By The Govanhill Gub
Last Saturday rammed home the answers to the two the main questions confronting the Rangers support at this moment in time.
1 – We are not winning the league and will in fact be lucky to make the top three if the managerial change so urgently required is not made immediately.
Most Read on FollowFollow.com Danny Rohl quotes after Brann match Brann Bergen 3-0 Rangers Rangers Quotes from Graz
2 – We do not have a board worthy of the name, either here or Stateside. In fact the transatlantic mish mash currently bringing the club to its knees is starting to make the previous board look like a seamless model of efficiency.
For me central to putting the G51 postcode at the end of Desolation Row is our CEO, Partick Stewart. When the Scottish striker, Stevie Archibald went to Barcelona in the mid 80s, after a few showings the Barca media asked the following question; ‘What do you do apart from nothing?’ We could ask the same of Patrick.
Last Saturday that old familiar pincer movement of referee and VAR corruption done Rangers over, not once, not twice but THREE times. Three major blunders in Hearts favour that had a major bearing on not only the result but any league progress we were pinning our hopes on. And before we go further, we all know Rangers performance last week was south of garbage. You can play woefully and still be cheated at the same time though.
However, here we are a week down the line and there has not been a cheep from our board on this issue. Remember, this is a result that has consigned this season’s league challenge (if there ever was one) to the dustbin. And the support have had nothing, zip, zilch and so on from the club fighting their case. That makes it either indifference, gross negligence or wilful neglect. The thing is, and it is a feeling amongst our support that does crop up at times like these. What is the point of paying our hard earned only to be cheated and the club doesn’t give the proverbial toss?
Last week Patrick had an excuse. The official line is he was on holiday, so does that mean that if the CEO is off for a couple of days for whatever reason, the club, the whole shebang, kit and kaboodle comes to a grinding halt? Because that’s what it looks like and it begs the question; what the hell do the others do to justify being a director?
Now I don’t watch it, don’t know if it’s now going to be a weekly thing and I know of it only because it gets highlighted in The Bear Pit. I refer to Collum’s ‘Any-old-excuse-will-do for the refs and VAR cover up roadshow. It could well be tomorrow or on next showing, Collum could feasibly admit to three major bloomers being made at Ibrox last Saturday and Rangers FC decided not to contest these incidents. That’s not just neglect in my book, that’s sabotage. (And yes, I realise full well Collum and Co are more likely to double down than admit to the corruption)
So what actually does Stewart preside over, what are the duties that being CEO at Ibrox entail? The overall view is that the appointment of Russell Martin was made at board level, so he seems to have squirmed out of the firing line on that one. Then there’s the hatchet job on Thelwell in TDR on Monday brought to us courtesy of Keith Jackson. Now Thelwell deserves all the grief and bad publicity coming his way but surely Stewart had to sign off on all the loans and new signings; both lower English league and foreign and of course the incredible and unfathomable £8m transfer fee for Chermiti, a striker with what, three goals to his name in three years?
It seems to me as Ibrox presently burns. Our very own Nero is getting away with, well pretty much everything.
But in case anyone has just landed in Scotland from outer space (Which includes America it would seem) and is unaware of what has happened at Ibrox since he’s been CEO. The following has happened under his governance;
The appointment of the worst manager in the history of Rangers Football Club. This is made all the more galling when we consider the manager responsible for the carnage we are witnessing today had no CV whatsoever to suggest he should have been anywhere near our club.
Subsequently, the league gone within the first five games. We are currently lying tenth of twelve runners in a two horse race and the prospect of a real struggle to make the top three.
A level of disarray at the club, a sense hopelessness and bemusement that is shared between both players and fans alike. An atmosphere of foreboding the likes of which has never been witnessed in living memory surrounding us all with no hope of progress in sight. (2012 is an entirely different issue)
A European humiliation in the CL the equal of any in our history. And that only because our opponents eased up with half an hour of the second leg to go. – In truth and in fairness most of us thought making the CL stages would have been a tough ask. But we expected our team to be able to compete, not for the tie to be finished just 18 minutes in of the allotted 180.
These are but a few of Timbo’s favourite things. Because make no mistake we’re being forced to trudge barefoot through the primordial sludge that is their wettest of dreams.
This Saturday sees the other lot from Edinburgh darken our doorstep in the League Cup. It is anyone’s guess what will happen beforehand with the demonstration against the manager. The pre match show being sure to bring as much if not more headlines than what will take place on the pitch afterwards. In all truth we want and need the win, if only to give the poor sod who has to follow the wretch that is Russell Martin a chance at a trophy.
One last thing with our absentee landlords firmly in mind. Being controlled from beyond these shores can work and we only need to look at the east end of the city for proof of the pudding. It works there however because they have a tight ship run firmly by Liewell and Co, who will stop at nothing to make sure they stay at the top. Exploiting dead ex players, their fans menacing officials, you name it there’s nothing they wouldn’t do. Oh, and another thing. Their CEO hates our club.
Sadly, I think our CEO does too.
No matter that Martin has to go, and realistically I don’t see it happening before this weekend’s cup tie, he should not be alone walking that plank. Kevin Thelwell and their CEO, Patrick Stewart should be alongside him.