Actually Fergus did not try to match Rangers, which is why he copped a lot of flack. What he did do was gove Celtic a fantastic foundation to achieve the next step.
That was Desmond from a debt free position Celtic were able to push the boat out and while knowing it was not sustainable for any period of time it broke Rangers.
Rangers were so indebted they did not have the resources to respond when under MON Desmond invested sufficiently to break Murray.
Had he not caved and backed Smith so heavily after having admitted defeat with the cost cutting years under McLiesh and the French guy ( cant think of his name right now) none of the last few years may have occured.

Tafka you should maybe have researched this before going into type, rangers spent very big before Sir David Murray bought the club from Laurence marlboroughb

Scotcelt the early days were the years when we bought players like Cascarinno, Biggins and Muggleton mate. Fergus looked like Abramovic compared to those years...

when under MON Desmond invested sufficiently to break Murray.

so Desmond knew in 2000 the global downturn was on its way in 2008

Laudrup in comparison it was nothing. You spent money yet teams like Aberdeen and Utd put out teams that matched rangers and then some...
At no point did these guys put your club in danger also..

Hardly controversial. Much the same has been said on here for years, Tafka

FFS Lauders..i'd thought ye would have more things to discuss today

If it wasn't for the banking crisis Murray would still be at Ibrox, make no bones about it

True Tafka but he did not spend what fans wanted him too.Had he done so wemight not be where we are now as his pockets were not deep enough to bail us out had despite doing so Rangers still were on top.

They committed suicide trying to win big ears

Forever in our shadow

For me , personally, growing up in the 90's supporting us was a joy, so from a personal viewpoint it was worth it regarding the memories etc I have from that time.

So Ath, was he good for Scottish football? Without HOM Celtic would be totally different in structure yet Rangers would not have been sent to the toilet...

Tafka we only went out and bout the England captain at his peak, the English no 2 goalkeeper a few other top quality players and of course we had a player/manager who had won two European cups, we were in the big league, before murray

I'd say in some ways it tried to improve Scottish football, by attempting to bring the standard up.

The problem is other leagues improved at a faster rate and now there's a massive gulf between Scottish football and others.

If it wasn't for the banking crisis

If it wasn't for the global recession

If you weren't run by an egotistical maniac

Laud I think your giving the wee man oracle status there

Murray's banking crisis occurred when Masterton got booted. He was so heavily in debt on all fronts. The debt was called in. Not a global issue.

Think the real crunch was when Lloyds took over and some one screamed WTF has been going on

Bluenose the Murray tenure was amazing as a fan, nothing will ever take that away for me, I wouldn't change it for anything

The biggest downfall of Scottish football was everyone in the SPL bar Rangers and Celtic at the time of the first Sky Deal.

THe spl champs were getting about £15milllion per year, whilt the EPL were getting about £20 million per year. Both were going up year on year in comparison to each other in a failry equal way. When it came time for the next increase and renewal of the SKY deal all the other clubs bar Rangers and Celtic went against it as they wanted to make their own channel.

That failed we went back to SKY who told us to do one and for one year had no coverage bar the BBC buying the 4 OF games for a season. Then Setanta came along.

Sky ever since that day put everything into the English leage and we've gone backwards.

Throw in the recession, HMRC using Rangers as a test case and events in the summer and it's been downhill for everyone bar Celtic (financially and in a football sense)

I can relate to that train of thought Laud. There wont be many fans the age you were then thinking the same now though

I wouldn't change it for anything
-----/
Look where you are now.

There is more to come with the Whyte/green saga.

Rangers may never regain the status they once had...was 15 years of SPL success or so really worth all of that?

Was the gap ever that close Castle?

Its Liverpool fans that are to blame. English teams banned from Europe meant they came to big bucks Rangers in 86/87.

Before then it was a very competitive competition in Scotland.

We were still competitive with Rangers until 1994 but could not match them financially. Tried to compete financially which spelt the end for us.

So you see Liverpool fans are responsible for the death of scottish football.

Am I bitter?

You betcha

The Murray years were fabulous, what a time we had.