Gonnae make it.

Honesty and opinion pieces don’t always go hand in hand. Often, it is more challenging and, dare I say it, enjoyable to be contrarian in nature, railing against the populist view or generally held stance. Essentially, the writer pits his or her rhetorical skills to the test in an attempt to persuade readers to challenge their own beliefs or consider a different angle.

For those writing or commenting on Rangers right now that task would be like trying to argue that the blazing, petrol-drenched room in which you are currently standing will probably be fine if you just let the flamesdie down a bit.

And yet as I type away on the Monday evening of transfer deadline day there remains a smidgen of hope which has squirrelled itself into the depths of my subconscious. The hypothetical to which I keep returning?

What if we’re all wrong?

The problem with hypotheticals, however, is that they rarely rely on evidence, and, as it stands, the case for the prosecution is damning, leaving little to justify a positive outlook. As a jury, we are perhaps guilty of prejudice against the accused but such is the nature of the beast. The eye-test, the statistics, the performances and the results have been uniformly unpalatable and the broad church which is the Rangers’ support is unusually unified.

He just won’t do. It’s a bad fit. It won’t work.

Sunday’s non-event at least showed some resolve within the group. There was plenty of endeavour and desire but the perspiration was devoid of inspiration and the game eventually resembled a face-off to establish the world’s tallest dwarf. In the end, what we feared did not come to pass but that should not give rise to optimism.

Any optimism at the moment is based on blind faith; it is fanciful and leaves no straw unclutched.

So while the clock ticks towards 11pm maybe it’s ok to be fanciful, ok to be childish. Indulge me.

Imagine you are seven or eight-years-old and you are out and about with your pals. You’re going to play a game – cowboys and Indians, sodjies, star wars, whatever (showing my age here…) – and discussion ensues. Roles are allocated: goodies, baddies, heroes and sidekicks. “Gonnae make it yous are….and make it ahl be…”

Then the all-important plot of this one act masterpiece. “Right, make it that ahm just about to be shot but Davieruns in to save us and takes two of yous out with a sword.”

“Aye, but gonnae make it he disnae notice that Alan’shiding a pistol behind his back and he takes Davie out.”

“And Make it that Davie dies saving Alan.”

And so plays out this scene. Heroes and villains, the dramatic self-sacrifice, the cold blooded slaughter of the innocent all just because you’d made it so. It would be perfect. Well, right up until some wide-o, feeling his undeniable talents had gone unrecognised by the casting process, started to improvise and fucked the whole thing up…

Then we grow and discover very quickly that ‘gonnaemake it’ doesn’t cut it.

As the saying goes, there is a time when childish things must go away, but I would ask if we might hold onto one for a bit longer? As it stands there are two new bodies in the door and there may be more. Can we make it that they’re really good? Make it that we’re not done for tonight. Make it the season isn’t finished in September. Gonnae?

Rob Erskine