John Hartson silenced the BBC apologists on Sunday with some straight talking about the downfall of Rangers (IL) and the struggles of the tribute act.
An interview to promote the latest book from Graeme Souness prompted the debate after the former Ibrox boss had pedalled the line that Scottish football was suffering from the liquidation of the old club.
Rather than challenge Souness to name a single club that had suffered from the events of 2012 the BBC elected to push the bizarre notion that Scottish football needs a strong Rangers.
Apparently a lack of interest in England is the basis for that argument but for the fans that fill the seats at Easter Road, Tynecastle, Pittodrie and elsewhere the feeble state of a club from Ibrox is a topic for humour rather than concern.
Radio Scotland are keen to push the ‘time to move on’ and the continuation myth but were confronted by some painful truths as Hartson got into his stride.
“Rangers need a strong Rangers for Rangers, not for Scottish football,” the Welshman stated with chief football reporter Chris McLaughlin silenced by the statement. “Celtic don’t need Rangers, Rangers don’t need Celtic. Celtic haven’t looked back in the last six years in my opinion.
“Outside of Scotland unless you are a Rangers diehard or a Celtic diehard the talk of Scottish football has always been minimal to be honest.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say Scottish football needs a strong Rangers. I don’t think that Celtic have missed them when they’ve been out.
“It’s Rangers people who have brought that club to it’s knees. You know who I’m talking about, I won’t say his name for legal reasons. Rangers people brought that club to it’s knees, I never thought that I’d praise the Rangers fans after everything that I’ve been called but the fans have played no part in Rangers’ demise.
“It’s Rangers people that have brought this club down, they got demoted three divisions (wrong big man, liquidated and new club parachuted in ahead of Spartans) simply for their misdemeanours.
“They cheated if you like, their over-payments, EBTs all this sort of stuff, it’s come out and been proven.
McLaughlin chipped in with ‘there’s more to it than that John’ but was ignored by Hartson.
The Welshman continued: “They were shoved down the leagues as a punishment, the fans have played no part in that.
“What I would say is that it’s Rangers people that have done that. They need to run the books properly and not pull every stroke in the book.”
Despite the strength and passion of his quotes BBC Scotland decided not to follow up on the strikers claim that his old rivals cheated.
With a list of pundits that covers Derek Ferguson, Alex Rae, Barry Ferguson, Billy Dodds and Alex McLeish it seems that unsettling Aberdeen and Derek McInnes.
CLICK HERE for the original interview, Hartson gets into his stride at 45 minutes.
