Rangers confident Whyte deal can be done by January

• A snow smothered Ibrox anticipates a deal for its future

The 33 million deal, which will wipe out the existing debt that has stymied Rangers in the transfer market for two years, is at an advanced stage and though Whyte has still to complete his due diligence, there is confidence at Ibrox that he is the "real deal", as one source put it.

Whyte has proven he has the money to take the club forward and has agreed to a demand by Sir David Murray to invest 5m a year on new players.

The sale of the club has been a heavily protracted affair. Three years ago, Murray was within hours of selling Rangers only to pull out of the deal at the last minute, saying that he had become suspicious of the "property angles" the prospective purchasers were planning. Since then, there has been any number of people who have emerged as the "saviour" of the Ibrox faithful.

Graham Duffy, a Glasgow-born Floridian, hit the headlines late last year with a proposal to launch a fans' buy-out of the club. Duffy's bid was quickly rubbished by Rangers. Dave King, the multi-millionaire Rangers fan who made his fortune in South Africa, was touted as the man to do the deal, but again nothing happened. King remains in dispute with the South African Revenue Services who claim he owes upwards of 100m in taxes, a claim King disputes. Earlier this year, Andrew Ellis, an English property developer, was said to be close to buying the club but Rangers lost faith in him as he prevaricated.

When Alastair Johnston, the Rangers chairman, recently referred to the "trial balloonists" who had expressed an interest in buying the club it is believed he was referring, in the main, to Ellis. However, Johnston has been far more circumspect since news of Whyte's interest first emerged. Surprisingly, Murray had never heard of Whyte up until three months ago. Born in Motherwell, he moved to Monaco and became one of the youngest self-made Scottish millionaires of the 1990s. He is now based in London and Grantown-on-Spey, where he lives in Castle Grant, built in the 14th century and purchased by Whyte four years ago for 750,000.

Last week, Johnston met Whyte at a Glasgow hotel. Yesterday, sources at the club said the deal, barring any late hitches, could be completed before Christmas but it is more likely that it will be done by the middle of January. "We can't say with 100 per cent certainty," said a Rangers contact, "but Whyte has the money and is very convincing. We think the deal will happen."

Rangers manager Walter Smith said yesterday that if no takeover is completed he will be unable to sign even a loan player in January. He also ruled out a return to Rangers for Middlesbrough striker Kris Boyd.

"The situation we are in, as it stands presently, we can't get any player in, as much as we might get one or two saying they want to come back to us," Smith said.

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DECEMBER 5, 2010

Photograph: Craig Watson/SNS