Won't somebody please buy Rangers?

"Before accepting the role of chairman, I wanted to speak to three constituencies - the board, the management team, and the bank."

So began Alastair Johnston, in his first press conference after succeeding David Murray as Chairman of Rangers Football Club. In case anyone missed the point, he then went on to mention Rangers' reliance on "external funding" several times, leaving no doubt as to the club's biggest problem - the debt owed to the bank, which is estimated at around £25-30m. RFC are skint.

Johnston's plan to alleviate this debt burden is to renergise attempts to find a buyer for the club. How does he plan to achieve this, given that the club has been for sale for years without any serious bidders becoming public? Well, he thinks that the football landscape is changing, and he intends for Rangers to be at the forefront of that change. Given his involvement with IMG, the global marketing company, you can bet that Johnston will be pushing hard for new media-driven opportunities that will somehow include Rangers at the top table.

The press conference is well worth a watch. Downbeat and matter-of-fact, Johnston only becomes passionate later on (around the 16 minute mark on the BBC clip) when discussing potential new opportunities from media companies - ie TV. Rangers seem to be betting that they can escape the "modest revenues" of the SPL and join some sort of pan-European elite. In Johnston's words, "money talks".

Last night's game against Sevilla showed how far the present team is away from the current top European teams, while in the SPL Rangers have just stopped scoring goals. Not only is the squad in poor shape, Johnston can't promise any reinforcements in January, and Walter Smith's contract (which is also up in the new year) is still unresolved.

So even if he is right about a new, TV-driven structure for football that will enable Rangers to achieve parity with the wealthiest clubs in Europe, Johnston has short term issues to address. Unless some generous benefactor appears out of nowhere soon, expect a lot more pain at Ibrox in the coming months.

Burley stays on

So, after leading us up the hill, Gordon Smith and George Peat take us back down again with the same man in charge, having assured us that the summit was very professional and all that.

It's hard to work out if the Scottish Football Association is naive, indecisive, or stupid - or a mixture of all three. By announcing a "review" of George Burley's position (despite the fact his contract still had two years to run) before the recent do-or-die qualifiers, the inference was clear - failure to reach the play-offs would result in his removal from the post.

Yet, apparently satisfied by the performances against Macedonia and the Netherlands, they've decided to leave George Burley in charge. He wants the job, which is at least something, and it appears that his recent comments about a lack of support from the SFA have been heeded - though whether they will result in any change for the better is a moot point.

At least the Rangers Rebels have not got their way... and Bazza, Boyd and the rest can reflect at their leisure on their inability to put the country ahead of their own egos.

Knowing Burley's luck, we'll get a terrifying qualifying group for the European Championships, and any faint glimmer of hope will be extinguished by more baffling team selections and subsitutions. We can't be going into the next campaign with a huge amount of hope.

Still, good luck Scotland. One of these days, we might actually qualify for a major tournament, despite ourselves. Even better, we might finally address the underlying problems in our game that seem to hold the Scotland team back.

Winners and losers so far in the SPL

So... the transfer window has shut, we're three games in... who's hot and who's not in the SPL this term?

Looking Good...

Rangers have avoided any more departures, and that's a good thing for them. The income from the Champions League (they don't have to share any of it with Celtic now) will help with the cash flow at least, and the arrival of Jerome Rothen on loan from PSG adds experience and guile for those ties too.

Given that they are not even offering new contracts to anyone currently on the payroll (Kris Boyd is now in his final year), don't expect much business in January either, unless they sell first. They remain dependent on a few key players staying fit - otherwise, that title looks very vulnerable. For now, though, the Champions have made an impressive start.

A year ago, Derek Riordan returned to Hibs from Celtic for a rumoured £400,000 (big money these days for a non-OF outfit), and the Edinburgh club's chief executive described the deal as a "statement of intent". This summer, they've invested a similar sum in Anthony Stokes. Hibs now have lots of options up front and John Hughes has done some fairly radical reshaping of the rest of the squad, with Liam Miller the latest to join. It might take time to gel, but Hibs are looking promising.

