A London-based property developer has made a £33 million offer to take over Rangers Football Club. The Herald can reveal 41-year-old Andrew Ellis lodged a bid for the Ibrox side on Monday through a company called Marlborough Investments.

Mr Ellis is believed to be heading a consortium interested in taking control of the Scottish Premier League side, which is in debt to Lloyds Banking Group to the tune of around £30m.

A name linked last night to the Andrew Ellis bid was David Bulstrode, another wealthy property developer who has made his money from deals in the affluent Knightsbridge area of London.

The £33m offer was submitted to director Donald Muir, the man whose appointment to the Rangers board last October caused controversy among the club’s supporters.

It has been claimed that Mr Muir is running Rangers according to an agenda set by Lloyds, although the bank maintained his placement on the board was down to the Murray Group, the company of Rangers owner and majority shareholder Sir David Murray.

Given that the offer was submitted to Mr Muir, it would appear he is the man making key decisions at the club. Mr Murray stood down as chairman last August and reiterated his desire to sell the club on after more than 20 years at the helm.

Both Mr Ellis and Mr Bulstrode have previous links to football, most notably through their fathers. Mr Ellis’s father, Peter, was chairman of London club Queens Park Rangers in 1996.

When QPR hit financial troubles in 2001, Mr Ellis junior launched a £9m takeover but the deal collapsed and he did not gain control of the club.

He planned to move QPR from their Loftus Road stadium to a new ground near Heathrow Airport, with reports at the time saying he would use the existing stadium site for property redevelopment.

Mr Bulstrode’s father, also David, emerged as a controversial figure in 1987 when the company he headed, Marler Estates, took control of Fulham Football Club and their Craven Cottage stadium, which is in a highly desirable part of west London.

At the time, Marler also owned Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge home and QPR. Mr Bulstrode’s intention was to merge QPR and Fulham, sell Craven Cottage and play matches at Loftus Road, thus freeing up the site in Fulham for a new housing development. The proposal was met with anger by supporters of both clubs and never got off the ground.

Rangers’ long-term future has been the subject of much debate since The Herald revealed the full extent of the club’s dire financial situation last October. The news came days after manager Walter Smith went public with his fears for the club as the bank had “their man on the board”.

Mr Muir’s re-election to the board was then opposed at a stormy AGM in December, although he was later voted on when Mr Murray’s majority vote – he owns more than 90% of the club’s shares – carried sway.

There has been ongoing speculation Lloyds Banking Group’s grip on Rangers has led to new contracts for key players, such as striker Kris Boyd, not being signed off as they were not part of the strict business plan the club’s board had to adhere to.

Mr Smith has also made public his concerns the financial crisis would only get worse at the end of this season, and would continue to do so until a new buyer was found.

In January it was claimed that existing director and South African ex-pat millionaire Dave King had made an £18m offer to Lloyds for the club on behalf of a three-man consortium, which was rejected.

This was neither confirmed nor denied by the bank, although Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston said last month that no bids had been made, to his knowledge.

Whether this interest from Mr Ellis will prompt Mr King to make a concrete move to seize control remains to be seen.