Celtic fans risk running out of popcorn as the Ibrox managerial saga gets crazy.

Last night on our podcast, I discussed—very, very briefly—the managerial situation at the club across the city, and it wasn’t a great surprise to me when, at the end of the podcast, The Daily Record floated the idea that, over the next day or two, another name—one not yet in the public domain—might suddenly enter the discourse.

It wasn’t even an hour before a new one did.

These people are not the smartest kids in the class. They clearly telegraphed the fact of a new name rather than the possibility of one.

What I said in that podcast was very simple: Gerrard is out of the race. Ancelloti is not particularly sold on the idea, no matter what the media here has said, and is flirting with other clubs and bigger jobs. He and his people continue to push his name around Spain and elsewhere in the hope that he lands one.

There is talk of Russell Martin, but Russell Martin is widely tipped to join Leicester.

So, the sudden appearance of a new name on the horizon wasn’t a surprise to any sane, sensible person. When all your other options are checking out one at a time, when all of them are turning down the job for various reasons—or actively looking for a better offer before they say yes to it—what other choice do you have but to float left-field considerations?

Mystery Manager X was necessary if the discussion wasn’t to be one about how all their premier targets have walked away from the job.

They are the only club who could get away with this.

Gerrard was the guy every newspaper last week was saying had his fingers on the contract and the pen in his hand, ready to sign. There was even speculation that the deal would be done before we played the cup final, and many expected exactly that. For him to decide that he doesn’t want it is a major snub for them—and that’s how it would be portrayed if this were any other club.

Likewise with Martin, who has been interviewed for the job but is still linked to the one at Leicester City, where some reports suggest he’s on the brink of actually going. And he sees Ibrox as the secondary option that he has on the table.

To be snubbed for Leicester City might not seem like such a big thing—Rodgers, after all, left Celtic to go to Leicester—but he went to a Leicester side that had won the title not that long before. A Leicester side still good enough, as Rodgers proved, to win silverware when he took them to the FA Cup.

This Leicester side has just been relegated.

Ancelotti Jr. has spent his career following Daddy around from job to job, and as regular readers will know, I’m not in the least bit intimidated by the idea that he might be some sort of managerial guru.

If it’s true that he’s one of the most sought-after young coaches in Europe, he’s not coming to Scotland. Why would he?

And whilst I don’t believe a word of the hype that surrounds him—since a guy who hasn’t managed a first-team game in his entire life has no record on which to be judged—there are signs and signals being sent that he’ll walk unless he’s offered it in a timely fashion and the second a better offer comes along. It’s obvious that there are some splits on the Ibrox board about him too.

That’s why, when The Record started floating the idea that there would be a Mystery Manager X surfacing, it was not a surprise at all. Because what do you have left, when all your main targets have either walked off the stage or seem ready to walk off the stage? What do you do except turn to Mystery Manager X?

And the name in the frame: Francesco Farioli.

The Record is already way out in front of this story, trying to turn his exit from Ajax into some sort of triumphant stand. It is his third club. It is the second he has walked out on in less than 12 months. That, in some ways, prepares him perfectly for life as an Ibrox boss, since that’s about the shelf life of one.

But his exit from Ajax wasn’t quite the triumph the media here would have you believe. In fact, his side held a 9-point lead going into the closing stretch, and he managed to blow it in spectacular fashion.

Rumours of disquiet at boardroom level—about his tactics, his approach, his transfer targets, and his rejection of the strategy they were trying to impose—suggested this is a very wilful individual who will not hang around if he doesn’t think he’s going to be backed the way he wants.

The fact that the club didn’t hold him to his contract and didn’t offer him that backing after he’d blown a league title race doesn’t suggest to me they had confidence in him.

The Herald wants to portray his Ajax exit as a bold decision, rather than one that was taken with the agreement of a club who made no effort to change his mind. They thanked him for his service. Big deal. All clubs tend to do that when a manager is leaving the building. Even Barry Ferguson got thanked for his service before the Ibrox club tossed his bags and boxes out into the street.

This has been one of the most embarrassing managerial pursuits I think I’ve ever witnessed. The takeover, which was supposed to free this club from this kind of situation, has in fact paralysed it completely.

Now they’re getting nearer a managerial appointment and a takeover at the same time—or so the media would have us believe.

But this whole pursuit has been embarrassing for them. As they flop around, unable to get any of their top options, we’re left with the unedifying spectacle of the media trying to dress up this shambles as some kind of reasoned process.

They continue to be the biggest obstacle to that club improving—other than itself.