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The Daily Record’s Latest Pro-Sevco Piece Rewrites History And Ignores The Present.

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The Daily Record’s Craig Swan has penned a “don’t worry, be happy” article today on why Sevco fans should not worry about Pedro Caixinha.

It invokes the name of Alex McLeish, a man who, in the words of Swan, “was doubted in several quarters when he moved from Hibs to take the Rangers post, yet proved all of these cynics wrong with a superb spell of triumphs in the toughest of circumstances.”

What utter cobblers that is.

It’s the first time I’ve ever heard Rangers’ EBT era described as “the toughest of circumstances”.

He was one of the prime beneficiaries of the greatest act of cheating in the history of the sport here. He was also one of the prime beneficiaries in the tax scam itself; he walked away with a cool £1.7 million, complete with his very own side letter.

He has admitted that without their tax scam, the club could never have competed with Celtic far less took titles for them. To suggest this was some kind of triumph in the face of adversity is nonsense. It is a quite audacious rewrite of history.

McLeish’s team came up against a Celtic team that was in decline.

Many of our players were past the peak of their careers.

That’s point number one, and it barely gets mentioned.

Point number two is that they were still outspending us year on year.

The sheer number of signings McLeish made makes you wince. Many were Bosman’s, but they include players like Dado Prso. Three of his cash signings – Barry Ferguson, Thomas Buffell and Mikel Arteta – were valued at £5.5 million, £3 million and £4 million respectively.

All three had EBT’s.

This nonsense about McLeish having to work on a restricted budget is sheer fantasy land guff.

And on top of peddling this old tripe the article completely ignores objective reality in the present day, where Sevco is skint and can no longer afford those sort of fees. On top of that, McLeish went to Ibrox with a half decent football pedigree.

He wasn’t plucked out of the desert sands of Doha and utter obscurity.

He was a steady hand after Advocaat’s ludicrous spell.

Caixinha was a panic appointment, made in one big hurry to sell season tickets and give the fans the appearance of a bright new dawn. And the Hibs result at the weekend was neither a freak nor the inevitable consequence of a deserved red card. This manager has presided over two hiding from Celtic, a home defeat against Aberdeen and the worst European result in their history … he has been in charge of the club for over a dozen games.

The comparisons with McLeish are ridiculous. Even if Pedro had the EBT scheme to work with, this is a guy who is never going to be tapped up by top European clubs. His behaviour is erratic, his ideas baffling, his comments are mental and his attitude is rank.

So too is the quality of Swan’s reporting.

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