With Phil Anderton leading the charge at Tynecastle another rugby man is emerging as the driving force at Rangers

THE HERALD REPORTS
The force emerging from Ibrox shadows

GRAHAM SPIERS September 21 2005

The intrigue over key personnel changes currently going on behind the scenes at Rangers focuses on one man: Martin Bain, the club's recently-appointed chief executive. After the formidable presence of David Murray, the Ibrox chairman, Bain is now the most influential and determined figure at the club.
From beyond the gates of Ibrox the question being increasingly asked is: who is Bain and what is his agenda at Rangers?
To many observers, something akin to an afternoon of the long knives took place at Ibrox on Monday. As an increasing powerbroker at the club, the 38-year-old Bain implemented a personal strategy whereby three significant figures in the Rangers hierarchy were either marginalised or simply removed.
Campbell Ogilvie, the club's long-standing secretary of over 25 years, was reduced to the rank of a club "consultant". John McClelland, an erstwhile Rangers chairman and vice-chairman, was relieved of his executive duties, though McClelland will remain a non-executive club director.
The most surprising aspect was the removal of George Adams from the key position of head of Rangers' youth development. Bain and Adams, it was claimed last night, are said to have had "a personality clash".
The removal of Adams by Bain has raised eyebrows because, having been at Rangers for over two years, Adams had repeatedly been trumpeted as the club's key figure at Murray Park, the youth academy where Rangers boast a radical strategy to rear their own players. David Murray himself even hailed Adams as "the best in the business" recently.
So what is going on at Rangers? And why has Bain been so ruthless in implementing the changes he has made?
With every passing year, and more recently every passing month, the intrigue over Bain has only been matched by his remorseless gathering of power inside Ibrox. He has now worked for Rangers for nine years and is said to have built up his powerbase and won favour with David Murray through a combination of personal ambition, as well as an extraordinary capacity for working hours.
"Martin is unbelievably driven," said one former colleague who worked with Bain at Rangers. "Murray always openly admired him, but Martin himself would sometimes put in hours that other people would find frightening. When you consider these two facts, it's no surprise that he has got to where he is at the club."
His father and his grandfather were both Rangers supporters, but Bain, a product of Glasgow Academy was, like Murray, more of a rugby man. He had run a small publishing business before moving into PR; while managing the McEwan's Lager account, Rangers' shirt sponsors in the nineties, he first came into contact with Murray.
Bain's dedication to his work might leave him less time than he would like to spend with his wife, Susie, a management consultant, and their two boys, Jack (9) and Luke (7), but has certainly paid off.
Having joined the club in 1996, he has remorselessly climbed the Ibrox ladder, from the commercial department, to becoming a club director in 2001, to then being made director of football in 2003, until this year, finally, when he was appointed as chief executive. Yesterday, it was announced that he is set to take McClelland's place as Rangers' representative on the board of the SPL, a new position of power.
In short, it has taken Bain no more than four years to ascend to, and then gravitate beyond, three key positions inside Ibrox. In so doing, his love of where he has reached within the club was evident from the pleasure he expressed at becoming chief executive earlier this year.
"I feel very proud . . . this is a day I'll remember for a long time," said Bain of his latest elevation.
In the process Bain has exercised measures of unflinching power. Within Rangers it is said he never felt at ease with John McClelland's strategy when the latter became the Ibrox chairman in 2002. Given Bain's personal drive and ambition, it is no surprise that the two men have passed each other on the elevators of Ibrox influence, with Bain in the ascendancy.
Bain has referred to himself as "a grafter", which corroborates what a number of Rangers employees or former employees who spoke to this newspaper said about him. He is clearly talented in areas of football branding and marketing.
Bain is also said to have a close relationship with Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, which is another key factor in his rise and rise.
Bain, however, also shares an unfortunate stigma with McLeish of not being every Rangers fan's cup of tea. As well as being admired by some, Bain is loathed by others who, rightly or wrongly, see him as over-ambitious and even sycophantic towards David Murray. Bain often refers to Murray as "my mentor".
The latter view is probably an unfair perception, though there can be no doubt that, to some degree, Bain "does Murray's bidding", as the oft-cited phrase has it, within Ibrox. Even Bain himself recently lamented the way in which he is viewed as Murray's "gofer".
"I've been called 'Murray's puppet'," he said. "Believe me, I've taken some shit in this job."
There has also, let it be said, been an element of courage in Bain's attempts to drag Rangers into the modern era, none more so than in his behind-the-scenes activities in relation to the club's bigotry problem.
Where Murray, according to some, was slow to respond to the bigotry debate on behalf of Rangers, Bain is said to have been far more proactive. Indeed, many believe Bain to have been the instigator of Murray's extraordinary statement in March, in which some of their own Rangers supporters, in particular the "f*** the Pope brigade", were castigated.
Bain is willing to be unstinting in his condemnation of bigotry, even saying that he is "ashamed" of some Rangers supporters.
"These are not true fans because they bring this club down . . . you have to be ashamed of them," said Bain of the Ibrox fans who chant bigoted slogans. "I believe it is only a small minority, but it is a minority which everyone connected with Rangers, including the majority of our supporters, are not happy to accommodate."
Rangers are increasingly in the hands of a very ambitious personality, and one which doesn't shirk from removing unfavoured personnel, as the past two days have proved.

This article was posted on 21-Sep-2005, 07:27 by Hugh Barrow.