Keith Jackson in today's record

[the gunslinger 3,366]

SOMEWHERE amidst all the fog and fury of the last 12 months, Rangers Football Club has lost its sense of direction.

 

A once proud giant of Scottish football stumbles around from pitch to pitch, forgetting where it came from and with no idea of how to get back there.

 

Todayâ??s Rangers is in a state of deep confusion. The brutal events of the last year have left it so ravaged and traumatised that it can now barely be recognised. It is exhausted. It has become a ghost of a club.

 

The initial rush of pain and anguish which set in on administration day, last February 14, was quickly followed by a head-spinning mix of anger and resentment at the rest of the world. You canâ??t blame Rangers for that. It was an understandable, human reaction to a truly desperate situation.

 

They had been battered in their sleep by Craig Whyte and then, as they lay sobbing and bloodied with an outstretched hand, others took it in turn to boot them into the gutter. In their darkest hour, they found no friendship or sympathy. Only more hostility and hatred.

 

No wonder then that these events took such a heavy and lasting toll.

 

But amidst all of these powerful, blinding emotions, Rangers have also lost sight of what they are supposed to be about. They are engulfed by self-pity and resentment.

 

For their own good, the time has come to stop playing the victim card and to get on about their business because, both on and off the park, todayâ??s Rangers is seriously lacking in class and in danger of self harming all over again.

 

Itâ??s bad enough on the park, where Ally McCoist and his players have been blundering around the lower leagues since August, from one sub-standard performance to the next.

On Saturday they returned to far more familiar territory at Tannadice and yet, from the moment they arrived, they could not have looked more lost or out of place.

 

In fact, the defeat brought the curtain down on a chaotic week of back-biting behind the scenes which could yet prove to be far more damaging to the clubâ??s long term revival than McCoistâ??s aversion to staying in cup competitions for any respectable length of time.

 

Word has it the chief executive is at loggerheads with his chairman, Malcolm Murray, and that their relationship has broken down. Itâ??s likely that they will be forced to call a truce for the greater good and in order not to frighten the life out of those institutional investors who ploughed £17million into the coffers little more than a month ago.

 

So the two of them will be told to limp on for a while, although probably only until the summer, but the fact that things have become so strained and so volatile in a brand new boardroom is another major cause for alarm.

 

It could be that Murray, a long-standing Rangers supporter, is finding it increasingly difficult to recognise his own club in its current, angry guise. If so, who could blame him? Rangers are indeed a baffling business.

 

How can it be that a team of highly-paid professionals, earning more than any other in the country with one obvious exception, perform so amateurishly? So regularly?

 

Why has McCoist been so ready to abandon the standards which have been embedded into the marble foyer of Ibrox since the beginning of time?

Never in his life has McCoist allowed himself to lower the bar to such a level but already it is hard to see him ever soaring high again. Rangers under McCoist are now truly a Third Division team. Thatâ??s the ultimate insult.

 

Yes, they might be well clear at the top of the table but is this seriously to be considered as any kind of triumph when, in fact, they are grinding out results by the odd goal and often failing to do even that? Should todayâ??s Rangers really be proud of that?

 

No, what they are really doing here is blowing an opportunity to reinvent themselves and the way they play the game. McCoist has been given a blank canvas and right now heâ??s making an almighty mess of it. Itâ??s time for him to get a grip before he too falls out with Green and an even bigger mess is created.

 

Yes, McCoist never imagined having to manage at this lowly level but now that he is, he should be operating with a bit more style.

 

If a club like Swansea can rise up like a beautiful phoenix from their own financial abyss, then shouldnâ??t Rangers aspire to do the same?

 

McCoist should be busy rebranding this team and introducing a contemporary passing game. He has time to tweak his template as Rangers rise up through the leagues, recruiting better players on the way. And he should have this new, slicker Rangers ready to hit the ground running in the SPL when that day arrives.

In the meantime, Rangers should be ripping through the lower levels, blitzing their part-time opponents aside like footballâ??s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters. They should be making a show of it. Instead, they are making a spectacle of themselves.

 

Maybe if that positive mentality had prevailed from the start, they might not have looked so overwhelmed at a place like Tannadice.

 

But standards are not what they once were inside Ibrox. And McCoist alone is not to blame.

