This article is available as a podcast, found at the bottom of the piece.
In 1979, Ronald Reagan paid a visit to a stunning piece of American military infrastructure: the Cheyenne Mountain complex, home to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command). NORAD was and still is a technological marvel, a massive complex inside a mountain that monitors satellite signals and provides early warning of potential ballistic missile attacks on the United States. Reagan was deeply impressed.
However, during the visit, Reagan turned to one of his aides and remarked that while the U.S. had the technology to detect missile launches, it lacked the ability to prevent those missiles from striking the continental United States. This observation was the genesis of one of the most ambitious and controversial projects in American history: the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), quickly dubbed “Star Wars” by the media.
The idea behind SDI was to build a series of advanced laser systems, either on the ground or in space, that could lock onto and shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). As crazy as it sounded, the scientific community didn’t dismiss it outright. They acknowledged that while difficult, it wasn’t impossible.
Ballistic missiles, though technologically advanced in their warhead and guidance systems, had bodies that could potentially be penetrated by a low-intensity laser beam, disabling the missile and causing it to crash harmlessly without detonating the warhead.
Reagan, emboldened by this slim possibility, pushed forward with the project.
The scientific community made strides in anti-ballistic missile technology, but the lasers never worked as intended. A declassified study commissioned in the early ’80s and presented to Reagan in 1986 confirmed what many had suspected: SDI was a fantasy, something that couldn’t realistically be achieved until well into the next century. Despite this, the project lived on, indirectly giving birth to technologies like the Iron Dome.
Years after the Cold War ended, we learned that SDI might have had a dual purpose. When viewed in context, it became clear that SDI was part of a larger strategy, which included stationing medium-range missiles in Europe, ramping up defence spending, and conducting large-scale military exercises designed to convince the Soviets that the West was prepared for war, conventional or nuclear.
Reagan never truly believed that nuclear war was winnable—a fact underscored by his reaction to the 1983 ABC television movie The Day After, which depicted the horrific effects of nuclear war. He was reportedly traumatized by the film.
So, what was the real purpose behind all the military posturing and spending?
We know now that a significant part of Reagan’s strategy was to force the Soviet Union to spend itself into oblivion. By ramping up U.S. defence spending and pursuing projects like SDI, the U.S. pushed the Soviets to pour billions into their own military, scientific research, and missile development. This strategy stretched the Soviet economy to the breaking point, contributing to its collapse and the eventual end of the Cold War.
Yesterday, I wrote about the collapse of the Dave King Revolution at Ibrox, and it struck me how closely this situation parallels that which faced the Soviets.
For many of us, it was clear that the King-led era was Ibrox’s last throw of the dice, a gamble they had to get right or face long-term consequences.
I believe Mike Ashley would have run the club properly, putting it on a break-even basis and making it a tougher competitor for Celtic. Instead, King and his “Real Rangers Men” took charge—about the worst people for the job, driven more by ego and the supremacist “We Are The People” mindset than by sound strategy.
This mindset has been Ibrox’s downfall.
They never took the time to think strategically about what they wanted for the club. Instead, they’ve been lurching from one crisis to another, sacking managers and finding money to rebuild the team over and over.
But now, the Ibrox board has run out of room to manoeuvre. They don’t have the money to spend anymore. Just like the Soviets, who believed they had to keep up with American military spending, Ibrox have spent themselves into a corner trying to keep up with Celtic.
Celtic, on the other hand, has been able to maintain a position of strength by simply getting on with business and letting Ibrox do the real damage to themselves. It’s like the Soviets looking at the SDI program and thinking they needed to counter it, not realizing that most of the people working on it knew it was a fool’s errand. Ibrox continued to pursue its own peculiar lunacy, with the current board now scrambling to avoid falling into an ever deeper financial hole.
See, all that mattered to the Americans was that Soviets believed SDI was real, and they did. They knew it was technologically feasible and feared that with the American scientific community on the case that it might even be within reach. So, they spent fortunes on their own research and on their own countermeasures.
