Two of the many faces of James Succulent Traynor

Back in the day, in the early nineties before his discovery of succulent lamb, James Traynor was a respected figure.

Mainly in the pages of the Herald but occasionally on Radio Scotland he was a measured voice, in 1988 he even had an altercation on a flight back from Romania where he was accused of being ‘nothing but a little Socialist’ by the arch-Thatcherite that was Graeme Souness.

In his pre tabloid days some might even have suggested that the young Traynor showed a fondness, or at least some sympathy towards Celtic.

Given a summer fortnight at Wimbledon Traynor produced informative and witty commentary from SW19 on a sport that he barely touched in the other 50 weeks of the year.

When things started to rumble at Celtic Park in the early nineties Traynor and the Herald offered a sympathetic ear, newly installed CEO Terry Cassidy was despised by those in Newspapers after he decided to close down The Sunday Standard, the feeling was mutual with Cassidy rallying support from Celtic fans as he criticised newspapers. It was a battle that he would never win.

An old television clip from that era had surfaced on social media in recent times, Traynor did give an accurate account of where Celtic were standing without gloating.

Under the Kelly’s and White’s Celtic were in danger of returning to their pre-Stein status of rarely finishing second with their season dependent on a good cup run and the outside hope of winning the Scottish Cup.

Another club from Glasgow is currently close to taking on that status.

Over the course of a decade, via a stop off at The Express before arriving at the Daily Record Traynor turned into a very different beast.

The circulation wars saw him become very close to Dave Murray or whoever was in charge at Ibrox, even to the extent that he’d summit his copy for approval before it was released to a once mighty Army of Readers, in June 2024 circulation of the Record is comfortably under 50,000, and falling, or failing.

Nothing was too low for the bold Jimbo, when Celtic lost a friendly in the USA the cracked crest graced the pages of the Record. When an unknown Argentinian came in on loan in 2005 Traynor compared him to Gabriel Batistuta without clapping eyes on the player.

By 2011 things had got so bad that the Record Sports Editor and Keith Jackson decided to introduce an unknown billionaire from Motherwell to the shrinking Record readership, earlier that year there had been a classic on-air rammy with Chic Young over who was the most obliging Murray cheerleader.

In December 2012 Taynor brought the curtain down on 37 years of journalism with an incredible attack on the profession and those crazed Internet Bampots who had ruined it all for everyone- seeking Justice and Truth he officially joined the payroll at Ibrox, accepting an offer from Charles Green to slip into brogues and an unfastened blazer to defend the recently formed Tribute Act. Jim Spence of Radio Scotland was an early casualtY.

The farewell column in the Daily Record included some absolute belters such as.

The last couple of years some of the most bilious types have been allowed to emerge from the shadows and spew invective that sadly became regarded as fact, even though what they were saying and writing wasn’t even close to being definitive. Or honest. Overnight all sorts of anonymous bloggers became experts. These champions of decency had all the answers. They knew better than anyone else. They said over and over Rangers would be done for cheating the tax man.

That’s a bit like a team manager saying after a defeat: “Hold on, I picked the right team and I believe my tactics were correct. So the result doesn’t really matter.”

Dolts. The result is everything. If any of the Rangers Tax Case bloggers are trained lawyers, would you want them to defend you in a court of law?

Even now so many – and I include some fellow journalists – still cannot bring themselves to accept Rangers did not cheat the tax man by using EBTs.

They were wrong, the Rangers Tax Case blog in particular. Yet he/her/they stated: “This blog has been accurate on all of the major points of the case except the one that matters most to date – the FTT (First-tier Tax Tribunal) outcome”.

Excuse me? Accurate on all the major points except the bit that matters most. And that’s all right is it?

Her Majesty’s Supreme Court in 2017 took a different view from the departing Daily Record blogger.

After being forced out following regime change at Ibrox Level 5 PR was used to bring Dave King to power, Traynor had his blazer restored but again it was short lived, too often he became the story.

There was no way back into the mainstream, a podcast company was set up but getting Steven Pressley to deliver dynamic news and opinion proved a flop at the box office with little heard of from the Airdrie fan in recent years.

Traynor’s final record column also included the following:

Let’s not forget how some with telly platforms were prompted by those bloggers and ill-informed commentators. Stupidly they allowed themselves to be duped by supporters with dangerous agendas hidden under the banner of integrity.

And the result? Some of the most shallow and infantile drivel ever written. These egotists are so into themselves they’ve no regard for the safety or wellbeing of those about whom they have written some awful and completely inaccurate pieces.

Despicable, pathetic little creatures craving some kind of recognition but lacking in conscience and morality.

That was a comment on others, not an extract from his CV.

Not even BBC Scotland, populated by Kenny Macintyre, Tom English, Steven Thompson, Neil McCann, Kenny Miller, Jane Lewis, Cammy Bell and Rory Loy have offered Traynor as much as a guest slot for old times sake.

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