Rate SDM's Tenure

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

How do you argue with 36 trophies in 20 odd years, possibly 37? A great achievement for any club at any level.

Crippling, almost club threatening debt twice, financial mistake after financial mistake, making a chef our CEO, selling our club shops, living outwith our means, failing to match Celtics ambition with stadia capacity, allowing the world to slander, slaughter and openly and publically criticse us without a fight, a decade of downsizing?

Was it worth it? It will be if we win this title and get taken over. That will be the end of Murray and we can shake hands and both move on. He is all a huge number of Rangers fans know, not many of us(on here) are old enough to remember the days before him.

I cant wait for him to move on.

[Sweeney 241]

He was trying to deliver a European cup, sadly our manager failed ...spectacularly....

Did he spend too much, yes, but he paid off a big chunk of it in the end

I understand what he was trying to do, but at the time, he would not have been unaware what would happen if we weren't successful in europe. It is not hard to predict cash flows. Whether Murray and his team knew about this and took the risk anyway, or didnt do their jobs correctly and had no idea, it doesnt matter. It should never have been allowed to happen. The risk was far to great.

Honest answer,im not having a go or anything, had celtic won the treble the last 3 years in a row, would your opinion of Murray be the same?

[minstral 5,375]

How do you argue with 36 trophies in 20 odd years, possibly 37? A great achievement for any club at any level.

Crippling, almost club threatening debt twice, financial mistake after financial mistake, making a chef our CEO, selling our club shops, living outwith our means, failing to match Celtics ambition with stadia capacity, allowing the world to slander, slaughter and openly and publically criticse us without a fight, a decade of downsizing?

Was it worth it? It will be if we win this title and get taken over. That will be the end of Murray and we can shake hands and both move on. He is all a huge number of Rangers fans know, not many of us(on here) are old enough to remember the days before him.

I cant wait for him to move on.

Spot on and i see the Murray babies are back out in force on this thread.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

I understand what he was trying to do, but at the time, he would not have been unaware what would happen if we weren't successful in europe. It is not hard to predict cash flows. Whether Murray and his team knew about this and took the risk anyway, or didnt do their jobs correctly and had no idea, it doesnt matter. It should never have been allowed to happen. The risk was far to great.

Honest answer,im not having a go or anything, had celtic won the treble the last 3 years in a row, would your opinion of Murray be the same?

Bizzare question.

You could argue it was a Sir David masterstroke bringing back Walter that stopped such an occurrence.....

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Spot on and i see the Murray babies are back out in force on this thread.

I was at ibrox Before Sir David even thought of buying the club.

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

Spot on and i see the Murray babies are back out in force on this thread.

Whether its Walter or Murray, they always crawl out their holes to blindly defend them. Almost as if its the uberfan thing to do. Honesty is always the best way, not wearing blue tinted specs does not make us any less of a fan.

[Sweeney 241]

Bizzare question.

You could argue it was a Sir David masterstroke bringing back Walter that stopped such an occurrence.....

It's not a bizzare question. I'm not saying Murray hasn't been successful at times, indeed bringing back Smith was brilliant. But his failings greatly outweigh his success.

My point is, Smith has delivered against the odds, but we should not have been against the odds. A club of our stature should NEVER have been allowed to get into the state Murray drove us into. Not signing a player for 2 years or so, constantly downsizing and being forced to sell our best players, Celtic SHOULD have trounced us year after year. Walter's success shouldn't hide Murrays failings.

[SirWalterSmithLegend 206]

It's not a bizzare question. I'm not saying Murray hasn't been successful at times, indeed bringing back Smith was brilliant. But his failings greatly outweigh his success.

My point is, Smith has delivered against the odds, but we should not have been against the odds. A club of our stature should NEVER have been allowed to get into the state Murray drove us into. Not signing a player for 2 years or so, constantly downsizing and being forced to sell our best players, Celtic SHOULD have trounced us year after year. Walter's success shouldn't hide Murrays failings.

Well said, Celtic have outspent us for the last 10 years and yet have not dominated like we did when we were outspending them.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

It's not a bizzare question. I'm not saying Murray hasn't been successful at times, indeed bringing back Smith was brilliant. But his failings greatly outweigh his success.

My point is, Smith has delivered against the odds, but we should not have been against the odds. A club of our stature should NEVER have been allowed to get into the state Murray drove us into. Not signing a player for 2 years or so, constantly downsizing and being forced to sell our best players, Celtic SHOULD have trounced us year after year. Walter's success shouldn't hide Murrays failings.

In your opinion, it would be quite easy to argue otherwise.

Walter comign back with no funds being available would probably have been a disater, sir david did make funds available and walter used them wisely imo. We have been downsized by a bank asking for its money back which mainly happened off of the back of a worldwide financial crisis. There has of course been mismanagement and mistakes over the years ,i wouldn't pretend otherwise but no way the bad outweighs the good over the last twenty odd years....i would need to presume you aren't old enough to remember them if you think that, or like a few on here, have a personal grudge against the man.

