David Murray

[Plamf 39]

Bringing Diadora to Rangers was horrendous and embarrassing.

Handling of two real Rangers men too, shocking.

Is Azure his sons catering company, them who do that piss poor food just now at Ibrox?

I'm not sure re: Azure. It was a common notion on FF that he owned it and thus further proof of his exploitation but a guy I used to know who worked at Rangers said he had no involvement in it.

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

I'm not sure re: Azure. It was a common notion on FF that he owned it and thus further proof of his exploitation but a guy I used to know who worked at Rangers said he had no involvement in it.

Cheers

[ZX750 31]

Bringing Diadora to Rangers was horrendous and embarrassing.

They paid us 1m to have Diadora printed. TFG made the tops.

Why not get a proper deal instead of a quick buck?

It's not his son no but the catering contract is tied up on a 10 year deal or something ridiculous like that. Favour for a mate I think it was

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

They paid us 1m to have Diadora printed. TFG made the tops.

Why not get a proper deal instead of a quick buck?

It's not his son no but the catering contract is tied up on a 10 year deal or something ridiculous like that. Favour for a mate I think it was

I could believe that, they were embarrassing mate.

Shocking and not surprising.

[Plamf 39]

I dream of a day where we have adidas or nike as our brand, sell tops normally like everyone else with no dodgy deals and can conduct negotiations in less than 9 years.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

They paid us 1m to have Diadora printed. TFG made the tops.

Why not get a proper deal instead of a quick buck?

It's not his son no but the catering contract is tied up on a 10 year deal or something ridiculous like that. Favour for a mate I think it was

No, you've just made that up.

[Ozblue 4,331]

Cheers for sharing that Oz, I'd just been born then so I never knew that had an affect on our signings at the time. Certainly interesting though.

The combination of the unfortunate Heysel disaster that left English clubs with a reputation worse than HIV & syphilis at the time, plus the signing of Souness changed the landscape in Rangers history like had never been seen before.

With English clubs banned indefinitely, a lot of the top players wanted to play Euro football,so there was only one place to go...Rangers.

So if you add in the effect that Souness had a massive reputation and that the Mhanks were totally skint,it was a no contest who was going to end up with half of the English team.

I often wonder what the landscape of Scottish football would have been like today if Heysel hadn't happened...and would we as a club be in the same situation we now find ourself in if David Holmes hadn't have been clever enough to get Souness, who in turn was the catalyst for Murray to invest in Rangers and then buy the club...The old Edinburgh connection !

Strange things happen in life.

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

I dream of a day where we have adidas or nike as our brand, sell tops normally like everyone else with no dodgy deals and can conduct negotiations in less than 9 years.

[Bluedell 14]

I'm not sure re: Azure. It was a common notion on FF that he owned it and thus further proof of his exploitation but a guy I used to know who worked at Rangers said he had no involvement in it.

Murray did have a share in Azure but he got rid of it and now has no involvement with the company.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Murray did have a share in Azure but he got rid of it and now has no involvement with the company.

Bluedell, have you heard anything about the existing outsourcing deals we have and what will happen if/when the club is sold. Would you expect the sale of the company to be the end of them. i have never been able to find any information on the length or structure of these deals.....

[Bluedell 14]

SDM certainly did help finance 9IAR, but he alone shouldnt be credited for that, the players and management teams still had to go out and do that.

Murray put no cash into the club during NIAR.

[minstral 5,375]

Murray put no cash into the club during NIAR.

Bluedell that is what i thought but was not sure. There is some amount of Murray myths out there.

[Bluedell 14]

Bluedell, have you heard anything about the existing outsourcing deals we have and what will happen if/when the club is sold. Would you expect the sale of the company to be the end of them. i have never been able to find any information on the length or structure of these deals.....

The existing deals would continue if the club was sold.

