The Clock Starts Now For Rangers

The timing might have been entirely co-incidental, but you never know.

Rangers have just been humiliated by Motherwell at Fir Park and had profound embarrassment added to their sense of devastation by the ludicrous actions of battling Bilel Mohsni at the end of the play-off final.

Their six-one aggregate loss to the Lanarkshire side confirms another year to be spent in the Championship, their fourth year in succession out of Scottish football's top flight.

But before the sun goes down on their anger, and the consternation felt by the club's now long suffering supporters, Rangers' day is made complete when Celtic's Chief Scout John Park arrives at Glasgow Airport on Sunday night to pick up Dedryck Boyata.

The Belgian defender is set to complete a move from Manchester City and begin Celtic's re-building programme for next season.

That's the season which will, barring an unforseen set of circumstances that border on the miraculous, bring Celtic their fifth consecutive league title. The halfway stage on what their fans hope will be a journey towards a history-making ten in a row, the very thought of which can make exasperated Rangers supporters reach new heights of pent up frustration.

So if Boyata's arrival in Scotland on the day that Rangers misery was compounded by a rowdy player tarnishing the club's reputation even further wasn't timed to add insult to injury then it did the trick in any case.

And if there was an element of mischievous intent then it only served to further highlight Celtic's decision making being spot on at a time when Rangers continue to show an inclination towards always doing the wrong thing.

The disgruntled among the Ibrox support, which means all of them, don't need the history lesson that begins with the club being passed into the hands of Craig Whyte and the descent into chaos starting immediately thereafter.

They don't require to be reminded of the season just ended which saw three different men in charge of picking a team that lurched from one unsatisfactory result to another and ended up third in the second tier of the game.

What they need to know is what happens now, because Rangers have hit Ground Zero.

Support for Dave King's take over of the club accelerated when he touched an emotional raw nerve by stating that unless something radical was done Rangers would have to suffer the ignominy of watching Celtic win ten titles in a row.

Now the pressure at Ibrox has transferred from the dressing room to the boardroom. King has to start delivering on his promise to revolutionise Rangers because the words used by his directorial cohort Paul Murray have never sounded more accurate.

Murray was the one who said Rangers were broken at all levels of the club's operation, and Fir Park on Sunday proved how right that was at pitch level.

Tremendous efforts were made to sign Mohsni and a boat was pushed well out to sea in order to meet his extravagant wage demands. All that for a player of extremely dubious quality, an assessment underlined when the Motherwell fans mocked his attempts to help Rangers from losing even more heavily than they did at the weekend.

See what I mean about decision making ?

Whoever thought Mohsni's signing was a good idea possesses questionable judgement and someone with an eye for talent is the first priority for King.

And that someone will need to be able to perform a heart transplant while he's at it.

Rangers had no self-belief, self-worth or stomach for the fray at Motherwell. They were beaten without putting up a fight and that's why Mohsni's sudden taste for boxing after the final whistle must have been even more galling and ironic for the Rangers fans who were left there to see him land a blow on the home side's Lee Erwin.

Never in Rangers' history can there have been a time when the club which prides itself on being characterised by valour have been represented by so many conscientious objecters.

A radical clear-out is necessary to make room for those who can handle the challenge that will come in the form of requiring to finish above Hibs to win automatic promotion next season.

The notion of Rangers finishing second and having to face a play-off in order to go up surely doesn't bear thinking about.

The Celtic support are wallowing in their rival's pain and that's part and parcel of the game. The Motherwell fans partied like they'd won a major trophy rather than avoiding relegation after an indifferent season, and that's allowed as well.

Their past was quickly consigned to history and declared an irrelevance because optimism was high once again. That's how football works.

Rangers recent past has been pock marked by mismanagement of the club's affairs on and off the park. Their present is a dismal place full of recriminations and rancour. Their future has got to be sorted out quickly because their supporter base is at the the end of its tether.

Or, if they're not there yet, they can see it from where they're standing.

The clock starts now.