YESTERDAY, the second-best player ever to come out of Carrickvale School was wheeled-out to address the massed ranks of the MSM (Mainstream Scottish Media). Graeme Souness was the man chosen to front the small issue of the day - the names of the four tiers of the SPFL - which, remember, one cynic once dismissed as standing for: Standards Plummeting, Fans Leavinng.
To extrapolate Shakespeare: A Scottish senior division by any name is still shit - so, who better than Souness, one of the men who hastened the demise of Scottish football over the last three decades, to be at the naming ceremony.
Not that Souness has to take all the blame, after all, it's nearly a quarter of a century since, having in some two and a bit years back hame amangst his ain folk, reminded himself maybe why he left for London aged 15, he shot the craw back to Liverpool, and, in the prophetic words of his Chairman, committed professional suicide.
Liverpool, Galatasary, Torino, Benfica, Southampton, Dukla Pumpherston - naw, none of them come close to Rangers - Murray was right.
When Souness arrived at Ibrox he inherited a playing staff which included 11 players who were, or would become Scotland internationals. A couple of these, Derek Johnstone and Peter McCloy were admittedly due to be put out to pasture. I accepted a degree of team-re-building was necessary and accept, getting the likes of Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and Jimmy Nicholl into the team was a good move.
But, Souness, in re-modelling the top flight in Scotland by spearheading the purchasing of English players, was also the first to buy-in rubbish - he recruited some very average players - Colin West, Terry Hurlock, Dale Gordon anyone?
He also, rather than sitting them down and reading the riot act to them, or dragging them back for afternoon sessions, managed to piss-off some promising young Scottish talent.
The decline in Rangers' ability to breed in-house started under Souness and has never been checked. The rest saw what was happening at Ibrox and tamely followed. Twenty-five years down the line, well, internationally we are mince and at club level, we are dog mince.
I cannot blame the decline wholly on Souness. David Murray, Campbell Ogilvie, Walter Smith, various other club chairmen and managers should be in a very crowded dock alongside him, but, I still say Souness and Murray are the main men in the decline and faster fall of Scottish football.
So, why give the guy house room, as the SPFL did yesterday?
A very good player - but, he surely had a touch of the Napoleon Bonapartes about him - apres moi le deluge and all that.
And, by the way - still a poor man's Dave Mackay.
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