To be perfectly honest at time of writing there is still anger raging within that Rangers FC have lost/parted company with a manager because he didn't fancy the discipline in some parts of the club. Of course this has all been a mistake and something ha been lost in translation. Even Gordon Smith was sticking admirably to this ‘guid Scots' version of events on the Beeb at teatime. ‘Paul Le Guen got the importance of being captain in this country wrong' blah, blah, blah.
Sorry Gordon, but when people I respect tell me that overblown, over confident, but still nowhere near finished articles like XXXX are in pubs in Glasgow City Centre on a Saturday night full of bevy and deriding his manager's tactics, selections, training methods and the likes, to all and sundry (ands you don't know just who is listening XXXX when you are pissed) then spare me the tosh that this week's spat is about a bloody armband. There is a wee Brat Pack at Ibrox right now, and well Gordon Smith knows it.
But if I am angry at the manner of Le Guen being hung out to dry by the Chairman – and that is how it looks to me at time of writing. I mean could you have visualised the Chairman taking the time to talk to a player's agent after he had been binned by Souness or Walter? Nah, me neither. But I digress; if the manner of PLG's leaving has left a sour taste in the mouth then the behaviour of Barry Ferguson since Monday has been the cause of it. Now I can just about stomach that he would want to phone a pal after being stripped of the captaincy on Monday; even if that pal has been known to tell lies about Rangers fans and racism. But did he have to go yapping to Radio Yahoo also?
Enjoy the moment tonight Barry, enjoy your short lived victory. You may think you have won ‘the battle of big', although I'm sure even you were as embarrassed with the sight of your Friends of Bazza spokesman slabbering live courtesy of Sentanta on Tuesday in front of a disbelieving country, as the rest of us were. But always remember, there are very many of us out here will never forget or forgive you running to Radio Sellik. Barry Ferguson, captain of Rangers once more? Not in my name.
Not that Paul Le Guen can be absolved from criticism in any way shape or form, for our lack of it, this season. I still don't get that any manager can achieve the level of success this man has previously without realising all good teams, far less great ones, are built on a solid defence. We can also make allowances on one hand that he was never given a substantial kitty to bring in real quality. However the other hand can turn round and give us the ‘V' sign and then point to the calibre and quality of player he actually has bought in.
In summing up I would say Paul Le Guen, in the right circumstances may well have been the right man for Rangers Football Club, unfortunately he was just here at Ibrox at the wrong time. I genuinely wish him well in the future and how is this for a mind feck! I'd bet London to an Orange, that those Rangers fans who lambasted and hurled abuse at him at Fir Park on Tuesday would be aghast at David Murray being the victim of the same sort of behaviour.
PLG's time has come and gone, so what happens now? Well, if you are unfortunate enough to have Real Radio blasting through the work tannoys, then the future is anything but bright. Take your pick; the only candidates missing from the following 1980s throwbacks are Duran Duran and T'Pau.
Wattie and Ally are the front runners, as a team presumably. (Tell me I'm presuming properly)
Terry Butcher – Well, if Murray actually does want to close the club, then this horrible person is the one to do it.
Oh, and lest we forget, Graeme Souness.
If the thought of any of that lot coming back doesn't depress you, then I do have to ask what planet you inhabit. At this point, I do have to ask a pertinent wee poser; have you noted thus far that there is no media stampede on our behalf to enquire if any of the ‘big' names currently out of work would be interested in the Rangers job? Ya'll have noticed that as well, haven't you? And the answer is not necessarily a dig at the Scottish press, for once.
In all seriousness, Walter Smith could come in and steady the ship for the rest of the season. He also has the personal charm to make Jeremy Clement see that he has a future at the club. Although with today's events you have to wonder if he just wants to abandon ship, too. But does Wattie want the fallout though that would assuredly come with the anti-Rangers Jacobite element? I'm not so sure.
Still, all dark clouds have the potential to get even darker and Graham Roberts produced said black arts on the same joke of a radio station. I don't know what was worse, him telling all and sundry that he would do the Rangers job for nothing for the next two years or that the yahoos would be scared if Wattie came back. He won NIAR you know. And here was me thinking it was David Murray too.
I tell you, irony is thick in the air tonight. I'm still finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that Walter Smith is the bookies' favourite to be Rangers next manager. In many ways where we are now as a club is down to Walter and David's relationship at the end of the ‘good old days'.
Walter wanted to leave, David didn't let him
Walter was then given a treasure trove for one season to bow out on the highest of highs
It became the lowest of lows
Which meant David's ego was hurt and the next manager was mollycoddled to an outrageous extent
And mollycoddled some more and more, even though we didn't have it.
Which resulted in the penny-pinching that brought down Eck
And now Paul Le Guen
But if we are to believe the bookies we could get Walter again? I just don't see it, or at least not on his own.
I just don't see that David Murray has any fight left in his locker. He's got happiness to pursue in sunnier and warmer climes, why put up with all this hassle? He's never been one for looking at the long term at Ibrox, which makes me wonder if once again, he is going to go, as he always done, for the quick fix.
Let's face it Billy Davies isn't going to get the fans on board in double quick time. So is it going to be Walter ‘n' Ally meantime? Surely not.
The Govanhill Gub