Forget The SPL - Look South

WITH Rangers in administration, fresh and ever more lurid revelations seeming to emerge on a daily basis and the police and the Crown Office now involved - it's a right pickle. So, forward tho ah canna see, ah guess and fear; what happens next?

I dare say, since Rangers are, seemingly, so important to the fabric of Scottish life and not merely football life: the club is (apparently) "too big to fail". Some sort of compromise deal will be cobbled together whereby, Craig Whyte having been offered up as a (thoroughly deserving) sacrificial victim - Rangers will, in time, emerge as "a going concern" and allowed to continue in the SPL.

Here's what ought to happen. A "New" Rangers should emerge, but whoever is running this club, which will still have some attachment to the institution which is now crumbling before our eyes, if they have half a brain, will say "no" to the guarantee of a continuing place in the SPL and instead, get Rangers into the English Football Pyramid at the nearest league to Scotland- probably the Northern League, Division Two - which is level 10 on the Pyramid - the English Premiership is level 1. If such famous old names as Crook Town and Bishop Auckland can ply their trade here, why not Rangers?

By retaining the real fanatics on the playing staff and the best of the younger players and by working properly at player development - something which hasn't happened at hte club for years, Rangers could I feel certain, quickly climb the ladder into the Football League, then the Championship and, if the club was properly run and managed the Premiership in ten years would not be out of the question - and that ought to be the aim.

Let's be frank here, a league such as the SPL, wherein the other ten member clubs accept that two of their number are more-important than they are when it comes to commercial opportunities, and when these two clubs are seemingly guaranteed, ad infinitum, to contest the title each year - this is a league which is going nowhere but down the tubes.

There have long been complaints from some connected with Rangers that the poor quality of the opposition in Scotland has somehow held the club back. Having to start again gives the club the chance, if the people running it have the balls to try, to get into the neighbouring, much-larger, market at a low level and work their way up to the level they think they should be at. Are there Rangers-minded men who are up for the challenge - or is staying in Scotland, bullying the rest while putting "Tim" in his place, more important.

During the current malaise with the club, "Ra Peepel" keep parroting that old Bill Struth line: "We welcome the chase".

Well, "New" Rangers are chasing redemption, the restoration of a tarnished name and reputation, is there anyone willing to take up this chase?

If 10 of the 12 clubs are incapable of sticking together to sort-out the two bullies and ensuring a level playing field, then they are not worth bothering with.

Should "New" Rangers go, what price Celtic following them very quickly, and, perhaps without the two bullies hanging over them, the remaining Scottish clubs would sort themselves out for the betterment and long-term good of Scottish football.

Scotland's best export has, we are told, long been its people. Let's export "Ra Peepel" and see how that works. Let's be very clear, if, as Rangers (and Celtic) have long opined, Scotland is too-small for them, then they HAVE to get into England. There is no way the EPL and more particularly the rest of English football will open the doors to allow them straight into the best room - but, if they, together or separately, join the pyramid at an appropriately low level and work their way up, all will be well.

Whoever takes control of "New" Rangers has a probably once-in-a-lifetime chance to make real money out of the club, but it will have to be a long-term commitment.

Look what the men behind AFC Wimbledon and United FC of Manchester have managed, without the backing which would be available to whoever was running "New" Rangers - it's doable.

SFA That's What They'll Dae - They Couldnae Run A Gird

THIS whole Rangers business just gets crazier and crazier with each passing day. At least the Scottish Football Association has finally roused from its slumber and become involved - with the setting up of an "independent" inquiry, specifically it appears, to ascertain if Craig Whyte was a fit and proper person to run a football club.

Well, pardon me, but, unless Mr Whyte is ever able to successfully sue the backsides off the BBC, Trinity Mirror, News Corp and the various lesser media organisations who have printed or broadcast various pieces about his business history and practices in the year or so since he emerged from the woodwork to "buy" Rangers, I think we know the answer to that one.

I have so far been, as far as I know, the only blogger or journalist to invoke the name of the late and still to the dwindling number of Third Lanark fans living, unlamented, Bill Hiddleston. But, I can see little difference between Third Lanark 1967 and Rangers 2012.

Similarly, I can see in the downfall of Rangers, echoes of the downfall of Scottish basketball 20 years or so ago, when Mr David Murray, as he then was, quit the basketball court for the larger arena of Ibrox.

