Where is Dave King and what, if anything, is he up to with regard to Rangers?
The former chairman, and still significant shareholder, chose to verbally lay into Rangers’ hierarchy earlier in the season. Long before the fans unfurled banners deploring the board during the debacle at Kilmarnock a week ago. It could be argued, without much effort, that things have got substantially worse on the domestic front since King cut loose on a public platform.
Philippe Clement has caused one betting firm to open a book on when he gets his jotters. And nothing will mitigate against mayhem breaking out if Rangers contrive to draw with, or lose to, a feckless St Mirren on the rebound from three defeats. Public opinion has shifted in a way that cultivates fertile ground for anybody seen as being capable of reversing a highly visible decline on the park by smartening up the club’s affairs off it.
Thursday’s result, no matter how encouraging it looks on paper, is an irrelevance. Giovanni van Bronckhorst took the club to a Europa League Final and still got sacked because he couldn’t shift the balance of power at home. This is a domestic squabble and King always plays the Celtic card when he wants to focus attention on Rangers’ problems. Could he be waiting to see what happens at Pittodrie on Wednesday and assess whether the time is right to break cover?
Meanwhile, David Gray looks at one win from eight games, Hibs being bottom of the table, and sees no grounds for alarm apparently. Just two wins in the last 15 Edinburgh derbies is presumably of no particular significance either. The problem is Hibs have a hair-trigger template, as opposed to temper, when it comes to rapid-fire removals. We are approaching the third anniversary of Jack Ross being sacked. Shaun Maloney, Lee Johnson and Nick Montgomery have all paid the price for failing to impress in Leith since.
Legendary status at a club gives no one immunity from prosecution if found guilty of failing to meet their club’s targets, which is why today’s game will be a compelling watch. I made a joke on the radio last week about Neil Critchley having eight days to save his job, since when Hearts have scored six goals and conceded none in domestic and European football at Tynecastle.
His difficulty will be managing suddenly inflated expectations if his side win three in a row over at the neighbours’ place. I’d put the house on that happening, too, which may be Sir David’s best hope.