Director Paul Murray says Rangers set to repay £5m Sports Direct loan

Rangers director Paul Murray says the Scottish Championship club are in the process of settling their £5m Sports Direct loan.

Lawyers representing the Ibrox outfit claimed in a London courtroom last week the loan, which was taken out by the club's former regime, had been repaid.

But that was denied 24 hours later by a QC working on behalf of Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, who owns just under a nine per cent shareholding in the club.

However, Murray said the money raised by himself, chairman Dave King and investors Douglas Park, George Letham, George Taylor and John Bennett is now ready to be handed over.

Murray said: "Just to clear this matter up, it's a matter of fact that we've got £5m on deposit sitting with a solicitor and as soon as the legal paperwork is in order the loan will be repaid. I think our QC made a mistake in court, it's as simple as that.

"It's something that people ask about all the time. We were quite clear at the AGM we intended to repay the loan and as I say we are now putting that process into action."

And Murray stressed their were 'no financial issues' at the club which would prevent manager Mark Warburton strengthening his side when the transfer window opens at the start of next month.

"I think we have said that the club is fully funded, and obviously the auditors signed off the accounts on that basis as well," he added. "As far as we are concerned it is business as usual.

"We are moving forward and are obviously focused on getting promotion. It's going to be a challenge but we welcome the challenge. We know we probably need to strengthen the squad, both in January and beyond, and that's the focus. The club is fully funded and there are no financial issues." 

It's well publicised the infrastructure of the club had been left to wither to a certain extent and it's important we rebuild that.

Rangers lead Hibernian by three points going into the crucial festive period, but Murray insists the focus around Ibrox is not solely on the first team gaining promotion to the top flight at the second time of asking, having lost out 6-1 on aggregate to Motherwell in the play-offs last season.

"When we came back into the club I said publicly at the time that I wanted to help build a modern football club," he added. "But it's well publicised that the infrastructure of the club had been left to wither to a certain extent and it's important we rebuild that.

"We are starting from quite a low base. We've now made a few quite significant changes to the football side of things and it's important that we don't just look at the first team in isolation. We want to bring players through, one of the criticisms of a lot of clubs in Scotland is not bringing players through.

"We have brought in Frank McParland as the chief scout and obviously his job is to acquire players for the first team.

"But he is also involved in putting the network in place as well. In different parts of the country there will be different representation levels, but they will probably be stronger in the West of Scotland and Central Scotland."