From almost the moment Celtic secured eight in a row, and the countdown to ten could start for real, one question has haunted the thoughts of many of our supporters and it’s this;
How far might the Ibrox club be willing to go to stop us from reaching that milestone?
The answer was that they would do whatever they thought they could get away with.
All of us knew that part of the strategy would be an aggressive campaign of financial doping.
But there are other kinds of doping, and it is high time we gave them some thought.
Understand that what you are about to read is not an allegation regarding anyone at Ibrox, or indeed anywhere else. It merely asks a series of questions, based on a lot of background information which is in the public domain.
It raises issues which you would hope that a serious media might wish to take a look at.
It even asks questions of supporters, including our own, and what we might be prepared to tolerate if it means success for our teams.
These are serious questions. This is a serious piece.
I am going to split it up into sections, because that’s the best way to lay out the background to the story before we get to the actual guts of what I’m going to write.
So bear with me through the early parts; they will provide the framework for the last two sections.
Where possible I intend to reference my sources.
There are a lot of them out there. Once again, I’ll say that I’m making no direct allegations against anyone … indeed, as you’ll read, the central theory relates to practices that aren’t even banned.
I’m simply presenting facts that are in the public domain and which you can interpret as you will.
The central questions at the centre of this article are these; is the current Ibrox team “built” not on robust training and coaching methods but on the dark side of sports medicine?
Are these really sustainable foundations at the club that calls itself Rangers, or is this yet another illusion in a long list of them over there?
In short, are these really days of hope or they drifting on a haze of dope?
Would their supporters or their friends in the press or our so-called leaders at the SFA care either way?
And perhaps most importantly, would we care if it were us?