Alan Pattullo: Despite rumours, there’s no going back for David Murray

His return to Murray Park, reported to have occurred on Tuesday, has caused a stir. Some Rangers supporters might have greeted the news with a groan, while others, having grown more and more dismayed with the slow-burning nature of Craig Whyte’s tenure, could easily be persuaded to welcome such an outcome.

Murray, though, wouldn’t be one of them. He is surely relieved that the annual headache of finding a way to win a two-horse race is now someone else’s department. The current palaver of identifying targets from abroad and then actually managing to get them into a Rangers shirt is a reminder of the joys of owning a football club. Murray may miss the profile but much of the glamour has gone. Rangers move in shallower waters these days.

Murray was described as looking on from the balcony of Ally McCoist’s office as a bounce-match took place below. It had been hoped that this game would allow McCoist the chance to run the rule over a number of trialists. However, by the time it had kicked off the most significant of these transfer targets had high-tailed it to Wearside, in a bid to win a move to Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland.

The inference seemed clear. Rangers are in a chaotic state – the worst since pre-Graeme Souness days, according to former midfielder Jim Bett – and Murray could be the man to return, possibly while riding on a horse called hubris.

Others interpreted Murray’s visit to mean that McCoist was consorting with the former chairman behind owner Craig Whyte’s back. It is a conclusion which is easier to arrive at if you also happen to believe that the Rangers manager is becoming ever more frustrated by an off-field situation at Ibrox, one which threatens to undermine his status as a club legend.

All the ingredients of a great football drama were there. It included the added spice of a walk-on part from O’Neill, who stands accused of luring Zlatan Muslimovic from Rangers to Sunderland in a move which causes the Ibrox club fresh embarrassment. Football loves a narrative which involves the return of someone to a former life, and the thought that Murray might be looking out the candy-stripe tie again would turn the recent story of Rangers into an even bigger pantomime. Murray, newly remarried, is surely aware of that.

He is known to be enjoying an existence which is not defined by his association with Rangers FC. He often complained that while the club amounts to only a small proportion of his business empire, it took up as much as 80 per cent of his time. It was a way of life for him for 23 years so it seems unrealistic to think that, just eight months on from selling the club, he should be completely divorced from it.

However, he might now think twice about popping into Murray Park – he is reported to have attended a scheduled appointment with the club doctor – although it seems strange that he shouldn’t be permitted to visit a place which still bears his own name.

There is a persistent rumour that Murray is set to reclaim possession of the club should Whyte fail to meet certain obligations. This appears to be a complete non-starter. If Whyte hasn’t agreed to take on the debts, and the tax case, then why else would Murray have agreed to sell the club for the token price of just a single pound? And why would he want Rangers back again if the club was proved to be in such a state that initiating its recovery proved beyond the current owner?

It is now Whyte’s problem, although the result of the issue with HMRC – which relates to payments made on loans to players as long as a decade ago – is not certain to go against Rangers. The tribunal, held last week in Edinburgh, is believed to have gone as well as could be expected for the Ibrox club.

But it is because of this case that Murray remains attached to Rangers, whether he likes it or not. While Murray isn’t straining to hear news of each new Rangers signing target it would be wrong to think he is not waiting rather anxiously to learn the outcome of this tax case, with the conclusion expected to be delivered within five weeks’ time.

He knows if the finding goes against Rangers then the outlook does not look good for the club. Administration is viewed as being highly likely. It isn’t what he wanted for the club, clearly. He is also more qualified than anyone to know what it would mean for him in the rapacious world of business. Whyte would have no qualms about declaring they were left with no option by the excesses and mistakes of the previous regime. Murray sold to someone billed as the only serious player in town. It was the only way out at the time but it could have come at a cost.

Now he must wait for the outcome of a tax tribunal to learn how history will judge him.

It is not a prospect anyone would relish.