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.