John Greig noticed something on day one that wasn’t quite right about new Rangers owner Craig Whyte and individuals like Paul Murray raised their concerns about the future of Rangers to their cost.
Speaking to Club 1872 via Craig Houston, former finance director Paul Murray was vocal to the extent that he revealed that administration was a very real prospect in just 12 months under Whyte.
The biggest issue facing dissenters like the Murray was that they had little influence over any takeover deal given how big a percentage of the shares that Sir David Murray owned at the time.
Ultimately, it came down to the owner and what he wanted to do.
There were rumours before Whyte’s deal had even been signed off that he wasn’t quite as wealthy as was being suggested.
What did John Greig say about Craig Whyte on his first day at Rangers?
Recalling Whyte’s first game since the deal was complete, Murray explains how a Gers legend was quick point out that something, already, wasn’t quite right:
“His first game was Hearts on the Saturday that we won 2-1, with the Reservoir Dogs photo (of Whyte and the future administrators) and he came into the boardroom.
“He came in with his dad if I remember, and we were all standing there, Martin Bain, John McClelland, John Greig, David (Murray) wasn’t there.
“I remember John Greig, who was my hero, he said, he just whispered ‘Paul, look at his shoes’.
“And, I looked down at his shoes…..and he was wearing plastic-pointed shoes and a kind of thread bare suit
“It just didn’t quite equate with someone who had just bought this massive football club.”
The deal would start to unravel pretty quickly from almost the day that Whyte set foot in the club.
The SFA still seem to get out of the whole farce lightly, how could Whyte possibly be a fit and proper person and agree to the sale of Rangers when he was using money that he had borrowed on future season ticket sales?
There were a few sliding door moments in 2012 that could have seen the club take a different direction to the one that saw us kicking off against Peterhead and Brechin the following season.
The desperation of Lloyds to get the club sold and of David Murray to sell his shares meant that we were in the position of being beggars who couldn’t be choosers.
As Paul Murray said, the owner of Rangers cutting about in plastic tipped shoes should have raised more than a few eyebrows.
