Diouf gets warm welcome from Ibrox fans and a hot reception from Hearts

The roar as he replaced the injured Lee McCulloch after 20 minutes, which was accompanied by low cries of "Diouf, Diouf, Diouf", represented the sort of garlanded welcome no-one had anticipated. It was all so cordial. Indeed, as he had warmed up earlier, a small group of fans chanted "he's blue, he's white, he gobs on green and white, El Hadji Diouf".

Maybe the Ibrox faithful were so happy to see the 30-year-old in the flesh because they could then be relieved that he doesn't have horns and a tail. He showed in a sparky run-out that his combustibility could be channelled elsewhere than spitting on fans and spitting venom in the most foul terms imaginable at a stricken opponent, the main items on a lengthy charge sheet.

For all his crimes and misdemeanours, the press Diouf has attracted in recent days has proved as over-the-top as his most despicable activities. Yes, he is a reprehensible character. In that he is hardly alone among the football fraternity. Indeed, reprehensible characters are to be found in all walks of life. Even, indeed, in reprehensible newspapers where such people will happily become tu'penny ha'penny moralisers on subjects such as, eh, the conduct of Diouf.

And let's face it, when it comes to the many, many bampots that have (dis)graced Scottish football, Diouf appears a minor horror. His notoriety almost exclusively centres on what has issued from his mouth, in terms of phlegm and words. He is a toytown bully boy, then. At Ibrox alone in recent times they have held faith with former heroes who have consorted with terrorists and beaten their wives. Subjectivity can always make for standards that seem to double themselves over.

More pertinent for Walter Smith will be the sort of player, not the person, he has recruited from Blackburn. The signing, which the Rangers manager discovered was a possibility at 5pm on Monday, was a no-brainer. Freeing up the wages paid to James Beattie, by packing the Englishman off on loan to Blackpool, allowed it to happen. And swapping Diouf for Beattie, whatever the attendant condemnatory publicity, is good football business.

From his first moments, Diouf looked more with it, more likely to be the originator of attacking menace, than Beattie did across his whole ten goalless appearances. Not that the Senegalese man might find scoring any easier as it is now ten months since he has found the target.In his defence - and you don't often hear that phrase when the career of the former Lens, Liverpool, Sunderland, Bolton man is under discussion - he tends to play wide, Steven Davis moved inside to allow him to be deployed on the right of a five-man midfield.

Diouf was immediately into the thick of it, Marius Zaliukas booked for taking him out unceremoniously. The forward then demonstrated a flair for the dramatic by tumbling spectacularly under another innocuous challenge from the Lithuanian - who, moments later, Diouf cut down in an act of retribution that referee Brian Winter decided to let go unpunished. A marked man in the media, it seemed a similar story with those in maroon jerseys, since before the half was out Ian Black had also had his name taken for cementing the Senegalese man. Mind you, Black dishes out the treatment irrespective of reputation. The half ended with Diouf, who demonstrated his fiery nature by going berserk at a couple of daft decisions, seeking out Winter and calmly questioning the official about some of the treatment meted out to him.

The new man was presented with the perfect opportunity to end his goal drought midway through the second period when a poor passback put him in on goal. But Diouf dithered and the chance went abegging. He continued to make a nuisance of himself - in the right way - and in the closing minutes Ryan Stevenson became the third player to be cautioned for a crude tackle on him. It doesn't make for such great copy but the truth is that last night Diouf was more victimised than vicious.