It will pain some Rangers fans to look east right now and see the stability and progress brought by supporters to Heart of Midlothian compared to this time-honoured Ibrox gnashing of teeth.

Hearts survived a threat of liquidation, their fans mobilised themselves in concert, and the club owner right now is someone with money, authority, and seemingly the backing of the entire fanbase.

Following the Romanov destruction at Hearts, MPs got involved, an entire community roused itself, and the Foundation of Hearts fan-movement became an astounding success.

Indeed, as part of the whole healing process at Hearts, the club is due to be fully supporter-owned by season 2017-18.

By contrast, Rangers succumbed to liquidation, fell into the hands of a scrupulous few, and the reformed club in 2012 now knows nothing but grief and enmity as Mike Ashley, an unnerving outsider, has arrived on the scene.

The recent history of Rangers is a complex saga but this question remains pertinent: why was the club's support, unlike that of Hearts, unable to mobilise itself sufficiently and put money up to avoid what has subsequently unfolded?

I've heard and read more than one vexed Rangers fan regret this sorely over the past 18 months. Around 8000 Hearts fans have donated monthly over the past year or more to help deliver their club from dissolution.

The Foundation of Hearts' appeal - all of it coming out of supporters pockets - remains on course to raise in total around £6.3m. £3.8m of that is providing the club with working capital, and a further £2.5m will eventually repay or "buy out" Ann Budge.

Imagine - applying a fairly reasonable demographic here - if 25,000 Rangers fans had been able to do likewise from the moment the old Rangers fell into administration. For some reason, it just didn't happen.

There are various Rangers fans' movements afloat now to buy shares in the club and re-claim it for the fans - and some of these initiatives look pretty impressive. But a very large horse has bolted.

I accept there are some key differences in the ways the Hearts and Rangers stories unfolded.

In Ann Budge, Hearts had the good fortune to have a wealthy, successful businesswoman who loved the club and had the means to get involved in its salvation.

In this regard, Rangers really had no-one. They had plenty talkers - Jim McColl, Paul Murray, Dave King - but no-one who either could close the deal or wanted to close it.

McColl, of Clyde Blowers fame, remains the Rangers-minded saviour who got away. He is an impressive man who would have been magnificent for the Ibrox club. But McColl just didn't want it enough.

So we have reached this Mike Ashley juncture. Once again the dispute among Rangers fans towards this man - and this rather sums it all up - is sharp, divisive, and at times venomous.

It has been shocking to read the loathing being traded back and forth by Rangers fans as some back Ashley while others detest him. This is a football club support, with its various groups and factions, which simply has not been able to unite sufficiently.

It is time now to take the chance on Ashley at Rangers. In fact, there appears to be no alternative: a combination of Ashley's hardball and Dave King's verbal putty has seen to that.

King brings his own dubious baggage - and for the sake of brevity let's not go there again - but all that aside, his tactics in trying to take over Rangers have looked pitiful.

Buying Rangers shares from people - the very thing Ashley set about - appeared to be anathema to King. Thus, he calmly opened a door to allow the Newcastle United owner to saunter in to Ibrox.

It is a very weird scenario. Ashley, a man with less than 10% of the club, is now dictating everything, including the make-up of the Rangers plc board. This quite rightly warrants an SFA investigation.

Over the next few weeks Ashley will take Rangers in a corporate arm-lock. It is hard to see how King or Paul Murray or any of the other perennial triers will be able to stop him.

No-one knows for sure how Rangers will fare under Ashley, or what his intentions for the club are. But, first, he is supremely wealthy. Second, surely a successful, restored Rangers is the only intelligent course for Ashley to pursue, in terms of his own benefits?

Meanwhile, those Rangers fans who aren't busy slating eachother can only look on in dismay. It has come to this, when it all could have been very different.