Any Porto or Portsmouth in a storm

Well, at least it seems like Co Adriaanse has become a bit of a clueless git.

If we’re looking for positives ahead of the second-instalment of Eck’s departure from The Brox, then the Porto manager laid a big round one on us today.

The guy must be losing his touch. What the hell possesed him, at the eve-of-match press conference, to say he’d been offered the Rangers job earlier this year? Who does his research??!! Far from disconcerting our team or our manager, he’s just shown himself to be completely out of touch:

Our manager has been given til the end of the month; He’s just lost 5 goals and two games to our most annoying rivals; We’re fifteen points off the top of the league and officially out of one domestic competition already; Our chairman has told Alex McLeish the bloody NAME of the guy who will take-over when Eck finally leaves in a few days or weeks’ time; It’s all over Sky Sports News that Portsmouth want McLeish to take-over from the even-more-under-pressure boss at Fratton Park; Every time Eck looks into a camera he has the look of a man who just wants to get the hell away from Ibrox as soon as possible…

Erm - if yer trying to put a bit of pressure on Big Eck, Co - yer just a wee bit too late. All you’ve actualy done is perhaps give him one last reason to fire up his troops, ahead of what can still be an historic night for The Rangers.

Och, every Champions League game is historic in its own right - it’s another course of a meal at the top table. Our trouble in Portugal this week is deciding which kind of history will be made - the fact that it could go either way sums up The Big Eck reign:

We are actually SECOND in the group with two games to play. Ye cannae really argue with that as an achievement. A win in Oporto and, should Inter hump Artmedia, we could become the first Scottish club ever to progress from a Champions League group - the first Scottish team of any kind to progress from any significant round-robin qualifying tournament.

Yet - while all this is possible - our manager has never been more clearly ready to leave the club and our club has rarely been as liable to take an almighty humping: Possibly a record humping. That’s the kind of history we don’t want.

Big Eck is famed for pulling it out the bag against the odds - for producing those white rabbits which defy his critics and force everyone to accept he has a winning way within him. But, even if he does that against the 2003 UEFA Cup and 2004 Champions League winners this week (Add 1987 European Cup winners and 1984 European Cup-Winners Cup runners-up to that!), he’s still leaving.

When the Chairman’s told you who’ll replace you - even with the caveat “if things don’t pick up” - then it’s hard to remain even when things do pick up. When you’ve taken a still-very-rich Rangers to a position where even qualifying for Europe next season is under-threat (we will, tho - we’ll finish second at worst: that’s a FAT Eck promise) then it’s difficult to remain even if European history beckons. But, most of all, just one look at Alex McLeish’s face and one listen to his utterly empty, by-rote, regurgitation of “we must remain defiant” proclamations tells you the guy has already left the big red-brick and marble building.

It’s horrible and it’s sad. The Rangers support is sick of the (lack of) performances and Alex McLeish is plainly just pig-sick of the whole situation. He wants it ended more, I would say, than even we do. For his sake and ours I hope he does what I have suspected he’s wanted to do since about September this year, since the moment it became clear that his title triumph of May had been completely forgotten about: Take us through to the next stage of the Champions League then resign.

Portsmouth’s use of every available media outlet to make a very public approach for Eck shows that he can move into a great job (They’re a miniscule club compared to The Teds but they’re in a league which makes the SPL look even more miniscule) if he goes soon. A win in Portugal would be the best possible farewell gift - or, maybe more precisely, a “get it up ye” for his critics.

It’s a positive omen that this situation is starkly similair to the early December night we went to Paris in 2001, looking to beat PSG in order to progress beyond Christmas in Europe for the first time in nine years. We knew Dick Advocaat was leaving at that point and his out-of-character celebrations at the end of the triumphant penalty shoot-out spoke of a man who wanted one last proof of his ability before he departed with his dignity intact.

Alex McLeish took charge of that first post-Xmas European game that season. It was against Feyenoord and we lost under controversial circumstances. It was the only time in my life I ever blamed a ref for a Rangers defeat - Herbert Fandel was that ref and he takes charge of the tie in Do beautiful Dragao stadium this Wednesday. I’m off to the north of the Iberian peninsula to abuse him personally - and to back The Gers fanatically.

We know the manager’s going - we know things ARE going to change. After four years at the helm most gaffers nowadays know they’ve done all they can. Let’s get behind the team, behind the club. Then, if our injury-ravaged morale-sapped collection of players do pull off the biggest win in our European history (this would be bigger than the 1972 CWC win - also, coincidentally, achieved amidst a domestic nightmare) we’ll know they did it because of us … not in spite of us.

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(I know - “listen to the guy who was at bloody DUSSELDORF on Saturday instead of The piggery wi the rest o us!” - more of which, when I return - but I cheered Jorg “Aleeeee - Zee Hammer - Aaaaaaalbbbeeeeertz” onto the Paul Janes stadion pitch on Saturday … that kind of counts as supporting the Gers , doesn’t it??!! Naw? Och - Anyway - sorry the site’s been so devoid of ranting over the past few days, folks - international jet-setting while holding down a full-time boring day job does not sit well with my internet responsibilities. But I’ll be back on for a quick comment on Thursday night - will be cream-cracked after a day at work after an all-dayer in Portugal - and then normal service will be resumed by the trip to Easter Road. lots of love. FAT Eck. [yeah - that’s something - when Mr McLeish does leave, I’ll be able to return to my full moniker of BIG Fat Eck … now, isn’t THAT something to look forward to??!!])