Leaderboard

Following Bill Leckie's outrageous and xenophobic attack on Alfredo Morelos article in today's Sun newspaper, we have decided enough is enough. It is proposed that all references to the Sun and any of its articles are now banned on Gersnet. We will not give oxygen to this Rangers hating, racist rag, and I'd call on all Gersnet members to support this. We would add our support to the voices calling for the club to ban the paper and its journalists from Ibrox and for the few remaining Rangers supporters who buy it or read it to boycott it with immediate effect. Some more detail on this issue for posterity here: https://gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/1123-dinosaur-journalist-left-in-the-past-as-gersnet-bans-tabloid-content

Overview A loss of £11.3m has unsurprisingly made the front pages but are we really in such a bad shape? I’d argue that we are not for 3 main reasons: · The loss is funded by the directors/investors who have converted most of their loans into share capital. · We have no external debt · I will argue below that the inherent loss is well under £5m and can be contained by regular European football and the sale of players after development. What is the loss? The loss of £11.3m has been heavily publicised but the extent of the loss is misleading due to relatively new accounting rules, which make it harder to understand the accounts. Included in interest payable are net amounts of £2.6m of notional interest which is only there for accounting purposes and will never actually be paid and can therefore be ignored. I would therefore argue that the actual loss for the year was £8.7m. To highlight this, we had £2.3m charged through last year’s accounts, most of which were on investors’ loans. When the loans got converted to share capital, an amount of £2.8m got added back to retained earnings. That is the main reason why the retained loss in the balance sheet moved from £38.7m of losses to £46.8m, a movement of £8.1m and not the £11.3m that you would expect. Confused? Yeah, me too. It’s difficult enough for accountants to understand it, never mind the man on the street. The bottom line is that if the accounts were prepared 10 years ago, they would be showing a £8.7m loss. Results The £8.7m loss contains at least £3.6m of legal fees which will hopefully not occur in the longer term plus some additional player amortisation (the writing off of transfer fees) of £3.3m on top of the normal charge of £4m. There would always be an extent of additional write offs but this year’s seems very high (possibly due to some of Pedro’s purchases and Grezda?). The underlying inherent loss is therefore arguably well under £5m. Revenue Revenue increased from £32.7m to £53.2m (+£20.5m), mainly due to our European run. We received £6.4m in European prize money and £7.9m in gate receipts, a total of £14.3m, which highlights how important a run in Europe is to us. Staff costs Staff costs increased by a whopping 43% in the year, going from £24m to £34m, which was a result of bringing Gerrard to the club and a significant increase in the quality of the squad. This sounds bad but the following should be taken into account: · Staff costs as a percentage of revenue have actually fallen from 73.8% to 64.8%. The average for the English Championship, League 1 and League 2 for last season were 106%, 94% and 78% respectively, so it shows that the level we have it is reasonable, albeit based on European income, which isn’t guaranteed. · Celtic’s staff costs are 63% higher than ours. Other operating expenses Other Operating Expenses increased from £13m to £22m due mainly to · the costs involved in an additional 9 home games · the travel costs for our European games and pre-season · additional legal and professional fees of £3.6m, due mainly to the ongoing Sports Direct dispute Sale of players We made a £3.1m profit on the sale of players. I assume that Windass and Gilmour would make up a majority of that. However we need more of that to sustain a break-even situation in the future. Our model looks to be largely working as I’d argue that we have at least 10 players on whom we should be able to make at least a 7 figure profit. Retail Retail income was £3.3m for the year whereas it was probably under £500K in the prior year. This was offset by high legal costs of at least £3.6m. The legal costs for the current year may not be reduced and therefore there’s an argument that we are worse off signing the new agreement with Sports Direct than we were previously as we had an end date after giving our 7 years’ notice, whereas the current agreement appears not to have an end date. The full facts have yet to come out and therefore a full assessment can’t be made yet but, although the directors should take great credit for funding the club, it seems that they have not dealt with the retail situation well and we are not any better under the new arrangement which they signed. Cash I was initially surprised that the level of cash was only at £1m, but we have £14.7m of debtors which is season ticket cash which is in respect of season tickets that are paid by supporters using deferred payment plans or credit cards so that will be converted into cash. The credit card companies are passing on the cash over the course of a season to limit their risk. This isn’t an issue as it’s only a short term cashflow problem and it hasn’t prevented us from spending £10m on Kent and Helander after the financial year-end. However I may consider paying my season ticket by debit card rather than credit card in the future to allow the club to get the cash quicker. Funding The accounts show investor loans of £11m down from £23.4m after some were converted into shares, and another loan, possibly from Close Leasing, of £3m. There were additional investor loans of £5.2m provided during the year. Dave King has committed to providing an additional £10m this season and £5m next season which highlights the incredible commitment he and the other investors have to the club. Improvements There was £4.3m of fixed asset expenditure, presumably work done on Ibrox and HTC. This highlights that the directors are investing significantly in the club’s infrastructure as well as the playing squad. Sundry The club’s bankers have changed from the Metro Bank to Barclays. This is a further example of the normalisation of the club’s operations and it’s good to see that we’re now dealing with a bigger high street bank, and also removes questions created by Metro Bank’s issues earlier this year which saw a number of other clients leave them. Post year-end The accounts do not reflect the signing of Kent and Helander and they will appear in the 2020 accounts, although it should be remembered that the £11m spent will be written off over the length of their contracts. The future The losses over the last few years are not a concern as they have been fully funded by our directors/investors and we should be very grateful to them for that. We are able to continue to make losses while the directors continue to fund them but that cannot go on indefinitely. King has committed to fund us at least until the end of next season, so the level of losses are not an issue at the moment, and player sales, with hopefully in excess of £20m being realised for Morelos in the summer will put a much brighter light on our financial position. We do need to get regular European group football, sort out the retail side once and for all and regularly make profits on player sales in excess of £5m to allow us to break even and this is the business model that our directors have been putting in place. We know from bitter experience that we need to keep an eye on our financial position and my outlook may change over the next few years but I don’t believe that this set of accounts is anything to be overly pessimistic about. The loss isn’t great but it’s been fully funded. We are in a solid financial position and there are no short term concerns.

Since it's the club's AGM today I thought I'd spend a few mins putting together our own wee message to our members this festive season. In particular, due to losing a couple of folk over the last wee while and for another couple of more positive reasons, I'm looking to expand the admin/contributor team over the next few months. For example, it's been a real shame to see the number of match previews drop off and as much as I'm really proud of our podcast output recently, I'm also very keen to retain written articles across the site/forum as much as possible. Thanks to those who have contributed same in recent times (including @Rick Roberts, @Rousseau and @DMAA) it really does help maintain a forum like this when so many people spend time on other social media nowadays. Other stuff like MotM polls, match reviews and player ratings would all be welcome too! Please, please contribute where you can...! Along with improvements to the podcast (if you haven't already, make sure you check out the superb new video format), the main site has been undergoing a redesign over the last few months which I'm hoping to launch early next year. It looks really good and will compliment the pod and forum very nicely. As such, anyone who is interested in web design, graphics or tech generally might want to get involved in that going forward and we're very lucky to have @blueflag who does a brilliant job for us in terms of tech support. We'll also hopefully have some added functionality to all formats over the next year. We already have the odd well-received competition and we'll likely be partnering up with other external organisations to help continue to fund all our activities and software via one or two promotions we think you'll find interesting. One project will benefit both this site and the club directly which you'll know more about next month. To that end, I'm pleased to say the forum software, hosting and podcast platforms have already been funded through 2021 so, whilst Gersnet continues to be a completely free and independent website , I'd politely ask all of our members to try and help that stay the case by not using ad-blockers, clicking through the odd ad and subscribing to/sharing all our platforms where you can. Finally, to the main point of this thread, if you think you have the time and skills to contribute to the site, please give me a shout by PM. Whilst I know writing articles, working on websites, starring on podcasts or producing graphics etc all takes time, any help offered is greatly appreciated and will help keep our site in place for another 20 years and more... May I also take this opportunity to wish all our members a very merry Christmas and all the very best to you and your families for 2021. Thanks to you all for your continued support of our wee site. I hope you all still enjoying using it as much as I do!

