NOTHING has happened since I posted yesterday on the ten SFL "turkeys", voting for an early Christmas by attempting to bluster and push their way into a new SPL2.
Scottish football is still in a mess, we are still going backwards faster than the mythical Ferrari-engined Italian tank of WWII - but hey, to the nonentities in the boardrooms of New Douglas Park, East End Park, the Falkirk Stadium, whatever Almondvale is called this week, Cappielow and so-forth, that doesn't matter.
To them: "It's all about us - and we will continue to spit the dummy and chuck the toys out of the pram until we get our own way".
Let's be honest - the SFL doesn't amount to that grand old Humphrey Bogart stand-by, a hill of beans; that organisation was founded out of the self-interest of the so-called leading clubs of the 1880s, minus Queen's Park, who came in about 20-years later. The organisation has always been driven by self-interest, but over the years this has been the self-interest of ALL its member clubs.
When Celtic and Rangers convinced a gang of their followers to defect to the SPL in the late 1990s, the driving force was self-interest and that self-interest forced the SPL clubs to buy their way out.
This could happen again this time. But, I would caution the ten breakaway clubs to be wary. IF they do succeed in forming SPL2, the most-important figure in that name will be the 2 - as far as Celtic, Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United - the real power-brokers within the SPL are concerned: Hamilton Accies, Dunfermline, Dundee or St Mirren, Livingston, Falkirk, Morton, Cowdenbeath, Dumbarton, Raith Rovers and Queen of the South will be simply that - 2s; second-class citizens, the underclass.
Celtic will survive any domestic upset and, let's not kid ourselves, IF the English Premiership were to turn round tomorrow and say: "Dermott Desmond, Peter Lawwell, Neil Lennon, Scott Brown, Kris Commons and the rest - come on down", you wouldn't be able to see the Hoops for the cloud of green stoor they'd leave in their wake as they left.
The rest - they'd be too-busy crapping themselves about what to do next; how they would placate increasingly sceptical bank managers in the wake of financial melt-down, to hold out a hand to help their new second-class members.
Scottish football needs a total rebuild, not a couple of coats of paint to cover over the cracks and the real structural failures. This isn't simply a job concerning the top 12 SPL clubs or the next ten wannabe clubs, or even the remaining 20 SFL rump clubs.
Rebuilding Scottish football concerns the national team, the age group teams, the women's teams, the Highland, East of Scotland and South of Scotland non-league "senior" clubs, the 150-plus junior clubs, the thousands of amateur clubs and the thousands of schools and boys clubs.
Scottish football is failing - has been failing for years and, in the context of that institutionalised failure, the self-interest of ten failing second or third-rate clubs still doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
AND THEN, there is the gorilla in the room, as someone once said - no, not the celebrated Big Tax Case, the club which won that case on penalties (or more-properly non-penalties), the mighty Champions of SFL3 The Rangers FC.
They might be temporarily, through their own sins, doing penance among the lower orders, but, at the end of the day, the institution known as Rangers is still the biggest fish in the Scottish gold fish bowl.
As Ra Peepul demonstrated at Ibrox yesterday, bigotry is still big business in Scottish football and is likely to remain thus until Scotland's politicians find the cojones to tackle this problem.
IF Rangers are smart - I know, that calls for a huge leap in imagination; they could end-up the biggest winners in all this. Quite simply, a successful Rangers is the biggest draw in Scottish football. Sure, the Celtic fans are revelling in their rivals' current woes, and why not; the Celtic power-brokers are revelling in Rangers absence from the corridors of power as they twist Scottish football at the upper level to their will - BUT - deep down, in their heart of hearts, they don't half miss them.
Rangers still have such clout that change without them being involved is unthinkable. Or is it?
Had Charles Green still been involved at Ibrox, I could see him carrying-out his threat to remove Rangers to England; not straight into the Premiership, that's a non-starter. But, European Union anti-competition rules, used effectively, COULD and SHOULD get a willing Rangers (or Celtic for that matter) into the English League. And let's not beat about the bush here, if Rangers were to push to go, who do you think would be right there beside them - I'll give you a clue: Glasgow-based side, wear green and white hoops and worship Lisbon Lions.
But, Green is gone, so, no England. However, Rangers would immediately be the rallying point for the remaining SFL clubs, and, with the right leadership we could end-up with two competing league organisations, just as in America before the AFC and NFC merged to form the NFL.
We do live in interesting times.
STILL on the subject of Rangers, that document, leaked to the BBC, has certainly put the cat among the pigeons. I haven't had sight of the entire thing, but, the bullet points I have seen discussed - about the need for better coaching, of more-sensible wages and of the need for a high-profile Director of Football all, to me, make perfect sense.
The rest of Scottish football, when they banished Rangers to the basement, gave the club a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change and re-invent the club into one for the 21st century. Of course, the "traditionalists" and the fly-by-nights who invested didn't take that chance.
The left team matters in the care of a leg end who, lovely bloke though he is, isn't Rangers class as a manager or coach; whose talent identifying is poor and who doesn't seem to realise, you cannot properly buy your way out of the basement and back to the top.
The best way to build a lasting legacy of a powerful club is to breed from within, with judicious buying, when necessary, to augment the home-grown talent.
Look at the best Rangers team I can recall, the Scot Symon squad of 1960 to 1964; that era is defined by these names: Ritchie; Shearer, Caldow, Greig, McKinnon, Baxter, Henderson, McMillan, Millar, Brand and Wilson. Eleven Scottish internationalists, of whom Billy Ritchie, Eric Caldow, John Greig, Ron McKinnon, Willie Henderson, Ralph Brand and Davie Wilson came through the ranks of home-grown Rangers. Shearer, McMillan and Baxter were bought to plug gaps, mind you, Shearer replaced John Little, another Scotland cap, Baxter displaced Billy Stevenson, who played for Scotland in a non-cap international, and went on to be a key player in Bill Shankly's Liverpool, while McMillan was in the twilight of an outstanding career when he was picked-up to fill a gap.
Compare that sort of calm team-building and sound investment in quality goods with McCoist's method of throwing money around at car boot sales.
And, banning the BBC - nae class and certainly nae Rangers class. To quote that great North of England philosopher Mr Royle: "Dignity - my arse".
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