Irrelevant Rangers are stuck in a rut and new boys in brogues have left us no option but to question them - Keith Jackson

The events of the last week or so - or to put it more accurately the complete lack of them - probably perfectly sum up where Rangers are right now.

Stuck in the ultimate rut and going absolutely nowhere. Coming second best in a two horse race has been accepted so obediently for so long now that they have almost forgotten what it feels like to rule their own roost. Failure and disappointment have become the expected normality. Or, to put it another way, the natural order.

But, even so, the men in charge of the Ibrox club’s command centre have surpassed themselves by willingly turning a blind eye to the humiliation which was wreaked upon their supporters last weekend, as they watched on in a state of jaw slackening horror. To exit the Scottish Cup before Valentine’s day would once have been considered as a sacking offence all in itself.

But to do so by being defeated at Ibrox by a side from the Championship which was held to a 2-2 draw by East Kilbride only a week or so earlier? And posting perhaps the most catastrophic loss in the club’s proud history? At a moment in time when they have already been reduced to the role of by-standers in this year’s title race?

No that’s taking this dereliction of duty to an entirely new level and it almost beggars belief that, eight days on, no-one from within the Rangers boardroom has had the courage to pop a head around the door to provide some sort of communication to the fans who are still hanging around open mouthed, in a state of considerable shock.

Where is Patrick Stewart for example? The recently appointed chief executive was supposed to bring a bit of strategic thinking and leadership to a regime which was badly in need of all the help it could get.

Likewise, Fraser