ANDREW CAVENAGH has plenty on his plate as he begins life as Rangers’ new owner.
But arranging a meeting to tap into Sir David Murray’s knowledge and experience should be high on his to-do list.
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Many Rangers supporters out there won’t be happy with that statement.
They’ll view Sir David as the last person Cavenagh should be taking advice from.
I completely disagree. The US businessman would be crazy not to seek him out in the coming weeks.
There is still a lot of anger towards the club’s former owner after the way his reign ended in 2011.
Many will never ever forgive him for selling the club to Craig Whyte — no matter how many times he apologises.
As Sir David admitted himself to The Scottish Sun, he called that one horribly wrong.
Yet nobody will ever convince me that he had the slightest inkling of what Whyte was about to do.
If he had, there is no way that he would have sold up, no matter what was going on in his life at the time.
Sir David has apologised publicly but many Rangers fans won’t accept that, which is their prerogative.
He made a mistake and the club paid a heavy price, but that doesn’t mean all his good work should be forgotten.
You don’t achieve everything he did — both in football and business — and earn a knighthood unless you are an elite operator.
Which brings me back to why Cavenagh and his 49ers Enterprises partners would be wise to meet him.
At his Rangers peak, Sir David was the best owner any club could have wished for.
He was decisive, ruthless and brave.
He made tough decisions and owned them.
Speak to the managers who worked under him, including Paul Le Guen, and they will also say he backed them to the hilt.
He was ambitious, he chased big deals and more often than not, he got them over the line.
Sir David had vision and big ideas.
At times, he made unpopular calls but had that knack of convincing everyone he was right.
He dragged Rangers forward and led a period of unprecedented success for the club.
For supporters of my generation, Sir David delivered the best days of our lives.
And you know what, maybe that’s why a large section of the Rangers fanbase can’t forgive him.
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They find it hard to accept that an owner who gave them so much happiness signed the deal that led to years of pain.
But I still maintain that Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe could benefit from some of Sir David’s wisdom.
They are both hugely successful businessmen in their own right, but this is Rangers and the Old Firm.
Nothing — and I mean nothing — can prepare them for this chapter in their careers.
Right now, they are trailing Celtic and the pressure to deliver success will be unlike anything they have experienced before.
If you have a former owner on your doorstep, why wouldn’t you want to tap into that?
Why wouldn’t you look for that extra one or two per cent he could give them?
If it was me, I would be asking Sir David as many questions as possible.
He will give them brutal honesty with his answers but his knowledge could be priceless.
Cavenagh and Marathe need to get things right on the pitch but Rangers also need to be powerful off it.
Sir David made sure he was influential across the wider Scottish game — something that is crucial for any Rangers owner.
He was always box office and The Scottish Sun’s coverage ahead of the release of his autobiography showed that he hasn’t lost that ability to generate headlines.
His view on Peter Lawwell’s influence within Scottish football will have upset the other side of the city.
But Sir David was only telling it how he sees it, as he always did.
And incidentally, I have nothing against the way the Celtic chairman goes about his business.
He does it to get the best for his club, just like Sir David used to.
The new Rangers owners need to meet every challenge head on, whether that’s on or off the pitch.
They need to have a powerful voice in Scottish football — like Sir David had.
He had authority as Rangers chairman and when he demanded answers, he got them.
Sir David’s life story is an inspirational one.
In the face of so much adversity, what he achieved is incredible.
Personally, I will always be grateful for the way he changed my life with one phone call 20 years ago.
I was a Kilmarnock player down in Wales talking to Cardiff City when Sir David rang and told me to get back up the road.
He offered me the chance to play for my boyhood club and got the deal done.
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Doctor Ian McGuinness likes to take the credit for that transfer but it took football people to properly sort it — and then he took six months to arrange a medical!
I have had a good relationship with Sir David since then and he was always interested in you as Rangers owner.
We had a real connection, we would speak a lot and we also had one or two run-ins along the way.
I remember moaning at being out of the team in the summer of 2007 and I made noises about leaving.
He got me at the Ibrox front door one day and hit me with, ‘You want to leave, do you?’
I mumbled something in response and he nipped it all in the bud.
But that’s Sir David in a nutshell.
When he talks, you should listen.
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