Over the last few years one of the pleas most often heard was for 'unity' - put aside your difference and "get behind the club."
Calls for unity have come from all sides - indeed some of those now facing criminal charges in relation to club affairs and their supporters were the most vocal advocates of unity - but always on their own terms. And that’s the problem.
Were the 38,000 fans who bought season tickets while the club was controlled by Charles Green united behind Charlie? Or were they fans who just wanted to see their team, didn’t care who was on the Board, or who saw season ticket purchase and the resultant injection of cash, to be the most practical thing they could do to help the club in those circumstances?
Were the fans who bought season tickets last year dupes of that Board, supporters of them, or blackmailed into doing so by the ludicrous utterances of Board members? Or were they simply fans going to the match and paying their money through gritted teeth or with reservations? Likewise - the calls of treachery heaped upon those of us who either advocated a full boycott or a game by game pay-at-the-gate policy were equally ludicrous.
Just now I’d say most fans in theory support a boycott of Sports Direct but I can’t work up hate for those fans who do buy - I think they are misguided but I have to accept that I supported the club for years when David Murray pursued policies which led to the coming of Craig Whyte and all the happened thereafter.
Claiming purity for your own particular viewpoint is both crass and impractical: you won’t make converts to your point of view by bullying and cajoling.
We need to educate and explain.
Off the pitch we’re seeing a process which will hopefully bring all the major fan groups together. My own views on this or that are well-known and I don’t intend to rehearse them here - the major point I would make is that winning the EGM earlier this year was a near run thing and only by a combination of events and the sort of money Dave King and the other major investors brought to bear did we get rid of the old lot. Knowing a lot of the background simply made me grateful we won - not that my wish list was fulfilled in its entirety.
For a long time the activists fans - those who actually attacked the old Board with leaflets, banners, posters and in the media (both mainstream and social) - were united. That didn’t mean we all sat in the room agreeing with one another all night - we agreed to move in roughly the same direction and several times some went along with things despite being not very keen on them but accepting the majority. That’s what unity is in real life - not getting too precious over your own obsessions but agreeing a rough outline and playing by the rules.
The real world rarely sees unanimity but we escaped catastrophe by getting Dave King and his colleagues into power; now our fights against the haters, against Sports Direct, against bias in the media, or football authorities need not be held back by a few stray voices on the fringe, for those who care enough to be active are overwhelmingly united.