He attacked the Scottish Premier League and the SFA for what he said they had done to Rangers. He rounded on other clubs for their supposed treachery in putting Rangers into the Third Division. He slammed the media for an anti-Rangers bias. All of this was grist to his mill. All of it was riotously acclaimed by many in the support.
Celtic fans knocked a lot of fun out of what they called the Banter Years – and Green gave them more ammunition than they knew what to do with. He claimed that Manchester United wanted Rangers in the Premier League – they didn’t. He claimed that Barcelona and Real Madrid wanted Rangers in La Liga – they didn’t. He claimed that Rangers were in talks with the Dallas Cowboys over a mega commercial deal – they weren’t. He said that Rangers were targeting 15 players in the summer of 2012 and that five of them were internationals playing in the Euros – none of them arrived.
At a meeting of Rangers supporters groups he said that the club’s global television reach was 500m people – roughly 7% of the world’s population. He said that Rangers could generate £100m in television revenues every year – £34.9m more than Manchester City had generated when winning the Premier League the season before. He said that the Champions League group stage should be the minimum requirement for Rangers, that a place in the quarter-finals should be the target every other year. He could envisage the occasional semi-final spot.
He said all of this in a time when Rangers were losing league games to Stirling Albion, Annan Athletic and Peterhead. Then they lost in the Challenge Cup final to Raith Rovers. The season after that they lost in the Challenge Cup semi-final to Queen of the South.
Compare that to this campaign. Compare losing those games to the ones they’ve been winning in European competition. It’s night and day.
Green was all about selling a vision that he could cash in on. He said it openly. He wanted to build up the club, do a share issue, sell it off and retire to a castle in Normandy. The reality was that Rangers were bleeding money on his watch, they were spending relative fortunes on wages just to get out of the Third Division and up the leagues.
The financial waste was extraordinary. McCoist, as manager, was on £825,000 in the bottom division. Ian Black was reportedly on £7,500 a week. Fran Sandaza was said to have been given a deal that would have seen him earn £10,000 a week had he not said some unwise things in a prank call with Tommy the Taxi Driver, a breach of contract that allowed Rangers to fire him.
Their wage bill was £7.8m. In the 13 months to June 2013 they recorded a loss of £14.4m. Despite his bombast, Green’s demise was nigh, his shtick had worn thin on all fronts.
