Greig told me to go or he’d make my life hell at Ibrox
GORDON SMITH now knows John Greig did him a favour by selling him to Brighton in 1980 for what was a club record fee of £440,000.
But the former Ranger didn’t think so at the time.
In fact, he believes he was suckered into signing for Alan Mullery just a month after penning a five-year Ibrox contract.
Smith said: “I was 25 at the time so I thought I’d be spending the majority of my career at Ibrox.
“Then, three or four weeks later, in the close season, I got a phone call from Greigy.
“He said: ‘Can you do me a favour and go down to Brighton to speak to their manager Alan Mullery? He’s a pal of mine. He’s been trying to sign you all year but I don’t want to sell you. Just go and speak to him though.’
“I went down with Davie Provan, who was a Rangers coach at the time. We were picked up from Gatwick airport in a limo and taken to meet Mullery.
“He told me he wanted to sign me and offered me double my money – £400 a week.
“I said no, so he upped it to £600 and I still said no, so after about an hour, Mullery suggested I have some lunch then come back in for a final chat.
“While having lunch, Davie asked me why I wasn’t taking the deal. ‘Because Rangers don’t want to sell me,’ I said.
“Davie looked at me and said: ‘I didn’t want to tell you. The deal’s done. We’ve agreed the fee. We didn’t want to tell you – we thought you would just take the money.’
“I phoned Ibrox and got Greigy on the phone. The first thing he asked was if I’d signed for Brighton.
“He told me that if I didn’t sign, he’d make my life hell and I wouldn’t even get a game for the Rangers reserves.
“I didn’t know it was a record fee of £440,000 and obviously the club were desperate to get it.
“I went back in to see Mullery and told him I’d sign. He offered me a fiveyear deal but I asked for four years because I didn’t want to be out of contract at 30 years old – back then that was regarded as nearing the end of your career. I wanted to be a free agent at 29.
“I went back up the road with my head spinning. There were no mobile phones back then so I went straight home to see my wife.
She said: ‘How was your day?’ I said: ‘ You’d better sit down!’
“At the time it stung but there have been many times when I’ve thanked Greigy because I enjoyed my time down there.
“It was a lovely place to live and I enjoyed playing for Brighton.
“Although he didn’t try to do it, he actually did me a favour and I’ve since told him that.”