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.
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