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That's not strictly true. Willie Waddell famously 'went upstairs' in 72, appointing Wallace as manager while he became General Manager, effectively the MD of the day. He was largely responsible for the redevelopment of Ibrox Stadium and the eventual title win in 74/75. As one of our greatest ever players, a high profile journalist, a title winning manager with a provincial club and a European trophy winner with Rangers, Waddell was as high profile an 'MD' as we could have at that time. David Holmes was appointed 'MD' by Lawrence Malborourgh after Lawrence group bought out Jack Gillespie and took control of the club. Holmes transformed Rangers, and Scottish football. While not someone who sought the limelight his profile was very high, and rightly so. He was of course replaced by David Murray, who purchased the club from Lawrence Group. Murray was acting 'MD' of all his companies. He enjoyed the limelight, courted it in fact, and had a profile as high as anyone in business in Scotland for a couple of decades. Even today, despite everything, he's more closely associated with Rangers than anything else. When Murray chose to step back from the day to day running of the club he appointed John McClelland as 'MD'. McClelland's main role was to take any flack that was aimed at Murray. Indeed that was the main role for everyone SDM appointed to that position. Campbell Ogilvie, who was never Rangers 'MD', has some illuminating insights into Rangers between Waddell and Holmes. We didn't have a single owner at the time, we'd a number of shareholders who each had influence but no overall control. According to Ogilvie the board was fractured, they rarely agreed on major decisions. The board were split on firing John Greig as manager for example, long after it was apparent it wasn't working out. Greig eventually did them a favour and resigned. Ogilvie tells of board meetings that regularly lasted 12 hours, where every single thing was discussed and debated and often no agreement was reached. Director's had their own agendas, cliques and alliances were formed, while the club slipped into a period of stasis, allowing Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and even Dundee Utd to push ahead of us. The lack of leadership and direction was part of the reason we were unable to attract Alex Ferguson or Jim McLean as manager, despite both being very much open to it, despite what might have been spun since. Leadership begins at the very top. That's the case with every successful business. While supporters are much more concerned with the football related appointments, the replacement for Bisgrove might well be the most important bit of business we do this summer. History tells us what happens if we get that wrong.

It was like us in the Scottish Cup final: there for the taking, but couldn't get over the line.