Green is ‘working his ticket’ at Ibrox

Looking in from the outside, there are three possible conclusions to be drawn from the Charles Green situation at Rangers.

1. He is an idiot.

To come back into the club and immediately start trotting out the sort of statements that got him into such problems in the first place would indicate as much. The public reference to comments allegedly made in private by Walter Smith is a case in point. Some people might buy this logic, but I don’t.

2. He is actually in collusion with others at Ibrox as part of a cunning conspiracy to boost Ally McCoist’s credibility and popularity both at the club and in the country. He is doing so by playing the role of the pantomime villain. The same fans who have been booing Green have felt almost duty-bound to also give Ally cheers of support. Witness the displays seen at the friendly against Newcastle United on Tuesday night.

Again, I would rule this out.

3. He has come back in because he has anticipated there will be problems ahead for Rangers.

He owns 7.5% of the club, and is an investor without emotional attachment to the Light Blues. The fears, voiced during the week by Dave King, of another administration to come by the end of THIS year, point to the potential plummet in the share price.

Green knows that attacks on beloved icons such as Walter Smith could just provoke Rangers-minded businessmen enough to persuade them to buy him out by generating the level of antipathy previously levelled at Craig Whyte.

By now, you’ll have guessed I believe the correct answer is No 3.

I think Charles Green is, in layman’s terms, ‘working his ticket’, and doing so in a way that is detrimental to Rangers Football Club.

We can never know for sure whether his statements have had a detrimental effect on the players. They were knocked out of the League Cup by Forfar, a very poor result as we discussed in this column last week, but that might have happened anyway.

Under the rules of the competition, Ally was unable to field any of the eight new signings he has brought in as free agents.

For certain, it can’t have helped to have the whole ‘worst team in Rangers history’ debate to have been brought up again. Other, perhaps, than to distract from the real issue which is: ‘Are Rangers in trouble again?’

It would be awful to see the club go into administration once more.

Ally McCoist says he does not believe this will happen, which is reassuring to hear. The fact Dave King raised the possibility at all, though, is a concern.

King is a successful, South Africa-based businessman but most definitely a Rangers man. He has been bang on the money with several of his predictions about what the future would hold for the club.

We can only hope he is wrong this time.