Great Lickspittle Articles of ourtime pt 1

Have a look at these beauties from the past.

Ken Gallacher, The Herald 15 April 1996
Long, hot summer of superstar signings
THERE were those last week who tended to play down the notion that Gianluca Vialli could be tempted from Juventus to join Rangers. Now these doubters will have to re-assess their thinking to come into line with football's new order. Rangers have done that, ahead of the game as they usually are when entrepreneurial skills are called into play, and they have held talks with the Italian, and they will not stop there.

In this potentially troublesome post-Bosman era, the Ibrox chairman, David Murray, is clearly setting out his stall. He senses the opportunity to add some new, glamorous, glittering names to those already at Ibrox, and at the same time impress upon the rest of European football that his ambitions for Rangers are without limit.

If Murray and his manager, Walter Smith, can put together a truly international team at Ibrox, they could perhaps force their way towards a place in the elite grouping which dominates the money-spinning Champions' League. That is why a player of Vialli's stature assumed enormous importance for Murray and Rangers. Last season, Paul Gascoigne heightened the Ibrox profile in England when the Champions' League games took place. Vialli would do the same in his own country as Brian Laudrup and Erik Bo Andersen will do in Denmark.

Therefore a gamble of £6m spread over a three-year period could provide a massive pay-off for Rangers. Vialli cost Juventus £12m when they signed him from Sampdoria four years ago. Now, thanks to the Jean-Marc Bosman case, he will cost nothing. In fact, the budget which Murray hands manager Smith each close season will not be used on transfer fees this summer but on securing top players and having them under contract for as lengthy a period as possible.

In essence, the six or seven million pounds which was spent last summer bringing Gascoigne and Oleg Salenko to Glasgow could profitably land Rangers three or four players. Stars will be chosen from around Europe to stress the international quality of the Glasgow club. Smith has maintained that the essential heart of the team will remain Scottish but, at this moment, few of our native-born artisans attract attention from around the world.

Players such as Vialli do, and while Rangers await his reply to their offer, Murray has promised that if that deal does not stand up, another one will be put in place. I do not doubt that. Murray is once more raising the ante, just as he has done on a regular basis since taking over the reins at Rangers. His transfer fees over the past few years have beaten those of any other Scottish club. The salaries paid at Ibrox dwarf others in the premier division. Now he is pushing these salary limits even further, encouraged so to do by the abolition of the transfer fee.

It is a bold initiative and one which, if successful, will make Rangers even more powerful next season. And the season after that, and on and on and on as the wealthiest club in the country simply becomes stronger and stronger. At the moment the target is a bigger share of the cash on offer in the Champions' League, and a team with top players from a clutch of countries can help provide that.
In the future the target is surely a place in any European League which seems certain to be formed. That may be several years away, but by that time Murray will have added to his international roster of stars and Rangers' reputation will have been established at a continental level.That is what the present multi-million pounds negotiations are about. The pay-off Rangers hope for is that spot among Europe's finest - in the meantime, their support will be entertained by some of the biggest names in the game.

How the rest of the clubs in Scotlan keep up is another matter and one which will no doubt be discussed in more than a few boardrooms over what will be a long, hot summer of superstar signings.




Ken Gallacher, The Herald 18 April 1996
I understand that Vialli's advisers, who met Murray last week, have been impressed with the way the Scottish champions have handled the negotiations. Under the Bosman ruling, Vialli is a free agent in the summer, and he had made it known that he wanted to try British football.

Initially that meant English football - until Rangers stepped in to prove that they can match any of the big spenders in European football.
Last night, Vialli admitted: “Everything I have heard about Rangers has been positive. I am ready to talk to them.'' Next season, Vialli could be hearing the same salute, but it may come with a Scottish accent.

There is no doubt that he remains a potent force at this level. If the talks go as well now as the preliminary discussions did, then Vialli will be a Rangers player, and David Murray and Walter Smith will have added another huge name to the list of stars they have paraded at Ibrox in recent years.


Chris Starr, The Herald 26 October 1996
"We will make the biggest moves that Rangers Football Club have ever made both off and on the park.I am totally committed to taking the club forward to be even stronger. By the year 2000, we will be double our size. We have a business upon a business providing the club with resources to compete at the highest level.”
“I can assure every Rangers supporter that I am committed to the cause, everybody behind the scenes is committed to the cause. We are going to double the size of the commercial department, we have got a new supermarket opening, coupled to all the things that are going to happen and I think it's great times ahead."

Mr Murray said that Sean Connery, who has been a regular guest at Ibrox, would help him in business ventures but “he isn't into the football business''. He said: “The people who are interested are interested in investment opportunities. We are looking at people taking a long-term position and taking a view in football in five years."


James Traynor, Daily Record, 2 November 1996
£80m TO SPEND
Kenny will be given a roving role to go out and recommend - and try to attract - the best."We're not talking about young or middle of the road players - we're talking the VERY best. Dalglish will be given an open chequebook to make sure the big names are made an offer they can't refuse. Murray knows the name of King Kenny will not only help capture top stars, but will increase interest from potential investors.

That Dream Team in Full

Ajax attackers PATRICK KLUIVERT and MARC OVERMARS would immediately create a £15 million hole in the Ibrox funds - but would no longer be an impossible prospect.

Paris St Germain's brilliant Brazilian RAI would also come into the equation and players like JURGEN KLINSMANN and PAOLO MALDINI would become targets.

Dalglish's brilliant record in England could prompt moves for ERIC CANTONA and ROBBIE FOWLER.

Top agents like Edinburgh's Jake Duncan reckons even Barcelona's RONALDO would not be out of Dalglish's reach.

If Rangers are making millions then the sky is the limit.




Simon Bain, The Herald 23 January 1997
RANGERS chairman David Murray has arranged British football's biggest investment in a remarkable £40m deal.
Mr Joe Lewis, a billionaire tax exile who owns part of Christie's and deals in currencies, has been enticed into putting £40m into Rangers as the first block in building a new international leisure business. The £40m injection will be used to buy players, begin a 150-bedroom hotel and sports bars development at Ibrox, and establish a new player development centre with training facilities. A final planning application on the hotel is likely to be made very soon.

Mr Murray said. ”This investment will enable Rangers to operate on a different plane. It gives us the necessary clout to do all the things we want to do and still have cash available.

Mr Murray added: “We have the second biggest turnover of any football club in Britain and we have no Sky revenue, £5 less at the gate than in England, so we have built a better business than anybody else.'' Mr Murray takes no salary or fee from Rangers. “I am not interested. I get my salary elsewhere. The only dividends I want are trophies."


Ken Gallacher, The Herald 23 January 1997
Rangers may spend £28m this summer
The kind of cash which will now be available to Smith will compare with the substantial television payments which have transformed the fortunes of every club in England's Premiership since the deal with Sky was signed. That deal has enabled English clubs to sign such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Gianluca Vialli, Dennis Bergkamp, and others.

Such money from TV contracts is not on offer in Scotland - though it may yet come - but Murray's shrewd selling of a part of his stake in the club and his decision to re-invest in making Rangers still bigger is going to provide a financial launchpad which the chairman hopes will carry the team into Europe's elite. That is Murray's dream and, until now, he has been hampered by the status of Scotland as a footballing nation.