Not for the first time the Daily Record stands accused of duping their readers.
Tall tales about Dave Murray and Craig Whyte have hung over the Glasgow publisher for decades.
A new club to support and the advance of digital communications offered the Record the opportunity to break free from their tainted past.
Rather than grasp that prospect and rebrand the Record decided to double down with the same diet of moonbeams aimed at a declining market of bears in need of comforting good news stories.
In the summer of 2023 the most incredible spin was applied to a batch of flops signed by Micky Beale, players in their mid to late twenties who had failed to make it elsewhere.
All it required was a recollection from The Brains Behind Gerrard of how he had watched A/B/C playing X/Y/Z years ago against the Chelsea or Liverpool under 14s and legendary status was awaiting at Ibrox.
Two months into the new season Beale was sacked but Sam Lammers, Danilo and Cyriel Dessers remained on the contracts that enticed them to leave Italy and Holland for the delights of training with James Tavernier, Ryan Jack, Ben Davies, John Lundstram and the others that had survived through the annual autumn change of manager.
One year down the line and it was time to clear out the duds but finding clubs to match their bloated Ibrox long term contracts was always going to be a major problem.
On July 31 Keith Jackson informed the Daily Record’s Army of Readers:
Dutch stopper Robin Propper is set to seal a move to Rangers within the next 24 hours to become Connor Goldson’s replacement.
Record Sport revealed online on Wednesday morning that a transfer fee for the 30-year-old- believed to be around the £2.5m mark – has been thrashed out during talks between the Ibrox club and Twente Enschede. It’s believed Rangers launched the move following a day of internal discussions over the order of Philippe Clement’s priority targets on Monday.
Propper emerged as Clement’s most wanted man in the wake of Connor Goldson completing his move to Aris Limassol over the weekend. And that sparked the Ibrox board into a raid on the same Eredivisie outfit they punted Sam Lammers to one week earlier in a deal worth around £2.7m.
Alas the truth about that £2.7m transfer fee emerged yesterday, Lammers and four other players were sold for £1.9m less than the Record had reported.
Rangers board pin blame on Beale for £800k blunder but forgotten Celtic star shows them where it REALLY went wrong 🗣️https://t.co/yrZMCVKWl0 pic.twitter.com/hxK7PbC53q
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) December 5, 2024
That report continued with:
But the move does leave a potential bid for Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland back in the balance, at a time when Clement and his bosses are having to budget carefully in the market. Rangers have pulled in over £4m from the combined sales of Goldson and Lammers but Clement is likely to have to raise more money from cast iron sales in order to finance any further incomings before the window closes in a month’s time.
The only good news to come out of that for bears is that they failed to sign Shankland although the January rumours are starting to surface.
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by Thomas Walker
I get my toilet paper from Tesco, why would I buy the “Daily Record”