So are the Arabs, with Craig Levein again pulling a rabbit out of the hat with Danny Cadamateri. Who knows how, but the well-travelled and wayward striker has hit the ground running. Dundee Utd have started well and still have a number of injured players to come back into the team. These two clubs are surely favourites for third place.

Motherwell will be pretty happy with a top six finish, but that looks on the cards following a decent start. Jim Gannon is living up to his reputation, and he's been given some money to bring in much needed strength in depth.

St. Johnstone, meanwhile, managed well-earned draws against Motherwell and Hearts, but got thumped by Celtic. That's a tough start for a promoted team, even if Hearts aren't anywhere near as good as they'd like to be, so probably a job well done. And they are scoring goals, which is crucial for the confidence.

Steady as she goes...

Neither wonderful nor woeful, St Mirren and Kilmarnock have both made respectable starts, and have legitimate reasons for optimism. As both clubs are vulnerable to being dragged into a relegation scrap, any early points are a bonus.

Early signs of shakiness...

After being dumped out of the Champions League, there were rumours that a few Celtic players might be on their way, but in the end they've all stayed. Things should be pretty peachy at Parkhead, yet somehow problems seem to be surfacing early in Tony Mowbray's tenure. The bad natured and narrow win at Hibs looked ugly, with Mowbray first orchestrating a "huddle" at the end of the game and then refusing to accept that McGeady dived (he did, and everyone knows it). A siege mentality at the end of August - is that really healthy?

Still, at least they are winning games, which is more than can be said for Hearts. Manager Csaba Laszlo has been spilling the beans about his difficult relationship with Vladimir, and we all know that Mr Romanov does not tolerate insubordination. Is his employee asking to get sacked? Hearts had a woeful summer, the new signings (much hyped by some supporters) have looked substandard so far, and Larry Kingston is stirring the pot, too. Oh dear.

Things aren't much happier at Aberdeen, where the manager also seems content to moan about his squad in public. Best get your excuses in now, Mark McGhee, because those fans who were so excited about your arrival in the summer might just be having second thoughts.

And so to Hamilton and Falkirk. Both managers were sounding very optimistic during the summer, but that optimism has looked seriously misplaced so far. Falkirk have, at least, held on to Darren Barr and Scott Arfield, two vital players. They are going to need them, while Hamilton look well short of the required standard.

Time to go, George...

Despite what George Burley thinks, this was not a "tough" qualifying group. To finish third behind a mediocre Norway side really isn't good enough - and has come at a high price, with arguments and recriminations throughout a fraught campaign.

There really doesn't seem much to build on - Burley's idea to turn the Scotland team into one that was more progressive and comfortable in possession was a good one, but he hasn't really managed to make it happen. And the continuing fall-out from the Rangers quartet means that a section of the media will always be against him.

So Burley should go. But who would replace him? Strachan surely won't take the job, and unless Craig Levein can be persuaded to take it on (possibly on a part-time basis), there are few other obvious candidates.

What to do about Burley?

So, crunch time in the World Cup qualifying campaign, with a must-win game against the Netherlands at Hampden this evening. A tall order, but then Berti Vogts (!) managed a 1-0 against the Dutch in Glasgow, so anything is possible.

Scotland may well end up runners-up in this qualifying group, and George Burley would be justified in claiming that this is all he could be reasonably be expected to achieve. But, of course, it's been a harrowing journey at times, not helped by an unkind schedule that has seen us wilt in a Macedonian heat wave and play a crucial tie in Norway during pre-season.

Burley's attempts to reshape the team as a more fluid unit have been laudable but ham-fisted. Along the way he has chopped David Weir in and out of the side and pissed off that Rangers quartet - Lee McCulloch, Bazza, Alan McGregor and Kris Boyd. And that has given the tabloids plenty of ammunition to kick him when things have gone wrong.

The Scottish Football Association will soon have a decision to make. If they sack Burley, they need to appoint yet another new man, and cross their fingers that it works out. This isn't the way to run a football team in an ideal world.

On the other hand, Burley has made a number of costly mistakes, and has failed to get the media on side. The job is about politics as well as football, but either he hasn't grasped this truth, or he's too stubborn to change his ways.

Not everything that has been thrown at Burley has been fair, but the results just haven't been good enough. Tonight's match may help answer whether or not he should stay at the helm.