I honestly do not see the SFA liking what any truly-independent inquiry will report to them. For my money, Mr Craig Whyte is not, by a long chalk, the only person involved in the downfall of Rangers, and how the SFA have acted over that club in recent years, who was nothing like a fit and proper person.

To be fair to Alistair Johnstone, he did warn us - the great Scottish football public, that all was not well with Mr Whyte. However he, potential "Blue Knight" Paul Murray and Dave King were all complicit in David Murray's years of mis-management of Rangers, which got the club into a pickle in the first case.

To look at a parallel case - Fred Goodwin maybe lost his knighthood, but what about the other RBS directors who took the hefty salaries and the kudos in the good years, but who said nothing to deter Fred the Shred as he embarked on his disastrous pursuit of that Dutch bank? Were they not also at fault? Did nobody have the cojones to say: "Hang on a minute Fred, are you absolutely certain this is a good move?"

For Fred Goodwin in the bank's boardroom - were the same questions never asked of David Murray, or Dick Advocaat? Paul Murray sat in the posh seats at Ibrox, he was round that boradroom table as it all unravelled. Doesn't he - this potential saviour of the club, also have to answer for his part in getting Rangers into bother in the first place?

And what about the Hampden blazers? They knew their own clubs were being asked to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. Didn't they ever think: "Haud oan a meenit, this isnae right?"

They knew the rules were skewed in favour of two clubs, who were in a power duopoly, might there have been some way, for the overall good and even betterment of Scottish football, whereby they might have brought Rangers to task sooner?

THEN there is the part which we, the "free and fair" Scottish press, who did little or nothing to even warn, play in the debacle. Having seen at first hand how Murray's recruitment of North American talent had seriously fucked-up Scottish basketball; how he had allowed the guys running MIM BC to hoover-up the local talent, without having, like every other club, an under-pinning grass roots youth system, some very good, most adequate, until, when it became unsustainable - he got out - I had told various sports desk pilots the same thing would happen at Rangers.

I take no pride in being proved correct. I warned years ago, it would all go pear-shaped and it has.

Scottish basketball continues - it's back to being the "church hall" game it was 35 years ago, before Murray got involved - in fact, it's not even as good as it was back then, but, it has survived. What precious little Scottish talent there is can still fight its way to the top, but basketball hasn't died in Scotland.

Football will survive the Rangers debacle, even if, as should happen, but won't - Rangers had to go to the foot of the class - back to the Third Division of the SFL, or even, assuming the long-required pyramid is ever put in place, back to the juniors.

We might have to serve a few more years in pots four or five for the Euros and the World Cup, but, survive we would. Indeed, properly re-organised and without the "We were the peepel" baggage, we might even prosper.

But, it seems, because television contracts have ensured that Celtic and Rangers are more-important than the other ten SPL clubs, the 30 SFL clubs, the "Non-League Senior" clubs of the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues and the 170 or so Junior clubs, an accommodation will be arrived at whereby Rangers will rise again and slot straight back in as one of the top two clubs.

That's wrong.

SPL - Simply Pathetic League

I HAVE had enough of gloom and doom this week, so let's set aside the small matter of conjecture on the affairs of Rangers FC and look instead at the state of Scottish football - something I was diverted away from addressing by the events of this week.

Last Saturday, for my sins, I was asked to cover Kilmarnock v Heart of Midlothian by a national newspaper, this was, as I remarked last week, my first exposure to SPL football for a couple of seasons - it was rank rotten.

A poor crowd of just over 4000; ok, the timing wasn't great and the demands on their hard-earned being borne by the Hearts' fans at present doubtless contributed to the thin spread of Jambos in the "away" end. But, barely 4000 home fans were prepared to turn-out to watch a Killie team playing (allegedly) a high-quality passing game.

To my mind this demonstrates what I've been saying for a long time - the SPL is over-priced. It would, last weekened, have been cheaper, and infinitely-more-comfortable for me to take "'Er Indoors" to the Odeon in Kilmarnock, to watch Meryl Streep in 'The Iron Lady' than to take her to Rugby Park to watch Killie play Hearts.

Hasn't it occured to the High Heid Yins in the SPL - your core audience in Scotland are struggling in the present recession - you've got to find inventive ways of getting them to part with their hard-earned, just to keep them coming. And while you're at it, improving the quality of your product might be a good idea.

In the press conference after the match, the red-top boys, who set the agenda, only wanted to focus on the pre-match spat between "Rent-a-gob Shiels" and "Motor-mouth Sergio"; the lack of a hand-shake; what Sergio did or didn't say to Shiels Minor and vice versa.

