Kris Boyd has turned his anger on to Mark Allen and the Ibrox cheer-leader pundits that dominate the Scottish media.
The Kilmarnock striker suffered through Sunday’s Hampden humiliation in the Sky Sports box while fellow pundits went into hiding after weeks discussing how the gap was closing.
Hampden provided further proof that Sevco are as far away as ever from the champions elect with Brendan Rodgers inflicting four goal defeats on three different managers over a 19 month period.
Throughout February there was constant talk about a title challenge from Ibrox on the back of an apparently stunning transfer window masterminded by former Manchester City star maker Allen.
The cold reality is that Jamie Murphy, Sean Goss, Jason Cummings and Russell Martin were getting punted out of their clubs with barely a meaningful 90 minutes between them this season.
Another batch of new arrivals is required during the summer but with the first £4m of season ticket money going to Close Brothers Allen will need to look out his loaves and fishes to put together a challenge as Celtic set out for number eight.
Writing in The Sun Boyd admitted: “There are Rangers cheerleader pundits who point to the big money Celtic have spent in comparison to everyone else but the money Rangers have spent is more than Aberdeen and Hibs put together — and Kilmarnock too for that matter — and yet they’ve only won four of the nine games against them.
“When it comes to signings Rangers have guys on loan who can’t get a game right now and yet we’re led to believe they’ll be signing long-term deals in the summer.
“How is that going to take Rangers forward? If you can’t get into that team now then how are you going to take the team to the next level?”
Turning his attention to the Director of Football he added: “Then there’s Mark Allen, the so-called director of football.
“I’m sorry, but what does he actually bring to the table? What does he actually do to earn his big-money salary?
“He’s meant to be building things for the future, so why did he allow an up-and-coming player like David Bates to sign for another club?
“I’m told Bates got offered just a £250 pay rise so it’s little wonder he decided it was time to go. It was similar with Danny Wilson.
“People might argue about how good those two boys actually are as players but what worries me is the way they were treated, the way their contract talks were handled.
“Do you think Wilson wanted to uproot his family and go halfway around the world to play in the MLS? But Allen seems to have mismanaged that situation and left him with no option.
“The club tried to put a positive spin on things when they brought in a handful of players during the January transfer window but it wasn’t good enough.
“I may have bought into it myself, if I’m being honest. I looked at the signings and talked them up, mainly because I wanted to see them do well but Rangers shouldn’t be signing so many loan players when they’re trying to bridge a gap with Celtic, they’ve got to be bigger than that.”
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