Rangers FC are not having a good couple of weeks.
First came the defeat at the hands of Celtic in the season’s first Old Firm Derby and then Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace won an appeal with the SPFL.
Miller and Wallace had made an appeal regarding the punishment that was handed out to them for an alleged altercation with former manager Graeme Murty last season and after the verdict went their way the club immediately came out to criticize it.
But the fans stood by the players’ side and demanded that the management should also hand down a punishment to Graeme Murty who was equally guilty during the incident.
And now another former player has made a statement which goes to show just what a big liar Murty was.
Centre-back David Bates agreed on a contract with German side Hamburg this April following which Graeme Murty had said that the 21-year-old had made the switch because of money.
Murty said at the time: “Let’s not beat around the bush, David has gone for more money than we can offer him and he could be playing in Bundesliga II next year. He is going for more money than we can give him here.
“That is the reality of it.
“So take emotion out of the situation, take the fact he is a Rangers supporter out of the situation, there is a load of money on the table. I am disappointed more than surprised that he hasn’t accepted it.”
But now David Bates has spoken out for the first time since his move and in doing so the youngster has completely rubbished the claims of Murty suggesting the move was never about money.
Speaking about the exit Bates said: “It was a hard decision to leave Rangers.
“When I was there I asked for a contract for a long time and never got one.
“Eventually they got talking but I had options to go to places like Hamburg.
“I don’t want to say too much about how I left. But in my opinion what was said was complete lies. It was never about the money or stuff like that.
“It was about feeling appreciation from a club. Like the way, Hamburg went about it.
“They came to watch my games, they were always talking to me and showed just how much they wanted me to go there.
“The way they went about it was so much better than everyone else. It felt like the love I was wanting – and it was always going to be the right decision.”
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Read: Former teammate brings down the false claims about Steven Gerrard’s heroic speech.
