I should warn you that what you are about to read really amounts to no more than the figment of my fevered imagination and should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt and sour grapes.

Napoleon allegedly called the English, “A Nation of Shopkeepers”.  It was a great line but the slur backfired and the wee man fairly got his come-uppance at Waterloo.

Well, the self-styled, “Best Small Country in the World”, is, if nothing else, a nation of campaigners, often orchestrated by the tabloid press – and sometimes greatly to be applauded. There is, however, a determined national campaign currently under way that is more devious than warm-hearted, more vindictive than gloriously courageous.

I refer to the unofficial, imaginary and totally fictitious “C.V.V.R.” … the insidious, “Campaign for the (perceived) Victimisation and (ultimate) Vindication of Rangers”.  The objective of this unspoken movement is exactly what it says on the tin: to portray the mighty Gers as victims, rather than villains; and to broadly absolve them of guilt and thereby minimise retribution, on the basis that the club was taken advantage of and led astray by devious manipulators, principally (though not exclusively) the villainous Craig Whyte.

Furthermore, that anything they may have done that was, in any way, slightly reprehensible, was no worse (other, perhaps, than in degree) than what others were doing, too … allegedly.

Tch!  Seemples … now, let’s set all this tiresome tax-evasion, dodgy-registration, smoke-and-mirrors nonsense aside and move on.

Well, what else is a borderline-demented, seriously paranoid Tim to make of the reportedly present and escalating efforts of the nation’s finest and the national sport’s governing body, to simultaneously criminalise the would-be incumbent of the big hoose south of the river and self-incriminate as much as possible of the wider Scottish football fraternity?  The more so by contrast with the absolute administrative and public indifference with which the dire financial plight of another Scottish club was met a few years back.

Be afraid, Bhoys … be very afraid!  This fox is not yet shot – and the institutional paramedics are assiduously on the case.  Do not too prematurely discount the possibility of miraculous recovery, however distasteful that very concept may be in some interested quarters.

Above all, be vigilant … keep the faith – and pray that no fiscal improprieties, howsoever slight, or contractual skeletons, however creative or open to interpretation, may be lurking in Walfrid’s post-Fergus wages or finance departments.

Johnbhoy