Encountering a full on crisis in the first week of October has brought a surprising level of realism to some bears.
Seeing the Michael Beale Revolution go up in smoke after seven SPFL matches has been a sobering experience for many Ibrox fans as they survey the handover that the next manager will take on.
Two summers of grim recruitment has burdened the club with long term contracts for Rabbi Matondo, Ben Davies, Ridvan Yilmaz, Sam Lammers, Kieran Dowell, Cyriel Dessers, Jose Cifuentes and Danilo.
Even at their best there was no serious interest in signing Ryan Kent or Alfredo Morelos. During the summer Scott Wright knocked back the chance of a fresh start in Turkey to hang on to his Ibrox gig of decent money for 10-15 appearances off the bench each season.
When the bears on Follow Follow start asking if their club is a basket-case things must be seriously wrong.
Micky Beale’s sacking has been warmly welcomed but the follow up is less clear. Who on earth is going to take the job on.
It will take a real top level manager to sort the squad out- a top level manager isn’t likely to go in or come cheaply to perform miracles on Yilmaz, Davies, Lammers and Dessers.
A real fire fighting specialist is required but at some stage he is going to demand funds to bring in his own players. If a rookie boss can hand out four and five year contracts why shouldn’t someone that actually knows what is involved in football management.
Chat about Graham Potter and Kjetil Knutsen is utterly fanciful but can rumble on for a while to provide a welcome distraction from reality. Potter was collecting £190,000 a week in his last job while Knutsen turned down the chance to manage Ajax in the summer.
While there might be a dose of reality at the moment there is a realistic possibility that the gap between the two Glasgow clubs could be extended before the international break.
Steve Davis is likely to start his first SPFL match trailing Celtic by 10 points, St Mirren away is probably the last fixture that he would want to go into after an away trip in Europe.
Going into the break in third place, trailing Celtic by more than seven points could quickly turn into the perfect storm with absolutely no sign of leadership on or off the park at Ibrox.
John Bennett and James Bisgrove have no track record in making football decisions, when James Tavernier wears the captain’s armband it says more about his team-mates than the qualities of the former Wigan ace.
The next man has been well warned. Reaching a European final and the group stage of the Champions League wasn’t good enough to save Giovanni van Bronckhorst as fan media growled over defeats to Celtic while Beale lurked in the background.
The complete absence of an obvious candidate says it all, if some bears can see their club as a basket-case then it will be difficult to find a credible manager that views things any differently.
