To be honest, I’ve lately been resisting the urge to comment on the ongoing, festering saga of the would-be successors to the soon-to-be-defunct Rangers 1872/73.  Not only am I growing weary of the whole sordid affair and the humiliating efforts of the fiendish SFA / SPL pro “Sevco-cum-Rangers” Alliance to breathe new life into the corpse of  the club formerly known (to themselves) as “Ra Peepil” … there are also many others, much better informed and consequently more able to make worthwhile comment than I am.

But I am growing sick to death of the arrogant, unrepentant way in which people (including many who should and often actually do know better) like Ally McCoist continue, consciously or otherwise, in denial, either real or feigned in pursuit of devious ends.  No names, no pack drill.

He either cannot, or will not accept that the club of which he was manager last season is in the limbo stage of administration and will no longer exist when the liquidation process is completed. Effectively, the “Rangers” that everybody keeps banging on about, as if nothing had happened, is DEAD.

In spite of that, McCoist either cannot, or will not acknowledge that his current employer, Charles Green’s “Sevco-something-or-other” is exactly what it says on the tin … a Newco … not the seamless continuation of what went before, which (and I do get this) is what he patently wants to believe it is.

The full extent to which he simply doesn’t get it, though, is amply displayed by his most recent ignorant outburst about how they have been punished enough and it’s time to draw a line under it all.  The trouble is that he is confusing the totally distinct concepts of “punishment” and “consequence”:

• The 10-point penalty he complains about was simply the stipulated CONSEQUENCE of old Rangers going into administration – NOT a punishment!
• The loss of a Champions’ League spot was another CONSEQUENCE of fiscal and administrative incompetence, administration and imminent liquidation – NOT a punishment!
• The “three-year European ban” is not a ban at all but ineligibility as a CONSEQUENCE of re-invention as a Newco – again, NOT a punishment!
• The claim of being “axed” from the top flight isn’t even a CONSEQUENCE – because it never happened.  The club simply ceased to exist.  What he sees as an “axing” is, in fact, the rejection of a Newco application – NOT a punishment!
• Only having a handful of players is the CONSEQUENCE of the disappearance of the old club and with it, most of the playing staff – NOT a punishment!

Etc … ad nauseam perpetuam.

Even what actual punishment was briefly imposed by SFA Judicial Tribunal is currently suspended following Charles Green’s ill-advised, though perfectly entitled, recourse to the courts of justice.

In effect, then, far from excessive punishment, as McCoist would have us believe, there has, as yet, been no effective punishment inflicted for the alleged misdeeds of successive owners and directors of The Rangers Football Club (1872/73).  Consequences , YES – but punishment … most definitely NOT.

Of course, the saddest aspect of the whole mess is that it could all have been so easily avoided … but for the gross dereliction of duty on the part of those who should be displaying strong, principled leadership, rather than appearing openly complicit in, if not instigative of, blatant skullduggery and gerrymandering.

Dear, oh dear …

Johnbhoy