Keith Jackson is too dumb to realise that pushing Barry Ferguson for the Ibrox job on a permanent basis plays right into Brendan Rodgers’ and Celtic’s hands

Keith Jackson’s bromance with Barry Ferguson is going into overdrive this week.

Jackson’s fawning in the media since Ferguson took the job on an interim basis has been off the charts.

It’s clear that when Ferguson was writing for the Record, they struck up a serious bromance.

Jackson can’t hide his admiration for Bazza in his Monday morning article in the Record today.

He isn’t even trying to hide the fact that he’s desperate for Bazza to get the job on a full-time basis.

He’s too dumb to realise that this is playing right into Brendan Rodgers’ and Celtic’s hands.

Jackson seems to think that because of his ‘jawdropping’ (Keith still hasn’t picked his up off the floor yet, clearly) win over Fenerbahce that the former Ibrox skipper has announced himself as ‘genuine bona fide candidate for the position’.

Ferguson has been in charge for three games.

He won two and lost one.

Ferguson is now being hailed as some sort of tactical genius for the way he beat Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce.

Nobody seems willing to acknowledge that Fenerbahce were absolute shite on the night, and that Mourinho is a has been.

I acknowledged it after the game on Thursday, but nobody in the media has really attempted to call it out properly.

Bar Hugh Keevins, who erased any credibility in doing so by declaring that the Ibrox side were headed for the Europa League final again.

The media also sees this tie now as a foregone conclusion.

You’d be hard pressed to disagree on that point, based on the way Fenerbahce played at home, but the tie is not over.

Until it’s over.

Mourinho will throw everything at it in an attempt to save his ailing managerial career.

But even the most optimistic ‘neutral’ out there will not be holding out hope that he can turn it around.

For the likes of Keith Jackson though, it’s done and dusted, and bring on Celtic next Sunday.

If his buddy Barry can win that one, then he’s a dead cert for the Ibrox job.

Surely?

However, there’s one thing Jackson is not factoring into all of this, Brendan Rodgers is not Jose Mourinho.

Brendan Rodgers is the man who came within 30 seconds of beating Bayern Munich on their own patch a couple of weeks ago.

Mourinho might have been schooled by Barry Ferguson tactically, Brendan Rodgers however, is a completely different proposition.

If anybody thinks he’ll come to Celtic Park and school Rodgers like he did Mourinho, I’d say think again.

It is hilarious that Jackson is desperate for Barry Ferguson to get the Ibrox gig on a full-time basis.

Bring it on is all I say.

Somehow though, I don’t see the Yanks seeing it that way.

As we all know, things at Ibrox have a tendency to fall flat on their face, so there’s no telling what might happen next Thursday night.

I certainly don’t think Fenerbahce will come, roll over, and have their bellies tickled, there might be some life left in the old dog that is Mourinho yet.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

But to expect Ferguson to come to Celtic Park and beat us, and outsmart Brendan Rodgers tactically?

It really shows us how carried away Keith Jackson is getting.

I’m not saying they won’t put it up to us.

There’s no doubt Bazza will have them frothing at the mouth, and wound to the hilt before they enter the field of play, but that will play into our hands completely.

I decided not to take his article apart today as there’s just too much in it to ridicule, but there is one particular segment that had me wailing with laughter.

And I will say to Keith’s credit, he is hilarious at times, in fact I questioned whether he was a comedian of a journalist in an article last week.

It’s hard to tell sometimes, have a look at this and you’ll see what I mean:

For him and his right hand men, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor, it’s all very much about what they can achieve in the here and the now. It’s reasonable to assume they will have been shocked by much of what they have seen since returning to the inside of a club they knew so well as players.

The accepted standards of behaviour and professionalism which they once took for granted around Auchenhowie have long since been eroded.

The first part paints a picture that Philippe Clement walked into Ibrox and took a flame thrower to the place.

The second part though?

The accepted standards of behaviour and professionalism??

Let’s talk about standards and behaviour then.

Effectively taking backhanders through the EBT scheme and cheating the Her Majesty out of her well earned tax revenue?

That’s not the standard of behaviour one expects from the players of an institution that reveres the Royal family and drinks from the loving cup, is it?

Partaking in cheating on an industrial scale for almost ten years?

Is that an accepted standard of professionalism?

Of course in Keith’s book that never happened.

It’s been airbrushed out of history.

Just like the Bellshill billionaire with wealth off the radar has been airbrushed, conveniently, out of history.

We don’t need to remember insignificant things like that now, do we?

Personally, I really do hope that Barry Ferguson and his team of ex-Ibrox legends land the job on a permanent basis.

However, I’d say that’s wishful thinking on my behalf.

It would be too good to be true.

Brendan Rodgers would add all of their heads to his Ibrox collection, and it wouldn’t take very long.

One can dream though.

Thanks Keith.

We’ll be live again at 18.30 for this evening’s Trinty Tims podcast, so be sure to tune in and get your comments in, see you all then!