Socrates EXCLUSIVELY Reveals Who Will Be The New Rangers' Manager

EXCLUSIVE

TODAY, I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal the name of the man whom the Rangers Board want as their new manager. My insider Blue Room contact has told me, the man who will be unveiled this week as the long-anticipated successor to Pedro the Portuguese is none other than that blast from Rangers' past – JINGSAM FUKTIFANO.

Ian Archer - the first Scot to become aware of Fuktifano

Romanian holding midfielder Fuktifano first came onto Rangers supporters' consciousness during a UEFA Cup tie in Bucharest in the early 1980s, when he surprised David Francey and Ian "Dan" Archer by scoring a shock first-minute goal to wipe-out Rangers' advantage from the first leg. That goal inspired the Romanians to knock the Glasgow club out of the competition and was perhaps the highlight of a fairly low-key career.

Little is known of Fuktimano's coaching career since his retirement, but, there are rumours he was very successful as defence coach with Derry City, masterminding their defensive set-up known as Derry's Wall, while his work with the young players in the city of Londonderry, the Apprentice Boys, has made him an attractive target for Rangers.

Derry's Walls - the defensive system favoured by Fuktifano 

In one of his few interviews, Fuktifano admitted he was a firm believer in the fitness regime first mooted by legendary Rangers boss Bill Struth: “I like my players to walk each day, particularly during the close season – I call this the Marching Season, and want my players to get out onto the highway and walk regularly, to be fitter for the rigours of the season.

Fuktifano has spent a lot of time in Scotland, working in the grass roots of the game in such Rangers heartlands as Larkhall, Kilwinning and Drongan. This has endorsed his credentials as the sort of “Reel Ranjerz Man” the club is looking for to restore the glory days.

We understand a Level 5, intergalactic PR genius is concomitant with the Rangers board in arranging a gala revealing of Fuktifano as the new boss - an early Christmas present.

MEANWHILE, in the real world, it was business as usual for Derek McInnes and Aberdeen, as they beat Dundee 1-0 at Dens on Friday night to leap frog Rangers back into Best of the Rest place in the one-horse league that is the SPFL Premiership.

WHEN the weather outside is chilly, as it is just now; and while the populace is being bombarded with reminders that the fat bloke with the red suit, the long white beard and the flying reindeer will soon be here – I sometimes wonder why we bother with football.

Of course, while we know, at some point between November and March, it will become pointless to try to play football in Scotland – we never know exactly when that point will come along.

Every now and again, someone will suggest we move the season, and play in the summer. But, “It has Aye Been” being the motto of Scottish football – and rugby, and the game being run by a bunch of big fearties, we still wait for that sensible change to be implemented.

My old pal Iain King, former RWM of the Lap Top Loyal, Sports Editor of the Sun, CEO of Airdrie and a qualified coach – having actually paid (some £20,000 we understand) to gain his UEFA badge – is now coaching in Toronto.

Iain King - coaches his Candian kids in better conditions than he would have in Scotland

Kingie keeps his considerable sports-writing gift ticking-over with the occasional blog, and, in one recent posting, he told of how, with the Canadian snow arriving, his club's coaching would, for the next three or four months, be conducted under an inflatable dome. This facility means the kids Kingie coaches are getting their weekly football fix under cover, in the dry.

Contrast this with the situation in Scotland, where Boys Clubs (and Girls Clubs now) are either, working in school gyms and sports halls that are too-small, and have the wrong surfaces, or, outside in the rain, wind and cauld of a dreich Scottish winter.

We've been talking about proper indoor facilities in Scotland for as long as we have been talking about summer football. Sure, we now have Oriam, Toryglen and Ravenscraig, and maybe a couple more I have forgotten about, but, we simply do not have enough covered or indoor pitches.

Oriam - a smashing facility, but, we need more of these

Senior clubs will happily pay silly money to recruit third and fourth-rate foreign or English, Irish and Welsh players up to our diddy league, but, they will not invest in the purpose-built indoor facilities which would do far more to take Scottish football forward. And the SFA – which is, of course, driven by these same clubs – does nothing to alter this unsatisfactory system or make things better.

There again, the clubs are not exactly falling over themselves to provide better facilities and to make football more-appealing, to the guys who really matter – the fans.

Nae wonder Scotland is slipping further and further off the pace at the top of the game.