suddenly have something to cling to. And who should they thank for this
unexpected deliverance of hope? The numpties who presided over the mess
which is Rangers¹ finances, that's who! The Gers Treble winning team is
being dismantled and, with the club strapped for cash, there is little
prospect of us replacing like with like. Is it to be Muscat for Numan,
Malcolm for Amo, Thommo for MM and Steven McLean for Claudio? Surely not!
Far be it for me to detract from the abilities of any of the above
replacements. Each is a valued squad member and will be called upon to do a
job. But having been around Ibrox for the past year, such automatic
promotion can in no way be seen as strengthening the team. New faces must
be introduced, keeping the others on their toes. A place in the first
choice eleven must be earned, any step
up must be due to the player in question being the best man for the job, not
because he is the next best option.
I¹ve said it before and I¹ll say it again. Having fought so hard to get
back on top, Rangers must build from a position of strength. Losing the
momentum which has been built up over the past 18 months, giving Sellick
encouragement when they should be asking serious questions of their
smart-arsed manager and overrated players, is simply not acceptable. If
anyone in the Ibrox boardroom thinks he can just sit back and let it happen,
he¹d better think again.
Rangers supporters have put up with a lot of nonsense from the board over
the years but we have taken it on the chin because, amidst so much
patronising crap and insulting innuendo, our team has done the business,
effectively bailing the directors out. Pointing the finger in the direction
of the boardroom in the immediate aftermath of yet another Treble success is
not a growl for growling¹s sake, it is a we-know-what-you¹re-up-to warning
that any complacency will not be easily forgotten or forgiven.
Maybe I¹m too suspicious for my own good but, as I indulged myself on
Saturday night, I couldn¹t help thinking that this wasn¹t the way it was
supposed to be. When the Minted One moved aside, he expected John
McClelland¹s reign to be turbulent, a few years of failure while Rangers¹
books were sorted out. Then Murray would return as the white knight, sack
Œcheap option¹ Alex McLeish, bring in a high profile manager who would make
a couple of big money signings...and the whole spend-spend-spend madness
would start all over again.
Big Eck has kicked that idea into the long grass. Even he has admitted that
things have gone better than he dared hope, the man is now a fully fledged
Rangers legend and, having delivered so much at such little cost, the mind
boggles to contemplate the success we might enjoy if he was given some dosh
to spend. We can only hope that his ability to achieve with such meagre
resources will not be tested further over the next few years.
Few of us saw him as the perfect man to take over from Tricky Dicky. But
the Freckled One grasped the opportunity by both hands, succeeded in getting
so much more out of the same players and has proven himself to be an
inspired appointment, if more by accident than design. And having landed on
their feet unexpectedly, the board must exploit McLeish¹s magnificent
achievements as a springboard to even bigger and better things, rather than
use the feel good factor currently enveloping every Bluenose as a mask for
further cost-cutting.
There can be no half-measures here. Either we build on our success and
approach the future with purpose or we don¹t. Standing still is not
progress...and moving backwards is not on! Everybody wants to be associated
with success so any lack of a big money benefactor is a clear sign that
Martin Bain is not doing his highly/over paid job. And if our board cannot
think positively and act ambitiously on the back of a Treble winning season,
they are in the wrong line of work.
Think about it gentlemen. The days of Rangers fans being fobbed off with
empty words are gone. We know our club¹s finances are in a mess but also
know that solutions can be found without depriving the manager of the
resources to match and surpass the success of the past 18 months. Rangers
have been spared the backlash of fan power which has rocked many other clubs
over the past decade or so but, with a sound grasp of our marketing muscle,
organisations like the Rangers Trust won¹t stand idly by and let our club
slip back into decline.
There is a world of difference between sensible management of resources and
petty penny-pinching. The board must get their business brains into gear,
they must put together a cohesive plan of action and they must get it right.
We will accept no excuses!
LITTLE BOY BLUE