A PROMINENT director of ­Rangers has branded controversial former owner Craig Whyte "mad" and claimed he would "personally throw him down the marble staircase" if he turned up at Ibrox.

Sandy Easdale also accused Mr Whyte of attempting to add to the turmoil of the club, which just 20 months after its liquidation is once again in a financial crisis.

It follows reports this week that Mr Whyte is on the cusp of a legal bid to claim ownership of the club and its core assets, namely Ibrox Stadium and its Murray Park training facility in East Dunbartonshire.

According to a blog by the Channel Four News journalist Alex Thomson, Mr Whyte said that his ownership of the club "absolutely extends to Ibrox, the training ground, the players, the entire entity as it stands".

Sources cited as being close to Mr Whyte also claimed "there is no question about that. The ownership of Rangers by the Sevco company of which Craig Whyte is a director is beyond question" and predicted "significant movement in the legal case in the next few weeks".

The re-emergence of Mr Whyte, whom many fans of the Ibrox club blame for its administration and then liquidation, comes on the heels of players refusing to accept a 15% pay cut and a bruising AGM in December where Mr Easdale and the current board saw off an attempted coup.

But in an unusual public outburst, Mr Easdale yesterday told an influential Rangers blog: "Craig Whyte is mad. Is he not aware that everyone with a share has more claim to RFC assets than he does? He's like a big kid. It's like if he can't have Rangers then all he wants is to try to ruin things for everybody. I have never met or spoke to the man but I personally would throw him down the marble staircase if he ever turned up at Ibrox."

Mr Easdale, who is no stranger to controversy having served one year of a 27-month sentence for VAT fraud in 1997, is now one of Scotland's most successful businessmen. The board of directors is not universally accepted by the Rangers support, with Mr Easdale's comments receiving a mixed reaction on social media outlets last night.

One post said: "I can't stand Craig Whyte and hope he's suitably punished but Easdale and (blogger Bill) McMurdo didn't really think the staircase quote through did they?"