I'm not sure how long the contracts have left. We have JJB, Azure, Response and G4S that I can think of. The terms of JJB are well documented and i doubt that will change short term, although negotiation is always possible. I think Azure has a year or 2 left, and any new buyer would likely "continue" to put it out to tender. Response may be fairly emotive given its ownership and we may wish to move away from it, although I don't have a great issue with the principle of outsourcing other than on quality control. I haven't a clue as to the length of that contract, but it could always be negotiated as part of the deal if it was important enough issue to the buyer.

[Plamf 39]

Murray put no cash into the club during NIAR.

Bingo. I've had many a drunken argument with non internet Rangers fan types who think he's the saviour . One guy once started on me because of it . The views of fans online and offline don't correlate.

[brissybear 50]

On our knees, trying to get back to a steady set of accounts. We are not far from living within our means.

Im not sure it was on its last legs, that squad was ripped apart, sold off bit by bit for peanuts. Desperate to get high earners off the wage bill because we coudlnt beat Kaunas, meaning no Euro football. Budgeting for money we were not guaranteed, another Murray masterstroke!

Chesneys team was better than how he had them playing. But thats them.

I dont want us living with a debt, repaying money which should be going towards players in our team.

Of course they could, us or them. With the right manager and right plan, of course we can, even within our means we are still many times bigger and richer than every other club. That will always be the case. Walter has done alright being outspent by Celtic!

It has been broken, Walter has managed it.

I dont understand your last statement mate, sorry.

Has he really been outspent though?

Murray still bankrolled the buying of Big Lee, Whittaker, Naismith, Davis and Thomson

all at way over the odds. We have just paid 4 mill for Jella, I think this "on our knees" stuff is over the top.

We will NEVER have a more succesful period again..in anyones lifetime..thats when SDM's period will be remembered most for..the trophies.

Yes there is the argument about the competition he has faced..and the lack of success in Europe. For me that was down to the manager, who outwith 4-5-1 in recent times, was clueless in Europe.. WS spunked an absolute fortune over the 9 IAR era on some real duds..He also vastly overspent for the level of competition he was up against..no foresight for youth etc.

I often wonder what we would be like if we had a continental manager like Advocaat during the 9IAR era, and got Murray park in earlier with youngsters given a chance.

At the end of the day both Murray and Smith are open to criticism, but the history books will show a time of dominance under Murray and a period of competing with the scum when we are "on our knees".

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

Has he really been outspent though?

Murray still bankrolled the buying of Big Lee, Whittaker, Naismith, Davis and Thomson

all at way over the odds. We have just paid 4 mill for Jella, I think this "on our knees" stuff is over the top.

We will NEVER have a more succesful period again..in anyones lifetime..thats when SDM's perios will be remembered most for..the trophies.

Yes there is the argument about the competition he has faced..and the lack of success in Europe. For me that was down to the manager, who outwith 4-5-1 in recent times, was clueless in Europe.. WS spunked an absolute fortune over the 9 IAR era on some real duds..He also vastly overspent for the level of competition he was up against..no foresight for youth etc.

I often wonder what we would be like if we had a continental manager like Advocaat during the 9IAR era, and got Murray park in earlier with youngsters given a chance.

At the end of the day both Murray and Smith are open to criticism..but the history books will show an era of dominance under Murray and a period of competing with the scum when we are "on our knees".

In wages yeah, 2 to 1. And in net spend, definetely.

Murray didnt bank role it, he borrowed money we didnt have and couldnt pay back, hence our debt.

You simply do not know if we will or not. Ally may be a genius and win 10 trebles on the trott, whos stopping us? Who knows?

I agree about Walter, Europe and spending during 9iar, i said all that did i not?

Advocaat was a disaster imo, almost £100m to win a few domestic trophies.

It make sit all the sweeter that they still cant beat us even when we are "on our knees".

[Redmond7 1,193]

Murray put no cash into the club during NIAR.

But what Murray did though - and in some ways its quite clever - he got other people to put money in and claimed the credit. So now you have a fair number of Rangers fans saying yeah but Murray put all his money in and saved us.

