Would Ally McCoist ever "do the right thing" - were he to see it that way - and walk away from Rangers?
The received wisdom in football is that he won't, and that few ever do. A toiling football manager, come what may, is said to hang on for grim life, or, more accurately, for a compensation cheque when his contract is ripped up in the event of a sacking.
The time might come soon for McCoist to make such a decision. His Rangers team is leaden and unimaginative and has served up nearly three years of eyesore football. And now it is all starting to bite at the Ibrox manager.
McCoist is a Rangers legend, which helps to draw some of the sting. But enough fans are now clamouring for him to go.
Would McCoist ever put the club first? If he believed that he was failing, or that his stewardship of Rangers was damaging the club, would he ever say: "I need to leave. A better way is needed for Rangers. It is best for the club that I go."?
It would be quite an honourable thing to do and, as much as some are baying for his blood, would vouchsafe McCoist's reputation in the eyes of many otherwise angry Rangers fans.
The heat is now on McCoist big time. A miserable draw against Alloa and the 2-0 defeat to Hearts has left him looking distinctly sackable as Rangers manager.
Yes, this is still November, and yes, almost six months of the season remain. There is time yet for McCoist to turn things around.
But things right now look pretty awful for Rangers. And the club's manager has done little to convince the game's observers that any of his many talents lies in a football manager's office.
McCoist needs a minor miracle to salvage his reputation.
On Saturday at Tynecastle the result, in one sense at least, was not the main bone of contention for Rangers fans.
Instead, what struck home was a Hearts team bursting with youth and self-improvement, against a Rangers team under McCoist that was built on age and experience, with next to no imagination or flair apparent in its construction.
We can say it one more time, even at the risk of tedium. McCoist and Rangers could have chosen a different path back in 2012 when the club had to rebuild from scratch. But the emphasis on youth and organic growth was dismissed in favour of bought-in stiffs to get the job done.
Many supporters are contemptuous of that strategy, and they are not using an easy hindsight. At the time many said they desired another way, a better way, and would support McCoist as a more youthful Rangers journey - risks and all - was undertaken.
It is inconceivable, even amid the club's various political messes, that a Rangers coaching team could not have produced a younger, leaner, more dynamic team for the future. Hearts, to cite one club, have done it.
But it didn't happen at Ibrox. Instead, some durable and plodding ex-SPL yeomen have been hired to grind their way through the divisions. That was all well and good, until McCoist and Rangers faced stiffer competition. Then the truth comes out.
On Saturday McCoist and Rangers face Kilmarnock - another team with nothing like Rangers' material advantages - in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. Victory would greatly aid McCoist in his precarious state. Defeat, and he'll be staring down a barrel.
It is said that Rangers cannot currently fire or hire a manager, because the club's board is in such disarray. But with a PLC board and a club board still in place, this cannot be true. Never mind Mike Ashley - like him or not - and his growing power.
McCoist seeks no sympathy, no bleeding hearts, no pile of excuses for his perceived failings. But the one thing he wants and needs - time - is fast running out.
He lacks the cynical football edge that Walter Smith had. And whatever that elusive gift is that successful football mangers have, which propels players to be a success, McCoist appears to lack as well.
If McCoist, by some miracle, suddenly transforms himself in a dugout, and starts to garner trophies, then we will all line up to apologise to him. And I will be at the head of the queue.
Somehow, I just can't see it. It may be that, for the sake of Rangers, he has to step down. It may become a question of honour.
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