In the same way, it doesn’t matter whether we intended to force them into these choices or not. The result is the same. They have spent their way to the point of oblivion, and these guys know full well that an Ibrox club has done that once before, and they were in danger of doing it again. And this time they’ve hit the brakes in time to stop it … in no small part because it was their own cash they were gambling with this time, and not the deep pockets of a bank.
When I said that this transfer window could win us the league, I wasn’t joking. If we show the right intent in the market and sign quality players, the psychological damage to Ibrox will be immense. They know they can’t keep up anymore; their cash reserves are nearly exhausted, and they’re desperate to offload players like Dessers and Cantwell just to stay afloat. There are even rumours that certain members of the squad could be allowed to leave for free, just to get them off the wage bill. That’s how disastrous their current situation is.
Their strategy of trying to keep pace with Celtic is over.
They are at the end of the line. They are broke. And all they’re doing at this point. Is looking across at Celtic and hoping that we somehow conspire to shoot ourselves in the foot in the next 10 days, which is why you have a grinning fool like The Village Idiot on Sky Sports this afternoon talking up the potential of Kyogo moving to Man City.
It’s third-rate stuff, designed to throw us off our game and it shows how desperate they’ve become that they are clutching at straws like this.
None of it changes the problems they face as a club.
This has been clearly telegraphed to the fans, the manager, and the media. Even Tom English, on a recent Scottish football podcast, said that an Ibrox director admitted to him they’ve abandoned any pretence of keeping up with us.
That’s why the signing of Adam Idah was so important; it wasn’t just about strengthening the team. Intentionally or not, it was a message to Ibrox that we have the financial power to pursue record-breaking deals while they flounder in the bargain basement. The idea that their club will ever again be in a position to spend that kind of cash is ridiculous and they know it is, and every time we do splash out they are reminded of their position relative to ours.
If we do as Rodgers has suggested, if we implement a new transfer policy where in every window we go out and attempt to sign a better class of player, and that rather than buy a handful of projects we focus on one or two quality footballers who can take us to the next level then every single summer is going to be an awful lot like this one We will go out, we will spend some money, and their fans will have surrendered to despair before a ball is even kicked.
Which is to say nothing for the impact it will have on their coaching staff, and their playing squad, knowing that there’s nothing they can do to keep up.
There are those who believe Celtic has a deliberate policy of staying just one step ahead of Ibrox, but take a look at the situation relative to the two clubs; if we’re pursuing that plan it’s not working very well, is it? Because even in a window where we’re no stronger yet than we were, even though this is arguably the fifth window of downsizing in a row, there is nobody who genuinely expects them to beat us in this title race.
We’re so comfortably in front of them that we would have to make colossally bad decisions to end up in a place where there was parity between the two clubs.
Ibrox will never catch up; they were never really on our level to begin with.
This is something their supporters are slowly coming to terms with, though many still don’t fully grasp it. We’ve been a bigger club than them since Fergus McCann completed the stadium and stopped their ten-in-a-row. The advantages Fergus left us with continue to haunt them to this day and will do so no matter what tricks they try. Everything about Celtic is bigger and better, from our commercial departments to the team on the pitch. We outclass them.
I’ve said this before; look at our recent history. We are the club that David Murray once dreamed that Rangers would be. Even in his pomp, even at the height of his power, he did not put together a side which could completely dominate Scottish football in the way this current Celtic side dominates the pale shadow of Ibrox’s football operation.
So that’s where they are. That’s where spending to keep up with Celtic has gotten them. What do they do about it? What does the future hold?
Well here’s where the analogy gets a little eerie.
The collapse of the Soviet Union didn’t end the Cold War; it gave rise to ethno-fascism authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin. Because that’s what happens when people feel betrayed and let down; they look for saviours wherever they can, and if someone presents as a “strongman” figure they will readily embrace that no matter what the risks are.
I’ve long suspected that when Ibrox reached the position they’re in now, scrambling for money and stability, they might resort to desperate measures. The last time they found themselves in such dire straits, they initiated the EBT scheme, and we all know how that ended.
