A former Rangers director has admitted the club's board did "very limited" investigations into Craig Whyte before his takeover.

Mike McGill, a director of the club at the time of the transaction, told Mr Whyte's fraud trial at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday that experts were not hired to ensure the buyer had the cash needed for the sale.

Donald Findlay QC, for the defence, asked Mr McGill if "due diligence" was carried out, as is the norm in business transactions.

Mr McGill replied they " were able to do very limited diligence."

Mr Findlay then went on to state that: "There are people who specialise in finding out information about the most secretive of people", before asking: "Did you approach one of them?"

Mr McGill replied: "We did not".

The exchange continued with Mr McGill saying the diligence done at the time was to make sure Mr Whyte was not presently disqualified as a director.

They also put his name in the public domain six months before the sale went through and hoped that, given the high profile, expected members of the media would also do their own investigations, although they were not relying on that.

The jury was also shown a letter sent by Mr Whyte to the lending firm Ticketus in the March before he bought the club, which referred to paying back a bank debt of £18m.

In the letter, Mr Whyte told Ticketus the debt would be repaid by taking out a loan from them.

In it, he said the current owner, the Murray Group, was "comfortable" with that arrangement.

Asked if he knew of that, Mr McGill said "no".

When asked if he would have approved of it, he also replied "no."

The jury also heard Arsenal FC owner Stan Kroenke took a "quick look" at buying Rangers FC in 2009.

Mr McGill claimed the American entrepreneur made a tentative approach to buy out Sir David Murray's stake in the club.

The 69-year-old was one of a long list of potential suitors who did not advance beyond initial enquiries.

George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who owned Liverpool around the same time, were also credited with an interest.

The owners of Canadian brewers Molson were also mentioned in court as being curious in Rangers being available.

An 85.3% stake in Rangers was eventually sold to Mr Whyte in 2011. He is accused of fraud and a charge under the Companies Act.

Mr McGill stated a number of potential options were considered to sell the Murray Group's majority shareholding.

A fan buyout scheme was proposed to the board.

"We felt it was worth exploring," Mr McGill told the court.

"The majority of the board thought it unworkable."

A meeting was also held with Dave King in London in 2009 over his interest.

Mr McGill said it was expected Mr King would make an offer at that point or start discussions.

Under cross-examination from Donald Findlay QC, the witness said no deal materialised, with the Rangers board of directors subsequently learning King's "assets in the UK had been frozen."