Into the Bear Pit: The Explosive Autobiography

There are a few pages of preamble: we learn about a young, enterprising Whyte coining it in on the stock market before he'd even had his first shave. Leaving school at 15 to go work for his dad. Setting up his own plant hire company and doing well for himself.All very lovely, but not why we bought the book. Thankfully, Craigy doesn't blue ball us for too long with the childhood backstory, and we're soon at the main event.And what a ding-dong it is. A rogue's gallery of see you next tuesdays; industrial-scale impropriety; Establishment-soaked media/police/CPS out for blood in the wake of Rangers' death; SFA incompetence. It reads like an airport thriller, pulpier than a bath full of Tropicana with bits.It's 200-odd pages of score-settling, but also serves as an inside look at The People: men-only Directors' Rooms, funny handshakes, paranoia, faction fighting. A crumbling stadium with toilets untouched since the 70s. A PA system unfit for purpose.As with every autobiography, there might be a touch of the unreliable narrator at play. After all, here's a vexed, interested party telling an unflattering story about the long reach of Establishment tentacles, about how the cosy relationship between the media/SFA and Rangers allowed unchecked cheating for years.No doubt the book will be rubbished by the obsequious Daily Record. In the book, Whyte talks of getting negative stories pulled from that paper '100%' - a perk Murray enjoyed for years as a friend of the editor. Unenquiring, mouthbreathing Rangers fans probably won't like it - if they're even able to read it. For them, Whyte will always be the bad man who killed Ra Jurz, and no autobiography will change that.But as Whyte highlights, the court case he stood trial at was laughable. In surreal scenes, his barrister Donald Findlay QC rips the Crown's witnesses to shreds, including Sir David Murray. I must admit, reading about Sash-enthusiast Findlay doing a post-mortem on his beloved club's cancer-ridden cadaver was a nice bit of schadenfreude.Anyway, if you're a good Shellick man in need of a chuckle, pick this up. You'll blitz through it in no time and get a few ribs tickled along the way.Goes down very well with a bowl of jelly & ice cream, I found.Glasgow's Green & Whyte CSC

Good read and together with the book Tangled in blue highlights how corrupt, bigoted and corrupt this club was and no change in the new club carrying the same name of Rangers

Mind boggling read. It's no wonder some in the media and the Scottish Football hierarchy wanted this book stopped. If there is no investigation, then I'm afraid the games over in Scotland.

I had mixed feelings about ordering this book but thought that in the interests of fairness, given the outrageous press reporting at the time, I should read what Craig Whyte had to say about the whole debacle.When David Murray famously said " we were duped!"...I just knew he was lying ( he was famous for investigating everyone he came in contact with) and this explained the reason.....Murray was trying to save his own skin...not Rangers. When Murray took control at Ibrox, I was advised by someone close that so long as he was in power there would never be a dividend paid....how true!Craig Whyte gives us a valuable insight into David Murray's regime and the intense back stabbing that was current at the time. One after another, the chancers parading as "business men" appeared on the scene only to try and steal a piece of the club for themselves.In the end, I kind of felt for Craig Whyte....yes he was naive, yes he made mistakes, yes he didn't fully understand about Scottish Football in the west of Scotland and yes....he tells it ( I hope honestly) from his point of view.Overall, it is fascinating reading and Whyte is vindicated in the end.....you really couldn't write this stuff....but he has and it is compulsive reading if you are a Weegie of whatever persuasion.....a cautionary tale of two sharks in a small tank!!

Really enjoyed this book, it gives a great insight into what went on at Glasgow Rangers before they went into liquidation and folded.It may well play a part in the future of the new club playing out of ibrox formerly known as Sevco, Now called The Rangers.I bought this book to take with me on holiday but with the world now in a pandemic I thought I might as well read it as there won't be a holiday this year. Glasgow Rangers used EBT's to save paying tax through side contracts with their players, the final estimate of what they owed was around 140 million, what our NHS could have done with that money right now! But at least the club payed the ultimate price and is now in liquidation. Hopefully alot of people have learned their lesson and this will never be allowed to happen again.