Bill McMurdo, once described as “the original super-agent to the stars”, was an electrical engineer soon after leaving school at 15 years old. He worked for the old National Coal Board, whose workforce fell under the fiery trade union leadership of men like Mick McGahey, who were not far short of being communists, and proud of it.

“It’s funny because I was a Conservative by the time I was 16,” says McMurdo, while relaying to me his remarkable story from the East Lothian coalmines to junketing the world as agent to George Best and others. “Around the pits it was a different world back then. I feel I did all right in the end for a lad from Niddrie.”

To this day McMurdo is amazed that he is so associated with Mo Johnston’s transfer to Rangers in July, 1989, when it was as agent to Best that he had really made his name in football. “I was George Best’s agent and personal adviser for 15 years, when he was one of the greatest players in the world,” says McMurdo. “But today just about everyone I meet knows me as Mo’s agent from that move to Rangers.”

Becoming Best’s agent can’t have been too bad a gig, I suggested. “I went everywhere with George: Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Australia,” said McMurdo. “The truth is, being with George opened doors for me that wouldn’t otherwise have been opened. People who ordinarily wouldn’t look at me gave me the time of day.”

How did all this unfold for a lad who started out at the pit-head? Well, McMurdo has a way about him – unassuming but clear and convincing – and he was soon well clear of coal. After a spurt as a sales rep for Mackintosh sweets and tins of Quality Street in the early 1970s, he landed a role with Timex in the UK.

It proved to be the McMurdo launch pad. Within three years the company had made him their UK sales manager, and at that time Timex were heavily involved in motor racing sponsorship, which fell within McMurdo’s brief. It opened his eyes to the world of sports stars and their financial potential.

“At the time Timex were sponsoring Emerson Fittipaldi, then the motor racing world champion, and it meant I was around him a lot, and spending my time at places like Brands Hatch. What I saw in motor racing was the commercial worth of these guys. But it also made me think how backward the world of football still was.

“In those days footballers had next to no rights. They were tethered to clubs forever. I started to think – what is happening in motor racing should be happening in football as well.”

As McMurdo began to think of branching out in football, some local knowledge from back home helped him. Indeed, even prior to his dalliances with Formula One, his business instincts had kicked in.

“The first guy I ever ‘represented’ so to speak was Jock Wallace – when he was still a player, not a manager. I was living in Tranent and Jock was from Wallyford, so we were geographically close. Also, Jock’s old man was well known on the Rangers buses going through to Glasgow for games, so I’d got to know him as well. The first three players I represented were Jock Wallace, George Best and Derek Johnstone.”

By the mid-70s McMurdo’s fame was growing, and he started doing commercial work for Hibernian. He was behind the then infamous Hibs move – though it soon became commonplace – to splash the club’s Bukta kit manufacturers’ name across the front of their jersey. Hibs got fined by the SFA for that, but McMurdo soon had an even greater wheeze up his sleeve. On November 20 1979 George Best signed for the Hibees.

“George was playing in Fort Lauderdale at the time, but he was over in the UK, and Tom Hart, then the Hibs chairman, asked me to get George to come to Edinburgh to make a half-time presentation at Easter Road. After that game a journalist at the press conference asked Tom: ‘when are you signing George Best?’ “Tom laughed it off, but then came and asked me about the possibility. Me and Tom and Eddie Turnbull [then the Hibs manager] went to speak to George about it, and he agreed to sign for the club. He was paid £2,000 per game by Hibs, at a time when Rangers and Celtic players were lucky to be on £300 a week. But I’ve always said, George didn’t cost Tom Hart a penny in the end. The Hibs crowds boomed and Tom got it all back through the gates.”

By the 1980s and 1990s McMurdo was in full flow, with a spate of British players under his wing. For obvious reasons he became known as a Rangers fan and associate, which riled many Celtic supporters, though the truth of his relationship with both clubs may surprise.

“I had a good relationship with Celtic for many years, especially during the Fergus McCann era,” he says. “Fergus was a tremendous guy, I had a lot of time for him. What you saw was what you got from Fergus. I felt he was trustworthy, frank and open about things. He had no two sides.

“Put it this way, if I was ever asked to do a deal with either Fergus McCann or David Murray, and I had the choice, I would choose Fergus 10 times out of 10. I found him totally honest and up front.”

Well, this is intriguing. On numerous occasions – and one infamously – McMurdo had dealings with Rangers and the club’s former chairman. However, McMurdo took a dim view of Sir David Murray, and it isn’t a view dressed up today with easy hindsight.

“I never really took to David,” he says. “I felt he liked to score points over people. He would sometimes mock or ridicule other chairmen – I mean in conversation – and I didn’t like it one bit. I also had this feeling that I could never trust David 100%.

“But there was another factor between us. Hugh Adam, the former Rangers director, was a friend of mine. Hugh was as honest and straight a guy as you could meet. He was also a thorn in the side of David as a Rangers director. He disapproved of the way David did things at Ibrox – and David knew it.

“Hugh ran the Rangers Pools, and David hated the fact that it was a separate entity within the club. It was a successful operation, but Hugh took charge of the monies raised, not David. David didn’t like that. On top of that, as Hugh became more disillusioned with the way David was running Rangers, David knew he needed rid of him. So he finally got him off the board.

“Hugh was a very decent guy who believed in doing things properly. I’ll maintain this to my dying day – if Hugh Adam, and not David Murray, had been running Rangers, the club would never have ended up in the grubber.”

On one infamous occasion at Celtic Park in 1995 McMurdo’s contrary relationship with Celtic was confirmed. It also summed up his standing among celebrities.

“Fergus had asked me if Rod Stewart would come and open a new stand at the rebuilt Celtic Park. So I went and got Rod, and he came. Fergus came to me and said, ‘will he sing?’ So I asked him if he would sing, and Rod said to me: ‘Sing? Bill, I’m s******* it. I’m terrified of this. I don’t think I can go out there’.

“I was amazed by this. I said to Rod, ‘how can you be nervous, you’ve sung to 50,000 people on numerous occasions.’ Rod said, ‘well, I feel bloody nervous about this’ and he added: ‘Will you come out with me onto the park?’ I said, ‘Rod, are you kidding? They’d hang me if they got their hands on me.’ I told Rod to go and get himself a stiff drink.”

The relentless McMurdo, now 71, is still going strong, representing players in Europe, Korea, India and the USA. “I like what I do, I enjoy my work,” he says, as understated as ever.