Six matches played. Six defeats, 22 goals conceded and just two scored. It's safe to say our CL Group Stage stats don't make for good reading as Rangers exit Europe for season 2022/23 in a campaign that, so far at least, just hasn't got going at all in Europe or domestically. Just what has gone wrong? Rewind back to the start of the season and the outlook was much brighter. Yes, we'd lost important players such as Bassey and Aribo to big money moves but we had strengthened the squad as well. Meanwhile, we still had players such as Morelos, Roofe, Jack and Helander to return from long term injuries so - aside from perhaps one or two positions - most fans were fairly comfortable with the status of the squad. Unfortunately, since then things have turned rather sour. Player after player has succumbed to injury leaving us down to the bare bones in midfield and defence in particular whilst key performers - people we've relied on in recent years - simply haven't turned up for long periods of many matches. Team selection has been inconsistent, our tactics changed regularly to cope and subsequent results are as erratic as the manager's comments in press conferences. Off the field, the club is equally unimpressive. Communication is conceded to be a problem but, aside from one or two brief and less than encouraging interviews, fans are offered mixed messages at best. We're asked to continually fork out top dollar ticket and merchandising prices before then being told there's no money to properly invest in the side. Rangers are apparently about to report recording breaking turnover but instead of that money being put into the team on the park, other projects such as Edmiston House are prioritised. Perhaps more worryingly as more issues are identified with the squad, a variety of player recruitment staff have left with a lack of clarity as to their replacement. At this point I think it's fair to say I don't envy the Rangers board. As much as we've historically been the dominant team in Scotland, circumstances over the last twenty years have undoubtedly affected that position. David Murray, Craig Whyte, Charles Green and others all contributed to weaken our club substantially this millennium. A lack of foresight and planning coupled with greed and ego seen Rangers drop into the lower leagues and, as much as many fans will rightfully tire of that being used as a crutch as we approach 2023, the affect cannot be denied as we attend matches now. Even with the huge amounts of turnover we'll report over the next few weeks – these monies only go so far and cannot be spent all at once. The 'modern-day' Ibrox Stadium is now the better part of 50 years old. That alone is startling enough when you take a breath but a lack of investment in the venue under various regimes offers a maintenance bill that will be eye-watering. Roof repairs, general improvements and ongoing work to develop various areas such as hospitality and disabled facilities have and will continue to cost millions on an annual basis. Some will ask why these were put ahead of players on the park, well, whilst any payback period of the Blue Sky Lounge or Edmiston House may be lengthy, we cannot rely on European football alone for our income. Supporters also need to appreciate that, before this year’s financial reports, the club was loss making with directors making up any short fall via the purchase of shares. That just isn’t tenable longer term and these people have to be paid back at some point. As such whilst (erroneous) headline figures of £30m+ of profit appear exciting, it doesn’t automatically follow we’re spending all of that on players. We still spent £10m in the summer which is a large amount comparatively speaking and we need to budget for more than one season. Unfortunately, it’s where we’ve spent that money that is more of an issue. Was Rabbi Matando any better than Fashion Sakala? How much time did we take to evaluate John Souttar’s injuries? Was Ridvan Yilmaz the marquee signing we needed? Should we have kept one Leon instead of developing the other? Who is responsible for deciding not to strengthen in midfield? All these questions, and more, are key football strategy questions that need to be answered. From the manager, to Ross Wilson and the board, a clear explanation would perhaps help supporters understand our position and apply some rationale to any concerns. Of course the AGM is coming up where some questions may be answered but such meetings aren’t always constructive. Therefore, it’s very important that the board address our perceived shortcomings in plain speak. Football supporters are never the most patient of ‘customers’ so it makes sense to offer clarity. Have we focused too much on infrastructure or was the unavoidable? A plethora of injuries can be attributed to some bad luck but we knew the risks when signing certain players and/or relying too much on others. Who is culpable for what seems a raft of player deficiencies: age profile, fitness, recruitment and contracts? What are our plans for squad investment in January and next summer? In many ways, there are merited reasons for under-performance this season. However, excuses – no matter how valid - can only mitigate so far and I think if we’re honest with ourselves many problems signal deeper issues that appear to go further than the product on the field. Improvement and progress can be found but that will require the kind of clear leadership that seems to have been missing of late. Six months ago we were in a European final but we’ve gone backwards since then. Of course we’ve no right to success but that regression has to be accounted for and responsibility taken. Some honest answers will help and may allow time to turn things around. Nothing else will do and the club must avoid bland soundbites. With no recognised fans group to speak of, the board may think they’re above such transparency. Season ticket waiting lists, a huge MyGers membership and afore-mentioned record turnover may also make some directors feel over-confident when any of that could reverse very quickly if results on the park don’t improve; not just this season but beyond. In contrast, supporters must be prepared to absorb bad news as well. If change is to be made, whether in the squad, the coaching staff or our Sporting Director, that will take more time, more money and more patience. And there still remain no guarantees – not when there are other increasing costs for the club to meet. Lastly, it’s also fair to acknowledge the last ten years have been difficult for our fans and despite daft songs, we haven’t walked away and still back the club impressively year-to-year. The good times have been somewhat rare but they are coming back slowly, very slowly but an inconsistency remains for now which won’t be easy nor quick to solve. That may be tough to recognise or accept but it’s one of the few truths available to us. It's not what you or I want to hear but patience remains a virtue.

It’s Not What You Say, But What They Hear I made a mistake last Sunday. In a pique of frustration over the inevitability of much of Saturday night’s events and annoyance over some of the coverage it garnered, I sent a Tweet. As Tweets go it was quite long, and was an attempt to remind people that Rangers supporter’s who fight police officers, or themselves, on a Saturday night in town are no more representative of me, or the vast majority of our support, than the Rangers supporter’s who went bird watching, long distancing running or line dancing are. I wish I hadn’t. I’m not a prolific Tweeter and I rarely Tweet about football. If you want occasional photos of my local park, perhaps some obscure research on birds or the occasional insight into international events, maybe I’m your guy, otherwise best ignore me, I’m there to learn, not teach. Prior to Sunday I doubt I’ve ever sent a Tweet that was ‘liked’ more the a dozen times; I’m not interesting or high profile, and I’m okay with that. An hour or so after pressing ‘Tweet’ I was very surprised to learn over 100 people had liked, retweeted or positively commented on it. Almost all seemed to be fellow Rangers fans who had clearly been feeling something similar. This continued for a few hours, numbers increased and my phone battery complained. A couple of friends texted me to say they’d read it and enjoyed it, even my sister, who I didn’t know even had Twitter, called to mock me. All good so far. Then, sometime around mid-afternoon on Sunday, supporter's of the second best side in Glasgow came across my Tweet. The comments changed. I’ve not read them all, there are simply too many and life is too short, but I got the general gist and some clear themes emerged. My claim that it was a “minority” of Rangers supporters who were involved in any disorder on Saturday was widely ridiculed. Also, I’d failed to mention sectarianism, or “anti-Irish racism” as many seemed to call it. Lastly, that drunken, loutish behaviour is recurring and unique to Rangers supporters. The ‘minority’ issue is easily dealt with. I think it’s fair to say Rangers have somewhere around 500,000 supporters. It might be more than that, it might be less, but I think it’s a conservative estimate to suggest that 10% of the population of Scotland would describe themselves as supporter’s of Rangers. Some of them might be nominal, a club they followed as a child but take less interest now, others will attend every match, home and away. The only definition of a Rangers supporter I accept is that they want Rangers to win. Estimates of the total crowd numbers at Ibrox and later in the city centre vary, somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000. 20,000 people is barely 4% of our support, and it’s worth remembering that Chief Supt Mark Sutherland of Police Scotland described that crowd as “largely peaceful in nature”. Even if someone wants to complain that everyone present was breaking Covid guidelines and so at least technically in breach of restrictions, it doesn’t change the fact that the other 96% of the Rangers support weren’t. As for those who actually engaged in vandalism and violence that was a very small percentage of those present and a tiny fraction of the Rangers support. For me those are simply irrefutable facts. I don’t know what ‘anti-Irish racism’ is. As far as I know the Irish and the Scots are the same race. Having lived in both I can also say that in my experience we’re largely identical in almost every measurable way. I’m unaware of any systemic discrimination towards Irish people in Scotland, certainly not in this century at least. I didn’t mention sectarianism as I was unaware of any taking place. I wasn’t there, and I’ve not watched many of the videos that have been circulating. If there was sectarian singing or chanting then I condemn it. The anti-Catholic chants and songs still exist among a section of our support, and, away from the stadium and often after a few drinks they sometimes make an appearance. I wish they didn’t. I expect our board wish they didn’t and I can only imagine what some of our players must think. It’s embarrassing. It would be disingenuous to say nothing has changed in this regard over the years, but it would be equally wrong to say this has disappeared, it hasn’t. I can understand why someone who feels these chants are directed at them reacts with fury when they hear them. That said it surprises me to see how many people liberally sprinkle the word ‘hun’ around their timelines when questioning my views. The refrain, when challenged, seems to be that the word isn’t sectarian and isn’t an idiom for ‘Protestant’. A ‘hun’ apparently is a Rangers supporter. Unless it’s a Hearts supporter. Or maybe an Airdrie supporter, and sometimes even a Morton or Kilmarnock supporter. This is the thing about the English language, the meaning of words changes over time and between people. My children regularly describe something positive as ‘sick’, this puzzles me and makes me feel old at the same time. The meaning of the word ‘sick’ has changed. I took a trip to Belfast before Covid hit. It’s a city I know quite well having lived there for a while a few decades ago, but it’s also a city that’s going through such huge change that parts of it were unrecognisable to me. I decided to do the first time visitor thing and take a bus tour to reacquaint myself. The Belfast bus tour takes you to places that are famous and infamous. It doesn’t hide its past, you see the city warts and all. We visited various ‘interfaces’. An interface is a euphemism for a border, in Belfast that’s where a republican area meets a loyalist area. These are bleak, people-less areas, dominated by high fences and walls, where territory is clearly marked by graffiti. Much of this graffiti is sadly familiar to a Glaswegian and I’d little trouble understanding just whose territory we were leaving or entering. Something unfamiliar did catch my eye though, 3 letters that made a regular appearance as you entered loyalist areas; KAT, and 3 similar ones when you entered republican areas; KAH. The tour guide explained that KAT stands for ‘Kill All Taigs’ and KAH stands for ‘Kill All Huns’. On the streets of working class Belfast it seems that Taigs are Catholics and Huns are Protestants. Not unsurprisingly I’ve recently started to notice these initials in Glasgow too. Now I’m willing to accept that not everyone who uses the word ‘hun’ does mean all Protestants, but that doesn’t mean it’s not what I hear when it’s said. And while some might not use it that way, others clearly do. Meanings change, it’s all of our jobs to keep up with that change, not just Rangers supporters. Lastly, why is it always Rangers? This takes us directly into ‘whataboutery’ country again and I’ve little desire to spend more time there. Suffice to say that over the years I’ve seen violence, first hand, sometimes at very close quarters, perpetrated by supporters of Aberdeen, Dundee, Motherwell, Airdrie, Kilmarnock, Morton, Clydebank, Partick Thistle, Hibs, Hearts, Falkirk, Clyde, St Mirren, Sunderland, Glentoran, Linfield, Cliftonville and, believe it or not, Celtic. Rangers don’t have a monopoly on bams, but I’m not going to pretend we don’t have any either. That there was disorder on Saturday night didn’t come as a surprise to me. I’ve lived in Glasgow long enough to know that there are people in our society for who a Saturday spent drinking will greatly increase the likelihood of them being involved in violence. That hard drinking ‘get mad wae it’ culture is alive and flourishing among a section of our society. I don’t think the blame for that can be laid at the door of Rangers directors, players or indeed me. The Scottish Crime Survey of 2018 recorded that 46% of all violent crime in Scotland is alcohol related. 41% of all prisoners in Scotland report being drunk at the time of their offence, that figure rises to 60% for young offenders. The STAG Trauma Report in 2015 records that alcohol was associated with 33% of all major trauma patients, that number doubles when just recording male patients. Alcohol related death is 7 times higher in Scotland’s most deprived areas and alcohol related hospital stays are 8 times higher in Scotland’s poorest communities. Again, the figures are higher for men than woman. Despite this I’ve yet to read anyone ask what Smirnoff, Buckfast or the makers of MD 20-20 had to say about last Saturday night, far less suggest that everyone who drinks alcohol should be ashamed of themselves and demand action be taken. Rangers draw their support from across Scotland and beyond, but the post industrial heartlands of the central belt are where we draw the bulk of our support. These areas have more than their fare share of economic black spots and deprived communities. None of that is an excuse for violence or religious intolerance. Indeed the majority of people brought up in these areas aren’t violent or bigoted. But the power to change the people who are, to improve their schools, to broaden their horizons, to perhaps give them ambitions beyond the weekend, to deal with whatever demons they currently try and drown and to instil a pride or self worth clearly lacking in some of them doesn’t lie with Steven Gerrard or the Rangers board. It lies, quite squarely, at the feet of those elected to represent these communities; politicians. That’s ironic, because some of them have been very quick to point fingers of responsibility elsewhere this week. It does feel that some people see Rangers as responsible for the actions of everyone who supports them at all times. There were 54 arrests and 429 crimes at T In The Park a few years ago yet no one suggests The Stone Roses are held responsible for that. There is a limit on what the club can do and should be held responsible for. I’m surprised that even needs stated. But then maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s strange that now we have so many ways of communicating with each other more than ever people still only hear what they want to hear.

