“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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Yawn
The Battered Bunnet.
It looks like positioning to me.Poker in the Blue Room- Raise You / See You whilst the player with the biggest funds has 2 pals wandering round the table having a look at the other hands.
Alfie Noakes
11:45 on
15 January, 2015
I will use any and every forum
===================================
gonna do us all a favour fella and use one of these forums then, just not this one, as your drivel is stating to get boring
yawn
stating = starting
Zbyszek
Livibhoy
I know Polish league and know that Semir Stilic would be better option for Celtic than Radovic could be. Paul67 was right when called for this transfer here.
What about both?
LB
If I was a bettin’ man, which I’m not……………
I’d bet that the hun panto ownership “konundrum” with all the various kast members and kostooms
will klarify signifikantly on the eve of the LKSF……
“…………,oh yes it wull!”
Mark my words…..
A whole new level of hunguffery.
Aye.
!!Bada Bing!!
!!Bada Bing!!
I think Mike the Tim is the smartest guy in the room and enjoys the thrill of the chase playing the Three Bears like a cheap flute:))
Looks like a win win for ole Mike, meanwhile back at SFA HQ it’s business as usual, rule bending, backwards bending etc etc etc
Fit and Proper my erchie…
sorry about the k thing……….it’s annoying
I know.
Paul the tim has announced the signing of Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract deal:)
(He’s a brand new guy is PTT but hes been wrong before!)
HH
https://twitter.com/bbcjimspence/status/555687660757712896
The 3 bears remind me of the two auld blokes at the end of trading places. Screaming about wanting their money back and turning the machines back on when they realise they have been had and they are out the door!
LB
apologies if already posted
http://www.talkingbaws.com/2015/01/15/metro-newspaper-start-war-of-words-between-celtic-rangers-fans-after-old-firm-died-post/?
Livibhoy
I’m with you – I’d take the two of them. Both would fit into Ronny’s style of play. Armstrong looks a real athlete, which you need nowadays. GMS might need a few sessions in the gym, but has good pace and skill and scores a few too.
Trad 88
Did PTM say Gary Mackay Stevens or did he say GMS?
Hail Hail
Estadio
Estadio
I think he got the full name treatment from PTT:)
HH
Are Paul the Tim and Jim Spence one and the same!!??
GlassTwoThirdsFull
GMS is coping well enough in the league just now.
LB
Livibhoy
Both would be perfect but I think Stilic particularly would bring enough quality to whole team and change of the scheme of the game. If one of them, I would take Stilic.
Zbyszek
Interesting stuff.
Can you work as a scout for Celtic???
LB
I know im in the minority here but 2 things….first i think the SFA will call out Mike Ashley on his ever increasing involvment over at ibrokes…second …i just love Alfie Noakes and find his posts really funny….as im sure they are ment to be, i mean,they are ment to be funny…right……
Stilic is hundred percent playmaker. Radovic is attacking midfielder, or striker, less playmaker but can do all of this.
Zbyszek
The more you talk about Stilic the more I want to see him run things on the park for Celtic..
HH
http://theviewfromjoemcgrath.wordpress.com/
Zbyszek
Bringing both makes sense to me. I would be delighted with Radovic as I have never seen the other boy play.
I bow to your superior knowledge though.
LB
I think the stick being directed at our scouting team is a bit over the top.
You identify players. The manager then decides who he wants to target. You then have to negotiate a transfer in spite of opposition from other clubs, a player to convince etc etc.
We have no idea who the scouting team identify.
Zbysek – Legia may have done well this season but i don’t recall them doing very well in Europe generally in recent years. In fact, it’s only a coupe of years since the Legia scouts identified Nacho Novo as a good signing.
Every club goes through peaks and troughs when it comes to buying players.
At the risk of offending you mate (hopefully you understand where i am coming from ) the expectation at Celtic is far higher than at Legia.
Inter
Milan media assuming that the absence of Osvaldo and M’Vila from a squad dinner at a ristorante owned by Zanetti and Cambiasso is confirmation that Inter have decided that those two are to be shown the door.There are no suggestions re which clubs might be desperate enough to sign “a bad apple ” ( or two )
Didn’t mean to copy above …..trying to copy something else ….!! :)
Livibhoy
True, but for European level I think he could do with bulking up a wee bit. Look how Ronaldo and Bale improved.
GlassTwoThirdsFull
12:18 on
15 January, 2015
Livibhoy
True, but for European level I think he could do with bulking up a wee bit. Look how Ronaldo and Bale improved.
GMS = G enetically M odified S uperstar?
6.5 million tick tock
Interesting announcement by ashley.
Should this nail the deeds argument finally?
Either he secures loans against the stadium and training therefore TRIFC own them, or he can’t because someone else owns them. Fair enough take on it?
Alfie Tokes
just how are the old, the disabled and the genuinely out of work coping under the Buthcers Apron of the union right now?
Keep brushing.
MWD said AYE ya bendy banana Hun
http://etims.net/?p=6355
Etims diary hinting that GMS will be our only signing this month.
JimSpence tweeting we are signing him on a pre-contract to join us in the summer as we won’t pay the £250k.
Surely not!!!
new article posted.
Zbyszek
Stilic.
Any ideas re why he doesn’t get a game for Bosnia / Herzegovina ?
kdc,
I think if the deeds do make an appearance finally, it is answer a whole raft of questions about the situation in Govan. Let’s be hearing you, Bomber.
Direct FFin’ action:
“Something has to happen.”
——
“The only thing they’ll listen to is violence I believe.”
——
“War has been declared by todays news, we must now unite as one and meet this head on with direct action… block Edmiston Drive then cause disruption to the city centre, believe me that will get some action”
——
“Storming Ibrox would be a better option”
——
“It’s now time to take direct action against sports direct.
Stores should be picketed. This would happen as a matter of course in Italy or any South American country.
I’m not advocating any illegality but trying ten items on and not choosing to purchase any could be an option.
Time to get off the Internet and onto the streets.”
——
“for months now I’ve refused to let McGill’s buses pull out from stops and I sometimes drive really slowly in front of them until I can see the driver’s face starting to fume in my mirror.”
——
“Disrupt a match by continually throwing bog rolls etc on the pitch at points during a game.”
New article?