The Ibrox Fan Sites Really Do Think They’re In The Running To Sign Gareth Bale.

Ibrox’s win last night – number six of sixteen in Europe do not forget – has convinced some of their fans that they are on their way to Seville to win the tournament. Unfortunately for them, this is where their coach and horses turns into a pumpkin and mice. Leipzig are a vastly better side than either Belgrade or Braga. So this is where it ends.

Yet Europa League glory is not the daftest thing they believe in this morning.

Check your calendars and the dates on your phones; this is not 1 April, I assure you, but I could understand you thinking that it might be as a result of that headline.

I am not making it up. At least two of their websites are carrying the story that their club is one of several which is negotiating to tempt Gareth Bale out of Real Madrid.

We know from significant past experience that their club’s fans have, at best, only a nodding acquaintance with reality, but this is so far removed from even standard fantasy that I find it quite hard to comprehend how anyone can believe it for a minute.

Gareth Bale, by Christ? Do they think the Magic Money Tree is spouting leaves again?

Their club is facing a long, hard summer of turmoil and tears.

There is as much chance of this happening as there is of me hooking up with Jena Malone.

Their Europa League run has made them some money, and they needed that and they will need every penny of the cash before this season is through. Between it and the sale of Patterson and the cash they got for Gerrard they may even post a profit.

But this is a one shot deal.

They will not have a long extended European run like this next season, not winning six games in sixteen.

They may make a major player sale – which is to say they’ll sell a major player or two – but they also face a rebuild.

They won’t get a multi-million-pound pay-out for the manager either; the chances are they’ll need to make one when they sack him. If they sack him. Can they afford to? Can they afford not to?

That club still faces major structural problems, huge financial problems, as it goes forward. And these clowns believe that they are going to find the money for this?

There is a reason they haven’t spent money on transfer fees in the last three transfer windows.

There is a reason season ticket renewals are out indecently early. There is a reason the club is squeezing the fans more and more for cash. They still face fines from the SPFL. They face fines from the Australians. They face Ashley’s people shortly.

And they face Celtic, of course, a Celtic strengthened with Champions League money and capable of moving decisively ahead of them.

Their fans will demand that they try to keep up, but their board knows now that every penny has to be accounted for … because they are no longer willing to keep on carrying the ridiculous demands of those in the stands.

Which is all this is. Gareth Bale? Jesus wept.

What a fantasy world these people live in.