About to go on my works Xmas day out then am on a family holiday for a week so wanted to take some time now to thank everyone for their participation on the forum again this year. Supporting Rangers still feels like a fool's errand at times but the last month has shown football remains a funny old game and, as we approach Christmas Day, it's fantastic to see us winning the League Cup, being Scotland's sole representative in Europe post-group stage and, whisper it, challenging again for the title. Yes, we're struggling with injuries and genuine quality during some games but there's no doubt Philippe Clement has restored some belief to our players and fans since his arrival. To that end, I hope everyone has a safe, happy festive period and is able to enjoy a few more Rangers victories as well as, more importantly, valuable time with your friends and family. I certainly hope Santa brings us three more wins before 2023 is out and let's hope 2024 is a prosperous one for all Rangers fans and our club.

I don't believe I've ever seen the levels of hysteria from our on-line support as I have in the last 48 hours. The manager should go. The board should go. The players aren't good enough etc etc etc. Yes, Saturday's performance wasn't good enough, but I don't see the need to go overboard. If we look at the 9 in a row seasons, only 4 had better league starts to the season than this one. Even the famous 92-93 season was worse at this stage. I hate to think what the internet would be like back then. We've qualified for the Champions League group stages. A fantastic feat, which appears to have been forgotten. We were in a European final a few months ago, the run to which have at least 5 games which would easily feature into my top 20 favourite Rangers games of all time. I don't believe any other season would have as many and wouldn't trade the memories of them that Gio helped give us. We didn't spend in the transfer window and I'm as disappointed as most on that, but there's a few potential reasons for that, including FFP, the SDI settlement being a lot higher than we'd thought, and future cashflows. We are still inherently loss-making and while we may be profitable last season and this season, we still need to plan ahead and look at next season and the cashflows required. There's even been allegations that the board are keeping the cash for themselves to repay their investments, but as he club will never pay dividends, that's patently untrue. Things may not be perfect at the moment but they're far from the disaster that many are suggesting.

There is zero need for the club to assert anything other than us being a club that is open to all. In my opinion, of course.

What a day - my wife gave birth to our 2nd baby daughter, baby Charlotte fought back from the brink & then the Gers get one of their best ever European results! Time for a lie down now though..

I met Jake Hastie's parents today and I'm sure they will be OK for me to say a few things they told me. Firstly they told me Jake had signed before it was on the news (also told me keep quiet until it was out in the news but that didn't last long), they also told me a few stories about when they met with Gerrard and Allen etc last week. They were assured by them that Jake will be in the first team squad and won't be loaned out or put back to the academy team as they had their own reservations about getting game time and how it would affect Jake's progress and seen no point in signing if he wasn't going to be in the first team squad. But they also told me Gerrard told them it's now up to Jake to prove himself in training that deserves a chance but they all rate him very highly, more so than Middleton. Aberdeen guaranteed him first team football but changed their deal at the last minute but he didn't fancy it anyway. The tims again went about trying to get the deal done on the cheap and they were not impressed at all and was never really a goer. He also had offers from England and abroad but like before they want to stay in Scotland for now anyway. He's been told he'll be lucky to get any more game time at Motherwell and was snubbed at the awards last night by virtually everyone there. I'm so pleased for the young man and his family and hope he takes his chance and does very well for us....

I'm going to busy over the next few days so I thought I would just drop this here tonight. It goes without saying that 2020 has been a remarkable/surreal/unprecedented year so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Getsnetters a safe, peaceful and merry Christmas. Here's to better 2021!

The way this issue is currently being treated in Scottish society is scandalous! Scottish politicians refuse to get involved due to the partisan nature of football and the main club involved. They are all cowards, and I include all parties here, but especially people like Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf, who refuse to engage with any of the victims and especially the mother of a victim who committed suicide. Football clubs are not any better and the approach and cover up by Celtic is shameful, from the change in name of he boys' club to the non-existent ongoing investigation, and shows that the ethos of the club is morally bankrupt, I don't believe that our support are blameless either. The BJK chant comes across as celebratory and rather than being constructive, turns a lot of people off the subject. The subject does need to be continually bought to the fore-front and not ignored, but this is not the way to do it. There is a view that Scotland is a progressive society but this shows that we are anything but. Children are one of the most needing of protection and we as a society are failing them in this continued cover-up and refusal to deal with the victims.

As a rule I'm generally against banning the media. If you don't like something don't read it. Don't buy it, don't click it, don't share it. I've not read the article in question and don't think I've ever bought the Sun so this doesn't really affect me much. Bill Leckie was never a writer I thought had much to say and from what I hear that's not changed. I've felt for a while Morelos is treated differently from other players by the media. I think race does play a part in this. The fact his English isn't great and he's South American has certainly led to some very lazy stereotyping, and there's an almost Fawltyesque default with a depressingly high number of people in this country when it comes to 'foreigners', our local media aren't immune to this. When that's added to him playing for Rangers then you've got the perfect storm for some. Morelos clearly irks opposition supporters. You get players like that, beloved by their own and hated by everyone else, Morelos is one of those. The Aberdeen supporter's bringing in a banner was crass and an embarrassment to their club who should have removed it and banned those involved. But was it worse than the song we (I) sang to Frank McGarvey many moons ago? I've never met the said Mrs McGarvey but I apologise to her now, I wonder if she reads Gersnet... Likewise I cheered along with almost everyone else in the old Rangers end at Parkhead when a particularly distasteful banner was unfurled in the rafters under the roof about the recently deceased Celtic director Demond White. The Celtic support, most of who could read it clearly, were very unhappy, whilst we cheered and laughed and Strathclyde's finest sought a sharpshooter as there was no other way to get the lads who climbed up with it down. Again, not my finest moment. In my defence I was only a teenager, I'm not the brightest now but I was particularly stupid then. Everyone else was doing it so I joined in, I gave no thought whatsoever to the actual people involved. In part I think that's because I didn't see them as 'real' people. They were people I only read about in the papers or saw on TV, they were basically celebrities, and so treated differently from everyone else. A couple of years ago I walked from Sloans in Argyle Arcade to the taxi rank at Central late on a Saturday night in the company of a minor local celebrity and his wife. It must have taken us 30 minutes to cover the distance, a normal walk of around 5 minutes. Every drunk wanted a selfie, or to shake his hand or to tell him he was great. But some wanted to tell him he was a dick, almost all completely ignored his wife and the rest of our party, we were invisible, our desire to get a taxi home was inconsequential to their right for a new profile pic and a dull anecdote over lunch the next day, 'you'll never guess who I seen last night in Buchanan Street...'. He smiled, obliged, did the voice and played his part. I'd have hooked the first guy that pushed past my wife for a better angle on their Samsung, I'd have ignored every friendly 'hello big man' and would have almost certainly reacted very badly to anyone who called me a dick in front of friends and family (even if they might have been correct!). My realisation that local celebrities have to live very different lives from you and me was stark. I wouldn't have swapped his life for mine for any amount of money. Morelos is a celebrity in our wee corner of the globe. He operates to different rules from the rest of us, that's why warmers like Leckie write about him. I suspect there's more than a hint of politics to this too. I imagine the Scottish Sun is finding Rangers something of a cold house currently. Gerrard won't be doing exclusives or feeding them tit-bits, I'm certain of that. Gerrard is Scouse, he knows how much the paper is hated in his home town and he knows the consequences for anyone who doesn't follow that code. There's a reason why Souness, one of Liverpool's greatest ever players, doesn't get many invites back to Anfield and that reason is the Sun. I suspect all of our backroom team follow a similar code too, they're all ex-Liverpool and might harbour ambitions to return there one day. It's also obvious that Morelos isn't a fan of the limelight off the pitch. He seems to be a quiet living guy, he's not a regular at the dancing, he's yet to be photographed barely conscious outside a kebab shop and he's not really playing the media game. There are a noticeable lack of interviews with him, no daft photos of him with a sombrero on, or beside some Tennent's girls or whatever their modern equivalent is. Morelos doesn't seem to be much interested in that side of celebrity, he just likes playing football and scoring goals. Add to that the rise of the club's internal channels, places like this, wall-to-wall Sky/BT Sport and the rest and there's a fair degree of choice now for me to get my Rangers fix. Anything the Sun has as an exclusive will be all over social media within minutes of breaking. The media has changed immeasurably in recent years, I don't think Bill Leckie has. Gersnet is independent, Frankie and the people behind it have always struck me as reasonable and fair. As such they can ban whoever they want, it's their site. What I'd say is you need to go some to get a ban from here. Simply having a contrary opinion isn't enough, I can testify to that. I wonder if anyone at the Sun cares. They should, sport, and football in particular, is what's kept them going for years in this part of the world, footballers are our celebrities. If we're no longer interested in what they've got to say on that then the Sun has a problem that it's running out of time to fix.

