Man The Lifeboats

I HAVE used this example before, and will doubtless return to it again, but, I feel it is worth repeating as Rangersgate refuses to close, but bangs back and forward in the wind of claim and counter-claim. Accidents almost never occur because of one single event, rather a series of seemingly unrelated incidents come together in sequence to cause the final catastrophe. The best-known example is perhaps the way in which the peripheral events around the simple fact that an ocean-going liner hit a floating "growler" iceberg, led to the cataclysmic Titanic Disaster.

One-hundred years on, Rangers FC is the "Titanic" - and I am prepared to bet, even now as the stern of that great institution rears up out of the choppy waters, about to dive to the ocean bed of history, a century hence our great-grand-children will still be talking about it, in fact, there may even be movies about it.

I can only echo the sentiments of my fellow blogger rangerstaxcase, whoever he or she may be, who wrote about a month ago along the lines of a script outlining Rangersgate would probably have been flung back as "too far-fetched" by every Hollywood studio mogul who read it.

I can think of one immediate reason for this, right now, the entire story lacks the most-essential ingredient, we are holding-out for a hero. If you are a member of the Rangers "family", you are waiting for the true Blue Knight, mounted on his white horse to ride to the rescue. That said, the Rangers "family" come across in a very bad light compared even to the Krays - there has been more in-fighting than fighting for the common cause of Rangers' survival; it's as if the Montagues had said: "stuff the Capulets" and set about killing-off each other, ditto Capulets, Hatfields or McCoys - any of the great feuding families of history. (And that's another aside - Chico, Jabba, "off the radar" Jackson, Kings Darrell and Iain and the rest of us in and outwith the SWFA have hardly threatened Shakespeare with our coverage of events).

Let's look at the lengthy cast of villains. We have to start with Bill Struth, perhaps wrongly, I admit, but I keep coming back to him as the guy who came-up with the notion to so-closely identify the club with the Orange Order and protestant supremacy. It perhaps made sense, given the influx of Ulster Protestants to the West of Scotland after World War I, to pander to their liking for Rangers, as the club best able to put the Roman Catholic club Celtic in their place, but, more than half a century down the line, in a changing, more-inclusive Scotland - that move came back to haunt Rangers with a vengeance.

Then there was Struth's arrogance, which passed-on to his successors. Celtic and Rangers have bestrode the football landscape in the same way as Conservative and Labour have the political landscape; but, just as the Tories are perceived as the "nasty" party, Rangers have been the "nasty" football team - they have more enemies than friends. Look, for instance at the fact that until Campbell Ogilvie, who had long since left Rangers, got the job - no "Rangers man" has been SFA president since Victoria sat on the throne.

David Murray may have ended the club's ultra-protestant recruitment stance, for which act he deserves praise, but, almost 25-years on, Rangers are still "Protestant", while Celtic, who have never had a single-religion recruitment stance, are still, 124 years on from their formation, seen as "Catholic". Maybe that's just another example of the bi-polar tendancies of Scottish society, however.

Then there is Craig Whyte - we may never know where he fits into the story. There is no rationale for his involvement, perhaps he was indeed a "chancer" who saw the opportunity for a fast buck, but soon learned he was out of his depth.

Add the many "directors" - I would far-rather call them "yes-men" who were involved during the Murray years: Dave King, John McClelland, John Greig, Paul Murray, Alastair Johnson, Martin Bain, Campbell Ogilvie, Walter Smith and so on. They were happy to ride on David Murray's coat tails as he spent £10 for every £5 Celtic spent. They gratefully accepted the offer of an EBT, they enjoyed the champagne celebrations.

Rangers were posting losses for years: did none of them have the balls to say: "Excuse me David, but is this business model sustainable? What are we going to do about curbing the losses and getting into profit? Where is the growth coming from?"

Far less: "Are you sure this EBT malarky is legal, have you fully checked it out? Whose idea was it? Do they know their stuff?"

Did none of them ask: "How come, when we make a share flotation,our "loyal" support will not buy-into it?"

On the football side, did nobody ask the various managers: "Why, if we never give them a chance, do we have so-many young players on our books? Why are we paying top dollar for inferior foreign players? How is it, we are dominating in Scotland but can barely win in Europe? How come we produce so many Under-21 internationalists, but so few of them ever get a chance in the first team? Is this the best use of our football budget?"

Portsmouth are in administration, owing even more money than Rangers would, even with the Big Tax Case decided in HMRC's favour. That club owes the tax man alone some £175 million; there is a creditor's meeting at Fratton Park on Monday, at which a CVA paying £0.2p in the £. This is less than the Rangers deal knocked back by HMRC earlier this month, but, as yet, there are no indications that HMRC are going to knock-back the Portsmouth deal as they did the Rangers one. Why has nobody connected with Rangers picked-up on this?

The administrators from Duff & Phelps have to be added to the list of villains. From the word go, the fact Craig Whyte was so-keen to have them appointed, cast doubts as to their integrity and competence. Nothing they have done since has alleviated these fears, now Lord Hodge's intervention on the matter of a possible conflict of interest is grist to the mill of those who have harboured doubts.

Then there is Charles Green. He may well be another Craig Whyte, with a better spiel than Whyte - he may, on the other hand, have a viable plan, we don't know. But, thus far, he hasn't cut the mustard.

Come on down: the "blazers" inside Hampden, regardless of whether they wear the insignia of the SFA, SPL or SFL. They are, at the very least, guilty by virtue of doing next to nothing. Their lack of leadership has been appalling. They have failed to exercise their duty of care for the good name of Scottish football. As the Rangers family have said - they weren't around to offer help and guidance when the whole thing blew up and, with the clock ticking on the new season, it seems to me their approach is - do nothing and hope it all goes away.

Finally, we have the Rangers fans, and in particular those well-heeled individuals who inhabit the corporate seats, or who have spent large for Ibrox debentures, shares and season tickets. The fans of smaller clubs, seeing these clubs post losses, down-size and try everything to avert the problems of the general downturn in the economy have mobilised: fans buy-outs are being arranged at Motherwell and St Mirren, many smaller clubs are effective fans co-operatives, even Celtic, under Fergus McCann, broadened their share-holding, greatly expanded their season ticket base and got the Celtic family more-involved than was ever dreamed possible during the long reign of the "Four Families".

But at Ibrox, nothing - "We Are The People", "Scotland's Greatest Sporting Institution", "Simply The Best", "No one Likes Us We Don't Care", these were the sound track to the Murray Years.

They revelled in the good times, nine-in-a-row, the UEFA Cup run. But, when things got bad: "Boo-hoo, nobody will help us; we're the victims now: it's a conspiracy against us".

Well, hell mend ye, you brought it largely on yourselves and, when your club really needed you - you failed it.

Rangers are at Death's Door, the life-support mechanism will shortly be switched off. It is difficult to see how any team named "Rangers" can play in Scottish football next season. I fear the club is now further down the exit slip road than Lazarus was. I can see no way back.

Now is the time for the true Rangers fans to get together and do something. They may be able to do no more than start a new team called FC Rangers of Glasgow and build their own history. They could be seen as something other than: "A permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace".

After all, if four oarsmen from the Vale of Leven, a bunch of previously disunited Manchester United fans and some Wimbledon fans who didn't fancy Milton Keynes - and fair play to them for that, can do it - What is to stop Rapeepul?

Go on guys - you could be heroes, for more than one day.