The STATUE of limitations

Clement should show sculpture of the late, great Walter to Gers flops like Silva so they can see what a proper winner looks like

- KEITH JACKSON

THE memory of the late, great Walter Smith will be respectfully honoured on Saturday morning outside Ibrox.

Later the same day, the Rangers board will have to cross their fingers and hope it is not besmirched across the city at Hampden.

The unveiling of a bronze statue will immortalise a true giant of a man.

In his 10 full seasons in charge Smith collected nine titles, five Scottish Cups and six League Cups an enormous haul and one which is likely to mark him down for the rest of time as the club's greatest ever manager.

By contrast, in the 13 years since he stepped down, Rangers have won just one of each.

The disparity in those numbers speaks volumes both for the genius of Smith's work but also for the gross mismanagement that has followed in the subsequent years of almost unrelenting ineptitude.

So while it's a magnificent and fitting gesture for the current hierarchy to pay such a permanent tribute to the club's single most significant servant, there is also an element of high risk in the timing of the big reveal.

Because the truth of the matter is Smith's patience with these current-day players would have been exhausted a long time ago. He most certainly would have had no wish to be associated with their pitiful record of failure and not so near-misses.