Yep, just to echo what BD said: please do not post content, links or social media posts from The Sun or Daily Record on the forum. As much as our club will and should suffer from suitable criticism from time to time, both these newspapers have gone too far in recent times and the deplorable attention placed on our striker in particular means we cannot feature their content in good conscience. Sure certain stories they break may mean we have to discuss them now and again but such circumstances will be few and far between. For example, it's not often @Stevie - 4lads Blog doesn't have the news first or other alternative sources such as Chris Jack at the Evening Times.

Rangers travel to the Netherlands on Thursday to play Feyenoord in Rotterdam. Their name is now spelled Feyenoord but was originally Feijenoord. They updated their name from the old Feijenoord and took a modern English language plunge to Feyenoord in 1974 - pity really; changing your original historical name. For anyone who has been to the Feijenoord stadium, known as de Kuip (the bath tub), will know it is a mass of steel. I would rate it higher quality than tin city on the east side of Glasgow, though. During the war years the Germans wanted to demolish it for the scrap metal to turn the steel into weapons but the director of the stadium estimated a much lower tonnage of high class steel and the Germans decided it was not worth knocking down. Later the stadium was also used for pop concerts and my moment of fame was going to watch Pink Floyd playing there in 1988 which was unfortunately the last time the band toured Holland. As we all know Jaap Stam begun the season as manager. Jaap was probably one of the best defenders you could get but after a spell of managing Reading and PEC Zwolle he got a move to Feyenoord,. The team started off playing not great and quickly got worse. Defeat against Rangers, who a certain Dutch journalist called a nothing club, and a chanceless 4-0 defeat against Ajax saw Jaap fall on his sword. Since he left, players have come out and said he was unclear in his instructions. Why didn't they tell him that at the time seems a logical question for me? After his management performances up until now questions do have to be asked about his coaching ability and man management, I am afraid. After Stam departed, Rangers old boss Dick Advocaat took over as interim manager until the end of the season. Dick Advocaat will do one thing to the team: discipline. He is up to this point unbeaten but after Feyenoord drew 1-1 with Groningen at the weekend the same Dutch journalist stated on telly last night that even Dick Advocaat can't polish a jobby! The fact that Feyenoord had less possession than Groningen must set some alarm bells ringing in Rotterdam. In general though, Dutch Journalists expect Feyenoord to win and stated they could not name one player in the Rangers team. I would say that it is their lack of knowledge as Steven Davis missed a penalty against their national team just a few day's earlier. I have to say that one of the problems with Feyenoord is that they have really only one central striker in Nicolai Jorgensen and he is pretty much always injured. The only other specialist central striker they have is a seventeen year old kid who is still learning his trade. They have been trying many other permutations of wingers or attacking midfielders with Luis Sinisterra playing there recently as striker, but obviously a natural striker is a big part of the backbone to the team. At the back their big money defensive buy Argentinian Marcos Senasi has instead of being a rock in defence actually become a laughing stock amongst the media. They have have painted him as the big money defender who can't defend and can't pass a ball more than a few metres. Dick Advocaat defended him this week saying he will be money well spent, and to be honest he had a reasonable game against Groningen, so maybe he just had problems getting used to his different surroundings. It is my view that we cannot let Feyenoord play football. We have to be in their faces every minute of the game. Defensively they are weak and Morelos should be able to role their defenders. I would try to let them give the ball to Senasi and the put pressure on him to make a mistake. If we let them come at us then they do have players that can hurt us in Steven Berghuis, Luis Sinisterra and Sam Larsson. Obviously a forward line built for on the ground football and not for high balls into the area. With Jens Toonstra, Leroy Fer and Orkun Kökcü they have a decent midfield but certainly not world beaters. Rangers Rangers didn't play that great on Sunday but we got the three points. Playing bad and still getting the points, is the sign of a good team. If we defend as we did on Sunday though then Feyenoord could rip us apart. The Hamilton goal was a comedy of errors with our central defenders caught out of position and Barisic looking on like he had bought a ticket for the game. Thankfully our defending has been great in Europe so hopefully we can keep the clean sheet and get the win or draw that we need. One thing we can all be sure of is that Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent must, and barring injury, will play. Morelos' value to the team is of paramount importance and Sunday's game showed that Jermain Defoe when not scoring goals is a virtual passenger. Morelos can score and also hold up the ball to bring the midfield into play. I may be biased but in my eyes Steven Davis, Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara are certainties for the midfield and are good enough to dominate the Feyenoord midfield. I think Ojo will make up the wide right position. With the knowledge that Feyenoord have small, quick technical footballers and virtually no aerial threat, would it possibly be better to have Edmundson at the back other than Filip Helander? We all know Goldson won't be dropped but Edmundson certainly looks quicker than both. I doubt Gerrard will mess around with the defence to be honest. I think the Rangers team will be: A draw will probably take us through to the next round depending on the result between Young Boys v Porto. With a Porto win being the only result to stop that. One thing is certain: to be sure, two wins from the last two games would be just what the doctor ordered and give certain Dutch football pundits a remembrance of who the famous Glasgow Rangers are and our players names. C'mon the Gers.

This argument gets repeated over and over by those who don't want to change, but it's clearly a weak one. These songs play into our enemies hands - they give them a plausible reason to punish us that an average member of the public would support. Can you think of an example of "something else about us to get offended about" that would seem reasonable to the outside world? You could also argue that anyone with testicular fortitude would take personal responsibility for what they sing, rather than hide in a crowd and have the club and wider support share the punishment for their actions. If you feel strongly about your right to sing these songs, go stand outside Holyrood and give it laldy.

