Six years after effectively telling Ibrox fans ‘yer clubs’s deid’ Steven Naismith has no footballing regrets but still feels the pain of liquidation.
Three years on top wages plus a massive signing on fee at Everton ensures that he will never have to work again with 15 months still to run on his lucrative Norwich contract.
This afternoon wee Naisy will be back at the Ibrox football graveyard in the knowledge that the tribute act has never been further away from stopping Celtic.
Two different but equally devastating defeats from Brendan Rodgers’ side has sucked the remaining life out of the gullible support and it’s doubtful if the launch of a new orange change kit could lift morale much.
Six batches of season ticket money has been sunk into the new club since Naismith walked away with only a trail of debt, broken promises and fat contracts to characters like Joey Barton, Ally McCoist, Carlos Pena, Pedro Caixinha and Nico Kranjcar to reward the supporters.
“Football-wise, I feel vindicated definitely,” Naismith told the Daily Record.
“It was the hardest decision I ever had to make in my career but when you look at what I have achieved since it has been a good one. It’s still sad to see though – take away being a fan or having been at the club before or anything like that – just for Scottish football.
“There are a lot of good clubs in good places and that could make the league very entertaining.
“There’s always collateral damage and the more the process went on at Rangers the more you could see it was going to happen and that you were irrelevant in the whole situation.
“That’s the saddest thing. That so many good people pay the price.”
Looking at the most recent humiliations Naisy added: “There was so much optimism shown by Rangers after last month’s Old Firm league game.
“Although Celtic won 3-2, Rangers played really well. For the first 20 minutes Celtic were shocked and struggling to deal with Gers.
“Their quality shone through in the end but there was optimism that the Cup game would be lively.
“All my mates thought like that before the game but it wasn’t to be.”