It is pretty painful viewing watching the slow, inexorable demise of Ally McCoist as the Rangers manager.

And it is even more painful watching a legend of any football club being turned on by legions of supporters who once venerated his name.

These are terrible days for McCoist. Each morning he wakes up to more demeaning stuff in newsprint, about how Rangers cannot afford to sack him, about how he should confront the issue of "honour" - a weighty word, that - and simply walk away. The subtext of it all is wounding: that McCoist is inept, and that he is damaging a club he greatly loves.

I hold no candle for McCoist, the manager. But I do for McCoist, the man. He has made some grim mistakes in recent years, such as demanding the names of the SFA's three-man Judicial Panel which issued sanctions against Rangers in April, 2012, but anyone who knows him will vouch for his character.

I have read ignorant, abysmal stuff recently, about McCoist's "greed", "malice" and "selfishness". There is a deluge of this poison clogging up the social media pipelines, and it is garbage. McCoist is a thoroughly likeable, helpful and decent guy, who just happens to now find himself in the wrong movie. The end will come.

He is to be judged - yes, harshly - as a manager, and on this he comes up short. He has had to put up with disarray and dissolution at Rangers over these past three years, and this cannot be forgotten, but he has also looked wary, safety-first, risk-free and unimaginative as a manager. The stodgy team of ex-SPL yeomen which McCoist has cobbled together to steamroller its way from the depths to the Scottish Premiership has proved a terrible frustration for Rangers supporters. There could have been a different way - a fresher way - to do it but McCoist could not see it.

The fact that his team has soldiered through two successive promotions - sometimes cited as something of an achievement - is thoroughly irrelevant. You would have to be an utter incompetent, being the manager of Rangers in these circumstances, not to have achieved that.

Instead it has been the style of play, the players available, the dugout decisions and much else - in other words, the very currency of football management - which has seemed woeful at Rangers. McCoist's undoing right now is not just triggered by the midweek farce in losing to part-time Alloa in the Petrofac Cup, but by his three previous unconvincing years at the helm.

If his plight now seems demeaning enough for him, it is proving an emotional agony for those who have spent nigh-on three decades revering McCoist. Places like Twitter and Rangers fans' forums are clotted with such imprecations as: "Ally, we love you - but please just go." It is a tragedy, in its own way, that it has come to this for McCoist.

Some are keen to point out his mettle and psychological resolve during and following the months of Rangers FC being consigned to liquidation in 2012. Charles Green and his various characters came along, the club was reborn, and McCoist stood foursquare amid the political mess. Back then, some of his football decisions were overlooked, as he simply stood for Rangers, a link to a vanquished past. He was, for the most part, very impressive.

But this season is proving his undoing as a manager. The competition is stiffer with clubs like Hearts and Hibs in the vicinity, and McCoist's decision-making has fallen under a sharper focus. More and more Rangers fans have not liked what they have seen, and disenchantment is setting in. It is surely the ultimate double-whammy for Rangers: dislike for the board off the field, and contempt for the football on it.

So now we come to this dubious issue of "honour". Oh, yes, we're all honourable, aren't we, if the wind is right? McCoist is being told to "do the honourable thing" and resign, and give up his claim to an £800,000 pay-off cheque, or whatever it would amount to. It is a lofty thing to ask, but harder to do, if you fancy the money. In truth, not many in McCoist's situation would just walk away.

That being said, this is the painful bit for him. McCoist values Rangers and has always loved the club, of this there can be no doubt. So what if, in fact, it is true that he is damaging Rangers by remaining? What if it is true that, by staying put, he is holding the club back?

In that situation, he would leave, right? When that time comes - if it ever does - this is the bridge that McCoist has to cross.

I cannot help but admire his character. In the social media age he is demeaned and traduced at almost every juncture, held up for ridicule, lampooned and castigated by batteries of ever-willing executioners. It is an excoriating environment in which to live. Yesterday, when reporters went up to Murray Park to see McCoist, he looked at their faces and knew there was only one thing they wanted to ask him about - his failings in his job.

If it comes to his sacking - and I still hope it doesn't - then Rangers will somehow have to do the deed. One main factor here could be Mike Ashley, whose estimated wealth at £3bn makes Rangers a mere flee in his empire, who may have to bankroll a restructuring at the club. But will Ashley be willing?

The Rangers AGM is now just over two weeks away. It is going to be a remarkable affair, presumably with shouting aplenty. McCoist, if he survives, will find respect in that environment, because that is how a certain body of Rangers fans and shareholders conduct themselves. But there will be others who are less charitable.

It is a sorry pass to be reached by McCoist. This Rangers legend is being turned on by his own. It doesn't look pleasant.