long term prospects at the head of the midfield 3 than Johansen. Johansen has been very good for us this season in that position but I reckon both Armstrong and Henderson will develop into better players for this role.
Johansen was poor at the start of the season when he played further back with Brown. However, this deeper role is where he played for us last season, is where he played for Stromgodset and is where he plays for Norway. I think his long term future lies there. There is nothing to say either Henderson and Armstrong can’t be converted into deeper midfielders also. Henderson and Armstrong remind me a little bit of Gerrard and Henderson at Liverpool. Both these players started in more attacking roles and have moved deeper.
I think a midfield 5 of Brown, Johansen, Biton, Henderson and Armstrong to fill the 3 central midfield positions would be very strong (although I remain to be fully convinced by Biton). These would support the forward three of a striker (Guidetti/ Scepovic) a speedy winger type player on one side (e.g. Forrest/ + another option) and a playmaker type wide player on the other side (someone like a Nakamura).
Bhoylo 83
Scum of the earth they people
I thought I`d mark the liquidation of Sir Skinty Minty`s companies by posting this finest cut of succulent lamb journalism from one of Minty`s favourite propaganda merchants, Ken Gallacher, writing in the Herald in May 2000.
The Herald, May 2000
KEN GALLACHER
Murray’s Blueprint
Just as promised, Rangers are moving on to another level from the rest of Scottish football, as chairman David Murray announced a new investment of £53m for the Ibrox club, with a further massive cash boost soon to follow.
The eventual cash injection could soar as high as £80m as Murray guides the club into what he believes will be a new, golden era for the Scottish champions. The money involved, the biggest financial boost for any Scottish football club, will enable them to move into Europe’s elite over the next few years.
Yesterday, however, Murray maintained, as always, that he will not turn his back on Scottish football to play in any other league, and that while he remains in charge of the club, he will retain a responsibility to the domestic game.
It is clear from this latest move, however, that the Glasgow giants are setting an agenda that no other Scottish club can match – and that appears to include their Old Firm rivals, Celtic, who are trailing by 15 points in the Premier League championship and are now looking at a financial gap which the Parkhead club might not be able to bridge.
There have been hints around Glasgow that Celtic could be ready to attempt a share flotation of their own, but it would seem unlikely they would be able to match the financial clout that Murray has put together.
The Ibrox chairman promised his shareholders good news and a more prudent financial strategy at the last annual meeting of the club. He has now delivered this by taking on board several very heavy financial hitters, South African-based David King is worth around £300m – £20m of which he is investing in the club he followed as a young man in Glasgow.
The Ibrox chairman has spent several months and many sleepless nights piecing together the plans which will eliminate Rangers’ debt, currently sitting at around £40m, provide finance for the new training centre and the soccer academy which will be housed there, and still allow cash to invest in new players.
He said: ‘I want to make it clear from the outset that while our small shareholders, our supporters who have an interest in the club, will have the opportunity to invest again if they want, there is no pressure on them to do so. The bulk of the rights issue is being taken up by myself and David King and some other smaller investors, including Alastair Johnston, who is a long-time Rangers’ supporter.’
——————————————————————————————————————–
If Ken Gallacher were still alive I`d very much like to ask him how this “more prudent financial strategy” worked out for Moonbeams and Rangers. I`d also like to ask him if he ever anticipated that Murray would exercise his “financial clout” by selling the club for £1.00. I`d ask him what part of Sourness regularly withdrawing players from Scotland squads for no reason sat well with Murray`s stated claim not to turn his back on Scottish football. Finally I`d ask him how long it took Murray to guide Rangers into Europe`s elite, as promised in his blinkered propaganda piece.
Shirley the “We arra people ” are pygmies ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZXbU_d_7c
fill yer boots…. :)
niallo83
22:51 on 14 January, 2015
Been thinking a lot about whether we should go for Armstrong based on our current midfield.
______________
Are you a commentator on sky sports perchance :-)
Franny
They really do make me laugh
Pity its so serious
Bhoylo83
Them huns gotta do summit…’we arra peepil ‘ getting an airing too. fekn saddo’s