[thebooler 4,509]

Bingo. I've had many a drunken argument with non internet Rangers fan types who think he's the saviour . One guy once started on me because of it . The views of fans online and offline don't correlate.

Neither do the views of fans online and online.

[caseyjones 3,009]

Not very clever on the finances of our club, but was just wondering how much of his own money did Murray invest in the 9 in a row years.

Just the initial outlay, I think. In fairness to him, we were well run financially around that time(other people's money) and I believe we were in the black when Smith left. The megalomaniac side of him then took over, with devastating consequences!

[ZX750 31]

No, you've just made that up.

No I never.

Check it out.

[Adoniram 1,919]

The combination of the unfortunate Heysel disaster that left English clubs with a reputation worse than HIV & syphilis at the time, plus the signing of Souness changed the landscape in Rangers history like had never been seen before.

With English clubs banned indefinitely, a lot of the top players wanted to play Euro football,so there was only one place to go...Rangers.

So if you add in the effect that Souness had a massive reputation and that the Mhanks were totally skint,it was a no contest who was going to end up with half of the English team.

I often wonder what the landscape of Scottish football would have been like today if Heysel hadn't happened...and would we as a club be in the same situation we now find ourself in if David Holmes hadn't have been clever enough to get Souness, who in turn was the catalyst for Murray to invest in Rangers and then buy the club...The old Edinburgh connection !

Strange things happen in life.

Rangers fans and the club have always had high demands and expectations. The demand and the expectation was to win every tournament we entered. There was no point competing in them if you weren't ready to win it.

What the Souness revolution and Heysel did was lift our expectations to a totally false lelvel. That level then increased massively when Murray embarked on his frivolous spending spree that raised these already ridiculous expectations up to new heights.

To this day your average Rangers fan still thinks we have a chance of winning the CL or should be in European Finals and Semi Finals every season.

All ifs and buts but i do remember the Souness revolution as if it were yesterday and by christ was i chuffed to be a Ger during those first few seasons.

[Ozblue 4,331]

Rangers fans and the club have always had high demands and expectations. The demand and the expectation was to win every tournament we entered. There was no point competing in them if you weren't ready to win it.

What the Souness revolution and Heysel did was lift our expectations to a totally false lelvel. That level then increased massively when Murray embarked on his frivolous spending spree that raised these already ridiculous expectations up to new heights.

To this day your average Rangers fan still thinks we have a chance of winning the CL or should be in European Finals and Semi Finals every season.

All ifs and buts but i do remember the Souness revolution as if it were yesterday and by christ was i chuffed to be a Ger during those first few seasons.

I'd certainly agree with that post,mate!

Rangers fans are well known for having expectations that exceed the teams capabilities at times, but I'd rather we were like that than go into a tournament expecting us to get beaten.

Yes we also like to get the best players we can,but the point I was relating to the young fella is that if Heysel hadn't unfortunately happened, Souness would never have got the likes of Terry Butcher,Chris Woods across the border to play for us...A reality some of our younger supporters don't realise.

I will forever thank our lucky stars that we had David Holmes overseeing the club on behalf of Lawrence Marlborough,because if it wasn't for that mans vision, fuck knows where we would have ended up.

Souness made the world a better place and it was the greatest feeling in the world when he started bringing these guys in,and I know that he caused a lot of ill feeling when he signed Mojo,but for me 20,000klms away, that was the greatest GIRFUY that the filth have ever been given in their history.

That wasn't being slapped across the kisser with a wet fish...That was being fuckin belted across the head with a whale, because not only did it send Scum FC and its supporters into a frenzy, the bonus was that they had already shipped that treasure hunter cunt McAvennie back to West Ham in readiness for Johnstone's return.

You and a lot of others on this forum will probably strongly disagree with that statement, but for me it was magic because all I done was grin at all the fenian scum fans from Scotland who worked with me at the time.

