Since the Rangers went into administration in February, every jumped-up nobody has rushed to stick the boot in, they've grown bolder since Duff & Phelps sinisterly handed Charlie Green 'preferred bidder' status, we were then presented with the inevitable indignity of liquidation and the various dodgy cabals will now sit in judgement of our club on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Whatever decisions they reach, they'd better have thought the consequences through at great length because if, as I suspect, they let petty spite and bitter hatred prevail over good sense and basic justice, they will take Scottish football so far down the slippery slope, there will be no way back.
For what its worth, I reckon the Rangers have been sufficiently punished. We were just four points behind Celtic when that gap was suddenly stretched to fourteen with the SPL's post-administration sanctions. That was a body blow to team morale, it is no coincidence we then lost three of our next four games, so any suggestion that the ten point penalty was an insignificant punishment is well wide of the mark.
The loss of our UEFA licence followed. For a club like Rangers, European football is essential, both in terms of generating income and attracting new players to the club. Yet there are still those who claim we are getting off lightly.
The SFA's fine and illegal signing ban is still to be re-addressed but it is a stick-on certainty that they will hit our club hard, probably even more so than the original verdict for having the cheek to embarrass them at the Court Of Session. But in the playground that is the Scottish football scene, the children still maintain the authorities are being soft on the Rangers.
Ronnie Scott's article in this weekend's 'Sunday Post' must surely have struck a nerve with more than a few of the leading rabble-rousers. A criminal investigation is currently being conducted, police activity is focused on the despicable individuals who landed our great club in this predicament and should, as is highly likely, they find that the Rangers are the victims of a massive fraud, rather than the perpetrators of any illegal acts, any sanctions against the club would clearly be grossly unfair, perhaps even actionable.
In a just environment, everything would be put on hold until the police investigation is completed... but in this silly wee country we call home, the kangaroo courts will insist on grabbing the limelight, pandering to the sinister manipulations of one particular club and the lowest common denominator element among various fanbases. They will do all they can to damage Rangers, then have the barefaced gall preach about sporting integrity.
For quite some time now, when it has been so obvious how things are likely to pan out, I've reckoned we could have grabbed the moral high ground by voluntarily opting to drop to Division Three and depriving our enemies of their prolonged posturing and misguided sense of superiority. With a real Rangers man calling the shots within Ibrox, this is surely the route we would have taken, as opposed to Charlie Green's cap-in-hand pleadings to the butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers who make up the SPL.
When the two-bob mobs made it clear they would not approve the Rangers' place in the top flight, it was inevitable that the tuppence-ha'penny outfits of the lower leagues would jump on the bandwagon. With the notable exception of Clyde, it looks like those who could only dream of beating the Rangers on the field of play will bend over backwards to get a result behind the scenes, without anything resembling rational thought going into their decisions.
I sincerely hope the indignant reaction to the prospect of our relegation to Division One does not evaporate. If the SPL don't want Rangers then we must not agree to any hastily cobbled together measure which might help them. Unfortunately, the club has not opposed this halfway house punishment – I think Charlie Green would grab it, even with further sanctions attached, and glibly add 'thank you very much' – but, if it is rejected, just a month before the start of the new season we will be scrambling for admission to the SFL, gifting the anti-Rangers lobby a further opportunity stab our club in the back.
For more than a decade, the Rangers F.C. has lacked a coherent sense of direction. Patch up and make do was the Murray/Bain mantra, Big Eck and Walter worked wonders to get us through this period with our onfield reputation intact but, with each passing year, we moved dangerously closer to the abyss. We were oh so vulnerable, leaving a shyster like Craig Whyte with an open goal he was unlikely to miss, we've had Duff & Phelps, Bill Miller, Charlie Green and goodness knows whatever other misfortunes lie ahead. Somebody somewhere has to make a stand, whether it be the Blue Knights, Brian Kennedy, Walter Smith, John Brown or whoever, because the 'wee man syndrome' which drives the various nonentities to grab their fifteen minutes of fame at Rangers' expense is pushing us ever closer to oblivion.
This is the week they can seek to do their worst. With only Charlie Green to plead our case, we are at the mercy of so many short-sighted bigots and bullshitters but they'd better think long and hard about what they wish for. The bulk of the Rangers support is ready to go to Division Three and start afresh but that must be the end of this feeding frenzy. Any suggestion that we begin at the bottom of the heap burdened by further sanctions must be opposed vigorously, as should any attempt to strip us of titles won in the past.
If the pygmies of Scottish football continue to revel in the Rangers problems and do damage without any thought of the wider consequences, our game is finished. Club after club will face administration, part-time football will become the norm even in the SPL and the way will then be clear for the architects of this entire sorry story, FC Sporting Integrity de la Gallowgate, to push for a move beyond Scotland's borders. It will be 'mission accomplished' for Liewell but where would that leave those who were only too happy to join in the wanton demonisation of the Rangers?
As mere Rangers fans we are helpless in all this. The club ignores us, the Press vilify us, fans of other clubs despise us... but nobody will ever change us. We will remain Rangers supporters no matter what league our team plays in and when this shoddy episode finally ends – and at some point it WILL end! – our club will be in safe hands and we can again move towards the future with optimism. The iffy characters currently contemplating where we go from here would do well to look at the bigger picture before delivering another blow to them big, bad Rangers.
They have had their fun, we have had enough, we will never forgive and never forget those who have delighted in our misfortune.
LITTLE BOY BLUE