So...To Sum Up A Year!

20. James Traynor exits journalism to become the Malcolm Tucker of Ibrox, wooed by Charles Green who rewards his new communications fixer with an eye-watering salary and as much as succulent lamb as he can possibly eat.


19. A day in June when John Brown, outside the front door at Ibrox, did his own unique version of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream as he attacks Charles Green and declares that he’s putting together his own consortium to “buy them oot". His audience is agog at his oratory. “People ask me who’s yer investors. Youse! My 
investors are youse!" Cue rapturous 
applause, much swearing and lots more Bomber.


18. Tennessee Tow-Truck tycoon Bill Miller, made preferred bidder by Duff and Phelps, only to change his mind when he finally realised what the hell he was letting himself in for. He claimed he didn’t like the look of the finances, but some abusive emails might also have had something to do with it. He can’t have been best pleased to be door-stepped by a Scottish tabloid either. We can only imagine his reaction when he realised that the Daily Record had stuck him on page one under the headline: “GERS TYCOON, 65, DATES BECKY, 37 – BILL’S BEAUTY QUEEN LOVER". That was the last we heard from Mr Miller.


17. The rise and fall of rangerstaxcase, the blogging phenomenon that led the way on the reporting of Rangers’ EBT travails, only to get so emboldened by its own success that it misread the judgment when it finally arrived, tweeting about his victory only to realise shortly after that it was actually a defeat. Where has he gone? And will he return?


16. From June, the story of the two Glasgow businessmen, Allan Stewart and Stephen McKenna, who were reported as being ready to launch an £11 million bid for the club, only to do a Miller within 24 hours. Scandal upon scandal. One of them was outed as a Celtic fan.


15. Dave King swans into Glasgow in February after the club falls into administration, threatens to sue everybody and then goes away again to continue his fight with the South 
African Revenue Services.


14. The battle of the Lords as Carloway upholds the findings of the SFA’s judicial panel report into how Craig Whyte got his hands on Rangers and what, precisely, he got up to during his brief reign, and then gets undermined by Lord Glennie, who reckons the transfer embargo is out of order.


13. Walter Smith’s comedy bid to take over the club that came and went in the blink of an eye. Smith reckoned that Charles Green should have handed him the club for £6m, despite the fact that Green had already shelled out considerably more than £6m to buy it in the first place. Smith launched his “bid" on the day it was announced that the club would be liquidated, a delay that rather begged the question: “If the club meant so much to you, why didn’t you act sooner?" As we said at the time, it was akin to busting in on a funeral with a defibrillator.


12. Charles Green and his phantom transfer targets, five of whom were supposed to be playing in Euro 2012. We could do a top 20 on Green alone.


11. Duff and Phelps, paid a fortune to do not a whole lot from what we can make out, could also be the subject of a separate top 20. From a long list of contenders we pick just one cameo – their constant statements that HMRC would probably seek to do a deal for a CVA rather than play hardball and plunge the club into liquidation. “They [HMRC] have never, ever, suggested that they are going to be belligerent," said the administrators. And for that sage analysis they were paid millions.