Before watching his club draw 0-0 at Cowdenbeath, Paul Murray again gave a lecture on how he will revolutionise Scottish football!
The euphoria of his landslide vote onto the Sevco board, 15 months after failing on the Jim McColl ticket, was still evident as he avoided answering the questions of how he intends seeing the club with losses of £1m a month through till the end of the season.
Dave King’s return to South Africa on Wednesday will see Murray left in the firing line as MASH request repayment of their £5m loan with the clock racing towards the March payroll with only gate money to meet the bills.
The reality of the situation will soon hit the borders banker who turned a blind eye to the EBT scheme operated by Dave Murray and the non-payment of a £6m tax bill due on payments made to Tore Andre Flo, Ronald de Boer and Craig Moore.
Murray should be serving a five year ban from holding any role in Scottish football but with the SFA remaining silent the silver haired banker is plotting his way onto the committee’s of power.
“I believe Rangers are the biggest club in Scotland and I think what comes with that is a responsibility to lead Scottish football,” he told the BBC.
“I’m 50 years of age now and in my lifetime, and before that, Rangers very much led Scottish football in terms of the governance and the strategy, obviously along with Celtic and other clubs, and in the last 15-20 years that’s been gradually declining and we need to get back to that way of thinking.
“A lot of people have got strong views on what happened to Rangers and that’s fine, and I’ve got strong views as well, but we need to move forward now and grasp the situation and lead Scottish football.
“In terms of practical things it’s rejoining some of the committees that determine what’s happening in the game, participating in discussions about the strategy of the game, these are things we’ve got to be involved in as we are the biggest club in
Scotland in my view.”
It’s not just footballing matters that Murray is ready to dominate- Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct contracts are also on the ‘to do’ list of the Sevco supremo.
When he settles into the directors box for Tuesday’s match against Queen of the South he will look out at a stadium with Sports Direct logo’s hanging from every vantage point.
Over the last six months Sports Direct have strengthened their retail deals with the cash strapped club but with Murray in power those deals could be binned!
“It’s fairly obvious that if Rangers are successful, Sports Direct will benefit from that so you’d like to think he will see that that’s a benefit,” Murray added.
“Mike Ashley’s a very successful retailer, he’s one of the best in the UK, so we need to sit down with him and understand what’s in the contracts and then decide if that’s in the best interests of the club.
“If it’s not in the best interests of the club, we will change it. I’ve not seen the contracts.”
Any attempt to bin the retail contracts is likely to be met with instant legal action from Ashley that not even the soothing tones of Murray will be able to compete with.
