Three decades on, I can still recall the stunning impact of the words spoken to me over the phone by then Rangers owner David Murray.
“If Celtic put down a fiver, I’ll put down a tenner,” he said, verbally illustrating for dramatic effect the financial power he knew his club had over one that had been fiscally weakened by boardroom mismanagement. I’d called him on behalf of the Daily Record and it was the kind of quote you spend your working life striving to get so that it can be shared in print with the biggest possible audience.
It was also typical Murray bravado. He knew Celtic were in a vulnerable position and the great showman within him revelled in talking up their obvious discomfort. A perfectly allowable advantage gained from the superiority which tends to go in cycles where the bitter rivals are concerned. The strategy Murray embraced would, of course, turn out to be nothing short of catastrophic in the long run.
