The ability to see the Great Wall of China from outer space with the naked eye is one of the classic urban myths of our time.
As he ponders committing his long-term future to Rangers from his current home in Shanghai, Kevin Muscat won’t need a telescope to identify the inadequacies of the side he looks set to inherit next month. Just a laptop and a pair of working eyes.
The Australian would not be human if he privately didn’t harbour some serious misgivings about the scale of the job he seems set to sign up for.
This Rangers team cannot defend. It’s incapable of delivering a 90-minute performance. It’s mentally weak. One win in eight Premiership matches makes those incontrovertible statements of fact.
It’s a good thing Muscat enjoys a challenge. Walking the length of the Great Wall barefooted in a blizzard might feel like a breeze compared to this.
Twenty-three years ago, he was a peripheral figure in a Treble winning Rangers team containing players of the ilk of Mikel Arteta and Shota Arveladze. The current outfit belongs to a different stratosphere.
Nico Raskin and his Rangers team-mates look dumbfounded after another win escapes them

Kevin Muscat is currently mulling over the opportunity to become the next Rangers manager

Goals from Craig Sibbald and Kristijan Trapanovski changed the course of the game at Ibrox
For the longest time, the responsibility for an atrocious situation rested at the door of Russell Martin. He’s gone now, but the players he signed and their inherent issues remain.
With Public Enemy No1 now out of sight, the blame game has moved on too. Ibrox remains fractured and filled with acrimony.
‘No more buses to hide on,’ read a banner aimed at the misfiring players in the section populated by the Union Bears. ‘No more managers to hide behind. Face your failures like men.’
In the Sandy Jardine Stand, there was a stark message for those who facilitated Martin’s appointment in the first place.
‘Stewart, Thelwell, pack your bags and go before we pack them for you.’
You had to feel for Steven Smith here. The interim manager spoke on Friday about the need to ‘simplify things’. He revealed that he’d reminded the players that they were a talented bunch. And for 45 minutes, those messages looked like they’d flicked a switch.

Caretaker boss Steven Smith was left feeling the same frustration as Russell Martin before him
Playing as if the weight of the world had been lifted off their shoulders, Rangers delivered what was by far their most impressive half of football this season.
They fashioned 24 efforts on goal — five of which were on target. The only criticism you could make was that they ought to have had more than Thelo Aasgaard’s magnificent strike to show for their efforts.
What happened thereafter was a reminder of the side’s fragility. An improvement of sorts from Dundee United was inevitable. Yet again, Rangers wilted when the heat was on.
The visitors turned the game on its head with outstanding goals from Kristijan Trapanovski and Craig Sibbald. Jim Goodwin’s side are a match for anyone on their day provided they perform for the duration.
As welcome as James Tavernier’s late equaliser was among the light blue legions, few were celebrating the salvation of a late point even if it took them up into the top six.
If the first half had reminded them that there’s some talent in this side — Aasgaard was superb — the second period underscored the reasons why the campaign to date has been so abject.

Things looked promising for Rangers after Thelo Aasgaard’s opener in a bright first half
Too many players in light blue jerseys vanished from view. They stopped showing for the ball, they ceased running and they didn’t tackle. It seemed that they just didn’t fancy the renewed aggression of their opponents.
Jayden Meghoma and Bojan Miovski seemed especially culpable in this regard. The introduction of Youssef Chermiti came as the tide was turning in the hope that he somehow might change things.
Yet again, the £8million signing from Everton was all heavy touches and woeful link-up play. It’s not hard to see why a string of English Championship sides rejected the chance to take him on loan prior to Rangers digging out their cheque book.
The full-time whistle saw a familiar scene play out; Rangers players sheepishly applauding those among their support who’d remained to the end. Cue raised voices and pointed fingers among the rank and file.
With just five wins in 18 competitive matches and Hearts now 13 points in front at the top of the Premiership, you can hardly blame them. It already feels like a long hard season.
Nothing that’s happened since Martin was jettisoned a fortnight ago has restored faith in those who are supposed to be running the show for the Americans.

Trapanovski’s fine strike from distance turned things in the visitors’ favour in the second half
It was evident many weeks ago that his appointment was flawed and that he was fast heading for the buffers. There was no excuse for Rangers not having his replacement waiting in the wings.
The fruitless talks with Steven Gerrard in London could have taken place privately long before they did. It’s football. That’s how it works. The same applies to the dalliance with Danny Rohl.
Muscat might well have a CV which suggests he’s got something about him. But he’s hardly the only manager out there with such credentials.
The minute Rangers realised that he might not be available to start work in Glasgow until November 22 — potentially missing eight matches — they should have looked elsewhere.
Getting Neil McCann to hold the fort for his former team-mate — as appears to be the plan — is a bewildering and unsatisfactory situation.
It was clear the night in late August when Martin’s side shipped six goals in Brugge that Rangers needed a new face at the helm.

It took a late strike from Rangers captain James Tavernier to salvage a hard-earned point
Yet here they are contemplating a further four league matches, two European games and a League Cup semi-final with Celtic with the issue still unresolved. It’s like seeing your house ablaze and writing to the fire brigade. Goodness knows what will be left of the campaign by the time Muscat arrives on the scene.
The fact that Smith looked genuinely clueless when asked if he’d be taking charge of the side for the trip to Bergen this week just added to the sense of confusion.
It’s an embarrassing state of affairs which doesn’t say much for the club’s new American owners or those who they’ve employed. That much is clear from a great distance.