Mind you, I don't blame them, there was very little to ask about concerning 90 minutes of misplaced passes, missed opportunities and mainly headless chicken impressions.

If that's typical SPL fare - We're awe doomed - doomed ah tell ye!

HOWEVER, my mental turmoil was eased slightly on Wednesday evening, after I was despatched to Somerset Park to cover the Ayr United v Falkirk Scottish Cup tie.

Like A Boy Named Sue - after he finally met his Dad - I came away with a different point of view. I had possibly seen the future and it might work. I was more than impressed with the performance of the Falkirk team. OK, they lost narrowly, but, the way Elvis has got a bunch of kids ready and willing to get the ball down, pass and move was refreshing. There is real talent there and I wish Elvis and his back-room all the best in their endeavours.

But, to laud the losers and say nothing of the winners would be stupid. I've said before and will probably say so again, the way big Brian Reid's name is seldom in the frame for SPL managerial vacancies amazes me, after what he has done at Ayr. He just might be the best United boss since Ally MacLeod - first time around.

His team got a chasing in the first half and were extremely lucky to turn round all-square, after scoring with their only upfield sortie of the 45 minutes. But, whatever he said in that dressing room at half time worked - they dominated the second half and might well have won by more than Mark Roberts' penalty goal. And, if ever there was an example of how to take a vital penalty, this was it.

Ayr demonstrated the old Scottish virtue of refusing to surrender to a technically-superior team and got their reward. As I told Pat Fenlon of Hibs, who was also in the press box on BBC duty - his guys are in for a good old game in the quarter-finals.

Ayr also have some young talent in their squad - as I have said, the talent is still being produced in Scotland, it's long past time the fans put pressure on the directors to make the managers and coaches work better, to give this talent a chance.

When this happens, just watch Scottish football go and grow.

FINALLY, I seem to be the only journalist who remembers the name of Bill Hiddleston, or to have raised that spectre in relation to the Rangers case. It was good, this morning, to read that the Polis are sitting-up and taking notice of events at Ibrox.

More work coming the way of M' learned friends I feel ceretain.

What Hapens Now?

IN signing-off my last posting, I aluded to the next question about Rangers: What Happens Next? Of course, at this moment in time, nobody knows. Messrs Duff & Phelps have to get to work, try to sort-out the mess which David Murray's years of profligacy and what is, from the little which has leaked into the mainstream seems an almost criminal nine months of Whyte ownership and asset-stripping, have left.

Then we await the rousing of that 10,000 lb gorilla in the corner - the EBTs tax case.

Worse case scenario is, the liquidation of Rangers Football Club - The End, finito, no more Messrs Bad Guys; but even that is fraught with difficulties. If it happens, Craig Whyte will enter Scottish football mythology as William Hiddlestone x ten - Mr Hiddlestone being the "chancer" who in the 1960s asset-stripped and took Third Lanark to the wall. Hiddlestone's legacy is Cathkin Park, the stand, the buildings were allowed, over a period of time to crumble and fall; certainly the Council have to a degree land-scaped the terraces and the pitch is still there, but, Cathkin, as those of us old enough remember it, is no more.

Cathkin was the original Hampden - there should have been a preservation order on it, but wasn't. At least, the listed building status of the main stand might save it, but, if football isn't played there - what is the site for? I'd hate to think of my grand-weans, 40-plus years hence, driving past a crumbling, dangerous, listing but still listed stand, with a graffittied, uncared-for statue of John Greig standing beside it - that could happen.

If HMRC decides to play hardball with Rangers - and I feel they will pour encourage les autres in the EPL; there can be no reconstituted Rangers, and very likely no new one, even one starting life in the Third Division of the SFL, or maybe the Juniors, hoping to maybe get onto some future pyramid.

How about this curve-ball, out of left field. Rangers FC dies, but some Rangers-minded millionaire fan - there are some out there, buys the husk that's left, including Ibrox and Murray Park.

However, instead of joining the SFL - he takes his new club, with a core staff of British players who are primarily Rangers fans, into the North West Counties League in England - which is probably the highest level which any new club can enter the English pyramid.

This club should, surely, climb rapidly through the leagues and, within a decade - "New" Rangers are knocking on the door of the EPL. Without the Ulster religious/political element which the Old Fir rivalry brings, this might well be a "clean" vibrant club - hopefully the lessons of the liquidation have been absorbed and Ibrox is again rocking every second week to full houses, seeing good football.

