PERHAPS the most remarkable thing to emerge from these tumultuous last few years at Rangers is that somehow a small part of the story continues to unfold seemingly unaffected by everything else going on around it.
Like someone seeking sanctuary in the cellar while a tornado tears apart their house, around the football department at Murray Park the focus remains solely on matters affecting the team. The club may be in the middle of an acrimonious civil war ahead of next week's potentially epoch-altering general meeting but inside the confines of the training ground what happens outside barely seems to have an influence.
Manager Kenny McDowall and his players, you would assume, will be aware of the plans to bring about a change in the board, that director James Easdale has stood down, that supporters are snapping up shares at a steady rate, and that the club has again been forced to condemn the sectarian singing by some of its supporters. These are all issues, however, that neither the manager nor his players can affect.
Their focus, then, remains on trying to ensure Rangers remain competitive on the field ahead of their likely appearance in the end-of-season play-offs. After a difficult few weeks, there were grounds for optimism in the recent performances against Hibernian and Raith Rovers, something that McDowall is clinging to ahead of another appearance under the Friday night lights, this time at Falkirk.
There was other good news with Andy Murdoch, scorer of a spectacular strike against Raith last Friday, and youth goalkeeper Liam Kelly signing two-and-a-half year contracts. The case of Murdoch is a curious one. With the club since he was 14 and a regular unused substitute in the third division, it was only against Hibs a fortnight ago that he was finally given his first start. Naturally a defensive midfielder, but pushed into a more forward role to accommodate Kyle Hutton, Murdoch was impressive on his full debut and again against Raith. At 20 years old he can scarcely still be considered a promising youth, begging the obvious question: why has he not emerged before now?
"If you look at our squad there are a lot of good players here," offered McDowall by way of explanation. "That's the thing about the Old Firm - when you come here you have to be patient. Every now and then there'll be an Ian Durrant or a Lewis Macleod who'll go in at a right young age and handle it and do very well. If that's not the case you have to be patient. Also, where we've been in the last couple of years, it's been tough going as well and we had to make sure we were getting ourselves out of these divisions to be back to where we feel we should be."
Murdoch, in turn, seemed content enough to have secured a new contract but there was an admission that he sought counsel before signing it. "I talked to my family and they decided it would be the best for me if I stayed here," he said. "I've had to be quite patient [to get in the team]. You have to be in these circumstances."
McDowall was once a youth coach of some repute at Celtic which meant there was an expectation that he would perhaps give more young players a chance once he had replaced Ally McCoist as manager. Anyone expecting a string of teenagers to feature in the coming weeks, however, should prepare to be disappointed. "If they're good enough then why not? But they need to prove they're good enough. We can't just put young players in because everybody thinks that's the right thing to do."
There won't likely be a sighting of the four other Newcastle United loan signings in the near future either. While Haris Vuckic has proved to be a useful addition to the squad, Kevin Mbabu, Remie Streete and Gael Bigirimana remain at different stages of rehabilitation from injury. The fifth of the group, Shane Ferguson, has not been spotted in Scotland at all. "He's never been to the club as he's got a long-term injury," revealed McDowall. "I think he took a setback this week so it's even longer now."
One off-field matter that has impinged on the playing side is the decision by the Scottish Football Association's compliance officer to appeal the two-game ban, one suspended, doled out to Steve Simonsen for betting offences. It is a move that has puzzled McDowall.
"I am a bit surprised by that to be honest with you. I just find it unbelievable that someone from the SFA can bring it back up again after they've appointed a panel who made a decision on it. And now they [the compliance officer] aren't happy with that decision. So, what's the point of it?"
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