With The Sale Of Their Young Prospect, Sevco Fans Get Their First Dose Of Reality.

Two things surprise me about the impending sale of Nathan Patterson to Everton.

The first is the fee; it’s way too high for a project signing at a club that needs the finished article if it is to survive a heavy relegation battle. The second is that Ibrox fans are largely shrugging over it.

Because it portends some hard times. It tells a story they don’t want to hear.

It’s only days since they were fighting with a fake journalist over a story which, curiously enough, involved Patterson going to Everton. The reported fee is in the ballpark as well. When that one was scooped up by a daft hack and put online they were furious. Now they are pretty pleased with the deal. They are hard Peepul to understand.

Patterson isn’t worth the money they’ve gotten, so it’s a good deal for them. It will increase their confidence that they can get big bucks for other players. And they might find out during this window because what should be focussing minds is that this is their first brush with reality. I hate to say “We told you so …” but let’s face it, we did tell them so.

Key players were always leaving during this window. Their board gave glib assurances that they didn’t have to sell, but it was a lie and we knew it was a lie and yes, we told them it was.

Amazingly, they didn’t realise that it was although it should have been obvious.

Patterson was supposed to be their future. They just flogged a big chunk of it, and for what? To promote the greater glory of James Tavernier? Did he even have a peak? He’s on the wrong side of the mountain now, downhill all the way.

So this is the start of the downsizing, whether they go out and spend a few quid of this money or not.

Which they will, of course, because that’s the kind of club they are. There will be other sales to come, either in this window or in the summer. They face a rebuilding job as contracts end which is almost the equal of ours just past … but they lack the resources for it unless this isn’t a one-off and they can actually realise high fears for the rest of their junk.

But I rather suspect that this deal has been done by a club which thinks it can see a prospect.

The Scottish press was banging his drum not long ago as the most promising player in the country; isn’t it amazing how he’s been re-cast as a bit-part player they can do without today?

This would actually be a good day for them if it wasn’t shrouded in the utter dishonesty of their dealings with their own supporters. Had they told their fans straight, in November, that this is the kind of thing they’d have to do that would be one thing but they flat-out lied to them and that’s what their supporters need to take into account.

That board will never level with them. It will never give them the straight facts. It will never treat them as anything other than mugs. And part of the reason for that, of course, is that they have a fan media which swallows everything.

Well today they can eat this. Reality, at last, if not truth.