Surprise Surprise

The only surprise I have at last night's result is that any Rangers fans are surprised.

Our victory over Motherwell was deserved, but so was our defeat to Inverness, and it's a result that has been coming for a number of weeks.

Our home form has outshone our away form, and at times masked a side which is consistently underperforming. While some players have been excellent for us this season, some have been very disappointing.

A few fans are now turning on McCoist, and it's something I have been expecting. Frankly, his management off the park has been fantastic, and we may well have him to thank for the club still existing.

I have to say that the Rangers support can be a sentimental one, and it’s also noticeable that anyone who questions McCoist’s management of the team on the park are met with a majority who disagree.

I ask the question today. How long should we be sentimental for, and how long before McCoist’s position is untenable?

Afer a flying start last season, including one of the finest and most comprehensive victories over Celtic in recent times, the financial worries and turmoil off the park has in many eyes just been too much of a burden to McCoist, and 2012 will go down in history as not just an annus horribilus off the park, but also on it, and also for McCoist as a manager.

As we approach the IPO, and many things around the club are positive, it seems here that everything off the park points to a positive future.

Despite the attempted deliberate disruption of the IPO by several journalists and prominent Celtic supporters intent on damaging Rangers reputation to international investors, the interest is there in making it a success; Charles Green is engaging with the support, and the support itself is setting itself as a benchmark for football supporters worldwide.

As our team struggled and were unceremoniously bundled out of another competition last night, Rangers had twice the number of spectators that discredited SPL Champions Celtic had the previous night.

So, everyone connected to the club, is doing their bit to return us to the top, other than the team, and the manager.

Some have questioned Green’s strategy of going for this IPO so early, while the club are yet to return to the top. The thinking seems to be, that we WILL get there, and he will maximise return for his consortium’s initial investors from a stronger league.

I’m beginning to think it’s because he needs to return the investment value to the investors before the tidal wave of optimism around the club falters with poor results on the field.

Some critics of Green state that he didn’t invest enough money in the team, but we have quality SPL players in our side who are just not performing, including seemingly random foreigners with decent pedigree who are not fit to wear the Rangers jersey in any league.

While I still have some doubts about Green’s long term intentions, and also about his investor’s long term intentions, the reason for our side’s underwhelming performances this season can be attributed only to the manager and his management team.

Something has to give.

Either McCoist needs to freshen up his management team and make one last push to both save his job, and ensure Rangers return to consistent winning ways, or he should resign,

The status quo is unacceptable, and his £1M investment in the club should not be a factor.

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I stated on Monday that Rangers fans should continue to keep calm in the face of extreme provocation, as various extremists and Rangers haters masquerading as journalists try to goad the support in to reacting to vile abuse, in order to try and substantiate the lies from Alex Toxic Thomson. I have confidence that we will do, as more and more “mainstream” hacks try their hardest to rile us.

The latest is Jim Delahunt of Radio Clyde, who tweeted the following last night:

@JimDelahunt: Woolworths, Rangers, RBS, Savile and now Comet. Childhood finally wiped out. Hang in there Scooby Doo

Now, if the boot was on the other foot, I’d expect that any journo who made such an offensive statement about Celtic would be hounded and threatened until their employer(s) had apologised and the person was out of a job and fearful to walk the streets. What did Delahunt get? One constructive critical tweet from the RST.

Now it would be easy to show that picture of Savile and former Celtic Chairman  and Torbett associate Kevin Kelly, but I don’t think that’s appropriate, do you?

Better still, if any Rangers fan is still stupid enough to listen to Clyde, switch off and tell them why.

Even better, maybe “Rangers man” Douglas Park, who sponsors said station, will withdraw his sponsorship and hit them in the pocket?

Acting with dignity and behaving impeccably can sit properly with taking our enemies on.

We do not need to sink to the levels our enemies across the city do, but also should not shy away from exposing and addressing those Rangers haters, and pressuring them in to behaving like normal human beings.

Keep on keeping calm and carrying on.

Bill.