A COMPLETE CALAMURTY
IBROX BOSS PAYS THE PRICE KEITH JACKSON
SCOTLAND’S MOST INFLUENTIAL SPORTS JOURNALIST the guy in charge of the fifthbest team in Qatar.
It must have made sense to someone inside that room. But so unchecked are some of the egos around King’s table it’s little wonder they believe they know better than anyone else.
Even after Caixinha oversaw the most humiliating European result in the club’s history – in fact that Europa League exit at the hands of Luxembourg’s Progres Niederkorn will go down as one of the most embarrassing episodes ever to befall any Scottish club – they stuck stubbornly to their vanity project. Worse still, they pumped another £10million into it, hoping against hope that recruiting cast-offs such as Carlos Pena, Eduardo Herrera and Dalcio might prove their judgement to be sound.
This was beyond any buffoonery which had gone on before but when the board was finally forced to confront reality and pull the plug on Caixinha, one candidate emerged which was so blindingly obvious even they could see it. It was only when King revealed his arrogant and untrustworthy streak during a final round of discussions McInnes realised he was in danger of making the biggest mistake of his managerial career by leaving Aberdeen.
Even then, McInnes had to battle against a huge emotional pull to rely instead on his instincts and experience. He reached the conclusion that King’s way of running Rangers might leave him exposed and ultimately on a hiding to nothing. Step forward Murty.
Incredibly it was decided he was the only man for the job. Murty, inevitably, would make all manner of mistakes over the ensuing months.
For a while, this carelessness was tolerated by a support just grateful to see the back of the last guy. What they had no sight of however, was Murty’s man management behind the scenes which was arguably every bit as corrosive and divisive as Caixinha’s.
Suspensions for Lee Wallace and Kenny Miller were the start of the end and another indication of the depth of Murty’s desperation to stay in control. Despite reports claiming all hell broke loose inside that Hampden dressing room, there was no bust up between this pair and the manager. Rather, it appears more likely that Murty could not handle hearing home truths about the nature of this club’s declining standards, from the mouths of the only two professionals in his ranks in any position to pass comment or draw comparisons. This is a board that replaces professionals with patsies in the name of self-preservation. A regime which promised to be open and transparent but which has proven to be almost as clandestine and Machiavellian as those which clung to power before. Murty is no more than a willing accomplice to their glaring inadequacies and now he’s paid the ultimate price for it, the chalice has been passed to Steven Gerrard. Before the former England and Liverpool skipper stakes his reputation on this lot, he should consider the mess they have made of Murty’s career. If it is King’s intention to keep hold of his throne – if sheer selfishness prevents him from abdicating and appointing professionals capable of running the club – then Gerrard will be walking into a disaster waiting to happen.