I see two concerning Rangers issues and stadium shambles is only the half of it – Hugh Keevins

I'm not sure what looks worse. Rangers mess up a rebuild at Ibrox and sack a staff member who couldn’t organise a delivery of building materials.

Or Rangers go to a transfer tribunal to establish a fee for Connor Barron, an out-of-contract player at Aberdeen. That deal now looks like something from the old days when clubs were skint and haggling over money was a way of life. Meanwhile, Rangers are assembling a cast of foreign imports on moderate fees as part of a reconstruction process as questionable as the one that has made them homeless for the month of August.

At least. What a shambles it has become. The fall-out from the closure of Ibrox at the start of the new season will be catastrophic. Moving to Murrayfield, if that is what eventually happens, involves extra expenditure for season-ticket holders turned into displaced persons. Compensation claims for devalued season tickets will follow. And what do the SPFL do about Murrayfield when either Hibs or Hearts will be playing at home on the same weekend as Rangers are dealing with their temporary accommodation issues?

League games will need to be played on separate days to avoid social order problems and, even at that, there are no guarantees of trouble being avoided. Rangers’ governance has been called into question as a result of this fiasco. The last time I looked, the Ibrox chairman John Bennett was covering for the now departed CEO at Ibrox, James Bisgrove, following his decision to decant to the desert in Saudi Arabia.

Bennett is now overseeing player recruitment and assuming the role of project manager on the rebuild that has gone pear-shaped at Ibrox. But what is he doing going to a tribunal to establish the size of a compensation fee for Barron? It makes the whole deal look tuppence ha’penny considering Barron is hoped to be one of the players who propels Rangers into the Champions League via the qualification rounds.

Once Rangers find a ground to play those European matches in, of course. The Ibrox club have to hope Scotland’s continued participation at Euro 2024 deflects attention away from what’s happening at their place for a while.

But, given that Steve Clarke’s in charge of the national team, that’s a forlorn hope. The fixtures for the new season come out at nine o’clock on Thursday morning. That is the cue for mayhem.

Meanwhile, the surprise wasn’t that Graeme Souness, in his role as a pundit at the European Championships, couldn’t remember the name of the league and Cup-winning captain of Celtic.

As a fully paid-up member of the over-70s branch of the media myself, I couldn’t deny the occasional brain fade. The surprise regarding Callum McGregor concerned the nautical theme. In a sea of mediocrity, the only catch Souey could make from a shoal of under-performing players against Germany in our opening match was what’shisname.

McGregor was, though, to be highly commended for his contribution towards the goal against Switzerland on Wednesday night that makes today’s Group A tie with Hungary a viable concern relative to the remainder of the competition.

But what surely can’t be overlooked by his employers at Celtic as they look on from afar is that Callum, through no fault of his own, looks like he’s running from memory. The player, to put not too fine a point on it, looks knackered. McGregor has had a tumultuous season, culminating in the inspirational part he played in determining the outcome of a domestic schedule that grew more frenetic with every passing week.

But he did so in the face of injury problems that may, or may not, be unresolved. Whichever is the case, Callum is going to need a suitably long period of recovery time whenever Scotland’s participation in the Euros comes to an end. It would be unreasonable to expect him to be involved in the start of pre-season training at Lennoxtown and doubt might be cast on his ability to take part in the opening matches of the season for Celtic. The loss of McGregor when injury did derail him last season threatened to be a game changer for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

All the more reason for Celtic to make sure that any leave of absence McGregor might need to recuperate from his international exertions is compensated for by a high quality of close-season signings. The on-going international tournament might, for all I know, have allowed Celtic to use the diversion like the cover of darkness.

A bunch of scarves waiting to be held above the heads of a succession of players for photographic purposes on the day they sign could be a possibility. The fans, after watching two transfer windows full of blatant mistakes, will certainly hope so.

Rangers’ transfer activity has so far failed to ignite an underwhelmed support. The Celtic fans have no judgment to make on anyone as yet. But McGregor’s case highlights the need for players of comparable talent to be brought in while he gets the rest he deserves.