Smith Admits Board Move Was A Mistake

Former Rangers boss Walter Smith admits he should never have joined Charles Green's Ibrox board.

And the nine-titles-in-a-row manager also confessed he should have walked away much sooner before he did finally quit in August 2013.

The 66-year-old returned to the club in November 2012 after being appointed a non-executive director by then chief executive Green - and he was then handed the chairmanship six months later.

But he soon resigned as he accused the Yorkshireman and former directors Brian Stockbridge and Bryan Smart of creating a "highly dysfunctional environment'' inside the Ibrox boardroom.

However, speaking at the launch of former Rangers Director of Communications Jim Traynor's new PR firm Level 5, Smith said: "Everybody talks about it being chaotic. Everybody can make up their minds about what happened. It was chaotic enough for me to resign.

"For my own embarrassment I maybe held on a bit too long. I should have resigned long before I did.

"But that happens. It was an error on my own part to get involved.''

He added: "Would I have done anything differently? Yeah, I probably wouldn't have joined the board at all. Why? Just the way everything turned out.

"I felt at the time that if I could help the club in any way with the circumstances it was in, it was the right time to do so.

"As it turns out, after a couple of months I discovered it wasn't the right time and I had to leave.

"That was my decision and I found out the boardroom aspect was a circumstance I wasn't particularly comfortable in.''

Former Scotland manager Craig Brown reckons Smith should return to Ibrox for a third stint as boss now that Ally McCoist has been put on gardening leave.

But Smith - who won 10 Scottish titles and led the Light Blues to the final of the Uefa Cup in 2008 - said: "I will go back to Ibrox to games but not in any official capacity.

"I wouldn't go back onto the board either. I have learned it is an environment I am not particularly comfortable in.''

Green has now departed the scene but chaos continues to reign at Rangers.

American financier Robert Sarver has pulled the plug on takeover talks after accusing the board of ignoring his requests for dialogue.

That leaves the Three Bears - wealthy fans Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor - and oldco director Dave King to battle it out with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley for control of the Glasgow giants.

Smith insists he does not know what direction the club will take next, but does reckon Park's group would unite the Ibrox faithful.

He said: "The ideal outcome would be for Rangers to get back to where they were a number of years ago, challenging for the title, as quickly as possible.

That's what every Rangers fan wants.

"How they get there I don't know.

"I don't know enough about what is going on in the background at the present moment to support one and not the other.

"I just wish everybody would get together and rid Rangers of the problems we have had.

"Can Douglas Park bring stability back to club and win over the fans' trust?

Of course he can. He would do that as somebody known to supporters.

"But whoever comes in has to bring that back to Rangers, whether they are American or Scottish. They have to bring an element of trust back into the club again because supporters are now showing they are unhappy with what is going on.

"The trust issue is the big factor and the people who have been involved in this at the moment are the ones who the Rangers supporters would trust.''