Ian Black - A Handy Wee Smokescreen For Greater Guilt

I AM rapidly coming to the conclusion we are somewhere in the middle of Act II of Wagner's Gotterdammerung - The Twilight of the Gods - at least where the brand known as Rangers is concerned.

 

For some time now I have felt there was a lot of whistling in the dark going on inside The Celtic . Family. They accept that Rangers are down, brought to their knees by David Murray's bungling mis-management and over-spending; then whacked on the back of the legs with a pick-axe handle by Craig Whyte - before HMRC delivered the final boot to the goolies.

 

But, TCF were whistling in the dark, waiting for the dreaded moment when the big, wicked ogre rose to his feet again and started throwing his considerable weight around. I got the impression some in TCF felt, if they shouted, over and over and often enough: "Youse is deid", the big blue beast known as Ra Peepul would lie down and admit: "Aye, you're right, we're deid".

 

However, that hasn't happened. The beast got off the floor and last season managed to crawl through SFL Division Three into the new SPFL League One, from whence further upward progress is expected.

 

Ra Peepul haven't given up the ghost, nor have they learned humility. If anything, they have shown more cohesion and spirit than they did, even during all the years of (domestic) success and excess which followed the Souness Revolution in 1986.

 

Now, as each new sensation is revealed, I wonder - would it not have been better to have allowed the beast to die.

 

Let's face it, when the extent of Rangers' problems - even without the long-drawn-out sage of "The Big Tax Case" - became known, Scottish football panicked. They might have been big, bullying bastards, but - the rest reasoned - they are our big bullying bastards, and, they, by and large, keep the other big bullying bastards, the Irish ones - in their place. That was the reasoning, at least in the board rooms.

 

Had the ordinary fans not rebelled - I am sure the Hampden blazers would have allowed the Rangers Newco to carry-on, as before, in the SPL. Then, once the blazers realised, the fans wouldn't allow their nice wee stitch-up, they came up with a hurried compromise which allowed the Newco to play-on and keep Ra Peepul marching and singing.

 

I said at the start of Oldco Rangers' administration, Scottish Football was hurrying to keep the Rangers brand alive and this was a bad thing. Time has proved this to be the case.

 

Today, we have intercine strife at board room level, spivs arguing over share ownership and pricing and a bunch of unsavoury characters, some of whom make Craig Whyte look like a respectable businessman, vying for the right to be Mr Rangers.

 

It might have helped, had the team been able to continue to roll-over their part-time opposition in League One, but, losing to Forfar has cast doubts on the abilities of the players. The last thing the Rangers brand needed was for a senior player to be cited for breaching the SFA's rules.

 

This whole Rangers mess, although it was self-destruction on a grand scale, could have been cleaned-up much more quickly had there been the will and the know-how within Hampden's corridors of power to do  this.

 

Soft-pedalling on this club has now come back to haunt the SFA and the League on a grand scale. And, believe you me, it will get worse before it gets better.

 

Ian Black has long proved, by his on-field behaviour at his previous clubs, that, he never was and never will be: Rangers Class. However, I now see his current travails with Mr Lunny and the disciplinary system as a handy wee smokescreen for the greater sins of others not too far from the Blue Room.