Desperate people do desperate things, and Ibrox fans have a history of embracing alleged saviours who turn out to be crooks. Just like the Russian people turned to Putin, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ibrox support embraced a similar figure if one emerged. The media would cheer him in, and he’d be hailed as a hero without anyone questioning his long-term plan.
But that long term plan could involve anything, and they wouldn’t be the first club to be led up the garden path by some smooth talker in a sharp suit. You have to ask yourself what value there is in someone buying up the Ibrox club. Unless it’s a masochistic Real Rangers Man who wants to throw good money after bad there has to be a profit motive.
So where’s the money to be made in trying to catch an uncatchable Celtic? If you give the fans what they want – a massive splurge in spending – how do you ever get a return on your investment? Such questions wouldn’t be asked far less answered.
Not until it was too late for their fans to do anything about it.
The very nature of the club itself would scare off anyone who fancied it as a long-term project. Ibrox isn’t a friendly place, and the ingratitude of their supporters is legendary.
This isn’t the Celtic board sitting on a fortune of our own cash and seemingly reluctant to spend it; this is a club where people have put their blood, sweat, tears, and their own money into the project, and it still wasn’t enough to earn more than just a token thank-you. Those same people are now being ostracised for not doing more.
The hard fact is that nothing they could do would be enough, because the Ibrox support has been conditioned to believe they are entitled to success and it’s that belief which will haunt everyone who assumes an executive position there far into the future.
Sometimes, I imagine the Ibrox board looking across at Celtic Park, lost in their own world of paranoia, feeling like the Politburo during Able Archer, when they genuinely believed thay the U.S. was preparing to start a war.
The Ibrox board probably does believe that Celtic is behind some great conspiracy to hold them down and that we would bury them if given the chance.
That club will forever live in fear of Celtic, suspicious of our every move.
It was Soviet paranoia that America was building space-based lasers for war, not defence, that led them to crash their own economy. And in the same way, the Dave King-led Ibrox board stepped into a trap because of their own misunderstandings: first, that they had no choice but to spend to keep up with Celtic, and second, that winning a single title would somehow collapse us, as King himself said it, like the proverbial “house of cards.”
Oh how wrong he turned out to be. But they gambled everything on that, and it was the worst gamble in the short history of Sevco.
When it failed, and Celtic didn’t collapse, what did they do?
They handed a chancer like Michael Beale one final transfer war chest to try and get ahead, and now the reckoning has come. All that’s left for Ibrox is to count the cost of these enormous mistakes and ponder a dark and uncertain future.
And as they do, the vultures are circling, as they circled post-Soviet Russia, waiting for the old system to die, so that they could swoop down and feed on the carcass.
Stupid analogy and poor understanding of current Russian history. Your article sounds more like something from the British brainwashing corporation in regards to Russia. Stick to the football not the politics.
Why don’t you school us then, genius? Tell us everything YOU know.
I’ve been studying this subject for years. But I guess you know better with your “back of a postage stamp” understanding.
You give yourself away with all that “British brainwashing corporation” pish.
James you seem to have studied rather a lot of subjects over the years , Roman history ,cold war history,ww2 history even the other day you were telling us about how that plane crashed you stated,”pilot error or electrical fault” electric fault? was that it ,never mind wing icing up losing lift causing a stall,a flat spin is nothing like a death spiral as you stated ,just stick to your excellent posts , I’ll give you your Roman history though,but all in all your posts are excellent.
I love to read mate 🙂 Anything. Everything. History especially. I am particularly fond of the Roman period and WWII … I resist mightily talking about the collapse of Hitler’s evil empire 🙂
But I do see the parallels haha! 🙂
Would definitely class myself as a medieval history anorak. Love the subject. Although ah’ve always found, although some people are genuinly interested when ye talk about it, it’s better talkin tae people who share the same frame of mind. Otherwise the danger is, ye could wind up borin the arse off people. Before long yer standin at the bar yerself in pubs. No that ah’ve experienced that ( honest) . It’s just a thought.
Great article James but there will no substance to the carcass, no meat on the bones for anyone to feed on.
