Old Firm unlikely to ever live the Premiership dream

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 21:42

WHEN David Murray bought Rangers, they could match and often eclipse even the biggest English clubs in the transfer market. Twenty years on, the Ibrox club are relative paupers in comparison to those in an English Premier League which has become a global phenomenon.

"I don't wish to open up the debate again about the Old Firm going to the Premiership," he says, "but when I came in to Rangers, we could buy the best players in England. We could have signed the John Terry or Frank Lampard of his day.

"That has gone from us now. That is a frustration and the financial constraints on a club like Rangers are phenomenal. The combined debt of Rangers and Zenit in the Uefa Cup final last season was about 35million. When Chelsea and Manchester United met in Moscow in the Champions League final, their combined debt was 1.2 billion.

"It is not a level playing field. We cannot compete financially. My frustration is to not be able to take the club to a higher level.

"We are restricted by playing in Scotland, we compete with Celtic. Hearts split us one year and, early in my tenure, Celtic weren't always second but really, it is a bit of a foregone conclusion most of the time. That does not make the menu as interesting as it could be.

"But there is no sign of the English route opening up for us. Why do they need us? The bottom clubs are like turkeys, they won't vote for Christmas."