Ibrox would rather invent conspiracies than accept failure.

I have an idea for the Ibrox club. If it wants to bring in additional money, it can bring in a new sponsor. I even know who that sponsor should be. Kleenex.

It is obvious when you think about it.

They spend so much time bitching, wailing, moaning and crying that it makes perfect sense. Bring in Kleenex and have done with it. They must spend enough money on the stuff anyway, because they are crying like little children. Again.

There they are, demanding meetings with the SFA, not asking for them but shrieking to their media buddies. As usual, those media buddies are playing along. It is pathetic, isn’t it? What is wrong with these people?

Can they not just take losing with good grace? They are still complaining about decisions in the Motherwell game. Needless to say, they are complaining about the Celtic game too. The list is extensive.

I have said from the start, and I have been writing about it for days now, that the Ibrox club will not be able to move on as long as it clings to grievance the way it does. They are not focused on the future. They are not focused on improvement.

They are focused only on the past.

They are focused on why they lost and who they can blame for it. They are focused on the great conspiracy they believe exists against them. They believe everything that happens in Scottish football is directed from Celtic Park, and until they shake loose of that nonsense, they will never deal with the fact that they are simply not good enough.

Danny Röhl is obviously pushing this pretty hard. He has to, otherwise people might start looking at his performance. He has helped put the idea into the public domain that the reason they have suffered recent defeats is because officials got major decisions wrong.

But that is rubbish.

His side has been outplayed in all three of those games. After the split, Motherwell beat them comfortably. Hearts only had to show up for one half to beat them. Celtic swatted them aside like they were nothing.

This guy has all sorts of problems.

I am going to write more about him tomorrow, but his problems are compounded by the fact that he appears to be in denial about them. The club is in denial about them too. They would rather look outside and blame referees, VAR, Hampden, Celtic, or whatever else they think is going on.

The idea that Steven McLean, whose brother played for their club, is biased against them is preposterous. The idea that John Beaton, a known supporter of their club, is biased against them is also preposterous.

It is possible that officials with Ibrox connections are aware that those connections make them vulnerable and therefore overcompensate with decisions against them. But that is exactly why I do not want Celtic fans officiating our games either.

Surely we can all agree that this should not happen.

Surely we can agree that it is wrong.

Surely we can agree that something should be done about it.

But that is not how they see it. Instead, they see a pro-Celtic conspiracy at the heart of the SFA, one that somehow utilises pro-Ibrox officials.

That is the weirdest conspiracy theory I have ever heard in my life.

I have never seen a club in the whole history of Scottish football do so much bitching, complaining and moaning when it loses. The fact that the media goes along with this like it is normal behaviour is ridiculous as well.

There is nothing normal about that club’s paranoia.

There is nothing normal about that club’s lunacy.

It should not be encouraged. It should be condemned.

If they are not condemned, they should be mocked. I am perfectly happy to mock them. But it remains a fact that the media takes them seriously. It remains a fact that the SFA is expected to jump every time they scream like children whose ice cream has been taken away.

It is remarkable.

It does not help them either, because the search for external enemies prevents them from looking at internal problems and coming to any serious consensus about how those problems might be solved.

That is that club.

That is everything wrong with them, right there.

Their people say the club has asked questions about previous decisions and has not been satisfied with the answers. I do not know what they expected the governing bodies to say.

“Oh, you were right. By all means, let us replay those games.”

What exactly do they want?

If they want the same things we all want, which is higher standards, then let us hear that. Let us hear how we are going to get there. Let us hear what the plan is. Because on this side of the table, at least, we have suggested concrete changes that could and should be made.

Foreign officials would be a good start, since ours are not even rated highly enough to make it onto the World Cup list.

Then we put officials through every rigorous training programme the industry can manage. If they do not pass, and pass with flying colours, we get shot of them and bring in people who will.

Simple stuff.

Not complicated at all.

Until then, Scottish officials should not get any major games.

Oh yes, and one last thing. We make them declare their allegiances. Put it on the record. Put it in writing. Put a signature under it.

That is how you begin to raise standards.

You enforce standards first.

Very easy.

But that is how you solve the wider refereeing problem.

Ibrox’s problem is not referees.

Ibrox’s problem is Ibrox.

Their issues are inside their own walls, in their own house, and they refuse to look at them. So they wail about decisions instead. Their manager even suggested that Alistair Johnston was guilty of an attack on one of their players.

Preposterous.

Overdramatised.

Hyped to the max.

Completely inappropriate and inflammatory language, and I hope Martin O’Neill answers it.

But Martin will do that when everything else has been taken care of. Martin will do it when it does the least damage to our preparations. If he is asked in the press conference, I am sure he will answer.

But Martin’s mind is where it should be.

On the job.

I understand that other managers, especially those whose season is effectively finished, can wander off on these little flights of fancy. But the manager of Celtic is focused on what he is always focused on.

The next game.

There are a myriad of lessons that club could take from us if they ever chose to sit down and try. Not from the people running our club at boardroom level, because the people at the top of our house are every bit as moronic as the people at the top of theirs.

But from the way our football department conducts itself.

From the way it maintains professionalism.

From the way it presents itself to the outside world.

We embarrass them.

We are everything they are not.

It is amazing.

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