Leggat - RUPERT MURDOCH, DERMOT DESMOND AND CRAIG WHYTE

[ian1964 10,545]

So, just why did Craig Whyte buy Rangers? Any answers? From anybody? Itâ??s a question akin to, how long is a piece of string.

 

But letâ??s look at some of the things which have happened, some of the links and possible links, between some of the people involved and those who would stand to gain from the demise of Rangers.

 

And the starting point is a back page lead story in the Sun which appeared a couple of years ago and which raised the hoary old tale of the Old Firm decamping to the English Premier League.

 

Except, this story was different, though it took a bit of digging to discover how different. On the surface the story seemed to focus, not so much on the Old Firm moving to the top flight in England, but on Celtic quitting Scotland.

 

My information is that, despite the name of a Scottish Sun sports writer adorning the story did not write it as it was passed up the line to the Scottish Sun editor David Dinsmore from Rupertâ??s favourite, the now disgraced Rebekah Brooks, who was then News International chief executive London, with instructions that it should be used as the back page lead.

 

Curious!

 

But given the relationship between her and Rupert Murdoch, it is reasonable to assume Rupertâ??s fingerprints were all over this story.

 

Rupert Murdoch is of course a billionaire who moves in the sort of circles inhabited by other billionaires. Celticâ??s sugar daddy, Dermot Desmond is another billionaire.

 

Desmond has long longed for a place in the Premiership for Celtic. He has courted many top Fleet Street names, going so far as to fly the Daily Telegraphâ??s Paul Hayward to Seville in his private jet.

 

Rupert Murdoch is also of course the big cheese who owns Sky Sports, whose mega money sustains the English Premiership and who has enough influence to make it easier for Celtic and Desmond to fulfill their ambition.

 

At the time of the Sun story which focused on Celtic, Rangers were still reeling from the fall out from events in Manchester. Was Rupert Murdoch persuaded that a solo Celtic bid for the Premiership would be looked on more favourably?

 

Now let us examine what has happened since.

 

For a start, Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell has tried to ditch the ancient Old Firm brand which has linked the two teams for over a century.

 

WHY?

 

Fast forward again and come to the current crisis which has engulfed the Ibrox club as a direct consequence of Craig Whyteâ??s reckless reign. Was it reckless? Or something more?

 

That is hard to answer, just as it is hard to discover the visible means of financial support which funds conman Whyteâ??s lavish multi millionaire lifestyle. Nobody can discover where Whyte gets his cash from.

 

I use the word CASH deliberately as his only known banking arrangement is a client account with Collyer Bristow, filled with £24.4M of money he is now accused of getting his hands on fraudulently.

 

Whyteâ??s actions â?? reckless or otherwise â?? drove Rangers to the brink of extinction. And that danger has not yet passed.

 

And while all of this was going on, Peter Lawwell made a point with picking a fight with just about everyone in Scotland, from first minister Alex Salmond down, telling them Celtic can prosper without Rangers.

 

In Scotland?

 

Well, the always fly as they come Lawwell did not make that clear.

 

Does Lawwell believe â?? and does Dermot Desmond also believe â?? that Celticâ??s chances of gate crashing the English Premier League are increased without Rangers being part of the deal?

 

It certainly is coming across that way and a number of shrewd observers, many of then veteran Parkhead and Lawwell watchers, agree with that scenario.

 

Letâ??s now return to the Scottish Sun. Remember they broke that original story which looked to have Sun proprietor Rupert Murdochâ??s fingerprints all over it. Murdoch the Sky owning billionaire, who moves in the same circles as Dermot Desmond, the Celtic owning billionaire.

 

Many media people have been baffled by the way the Sun have covered the WHYTE SCANDAL, continuing to support conman Whyte long after everyone else had seen him exposed as a huckster.

 

I cannot recall such a long slow succession of baffling blunders of support for someone like Whyte by a mass circulation national newspaper in my near half century in newspapers. Even some of those inside the Scottish Sunâ??s Queen Street headquarters canâ??t understand it.

 

Nobody believes these decisions have been taken by the men on the editorial floor in Glasgow.

 

By the time the Sun, owned by the same man who owns Sky, Rupert Murdoch, finally edged away from Craig Whyte, the conman was completely exposed as a trickster and a huckster, by a succession of stories brilliantly dug out and produced by the Daily Record.

 

When the first of those Record exposures broke, had that great old tabloid man , former Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie, been in charge, his famous about turn cry of â??reverse ferretâ? would have been echoing around the editorial floor.

 

Whatever the reason â?? and it is a mystery â?? the way the Sun have performed could cost them their lead over the Record in the circulation stakes.

 

But none of the above â?? no matter how logical and reasoned a number of sane sensible and sober people from the worlds of the media, the law and banking have agreed it is â?? answers the original question.

 

Just why did Craig Whyte buy Rangers? Or, indeed, who it is who pays for a man of no visible means to live a lavish lifestyle as though he is the multi millionaire he has provided no proof of being.

 

It is nonsense to suggest Rupert Murdoch has the answers. Or Dermot Desmond. But does one of them know anyone else, possibly in London, who may be able to provide an answer?

 

http://leggoland2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rupert-murdoch-dermot-desmond-and-craig.html