Some you Wim, some you lose
In my opinion, and feel free to rush all at once and say that's worthless, Rangers were unlucky not to beat Hearts on Saturday.
All I've seen are the telly highlights but, begging Mikey and Thommo's pardon, I thought Pedro Caixinha's side were well on top and had no luck as well as the misfortune to come up against top class defending.
But I didn't pay to get in and the customers who did are in partial revolt.
If I had the time, or even the slightest inclination, I could probably number the managerial changes I have seen made in the top flight of Scottish football since I started in this caper in 1970 in their hundreds.
Managers let go by "Mutual consent."
Mangers shown the door in jig time for obvious reasons.
Managers sacked while on top of the league for dubious reasons.
Managers binned unfairly.
Managers ousted not before time.
Managers let go by boards of directors who lived to regret it.
Managers offloaded by directors because they were under fire and required a sacrificial lamb.
You name it, I've seen it, written about it or discussed it on air.
All of the hundreds of victims had one thing in common, whether their dismissal was unjust, unethical or understandable. You could sense the first moment they were under pressure and had started down a dangerous road.
Alex Smith, the man now in charge of the Managers and Coaches Association and as outstanding a football man as you will ever have the good fortune to meet, knew it for himself when he was Aberdeen boss in the 1990's.
He had brought the Scottish Cup to Pittodrie and was only prevented from winning the league title on the last day of the season by a defeat from Rangers at Ibrox.
But one night during a European tie at Pittodrie, a single fan stood up in the main stand and hurled abuse at him. Then another one got to his feet. Followed by another one.
By the end of the game the local television station had dispatched a film crew to the ground to vox pop fans and Alex knew the writing on the wall where his job was concerned was visible from the moon.
The first caller to Superscoreboad on Saturday night called for Pedro Caixinha's immediate removal from the manager's office at Ibrox in the immediate aftermath of the goal-less draw with Hearts.
The Portuguese, on the back of successive failures to beat Hibs and Hearts at Ibrox, was clueless and undeserving of any more games in which to contradict that opinion.
By the end of the programme this was a relatively widespread point of view, apart, of course, from the obligatory Celtic fan who called up to insist that Pedro remain in situ for as long as possible.
Such a negative response is not un-common.
Twenty years ago, after Celtic's first two games of the new season had been lost, a caller to the programme insisted that Wim Jansen, then Celtic's newly appointed manager, be summarily dismissed for losing to Hibs and Dunfermline.
Three hours of foootball had been enough to convince a supporter beside himself with worry that the Dutchman had been a disastrous appointment.
Jansen subsequently went on to win the league title, prevented Rangers from getting an historic Ten in a Row and won the un-dying love and respect of the Celtic support on a global basis.
Wim subsequently discontinued his own contract because he couldn't work in harmony with his employers.
The essential difference between Jansen and Caixinha is that Pedro has built up a catalogue of bad losses over the course of last season and this one.
Patience among the Rangers supporters is wafer thin. With only three league games of the season played so far, Rangers trail Celtic, Aberdeen and St Johnstone by five points and they have still to meet any of those sides.
Every aspect of caixinha's management, if the callers to Superscoreboard are to be seen as a reliable barometer of public opinion, is being questioned.
His tactical nous, team selection and transfer dealings are all under scrutiny.
All the tell-tale signs of a jacket presently hanging on a shaky nail are very much in evidence where Pedro is concerned.
Which is why one false move in Dingwall on Sunday could have serious consequences.
The home of Ross county is sleepy hollow. A taxi driver the once said to me, "Nothing ever happens here."
That opinion would be contested if rangers were to fail to take all three points from their Highland opponents at the weekend.
Anything other than a win would be the result that was more than flesh and blood could stand for the Rangers supporters.
What they and Caixinha must cling to in the meantime is the memory of the presumptious judgement made against Jansen.
But Wim hadn't lost two cup ties to his Old Firm rival.
Nor had he suffered the heaviest league loss to that rival at Ibrox in 120 years.
And he hadn't gone out of Europe to the fourth best team in Luxembourg to further embarrass the fans.
Wim had simply antagonised the irrational and the irascible by offering a hint of potential disappointment.
It could easily be argued that, twenty years ago, football matters were conducted in a less fevered atmosphere than they are in the age of social media.
Fans today are ready to go nuclear at the sight of an opposition manager with both hands cupped behind his ears. I rest my case.
The best way for Pedro to avoid any un-pleasantness that might prompt calls for his head is simply to win a game against a side his team should beat on Sunday.
Wim took the voluntary decision to trigger a get-out clause in his contract with Celtic due to a disputatious relationship with his paymasters.
Pedro, on the other hand, was reportedly out for a round of golf with Rangers' chairman Dave king twenty-four hours after losing to Hibs at Ibrox.
The received wisdom being that King continues to buy into the manager and his ideas for the future.
It should never be assumed that any vote of confidence given in football has a shelf life beyond the duration of the next match.
The caveat is always the same.
That was then and this is now