US billionaire Bill Miller ‘could have saved Rangers from 10 years of doom and gloom’

Former Rangers administrator David Whitehouse insists the collapse of a takeover bid by American trucking tycoon Bill Miller in 2012 was a ‘tragedy’ for the Ibrox club.

Whitehouse and colleague Paul Clark, joint administrators at Duff and Phelps, were appointed to find a buyer for the stricken institution ten years ago on Monday.

The pair eventually sold the assets to Charles Green’s newco in June 2012, but failed to prevent the oldco being liquidated later the same year.

Whitehouse claims the £11.2million offer from Miller would have preserved the club’s Premiership status, balanced the books and avoided a five-year exile in Scottish football’s lower leagues.

Billionaire Miller blamed his withdrawal on ‘preliminary information’ from the administrators being ‘more optimistic than reality’.

Whitehouse, however, believes the adverse reaction to Miller’s bid convinced him to walk away, telling Sportsmail: ‘The tragedy for Rangers is that Bill Miller was not allowed to acquire the club.

‘Bill Miller was an incredibly wealthy, extremely well-advised sports fan who wanted a base in the UK.

‘He had a plan which was fully funded and supported by professional advice in the sports industry and he was prepared to invest many tens of millions in the business after acquisition.

Whitehouse claims US tycoon Bill Miller could have preserved the club’s Premiership status

‘He reached agreement with me, the SFA and the SPFL to retain membership in the Premiership.

‘Had he taken over, the club would not have dropped down all those divisions and would have avoided that cycle of ten years of doom and gloom. You would be looking back now at a cycle of ten years of success driven by a US billionaire owning the club.

‘He was dissuaded not to proceed for only one reason. He was intimidated.

‘A bunch of fans flew out to Miami to intimidate his wife and that’s the tragedy around this story.

‘If you are looking back at the catalogue of failure Rangers have been through — the terrible process of going to the lowest division, building themselves up with no economic base, an IPO (Initial Public Offering) which produced a load of cash washed away by losses in the lower leagues — it could all have been avoided.’

Pointing fingers at the rival Blue Knights group, Whitehouse says their efforts did more harm than good.

‘Bill was the ideal bidder. And he was chased away by the narrative that “Rangers men” had to own the club.

‘That is exactly the narrative which sprung up,’ he adds.

‘The trouble with that was clear. Rangers men didn’t have any money.

‘Sorry, let me correct that. I can’t say they didn’t have any money, they simply weren’t prepared to put enough of it on the table.’