I HAVE long had plenty of time for Stewart Gilmour - the "Fat Controller" of St Mirren FC. Had he not stood-up to and thwarted the machinations of wee John Paton back in the late 1990s, St Mirren would have been a much-different club today; indeed, there might well not be a St Mirren around.
Stewart and the Buddies' board - though they would still quite happily cede control of the club for the right price - have been good for the club and good for Paisley. So, I welcome the board's stance on this short-sighted, senseless and seminally stupid 12-12-18 re-organisation model, which is now, happily, seemingly about to be kicked into the long grass.
Saints cannot kill this stupidity on their own, so I welcome too the decision of Roy McGregor and the board of Ross County, to also stand firm, thereby ensuring the SPL will not get the 11-1 majority they need to force the change through.
Hopefully, this will cause the Aberdeen board to reflect on how stupid they were to side with Celtic, when the rest of the SPL tried to kick-out the 11-1 majority required sections of the SPL rule book. The need for an 11-1 majority in respect of the most-important changes to the SPL rule book was cynically put in there to appease the Old Firm, who were safe in the knowledge they would always vote together and could therefore control the league.
Nobody ever foresaw Rangers being kicked out and Aberdeen emerging as Celtic's poodle - or should that be sheep? But, that's what happened.
Now, since, hopefully - and I here adhere to the good, old rule: never say never - change will not be hurried through, we can maybe take a deep breath and try to come up with change, for change there has to be, which might actually help Scottish football recover.
DURING an enjoyable five-year period living and working in Yorkshire, I encountered a few Charlie Green clones. Straight talking (shite) is an art form on the broad acres.
Indeed, after Charlie's confession this week allowed the unco guid of the race relations industry another 15 minutes of the oxygen of publicity - as the late Iron Lady put it - I remembered: the most profound anti-immigration "Pakis go home" rant I ever heard was delivered in the bar of a West Yorkshire cricket club, by a gentleman of a somewhat brown hue, who adhered to the Islamic religion, but, had been born in Bradford.
This chap, who claimed, and here I quote directly: "I were first Paki Bastard to be born in Yorkshire" had no time for what he called: "Them bloody jungle bunnies as has come 'ere lately from t' sub-continent; we ought to send t' bastards 'ome". I wonder what the race relations industry would have made of him.
Another prominent Charles: His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester; Duke of Rothesay and Lord of the Isles, Earl of Carrick and Baron Renfrew also, I recall, got into a wee spot of bother some years ago through his jocular references to a friend of his who was well-tanned and whose family came from Asia.
IF this country really had true freedom, Charles Green would have been able to address his co-directors in The Rangers Football Club as he saw fit and providing the mode of address did not unduly bother the person thus addressed, it was nobody else's business.
But, that wouldn't help expand the race relations industry. A storm in a tea cup methinks.
OF more significance, however, is the relationship between Mr Green and Ally McCoist. Like almost everyone else involved, no matter how spuriously with Scottish football, I like Super Ally. Let's be honest, he's a charmer and very hard to dislike.
That said, in truth, he's a long way from being Rangers' best manager. And this fact might be his undoing. So far, he has escaped real, in-depth scrutiny, but, I have to say, his performance as manager since succeeding Walter Smith has been uneven and unconvincing.
In particular, his player recruitment strategy has been, I feel, flawed. So, he is, in my opinion, dicing with the sack, when he insists that he must have the final say on signings, or he might leave.
That statement is, at the very least, unlocking a door for Mr Green, should he wish to go through it.
As an example of how flawed Ally's perception of a player is, witness his pursuit of out of favour Blackpool defender Craig Cathcart. Cathcart cannot currently get a game for Blackpool, because Paul Ince prefers to play Kirk Broadfoot in central defence - yes, the same Kirk Broadfoot whom McCoist was quite happy to see leave Rangers.
I appreciate big Kirk, Drongan's finest, divides opinion; but, given that Rangers only occasionally played him in his best position, on the left-hand side of a back three, I don't think they ever saw the best of him.
Leaving aside the argument whether or not he was SPL class, and I think he was, big Kirk would have been a stand-out in SFL3, and in SFL2; he is Rangers to the core, just the sort of man McCoist SHOULD have been hanging onto as vice-captain and as probably successive skipper to Lee McCulloch during the climb back to the top-flight.
But, the fact McCoist let him go and is now apparently considering signing the guy Kirk displaced at Blackpool, makes me doubt McCoist's eye for a player. Add the less than scintillating performances from most of his new signings and the doubts about him (McCoist) multiply.
Jordan McMillan, recently, and sadly, made redundant at Dunfermline Athletic, only to pitch up at Partick Thistle, is another player who I feel McCoist let go too-soon. With his experience at Queen of the South and Dunfermline, he would have been an ideal player to keep for the march through the divisions.
To complete the return to the top, he needs Rangers fans, such as Broadfoot and McMillan, who know what it takes to win in the lower leagues, and able to encourage and baby-sit the younger players - not players with no experience of Scottish football.
Rangers right now, don't need players who might be able to do a job in Europe, they need good, solid jobbing professionals, able to slug it out in the lower leagues - and, if they are also Rangers fans, so much the better.
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