It seems like only yesterday it all happened but then again it feels like another lifetime ago.

[minstral 5,375]

I'd certainly agree with that post,mate!

Rangers fans are well known for having expectations that exceed the teams capabilities at times, but I'd rather we were like that than go into a tournament expecting us to get beaten.

Yes we also like to get the best players we can,but the point I was relating to the young fella is that if Heysel hadn't unfortunately happened, Souness would never have got the likes of Terry Butcher,Chris Woods across the border to play for us...A reality some of our younger supporters don't realise.

I will forever thank our lucky stars that we had David Holmes overseeing the club on behalf of Lawrence Marlborough,because if it wasn't for that mans vision, fuck knows where we would have ended up.

Souness made the world a better place and it was the greatest feeling in the world when he started bringing these guys in,and I know that he caused a lot of ill feeling when he signed Mojo,but for me 20,000klms away, that was the greatest GIRFUY that the filth have ever been given in their history.

That wasn't being slapped across the kisser with a wet fish...That was being fuckin belted across the head with a whale, because not only did it send Scum FC and its supporters into a frenzy, the bonus was that they had already shipped that treasure hunter cunt McAvennie back to West Ham in readiness for Johnstone's return.

You and a lot of others on this forum will probably strongly disagree with that statement, but for me it was magic because all I done was grin at all the fenian scum fans from Scotland who worked with me at the time.

It seems like only yesterday it all happened but then again it feels like another lifetime ago.

David Holmes did not get enough credit OZ.

[Ozblue 4,331]

David Holmes did not get enough credit OZ.

No he did not,minstral...nowhere bloody well near it.

I remember seeing an interview he did with the National Multi-cultural channel,SBS, at the time (they were the only station in Australia to show football shows) and he was asked his feelings about leaving Rangers.

He was very diplomatic to say the least, with his answers if I remember correctly, but at the time,I got the feeling that he felt robbed of the chance to finish the job he had started.I think that was the first mistake Murray made as the custodian of our club, and possibly one of the biggest mistakes he ever made.

[Adoniram 1,919]

I'd certainly agree with that post,mate!

Rangers fans are well known for having expectations that exceed the teams capabilities at times, but I'd rather we were like that than go into a tournament expecting us to get beaten.

Yes we also like to get the best players we can,but the point I was relating to the young fella is that if Heysel hadn't unfortunately happened, Souness would never have got the likes of Terry Butcher,Chris Woods across the border to play for us...A reality some of our younger supporters don't realise.

I will forever thank our lucky stars that we had David Holmes overseeing the club on behalf of Lawrence Marlborough,because if it wasn't for that mans vision, fuck knows where we would have ended up.

Souness made the world a better place and it was the greatest feeling in the world when he started bringing these guys in,and I know that he caused a lot of ill feeling when he signed Mojo,but for me 20,000klms away, that was the greatest GIRFUY that the filth have ever been given in their history.

That wasn't being slapped across the kisser with a wet fish...That was being fuckin belted across the head with a whale, because not only did it send Scum FC and its supporters into a frenzy, the bonus was that they had already shipped that treasure hunter cunt McAvennie back to West Ham in readiness for Johnstone's return.

You and a lot of others on this forum will probably strongly disagree with that statement, but for me it was magic because all I done was grin at all the fenian scum fans from Scotland who worked with me at the time.

It seems like only yesterday it all happened but then again it feels like another lifetime ago.

You have me all wrong OZ as the only criteria to play for Rangers is A) You are good enough and B) that you want to.

I was stunned when Johnston signed for us but in a way i was also glad he did but only years later could i see the benefits of such a signing.

Yes we would all love 11 Scots Protestants playing for the Gers with a true Protestant identity but that is never going to happen.

And yes Heysel was a watershed in our game and the English game because make no mistake the English game was literally on its knees and close to ruin as a result of that ban.

We benefited but it was to be a short term benefit but one i will always fondly remember.