https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news/ma-category-blog/515-time-to-sink-or-swim Before I look forward to this weekend’s Old Firm top of the table clash at Ibrox, it’s worth taking a quick look back first. Almost six months to the day, we were about to be beaten by Aris Limmasol in Cyprus after sacking Michael Beale a few days previous. The Englishman had gone off the back of a 3-1 home reverse to Aberdeen at Ibrox, his third league defeat of a domestic campaign that was quickly becoming a disaster. Add in the loss to Aris, the season was on the verge of being a write off before October had really begun; especially when we consider almost all of Beale’s summer signings were struggling to impress. Fortunately, an international break allowed the Rangers board a fortnight to appoint a replacement. Various names were linked – some well known by our fans, others less so. However, with only Steven Gerrard able to deliver a single league title across the previous five seasons, the pressure was on to find the right man; someone who could not only bring back success in Scotland but continue our good work in Europe and offer a style of play that could enthuse a fanbase bored of the horseshoe mentality developed by Gio van Bronckhorst and allowed to fester under Beale. Philippe Clement was ultimately given the job and it’s fair to say there was some doubt (or uncertainty at least) about this. The former Belgian international defender had had a decent playing career and had impressed as manager at Genk and Club Brugge before a season at Monaco failed to deliver on some early promise. How would he fare at Rangers? Was he experienced enough? Could he turn us back into winners? Initial signs were good: a run of wins in the league and a League Cup semi-final victory over Hearts at Hampden offered early encouragement for Rangers supporters. However, two draws at the end of November: away to Aberdeen and at home to Aris in the Europa League were blemishes that could easily have caused deeper issues. The good news is Rangers regrouped and went on an excellent run through December, including an away win versus Betis to top our Europa League group and a 1-0 hard-fought win over Aberdeen at Hampden to secure the League Cup for the first time since 2011/12. Unfortunately, just as excitement was building due to Celtic losing two of their December fixtures, a disappointing performance and loss at Parkhead to close out 2023 put us on the back foot again. Could we dig deep again? The reaction from the players and manager was a positive one and although we have lost two games this year, our form has been better than our East end rivals to ensure that only a disgracefully cancelled game away at Dundee last month has arguably cost us the psychological benefit of being top of the table for Celtic’s visit on Sunday. Ahead of that game, all things considered we can say the reign of Clement has been a positive one so far. Not just in terms of results but both in team and individual performances. Yes, there has been the odd blip – the home defeat to Motherwell this time last month was particularly disappointing – but progress has been solid and the manager’s ability to get the best out of a squad often blighted by injury and improve the contribution of players such as Cyriel Dessers, John Lundstram and Dujon Sterling means confidence is rightly high as we enter the business end of 2023/24. But can we beat Celtic? Ultimately that’s the $64,000 question. So far this season, we played them twice and lost twice in two performances that demonstrated a lack of genuine belief; both under Beale and Clement’s leadership. Indeed, despite an impressive win at Ibrox in May 2023, you have to go back two years to April 2022 for our last meaningful victory where we won at Hampden after extra time in a Scottish Cup semi-final. In terms of the SPFL we did win at Ibrox earlier that season but it has now been the best part of three years since we’ve won a league game against them – a record that should embarrass us and goes a long way to delivering Celtic’s own domestic success. With that in mind, whilst Sunday’s contest may not decide the title one way or the other, clearly the outcome will have a major effect on the final period of the season; especially with one further Old Firm game in the league (and a Scottish Cup final tie-up also looks probable). The good news for Philippe Clement is that his preparations for Sunday offer him the best squad platform since he arrived last October. Whilst we still have players injured - Ridvan Yilmaz might make it but Danilo, Cortes and Jack will not – having the likes of Todd Cantwell, Abdallah Sima and Kemar Roofe as options offers us an attacking flexibility we’ve not had since we faced Celtic in December. Yes, ideally, we would liked to have had some more games in the legs of Cantwell and Sima in particular but if we’re entirely honest with ourselves, we go into Sunday’s game with a squad more than capable of winning. Speaking of injuries is now an unhelpful distraction. In fact, Clement has arguably done enough in the eyes of most Rangers fans to demonstrate no matter what happens between now and the end of May he deserves the backing (both of the fans and the money men on the Rangers board) to have another go in 2024/25 but it’s also fair to say his six months in charge now has us in a great position to win the title this year. Speaking of the supporters, one of the cleverest aspects of Clement’s time at the club so far is him directly engaging the fans. By speaking of a synergy between the support and the players we have seen a patience (at Ibrox especially) that had been missing in recent years. It’s no coincidence that we’ve scored as many late goals (at the end of both halves) as I can remember this season with players having the supporters onside for longer periods in games. We should not under-estimate our input. Indeed, with no away fans present that relationship could be even more important come Sunday lunch-time. There’s no doubt our support could be that extra factor that proves crucial; more so when we consider how the referee and VAR has influenced games this season with Celtic benefitting from at least two decisions that could have affected the outcome in each match. As with the injury debate though, it’s all about what we do now and that has to be our focus. In that sense, it’s now very much sink or swim for this season as we won’t have a better chance to apply the kind of pressure that has been missing post-55. Our squad is as strong as it has been this campaign, we have home advantage and we have had a week to prepare for a season-defining game. Of course, nothing is certain and there are always other factors you cannot plan for but I firmly believe we should consider ourselves favourites to win on Sunday and I’d like to see our players and fans fully embrace that. In conclusion, yes, we’ve done well to even be in this position but if we want to be genuine winners then we build on that now and take advantage of a six-month improvement that should be the foundation for success this season and beyond. No more excuses, no more disappointment; we can now take charge of our own destiny. Stand tall Rangers – this is our time!

As Rangers supporters we have been subject to a few Peter Decisions this season already. The lines are drawn depending upon the colour of the jersey here in Scotland. It is the path of least resistance to deliberately err on the side of ra Sellik. During Brendan's first spell at ra Stade de Gadd, Referee Don Robertson awarded Ross County a last minute penalty to secure a 1-1 draw, Brendan used the post match interview, "the Ref' will not have a future in the game if he continues to make similar decisions". The last old firm match saw the fruition of Don. Sellik have worked hard at it for decades. Sir Robert Kelly's history of Sellik published in the early fifties has an opening chapter entitled, 'the first disallowed goal'. Sir Bob relates a tale of injustice from a home game against Hearts in 1908. Private Detctives have been hired by the club to follow officials and, when this fail fails, they can rely on an ardent fan, Kevin Dunn from the green leather heated comfy seats to throw a bottle at the Dllas family home. However, Kevin was not finished, he was so upset at his beloved green'n'grey hooped heroes losing the game 0-3 and league to Rangers, he grabbed a golf club and proceeded to smash 13 of the 14 double glazed windows of the house with entire Dallas family inside. We experienced a Referee strike a dozen years past because of increasing levels of Sellik encouraged intimidation. The above Kevin Dunn was convicted in court, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay cost of damages amounting to £4,000. Kevin owned a double glazing company and after his court appearance he was applauded and cheered back to his North Stand seat. Cheerleading is not restricted to the stands, both the broadcast and print media can be relied upon to emphasise or ameliorate. Last evening in Rotterdam, Sellik lost 2-0 and finished the game with nine men after two red cards. Peter has now taken over an important job in UEFA and the work to rid the organisation of officials with Masonic tendencies will have already begun.Ra Sellik Skipper, Calum McGregor was at his enlightening best in the post match interview, "in UEFA competitions the leniency isn't very high". Calum knows the foul to cards ratio in Scotland is hugely in his club's favour, he is exasperated that continental officials are not yet on message. Michael Stewart is a former employee of Sellik TV and he knows what he has to do to ensure the continuance of his associate membership of PQ CSC, "what is VAR for"? The Rangers hater went further, "what is the point in VAR if it does not recognise wrong decisions"? Michael was adamant the penalty decision was wrong and Lagerbielke should have remained on the pitch. He is alone in this opinion for the moment. Michael is confused because when Lagerbielke dallied on the ball and was robbed for Roofe to score, it was disallowed as he glibly stated, "it is in the rules". Michael prefers Peter's rules to UEFA rules. In 37 Champions League games Sellik have managed one clean sheet, conceding 89 goals. However, what we must remember as they carry the Scottish standard in Europe, they hit the post against Real Madrid. We are five years away from that incident constituting a goal furra Sellik under the ensuing UEFA directive, 'Peter Decision'.

Well, mebbes aye, mebbes naw... I am told, from close, and closed, sources that there will be two 'marquee' loan signings (there is a first time for everything, clearly): Fred from Man Utd, and Said Benrahma from West Ham. These deals will enable Michael Beale to field: Wright Said Fred next season.

This is a discussion about Alfredo, let the arguments stand. If others can punch a hole in the argument provided, let it stand. Such discussion makes us ALL stronger. Alfie has had it hard here in Scotland. Just go on the court convictions for launching coins, bottles, spitting, coffee cups, ..... etc at him at Fir Park, Easter Road, Love Street; then the banners at Pitoddrie in Spanish proclaiming his Mother to be a mattress, ra Sellik fans wanting him prosecuted for driving away from a planned ambush in a Glasgow underground car park, the hatred of PQ because he was precocious, .......... etc. He is the best striker we have had since McCoist and, he was THE best ie 357 career goals for Rangers. Boyd has impressive stats but, he failed in Europe and Walter did not trust him against ra Sellik, I believe he notched one goal. Alfie has doubled the total against ra green'n'grey hooped horrors and, collected 28 European goals, our all time best Euro scorer. It's akin to those old soul songs, you never missed your water 'till it's gone. The very fact Alfie fcuked with Michael Stewart's head for two years and BBC Scotland gave him all the rope. Irvine Welsh wanted him cut to pieces with a machette and, fed to seagulls and, he ran past Scott Brown and slapped him on the back of his napper .......... Ah, you gotta luv him?

The big point here is how Rangers are exposing the SPFL how corrupt & incompetent they are, the other big thing here is how/why all the other clubs are terrified of challenging the bias corrupt cabal!!, Scottish football is fucked and has been since the attempt to kill Rangers and the witch hunt continues on Rangers. Since the day Rangers were voted out of the top division Scottish football was fucked, the only thing I kept saying is we need to start winning again, being successful, this is the only way we can change things! I still believe that, we have made astonishing progress under SG and that is killing all the Rangers hating Scottish clubs and Scottish gutter press!. Rangers FC just need to keep on winning, the more success we have the stronger we will be and the more pressure we can apply to the corruption that is rife in Scottish football and indeed Scotland including the Scottish gutter press. It is a wonderful time to be a Rangers fan, especially after what we have had to endure these last 10 years or so. Just keep being successful Rangers.

Apologies in advance for being the party pooper. The bubble buster. Whatever you want to call it... As a Rangers fan for over 43 years, I'm slightly alarmed at some of the celebratory language I have seen online and heard on the airwaves regarding our newly extended lead. Am I glad we sit 10 pts ahead of them at this stage of the season? I'm delighted. Am I glad that we've managed to beat our closest rivals without turning up for the game in large parts? I'm ecstatic but it's January 3rd and there is a lot of football to be played. I can fully understand many fans want to pull the trigger early on the celebrations but not this Rangers fan. The last 6/7 years are still too raw for me to relax and start popping the champagne. I've also seen too much football over those 43 years to suggest that we are home and dry. I know the pundits have all but crowned us as champions in waiting but for me it's too early. IMO draws are as damaging as defeats in a tight race. For example, would I be surprised if we drew at Pittodrie or Easter Rd in our forthcoming games. Not at all. Its happened before as these teams usually raise their game when we come to town. Poor performances in these crucial games could potentially reduce our lead to 4/6/7/8 pts. So let's be sensible and put the flares, fireworks, champagne and balloons in the cupboard until it happens. We've won nothing yet.

