On Saturday, Sevco beat Queen of the South away from home. This result sends them into the second leg as overwhelming favourites to qualify for the next round, where they will meet Hibs, who defeated them three times during the season. On paper, their club should be favourites to go through but after the calamitous season they have just finished – finishing third in the second tier – expectations are not high at Ibrox or amongst the fans. Many of them believe failure is inevitable, that their side is doomed to another year in the Scottish Championship. Today much of the media seems to agree. What makes it laughable is that they are not only preparing the Sevco fans for this failure but are actually engaging in one of the most preposterous distortions of reality in the history of our game by trying to offer them the solace that, actually, it would be the best thing that could happen to them. As per usual, The Daily Record has been the lead-off hitter for this nonsense. Craig Swan and Keith Jackson have, on subsequent days, already written editorials which say the club would benefit from another year in the second tier. The rationale for this is that the team is not ready for top flight football – something that’s been self evident to many of us and was actually apparent to many before a ball was even kicked, as McCoist pursued players who’s best days were ten years ago and allowed cracking talents like Scott Allan to slip away. They hacks involved in writing this know this is a madness, of course, but the purpose here is to give the supporters something to cling to in case the roof falls in either in the second leg of this tie or in one of the four games they will have to navigate after it. The editorials don’t really attempt to examine the failings at Ibrox. They aren’t there to discuss how they might best be put right. No-one really wants to admit that the club’s playing side has been managed as badly as it has in the boardroom. No, the purpose is to make excuses for Stuart McCall and his players, and more importantly to drive the sale of season tickets at the club. Once again, the Scottish media is assuming its default position; working as the public relations arm of whoever works out of the Blue Room and helping Sevco’s commercial department in whatever way it can. The great Dave King revolution has gotten off to a bumpy start, after all. The money Sevco fans assumed would be pouring through the doors already is nowhere to be found. The Daily Record refuses to blame the newly minted directors for that; instead they’ve laid the blame at previous regimes and, bizarrely, the SFA for not already having made a decision on Dave King. There is no impediment to King putting money in right now, but we’re being told he has to be on the board first. Baffling and totally lacking in logic. The Ibrox club remains in a state of flux, but I cannot think of anything that would be more damaging to them than to end up stuck in the second tier for another season. If they are to find any kind of funds from outside the club they are going to be able to promise top flight football and The Record knows this as well as the Sevco board does. This is nothing more than a putting up a flag for the serious gullible. This is an appeal for fans to pony up for the next phase of The Great Rebuilding. They better have deep pockets. Their milking has only just started with the sending out of the season ticket forms. They’re going to have to dig in again before too long. You have to hand it to our media; they are unrivalled when it comes to this stuff. They wanted King and they were determined to get him. They want him on the Sevco board and they are the leading cheerleaders for the SFA to completely disavow its own regulations and let him on. They will not offer a word of criticism of his leadership. So today, they are preparing the club’s fans for failure. And as per usual, they are getting ready to blame someone else for it if it comes.
