Sir David Murray has raised doubts about 49ers Enterprises giving Rangers the rapid investment they need – and says he ‘worries’ about the club failing to reach next season’s Champions League.
The former Rangers owner told Mail Sport that he doubts the entire £20million outlay being touted by the club’s new owners will be available for players and said he was yet to see evidence of bold work to give new manager Russell Martin the ‘tools’ he needs.
He said: ‘In the short term, I would judge them on the first three sales and the first three financial signings they make, because that will give you an indication of direction of travel. So, who have they signed so far? A loan player from Bournemouth (Max Aarons), who’s not played a lot of football, but who Russell Martin knew from Norwich.
‘I hope they give Martin the tools. I’m not sure they’ve paid off all the players they’ve got. Because you don’t buy a player for £6m and pay it right away – it’s over three years or something. So do they still have debts to pay? Instead of £20m, is that going for new players or is that just going in the books?’
Rangers are yet to cash in on any players in this window and have limited their business so far to 25-year-old right-back Aarons, who started just two games on loan at Valencia after his move there last January.
He has had only 14 Premier League starts for Bournemouth since August 2023. Rangers are also looking at Leicester City’s 32-year-old Conor Coady.
Sir David Murray doubts the entire £20m outlay being touted by Rangers’ American owners will be available for players
Mail Sport’s Ian Herbert in conversation with former Rangers owner Sir David Murray
Murray during the glory years of his Ibrox reign in the 1980s with manager Graeme Souness
Murray said he welcomed the arrival of new US owners. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be an overnight change,’ he said. ‘They’re true business people who will take a view and take time. They’ll have a proper business plan. This’ll not be a three-month plan. It’ll be a five-year-plan. The way I ran a football club, you couldn’t run it like that today.’
The club’s business model has always been built around Champions League revenues and Murray expressed concern about the tricky tie Martin has been handed against Panathinaikos in the second qualifying round, including having to play the second leg in Greece.
‘I’m worried they haven’t got the best draw in the Champions League against Panathinaikos with the first game at home,’ he said. ‘You always want the second game at home, when you know what you’ve got to do. I think it’s a very tough task.’
Murray, 73, said that Rangers were missing out on some of the Scottish talent that he always wanted to make the core to the team, citing Motherwell’s 18-year-old midfielder Lennon Miller, who is now on Sunderland’s radar.
‘I’m not trying to be arrogant but, in my day, we would have bought him by now. But Rangers haven’t bought him,’ said Murray. He also cited Lewis Ferguson, who was a youth player at Rangers.
‘They let him go to Hamilton and then to Aberdeen,’ said Murray. ‘Why didn’t they buy him when he went to Italy? A young, energetic player with a release value and they didn’t buy him. I don’t understand that.’
