The Gorilla Would Be A Lot Bigger If Rangers Went For O'Neill

SOMEBODY has to say it, and, it might as well be me. If there was a 10,000 lb gorilla in the room back when Rangers were imploding and being sold, that gorilla's bigger, older brother just stepped in – following the speculation that Michael O'Neill is a candidate for the Ibrox poisoned chalice of being the club manager.

 Michael O'Neill

That “gorilla” is the fact, O'Neill is a Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland. Certainly, Rangers, the arch-Protestant club, has had Roman Catholic managers before, but, neither Paul Le Guen or Pedro the Portuguese of recent memory lasted very long in the hot seat. Yes, they were RC, but, they were foreign, from Roman Catholic countries on the continent of Europe.

O'Neill for all his well-deserved Membership of the most excellent Order of the British Empire, is, to many of those Rangers fans who make the weekly crossing from Northern Ireland, to support the club: “A Taig”, one of the still-oppressed Roman Catholic community in that part of Ireland.

As it happens, I believe he would be a good manager of the club, as would Derek McInnes, the other candidate being supported by another section of Scottish Football's Lap Top Loyal in the press. But, the question for both to ponder is: “Do I want the aggro?”

Derek McInnes, the other newspaper favourite for the Ibrox gig

McInnes, being a former player, might think it a risk worth taking, to leave the stability of Pittodrie for the uncertainty of a debt-ridden club, without a credit line to a bank, with a stadium in sore need of a bit of money spending on it, a fractured squad – many of whom are, to be brutally frank: “not Rangers class”, and a “Glib and Shameless Liar” as a Chairman. It would a leap of faith of Indiana Jones proportions to go for that particular Holy Grail of re-establishing Rangers as the Kings of Scottish Football.

All these minus points also apply to Michael O'Neill, with the added aggravation of his religion. There is an unstable, you might say “aff their heids” element in the Rangers support, whom sadly the current upper management, and the one before them, have pandered to. They have this sense of entitlement, that Rangers should be the leading side in Scotland, that they win every match. “We are the People” is their battle cry. They roar out their Protestant anthems defiantly.

Ian "Dan" Archer - his description of Rangers' fans still holds true

They truly still are: “A Permanent Embarrassment and an Occasional Disgrace”. And, it is over 30-years since the late, great Ian “Dan” Archer coined that phrase. Imagine that section of the club's following's reaction to a Northern Irish Roman Catholic manager presiding over a Rangers team which was hammered by Celtic.

Michael O'Neill has lived in Scotland since his playing days. He knows the territory. He is a gifted manager and an intelligent human being. As things stand, he and his family live a quiet, untroubled life here. All that would change if he took the Rangers job. Does he want that aggravation?

He and Neil Lennon - another gifted manager and intelligent human being who has swapped the life of a Roman Catholic in Northern Ireland for Scottish football, and prospered. I do not know Neil Lennon – or Michael O'Neill for that matter – but, football-writing friends who do, tell me, at social functions or, when given peace to go about his personal business in the West End of Glasgow, Neil Lennon is a delight to be with.

But, he occasionally gets aggravation from the lunatic element within the Rangers following. I would suggest, were O'Neill to become Rangers manager, he would risk the same bother. For all the big salary, and the kudos of success. Would Michael O'Neill want the downside of the job. Remember, Alex Ferguson, like McInnes a Rangers fan and former player, well-established at Aberdeen, turned down the chance to manager Rangers because he didn't fancy the aggro which would accrue due to his wife being a Roman Catholic

What a state we are in, that, in this year of 2017, the fall-out from a glorified skirmish on the banks of some wee river in Ireland 327 years ago still casts a long and dark shadow over Scottish football. Aye, we really are a sad, wee backward football nation in some ways.

I WAS speaking to a couple of the saner elements in the Scottish Football Writers' Association this week; two guys who would not join the Lap Top Loyal, even if asked. They told me, they ha rather enjoyed their day-out at the Scotland v Samoa rugby international at BT Murrayfield.

 Dominic McKay of the SRU

Clearly, the SRU are determined, if they can to attract big football games to their national stadium, so, they invited a group of the leading fitba writers along as corporate guests. The ever-so-sharp Dominic McKay did the honours and, it is fair to say, the scribes enjoyed the scoff, the occasion and being treated like important people, after the abuse they get from some of the Hampden suits.

As I have said, I could live with football's big games at Murrayfield – but, I caution the fitba writers, remember that old joke about the Devil showing some potential inhabitants a Hell which was all verdant golf courses and sun shine. They signed-up, then discovered, Hell really was a Hell of fire and brimstone. On complaining, Auld Nick replied: “When I showed you round, I was recruiting.”

TWO words for all those moaning about Scotland not going to Russia next year: “Shut Up.”

Next year's jamboree in Russia will only be the fifth successive tournament we have missed. Northern Ireland were screwed by a terrible penalty decision, and thus miss-out on their eighth successive final tournament, while Italy did not qualify, for the first time since 1958, and they've WON the bloody thing four times.

AND FINALLY – the draw for the semi-finals of the Irn-Bru Cup is made later today.

Am I alone in hoping Crusaders from Northern Ireland and the New Saints from Wales are kept apart, and, that they reach the final. Maybe if that happens, we will finally see the over-long tail on the dog that is Scottish senior football “docked” and change implemented.

We have too-many senior teams, most of whom are unworthy of that label.