Everything whirls around in a cycle, sometimes slowly, occasionally at chaotic full pelt. And now and again things get lost. On the days when the tumble of developments is at its fastest, what would normally be a significant event can become submerged by the bigger stuff.
It happened four days ago when Rangers appointed Malcolm Murray as chairman. Usually that would be a big deal. This time it was met with a general "yeah, yeah, whatever -"
Murray could turn out to be a chairman whose reign does not cover a single Rangers match. If the Charles Green consortium is open to a quick sale – and of course it is, if the price is right – then the new regime could be gone before they've warmed the seats. Forces are being mobilised against them and crucially they have secured assets rather than goodwill. But even if there is a sense of transience and impermanence about Green, Murray, director Imran Ahmad and finance director Brian Stockbridge, that may be misleading. And they are hugely significant while they have control.
Right now these guys are Rangers (or The Rangers, or Club 12, or whatever). Green, in particular, is lobbying other clubs on Rangers' behalf, a process which could kill or preserve their hope of securing enough support to be voted into the SPL next season.
Even if Walter Smith's rival consortium succeeds in taking over the club, it will be Green and his associates who can shape its short and medium-term future by saying all the right things to the other SPL chairmen before voting day.
So far, pretty much everyone at Rangers has been guilty of badly misjudging how others see them. Murray, the newcomer, was at it, too, when he said his piece for the first time in the Sunday papers. This was his view on the SPL vote to allow the newco to join: "For me, there is no point in killing the patient while he's trying to recover. Do that and the whole ward dies. It would be like a mass suicide pact and that doesn't make any sense. Overdoing punishment would be a nonsense."
Even now – liquidated and broken, with new voices piping up on their behalf – the message is unrepentant and challenging. You can't survive without Rangers. Sky will disappear without us. Keep us out and you'll die next. We've been punished enough. Craig Whyte did all of this, take it out on him. Vote us in . . . or else.
Opinions are now so entrenched that Green's charm offensive towards other clubs – he began with Hibernian chairman Rod Petrie on Friday – may be pointless. The lack of public contrition and humility from Rangers has been a damaging constant throughout this saga. In the rush to distance themselves from Whyte they've never sounded like they've seen others as their victims.
Under Whyte they bought players and gave lucrative contracts they could afford only by not paying their taxes. They were in a league in which every club they played – and usually beat – did pay the revenue. Helped by Whyte's financial doping they got £2.6m for finishing second, almost a million more than Motherwell, who were third. No wonder it rankles other supporters.
It could do Rangers no harm to publicly acknowledge that they need others to help them now. Why not say they want to earn back the trust and respect of other clubs? Why not say they understand why other fans are angry, but that as a newco they're determined to reinvent themselves and fully commit to improving the SPL as a whole? That would be something.
Instead, Murray said: "It's like the French Revolution where people are demanding heads be cut off anyone involved in Rangers even though 99.9% are innocent. Further extreme punishments – and remember the club has already suffered hugely – would be an emotional reaction. Bitterness isn't good and, hopefully, people will look at compromise because it won't help any other club if there is less revenue from television or anywhere else about the game."
Murray overlooked the fact that so far there has not been a single SFA or SPL punishment which has materially affected Rangers at all, let alone been "extreme": they finished the season second, the same position they were in when 10 points were docked for going into administration. Their three-year European exclusion may feel like a punishment but actually it is merely a consequence of failing to meet Uefa entry criteria as a newco. The SFA's year-long transfer embargo no longer applies as things stand (although, of course, Lord Carloway will revisit the case and a strong sanction is expected). Liquidation, the stress and madness of the takeover saga, players being free to leave if they wish, being out of Europe: none of that is down to the SFA, SPL or any rival club.
The thing is, others do recognise that Rangers have suffered enormously from the chaos of Sir David Murray, then Whyte's mismanagement. The club has been humiliated and its historic timeline fractured. Good, innocent people at Ibrox and Murray Park have spent the past four months fearing for their jobs. Fans are being taunted about "losing" their history.
Yet the general lack of sympathy from outsiders has been profound, partly because Rangers – under Murray, Whyte, and now another Murray – have failed to sound sorry for anyone but themselves.
