I don't see it that we were necessarily trounced by Timbo over Scott Brown because I don't believe he was/is worth £4m and hopefully this will come back to haunt Timbo. But one thing is for sure David Murray and his directors have been identified as sitting duck targets by their counterparts in the east end of Glasgow and they are now gunning for us at every opportunity.
Liewell - 'So you think you're going to land Scott Brown for around £2m do you Mr Murray? Well my doubling the price says you don't!'
Remember Fr Burns' reply in the summer of 1995 when asked why Gordan Petric had signed for Rangers instead of Celtic and he answered with the following classic line; "I don't know, you will have to ask the President." My how we laughed, but is there anyone out there still not convinced that the wheel has turned full circle?
There was also the Scott McDonald debacle (another who I don't believe is worth the money they shelled out). And don't get me started on the likes of Quinn and Liewell being invited to say a few words on the Rangers official website.
Never has there been such a comprehensive shafting Old Firm wise off the park since Bill Struth was up against Maley. Only you get the feeling that the only ones burning with embarrassment and a sense of alarm is the support. The custodian and his nodding dogs are far away from the madding crowd. Mind you, I do wonder how Mr Murray's rent-a-mob are feeling deep down this summer?
Next up was the hokum that we were seriously in for this Faubert chappy. Did we actually ever table a firm offer? I'll be up front and say I really don't know because there was also the rain forest's worth of guff surrounding the whole episode which for me sidetracked and clouded the issue.
Where do you start? He's Walter's main target (so that means we would really push the boat out). Then it was Faubert is going on strike/has gone AWOL to get his move to Rangers, letters from Bordeaux's top banana in the press etc, etc. Next thing it was 'cor lumme' he's just signed for West Ham for around the ten million Euro mark the Bordeaux chairman had said would be required all along to secure Faubert's signature.
Faubert may now forever be blowing bubbles. But it should be remembered that's only because the chairman blew all our money and then some in a crazy four year spell just under a decade ago.
We should also look closely at who is peddling guff about £10m war chests. And then of course we have Derek Johnstone who claimed he knew all along that we were in for Monsieur Faubert. Now you would think that big DJ of all people who was comprehensively reamed and left hung out to dry by David Murray back in January 2004 with his so called exclusive about 'an announcement from Ibrox that would rock Scottish football to the core' would know better. But apparently not
We've started back pre season training a week ago (27/6) and around £2m has been spent on Lee McCulloch (I think) Remember we were not prepared to spend an extra 150k or whatever to secure the services of Alan Gow in the January window so I cannot believe there are some punters out there who actually still believe there is another £8m burning a hole in the chairman's pockets?
It would of course be nice to be proved wrong but if Rangers shell out 10 million Euros on a player, any player, then it will be a sure fire sign that the Chairman is prepared to play fast and loose with out finances once again to get the punters off his back. That would not be a good sign.
Possibly the most embarrassing open running sore of the whole summer however has been the penny-pinching way perma-tan man has went about trying to bring Steven Naismith to the club. I don't know what is more humiliating; the way we have made these initial ultra low bids or the complete capitulation on the 'sectarian' issue over the last two years.
Again, as someone who has railed often and long regards paying over the odds for any player down through the fanzine years then I am all for financial prudence. But there is a real gut instinct feeling right now that the Kilmarnock striker might just become Celtic's latest target. And with over a million in the coffers for that dud Beattie they not only have the money but as stated above an open intent to go for Mr Murray's jugular at every opportunity.
It's the confusion in numbers that appears to be the official order of the day at Ibrox in the here and now that grates. Time was the press and the club would confirm a player had signed for a certain fee and it was universally accepted. For instance 17.5k for Jim Baxter in 1960, 100k for Colin Stein in Oct 68, 50k for Alex McDonald, three weeks later right through to £12m for TAF in Nov 2000. These are figures that are pretty much agreed on by everyone.
Nowadays it's a reported/suspected fee with numerous clauses for a certain amount of performances or International appearances blah, blah, blah. But if as has been reported we started off with a pitifully low bid for SN and have now agreed to meet Kilmarnock's valuation via instalments I still think we'll be dealing with a pretty pissed off Ayrshire club.
If Steven Naismith does come to Ibrox it may well be that it is only because he's held out for the move himself. I don't think it will be because of our competence and professionalism in dealing with other clubs at chief executive level. That's definitely a thing of the past.
However if SN stays at Kilmarnock or moves elsewhere maybe, just maybe it will be a cloud that has a silver lining. I was slightly disappointed when we were first linked with him at the end of last season when our own Stevie Lennon said he'd probably have to seek a loan move elsewhere for a season to get a regular game.
Now I don't know if our boy Lennon is good enough and I won't be setting my sights too high on the basis of an Old Firm hat trick in a youth cup final. But what I do know is that he is twenty years of age; shouldn't we be giving him his chance even in League Cup ties to see if he can make the step up to the next level?
The whole Auchenhowie operation has been a much maligned one since its inception but what is the point in bringing boys through and then offloading them before they've been given an opportunity to show us their worth?
Another sad aspect to this close season and in the rush, panic even, to secure second place last term is the total abandonment of any serious intent or ambition in Europe. There is now a breed of Rangers fan who equates European football purely with pound signs. The embarrassments and humiliations on the park do not quite seem to matter.
Judge me on Europe? I give you the Rangers CL Pizza; sod the football, sod the red faces and let's make some dough. It'll be guaranteed to be thin and brittle throughout and leave a sour taste in the mouth, mind. (And yes this is an unashamed variation on a Dowanhill Hack gag from a dozen years ago)
I'm not asking, demanding or even thinking that we can now compete financially with the ACs, Barcas and Madrids of this world off the park. But deluded as he undoubtedly is, Timbo will look forward to the CL group stages draw with gusto, thinking his team CAN qualify for the next phase once again.
The finances take care of themselves and undoubtedly come in handy and are of the utmost importance when progressing as far as you can in the CL/UEFA but the football side of the club must always come first. Sometimes I read the boards and don't believe that to be the case with some of our punters. When did it come about that large chunks of our support decided that goings over in Europe don't really matter; only pounds, shillings and pence?
Forty years ago apparently Britain had a 'summer of love'. Four decades on and all Rangers fans can now reasonably expect is a different sort of love, a love in the tennis sense (very apt at this moment in time) which equates to basically the square root of hee-haw being spent to bolster the squad.
The Govanhill Gub.