IT’S an image that sums up where Rangers find themselves right now.

A desolate punter, arms folded and face tripping him, caught by the telly cameras as he slumps alone amidst an ocean of empty blue seats.

7

The image of the solitary Rangers fan has gained traction on social media

7

Celtic fans occupied three stands in Perth

A poster boy for misery, frustration and failure.

A one-man choir singing I Am The Person.

Not to mention a living, breathing, fuming nudge to the Ibrox board that – whisper it – what St Johnstone did for the visit of Celtic might not be the worst idea in the world.

Give them three stands?

Pocket a fortune in ticket money?

Then maybe STILL see them off the premises with their tails between their legs?

Sure, there’s a more-than-evens chance of them being chased down Edmiston Drive by an army of Bluenoses brandishing flaming torches and indecipherable banners. 

But then you think about 30,000 visitors at, say, £50 a pop? Sixty? For a game that every opposition punter wants to be at but which every one of yours could see far enough?

And then you think, why not cut their losses and just invite the ones who bothered to stay to the end of the Hibs defeat on Saturday to be at the last Old Firm game of the season?

At which point it should of course be pointed out to the hard of thinking that I’m only kidding.

This is not a serious suggestion that Rangers should willingly give three sides of their home ground away to their bitterest rivals rather than grudgingly setting 2,000 tickets aside.

After what we witnessed at McDiarmid Park, though, it’s a thought.

Because an idea that I for one was outraged at when it was announced turned out to be an absolute win-win-win for the Perth club.

When they said they were throwing the place open to Celtic fans for what looked them like being a title party, it felt like they’d given up on their own manager and players, that they were admitting they were only making up the numbers on a day on a day when their own future hung in the balance.

Yet the way Simo Valakari set his boys up, the way they took the game by the scruff, got the early lead and defended it with their very lives … well, it took what could easily have been a grim old day in their history and turned it into one to tell the grandweans about.

Listening on the radio on the way to Tynecastle, having the home support crammed into the main stand where the commentary point is even managed to amplify their every roar and cheer.

So, have I changed my mind about the basic principle of shifting your own diehards around for the benefit of visitors? Absolutely not.

What this game at McDiarmid Park proved, however, is that there’s the very odd occasion when it might just work to everyone’s benefit, when the money pulled in plus the result gained might just make a big difference where they’re playing next season and how much they have to throw at it.

7

Daniels Balodis celebrates at end

While back at Ibrox, all their fifth home defeat on the spin reminds the board is that with every seat that tips up and every pair of feet stomping early for the exits, another tenner drops off the value of the deal they’re doing with the 49ers crew; tenners that the people whose dosh has propped Rangers up for a long time now simply can’t afford to lose.

Then again, what else did those expect when they brought in who they did as caretaker manager?

I wrote at the time that it wasn’t a Rangers Man they needed in the dugout – it was someone who could teach them to defend properly, to win balls in the middle of the park, to bury chances. 

On Saturday, that Rangers Man was the first to admit that they did none of those things. You could see the hurt in his eyes, hear the anger in his words and his tone. 

What doesn’t wash, however, is the fact that when these performances were happening under Philippe Clement, he was the fall-guy, the dud, the one they needed shot of – yet now that a club legend’s in charge, it’s down the players not listening, not doing what they’re being asked. 

7

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers applauds the fans

Well, I’m sorry. But you can’t get the job because the last manager carried the can for rank rotten results, then dump the blame for yet more rank rotten results onto the team.

Meanwhile, back to McDiarmid Park for the other image that, for me at least, summed up the weekend.

It’s the one of Brendan Rodgers, wandering the pitch post defeat with his phone at his ear, only to look up and see a lawnmower blocking his path.

First he loses to Barry Ferguson. Now it’s Massey Ferguson…

HERE’S how I always presumed it would work once Queen’s Park bit the bullet and turned pro.

They’d start signing players from the league above the one they were playing in, the way Livi and Gretna once did, but without the element of financial hari-kiri.

They’d sell the National Stadium to the Blazers and rebuild Lesser Hampden to hold 6,000.

They’d set themselves a medium-to-long-term goal of re-establishing themselves as a top flight club for the first time since the late 50s.

7

Queens Park celebrate their win over RangersCredit: Alamy

And the thing is, it all seemed eminently doable, especially by the level of investment and of sensibility Sir Willie Haughey brought to the table.

Yet here they are today, with the sugardaddy ready to walk away, with an academy that produced Scotland’s current captain being scrapped and the women’s team to follow.

Just 57 days after their name rang around the planet in the wake of that 1-0 Scottish Cup win at Ibrox, it’s all as sad as it is baffling.

I’m baffled by why what’s now known as City Stadium isn’t big enough to hold the 1034 who watched a 5-0 home defeat to Airdrie.

I’m baffled as to why they’d spend hundreds of thousands on giving it a state-of-the-art pitch that’s staged more training sessions than it has competitive games.

7

BIll finds the Queen's Park situation desperately sad

More that this, though, I’m sad to see a project that seemed to have so much potential, so many possibilities, falling apart the way it currently is.

Sir Willie has promised to leave the club debt-free when he leaves next summer, which is nothing less than you’d expect. The club’s official statement on our story revealing his departure doesn’t suggest any sort of fallout, just the end of a sponsorship agreement.

You just wonder where Queen’s Park will be by the start of the 2026-27 season, what their place in the footballing world will be.

After all, before all the investment and the spending began they had the twin unique selling points of being the world’s only amateur club playing in a senior league AND doing it in an international arena.

After it? Seems they’ll be a middling, second-or-third-tier outfit muddling around in a upscale junior ground, wondering if the seven years gone by were all some sort of weird dream.

MIDWEEK at Anfield and Everton defender James Tarkowski launches himself like a torpedo to make a clearance and cements Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister on the follow-through.

Anyone who knows anything about football knows it’s dangerous, reckless challenge and that he’s lost his head for a split-second – yet somehow VAR tells ref Sam Barrott it’s NOT a red card.

Now fast forward to Rugby Park on Saturday, where Motherwell defender Kofi Balmer is upright and in control as he plays a pass, only for the follow-through to catch Killie winger Fraser Murray between the legs.

7

Referee Matthew MacDermid is in the firing lineCredit: Kenny Ramsay

This time, anyone who knows anything about football can see Balmer hasn’t lost the plot, hasn’t launched at an opponent and that it’s not a red card.

Yet this time, ref Matthew MacDermid’s gets the word in his ear to have a look and send the lad off – and no one’s going to tell me the Tarkowski incident wasn’t in VAR Andrew Dallas’s mind when he made that recommendation.

A perfect example of how two wrongs don’t make a right. 

Not to mention another remember that too many of our officials not the rules, but not the game.

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page