No sugardaddy or Prince on his white horse draped in orangery
We will scud them for years to come, all we need now is that dire board of ours to start building for European competitions and allow the team and BR to show their true might
James, I am sure you are doing Dave King a massive favour with the ‘house of cards’ quote to represent Celtic’s situation. The notion of a house built on no foundation or infrastructure whatsoever and unable to withstand the slightest breath of wind is effective imagery. Dave, however, actually said ‘deck of cards’, which makes no sense whatsoever. This, of course, would be in keeping with the rest of the absolute bollocks that he spouted with regularity and which was lapped up without question by the hacks.
James, I think Sevco have played a blinder here. Abdala Sima was on loan at Ipox, fee too high, Brighton sells Sima, then buy MOR. Weakening Celtic and loan to Sevco. Sevco win league MOR’s value is trebled. Sevco then pay for steel when they sell poor wee Matt for 56mil, (amount deliberate). Perhaps I’m getting carried away, perhaps I’ve been reading too many click bait nonsense. Perhaps I’m off to the “hills”. The window can do this, let’s hope it’s not barred after end of days.
James, the only way forward is obvious but extremely scary for the Ibrox Board.
We all know that the majority of Sevco fans live and breathe the Supremacist guff, the ‘wee arra peepel’
delusional nonsense.
The Board know that their supporters do not have the mindset to evaluate where the Club is at and how it will get out of their current and recurring predicaments The fans do not have the patience for ‘jam tomorrow’ and will not cease in their demands
for a Team that consistently beats Celtic NOW. Not at some unspecified point in the future. The Support will not allow the Board the breathing space required for them to press the reset button and address the Club’s underlying problems, the financial gap between the two Clubs, the crumbling infrastructure of the ground itself, its relationship with the Governing Bodies and the other Members of the SPFL.
The Ibrox Boards since 2012 have had the spectre of the old Rangers acting as a permanent ball and chain holding them back.
The Survival Myth necessitated them acting like a ‘Big Club’. Their supporters expected it, demanded it actually. First Class travel and accommodation. A SPFL Level squad, wages and conditions, fat Sally on a Salary better than most English Championship Clubs, even as they made their way through the lower leagues.
Unfortunately for the Club and fans the ‘spivs’ in charge of the journey bled them dry. Over the years, all the Share issues that never improved the Club but enriched the ‘Charlatans in shiny suits’, the Director’s Loans converted to ‘share confetti to effectively hide the overspending ’, all the onerous contracts that bled and still bleed the Club of vital revenue to this day.
All a recipe for disaster but nowhere on their march did any Board have the gumption to cry “Halt”. To do so would mean them having to be Honest with the fans. Honest about their finances. Honest about their ambitions, short, medium and long term goals. Perhaps even the last chance be be ‘Honest’ about the Survival and Victim Myth/Lies and attempt to reshape the Club to one that dealt with the reality of their reduced circumstances and not one where perceived greatness of the past was a noose that was throttling the life of the New Club.
Alas, that ship has long since sailed. Real Rangers men at the helm were unlikely to admit the sins of the past so the ‘Circus’ rolls on.
The current situation at Ibrox is the accumulation of 12 years of ignoring reality. 12 years of Ibrox Boards reacting lamely to fans demands, like the ridiculous cutting of away fans tickets which just denied their Club of valuable revenue. The current attempts by Bennett the Chairman/CEO/Financial Controller/ Director of Football and jack of all trades to rein in expenditure is resulting in wholesale carnage to their bloated, overpaid and relatively worthless squad and its beginning to show more obviously on the Field of play.
In conjunction with the temporary or semi permanent relocation to Hampdump, the fans are voting with their feet which will only make The Tribute Act’s problems more acute.
There may not yet be a Liquidation event in Sevco’s immediate future but a Pre Pack Administration event is quite possible and may even be desirable for the current Ibrox Board, shed the debt, restructure Player’s Salaries and accept the points deduction for the current Season. It gets them out of a hole and buys them time. Unfortunately it does not solve the problem of their entitled clientele and their Supremacist expectations. This could be a case of a ‘ rinse, repeat, recycle’ future in store for Ibrox as it gets smaller and smaller until there’s virtually nothing left.
