Milanda and Billy Smart

BREAD and Circuses is a metaphor for one aspect of the fall of the Roman Empire - the way the ruling elite used frivolity and spurious entertainment to mask the decline and fall. B&C might describe the manner in which the industrialised west and in particular the USA and Uk are in decline whilst the likes of Brazil, China and India's stars ascend. Here in the UK - what are Big Brother, X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, the various dancing shows and the general dumbing down of the media but classic instances of B&C?

The on-going Rangers drama is, in many ways, classic bread and circuses. For 25-years we have seen legions of over-hyped, over-paid, often over-the-hill "stars" imported to Ibrox, ceremonially unveiled at lavish media events in the Blue Room, only to disappoint then disappear.

I look back on all those foreign big names brought to Rangers during the Murray Years of excess and I ask: IF (ok right now that's a HUGE if) Rangers emerge from their current malaise and continues towards the bicentenary in 2073, which players from the Murray Years will be mentioned in despatches when Lindsay Herron's grandson sits down to write the bicentennial history?

The McNeill brothers, Tom Vallance, Alan Morton, Davie Meiklejohn, Bob McPhail, Jimmy Simpson, George Young, Willie Woodburn, Willie Waddell, Eric Caldow, Jim Baxter, Willie Henderson, Davie Wilson, John Greig, Davie Cooper, Richard Gough - they will all be in that book (if it is ever written) - but what of Rangers' foreign legions of the last 25-years? Terry Butcher, more than likely, Gazza and Brian Laudrup, definitely; of the rest - not a lot.

Sure, some (the de Boers, Kloss), did great things before their Rangers' service, others (van Bronkhurst), did great things afterwards, but, by and large - basically they took the money and ran.

David Murray spent the money, then handed the club to a crook and limped away (no cheap dig at Sir David's unfortunate lack of legs here btw). As I have said before, he handed the club to a crook, but, while Whyte took the club to disaster, it was headed for the iceberg long before Whyte took the helm.

During the golden years under Bill Struth, Rangers were a CLUB. Yes, Struth was the main man, and while there is a strong likelihood that he was the architect of the 100% Protestant recruitment policy, he set the standards and the tone. He may well have gone on too-long, but, even in his final years of apparent decline - Rangers still won trophies.

Then, in came the era of one-man rule - John Lawrence, Lawrence Marlborough, David Holmes then David Murray. That was when Rangers began to lose their dignity, the aura of We Are The People. The men at the top of the marble staircase began to use the bread and circuses tactics and, just as the Roman and British Empires were brought down by external forces - so the Rangers Empire is teetering on the brink.

If you know your history - you can see it happening.