As a Rangers supporter of colour , who has been attending Ibrox since I was 14 , I can honestly say that I have never experienced or felt threatened or been racially abused due to my skin colour . I have though heard plenty of derogatory terms being used at opposing players , mainly in the 80,s and early 90,s , now it is so rare that if it did happen I would remember . In all the times attending games , and I was a season ticket holder from 86 until approx 2003 the only time I can remember seeing anything remotely racist was a 2 game period when the NF had a type of stall set up on the Copland road , but again this was a blip and they were never seen again . The whole BLM debate gets confusing because to every single person it means something different , the aims of the BLM movement are not what players and normal people are protesting about , it really is a sad indictment of society in 2020 when basic human decency has be be protested for .

The late Jock Wallace is often characterised as the archetypal old school manager; gruff, authoritarian, intimidating, bellowing orders and ruling through fear. Some of that might be true, but it’s also true of many football managers of that era. What’s so often overlooked about Wallace was his subtle use of psychology. Wallace was faced with a daunting task when he assumed the mantel of Rangers manager. Not only was he in direct competition with Jock Stein, a manager of incredible ability, but also a Celtic side containing hugely talented and experienced players who knew how to win the league. Wallace’s first season in charge saw Rangers finish 5 points behind the champions and one point behind second place Hibs. Wallace knew that Rangers had good players, we’d won the Cup Winners Cup only a couple of years before, and any squad that contained Greig, Jardine, McLean, MacDonald and Johnstone was as good as any in the league. Wallace understood that what was missing was belief and a mental toughness. Wallace needed something that made his players believe they were unbeatable, something that gave them a psychological edge over their opposition. Wallace found the answer on a beach overlooking the Firth of Forth close to where he was raised. Murder Hill, as it came to be known, is simply a long, steep sand dune. Wallace knew about it from his childhood, local sports clubs, including Hearts, had trained on the Gullane sands for years before Wallace took his Rangers side there. But most of the Rangers players didn’t know about it. The squad were made to run up and down it, sometimes carrying medicine balls, sometimes teammates. The mix of the coastal wind and the sand made the players thirsty, the sand would get everywhere making them uncomfortable and the gruelling nature of the training exhausted this band of fit young men, as all pre-season training does. Wallace was able to convince his players that this pre-season work had made them fitter than they had ever been before. He convinced them they were now the fittest team in the league, that no other side could live with their strength. His final masterstroke was telling the press about it. Not only did the Rangers players believe it but so did the support and, importantly, the opposition too. We welcome, if that’s the right word, Aberdeen to Ibrox this Saturday. Unusually for a match between the clubs it takes place at 3pm on a Saturday. Aberdeen arrive in poor form with only one win in their last four, a scrappy 1-0 over Dumbarton in the cup. Their support are restless, the turgid, pragmatic football Derek McInnes sets his side up to play can be tolerated when it brings victories but finds you friendless when it doesn’t. It’s almost surreal to think 24 months ago we were still smarting from being unable to prise him from Aberdeen’s grasp. As Ross Bennett on the Gersnet Podcast quipped it’s the greatest bullet dodge since The Matrix. I expect Aberdeen to bring a defensive mindset, giving us the ball until the final third, then filling it with bodies and closing the space. They’ll aim to frustrate our players and perhaps our support. Prepare for a physical match, lots of niggles, off the ball stuff and gamesmanship. We enter the match still missing our captain and first choice right back and our most influential midfielder in Jack along with Helander and Defoe. At the time of writing we look to be signing Hagi and possibly one or two others. I wouldn’t expect any of them to start though our bench might contain some new faces. Polster should retain his place, personally I think anyone looks good when compared to Flanagan, but in the case of Polster he does seem to bring something to the team. Aberdeen will be a test of his attacking ability, he’ll spend most of the match in their half, so his passing and crossing will be vital. I expect Arfield will also retain his place in midfield, along with Davis and Kamara. Whether Ojo has done enough to keep a starting spot is harder to guess, I suspect not and think Aribo with start along with Kent. Defoe’s absence is lessened by the return of Morelos. Morelos will be targeted by the Aberdeen players and probably their support. A support who think nothing of singing about the 66 football supporters who tragically died whilst at the site of that disaster are almost beyond redemption. I suspect Ian Durrant will get a mention too. Morelos has more reason than most to be fearful of opposition supporters. Already this week police are investigating an incident with his car and intruder close to his home and a man called Sean Baillie appeared in court charged in relation with throwing a cup of scalding liquid at Morelos during a recent Motherwell match. Morelos has to face this whilst living thousands of miles from home and with his wife expecting their first child. Gerrard has played down the incidents and their affect on Morelos, as is Gerrard’s style, but I’m not sure if I believe him. The hatred Morelos faces has long ago crossed the line from supporter rivalry and into something altogether more sinister. The man in court this week is 30 years old, he’s not some daft teenager. For me this is the culmination of years of public demonisation of Rangers. The neanderthal narrative some love to peddle stops being banter and turns into something much darker when it fuels the kind of incidents we’re seeing now. That we face Aberdeen this weekend, one of the more enthusiastic participants in the denigration of our club and our support, is fitting. That they went to the bother of creating a banner, in Spanish, aimed squarely at Morelos tells you all you need to know about the mindset of some of their support. This act by their support was ignored by the SPFL and the police, but hey, it’s only the funny wee foreign lad after all. It’s been open season on the league’s top scorer for a while now, players, managers, referees, supporters and the media have all been complicit in this. As for the match itself we should win comfortably. But then we should have won our last encounter with Aberdeen comfortably too. Throwing away a 2 goal league was very disappointing, particularly after having dominated the match. We were mentally weak that night, unable to match Aberdeen’s rise in tempo and direct style. That weakness was evident again last weekend at Tynecastle. This will be our third league match in 7 days, surely we’re now over any rustiness that set in after the winter break. The clever thing about Murder Hill of course is that you don’t actually get any fitter running up and down sand dunes than you would running on a treadmill or round a track; you just think you do. Wallace understood this, he knew the dunes helped the side’s mental strength far more than its collective stamina. Gerrard needs to find his Murder Hill, the thing that galvanises the squad and makes them fully believe they are unbeatable. Saturday would be the perfect day discover it.

The Light at the end of the Tunnel. The current situation reference Rangers is nothing new to those of us passing three score years. The almost five year period between April'66 and October'70 felt like unrelenting darkness. It was impenetrable, the Scottish Cup final replay victory over Celtic was a dazzling brightness; however, by Autumn'70 it had faded. Of course, we knew where we had come from, locating the way ahead was the real problem. Rangers had made a ECWC final and a Scottish Cup final too, in the intervening years, and failed to secure both cups. Further, we had endured a couple of Championship campaigns where we managed to secure defeat from the jaws of victory on the last days of the seasons. Flicking the switch appeared useless too, three differing Managers and a repeating temporary Boss did not raise a glimmer. Season '69/70 had seen Wullie Waddell pontificating on Scottish football from the lofty designation as the Scottish Daily Express's Chief Football Writer. He could talk with considerable authority, done it all as a Rangers player and managed Killie to a Championship victory five years previous. The immediate aftermath of our defeat to Polish wizards, Gornik had seen Waddell condemn the then gaffer, Davie Whyte with a piece entitled, 'the Boy David'. The Board sacked Whyte and appointed Waddell in his place. He cleared out the dead wood and introduced a host of youngsters into the team. The likes of Alfie Conn, Alex Miller, Colin Jackson, Graham Fyfe, and Derek Parlane were elevated, and he decided a most effective, free scoring inside forward, William Jardin was a better right back. Pre-season '70/'71, Waddell's final piece of the jigsaw arrived. The former player/Boss of Berwick Rangers and then Hearts Trainer, Jock Wallace took over at the Albion. The beginning of the campaign was at best described as inconsistent. We lost two out three pre-season friendlies, the other a draw. We qualified in top position from our League Cup group, involving Motherwell, Dunfermline, and Morton. The quarter-final was two legged against Hibs, winning both games 3-1 for a 6-2 aggregate. Meanwhile, our League form was poor, losing 0-2 at home to Celtic and by mid-Autumn, we languished fifth in the table behind Celtic, Aberdeen, St Johnstone, and Motherwell. The perceived wisdom cited Jock Wallace taking Rangers to Gullane sands. We had left all our energy on the East Lothian coast. We defeated Cowdenbeath in the semi-final, both goals notched by Johnston and Stein in the second half. The final was due, ten days later; we had a league fixture in between, at Ibrox against Aberdeen. A hopeful 40,000 watched a well drilled Dons outfit manage the game from minute one until the ninetieth. A Colin Jackson own goal follow followed by classy finish from the biggest blue-nose on the field, Joey Harper settled a deserved 0-2 triumph. The murmurs leaving the Stadium focused on the inconsistency of so many youngsters, and the pre-match news of returning to Gullane sands for three days before the final. The build up to Hampden was dispiriting for Bears,the Daily Record ran a two day series of interviews with the remaining 16 clubs Skippers in the then, Division One. All but three predicted a comfortable green'n'grey victory. Gullane sands became the subject of relentless jokes ie we endured the twice daily sessions on the sands, then played a team of dustbins. The game finished a 0-0 draw, noting the bins had been denied a clear penalty. A final casualty of the coast was Captain, John Greig going down with the flu. I suspect the conclusion to the Gullane sessions(revealed after the final by Sandy Jardine) might have been the cause? The 24th of October arrived and 108,000 squeezed into the old ground. Our supporters bus had been alive with the news that Greig had failed a fitness test the previous day. Speculation on his replacement split the ranks, we needed the craft of veteran campaigner, Andy Penman as opposed the legs of youngster, Graham Fyfe? A further shock was the team news, neither two was in the starting line up, a callow 16 year old who had debuted a month before against Cowdenbeath in a league match, scoring twice, was the Skipper's replacement. Derek Johnstone's name was overwhelmingly met with, "WHO"? The team that wet and windy day was : McCloy, Jardine, Miller, Conn, McKinnon, Jackson, Henderson, MacDonald, Johnstone, Stein, and Wullie Johnston. Fyfe was our sub'. Our back four was Jardine and Miller as full backs, Jackson joined McKinnon as the centre two. They were never realy troubled. Our midfield star was Alfie Conn, Doddy and Henderson provided the heavy lifting. Bud and Stein continually took the Sellik back line into wide areas. Jim Craig was terrified of Bud's pace, resulting in Bud sitting on the ball late into the game. He teased and enticed Craig to come out and tackle, before dancing around him to deliver another cross. The winning goal was scored in the 40th minute, Conn slipped a ball wide to Henderson. He galloped 40 yards and slung the ball inside to a supporting MacDonald, who in turn pinged it wide to Bud. He checked and delivered a high looping cross, DJ got up between McNeill and Craig, heading the ball firmly past Williams. We scored another in the second half, Colin Stein squeezed the ball at least a foot over the line, but Tiny Wharton was fifty yards off the play and Evan Williams quickly retrieved the ball. As Ronnie McKinnon stepped up to receive the trophy, the clouds momentarily parted and a streak of silver blue became apparent. It was nearly five years and the darkness was bleakest before the game began. Our youngsters outran and outsmarted the acknowledged masters of trophy retention, Celtic were participating in their sixth consecutive final. The youngest player participating in his second game and first final was the light at the end of our tunnel. It was the beginning of sustained success, we won the Scottish Cup, the ECWC, and the league Championship in subsequent seasons. Big DJ - the bringer of the light. NB - Sandy Jardine revealed a few seasons later, that the end of the Gullane sands sessions included either a dip in the sea, or a hosing down by Jock Wallace. Apparently, before the League Cup final in the dressing room, Wallace separated the players into groups of four, and turned a freezing fire hose on them. Thoroughly soaked, they were required to lie of the Masseuse tables and the Trainers rubbed in raw alcohol into all muscle groupings as an embrocation. No wonder Greigy was down with the flu! The events of half a century past feel similar today. We have been through several years of darkness, we have endured a number of Gaffers, and it's the separated brethren tormenting us again. Like 1970, we lost 0-2 at Ibrox to them a few weeks before the final. We attempted to nullify their game, forgetting about our own. Similarly, we did this back in August. We played far too narrow and allowed ra Sellik to dictate the tempo. Hampden is a huge playing area, we have to be expansive, I suspect whoever owns the tempo will own the match? Out of possession, our tempo must remain high, pressing them high up the pitch. It's this manner that laid the foundations for our respective 1-0 and 2-0 victories at Ibrox My team would be : McGregor, Tavenier, Goldson, Katic, Barisic, Davis, Jack, Arfield, Kamara, Kent, and Morelos. Hopefully, 2-1 to the good guys?

