One game away from a new manager - four away from keeping Big Eck

Look, folks - no matter how we feel individually about Alex McLeish or how we choose to express our frustration with Rangers’ lack of form this season, one thing is startlingly clear: We’re one league defeat away from a change of manager.

The team are woefully bland and McLeish himself - a man I can’t be malicious towards in even the smallest way because he’s so much a part of The Rangers Family, has given me so many great memories - seems to be running out of energy with which to face the media and fans after another poor result.

His comments are automated, his face expresses either confusion or disenfranchisement - there’s no inbetween. He’s had plenty other hard times at Ibrox but there’s a lack of fortitude and diplomacy now. We’ve driven him to it in many ways but, however it came about, Alex is now sick of being Gers gaffer.

Beating Inverness Caley at home probably saved his job last season - and that was a close run thing. The next time Caley came to Govan they equalised in the last minute but, by that point, were doing more to throw a spanner in the works of our Championship hopes than rattling nails into managerial coffins.

The venom paled behind the all-round sense of resignation at Almondvale last night. There were boos again but, mostly, there was the beginnings of an acceptance that we’re being left behind in Scottish football this season. It’s not a “poor start” anymore - it’s just poor. There wasn’t the sheer outrage from the Bluenoses which many would expect because, worryingly, there wasn’t enough shock to propel such an emotion. We’re getting used to these shitty away performances, we’re not even expecting great football from Rangers anymore - we’re just hoping they hang on for a win: That’s the most damning criticism of all those currently levelled at Alex McLeish.

Eck needs to win in Bratislava and not lose to Porto. He also needs to win both our games at parkhead if he’s to dig himself out of it once again. There are plenty of mitigating circumstances and I’ve been through most of them on this site as I continue with my Scot Symon obsession. I’m always dreading that we shoot ourselves in the foot by sacking a manager rather than taking the unavoidable hard times on the chin. Every time we’ve ever changed gaffer you can count the games til someone shouts “Come on tae fuck, [insert name of new manager]! We wurnae even this bad under [insert name of last manager]!”.

I wasn’t around when Scot Symon was sacked but it’s plain to see we weren’t a proper force again for twenty years following that nasty little incident (Apologies to Jock Wallace - my first ever managerial hero). Had we sacked McLeish at the end of 2003/2004 then there’s every chance we wouldn’t have won the league last season. Again this mitigates against the ultimate sanction. We aren’t exactly top of the league right now and Celtic aint exactly champions of Europe but we would still run the risk of looking pretty damned myopic if we oust Big Eck only five months after he won his second title in under four years. Unless, that is, we get a pretty darned special replacement in.

I worry that the desire for excited reactions in the Rangers fan base - if it ain’t delirium it has to be implosions of anger - can end all hope of our team ever gelling properly. Too many “fans” confuse Rangers with a normal consumer item - they want a refund, or some blood in lieu, if they haven’t had 10 Rangers goals and a piece of silverware in the 60 minutes of the game they actually watched. Or maybe I’m not moving with the times - maybe there’s too much of the old fashioned blind love and affection for Rangers in my system; maybe I’m naive to think that you can’t turn round and slag the shit out someone you previously lauded as a hero, simply because their genuine efforts have not been as fruitful lately. To me that kind of fan is an ingrate, a spoiled git who never really wins when Rangers do because he doesn’t know what it is to feel a loss WITH his team.

But this consumer angle - this pure business angle is often what succeeds in modern football. Sometimes it IS better to change the guard before it’s too late, when you still have a chance of major prizes. Sometimes it is better to act early, when it comes from foresight rather than a jerk of the knee. We needed to see Rangers move onto a new level this season but it’s beginning to look like 2003/2004 all over again. There’ll be no Old Firm whitewash but being so far off the top of the SPL when Celtic have been so weak will not give us much comfort from further head-to-head wins over the hooped horrors.

Rangers just haven’t provided consistency or genuinely authoritatiuve football. Under McLeish we can be damned entertaining but it’s always through passion and fleeting belief rather than a solid, reliable template of successful, winning, best-we-can-get-out-these-players football. Eck McLeish needs to finally move up that extra gear in his career and make a bang in Europe. All this needs to show itself in November but - the final twist - should Inverness do us at Ibrox on Saturday, Alex won’t see that month as a Gers manager.

Right or wrong, we all just know that’s what’s at steak when we turn up at Ibrox on Saturday. Don’t howl when we lose a goal. Don’t boo if we fail to win - just leave and just know it’ll be taken care of. David Murray doesn’t get back in the chair to watch us fail.

Then again, we might always win 4-0 and turn on the style.