Cast your mind back to the deep
dark bowels of administration, when pretenders like Bill Miller, the Blue
Knights and Bill Ng failed to submit a worthy enough bid to Duff & Phelps
in order to wrest control of the Ibrox boardroom. Each one of these bids had
positives and negatives, with the Knights being particularly controversial. But
none of them were convincing enough to persuade Whitehouse or Clark that they
were the ideal solution, and it was with constant frustration that yet ‘another
bid collapsed’.

It became something of a tragic
joke that so many poorly-conceived bids collapsed so meekly and supporters
began to wonder if any really sincere and genuinely trustworthy takeover
attempts would be made.

When Charles Green initiated his,
the majority of supporters, quite honestly, went even further than wariness and
downright condemned his bid citing his ill-fated spell at Sheffield United as
just one piece of evidence to show this was the wrong man.

High-profile supporters and group
representatives went very public with their angst over Green’s integrity,
credibility, record, and everything else – in the minds of the majority of
fans, this was a bad move, Green would be malevolent to the club, and it was
the final path to ruin for Rangers FC.

I count myself as among the small
group of supporters who refused to condemn Green – who considered themselves
cautious about him but completely willing to give him the chance that the majority
would not. As far as that greater number were concerned, Green was bad news and
his past as shady as that crook Craig Whyte.

Indeed, we all love and adore Sir
Walter, but remember this:

            “I can today confirm that following
talks over the last few weeks I am leading a new bid for Rangers Football Club.
I have been assisted by Jim McColl, Douglas Park and other prominent Scottish
businessmen with a shared objective – that Rangers Football Club should be in
the hands of Rangers people who will stabilise the club and protect it from
future situations like we find ourselves in today. With this in mind,
representatives have, on behalf of my group, made representations to BDO, Duff
and Phelps and indeed Charles Green, notifying them of our willingness to offer
on the “Newco” basis on which Mr Green is proceeding. We would call
on Mr Green to step aside and allow us to proceed with our deal which is in the
best interests of the creditors, the employees, the fans and the various other
stakeholders of Rangers Football Club.”

Even Walter did not give Green
anything like a chance, and decided it was the wrong bid, before launching his
own rather meagre attempt at taking over, something which was rejected out of
hand by the CEO-in-waiting. Walter is a great man but this little episode, in
hindsight, and even at the time, was rather a poor show and a real blot on his
otherwise impeccable copybook.

So, as far as the vast majority
of fans, including the former manager were concerned, Green was bad, not taking
over the club in the right interests, and would not protect it from the dire
straits it ended up in thanks to Whyte.

Fast forward to today. Not only
is Charles Green absolutely loved and adored by all supporters, but Walter
Smith is in the boardroom on a non-executive level.

What on earth do we attribute the
quite staggering turnaround to?

Put simply, Green has stood up to
scrutiny. Fine example was when he made a claim about the value of Rangers’
assets being valued at £80-100M – not only did he make the claim to STV
journalist Peter Smith, but he then proceeded to show the reporter documentary
proof of these claims. Smith then reported it on his Twitter account.

When Bomber Brown made such a
fool of himself screaming about ‘deeds’, and practically had the majority of
the fanbase outside Ibrox as he preached Tommy Sheridan-style about how Green
did not own the deeds to Murray
Park and Ibrox, and how
he demanded proof that he did.

Firstly what exactly elevated him
to such importance that it was he
who Green had to prove things to will remain something of a mystery. Secondly
the deeds were confirmed in a rather
off-the-cuff manner on Sky Sports News a couple of months later – as it really
was not that big a deal at all.

Curiously enough people like
Brown were never heard of again until trying to curry favour with fans re:
supporting the boycott.

So as we can see, Green is above
board. I am perfectly sure he has done the odd shady thing now and again as
most businessmen do, but for the serious stuff Green has shown his hand. Time
and time again.

Add to this his constant defence
of the club; this cannot be overstated. Green has battled the SFA, the SPL, and
the press – he has genuinely stuck up for Rangers in its time of need and quite
simply has not suffered fools gladly. He has subtly attacked our Eastern
neighbours in rebuttal for their digs at ‘history’, making gloriously apt
remarks about the 3 different companies which have controlled them throughout
time.

The point is Charles Green, while
he does admittedly ‘pander’ to the fans a little too much and shamelessly
courts favour with us – it does not alter the fact that the things he says are
true and correct. Whether or not he manipulates fans a touch with his
pro-Rangers propaganda is actually besides the point – he says it as it is, and
it is why the powers-that-be cannot stand him.

As for ‘supporters’ of other
clubs, well one famously wished the man to die of cancer. Disgusting and
indicative of the mental illness of Scottish football, but it shows ‘fans’ of
other teams hate him. He must be doing something right.

I can only imagine that other
clubs’ fans wish they had someone as tough and forthright in charge as Charles
Green. He does not lie, he does not fool around and he is the kind of chap you
want in your corner when you have a battle ahead.

Perfect for Rangers really!