Rangers manager Walter Smith is entering his final season in charge at Ibrox

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

He was the man who brought salvation when they were flagging: the least Rangers can do is persuade Walter Smith to run the fruits of his labours up the pole as the new season dawns.

It's traditional, of course, that the club chairman unfurls the championship flag, but this time the Ibrox club should boot history into touch.

Let the gaffer, at the start of his last season in charge, do the honours. I'll be honest. This is not my original idea.

In the inner sanctum of the stadium, it has already been mooted, but the feeling is that the outgoing manager might blush at the very prospect and tell them where to stick their flag - and I fear it may not be at the top of a pole.

But, as soon as I heard the suggestion, it came to roost as a fine plan.

Of course, Rangers fans might argue that there will be time enough in a year from now when Smith has, indeed, retired and can come back to Ibrox in celebration of his third championship in a row.

But that currently looks a big maybe.

They are weary of farewell parties in the dressing-room and there are pegs going spare all over the place.

The club has the depth of squad primed for the sadly long gone, but not forgotten, Tennent's Sixes: SPL and Champions League campaigns may be a somewhat more daunting prospect.

Celtic's board may yet singe their fingers with their enthusiasm to employ a rookie manager, but I share their belief that there is something about the man Chick Young on Neil Lennon

And yet here's the question: are Rangers, if they stay clear of injuries and suspensions, really all that much worse off?

DaMarcus Beasley, Nacho Novo and Steven Smith gone - but all, in truth, fringe players.

Danny Wilson had a growing influence and will be a superstar, but his departure is compensated by the return of Andy Webster and the everlasting story of David Weir, the Methuselah of Scottish football.

Kevin Thomson is a genuine loss, although it does allow Steven Davis to embrace the central midfield role he has always coveted.

And then there is Kris Boyd: his goal ratio phenomenal, 25 a season guaranteed.

But once, I will remind you, he could not adapt to the way Walter Smith wanted his team to play.

It took a massive sea-change in his game to earn him the offer of a new contract.

Neil Lennon aims to rejuvenate Celtic after the failed Tony Mowbray era

And his departure may, indeed, be the trigger of much debate by the support by the time the clocks go back: "If only we had Boydy…"

However, it's not Boyd's absence that will do them in, rather the depth of squad that once single-handedly eased Glasgow's unemployment statistics but now looks shallower than a baby's bath.

Celtic, in comparison, have worked an open-all-hours shift in the transfer market place.

A sickening introduction to European football for Neil Lennon at management level was followed by what threatened to be a humiliation at the hands of Arsenal.

But at least, trailing 3-0 in the Emirates Cup, he established that his team had a bit of pride and spirit about them, yet for a long spell they looked as if they had still to be formally introduced.

And it was heartening that, among this cosmopolitan lot, the 18-year-old Glaswegian James Forrest looked to have the most swagger in his step.

But few of his team-mates could match his ability to see a pass.

Maybe printing their names in white on the yellow background of the bumblebee change strip was as bad news for the players as it was for fans and commentators trying to identify the club's latest employees.

But I believe in Neil Lennon long-term, although that is not a phrase that say, Tony Mowbray, would associate with the time given to a new manager at the club.

Celtic's board may yet singe their fingers with their enthusiasm to employ a rookie manager, but I share their belief that there is something about the man.

Two-horse race again? Boringly, predictably, almost certainly.

The bookmakers are in that gang, offering about 60-1 against the best of the rest - Dundee United - to move into the overtaking lane.

A friend of mine has taken them at 9-1 with a 22-points start; this strikes me as a wily investment.

And yet...

"You can take our cups, but you'll never take our title," as they say on the south side and east end of Glasgow.

It's time that someone - and only United look to have anywhere near the firepower - laid that argument to rest.

But I don't see it.

So it's Smith at the sunset of his career against Lennon at the dawn of his; players we know inside out against strangers just off the plane. It is, then, kind of tough to call.

But, if Rangers fall victim to injury and suspension, and only with that pre-requisite, then the pole dancing this time next year will be at Celtic Park.

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