I know, it's maybe a bit far-fetched, it's a long-ball game: but, wasn't the long-ball game for so long a successful Rangers tactic?

Of course, more-likely scenarios are -

1, administration, the current club continues, initially with a slimmed-down infrastructure and mainly young, cheap, Scottish players. The club goes back into the mid-SPL pack for a few years, then re-emerges as title challengers; the silly stuff continues and Scottish football keeps going backwards.

2, liquidation, Rangers FC dies and is re-born as "New" Rangers, still in the SPL - well, the other ten NEED the Old Firm, they may be despotic lairds, but, they generate cash. A period of financial prudence happens, then, in the desperation to better Celtic, the bad old ways of Scottish football finance returns and it's pretty-much business as usual.

3, liquidation, Rangers FC dies and the "New" Rangers which emerges has to start in the Third Division of the SFL. They keep the Murray Park kids and the fanatics among the older players, ripping through the lower two SFL divisions. Meanwhile, with Celtic isolated in a 1/11 vote and the TV companies saying - no Old Firm games, no deal; the other clubs finally grow a pair and return to an 18-club SPL, which suddenly becomes competitive and vibrant - (that last phrase is wishful thinking) - and Scottish football is re-born.

4, liquidation, Rangers FC dies and with it Scottish football - (that's the Rangers faithful's thinking).

Who Will Be Rangers' Wee Fergus?

PHIL Mac Giolla Bhain, the Celtic-minded blogger who has been in the front rank of those foretelling of imminent disaster for Rangers over this past year used an interesting similie earlier this week - when he drew a parallel between in mid-Atlantic in 1912 and in Govan in 2012.

Right, RMS Rangers has hit its iceberg; who is in command of the rescue ships and how quickly can they get there? I have no wish to apportion blame, some of those responsible have lang syne got into the life boats and while many will seek to align Craig Whyte with that Italian cruise liner captain - and for sure the early evidence seems to point to reckless disregard for correct and prudent management - but, vessel and iceberg were locked-on to a collision course long before he took the wheel.

In the midst of their natural and understandable gloating at what has happened to the Forces of Darkness, as they see Rangers, many of the Celtic family have pointed out how, when the Families finally ran out of cash and ideas at Kerrydale Street in 1994, while Wee Fergus was the guy with the vision and the drive to oust them and right the ship from almost the point where the stern left the ocean and the final plunge began, ALL the Celtic family chipped-in.

I personally know ordinary Jungle Tims who dug really deep to see their club survive. They couldn't bear the thought of Celtic going under. Will imminent disaster mobilise the troops across the city?

Sadly, past evidence indicates that while to many of Irish or Roman Catholic descent in Scotland, Celtic is an icon which could not be allowed to die, that same desire to cherish and nurture an ailing Rangers is not, even in these dire times, evident.

I can only surmise, saying: "We arra peepel" comes as easily, but with a lot less meaning than saying, for instance: "We are all Neil Lennon". Supporting Celtic is a cause, supporting Rangers seems to be a feel-good factor.

There are guys out there who could salvage a Scottish institution, men who, perhaps not wishing to be tainted with any possible association with the wilder and more-disreputable elements in the club's following, who will, only after a wee hauf or two, in the privacy of friends they have known for years, confess to being: "Rangers Men", and who have the wherewithall and knowledge to save the club.

Whyte has to go, and soon - who is the Wee Fergus who will kick him out.

That will bring us to the next question - what happens next?

Oh Shit! The Wicked Witch is Dying

IF indeed, possibility of imminent death concentrates the mind wonderfully, there will be a deal of hard thinking going on in Scottish football's corridors of power. Because, we ought to be in no doubt, if Rangers goes under from the fall-out of years of financial mis-management, Scottish football as we know it, is dead.

This actually might be no bad thing. Sure, we would end up as something akin to the two Irish and Welsh Leagues, maybe even a Danish League - one full-time club and a lot of part-time ones. Initially, Celtic would rule the roost untroubled. However, long before  they had ran-up ten-in-a-row League titles, the Jungle Tims would be thoroughly sick of inevitable victory and longing for the old days when they had Them to hate. But in the longer run, we might have a really competitive league again.

