Whyte Waits On Murray, But Takeover Still Likely

The BBC website is today carrying a story that prospective owner Craig Whyte is hopeful of taking over the club in January. Journalist Alasdair Lamont has published a story this afternoon that contains no quotes, but is strong in it's belief that Whyte has said he is aiming to takeover the club sometime in January - probably towards the end of the month now. Crucially, this end of month deadline would mean that Smith could potentially be given funds from new ownership to utilise in the transfer window.

The article on the BBC site, said the following, "Craig Whyte remains hopeful of concluding his proposed takeover of Rangers before the end of January. Whyte has been in negotiations with the current owner Sir David Murray since the middle of November."

"He had initially hoped to complete a £33m deal before Christmas, but due diligence has taken longer than the Scottish businessman expected. However, if that can be concluded soon, Whyte aims to take over in time to help Walter Smith strengthen his squad."



Continuing, the article then points to the fact that Whyte has been waiting to hear back from current owner Sir David Murray over a couple of queries he has on several issues before he can move forward with his bid.

"Whyte considers the matter to be largely in Murray's hands at this stage, with Whyte's lawyers and accountants awaiting responses to a number of queries from the current owner. He expects that following a period of relative inactivity over the festive period, which he found frustrating, the pace of negotiations will now pick up."

The timing of this article is impeccable as only last night and today, news has broken with Walter Smith lamenting the lack of funds he has to work with to shore up the creaking Rangers squad.

Whyte clearly sees this as an issue for the club, that manager Smith cannot accentuate the squad, so he will hopefully hasten his attempts to gain control of the club as it would rid the club of the burden of Lloyds holding all the aces in terms of the clubs finances. The financial freedom that would be afforded the club with no debt would be fantastic for the manager, meaning first and foremost that any player sales would need to be sciphone off to go towards servicing the clubs debt.

The lack of quotes is perhaps the only worrying thing about the article, however the BBC are usually spot on when it comes to their sources. Nevertheless, the fact that Whyte would be subject to different laws and regulations as he is engaged in a takeover means that he would probably not be allowed to be directly quoted.

Very, interesting times for Rangers.

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Rab Boyle/therabbitt is News Editor and Administrator for the fantastic site Rangers Media which has all the latest Rangers news and some excellent discussion on its forums.

http://home.rangersmedia.co.uk/

His blog: http://home.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php/blogs/rabbitts-blog.html