 

On Saturday, Yorkshireâ??s one-man circus rolled into Tayside and the Rangers chief executive did about as much to enhance the reputation of his club as his players. As if his ill thought out endorsement of a boycott of the cup tie was not quite mean spirited enough, Green refused to shake hands or break bread with Unitedâ??s directors or chairman Stephen Thompson.

 

Instead, he waited until just before kick-off then bustled in through reception to take a seat in a private box.

 

Green will no doubt have taken some satisfaction from giving Thompson the cold shoulder. After all, the United man has previously acted in the same spiteful manner, preferring to sit on his own in an empty team bus outside Ibrox rather than to go inside and press pre-match flesh in the boardroom. Pathetic.

 

But even if Thompson had it coming, Greenâ??s behaviour will nonetheless continue to alienate Rangers from the rest while perpetuating the feeling of victimisation amongst his own. He is presenting such a snarling face that it is hard for others to feel any kind of compassion for what his club has suffered.

 

Greenâ??s raging bull act is becoming a bore. Itâ??s doing more damage than good at a time when grown up conversations about the state of Scottish football are required. After all, what would be the point in restoring Rangers to its former self if huge chunks of the competition are not fit for purpose by the time Greenâ??s club returns?

 

Time to change the mood music, Charles. Itâ??s simply not healthy to stay so angry at so many for

so long.

Edited February 4, 2013 by the gunslinger

[the gunslinger 3,366]

he's spot on imho.

 

oh and Murray and green having problems isn't a good sign though it depends what the issue is. I will reserve judgement on that on but Murray was the rangers man brought in to give green a degree of trust.

[Blue Moon 1,114]

Have to agree with you, gs.

 

It is uncomfortable reading.

[BlueMazza 0]

After all, the United man has previously acted in the same spiteful manner, preferring to sit on his own in an empty team bus outside Ibrox rather than to go inside and press pre-match flesh in the boardroom. Pathetic.

 

Never knew that.

[Cotter 0]

You haven't reserved judgement on anything Green related mate, pull the other one. However, there is a lot of truth in there. And it hurts.

[BlueMazza 0]

In fact, the defeat brought the curtain down on a chaotic week of back-biting behind the scenes which could yet prove to be far more damaging to the club’s long term revival than McCoist’s aversion to staying in cup competitions for any respectable length of time.

 

Word has it the chief executive is at loggerheads with his chairman, Malcolm Murray, and that their relationship has broken down. It’s likely that they will be forced to call a truce for the greater good and in order not to frighten the life out of those institutional investors who ploughed £17million into the coffers little more than a month ago.

 

So the two of them will be told to limp on for a while, although probably only until the summer, but the fact that things have become so strained and so volatile in a brand new boardroom is another major cause for alarm.

 

It could be that Murray, a long-standing Rangers supporter, is finding it increasingly difficult to recognise his own club in its current, angry guise. If so, who could blame him? Rangers are indeed a baffling business.

 

There is nothing here, to back up such claims. Yet again hyberbolic sentences used without a care. All about making us out to be angry club. This goes hand in hand with Leckie's argument.

 

So because the club is talking more, we are just angry. It's the most basic way of ensuring people don't listen. It's like telling someone having a reasoned debate to 'calm down', done purely to antagonise.

 

I'm not going to argue about the McCoist stuff, I can't. But the rest, plus Leckie feels like another attempt to undermine us.

[der Berliner 3,263]

Food and drink for some.

 

As has been noted on FF Chris Graham has said this months ago. I for one have no real idea what Murray's job right now is, what he does ... nor did I knew much about him when the takeover happened. That said, a CEO doing all the things required isn't something new and to make the obvious comparrison, their "chairman" isn't exactly prominent either - Ian Bankier.

[simplythebest 0]

Malcolm Murray as a Rangers fan should understand fine why we're in an 'angry guise'.

 

As for Green, I'd have been bitterly disappointed if he had engaged with Thompson.

[Blue Moon 1,114]

Chris Graham has said what, dB? Are you talking about the Chairman and CEO?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

You haven't reserved judgement on anything Green related mate, pull the other one. However, there is a lot of truth in there. And it hurts.

 

I have. for all I know green wants rid of ally and Murray doesn't.

 

but as I say. when fans expressed concerns about green and Ahmed not knowing the club Murray piped up and said but I do. he was the guy we are supposed to trust.

 

I also like Murray he was good from the off with his interview on BBC and was a regluar attendee before getting the chairman's job.