RANGERS chairman Sir David Murray has revealed that he came within hours of selling the club, but pulled out of the deal at the last minute because he doubted the buyers' long-term ambitions.
The Ayrshire entrepreneur has told Scotland on Sunday that details of the deal had been finalised after two months of secret negotiations, but says he changed his mind just two hours before signing the final documents last year after the would-be owners outlined plans to downsize.
Murray said: "We were all ready to go. Donald (Wilson, Murray International Holdings' chief executive] had negotiated it for months with complete confidentiality.
"Everything was pretty much agreed and then I said: 'Look gentlemen, before we do this, can you tell me how you're going to run this club?'
"I'm sitting there with all the legal documents in front of me and they outline their plans. 'We'll carve this up, we'll sell that off', and after a while I said 'Enough, we're not doing the deal.' We got up and walked out. We took our papers and went out of the door. It wasn't for Rangers. In my opinion they did not want to take the club forward in a football way."
He added: "That's the closest I've come to selling; a few hours last year in a nice London hotel."
Murray has been under fire in recent weeks from large sections of the Rangers support after an early Uefa Cup exit at the hands of Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunas was followed by the sale of SPL Player of the Year and Ibrox favourite Carlos Cuellar to Aston Villa for almost £7.8m.
The purchase of Pedro Mendes from Portsmouth for £3m and a bid for US star Maurice Edu has failed to quieten the discontent, with David Edgar of the Rangers Supporters' Trust referring to the club as a "rudderless ship".
However, Murray defended his group's record of investment in the club, and said: "They must look at the financial underpinning the Murray group has done at Rangers. Let's be under no illusions: it's cost us £100m. I'll tell you this, unless you're backed by proper cash this club will have to downsize. There is an economic crisis out there."
Click here to read the SOS's interview with David MurrayThe full article contains 391 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
