"SIR" Walter Smith emerged from his retirement bolt-hole yesterday to toss his twopenceworth into the Rangers debate. I wish he hadn't bothered.
No single issue I can remember in the past half century or more has caused as much hot air and generated as much debate as the on-going Rangers crisis. I cannot make head nor tail of the whole issue; I have theories on some sides of it, opinions on others, while I could not give a damn about some of the points raised. All I do know is, if we ever get to the bottom of it all, it will be a few years down the line.
One of my opinions is - Walter should keep his own counsel, since he is one of the guys who got Rangers into this mess. Sure, he never meant to; I accept that every action of his was caused by his wish to do the best he could for the club he clearly loves - but, at the end of the day, his mis-management, the mis-management of Graeme Souness, Paul Le Guen, Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish and the corporate mis-management of Sir David Murray, Martin Bain, Campbell Ogilvie, John Greig, John McClelland, Alastair Johnston, Paul Murray and for all I know Pew, Pew, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb and Uncle Tom Cobley directed the club down the path to administration, probable liquidation and a place alongside Renton, Vale of Leven, St Bernard's, Leith Athletic, King's Park, Third Lanark, Airdrieonians, Clydebank, Gretna and sundry others too insignificant to mention in the roll call of failed Scottish clubs.
But hey, Alexander the Great's empire fell, as did the Roman one, that of Genghis Khan and that of Queen Victoria - life moves on and the Simon Sharman or Tony Robinson of the 23rd or 24th centuries will have a grand tale to tell as he examines the late 20th and early 21st century obsession with football.
Let's be clear here, by the way. Rangers FC have never: as the Celtic Family insists - "cheated". When they set them up, Employee Benefit Trusts were legal; for all I know, they are still legal. The way Rangers administered their EBT's may be contrary to the rules then in place and are certainly contrary to the rules HMRC are now enforcing. Some (the Celtic Family) are insistent this amounts to flagrant rule breaking. Let's give Murray International Holdings employees, who were apparently the guys running the EBTs the benefit of the doubt.
The Rangers Tax Case website, (ok, it's run by one of the wider Celtic Family) has, unlike "Rebel Blogger" Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, not been guilty of rampant schadenfreude. The postings have been level-handed, full of interesting information and informed speculation. RTC reckons the guy who advised Murray, a struck-off lawyer whose name escapes me as I write, gave MIH duff information. Some might say he acted illegallly - that is for others to prove.
Apparently we will be unlikely to ever find out if he acted illegally, only liquidation of the club might open the door for such an investigation. I get the impression HMRC scent blood here; they are, after fish as big, if not bigger than Rangers and are unlikely to settle for however many millions they squeeze out of Ibrox.
So, if we accept that Rangers never set-out to deliberately cheat, how did it all go pear-shaped?
Clearly, the management model of buying their way to success, first mooted by Souness and David Holmes, then taken-up a notch or two by Sir David Murray, was unsustainable. This relied on an annual European run funding the next season and so on - fail once, the club was in trouble, repeated failure doubled and trebled their troubles.
As I have said before, Rangers have always recruited the best Scottish players they could from other clubs. Airdrie gave them Bob McPhail, Tiger Shaw and Ian McMillan, to name but three. Queen's Park was a regular recruiting ground - four of the "Iron Curtain" defence: Bobby Brown, Sammy Cox, Ian McColl and Willie Woodburn all arrived at Ibrox via Hampden - as did Alex Ferguson; the blessed Baxter came from Raith Rovers. But, as many, if not more legends came through the ranks: Allan McGregor, Sandy Jardine, Eric Caldow, John Greig, George Young, Ian Durrant, Willie Henderson, Derek or Barry Ferguson, Derek Johnstone, Ralph Brand, Davie Wilson or Willie Johnston - not a bad Rangers team there, all home-grown and I saw them all play.
You notice, however, only Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor of that lot emerged in the last 25-years or so, since "the Souness Revolution"; and for me, if I had to pick a Ferguson, it would be Derek rather than Barry I would go for. The truth is, once Souness set Rangers down the route of buying rather than breeding, he sowed the seeds of Rangers' downfall.
It may take longer, but it is always better to grow your own rather than continually buy. Walter Smth's reputation as a coach got him the Ibrox gig, sadly, once he ascended to the top job, he stopped coaching.
As I have said before, since the SPL was formed, over 30 Rangers' youngsters have been selected for either the Scottish or Northern Irish Under-21 squads. Precious few - Allan McGregor being the outstanding example, have "trained-on" to become stalwarts of the team. Too-many: Charlie Adam, Chris Bourke, Danny Wilson and so on, have been let go to serve other clubs. Smith as manager, was notoriously reluctant to use his young players, even against the diddiest of SPL opponents. Maybe if he had used his squad better in 2008 for instance, they would not have crumbled under that late season barrage of too-many games in too-few days.
Now, as a result of Rangers' profligacy, they will HAVE to encourage and nurture their young players. They are fortunate here in having, in Kenny McDowall, a terrific coach of young players. In McCoist and Durrant they have real "Rangers Men", who know and can tell the kids what it means to play for the club; who can lay it on the line, what is expected of them. The future is not doom and gloom, in fact, if the three men at the top of the coaching staff work as I believe they can - Rangers future is bright.
However, the go-with-the-kids strategy which the SFA's judicial panel has forced on them needs time and patience, patience in particular from the fans.
Rangers are no longer "Ra Peepel", a wee bit of humility will not go amiss. The kids will need to be forgiven their occasional trespasses on the park. To say, as Walter Smith did this week, that a Rangers' team, built around callow youth will be relegation contenders, is to insult the quality of kid at the club and the quality of the coaching staff - many of whom he recruited, lest he forget.
Rangers have no divine right to win the trophies they have. You might argue they bought a few, through their ability to recruit good players, but, there was a degree of hard work invovled. Football history is full of cases of clubs which bought big, but bought badly. Buying your way to success is not a given.
Neither is breeding your way to success, however, the really big clubs - Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, the Milan duo, ALWAYS have, in their ranks, several home-grown boys - fans with boots on.
If Rangers do drop out of the SPL and re-group in Division Three of the SFL, only to work their way back by allowing a team to boys to become men, by the time they are back and ready to re-enter the European arena, they will be I am sure stronger and better-equipped to do well than they were when Walter and Co were doing their mindless Viv Nicholson impression.
Mrs Nicholson only managed to work her way through £152,000 before the tears and the eventual early death. By the time all the bills are in, it might be that David Murray, Walter Smith and all the others I named above worked their way through one thousand times that amount and generated one thousand times the tears.
There was no way back for poor Viv, but, there may yet be redemption for Rangers.
No comments:
Post a Comment