At last the situation is clear at Ibrox and everything can be out in the open with Dave King officially in charge but in footballing terms the question of whether he is a fit and proper person ought to become clear in the next few days.

From this perspective the first, telling test is a straightforward one. Will he do the right thing and invite Stuart McCall to continue as manager, regardless of the outcome of the play-offs?

This should have been dealt with before the club went into them offs because McCall has already done a magnificent job just to make sure they are taking part.

That may seem a ridiculous analysis given the standard of players he has been working with as compared with the opposition, but it is worth remembering that when he took over just two months ago it had become a serious possibility that they would not get there.

At that time the team had failed to win in seven matches and, as well as Hibs, Queen of the South and Falkirk were closing on them.

At Cowdenbeath the day after King and co took ownership, rather than that give them a boost, the team trooped off the Central Park pitch complaining about the surface and the overhead conditions following a nil-nil draw. Cowdenbeath had been beaten 10-0 by Hearts in their previous match.

Four days later a return to Ibrox and on a pristine surface in decent conditions in front of an audience which contained, for the first time in a long time, club legend John Greig, they had the chance to put clear water between themselves and Queen's yet the old Rangers ruthlessness was absent as they failed to hang onto a lead.

Even McCall's arrival did not generate an immediate reaction when leads were squandered against struggling Livingston and Alloa, but somehow or another, given his first real chance to work with the players, assess his options and remind them what they were capable of, he then inspired them to a 2-0 win at Hibs which stood in extreme contrast to the 9-1 aggregate scoreline by which three previous matches had been lost to the Edinburgh side.

The run since, which had, before last night, brought a solitary defeat in 11 matches, may be no more than should have been expected from this squad, but there was little sign of them producing it before McCall took charge.

In terms of wider qualifications for the job McCall should be judged by two things, namely his capacity to win matches as a Scottish football manager and his commitment to the cause.

This is a man who has twice taken Motherwell to the runners-up spot in the Premiership and was a stalwart of the Rangers team that won nine-in-a-row ...

Any hesitation about the way forward should only be on his part, then. McCall admitted to being burned out earlier in the season when opting to leave Fir Park and the only question now should be whether he has been re-energised by this return to a club he loves, or it has exhausted him once more.

That he has not yet been offered the job permanently seems utterly ridiculous, but then the situation is symptomatic of a wider malaise in football.

In that context the most extreme example of recent years involved another Scottish red-head.

If any club in the world that should have understood the benefit of showing faith in an appointment, defying the fickleness of fans and giving a new man time to impose his methods and develop his ideas it was Manchester United.

That was what they had done back in the eighties and were rewarded for spectacularly with the greatest period of footballing stewardship in the history of the sport.

When Alex Ferguson finally chose to step aside it looked as if, given the length of contract they awarded his successor, they had fully absorbed that lesson. Yet a difficult seven or eight months, largely caused by their lateness to the transfer market and the failure to offer Davie Moyes the sort of support there that Louis van Galle was to receive a year later, saw supporters rebel and that contract was ripped up.

It was a laughable example of the worst kind of football directorship and showed that no one is immune.

With what is, in this case, the ironic exception of Newcastle fans and their hatred of Mike Ashley, supporters too often focus their full attention on managers when their teams are failing, rather than the people who decide what resources are available to them.

Given the chance I would like to see governing bodies introduce a footballing clause in the 'fit and proper person' guidelines which would see directors face the threat of disqualification from office if they were party to getting rid of more than one manager in a season, or more than two in any three year period.

McCall is so obviously the right man for the Rangers job, regardless of how they do in the remaining play-off matches and how supporters react, that one is tempted to fear for him.

The King is on his throne, however. We wait to see how whether shrewd, fair-minded rule is at last in place at Ibrox or whether Rangers are in the grasp of another despot.