Three letters terrify Walter Smith as he tries to enjoy his retirement. T, e and n.
Having managed Rangers twice and served as a director and then chairman of Sevco he knows that stopping Celtic succeeding is the only thing that matters.
Working alongside Dave Murray, Smith worked with some incredible players as the Bank of Scotland funded his success as manager first time around.
When he replaced Paul le Guen, EBT contributions went through the roof as Gordon Strachan’s bid to win a fourth title was halted.
The combination of those two policies led to Murray selling the club for £1.
With an almost level playing field Celtic are within touching distance of six in a row but it’s another number than terrifies Smith.
“You can print this, it is an easy headline to say Celtic will go on to win ten in a row,” he told the Daily Record. “But it is difficult to keep that level of success in any football club, so who can say?
“A couple of the people who are there at the moment have been involved in the board at Rangers previously so they should know what it takes to make Rangers successful. So that’s what they have to aim for and I’m sure they are doing that.
“But you don’t get a lot of time. The thing that bothers me is, with not having a lot of time, the longer it goes on is the biggest aspect becomes the deterioration of the support.
“Now that they are back and their biggest rivals are in such a strong position, it’s hard for everybody at Rangers to take but the manager needs to find a way to win and the board have to find a way of getting Rangers back into that position.
“It’s not going to be easy. I don’t envy any of them the task at the present moment.”
With no bank overdraft facility, no stock market listing and no NOMAD it seems that there is no conventional way for Sevco to raise funds.
None of Mark Warburton’s side could be sold for the sort of fee that Celtic got for Stefan Johansen and European football with a zero co-efficient is miles away even if the SFA dodged the obvious licence questions.
It seems that only the return of Smith to the dug-out will give the club from Ibrox a chance of stopping Celtic reaching the word the Ibrox legend dreads. TEN.
