Jeremy Kyle would not be out of place compering the Rangers farce
“Real worry is that Rangers are the new Leeds”
NOVEMBER 1992 witnessed the return of an old franchise. The Battle of Britain was back. In the blue corner were Rangers, champions of Scotland. In the white, Leeds United, winners of England’s old First Division.
Here were British football’s big hitters. Two proud, strutting peacocks bound by history, tradition and an ability to lord it over lesser rivals.
Leeds had Cantona, McAllister and Strachan. Rangers had McCoist, Hateley and Goram.
A place in the Champions League group stage was the prize Rangers claimed, coming as close as they ever will that year to winning it. Hateley and McCoist — close friends in those days — were irresistible at one end. Goram impregnable at the other. The champions of England were battered and sent home to think again.
Ponder all this from the current perspective.
Leeds are loitering near the bottom of the English Championship. Rangers are clinging to hopes of promotion to Scotland’s top tier via the play-offs.
These clubs don’t compete now for the title of Best of British. They are battling for the tag of the nation’s most dysfunctional football club. It’s incredible stuff. For the last two-and-a-half years, Rangers have been pillaged. Battered from pillar to post.
There was rare good news the other week when the SPFL awarded them £170,000 in training compensation for young Charlie Telfer. But every step forward at Ibrox is followed by three or four back.
No sooner had they taken a pop at Dundee United’s stance over Telfer than they were taking a call from the Tannadice club’s lawyers and retracting their statement.
Within hours, Ally McCoist had tendered his resignation as manager. A dismal performance against Queen of the South swiftly followed.
Nine points adrift of Hearts in the Championship, McCoist has taken the decision to go. But it may not happen f or months because Rangers cannot afford to pay him off.
In the meantime, the bad news keeps coming. BDO — liquidators f or the Rangers oldco — are demanding a chunk of the Telfer cash. The SPFL are chasing £250,000 over employee benefit trust rule breaches. And former keeper Neil Alexander has won £80,000 for breach of contract.
It is not just raining. Water is pouring in through the roof and damaging the fabric.
This coming Monday, another tsunami of negative headlines will come their way via an acrimonious annual general meeting.
Like an unhappy couple seeing out Christmas for the sake of the kids, the manager and the Ibrox board will put on a show.
Chairman David Somers will compere. In truth, it’s a job for Jeremy Kyle.
Just as in ’92, Rangers are once again showing Leeds how things are really done.
The Yorkshire club still garner a headline or two. They, too, paid a heavy price for the over-reaching, reckless ambition of a free-spending chairman.
Twelve years after winning the title in 1992, they were relegated. By 2007, they were in League One and plunged into administration.
Now they are in the hands of Massimo Cellino, the Italian convicted of tax evasion.
Hit with a transfer embargo by the Football League, Cellino has been disqualified as a director. Leeds are now appealing.
Parallels with Rangers could be extended further if the SFA have the appetite for a fight with Mike Ashley over dual interest rules.
By appointing Derek Llambias as his chief executive, the Sports Direct tycoon has waved a one-digit salute in the governing body’s direction.
And through it all the supporters suffer. At Elland Road and Ibrox.
Leeds fans are as passionate as any, but t he sl ow, dripping negativity of one outrage after another chased many away. The fear now is that Rangers might already have lost a generation of supporters who will never return.
Cellino is dragging the punters back with promises of a return to the Premier League within two years. So far, Ashley’s Rangers have failed to throw their supporters so much as a bone.
They might have to on Monday when shareholders have the chance to ask hard questions. The wise ones will treat the answers with grave caution.
They will know some at Ibrox will say whatever it takes to retain their grip on power.
I n mildly comical f ashion, chairman David Somers recently stood on the steps of Ibrox and predicted everything would turn out for the best.
Yet events at Yorkshire’s Damned United serve as a cautionary tale.
Seven years since their plunge over the abyss, Leeds are still running up the down escalator. They might never again return to the heights of Revie, Bremner and Cantona.
As tedious debates over whether this is a ‘new Rangers’ rumble on, then, consider this. The real worry now is that they might be the new Leeds.