The Storm Before The (Hopeful) Calm

I WOULD love to think, in three weeks it will be all over; because, that's how much longer we have to wait before the Rangers AGM. How I would love to see (figurative) white smoke emerging from the Ibrox chimney and confirmation that we have, if not a new Papa ensconsced at the top of the fabled marble staircase, a new togetherness down Edmiston Drive way.

 

Aye Right!!

 

I fear the sniping and guerrilla warfare will continue for a while yet. Similarly, I fear the off-field battle will leave Rangers in no state to immediately take-on Celtic, when - assuming they don't suffer the threat of financial melt-down before-hand - they get back to the Scottish top flight.

 

All the indications are that the club has been almost as badly managed since its re-birth as Sevco, following liquidation, as it was in the long downward drift into insolvency. The balance sheet issued to the shareholders prior to the 19 December meeting will make interesting reading. I dare say some will immediately describe the financial statement as a work of fiction, the sniping and tit-for-tat name-calling will continue, meanwhile, notwithstanding their abrupt dismissal from Europe this week and the rise in their fines payments to UEFA, Celtic will continue to prosper and pull away.

 

As part of my self-imposed task, to be an island of near sanity in the bedlam of Scottish Football, I feel it is my duty to monitor the out-pourings from around the Scottish fitba blogsphere. I get a good few laughs out of Phil Mac Giolla Bhain's Rangers obsession; his blog is actually much more interesting when he concentrates on matters Celtic rather than sniping at the other lot.

 

His piece this week on the death of Paul McConville was a well-written tribute to another member of the Celtic Family; whereas, some of his anti-Rangers stuff if repetitive shite.

 

Across the city, wee Davie Leggat is almost the mirror image of PMGB. At least, Davie doesn't obsess with the opposition, but, I fear he may be backing the wrong horse with his open support for "The Requisitioners", as Messrs Murray (P), McColl and their followers are known.

 

Well-buffed brown brogues do not a director make. I personally feel that Mr Murray, through his association with the discredited Murray (D) and Whyte regimes has permanently disqualified himself from having anything to do with the future management of Rangers.

 

Clearly, there is something in the collective Ibrox psyche which prevents the rank and file support from organising themselves into a cohesive unit, Ready to take their troubled club forward. They all want to belong to their own wee lodges, the Rangers' fans clearly lack the collective sense of "Cause" which has under-pinned Celtic through the years, whether these be - as under Stein - years of plenty, or, for the majority of the Kelly Years, years of under-achievement with occasional flashes of light.

 

The Rangers fans have a long, sad, history of backing the "wrong" horses, even though, at the time, they seemed to be the right ones. Overwhelmingly the men in the brown brogues voted for the old Unionist Party. Back in the Struth days, this party was the political group of choice for the majority of the Scottish electorate - but, in the end, the Unionists sold-out to the Tories.

 

They bought-into the David Murray "they spend £5 - we'll spend £10" business model - failed.

They bought into the "Wealth off the radar" Craig Whyte fairy tale - failed.

They fell for Charlie Green's snake oil salesman patter - apparently failing.

It now looks as if, while most of the rank-and-file are falling for the "We're Real Rangers Men - We Wear Brown Brogues" sales pitch of "The Requisitioners", the money men - those guys who, unlike some of  "The Requisitioners" have actually put money into the club - are unimpressed by the alternatives.

Also, in the manner of recent Ibrox fashion, it has become all about the money. There seems to be a feeling abroad that if enough money is thrown at Rangers - the team, all will be well. I don't accept this.

The situation is, for the forseeable future, no club in Scotland, not even a Celtic team which, in the short to medium term, will simply keep winning, will be able to hold on to their players in the face of the greater riches at the other end of the M74.

Where once the Old Firm could offer their top men better terms than were available in an English game where the £20 maximum wage ruled; where, with English clubs banned from Europe post-Heysel, the Old Firm could offer European football to top English players.

But, these days are past - the Big Two are today as vulnerable to predatory English clubs, even Championship clubs without the Old Firm lustre, as the non-Glasgow clubs have always been. To compete they have to get better, which means WORKING HARDER.

Celtic have gone down the route of scouring the world for unpolished diamonds and, along the way, they have, I feel, almost written-off the young generation of the Celtic Family. That could come back to bite them.

 

However, perhaps, if Rangers were to believe in the old Protestant, Presbyterian work ethic which enriched the Cledonian Diaspora across the globe, they wouldn't need all that cash to pur together a team capable of putting the Diddy Teams to the sword and challenging the rampant, all-conquering Celtic.

 

And, by the same token, if even a couple of the DTs tried working harder on their skills and their tactics, what an improved Scottish game we might have.

 

Hopefully, after 19 December, we might start to get there.