A Point to Prove Intro The surprise loan of Glenn Middleton from Rangers to Hibs appears to signal a thawing in the icy relations between the clubs of late, but there will be little sign of that when the sides go head to head this weekend in a game which both sides will aim to make a springboard for their season. Background to Game Both come into the tie on the back of opening day victories but still very much with a point to prove. After an overwhelmingly positive pre-season, Rangers failed to convince with a laboured victory at Rugby Park which had an all too familiar feel to it. However, Thursday’s fabulous performance in Denmark has gone a long way to quelling those fears and putting the fans at ease again. Hibs had a similar opening day to Rangers when they left it late to grind out a win over a St Mirren side they would have expected to dispatch of comfortably at Easter Road. Head to Head History For a long time Hibs were not a side Rangers had to worry too much about. In 32 games between 1996 and 2005, Hibs recorded only one victory. The return of Walter Smith in 2007 saw this pattern continue with only 2 losses in 20 games. However, since Rangers were demoted Hibs have proven to be a thorn in their side, restricting the Gers to a mere 8 wins in 22 games. This dismal record continued under Steven Gerrard last season as a poor Hibs side were allowed to land a severe blow to Rangers’ title hopes by holding them to three draws, costing the Ibrox men 6 crucial points. However the tide has started to turn and last season was the first season since 2011-12 that Rangers were unbeaten against Hibs and the one-sided games were a sign that the new rivalry between the clubs is not likely to last. The Opponent A change in regime at Hibs mid-season saw Heckingbottom take the reins and rescue their campaign as they embarked on an unlikely 10 game unbeaten run which lifted them from 8th to 5th place. This was the highest possible finish for the Englishman so it was a massive achievement. Lennon had built his house on the sand of loan deals and favours from Celtic and paid the price in his final season when the latter dried up after the John McGinn saga. Lennon was weighed in the balance and found wanting. Heckingbottom has had a summer to re-build and, in a break from the club’s previous strategy, he is building for the future. Lennon’s Hibs were propped up by the short termist strategy of flooding the squad with loan players and in his final season he made seven loan signings. Remarkably, Heckingbottom has made only two loan signings and has preferred to utilise his extensive knowledge and connections south of the border to make 5 permanent signings who are all between the ages of 23 and 26. The signing of Scott Allan had already been agreed before he came in but is very much in keeping with this strategy. Form Having said that, this season’s Hibs squad doesn’t look like the improvement over last season’s that the fans were expecting. The opening day performance was slow, laboured and lacking dynamism. The loss of Martin Boyle to injury was a huge blow in terms of the team’s attacking threat but Heckingbottom and Leanne Dempster were smart to move quickly to smooth things over with Rangers and secure Glenn Middleton on loan to replace him. Middleton has the ability to provide the pace and end product they are lacking but will not feature this weekend so answers will have to be found elsewhere. Dangerman Mallan and Horgan are both players with the ability to create and shoot from distance but the dangerman without doubt is Scott Allan. Rangers know all too well what Allan is capable of and everything Hibs did well against St Mirren went through him and it was no co-incidence that it was he who saved the day with an impressive winner. Rangers Despite Rangers’ midweek heroics, they still come into the game with a point to prove. Last season Hibs were a bogey team and Gerrard will be determined to vanquish any similarities to last season from the off, not least after the Kilmarnock game when the accusations flooded in that nothing has changed. Furthermore, dropping points ahead of the first Old Firm game of the season on the 1st of September is not an option. It is absolutely crucial that Gerrard takes his men into that game with the chance to go 3 points clear and give themselves a lead to defend and maintain from there on. This, more than anything, will signal to the fans and the country that this season is different. The line-up is difficult to predict. Last season the goalkeeper was not rotated but McGregor is a year older and Foderingham rotated in at Rugby Park after the Progres game last week and is likely to do so again on Sunday. The backline was not rotated after Progres but Katic and Flanagan will be conscious of the competition and it wouldn't be a surprise to see Barisic and Edmundson start in a home game where we will dominate the ball. Helander didn't make the bench in Jutland and Gerrard has been wise not to throw him in and risk damaging his reputation before he is fit and ready. Davis is likely to return to the three in midfield but Kamara offered the fans a reminder of his quality and class in Denmark and this will surely leave Gerrard with another headache. Arfield will always keep his place unless he is unavailable but Jones can rightly feel under threat in a position with no stand-out player as of yet. The addition of Brandon Barker from Man City is likely to have more to do with opportunism than a feeling that he will significantly improve the team, but it will nevertheless make a few nervous. In any case, Ojo is likely to step in for Jones and this is another example of a position the club now have enough depth in to allow for fresh legs to be brought in after a European game. Defoe will rotate back in after Morelos starred midweek and the option of bringing in a fresh striker after European excursions is brand new to Gerrard and could be a crucial factor in this league campaign. As important a player as Morelos is, he isn't the fittest player in the world and the aerially dominant Darren McGregor will not relish the prospect of facing a fresh and hungry Jermaine Defoe who scores his goals on the deck. Predicted Line-up - 4-3-2-1 Predicted Score - Rangers 2-0 Hibs

I know for a fact they were fully aware of exactly what they were dancing on just before they landed on me and my friends, how none of us were seriously injured is simply miraculous. Behaviour such as that has been highlighted to both Kilmarnock stewards and Rangers security for years, they were fully aware of our concerns but did absolutely nothing to address them other than patronise us.