Of course, we Scots are at our best/worst with a strong wind in our faces, we love to see the dark side of life. Rangers are only going into administration - they are not shutting down, that statue of John Greig will not be sited in the middle of a patch of grass, in the centre of an industrial estate for a long time to come, if ever.

But, even administration will change the game up here.

If that is as far as Craig Whyte has to go, the club will emerge with a leaner, fitter, outline. The bigger-name players who are coming to the end of their contracts will be allowed to depart, ditto those who are on the fringes of the action and those such as skipper Steve Davis and Alan McGregor, who have a decent re-sale value. The post- administration Rangers will have a younger, more home-grown squad. This is bad news for Ally McCoist and his management team, they will have to start coaching and managing, not trying to direct a squad of big-money, supposedly-able players who were bought.

Such a squad will still be competitive in Scotland, IF the guys in the track suits are prepared to coach.

If Rangers as currently organised is wound-up, that's the $64,000 (and more) question for the rest of the SPL. Sure, it would be great, after all these years of Rangers arrogance, to rub their noses in it, kick them while they are down and tell Craig Whyte when he comes along with Glasgow Rangers 2012 and asks to join the SPL: "No way pal, join the SFL, or, nip along the corridor and see if Tom Johnston will have you in the Central Regional Junior League - Glasgow Rangers v Larkhall Thistle, a bi-polar's delight.

But, in spite of Lawwell's claim that Celtic don't need Rangers - Aye Right, like Liz Taylor didn't need Richard Burton, Ernie Wise didn't need Eric Morecambe and Mike Winters didn't need Bernie. With no Rangers, who's going to be Schnorbitz?

As I have said before, for all their supposed friendliness with the power brokers from the other SPL clubs, when push comes to shove there is really only one club on whom Celtic can rely when they want something badly enough, and that club is Rangers.

Without Rangers, it becomes Celtic v the Rest 1v11, and that will allow a fairer, more-level playing field. For Celtic, more than anyone else, even Craig Whyte, these are dark and dangerous times. 

Today I find out - how bad is the SPL

I WRITE this post at just after 9am on a Saturday; in less than six hours I will be covering my first SPL game for two whole seasons and am looking forward to the experience, if only to see, for myself, if it is as poor a product as has been claimed.

I shall post my thoughts on the game tomorrow.

MEANWHILE, darn souf, there is just one issue in sport - will, or will not 'Arry rides to his nation's rescue and take the England job? It has been said before and by better sports writers than I, that the England manager's post is Mission Impossible - there is no way Tom Cruise and his team would take this gig.

Between an extreme paucity of talent and England expecting far too much, I fear they will never again, not even if they ever have the chance to play all their World Cup matches at Wembley, see an England captain hold aloft the World Cup.

Pedants might of course say: "So what, no England captain has ever held aloft the World Cup before". This is correct, it was the Jules Rimet Trophy which Bobby Moore and his team paraded round the old Wembley in 1966.

'Arry would be mad to take the job; however, for all his protestations of genuinely being as fick as he appears - 'Arry is a smart cookie who will most-likely screw a generous leaving deal out of Tottenham and a very lucrative salary package out of the FA - although the negotiations with Daniel Levy at White Hart Lane will doubtless be the more-difficult.

Just so long as he doesn't take Joe Jordan to Wembley with him.

IT'S Liverpool v Manchester United this weekend - in Scottish terms, Kenny v Fergie. Two successful but unloveable Scots going head to head. Both are, by birth or living time, Govan men, so they are unlikely to like each other; the fact they tolerate the other's presence in the same stadium is, I suppose, progress.

To paraphrase the great Captain Edmund Blackadder: why don't they just stay in Govan, have a square go outside Govan Cross subway station, winner gets the points. 'Twould save a lot of bother.

THINGS are getting worse for Craig Whyte. In the idyllic, sun-kissed former Ayrshire mining village where I live, the former Fuerher of the local junior team lives a half-life, ignored by most, shunned by many, because he all but bankrupted the club during his tenure as president.

He never meant to, he took over in hard times, he did his best, but, well he has never been the sharpest tool in the box and it all went pear-shaped. For all that, and in spite of our many fall-outs, I still like Jock, his heart is in the right place - the same cannot be said of his brain (if he has one).

However, this week in the pub, I heard Craig Whyte described as: "A Jock for senior football".

Ouch, that's hard. Down here, where you used to get the picture of King Billy on his white horse along with the keys to your council house - when they start joking about Rangers, that club is in bother.