The problem with succulent lamb is that it isn’t for export.
Although it is consumed locally with the frenzied eagerness of the addict it is a highly acquired taste.
That is the only possible explanation for the toe-curling manoeuvrings yesterday as Ciaran Jenkins of Channel 4 News waited and waited in Mr Gerrard.
I was expecting some high-Level firefighting and I wasn’t disappointed.
However, it didn’t work with the chap from CH4 News.
Of course, this would not have happened had the broadcast organisation been local.
Quite simply they know the rules.
Of course, the Ibrox klanbase cling to the comforting fiction that Rangers (est. 1873) did not die in 2012.
They are helped in this denial by the local media.
Journalism did briefly break out when the CVA was refused in the summer of 2012.
However, since then the Fitba Fourth Estate has been in the denial business to sooth the klan.
It is not a coincidence that it was an award-winning journalist at Channel 4 News who happily agreed to write the foreword for Downfall.
Alex Thomson very kindly stated that my book was “a tale of our times. Brilliantly told”.
One theory for Mr Gerrard’s no-show yesterday was that he might not have kept to the Sevco approved script on the racist abuse of Neil Lennon.
The response by the Fitba Fourth Estate to Neil Lennon calling out the racism aimed at him has largely been craven, venal and shameful.
The Irishman had opened the door for the local media to explore the term “anti-Irish racism” with the context of Scottish football.
Of course, they can’t go there without calling out the core beliefs of the Ibrox klan.
Therefore, what could not be allowed was a real reporter from a genuine news organisation asking the current Sevco manager what he thought of the Irishman’s analysis of his beleaguered life in Fair Caledonia.
Since I started to report on matters Ibrox over a decade ago, with one or two honourable exceptions, it has been journalists furth of Scotland that have supported my work.
There are still great stories to be unearthed by following the money around Ibrox way.
For the avoidance of doubt, do not expect the local media to go near any of that.
Moreover, it should not fall to journalists who are outside Scotland to hold power to account in Planet Fitba.
However, the last ten years has told me that is precisely what has to happen.
Yesterday Ciaran Jenkins was the troublesome outsider who didn’t know the local conventions.
In simply being there he has done the state some service…
