The Era of men like Smith is over - it is time to demand better.

Last updated : 26 March 2009 By IAATP.
Whatever way you look at it, the numbers don't lie. That's not championship-winning form and we've nobody to blame but ourselves. Naturally talk becomes blame and everybody must take their fair share from David Murray and his board of directors to the under performing players. Regime change takes time and effort and given the comfortable contracts our players find themselves on, squad change may be prohibitively expensive. That really leaves us only the option of changing the manager.

Ally McCoist was interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland at the weekend and suggested to the reporter that Rangers may not necessarily need to win all of our remaining games because he felt that Celtic had every chance of dropping points. We hear the likes of Mendes tell us that every game has become must win. We see McCulloch try to rally the troops on the official club website. Unfortunately they're rallying behind an incompetent general and his 3rd rate lieutenants. Walter Smith actually had the cheek to suggest after bravely hanging on to save a point on Saturday that a 2-0 lead is always difficult at home. I'm sorry but that comment alone should see him issued with his P45. A 2-0 lead at home is difficult? Difficult to achieve? Under Smith it most certainly has been. Difficult to hold on to? Is it too much to ask that we can retain the ball?

Some will of course advocate giving him until the end of the season. And as we remain in the league race, if only because of Celtic's own stumbling form, this is hard to argue against. Others resign themselves to reluctant acceptance that until Murray goes we'll never appoint a genuinely classy manager. I don't do reluctant acceptance. Murray has his many faults but he's going nowhere until somebody stumps up the money to replace him. The pipe dream of fan ownership is still a million miles away for a support who continually refuse to unite behind the RST so until he goes or the Rangers support organises itself and becomes militant, we're stuck with a lame duck chairman. That doesn't mean we cant attract a decent manager.

The Rangers job offers European football and the chance to work at genuine 5-star facilities. There was once a degree of prestige attached to our club and we shouldn't underestimate the allure that Rangers would have to a manager looking to make their way in the game. When Valencia were struggling they brought in Unai Emery who had done well at Almeria. Feyenoord will turn to Mario Been in the summer to revive their fortunes. Ralf Ragnik has done well with ambitious Hoffenheim in Germany and Genoa are once more competitive in Serie A thanks to Gian Piero Gasperini. To accept a Craig Levein figure is to accept mediocrity. We need new ideas, new ways of working and new people to implement them.

But most of all we need to change our own attitudes. Paul Le Guen came to Ibrox with a big reputation and left with it somewhat in tatters. He lacked the backing of the chairman, the backing of the players and the backing of the support. It comes as no surprise that with patience he has PSG in a meaningful title position in a league thats technically streets ahead of the SPL. Try to encourage debate about the Frenchman's tenure at Ibrox and opinions instantly polarise. Would a managerial great like Van Gaal enjoy the backing of the support? Would Slaven Bilic or Alexei Mikhailichenko be given a chance to change things? Would a relative novice like Roberto Martinez be instantly dismissed by a fickle support for whom patience isn't a virtue we're well known for?

The days of Walter Smith must surely be over and its time for wholesale changes at Ibrox. To accept a McCoist or Levein is to perpetuate the quick fix and downsizing mentality that has gripped Rangers in recent years. We need meaningful, lasting change and its up to the support not only to demand it but also to back it. Change isn't easy. Change often hurts. The alternative is the decade of dominance that stares at us from across the chasm in the east end of Glasgow.