Craig Mather acquired drive to rescue Rangers after brush with death When we landed, the car phone was still connected to the Bluetooth and my practical side came out because I called the police and was able to tell them what happened, but not what road we were on, because we were under it. I tried to lock my arms into the steering wheel so that they could get Beth out first. One of her vertebrae shattered into pieces and now she's got four pins and two plates that basically act as scaffolding. I also broke my spine but I came out of it reasonably OK eventually, although I have to watch how I move, what I pick up. Without a doubt the accident has changed me. I've become a lot more focused, a lot more driven, because I appreciate life more - and that's not me being sentimental. I was lying in a hospital bed looking at the ceiling tiles and I couldn't get my legs to move. "To be told, "If you're lucky it will be just swelling around you're spinal cord and your movement will come back." Luckily it did. From this tale we might say that, in more than one sense, Mathers has backbone and a powerful sense of perspective, characteristics that will have to survive exceptionally rigorous examination if he is to succeed in his ambition to be Rangers" CEO in the long term. For a start, recent events have heaped speculation, rumour and innuendo upon a club that is still reeling from last year's collapse into liquidation under Whyte. Doubt, fuelled by incessant online chatter, has already corroded Green's achievement in bringing the reconstituted business to a successful launch on the AIM Market in December. There are questions to which the answers have been jostled aside by Green's uncanny habit of dominating headlines for wrong reasons - such as his racist description of Rangers' commercial director, Imran Ahmad - and Whyte's allegation that the former chief executive, who quit a week ago, collaborated with him during the takeover. So, is the IPO money where it should be? Will the Easdale brothers of Greenock - one a convicted fraudster - become the main force at Ibrox if Green sells them his shares? Is Mather prepared to meet the Dundee manager and former Ibrox favourite, John Brown, who has repeatedly issued ominous warnings about double dealing at the takeover? And while we're at it, how much more damage can be inflicted by Whyte, who seems determined to drag others with him into the debris of his failed schemes? In respect of Whyte, Green, Imran and the labyrinthine trail of events that prompted the current board to appoint financial services firm Deloitte and lawyers Pinsent Masons to carry out a forensic probe into their dealings, Mather said: "Only Craig Whyte knows what Craig Whyte has got in his head and in his armoury, but the forensic investigation is the most thorough I've ever witnessed. They're covering the office space, computers, mobile phones, everything. Deloittes, though, assisted Green and Ahmad during the takeover and share issue. How can they investigate themselves? "If we went to 10 different law or accountancy firms, in some shape or form you would find a connection with Rangers, even indirectly," said Mather. Deloitte is a huge firm and their forensic team was not a party to anything that has gone on here. They and Pinsent Masons are working with the utmost autonomy. The non-executive directors here are trying to find a QC or someone of that ilk who is totally independent and well respected to review the findings. The investigators hope that the gathering of evidence will be done by the end of next week. The report will become available in due course and I will do a media briefing. I can say categorically that the IPO monies that were raised came into the club. I'm not saying that we have £22 million sat in the bank account, but the club is in a good financial state. If someone says we've been dysfunctional, I can't defend that because if the business was functional, productive and profitable it wouldn't have gone into administration. We've had to engage with all the management teams to make sure that we don't end up back there. All I know now is that the money is in the bank - it hasn't been siphoned off. It's for the club's use. It's there for Ally (McCoist) to bring in players. We're not financially dysfunctional now. There's a lot of speculation in the press about who Charles might sell his shares to and I wouldn't dispute that Charles has fuelled that but I've heard three different names aside from the Easdales. I can't comment on the Easdales because, although I've met them, I don't know them. I've never met John Brown. There are lots of allegations and we are in the process of a full forensic investigation into exactly what's gone on. We are truly committed to giving the club a clean bill of health so that we can say to the fans, "Your club is clean and we can move forward without fear." How are we doing financially? I haven't seen the year end figures and there are all the extraordinary costs associated with the first year of trading that will affect those figures, but the aim has always been that the second financial year is profitable. Towards the end of Green's tenure as chief executive, a rift grew between him and Ally McCoist, especially when the manager's backroom team of Kenny McDowall and Ian Durrant seemed under threat. That spectre has been removed, according to Mather. Ally asked me and I said that if he wants Kenny and Ian as his management team, then that's what they are. I'm here to give Ally the tools he needs. He's quite open to be judged as long as he has the resources to do the job. I feel for him. The pre-season was non-existent, the transfer window bordering on shambolic because of everything that was going on around the club. He was swamped with whats, ifs and buts. Everything was rushed and it almost became a panic buying scenario. We'll get pre-season sorted by next week. I won't leave it any longer than that. We have a few irons in the fire that are quite exciting. We're well on the way to having a shortlist of who we want to keep and who we want to bring in. Next week I have another strategy meeting with Ally to ensure that he's buying into this and that we've started off on the right foot. And the possible future - for Rangers and Mather? We need to be the proverbial swan again - the lake is placid but his legs are going like the devil under the surface. For me that was the traditional Rangers," he said. They didn't air their washing in public. They went about things professionally, methodically and in a calculated fashion. That's the Rangers of old. I want to get back to that. It's too early to say where we want to play football eventually. The short term aim is stability. The long term aim is to get back to the pinnacle of Scottish football and the Champions League and then consider where we go from there. And I would like to be the chief executive for every step of that process.