BLAME KING
Murty’s on-field woes can be traced all the way to the Ibrox boardroom
THERE’S something highly commendable and really quite admirable about the devotion to the cause of the Rangers support.
When their club was dumped on skid row they responded by turning out in record numbers, forking out money hand over fist and embarking on road trips from all points between Peterhead and Palmerston in order to nurse it back to a better place.
Even now they continue to pour in through the turnstiles, selling out Ibrox and filling up away grounds all over the top flight in the hope of being there to witness the great resurrection when it comes.
But there’s a problem with this unflinching loyalty. It may be the greatest strength of the Rangers support but when it’s offered up blindly it can also become their biggest weakness. A critical flaw which leaves them wide open to exploitation.
And God knows they’ve allowed themselves to be exploited over the course of this arduous and at times excruciating journey.
Back at the start when Craig Whyte dispatched a banning order to the Daily Record HQ for warning them about his season-ticket scam – a full six months before it eventually tipped the club into the grubby hands of the administrators – they lauded him like he’d just notched a winner on derby day. And this pattern has repeated almost ever since. Time and again they have placed their unconditional trust in almost anyone purporting to represent their best interests even when the very opposite ought to have been obvious. Up until eight days ago a large section appeared to have abandoned logic again in order to convince themselves Graeme Murty might be the man to lead them back to the summit of the Scottish game even though the Under-20s coach boasts almost zero actual credentials for the job.
Some called it Murtymania. Perhaps it was a distant strain of the Rangersitis disease which Charles Green once unleashed on them like a suitcase full of Novichok but, wherever it came from, it caused its victims to become detached from reality.
Yes, Murty has performed stoically during his two stints as night watchman. In fact, he has done better than anyone could have reasonably expected of him. But the very fact he is still holding the fort is an insult to the intelligence of the fans who have given so much to this club throughout these years of unrivalled chaos.
He is no more Rangers manager material than Vladimir Putin is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and the back-to-back defeats suffered over the last two weekends should at least help put this notion to bed.
In total Rangers have lost seven league games in one season at Ibrox for the first time in 103 years. Murty has been in charge for five of them.
But there is little point in blaming him for these stats as he’s performing to the best of his abilities. Similarly, there is nothing to be gained in pointing the finger at Pedro Caixinha.
The crux of the matter is, they were
only in the job in the first place because chairman Dave King is failing so abjectly in his. Surly, remote, unapproachable, King has the charm, people skills and leadership qualities of a despot but it is time for fans to go against their instincts and hold him to account.
They should ask themselves if they are getting their money’s worth from his board or if they are being shortchanged by a chairman who, having earned their trust, is now abusing it whilst abdicating his own responsibilities? More over, is King now in danger of doing Rangers more harm than good?
There is one school of thought which says having rescued the club and stabilised it King may now be prepared to sell up and move on. That might be a smart move as it would most certainly protect and safeguard his legacy with these Rangers supporters for the rest of time.
There are rumours too of would-be buyers waiting in the wings who might be ready to offer him a way out if or when a new share offer gets off the ground. Although this is proving difficult to substantiate, any suggestion Sir David Murray might be among them can be routinely ignored.
In any case, King’s own intentions are far from clear. If anything, his recent more hands-on, increased-visibility approach points to a man who is digging in for the long haul. But if he really does plan to hang around then he will have to improve upon his own performance or Rangers will be destined for a sustained period of Murtyesque mediocrity.
First his own boardroom needs to be put in some sort of order. There are too many big egos and loud voices for it to function properly and there is also a reluctance to delegate or to give up any sort of meaningful power to any of the hired hands. That’s why in managing director Stewart Robertson they continue to take a knife to a gun fight where Celtic’s chief executive Peter Lawwell is concerned.
It’s a mismatch of huge proportions but this imbalance is reflected down the spine of both clubs. From the boardroom to the dugout Celtic are winning the battles hands down. And King has played a huge part in this.
When Dermot Desmond needed a new boss he reached for his cheque book and delivered Rodgers for £2.4million a year. The rest of the time Celtic’s majority shareholder lets Lawwell rule the roost.
If King can’t match that kind of spending power then he should at least appoint a chief executive and properly empower him to run his club without constant meddling from above. After all it was King’s interference in the attempt to appoint Derek McInnes which led to that operation being botched.
Somehow he managed to talk McInnes out of accepting the job he has coveted more than any other since swapping his boots for a manager’s jacket. Again, this was celebrated as a good thing by large sections of the Rangers support but how will they feel at the end of the season if Aberdeen’s boss secures second place and maybe also ends up with the Scottish Cup?
If that would be deemed good enough for Murty to land the job permanently surely the same logic would have to be applied to McInnes. If he was the one outstanding candidate to replace Caixinha then his credentials would surely only be cemented by such a strong finish to the campaign.
And yet curiously there remains a hard core of Rangers fans who refuse to believe he’d be up to the job. Perhaps they too are prone to putting their trust in all the wrong places.