The Posse Is Growing

I FEEL like Henry Fonda's character in 'Twelve Angry Men' these days. As one of the first to say: I didn't think Ally McCoist was a good manager, I was, for some time, a lone voice of doubt - now, there is a scramble to point-out The Chosen One's failings as a Rangers' manager.

Patrick Glenn Gibbons - the Christian name alone tells you where Glenn's allegiance lies - is the latest to join the cause, with a reasoned piece in today's Scotsman. The vultures are circling.

Actually, Coisty has done his job. He got Rangers promoted last season, they are certainties to be promoted again this season.

The trouble is, for all they are a full-time squad playing in a part-time league, their football is shite. I realise winning with some style is more of a demand on Celtic teams than on Rangers' ones, where the demand is simple - just win - repeatedly watcing mince eventually wears down even the most-forebearing of supports.

I still believe it will take a change of manager if they are to do what the Bears want and make it three successive promotions next season.

The SPFL Championship in season 2014-15 looks like being THE hardest division to win in British football. IF the likes of Hearts (who are surely doomed in the Premiership this season), Falkirk, Hamilton, Dunfermline (the probably risers via the play-off route) and maybe Dundee believe, they can give Rangers a run next season and could well embarrass a McCoist-led Rangers.

IS THERE not something Kismet-like about wee Barry Ferguson getting the gig to manage Blackpool? Given his alleged part in the failure of the Le Guen experiment at Rangers, it might be poetic justice if Bazza was faced with a dressing room revolt somewhere down the line.

Actually, given Bazza hs always been a bit cleverer than his perceived public personna, not least the take Jonathan Watson had on him, I think he will do well.

He might think about sending for big brother Derek. Derek was, for me, the more-talented Ferguson and, while his man-management skills weren't the best in his days in management; big brother is still a damned good coach, who might prove a good foil for his more-famous wee brother.

I WATCHED the first half-hour or so of the Arsenal v Coventry match last night. The Gunners' kids played some terrific football in that period, and when I departed at 2-0, it was already game over.

John Fleck was somewhat overwhelmed in midfield, but, he did produce one or two terrific passes in that spell. This was good to see, away from the hysteria of being the next big thing at Ibrox, young Fleck might still come through.

Big "Elvis" meanwhile, is surely the next big Scottish manager in England.

 FINALLY, I enjoyed that BBC Breakfast story this morning about the Scots tourists in California, who walked calmly past a brown bear, which they didn't even notice on the porch of the house where they were staying.

A good example of Scottish refusal to panic, maybe. More likely, being Scottish and used to seeing blue Bears roaming wild in packs in the street, a single brown bear didn't phase them.