Craig Whyte makes no secret of his true intentions with covert conversations Meanwhile, it has been reported that Whyte is preparing to take Duff & Phelps to court on the grounds that they allegedly agreed a £500,000 fee to get the club out of administration and back into his hands as soon as possible and that they allegedly dragged out the process to earn £3 million in fees. The firm said earlier this year that a capped fee was envisaged for an outcome which never materialised. Clark said: "From day one of the administration, it was abundantly clear the club was in a major insolvency situation that was going to last for a significant period of time. We stated at our very first press conference, that Craig Whyte's estimates for a quick resolution were optimistic. However, The Daily Telegraph readers will recollect that this column revealed that HMRC would never have allowed Whyte to regain control at Ibrox. The tax authority specifically claimed that it would not oppose a Company Voluntary Arrangement for Rangers providing there would be "an equitable settlement for creditors" and "regime change" - as the SPL was informed specifically by a very senior official who was part of an HMRC team that attended a meeting at its offices in Hampden Park in April. In the event, HMRC decided that the money it would have recovered through a CVA funded by Charles Green was not sufficiently equitable and it vetoed an exit from administration but the body's earlier decision to preclude Whyte from any chance of maintaining control meant that, even if Duff & Phelps had agreed to restore control to the man who had taken Rangers over the brink, it could not be done. As my informant, the insolvency expert, predicted, it looks increasingly as though it will take us years - if we ever wholly discover - who at Rangers did what, why, how, when and (the biggest question) for how much. Farewell to the Bard of Dundee It was only at the end of August that we heard that Hamish McAlpine was on the mend after his heart attack scare and that he received many messages of support from folk in the game and also fans who have cherished his reputation as one of the great goalkeeping characters of Scottish football, for the 20 years with Dundee United which saw him achieve a league winners" medal and reach the semi-finals of the European Cup. Like all goalies, Hamish was an outfield player who had to be kept in a box but he escaped regularly and even established himself as United's penalty kick expert - scoring three times from the spot in league matches. He also netted directly from a goal kick against Raith Rovers and was immortalised in song by my old pal Michael Marra, who composed the delightful ballad Hamish the Goalie and which includes a reference to Grace Kelly - in her capacity as Princess Grace as Monaco - who turned up with her husband at Tannadice to watch a Uefa Cup tie in September 1981. That song took on an additional poignancy this week when news spread - very sadly for all who cherished him - of Michael's death after a long illness. Wee Michael, had a fine, dry sense of humour, frequently heard in his lyrics. His love of Scottish football can be heard on the splendid album On Stolen Stationery which contains The Wise Old Men of Mount Florida, Michael's tribute to Queen's Park, the first team in the world to play the passing game. The album also features the song that is probably the favourite of most of Michael's admirers - Hermless. The hook line, sung in typical plangent style and in Dundee accent by Michael is: "Hermless, hermless - there's never nae bather frae me." And, in view of the forthcoming independence referendum, his fans will doubtless reflect that Hermless was Michael's nomination for an alternative Scottish national anthem.