Tom English: Pragmatism, not bravery, is the real motive behind Smith's U-turn

Published on Saturday 18 April 2009 20:05

WALTER SMITH must feel he can do no wrong. Lauded in the media for his hard line against his pair of bozos a fortnight ago and now saluted for changing his mind. Whoever said you can't have it both ways knew nothing about the politics of Scottish football.

He was, in the first instance, "decisive" Walter giving the SFA a masterclass in strong leadership and now that he's changed his mind he's been recast as "honest" Walter, big enough to admit his mistake, compassionate enough to give his players a second chance.

So he was right to begin with and now he's still right, even though he's admitted he was wrong. He's done a U-turn to rival that of the SFA's dizzy spin from pardoning the players to executing them in the space of a day, but instead of cynicism and ridicule (flung in great fistfuls at the arch flim-flammer Gordon Smith – and rightly so), the Rangers manager gets support and understanding. Every line of his explanation for the volte face is accepted without the injection of the kind of scorn reserved for the denizens of Hampden. There is little examination of other motives Smith may have, little exploration of other issues that may have driven him to this conclusion. There is just acceptance. Walter's word is law.

Walter Smith is a class act. We should stress that. He's an outstanding manager and a personable human being. He's civil to people. He's respectful. You'd have to travel a long way to find somebody who'll badmouth him and so he gets a break from the media at times like this.

So his change of heart is presented not as expedience but courageousness. He is called admirable and is praised for having the guts to go back on his original decision. You could see it that way. Of course you could. If you were observing developments through one eye. What about all the other issues no doubt whirring around in the manager's head?

Firstly, there is the league championship race. Rangers must win it, for glory terms but also for the sake of finance. They need Champions League football and Champions League lucre like they need their next breath. Or, put it another way, they need to deny Celtic Champions League football and Champions League lucre like they need their next breath. The thought of their great rivals hoovering up all sorts of easy money in the autumn and pulling further away from them in player resources must be chilling for all Rangers people who are soon going to see a brand new For Sale sign draped around the neck of their only dependable goalscorer, Kris Boyd.

The stakes are high, then, but Rangers' player base is dwindling. They have injuries, they have players out of form, they have guys coming back into the team (Christian Dailly, Andrius Velicka) that you thought had disappeared off the face of the earth. They are without Kevin Thomson, Lee McCulloch, DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Lafferty, Kenny Miller. Their young guns have fallen silent; Steven Naismith and John Fleck are not go-to men in this kind of environment, with this kind of pressure.

If Smith has any more injuries he can kiss goodbye to the title and the Champions League and all that lovely money. You wouldn't say that he'd call it a day if the league was lost again, but the thought would surely enter his head. There's a lot of chips on the table right now.

So does it make sense to have your best goalkeeper and your most experienced midfield player kicking their heels while you patch things up with Dailly in your midfield and God knows who to replace him should his old legs give in on the run-in? No, not in a million years. Whatever you make of Ferguson's powers – completely shot or merely dwindling or still radiant – you're better having him available in a crisis than not. And McGregor? Expedience, expedience, expedience. Neil Alexander is a decent goalkeeper, but what's your back-up? Rangers' people will tell you that there are talented goalkeepers on the scene at Murray Park, but nobody that you could trust to handle the mad intensity of the weeks ahead. Nobody even close.

Smith is nobody's fool. His team has done well since the two boozers were banished. They've dug deep and have come up with three SPL wins in a row, two of them away from home against teams battling for all their worth to avoid relegation, and a third at home against Motherwell, who were fighting like demons to squeeze into the top six.

They've won three in a row without Ferguson. The last time they did that in the SPL? September. Without Ferguson. The guy doesn't deserve his place in the Rangers team any longer, not when everyone is fit. But everyone isn't fit. Smith has his principles and it was his moral compass that pointed him towards severe censure a few weeks back. He was genuinely appalled at the ignorance and disrespect of his players giving the V-signs. Different emotions apply now. Reality has set in. Pragmatism is the order of the day. Celtic are there for the catching but Rangers have an injury calamity. The boys becoming available for selection has little to do with Smith's "honesty", as it was described the other day, or his guts or his feeling that he was a little unfair on them to begin with. It has nothing to do with the SFA singling his two players out for blame, as Smith himself suggested.

It has to do with him making decisions that might help bring the title back to Ibrox. Given the packed treatment room at the club and the chronic shortage of options in his squad, the return of Ferguson and McGregor was inevitable. It was Smith at his most practical. This is not a redemption song he's singing. I doubt very much that he's forgiven them for what they've done, but he's prepared to forget – if only for a little while, if only to try and take the title away from Celtic. That's what this U-turn is about. That and only that.