Another AWESOME post once again SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS !
Perhaps a better article than the article
Itself, and the article itself was pretty good reading. Kudos to both in this instance.
Excellent piece. No way back for the rangers until they come to terms that a major reset is needed with a proper foundation not based on hate and supremacy but realism and energy to build a bright future BUT alas there is no chink of light to that future.
They had that opportunity 12 years ago and the fans may have bought into that need for proper rebuild but the old pals/enemies got back in and proclaimed those not wearing the brogues were rats.
I too feel that an admin event may be close in a season that should be a write off for them.
However with Celtic and the money being thrown at them for players we may see our own rebuild need shortly. A definite Blip potentially ahead
The reality is the huns hope to sell their best players for the same money that we got for Bosun Lawal. On the other hand, they still only have to be better than the other 10 teams and hope we have a wobble. We won’t wobble this season but unless they end up worse than one of the other 10 then they’re still a threat. Until the next liquidation…
Enjoyable listen, James.
Lots to ponder.
Frank
James , did you get the “Thumbs up”‘ to publish this? I admired your writing in the past but you are now a court jester to Celtic’s real problem.
Hahahaaha you tiny insignificant ballbag.
What the Hell do you know?
James he’s a bawbag,not a balls bag , you sound English,god forbid.
Like two bald men fighting over a comb! The Tic better do something in Europe or we are back to the same old fare or worse as Scottish football becomes even more irrelevant.
Yes all very well James we beat sevco once more and that’s it , we’ve still never strengthened to do anything in Europe apart from being a laughing stock and all you go on about is beating a pish poor sevco , where’s our will to better ourselves on the international scene,rather than pathetic SPFL winners which we will be for the foreseeable future or forever but where’s the honour or pride in that ,we are the proverbial big fish in a very small pool or puddle maybe, Celtic should be more than this.
Outstanding article and journalism once again James…
However I’ve only one constructive criticism and that’s the word NewCo (to the brink)…
I definitely personally prefer to call them NewClub if for no other reason that as reported on Celtic forums, The Scummy Scottish Football Media seem to prefer NewCo so I always say NewClub !!!
Surely the board haven’t already forgotten that a poor sevco team came close last season before bottling it .
The team constantly needs improvements, 1 or 2 players yet will this inept board take a gamble again, we need to improve in Europe and solely concentrate on our club , make sevco an irrelevance now lawwell and give the manager the players he requires.
We are a big fish in a small pond but we shouldn’t take it for granted. When rangers mk1 won 9IAR we only came 2nd 3 times so although we’re head and shoulders above the rest now and should strive for some kind of European notoriety, we still need to appreciate our bread and butter. Winning the SPFL is not pathetic
We have fed on their putrefying carcass for 14 years, it sometimes twitches, comes back to life and kick starts for a short period of time before resorting back the decomposing process once again.
Rinse and repeat, they are nothing but an annoying itch on our arse. They are so far back in our rearview mirror you would need a telescope to see them.
I wonder why are we even talking about them?… Respect for the dead?
I suspect most football fans have respect for the dead Johnny (well apart from evil like Brady and Hindlay types of course)…
But the deceased ‘Rangers’ would most definitely be an addition to them for sure !
One of the most enjoyable articles in a while and of not only my own interest in the Cold War period. For some it’s not only a period of studied history but something we lived through. War of whatever type is not just about planes, tanks soldiers and guns but of people, citizens, victims and the negatively socially impacted upon.
Some of the comments on here simply fail to understand or empathise with this, fail to appreciate the hardships, suffering and sacrifice of the ordinary done to people or in one reply in particular to the benefits of an education.
To see them in pain makes my day.
What makes my week is see their hopes once again crushed, stolen and/or their hopes were as solid as smoke.
Watched aged 12 us lifting the big cup and these bottom feeders trying to emulate us.
Pain, pain ye say have another plateful.
Great article James, but we need to spend to take is so far away that they can never catch us. Going into admin, resets them.
Someone with cash could come in and pump some money in.
The way we are presently is not that far off being caught.
This board needs to think out side the box, Europe is the arena we need to be aiming for.