Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has claimed that he used to “correct” the stories of Jim Traynor – then a journalist at the Daily Record – before they went to print.
Whyte makes the claims in his autobiography, Into The Bear Pit, which is due to be released next Friday.
In an exclusive report in The Glasgow Times, Whyte tells of his shock when the Record and Traynor – now the PR chief at Rangers – wrongly called him a “billionaire” in an infamous front-page headline.
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Whyte – who bought Rangers from David Murray for £1 in 2011 – also claims that he was able to get stories “pulled” from the Scottish press whenever he wanted.
“Jim Traynor used to send me his articles through before he’d print them, and I’d correct them for him. In the pre-internet days, Murray must have had complete control. Some journalists were happy to have a good relationship with Rangers if that meant getting stories, even if as a result it became difficult to criticise the club.
“Traynor had got in touch ... about a month after I went into Ibrox. We went for lunch at the Rogano restaurant and from that day he hounded me for a job. I was never that impressed with him. I would soon discover he could fly with the wind.”
Traynor hit back last night at Whyte’s claims, telling the Glasgow Times: “The truth about him is well-known. He was merely a pawn in a strategy – played out perfectly by the Record team at the time. So I can understand that he was ultimately and rightly exposed. You’d have thought the pound would have dropped by now.”
You can read the full exclusive story in The Glasgow Times
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