This morning, Sevco will sack Kenny Miller, bringing to an end the dressing room “career” of a player who fancied himself more knowledgeable than the last three managers, and whose behaviour undermined them all in different ways.
It is said that club captain Lee Wallace is currently fighting to save his own job at Ibrox. I suspect he’ll survive; there is less evidence that he’s a troublesome influence and as he has a year left on his contract they can probably still get a transfer fee for him.
Cynical? Yes, but it’s a cynical business and they are a cynical club.
But what’s clear from this latest eruption is that, as predicted yesterday, fear and loathing has erupted across there; don’t expect the bloodletting to end here.
The board has backed Murty, but everyone knows his jacket is on a shaky peg and he’ll be gone within weeks. This is a team in full-scale meltdown and there’s little good news for their beleaguered fans to take hope from.
It is tempting to suggest that this action is overdue, but in fact that’s part of the issue here. Blogs like this one have long known that Miller was a disruptive influence inside the Ibrox dressing room, and that he was the cause of many of the squad disharmonies which blighted the managerial terms of Warburton and Caixinha. It would be amazing if that fact was only now becoming known to the hierarchy at the club.
This reeks of PR man sweat, quite frankly. It’s a low-cost way of making it look as if they are acting decisively in the aftermath of the weekend’s hammering. It gives their temporary manager a temporary shot of authority. It ought to fool nobody.
It is difficult to over-state how big a shambles there is at Ibrox right now. Every key decision King and his board have taken has been wrong. Three managerial tenures have ended during the time when these so-called “saviours” have been running things; the end of the fourth looms before this season is even out. Everyone else is to blame, though. Nothing is ever the fault of the rank amateurs who are running the show over there.
Fans are being asked to buy season tickets for they know not what; according to Phil, the club reached out to Derek McInnes again in the last few weeks, and were once more rebuffed. Alex Neil looks the most likely candidate as they struggle to retain even the slightest semblance of credibility. Neil is at Preston right now, and the club would require compensation in the event he was open to the approach, which is by no means certain considering the mess over there.
But they require something to placate the fans, and it’s unlikely that this will be it. In the absence of a plan, or even the appearance of one, supporters took it upon themselves to mount a mini-protest last night, when a group of them padlocked the gates at Auchenhowie, the club’s training camp. It’s a minor gesture which a pair of bolt cutters easily resolved, but it’s a sign of the growing anger in the stands. Fear and loathing are taking hold over there now.
Things have reached boiling point. The volcano is ready to blow. Players are fighting players. The manager is fighting for his job. Sackings are coming. Contracts are being torn out. They are not fraying at the edges; this is a collapse in instalments.
I hope to God you’ve all got the popcorn in.
This is going to run and run, and this lot still have five perilous league matches to go, including one at Celtic Park.
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