Rangers fans want better, but Murray ain't listening

If you're a club running 2nd in the race for a title you've craved for years, what's worse than selling your leading striker? How about trying to sell your striker and failing - leaving you with one potentially grumpy player, the same pressing debts that obliged you to accept a bid in the first place, and exposing a massive rift between the club and its fans?

David Murray doesn't have his problems to seek at the moment, but he's coming out fighting. After the launch of a Rangers Supporters Trust campaign called "We deserve better", Murray dismissed them as "not exactly captains of industry".

Yup, the faithful ain't happy, but their chairman isn't listening. Unless Murray manages to sell the club (which looks less and less likely by the day), Rangers are stuck with him, and he'll run the club as he sees fit, thanks very much. After all, he's a successful businessman, while they... are not.

Fine, but there's a couple of flaws in this argument. Firstly, it's not hard to pick holes in the way Rangers have been managed by Murray, not least the disastruous spending spree under Dick Advocaat that saddled the club with debt it just can't shake off.

Then there's his other businesses. Murray International Holdings is held up in the Scottish press as one of the country's most successful private companies, but increasingly, questions are being asked about just how successful it is. It's main areas of operation apart from Rangers are commodities and property development - neither of which look sound investments right now. Because it's private, of course, it's impossible to get a really accurate idea of the company's state of health. One thing for sure is that things will only get tougher in the year ahead.

It's fair to say that not all Rangers fans are behind the "We deserve better" campaign, perhaps in part because they realise there is no new investor waiting to pour money into the club. But at a time when a sizeable proportion of the support are demanding more, Murray is trying to lessen Rangers' dependence on him.

If Kris Boyd keeps digging his heels in over a move, someone else will have to go. It could get fraught.

20 years and still got something to prove

In case you missed it, Sir David Murray celebrated twenty years at the helm of Rangers Football Club last weekend. Being unaware of this anniversary would almost certainly require you to be living outside Scotland, because various arms of the media at home have ensured that this is recognised as a BIG STORY.

On the face of it, this is strange, because Rangers are palpably a club in decline, and simply not the best anymore, on any level. Murray's legacy is hardly unambiguous, either... the transformation of Rangers into a big spending, "modern" club started before he bought in, and while the stamping out of any unofficial "no Catholics" signing policy can only be positive, this remains an institution with sectarian demons left to slay.

Why, then, is some coverage of Sir David Murray, Sir, so fawning? Well, there's old journalistic traditions - a defiantly Establishment profession, which naturally gravitated towards the Establishment's club. There was also the success in the 1980s and 1990s, which attracted followers like moths to a flame. No doubt, Rangers benefit from partisan media coverage, and this anniversary has given all the usual suspects a chance to celebrate their favoured club.

Sir David Murray, Sir, Dear Sir, never wanted to reach this milestone. He's been keen to sell the club for some time, if only someone would buy it. But it hasn't happened, and it won't happen in the forseeable future... this is a club with significant debts, and a toxic brand damaged by, amongst other things, the yobbishness of the fans in Manchester at the UEFA Cup Final. An event that should have been a great showcase for the club, win or lose (just look how Celtic exploited their defeat at the same stage a few years ago), instead became a reminder why no new investor should get involved.

So, for the meantime, Rangers and Murray are stuck with each other, the big spending days of the past now long gone. They really, really need to win something significant to turn their fortunes around, but that looks more difficult than ever this season.

Ultimately, his chairmanship is looking less succcessful the longer it goes on.

Murray comes out fighting

We all know Rangers have been in the spotlight once again this week, as their humiliating exit from Europe was followed by the sale of Carlos Cuellar to Aston Villa. Both events have caused enormous anger amongst "the people", but yesterday chairman David Murray came out fighting.

Blaming the internet for causing a culture of unfounded gossip which created "mayhem" around the club, Murray took time to remind everyone how much cash he has pumped into the club, much of which he has no hope of recouping.

This is at best disingenuous. The "unfounded gossip" held that, having failed to qualify for the Champions League, Cuellar would go before the end of August. And oh look what's happened. The allegations of asset-stripping are much less easy to justify, but Murray himself must take some responsibility for the disappointment being felt by fans now following the hyperbole that he himself created about the club in happier times. Never shy to boast when things are going well, he must now own up when things are not.

You would have thought he'd have learnt his lesson by now about making promises that he can't keep, but David Murray has now promised that Rangers will win the league this season. Ouch.

Still, the Cuellar money gives a handy boost to Walter Smith's transfer kitty, and if Celtic have beaten them to Glenn Loovens, the signing of Pedro Mendes would be a good one. Without any distractions, Rangers can concentrate on one goal alone this season, rather than stretching their resources across many different competitions.

Any early slip ups, though, and it will be meltdown at Ibrox