Bankers are running Rangers

IBROX manager Walter Smith last night admitted: "The banks are running Rangers."

Smith finally spoke out as reports spread that the club will be sold in the next week.

Rangers quickly denied that such an immediate sale was likely but they didn't reject the claim that a sale IS on the horizon.

The appointment of Donald Muir as a non-executive director of the club in a low-key announcement made nine days ago is seen as the key to recent developments at the club following Sir David Murray's decision to step down at the end of August.

After the draw with Hibs Smith said: "As far as I'm aware the bank is running the club. David Murray stood down and I felt at the time that would be a bad thing for the club.

"He tried for 20 years to invest in the club. Since then there's been a representative of the bank on the board. Obviously it's not a good situation and it's not one that anyone wants the club to be in.

"The club has been up for sale for a while and if a bank has to take over it's not going to invest in a football club.

"I think Rangers have been honest about the situation.

"The players have been up for sale since January and we haven't bought a player in the transfer window. I'm not complaining about it. It's a fact of life. There are a lot of companies struggling in the present market but obviously the quicker this is cleared up the better it will be for Rangers.

"At the moment it's just a case of trying to get through it and hoping that things will change sooner rather than later."

Mystery man Muir, 50, is described as a lifelong Gers fan whose role will to 'assist the club in meeting its strategic business objectives'.

Smith's outspoken comments overshadowed an excellent match with Hibs, the result of which means Celtic will return to the top of the SPL if they win at Hamilton today.

Kris Boyd put Rangers in front early on but Anthony Stokes fired a deserved leveller for the visitors after the interval. Hibs boss John Hughes revealed player power forced him into playing a positive formation.

He said: "We had a chat on Friday morning and the players said they wanted a formation like the one we used.

"They all wanted to come here and have a go. I've described Anthony Stokes as a maverick and I think his goal demonstrated that. The way he juggled the ball before scoring was terrific but he should have shot later on because it was his kind of position."

Stokes revealed: "We told the gaffer we didn't think there was much point coming here and trying to get men behind the ball. We gave them a good game and were maybe unlucky we didn't get more out of it.

"I thought I took a good second touch at the goal but by the time of the second chance there wasn't much left in the tank.

"Both teams played some good football and that's what fans want. You don't want them coming to games and watching boring football.

"It's the same for players. If you're just getting men behind the ball, it's not enjoyable to play in. You have to come here believing you're good enough to get a result or you're going to end up losing by four or five goals and we don't want to go back to those days. We are disappointed at only getting a draw at Ibrox, which tells its own story about just how we are making progress."

Rangers winger Stevie Naismith said: "In any home game you look upon it as two points dropped but to be fair we played much better today than we have of late. After Tuesday, when we couldn't string two passes together and we ended up getting a bit of a thrashing, we needed to show a lot of improvement.

"With the number of chances we had, we should have won the game but credit to Hibs.

"They play good football, they are prepared to have a go and in John Hughes they have a good manager."

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