Billy Dodds

IAN Hart, the Rangers non- executive director, has been in America for 10 days and it might be no coincidence that the club has endured a new period of turmoil. He’s flown back into a storm. I know him really well, he’s a lovely man, but he’ll need healing hands to get Charles Green and Ally McCoist back together. That will take a very large olive branch.

It seems as though the two men have been on a collision course for some time, and now they’ve hit head on. Ian is caught in the crossfire. He and Green travel to games together, they’ve become friends, but he is also very friendly with Walter Smith. Ian has a huge role to play in any attempts to sort things out, because he’s friends with all the key players in this drama. He’s popular because he’s such a nice guy, but he’s also a successful businessman. He does his business in the proper manner, he knows how to do things the right way in football, and he has clout.

What’s going on at Rangers now never used to happen. Dirty linen was never washed in public as disagreements were always kept behind closed doors. Now Ian Hart is caught in the crossfire because he’s a calming influence on Green.

But nobody could have foreseen what has happened this week. Charles Green is an intelligent man and in this day and age he cannot refer to Imran Ahmad, the Rangers commercial director, as his “little P*** friend”.

Although they are friends, and he meant it as a joke comment, it was inappropriate. I shook my head in astonishment when I read it. Rangers fans must have felt there was a bit of stability back at the club. There are good people on the board, the league has been won ( although it wasn’t all plain sailing), and they have a better man than Craig Whyte at the helm in Charles Green. And then all this happens.

It’s an important period in terms of where Rangers are in their restructuring process, where they are financially and where they are with their squad. This week’s events mean that the summer is not going to be smooth. Deep down, I think Green wants to restructure the coaching staff, that’s how it