At a time when the great city of Glasgow is, for the second straight Christmas, mourning the tragic deaths of innocent people in a freak accident, it might seem flippant to concentrate on the travails of that city's foremost sporting institution, but, such is the lot of the football philosopher.
I am delighted to see Kenny McDowall named as interim manager of the Rangers Tribute Act, following Ally McCoist being handed the keys to his garden shed. I have long had a lot of respect for "Kojak", since his days as player-coach under Jimmy Bone at St Mirren.
He did sterling work there, then in a brief spell with the SFA, before joining Celtic, where he again did well as a coach to the Reserve and Under-20 teams. This saw him cross the great divide to Ibrox, where, sadly, he had to take a back seat to "Real Rangers Men" McCoist and Durrant, neith of whom is anything like as good a coach as Kenny.
I would like to think he will turn things around at RTA and that the club will begin to cut into Hearts' impressive lead at the top of the Championship table. Winning that league might not be possible, given Hearts' advantage, but, I reckjon, under McDowall, RTA has a better chance of gaining promotion via the play-offs than they had under McCoist.
Ian Durrant now has a big decision to make. Does he meekly accept demotion, or, does he seek a severance deal to pursue his coaching ambitions elsewhere? There again, he might feel happier working with the Under-20s, while "Juke Box" Gordon Durie and Lee McCulloch assist McDowall.
I am pleased for McCulloch. He is not, never has been, a great player, but, rather like John Greig - another player whose talents didn't quite take him onto the top shelf of Scottish players, but, whose spirit and never-say-die attitude did - McCulloch has been damned to lead his club at a low point in its history (assuming you hold that history to go back to 1872).
McCulloch has displayed the character expected of "Real Rangers Men" and, as such, he deserves his appointment as a player-coach. I know times are different, but, this move has echoes of the tried and trusted Rangers approach from the relationship between Bill Struth and Davie Meiklejohn, Tiger Shaw and Geordie Young, or Scot Symon and Greig, whereby: the manager laid down a broad outline of what was wanted and the on-field gaffer made sure the players responded.
Now we turn to the other matter surrounding the RTA, the board's lack of friends among Ra Peepul. The support does not have a unifying or unified rallying point against an unpopular board - that is the board's strength and the supporters' weakness.
I canno speak for the Easdales, but, they appear to be the only "Rangers-type Men" on a board who represent syndicates and groups who know, a well-run and successful "Rangers" makes money.
The fans can either, I feel, forge alliances with the Easdales and embark on a long-term, and expensive, strategy to wrench control from those shareholders who are in it for profit rather than for love of the club, or, they can ignore the Easdales and organise themselves properly, for an even-longer-term, probably even-more-expensive campaign to buy back their club.
But, they will have to make compromises and alliances, and forget petty squabbles. Some of the in-fighting between fans' groups is of the Popular Front for Judea - Judean Popular Front variety.
They ought all forget about: "The King Over The Water", he never has been and never will be the answer, by the way.
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