So, Alex McLeish's reign as Rangers manager continues in the shambles that currently resides at The Stadium. The pantomime season started early in Glasgow this year with Mr Murray's stay of execution order that was announced to all and sundry. The Porto result apart the trial period produced similar performances defeat to Hibs and Celtic and a draw with Falkirk after being 2 up. After that quartet of results I was fully expecting Alex's reign to end but no wait we dither to after the Inter game.
Personally had I been Mr Murray that is what I would have been my intention all along as changing manager when so close to qualification for the last 16 made no sense at all in my view.
But unanswered questions still remain. The performances have not improved even the long awaited victory at Killie was a performance full of differing form a really good first half followed by a second half that could quiet easily once again saw a two goal lead wiped out in a matter of minutes as bottles crashed loudly following the loss of a comic cuts goal. I hope that result announces a return to form but I'm not convinced it will.
We were informed by Mr Murray that there was a plan B. Now my cynical nature leads me to believe that one of the following was plan B ;
1) There was no plan B.
or
2) Whoever was lined up to take over was unavailable or turned the job down.
We are told that around five million will be made available for Alex to spend in January. If the long term plan is that Alex will not be there next season then where's the sense in squandering more cash on players who his replacement might not want.
We were also told that the name being considered to replace Alex had not been mentioned during the media frenzy over his future. So I was concerned to hear that a certain ex-International manager was working behind the scenes at Ibrox. Surely not, could Andy Roxburgh be advising Alex on players that he wants to play under him next year. The thought disturbs me but then nothing surprise's me more than some of the decisions that at made at my club these days.
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST
I've been looking in my crystal ball recently and disturbing scenes are emerging. The recent news that Glasgow with Joke McConnell at the helm will bid to host a future Commonwealth Games got me thinking.
First there was no surprise that the required new stadium will just happen to find it's way to the East End of Glasgow. Now maybe I'm being paranoid or my crystal ball was more cloudy than I thought but vision's of the Queen's Eleven playing some team in green and white at a brand new stadium was what I thought I saw.
Let's just think about it logically ;
We build a 50 or 60,000 capacity brand new stadium with tax payers money with state of the art facilities for athletics and field sports.
Q) What is it used for after the games finish
A) Well not athletics cause the Athletics calendar in Scotland has no event that could even come close to needing that sort of facility.
Q) Would the national team move there
A) Unlikely, the SFA see Hampden as their love child and could not possibly be parted from it. After all where else in Scotland is worthy of holding European finals, not Ibrox anyway even although it was passed years ago by UEFA.
Q) So what do we use it for then '
A) Oh I know there's a wee football team up the road who built a ground which was has a limited shelf life they could use it. 'Good idea Jack' or any other season ticket holding labour politician.
Now I think I'm right in saying that Celtioc FC bought the land from the council for a king's ransom of £1 or something so the sell on value of the land would now bring them in a tidy sum.
I doubt if they would be asked for the cash back thus lining the transfer budget and the pockets of there directors with a few free season tickets thrown in to carry the deal through to completion.
Just look south to Manchester where it happened there, there it was the blue half who gained from the deal. That would never be the case here.
GORDON RAMSAY
Glasgow Rangers as a club have it seems few celebrity supporters, well at least few that are prepared to stick their head above the parapet and own up to it. Some even deny it in the hope that they will sell records or be successful in their chosen career. Why is that, is it the knowledge that admitting that they have allegiances to Ibrox will result in a section of the population will not support them in their chosen field of excellence or will positively try to affect their career, witness the farce a few years ago when concerted efforts were made to remove a contestant from a talent show because of his support of Rangers.
So those brave enough to stand up and be counted should be applauded and encouraged. One such gentleman is Gordon Ramsay well he could hardly deny it could he having pulled on the jersey himself. Last week he was a guest on Soccer AM reminiscing about his time at Ibrox and his plans for his future career. His latest project is opening a high class restaurant in New York. During the interview it was mentioned would he consider getting in to football again, to which he replied that at some stage he would if the right opportunity came along.
That got me thinking about the proposed Casino and Leisure development at Ibrox. Now I for one am quite sceptical about this project. It's not really for us as fans is it. The vast majority of us who go to Ibrox every other Saturday spend enough on tickets, travel, merchandise etc. etc. so a trip to the Casino after that would send the divorce rates in the country rocketing. The project to me sounds much more likely to help Mr Murray sell corporate packages at Ibrox. Picture the hard sell ;
Limo to the match , pre match drinks and food, watch the game, then dinner and more drinks then pop across the road to the Casino. There you go nearly everything covered well almost but then the red light district is just a short cab ride away.
If this project goes ahead then why not involve somebody like Gordon Ramsay to set up the catering side a world class restaurant in the premises could do no harm in attracting punters to the facility and it also encourages one of our own. I know it won't happen though as Azure probably have the catering contract already tied up.
MotherwellBlue