Prompted by the secretive Union of Fans group, licking their wounds from being ditched by Dave King, the last few days have seen an outpouring of sympathy for Dave Murray.
After two decades hogging the headlines, dispatching his moonbeams without any sort of critical comment or reality, Murray has kept a low profile since pocketing a pound coin from former billionaire Craig Whyte for selling Scotland’s second biggest institution.
After six months of negotiating and having access to information that internet bampots could only dream of Murray was apparently duped into the deal unaware of Whyte’s dubious background and business history which included a seven year ban from holding a UK directorship.
The onslaught of sympathy for Murray has been met with dismay from the online community as the failed decisions and risks taken by Murray are apparently airbrushed from his cv, much like a dishonest referee will attempt to clean his google history.
There are a few places where the voices of reason and discussion can still be heard, few better than the Scottish Football Monitor, where a number of informed posters are able to articulate their feelings.
PTD1978 is the latest poster to lay bare the facts about the favourable media and treatment given to all characters Ibrox and while some sections of the support howl at the moon in anger their own best needs are being shafted by the soft soap and red carpet treatment offered to Mr Murray, Mr Whyte, Mr Green and Mr King.
“I can just imagine David Murray thinking to himself whether it was wise to have a pop at HMRC and the bank after the UTT result,” PTD1978 opened with.
“If anyone comes out and explains their position, he should to come under some serious scrutiny. From HMRC’s perspective, Rangers under his watch had already operated an illegal tax scheme. They had lied about the existence of various documents and attempted to mislead HMRC in a totally unacceptable manner.
“When certain documents did come to light, it was as a result of a police raid due to suspicious transfer activity. After the decision to go after Rangers and look for a finding that would let them go after many more EBT schemes, it came to light that contractual side letters did exist, despite lies to the contrary and evidence was found that board members (Bain) were shredding relevant documents in order to keep them from HMRC.
“ALL of this was Murray’s responsibility and frankly he should be serving the same ban as Craig Whyte.
“HMRC did exactly the right thing. Not assessing the Rangers EBT as taxable would have been seriously negligent.
The bank were in a similar place. Lloyds were acutely aware of the money pit that was MIH and of the need to separate Rangers to sever a public relations problem while going after Murray.
“They tried to make Rangers solvent but because of Murray it was impossible. They knew that Murray was a failed businessman running a failed business in a way so as to pretend he was a success. He was burning the bank’s money.
“They knew Murray’s character well and it forced their hand. Forcing the sale and getting their money actually gave Rangers a chance if survival. It wasn’t Lloyds’ fault that Whyte didn’t have the cash. It wasn’t their responsibility to make sure either.
“That was Murray’s and he went ahead despite it being clear the Whyte was totally unsuitable, because he needed to pay the bank (and HMRC) and didn’t want to hand back any of the millions he had personally taken out of Rangers over the years and couldn’t access MIH because he’d ruined that business too and the bank wouldn’t let him.
“Murray is probably the least savoury character in the whole sorry tale. At least Green doesn’t care that people know he was there to make himself rich and didn’t care about the football. When push came to shove, Murray didn’t dip into his own personal wealth to protect Rangers.
“Having set up a way in which his family can buy certain MIH assets cheap before the firesale is publicly on, he then sacrificed Rangers so he could pretend it wasn’t his fault that they were in such a sorry state. A bit of humility from Murray might have given Rangers a fighting chance of survival.
“A personal investment from Murray and a £6million loan repayment alongside some honest dealing with the bank would have given than time to restructure and avoid the need for a patsy like Craig Whyte while the club was stabilised at a non CL dependant level, Murray park was sold, a plan to reduce the wage bill that was acceptable to Lloyds was introduced and after all that, possibly a credible buyer might be found if Murray accepted any BTC liability.
“Instead he chose to protect his own ego. This man has lost almost a billion pounds and been the controlling director of a company with grossly underfunded pension funds, but he will never personally be poor or receive the criticism his actions merit.
“I really hope the idiotic stories about blaming HMRC or Lloyds forces them to explain their position. The Rangers saga will not end properly until Murray’s role is analysed and he is exposed as a hubristic failure, who should never be allowed to control any kind of business again – ever!”
With no hope of the Scottish football authorities bringing the Ibrox club into line it seems that it will be the self indulgence, forgotten share options and onerous contracts that brings reality to the situation.
As George Letham awaits the repayment of his emergency loan from February, the pantomime rumbles on with a string of 30 somethings picking up lucrative contracts with the austerity required by Mr Wallaces’s 128 day review still to see the light of day.
CLICK HERE to read PTD1978 post at 12.41 on July 14
