Walter Might Be A Wally In This Job

SO, apparently, "Sir" Walter Smith is to be the next Rangers' chairman. I suppose, with 'Dignity FC' being better-known for undignified family feuding this past wee while, it makes sense to appoint Walter, a man who still, apparently, has some dignity about him.

I hae ma doots, however. I don't think in any of his previous connections with the club, be it as supporter, assistant-manager, manager, or "yes-man" director during the dying days of the Murray regime, he has shown the qualities which will be required of a Rangers' chairman.

The principal imperative of the men at the top at Rangers these days is to get control of the budget. This is a club which has made a virtue of over-spending. Rangers are the Labour Party of football - give them the money, they'll spend it all and more; but, when it comes to implementing a sustainable financial model.....? Walter Smith - aye right.

Also, as chairman, he will be required to have the diplomatic skills to chart a safe course through football politics and the world of business, in search of sponsorship; I doubt he has the necessary people skills for this crucial role.

And finally, he has links to the "old" Rangers ways,which, while the bigoted bears will lap this up, the imperative for new Rangers is to put distance between their way and the bad old ways.

However, that said, as Souness's "enforcer", he was, apparently the man who took misbehaving players into the gym and gave them a sound kicking - if he can still do it, he should start by sorting out some of the spivs who have wangled their way into the Blue Room.

MIND you, if Rangers have their problems - and it may take them some time yet to shake-off all the "ambulance chasers" who are looking to make a killing from the club, what of Dundee?

Three directors gone, the three who are left apparently under-fire from the supporters, who by and large put them on the board; the club relegated; players leaving. It all adds up to yet more turmoil on Tayside.

Across the road at Tannadice, budgets are being cut - again - players are jumping ship, yet still the insistence is that the city of jute, jam and journalim can sustain two "senior" clubs - aye right.

Dundee is a one-club city and the quicker the denizens of the City of Discovery waken-up to this fact and amalgamate the 'Dee and United, the better for football in that part of Scotland.

I ENJOY reading the posts on SCOTTISH LEAGUE, the excellent website hosted by Barcelona-based Kilmarnock fanatic David Ross. This is the Scottish football anorak's website of choice, particularly if you are into football history.

David is currently passing the time of day by trawling through online editions of past Sunday Posts and this week he posted a cracker, from the Sunday Post of 1946. The great Jack Harkness was having his say in an idea being floated at the time, for a breakaway 16-club top league in Scotland, a sort of SPL for the post-war golden age.

The 16 clubs who would form what was to be called: "The Scottish National League", were Celtic, Rangers, Queen's Park, Third Lanark, Partick Thistle, Clyde, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee, Aberdeen, Morton, Motherwell, Ayr United, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Falkirk. These clubs were involved, because they were considered to be the ones with the greatest drawing power.

Theirs was to be a "closed shop" league, with no promotion or relegation. However, the plans came to nothing.

Fast-forward 67 years and we find, 11 of these 16 clubs were ranked in the top 16 in Scotland at the end of the 2012-13 season; and surely, had they been allowed to remain in the SPL, Rangers would have made that 12 clubs.

In Robert Burns's time, the Church of Scotland held great sway on pre-destination, as espoused by 'Holy Wullie': "an wha it pleases best thysel, sends ane tae heaven and nine tae hell, aw fur thy glory". You sort of get the impression pre-destination is still at work, in Scottish football.