[DietofWorms 2,067]

The season before he arrived, we sign the England Captain. The season he (hopefully) leaves, we sign Ricky Foster on loan from Aberdeen.

Thanks Dave, shut the door on the way out.

[Don81 2,850]

I know he fucked right up with the money but that was due to over ambition more than anything else and thank fuck , it looks like he got away with it , just! Has to be a merit for me due to the sheer volume of trophies won during his tenure.

Manager wise, a brave decision to appoint Walter the first time which paid off big style, Advocaat maybe turned out to be the biggest mistake he made or was it? This is where the majority of the debt that has crippled is in recent years came frombut we did play some scintillating stuff and it was Advocaat who convinced Murray to build Murray Park which could turn out to be the best 15 mill he spent during his time here.

Mcleish did amazingly well considering the cuts he had to make and gave us two of our greatest ever title winning days, Le Guen turned out to be a mistake but a mistake which we all bought into at the time and one which looked like the most ambitious thing we have ever done and finally Murrays biggest masterstroke of all , bringing back sir Walter. I don't think anyone else could have achieved what he has in the last few years.

The signing of our first catholic wAs a watershed moment for our club and if Murray hadn't pushed this through we wouldn't have seen the likes of Gazza, Albertz, Amo etc anywhere near the Gers! For this he deserves great credit.

For me he deserves a merit but only just, the fuck-ups with the money were unacceptable , he didnt stick up for the fans enough and he was posted missing during some of the harder times but you can't ignore the number of trophies won, the importance of signing our first catholic and what could be his greatest legacy , Murray Park.

Merit for me and sorry for waffling on , got a bit carried away!

[Irwin Sparkes 97]

Unless he was willing to back Le Guen's total rebuilding of the squad, it was pointless ever appointing him

£5 million to spend on a team on its knees ffs

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Unless he was willing to back Le Guen's total rebuilding of the squad, it was pointless ever appointing him

£5 million to spend on a team on its knees ffs

so he wasn't allowed to run up debt for walter or dick but he had to do it for le guen...amazing double standards from his critics as usual.....

[Don81 2,850]

Unless he was willing to back Le Guen's total rebuilding of the squad, it was pointless ever appointing him

£5 million to spend on a team on its knees ffs

It was Le Guen who felt he could waltz the league without spending , he didn't spend what was made available to him , and going by the duds he did sign that was no bad thing...

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

It was Le Guen who felt he could waltz the league without spending , he didn't spend what was made available to him .

He didn't bother to learn anything about scottish football, he was a fraud and a failure

[BILL.I.AM 18]

Good to see the majority giving him the credit he deserves overall

[Don81 2,850]

He didn't bother to learn anything about scottish football, he was a fraud and a failure

Unfortunately he was, remember when he first signed being more excited about him than any other manager appointed during my lifetime...

[minstral 5,375]

Good to see the majority giving him the credit he deserves overall

You have got me reaching for my hanky to wipe away my tears. He had the club on its knees, but hey lets us forget that, he nearly ruined what better men in history helped build up.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Unfortunately he was, remember when he first signed being more excited about him than any other manager appointed during my lifetime...

Agreed.

[rossnrfc 2]

I think its a shame that I felt I had to go with C - pass. Its a shame because he spent alot of money, gave us some cracking memories, signed some wonderful players, but no matter what he still manages to leave with a bad taste in my mouth. Also feel bad for him because the recession and his Murray Steels, alongside Rangers financial woes all happen at the same time and it must have been tough for anyone in business. But, this Takeover Saga has went on FARRRRR too long. Am just glad to be seeing the back of him now.

[Jimfanciesthedude 25,030]

gave him an A

36 trophies including 15 league titles in what just under 22 years

for all his faults in the last 10 years, he still contributed over a third of the clubs overall trophy count in less than 20% of our time as a club

while his time is up, he will leave with my thanks for the memories i have

[DarcheVinny 1,003]

Pass.

SDM's tenure is the only one I know.

So many amazing memories but some real low points the past 10 years. Plus I have nothing to compare it to.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Been a season ticket holder for 24 years - so thats mainly under SDM tenure - had some fantastic times - in addition to 9IAR, Helicopter Sunday, the last 2 campaigns, a UEFA cup final, Gascoine, Laudrup, McCoist. More football parties than wakes, great laughs at the unwashed across the city even under the cosh for the last 3 years he has helped deliver titles and trophies. Master stroke bringing Walter back.

a big A for me.

The king is dead - long live the king!

[BILL.I.AM 18]

You have got me reaching for my hanky to wipe away my tears. He had the club on its knees, but hey lets us forget that, he nearly ruined what better men in history helped build up.

Well you know better than me so

[KingKai 439]

Just a pass...

Yes, they were great times...but I just wish he had been a REAL Rangers man, and not just using us to boost his overinflated ego.

Time to move on, and we can only hope that we will have someone at the helm who will be there who only has the CLUB at heart.