STEVIE G chucked it to Danny Rohl, who tossed it to Kevin Muscat.
And now, believe it or not, the Aussie has hoofed it right back to Danny.
In the space of eight days, the hunt for a new Rangers boss has morphed into a game of Pass The Parcel with a lit firework.
With the board cowering in case it blows up in their faces.
After the threats and menaces spelled out on giant bedsheets to CEO Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell during Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with Dundee United, the only way to douse a fuse burning down to the quick was to get the Muscat deal over the line.
But after news broke earlier today that talks had broken down, followed by SunSport’s exclusive that they’d resurrected their interest in a German who was once schooled 4-0 by Russell Martin?
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Well, who’d be in their brogues now?
Hiring Martin was enough of a duck egg against the new regime.
Failing to land either Gerrard or Muscat then seeming to go back cap in hand to a guy who pied them only days ago has reduced their reputations to firewood.
And if they don’t get it right this time, everything will go up in smoke.
Word is they hope to make an appointment this week, but they said that last week too.
So the question is: How far down the list must they go before finding their very own Cinderella?
Because if it doesn’t happen soon and if they end up with the wrong man, well, their reputations will finally be reduced to cinders in the eyes of an already-raging support.
Don’t get me wrong. I abhor the sinister nature of how some supporters are trying to drive Stewart and Thelwell out — witness the banners that flew on Saturday, the snarling promise that if they don’t pack their bags “we’ll pack them for you”.
No one deserves to face that sort of fear campaign when all they’re trying to do is their jobs.
Yes, even if they are making a pig’s ear of them.
That’s the trouble with the Old Firm, though. They’re either flying high and looking down their noses at the rest of us or they’re dissolving into uncivil war because everything isn’t going their way.
It’s no different across the city, where Celtic fans held the game at Dens Park up with a protest aimed at their board, but which turned out to perfectly pre-empt the performance their team was about to put in.
As in, a load of old balls.
They’re wasting everyone’s time with their childish antics.
They’re also doing their club’s reputation no good with the kind of flag flown showing directors Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay with the kind of hoods over their heads that kidnappers might put on their victims.
Time was when both sets of Old Firm supporters used all their energy and passion to drive their heroes to victory, to suck the winning goal home in the final seconds of the tightest matches.
Now? Who’d have imagined a day when the pair of them seem to hate their own clubs even more than they hate each other?
And who among us who doesn’t follow either of them can fail to be delighted to see them keep on out-cock-upping each other any more spectacularly?
Listen, we all know well enough that sooner or later that thing we’re told is The Natural Order will be restored.
Celtic will remember how to play football, Rangers will start getting stuck into the opposition as fiercely as they’re currently beating themselves up and, inevitably, the pair of them will settle back into the joyless domination they see as their birthright and everyone outside Scotland believes is all our game has to offer.
So until then, let’s enjoy every minute. Let’s fill our boots while they’re too busy imploding to stop us.
Let’s savour the kind of joy that swept over everyone who loves Dundee as the final whistle blew on a win 37 long years in the making.
Let’s count the minutes until Hearts take on the champions with a chance to go eight clear at the top of the Premiership.
Let’s applaud Dundee United, Falkirk, Motherwell, St Mirren and Hibs for having the bottle to take precious points off the Big Two and encourage the rest to do the same.
Hell, let’s even show some love for the SPFL minion who forgot the hot and cold balls and helped make sure the pair of them couldn’t meet in the first cup final of the season.
Situations like these come around often. Sometimes one of them has a shocker of a season, sometimes it’s the other — but for BOTH of them to be in this much strife at once is as rare as a hot summer and a white Christmas in the same year.
Please, please don’t let it pass the rest of us by.
Time was when the pair of them would put the fear of death into us just by being there, when their very status and history were worth a goal of a start.
Time was when a Dundee could be 2-0 up in stoppage time and still not be sure of even getting away with a point.
Today? The only people either of them seem to intimidate are the people within their own clubs who they blame for the world no longer falling at their feet.
And who does that help? Everyone apart from the Old Firm, that’s who.
Derek McInnes and his powerful, clinical, goal-hungry Jambos must be loving it as they prepare to welcome Celtic on Sunday with the chance of going eight points clear at the top.
Half the Premiership have already taken points off Rangers and now that the big Muscat homecoming’s off, Killie and Hibs will be next to fancy causing them even more grief.
This is Scottish football’s chance to cash in while its two biggest clubs are trying to work out how to put fresh custard in the team bus’s radiator.
Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
THERE are days when the people in the VAR studio seem to hate football.
Saturday was most definitely one of them thanks to a pair of thoroughly depressing decisions to chalk off vital goals.
The first ruled out what would have been a goal of the season contender from Motherwell winger Ibrahim Said, who helps his team win the ball on halfway, runs on to a pass and weaves through the Falkirk defence before producing a gorgeous finish.
But wait. The ref, right up with play, has his finger in his ear because someone miles away has decided Said fouled Bairns midfielder Brad Spencer in the build-up.
He hasn’t. Not even Spencer’s reaction suggests it. All he’d done is put his body between ball and man, which he’s entitled to do.
Yet, as with a carbon copy incident that wrongly denied Fulham youngster Josh King his first senior goal against Chelsea earlier in the season, VAR doesn’t seem to want any bodily contact in what’s meant to be a contact sport.
No wonder Well boss Jens Berthel Askou was blazing — and no wonder St Mirren gaffer Stephen Robinson was just as angry at his side being denied one in their 1-0 loss at home to Aberdeen.
The official word was either that Saints frontman Dan Nlundulu was offside in the build-up to Alex Gogic heading home, or that he’d obstructed keeper Dimitar Mitov.
Either way, it’s a nonsense of a call.
If he’s offside, he should be flagged offside when the initial cross comes in. But he isn’t.
As for blocking the keeper? It shouldn’t matter, given that defender Nicky Devlin steps in front of both to head clear.
Yet even if either offence is arguable, so is the fact that between that first cross and Gogic scoring, there’s a passage of play that sees four home players make five passes.
For me, that’s not proving a clear and obvious error. It’s re-refereeing the game.
THIS weekend in Spain teams have kicked off then players stood still for 15 seconds in protest at the decision to play a La Liga game in Miami.
It’s a stance I can almost see the value of — just as I almost can with Italians getting upset about a Serie A fixture being moved to Australia.
But, that is, for the fact that football clubs across Europe have been climbing over each other for years now to make fortunes from staging NFL matches.
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