No doubt, in the wake of his outspoken, controversial and inflammatory intervention into the current unravelling Rangers administration and possible liquidation saga, the establishment knives will be out for Hugh Adam and his character assassination will be well under way: doddery old fool … bitter reject … dinosaur … what does HE know, anyway?

You get my drift, I’m sure.

Well, in a previous career incarnation of mine, I had the great pleasure of dealing directly with the man on numerous occasions over several years. He was, at the time, at the peak of his powers within the Ibrox hierarchy (if that’s not too offensive a term to use in this respect) and quite the flavour of the month to all of a red, white and blue persuasion.  Not, then, I am sure you will readily understand, a particularly natural target of my trust, respect, admiration and affection.

However, I have to say that Mr Adam was, in all respects, unimpeachable – a huge credit to himself, his club, his profession and above all, his principles. Unashamedly “old-school”, his word was his bond; and his handshake (no tittering, please, I’m being perfectly serious here) over a cup of tea and biscuits was as binding and reliable as any written contract.  Indeed, more so.  Sadly, as we all know, written contracts these days are made to be ripped up, disputed and / or driven through in a litigious horse-drawn coach.   Probably always were.  Whereas, the word of a gentleman is, or certainly in those days, was, sacrosanct.

And that’s exactly what Hugh Adam was … and as far as I know, still is … a gentleman and a businessman who always stood by his word.

Even in those early days of the much-vaunted (though latterly, rather less so) “Murray Era”, Hugh Adam had grave reservations about the emerging business ethics and tactics of the thrusting new figurehead owner of Rangers; and perhaps naively, though more likely just symptomatic of his characteristic openness and honesty, he did not hesitate to share those general reservations, even with an outsider and comparative stranger like myself.

Nothing specific, you understand – no whistle-blowing disclosure of board room secrets.  No flagrant signposting of actual financial policies that might, in time, go nuclear.  In short, no betrayal of confidentiality that would have been unbecoming of the man and his moral compass – just an unmistakable and clearly-expressed concern that, to coin a phrase (not his), “something was rotten in the state of Govan.”

All of which brings me to my point.  There is really nothing new in what Hugh Adam has been saying in recent days.  He’s just been dotting the i’s and stroking the t’s of a message of foreboding he’s been peddling for in excess of twenty years now.  Moreover, from what I know of the man, he either knows that what he is saying is true, or certainly, he genuinely believes it to be so – and with good reason; because he was there … at the heart of it all … from the start!

So, to those who ask, “What does HE know, anyway?”, I have this to say:

He knows where some of the bodies are buried!

Johnbhoy