THIS blog has long held that the only winners to emerge - and several years down the line at that - from the fall-out from the events of 2011 and 2012, when David Murray accepted Craig Whyte's £1 coin for Rangers, will be the lawyers.
Mr Whyte is now one of several former big players at Ibrox who will stand in the dock in Edinburgh shortly to face the full might of the law.
He, Charlie Green and the others may well, when the case concludes, find themselves, some time next year, in rather closer proximity to some angry "Bears" than they would wish to be.
Or, there again, they main emerge exonerated, but, either way, the legal profession will find some way of extracting further income from the whole affair, as the tangled web of who owns which part of the entire Rangers edifice is untied.
Then we have today's news that the current "Rangers" Chairman, David Cunningham King, aka the GASL (Glib and shameless liar - copyright a South African judge) is apparently about to be taken to law by Mike Ashley, the Honcho of Sports Direct, and. in all probability THE MR BIG down Edmiston Drive way.
Ashley appears to hold, if not all, then most of the aces - I see further trouble ahead for the King.
Over in Donegal, the most-obsessive of the Rangers Watchers in the Celtic Family forecasts further death, famine, flood and pestilence is about to rain down on Ibrox, and, dismiss his warnings at your peril Peepul, PMGB has been well on the money since this whole affair started.
In truth, I am getting fairly fed-up with the whole business, and the way my ex-colleagues in Scotland's Mainstream Media are NOT exercising due diligence in adequately reporting (if it were possible to do so) on events surrounding this troubled club. Things have already gone on too-long.
The whole continuing Rangers Soap Opera is besmirching the once-proud name of Scottish Football. There may not be much they can do, but, surely it is past time that the "blazers" on Hampden's sixth floor did something to try to sort matters out.
Quite clearly, events surrounding this troubled club have brought Scottish Football into disrepute and are continuing to do so. What's more, it will all end badly, and, it will not end soon.
I NOTED two contrasting stories in today's papers. The first was the suggestion that, maybe, Kenny McDowall was on his way back to St Mirren, as assistant manager to Ian Murray. The second, was that Alex Miller would be the man to stand behind Murray at the club.
In the end, the McDowall story proved to be, yet more Level Five shite, with Miller being confirmed this morning as the man to help Murray.
I have no doubts, Alex is a better Number Two than Number One. I have no doubts that either, he is the ideal man to stand beside a young manager still finding his way.
I am sure Kenny would have been welcomed back by the St Mirren faithful; I am not so sure, however, Alex will get the same warmth of welcome.
Since 2000, St Mirren have parted company with: Tom Hendrie, John Coughlin, Gus Macpherson, Danny Lennon, Tommy Craig and Gary Teale plus various assistants. OK, Murray is the third Saints' boss in the past two seasons, but, on-average, Saints' managers this millennium have had 33 months to run the club, before they are sacked.
This might well be an average tenure with a Scottish club, but, if we allow one season for any new manager to get to know his squad and decide those he will be keeping and those he will be releasing; season two to recruit his new players and get the playing the way he wants; then a third season to see if they can win anything, or take the club forward - it could be argued, such a time-scale is not really adequate.
Let's take a look at the record of the man against whom every St Mirren manager is measured, Sir Alex Ferguson.
He was appointed on 19 October, 1974, when Saints lay sixth in the old Division 2. At the end of that first season, they finished sixth, so, no immediate improvement, other than they finished five places higher than they had the previous season.
With league re-organisation at the end of that season, Saints were placed in the new Division One, the top ten clubs in Scotland having formed the new Premier Division. They again finished sixth in their league. But, whereas under the former two-division set-up they had been the 24th-best team in Scotland in May, 1975; in May, 1976, they were the 16th-best.
In 1976-76, "Fergie's Furies" as they were named, won Division One to be promoted, that season they were the 11th-best team in Scotland. In 1977-78, they finished eighth in the Premier Division, but, Fergie was sacked at the end of that season. So, over his tenure, Fergie's season-by-season record was: = : +8 : +5 : +3; so, on-average, the club improved by four places each season under him. But, Fergie was a very special manager.
Obviously, Ian Murray, having taken over a relegated side, cannot be expected to immediately improve their position. He has to get, from his board, an indication of what is the minimum they would accept at the end of the season - probably a place in the end-of-season promotion play-offs.
Right now, they are eighth in the Championship table, four places and nine points off a place in the play-offs. This is not, with 24 fixtures remaining, an impossible position to be in, but, a near-immediate and lasting improvement is called for if the club is to reach the position which the Board probably expects them to be in by the end of the season.
Miller will bring a wealth of coaching experience from a very high level - this man, remember, was on the bench as a coach when Liverpool pulled-off one of the great European Cup wins.
As St Mirren boss in his own right, Alex Miller took over a team lying eighth in the Premier Division. His tenure began with a 5-0 scudding from Aberdeen, but, at the end of his first less than full season in-charge, he had lifted the team to sixth place, a rise of two spots. He took them to fifth in his first full season, slipped back to sixth in his next and they were still a mid-table side, but, on their way to eventual Scottish Cup victory that season, when he left Love Street - having done the ground work which Alex Smith and Jimmy Bone would continue all the way to Hampden.
Yes, getting Alex Miller back, just might turn out to be a good bit of business by Ian Murray. Miller in now 65, he has been there, done it and got the t-shirts and DVDs. Putting an old, experienced hand like that in to help a young manager, in his first full-time post, may catch-on.
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