WINSTON Smith was given two choices. He could agree two plus two equals five or be eaten alive by rats.

Dodgy arithmetic or a fate worse than death, which would end with him dead. Wisely, the ‘hero’ of George Orwell’s masterpiece '1984' opted not be rodent food in Room 101.

That infamous sum is art of football lexicon. Managers quite often accuse a journalist of "putting two and two together and getting five" when someone such as me isn't perhaps 100 per cent with a story.

They have a point. Everyone has filed a tale in which some guesswork has taken place. We join dots and not always successfully.

But sometimes that answer is correct. Please allow me now to get to five using only four fingers.

Last week, Gordon Strachan did something rather unusual for him. In what is an occasional column he has with a bookmaker, the former Scotland and, in this case most notably, Celtic manager spoke far more openly than he usually does about specific problems at a football club; that club being Rangers.

“Drawing with Dundee on the weekend was a huge blow for Steven Gerrard and his players. The eyes of the world were on you, the game was live on TV – there it is, there’s your chance. And they failed to take it."

Strachan as we know likes to chat but such direct criticism tends isn't really his thing. And he wasn’t finished.

“Who in the English Premier League would take any of Steven’s players at the moment? I don’t think there’d be a rush for them…a lot of Rangers’ signings have come from non-competitive games in the reserves, or at teams that haven’t had to compete, never a team like Rangers. So it comes as a shock when you arrive in Glasgow.”

When speaking about the players’ lack of discipline, WGS said: “It’s people not understanding, being thrown into Rangers from a small league or under-23 level, and taking on the expectation of winning every game.”

Rangers supporters were not happy. What business was it of his, many were heard to say. Personally, I felt he was saying exactly what Gerrard was thinking. My accounting has come up with the following theory

Gerrard wanted to get that message in the public arena but felt he couldn’t do it himself, as it would be politically unwise to do so.

Gary McAllister, assistant manager of Rangers, and Gordon Strachan are close friends. They were team-mates at Leeds United, where a league title as won, and Strachan took his old pal to Coventry City with him when he was made manager.

Is it really outrageous to suggest that Strachan did his pal a favour and said exactly what the Rangers management team wanted out there; that if they are going to win the league then better and more experienced players must be found?

Rangers are top of the Premiership with a squad which has too many passengers. Imagine what Gerrard could do with a few more like Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield and Alfredo Morelos. The Colombian was also criticised by Strachan but in my mind that was just to throw people like me off the scent.

It's not skullduggery. There is nothing wrong with it. This is how football works at times.

Brendan Rodgers has mentioned Aberdeen’s lack of a training ground, which has nothing to do with him, many times. This is Derek McInnes’s biggest complaint. The two get on well. Do you see where I’m coming from?

Let’s say I’m wrong, which happens more often than you might think, and Strachan spoke about Rangers completely off his own back. That doesn't mean what he said wasn't spot on.

Mark Allen, director of football, doesn’t have big money to play with but that shouldn't mean he can't get better than a young reserve team player or someone player in his twenties with only a handful of first-team appearances, is going to cut it up here.

Rangers could do with getting in two experienced first-team players - Steven Davis would be a start - next month. No more kids from a second team dressing room.

I still have Celtic to win the league; however, if Gerrard gets a couple of good ones in January, we are going to have a title race.

And Another Thing

NOBODY can run away from time. Except, of course, Kenny Miller.

The soon-to-be 39-year-old is scoring goals for fun, that’s seven in his last five games with Dundee, and aside from one bad miss, he was excellent in his side’s defeat at Kilmarnock. Miller has also become a shrewd pundit - he was always smarter than most - and his insight into the game is so far ahead if many of his peers. I fancy we will see him back in the dug-out one day. Livingston was the wrong movie for him but he;’s worth taking a chance on even if I would advise him to quite playing before going back into management. But will he ever retire?