Paul Murray in full denial as he rewrites history on the eve of Administration 2012 celebrations

Paul Murray has been rewriting history, recalling his heroic role in saving Rangers from death in 2012.  

On 14 February 2012 the club was placed in administration, with no wealthy blue-nosed bears prepared to go near the toxic stench Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth knocked back a half-hearted CVA four months later to put the club into liquidation. 

BDO has still to complete the liquidation process, 276 trade creditors have still to receive a pay out while thousands of fans lost their cherished Debentures. 

Murray was a director of the club under Dave Murray who ended up selling up for one pound to Craig Whyte with no other buyers prepared to take on debts with the shadow of HMRC chasing after payment for a decade long scam. That happened on Paul Murray’s watch without a public word of warning from the borders ‘businessman’. 

Murray has been explaining his own heroic role to the Daily Mail with The Sun picking up on his revisionism: 

I think I said the day he bought the club that it would end in administration. It was just so obvious to me as a financial person that it was going to go that way. To watch that car crash in slow motion was distressing as a fan, first and foremost. 

I kind of helped break the story that Craig Whyte had bought the club by effectively selling forward the season tickets. 

Murray kind of never broke the story of the Ticketus deal. It was discussed widely on Celtic message board Kerrydale Street then surfaced in the Daily Record before quickly being taken down to allow the Glasgow based publisher to stay in the loop with the new regime at Ibrox. 

Discussing that issue in February 2020 Keith Jackson told Daily Record readers: 

Paul Murray, who was on the Rangers board at the time, reached out to make contact with me through a third party to express his own deep rooted concerns about the ‘disastrous consequences’ of a successful Whyte takeover. 

From that moment on the two of us worked hand-in-hand in order to expose the real Craig Whyte. Paul did so for the love of his club. I sought to right a mortifying wrong. Whyte will claim that he had the power to control the editorial output of the Daily Record.

He will make reference to one specific exclusive in which I revealed his ruinous plan to mortgage off future season- ticket sales in the kind of spectacularly high-risk financial model which led to the demise of Leeds United. 

Whyte will claim he successfully ordered Traynor to stop this story from being printed. And these claims are untrue. 

In fact, my story was splashed across the back page of the Daily Record on June 14, 2011. Only one month after his takeover had gone through. 

And this story was deleted from the Record website within 20 hours of seeing the light of day. 

Other than briefing his pals at the Daily Record Murray did nothing, he had too much dignity to inform supporters and shareholders that Ally McCoist’s failure to beat Malmo or Maribor meant that payments to HMRC stopped in September. 

In the autumn McCoist’s side had built up a 15 point lead in the SPL, by the end of December they were a point behind Celtic. Murray said nothing as administration approached, 276 creditors left high and dry including florists, newsagents, taxi firms, Her Majesty and a face painter. 

After administration in February he resurfaced fronting groups like the Blue Knights but with no wealth to his name own all he could do was yap about spending other people’s money while he got fitted out for a new blazer and brogues. 

Murray used to work for a German bank, Craig Whyte used to own a football club but they went into liquidation in 2012 never to be seen again.