WELL, I could see it coming, but I didn't think it would get here as quickly as it did, I refer to yesterday's train of thought among the movers and shakers of the SPL, that: "Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, those turkeys who turn up every week to watch the pish we put on the park are serious - if we don't kick Rangers oot, they'll stoap comin".
That said, the outbreak of "sporting integrity" has to be welcomed. The alleged major crimes - the legality or otherwise of EBTs, the double contract allegations remain, at present simply allegations, and of course, lest we forget, are nothing to do with the New Rangers, as controlled by Charles Green. These alleged crimes were committed by David Murray's Rangers; Craig Whyte's Rangers allegedly committed other crimes and it was encouraging yesterday also to learn the Crown Office has instructed Strathclyde Police to look into certain matters pertaining to the switch from DMR to CWR. I am sure there are lawyers in Edinburgh and Glasgow licking their lips at the prospect of the fees heading their way.
But - where do we go from here? For a start, we are apparently heading for a major overhaul to the basic building blocks of Scottish Football. The SFA will hope to take-over both the SPL and SFL and integrate the three separate bodies into one Scottish Professional Football League - shouldn't be too-difficult. The SRU has managed to run the game and a league programme for the past 40 years and given the kicks to the head which some SRU "alickadoos" of my acquaintance have suffered - and yes, I handed out my share as a player - and took one or two - if they can do it, why not the SFA.
However, as I have cautioned before, trying to turn SPL and SFL into SPFL and at the same time bring things closer to the overall SFA - whose remit goes beyond merely the senior league game, isn't a week-end's DIY. If they get it wrong, Nick Knowles and his team will not ride to the rescue for a televised special and to rush into change into the back of: at best managerial incompetence, at worst, outright criminality around your biggest club, is asking for trouble.
I still say, Charles Green's Rangers (henceforth known as CGR) should be taken out of the equation; by all means grant that club membership of the SFA, but don't have them playing until all the unanswered questions as regards the administration process and the liquidation process have been answered.
Suppose, for instance, the Polis discover that the sale of DMR to CWR was, in fact illegal. Might they then charge Duff & Phelps with reset for selling-on the assets and the "goodwill" (I know, there hasn't been much goodwill shown) to CGR?
To avert chaos, CGR CANNOT be allowed to play in senior Scottish football in season 2012-13.
What then? Naismith, Whittaker, Aluko and McCabe have joined Wylde and Cellik in walking away. I suspect, since he gets a game there, Fleck will happily stay at Blackpool; McGregor, Davis, Wallace, Goian and the Americans, as current international players, simply cannot afford to transfer to CGR and play in even SFL1. Even Kirk Broadfoot, that alleged untalented clogger, is an SPL-standard player; Sasa Papac has also gone - that's an entire first team who have or will depart.
The SFA, however, has a duty of care to those who are left, the kids, or, as one esteemed posted on the Scotsman's Rumour Mill dubbed them: 'The Apprentice Boys' - what of them. What too of the "Rangers Family", that army of fans who put so much money into the coffers of Scottish football, by their readiness to follow-follow?
Many of these fans might still be replaying fixtures from the 1689-90 season, but, they turn-out, more-often and in greater numbers than any other away support in Scotland - do they simply have to find somewhere else to go on a Saturday?
CGR is not DMR, it isn't even Bill Struth's Rangers, but, like that loyalty which keeps young men from different parts of Scotland joining different batallions of what the British Army and the politicians insist is "the Royal Regiment of Scotland" - maybe so, but to the recruits, following in the footsteps of their fathers, who fought in the Falklands, their grandfathers who fought in Korea, Cyprus and Malaya, their great-grandfathers who fought in World War II and their great-great-grandfathers, who suffered and died in the trenches of the Somme an at Loos, today's kids are not joining 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 Scots. They are joining the Royal Scots, the KOSB, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, Highland Light Infantry, the Black Watch, the Highlanders (Camerons, Gordons, Seaforth, Argyll and Sutherland): they are going into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards or the Scots Guards. The uniforms might change, the banners will be renewed, the names will change - but the thread remains unbroken.
For as long as CGR play in light blue, out of Ibrox, they will be simply "Rangers" - the fans of the other clubs might howl: "Rangers are deid" - they might as well howl at the moon, "Ra Peepul" will never admit that their club has died.
So, Scottish football has to find a way of keeping "Ra Peepul" on-side, with the minimum of disruption. How?
With the big-name players, other than Lee McCulloch, going, it is doubtful if the ABs could be competitive in SFL1; but, in any case, as things stand, CGR does not meet the criteria for membership of the SFL as a whole.
Why not therefore, allow CGR to play in the juniors for a season, pending the re-organisation of the senior game?
Of course, IF enough of "Ra Peepul" decided to exercise their right to follow-follow, this could pose problems for the junior clubs CGR visited - but I would suggest,no greater problems than they would pose if visiting some of the smaller "senior" grounds. However, a season in the juniors, with the guarantee of a place in the re-structured SPFL in 2013-14 would do the ABs (the players) the world of good and would in some ways protect the fiscal value of even a discredited "Rangers" brand.
I admit, there are potential problems about this, but, before you dismiss my plan out of hand - come up with something better.
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