Civil war at Rangers
Johnston was one of five directors who voiced their concerns on the club website about Whyte just hours after the alleged billionaire completed a deal to pay Sir David Murray £1 for 85% of the club.
Whyte extracted his revenge at a board meeting on Monday night that saw Johnston and fellow director Paul Murray sacked with chief executive Martin Bain and financial director Donald McIntyre suspended for reasons unknown.
It’s unclear how Whyte managed to sack two directors without a boardroom majority but within 24 hours of his sacking Johnston was embarking on a round of media interviews emphasising that he was ‘a lifelong Rangers fan and a real one’ whilst there is no evidence to back up Whyte’s support for the club.
Irked by Johnston’s comments Whyte, who has yet to host a media conference, issued a statement claiming: “I’ve been disappointed by comments regarding the takeover made by former board members who are clearly reluctant to embrace change.
“It is not uncommon to bring fresh thinking to an organisation in an effort to deliver greater success and that is the fundamental reason that changes have been made to the composition of the board.
“Further board appointments will be announced in due course. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the suspensions of the chief executive and finance director at this time.
“I believe most Rangers supporters understand that, as a result of the takeover, the club’s debt to the Lloyds Banking Group has been cleared and I have repeatedly stated to the board my intentions to invest in the team.”
The suspension of Bain places a major question mark over Ally McCoist’s ability to spend his transfer warchest with the suspended chief executive the man trusted to carry out transfer negitiations.
Rangers will face Champions League qualifying ties during July with only around a dozen players on the club’s books having experience of playing in Europe.
Whyte’s wealth and motivation for buying the club from Murray concerned the club’s directors with Johnston worried about the effect on 26,000 shareholders after 85% the club was sold for £1.
Johnston said: “I’m not going to make any comment with respect to the current circumstances at the current time, except that I will say – as a lifelong Rangers fan and a real one – that the 26,000 other shareholders in Rangers, as well as the hundreds of thousands of other supporters need to remain vigilant and continue to exert pressure on Mr Whyte to support the club financially as he has publicly committed to do.”
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