JOHNSTON TAKING A WATER PISTOL TO BLAZING CHAOS AT RANGERS

ALASTAIR JOHNSTON claims Rangers are ‘ahead of the curve’ in their quest to catch Celtic. Like Jim Callaghan’s ‘Crisis, what crisis?’ refrain during the winter of discontent, the former Ibrox chairman is hopelessly out of touch. A modern-day Corporal Jones shouting: ‘Don’t panic’ as the bombs rain down. Lest anyone forget, Rangers fell behind the curve even before the appointment of Pedro Caixinha as manager. The Portuguese spent £8million and all it bought him was the sack. Followed by the Under-20s coach losing the dressing room after last weekend’s 4-0 thumping by Celtic. If this is Johnston’s idea of ‘progress’, his vision of failure must be apocalyptic. Dave King’s boardroom ally badly misjudged the mood of supporters. And heightened the impression of a board of directors taking a water pistol to an inferno. A 4-0 defeat in an Old Firm game doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Back in March 2000, a four-goal thrashing at Ibrox forced the Celtic board to pull the finger out. Within four months, Martin O’Neill fielded nine of the same players in a 6-2 thrashing of their rivals at Parkhead. The shoe is on the other foot now. But the days of Scottish clubs taking managers from teams in the English Premier League have gone. Neither is there much evidence that chairman Dave King can or will underwrite the £20m spend which allowed O’Neill to sweep the boards in his first season. King says he wants the ‘best appointment’ possible for the next manager. But the failure to land Derek McInnes from Aberdeen doesn’t inspire much confidence. Rangers have spent the last three years going nowhere fast under Mark Warburton, Caixinha and Graeme Murty. And for Johnston to claim the club have done better than expected since the meltdown of 2012 insults the intelligence of supporters. Progress for Rangers is not a dogfight with Aberdeen and Hibs. Not even a new kit deal with Hummel. Progress is the appointment of a permanent manager with a bit of presence. Progress is a top-class chief executive with a free hand to fix a broken club. Progress is a sustainable business model and an end to shareholder hand-outs. Progress is not — and never can be — lame-duck managers, dressing-room chaos and the acceptance of mediocrity.