What a mess there at Ibrox right now.
Sevco plays Dundee tonight on BT Sport, which I will probably watch as long as there’s not a show about paint drying on the other channel. I don’t believe the match will be a good one; both sides have the whiff of decay about them, the smell of a damp hollowed out church in a graveyard. The home team is on the cusp of sacking their manager; a good result here tonight would save him a while but it’s not what I expect.
But the opposition is truly a team in dire straits. The manager has resisted the temptation to drop Morelos; if the Columbian “£10 million man” scores tonight watch for that being hailed a decision born of genius; actually the only reason he retains his place in spite of no goals in the last 11 matches is that the alternative options are worse.
Pena makes the bench; there is no sign whatsoever of this guy turning into a footballer. It is one of the most colossally bad signings in the recent history of the game here and what’s worse is that not one thing about this unexpected. The people who did the due diligence on Pedro must have done the same amount – i.e. zero – when he recommended his signings.
Catastrophic lapses in judgement have led them here. With the hunt for a manager now having taken a solid month – with no end in sight – there’s a growing feeling of discontent at every level of the club, from Murty’s office to the stands. The interim manager was today begging them to make a long-term appointment even if it means he doesn’t get the gig.
This is a guy wilting under pressure and scrambling desperately to rescue his own credibility in a dressing room that is riven with splits. It astounds me, for example, that the media accepted his story about Alves when the truth of that is known to just about anyone with a pulse. The truth is, when the crunch came he wasn’t backed. Alves is on a salary that precludes him sitting in the stand and Murty has been told that in no uncertain terms … this “injury” story is trying to put an acceptable face on it for when he returns to the starting eleven.
By then, Murty wants to be well away from the manager’s seat. He has sussed what anyone at Ibrox will given a long enough timeline; there is no loyalty to be had there at all. There is no reward for working hard and digging in. Even survival is a lottery.
The unprofessional nature of the manager hunt will have shocked Mark Allen, of course, who left a huge club to move to Ibrox to take on this expanding shambles.
Darkness has fallen across Ibrox.
Whatever the score here is tonight, that club is nowhere to being able to see the dawn.
It’s a disaster area.