Richard Gough has sent a chilling message of austerity to Sevco fans ahead of the transfer window opening.
The South African defender was brought to Ibrox in 1987 under the Lawrence Marlbrough board before the debt was handed on to Dave Murray when the old regime sold up a year later with the Bank of Scotland providing the steel tycoon with £6m to take on the debt laden company.
Bank of Scotland then provided the funds for a highly tainted nine-in-a-row as Murray used a number of schemes and scams to bring in a stream of England internationalists plus stars from Serie A.
A year after Murray passed the club to Craig Whyte it was put into liquidation but Gough will never criticise the policies that killed the club he loved.
As a global ambassador for the tribute act he admits that playing by the same rules as other clubs is a sobering experience.
“It won’t be easy to get closer to Celtic and the Rangers supporters know that,” he told the Daily Record. “It’s a challenge. Football clubs are about one thing – good players. It’s about trying to get better players than the ones you’ve already got.
“We hope there will be investment. How much? Who knows? People say the chairman isn’t here often enough? This football club is all about opinions. If things are going well, that wouldn’t be mentioned. When things aren’t going well, it is.
“All I would say is that it’s a lot better than it was two or three years ago.”
Three years ago the club had no soft loans and a share listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Today’s Gough’s pal King is playing hide and seek with the Takeover Appeal Board knowing that the cold shoulder for defying their ruling will have devastating consequences for the club’s day to day business with the notion of a transfer war-chest as likely as Gough getting a front-line job in football.