The new Ibrox CEO is in the job one day and he’s already playing to the gallery of goons.

A couple of times on this blog, I’ve paid tribute to a guy called Scott Adams and his wacky, wonderful cartoon series Dilbert. The story of Dilbert is about how dysfunction and chaos reign in an office environment.

There’s an old theory in business called the Peter Principle, which says that promotion happens until an individual reaches their level of incompetence. The Dilbert Principle goes further and suggests that people are promoted to the place where they can do the least damage to a company and its productivity. That’s why the actual, genuine idiots are all found at the top of the house.

One of the Dilbert principles I’ve always enjoyed is summed up best in this equation: real work plus the appearance of work equals actual work. In an office environment, where no one can actually quantify what it is that most people do, a lot of folks get by on that calculation.

This is why I find it fascinating that the Ibrox CEO, on his first day in the job, wasn’t spending his time working on existing problems but instead creating new ones. On day one, instead of doing what most of us assumed he would—turfing the loser out of the club and hiring someone competent to run the team—he’s been forced, thanks to changing circumstances and the manager’s superb PR offensive, into a crowd-pleasing stunt of a different kind.

One day into the gig, this guy is already complaining to the SFA and demanding explanations, as if he’s been there for 12 years or had swallowed every bit of the nonsense that club believes in during his induction.

This is a classic case of being seen to do something.

It’s the appearance of action rather than actual action. So when people ask him, “What exactly have you been doing with your day?”—instead of saying he’s looking for someone who might stand a chance of winning things—he can say, “I’ve been doing this.” Not only will that be acceptable to their supporters, but they’ll probably give him a standing ovation for it.

Has there ever been a more gullible bunch of people anywhere in the world? Have there ever been people you feel less inclined to pity than this lot? I can’t believe they get away with it. That guy was brought in today to sack the manager. That was supposed to be his first duty and responsibility. We all knew that. We all said it. Half of the mainstream media said it too. Everyone believed it.

So how fortunate for them that they now have a controversy to focus on instead. That’s what they want everyone looking at.

They know full well that an appeal to the SFA won’t do a blind bit of good. The match is over. It’s done. The result is in the ledger. The trophy has been handed to Celtic. There’s no changing that. There’s no replay in our future.

This is just noise for the sake of making noise, like a baby squawking for attention. But when a baby does that, there’s usually a purpose.

It’s hard to see what the purpose of this is, except to say to their fans, “Look, we pandered to you yet again. We’re fighting the club’s corner.”

How pathetic. How absolutely pitiful. This is the definition of an easy win for this guy.

He inherits a shambles of a club. He inherits a club locked into a cycle of downsizing. A club that now degrades itself by pretending it’s proud of its meagre trophy haul these past few years. They’ve had to resort to stunts like taking the Under-20s and women’s silverware to the AGM and presenting them as though they were major honours.

They’re skint. They lost their head of commercial only days ago. And they’re trying to pretend they’ve gone with a brand-new kit supplier when, in fact, Castore are still there—only hiding behind an Umbro label.

So, naturally, his first public act—the first thing the press is briefed on—is to open up a spat with the SFA over referees. Blaming them for the defeat yesterday and finding a way to play to the gallery. You couldn’t make it up, but fortunately, you don’t have to. Just look at the history: this is what they do. And he’s off to a perfect start.

With so much real work to be done, he’s gone for the appearance of work instead. If that’s a sign of how he intends to go on, that club isn’t nearly out of crisis yet.