Before Sunday's final Old Firm game of the season there was the usual manufactured controversy by the usual trolls in the media. Last week it was Chris Sutton's turn to take the lead by suggesting Rangers should give Celtic a guard of honour ahead of the match to show respect for their title win. Of course, given the rivalry between the clubs, this was never going to happen but it didn't stop several other journalists and pundits latching onto the 'debate' inferring Rangers lacked the class or humility to applaud the Celtic players onto the pitch. Even Alan Stubbs and Neil Lennon had their say with neither having the brains to remember they or their clubs didn't offer Rangers the same guard when they played Hibs and Celtic after winning leagues in previous seasons. As always, when it comes to Scottish football, the hypocrisy and mischief-making stood out more than any genuine point being offered. No matter, this Celtic team do deserve praise. To be on the brink of an unprecedented 'treble treble' is worthy of such and, despite the context that goes with their eight titles in a row, to win nine trophies across three years is good going and it would be churlish not to recognise that. In fact, I'd go so far that if you're not prepared to do so, then it would just make Celtic's job easier in terms of extending their dominance. Indeed, whilst Steven Gerrard clearly wasn't in favour of any bizarre guard of honour, as a professional himself, he will be well aware of how difficult the job is to challenge our greatest rivals going forward. The current financial gulf alone makes his job a difficult one: not impossible but we are hamstrung fiscally and I do note the irony from when the boot was on the other foot twenty odd years ago. Yet, that fairly recent history also shows nothing is a certainty in this country's national sport (take note Hearts). Despite an unsuccessful season per se, Rangers have shown they meter out a challenge to Celtic in the coming years. Yes, Celtic won the league fairly comfortably in the end but in the four matches against them, we at last not only competed with them but came out the four games looking the better side. In the first match at Celtic Park, the hosts by and large dominated and ran out deserved winners but in the three games since, including the second game at Celtic Park at the end of March where we went down to ten men, we not only played the more composed football but we created the most chances whilst bettering them both tactically and physically. Sure, they still won that March contest but, make no mistake, our efforts from that day were reflected in our own win at Ibrox on Sunday. And, in turn, that result will have a bearing the next time we play them too. Most importantly, it should give our own players the belief to approach next season with more confidence, addressing our problems with consistency and our ability to keep winning games when it truly matters. Of course nothing is certain despite our splendid performance from the weekend but we are in a good place. For much of this season we were too dependent on Alfredo Morelos and too one-dimensional in our play as a result. This made us predictable and occasionally easy to defend against: issues that have lingered from the managerial reigns of Warburton and Caixinha/Murty. Fortunately, this season has been different with Steven Gerrard and his coaching team quickly able to find an alternative system to improve results. The form of certain players has helped: not least the likes of Defoe, Davis and Katic but from being over-reliant on one or two individuals, we've played much better as a team since we lost Morelos to suspension. In that sense, it's no coincidence, our overall play has been better for longer periods of games and we've both conceded less and scored more than in other periods of the campaign. With that in mind our current form is well worthy of examination. Since that unlucky defeat to Celtic at the end of March, we've won six games in a row. Not exactly noteworthy on its own but these matches have all been against the best the SPFL has to offer. We've beaten Hearts twice, Celtic, Motherwell, Aberdeen and Hibs: the latter two, teams we've struggled against earlier in the season. We've also scored 14 goals and conceded only once. Of course the season is nearing an end and some sides might well be ready for their holidays but, for me, that means our form deserves more praise, not less. After all, when we finish our season this Sunday at Rugby Park it will be our 60th game of the last 10 and half months. Yet the drive and hunger from the manager and his squad seems to be just as fresh as it was when we beat Shkupi last 12th July. We're also well on our way when it comes to improving the squad for next season. Bosman signings like Jordan Jones, Jake Hastie and Greg Stewart might not take us to Champions League glory but Glen Kamara has already shown since he signed from relegated Dundee that cost need not dictate quality. If you were watching Liverpool's incredible comeback against Barca last midweek and their impressive domestic form throughout the season then Andy Robertson's less than glamorous background shows Scottish-based players can play at the highest levels: a belief that both Gerrard and Gary McAllister can offer any new signing. And there will be more - perhaps a few that will whet the appetite in the same way that Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis have shown their quality once up to speed. Conversely we will lose several players as well with a long list set to leave. The vast majority of Foderingham, Alnwick, Hodson, Wallace, Worrall, McAuley, Coulibaly, Holt, Grezda, Dodoo, Herrera and Lafferty won't be here next season which is a large exodus. More importantly, key players such as Morelos, Tavernier and Kent are uncertain to be here - though at least the Colombian and our skipper will realise serious cash should they move on, which could help us afford to retain Kent. The reliable contributions of players like Goldson, Jack and Arfield will also be of interest to other clubs so new deals may be offered to keep their services. Meanwhile, even obvious talent such as Dorrans, Docherty and Rossiter have struggled to prove themselves at the club so their futures may well be undecided too. As such, whilst the squad turnover may not be as severe as we seen in Gerrard's first summer at the club, change will be obvious and next year's squad very different. Given we'll be starting the hard work again this time next month, we'll need improvement to avoid the downturn of form we seen last winter due to our European exertions. Ensuring the squad has the correct level of depth and quality therein is a big responsibility for Andy Scoulding and Mark Allen. After all, if we are to be successful next season then we'll need to play more than the 60 games we did this term. All things considered Rangers fans asked for evidence of progress from Steven Gerrard and, as much as there have been some great disappointments this season, I think he's definitely provided improvement by and large. To qualify for the Europa League group stages was a laudable achievement and to arguably win the head-to-head versus Celtic over the course of those four games demonstrates improvement; mentally as much as tactically. Unfortunately, no cup finals and no league trophy shows work still needs to be done and a couple of wins over Celtic isn't enough to satisfy the support as long as they're the ones still celebrating trebles come mid-May. In that sense, Sunday's result may have been meaningless but there's no doubt in my mind any momentum Celtic had after our travails of the last 7-8 years has been halted. Perhaps not reversed (and they have plenty of financial fuel to apply) but enough of a marker to suggest a changing of the guard could be upon us.

I suspect Sunday afternoon/evening last, might be viewed as a series of defining moments in PQ's attempt to provide definition on Strict Liability? The live broadcast of BBC Radio Scotland's coverage of the Scottish Cup semi-final between Aberdeen and ra Sellik put together with an early evening Sportscene highlights the shimmering mess they have got themselves into. PQ demand answers to questions they don't even dare to ask themselves, because those questions are too uncomfortable. A Dandy Dons/Yahoo fixture is what they live for, it's perfect harmony. You have Big Dick presenting, Liam McLeod commentating, Tom English, Pat Bonner, and Wullie Miller adding colour. The vox-pops are provided by Tyrone Smith; it's all safe, contained to only supporters of both clubs, no awkward or inconvenient comments guaranteed. Mutual masturbation is actively encouraged. It has been established, Rangers under Gerrard have not improved, the oligopoly of the last several seasons remains preserved. We have a monthly period where pyrotechnics have been lobbed on to playing areas at Paisley by Yahoos, the same supporters aim sectarian chanting at both Steven Gerrard and Jimmy Bell. Motherwell fans throw a lighter, a pie, and a few coins at Rangers skipper, James Tavernier, Jambos and Hibees add to the pyro party, and add a touch of creativity by shying a coconut. A Hibby is jailed for 100 days for attempting to attack James Tavernier. All this in the immediate wake of Aberdeen supporters subjecting Gerrard to sectarian chanting and offering a few ditties about the Ibrox Disaster. Just before that, Rangers supporters sectarianly abused Killie boss, Steve Clarke; days before this, Sellik supporters did the same to Killie striker, Kris Boyd and pelted him with coins. I hope you can pick the needle out of the above haystack? Beeb Scotland went BIG with 'Strict Liability' on one issue in that morass. We had demands from Michael Stewart, DrStu', and Tom English for strict liability now. We had pleas from presenters on both radio and TV, after the obligatory phone-in/studio discussion had concluded that the Scottish Government must step in and deal with the issue. The national broadcaster is the biggest megaphone in the land and the volume was turned up to eleven. Steve Clarke had defined the issue, "it was something from the dark ages". As far as the rest of, the overwhelming mass of the haystack; PQ treated that as a whiter shade of pale. Calls for strict liability diminished, then disappeared. In fact the current standing from the politically motivated Michael Stewart stands thus, "we need to get a collective approach to try and tackle this and stamp it out". His lame and limp offering from Sunday night's Sportscene. Michael's political muse, Scottish Justice Minister, Humza Yousaf began the week threatening Scottish football clubs. He demanded the clubs tell him of their plans to deal with this vague and unquantified issue? Last weekend, BBC Scotland's Chief Sports Correspondent, Chris McLaughlin added to the debate by visiting Holland. The Dutch had implemented strict liability and Chris was anxious to present the benefits to both game and society. A several minute film, a few reinforcing chats with shows' hosts, and a piece on the Beeb website told us .............. nothing. A day after broadcast, Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final between Ajax and Juventus saw 146 arrests. An exercise in Double Dutch from Chris, who would have thought? PQ have told us pesky license fee paying Rangers supporters, "we are Editorially fair". I have watched this last month how they exercise editorial fairness. Each incident is reported, thus they can make the statement. It is reported on Ceefax or inserted into their website as seventh item, eg McInnes claiming his red card at Hampden was a direct result of gesturing after being subject to sectarian abuse from the self proclaimed GFITW. This appeared on both Ceefax and the website and disappeared after four hours. There are no discussions, phone-ins, studio guests, ........... etc. The megaphone is severely muted. So, where does this leave us? Will the usual suspects at PQ answer these awkward questions? 1. Can we agree, Steve Clarke's outrage at being sectarianly targeted by Rangers supporters would have carried far more substantial weight, if he had condemned those Celtic supporters doing the very same to his club's captain, Kris Boyd, just three days previously? 2. Similarly, Derek McInnes and his being sent to the stand. Again, would his claims carry more purchase if he had commented/condemned Aberdeen fans for singing the very same song at Steven Gerrard? Further, his gesture to the Celtic support is the very same gesture utilised by Scott Brown to the Rangers supporters at Celtic Park. Brown has not been punished, why was McInnes sanctioned? 3. Long term PQ employee, Derek Ferguson utilised the available megaphone to claim Rangers keeper, Alan McGregor had deliberately set out to do his son, Aberdeen midfielder, Lewis Ferguson. McGregor was cited by the Compliance Officer and suspended for two matches. Does Derek intend to pick up the megaphone again and claim his son set out to do Rogic? 4. Will Chris McLaughlin interview Humza Yousaf? It could be conducted in the comfy green leather seats in the north stand after a Sellik game, just saying. 5. Do Michael Stewart, DrStu', and Tom English expect strict liability to be extended to clubs, other than Rangers? 6, What's the point of Jonathon Sutherland? It's as well we remind ourselves of PQ's claim of being editorial fair, because I suspect it is the hook they hang themselves upon. We should record the evidence because if Humza Yousaf gets involved, that evidence will be lost, or deliberately disappeared.

Strictly Sevco. These last few weeks, the entertainment for Rangers supporters is in watching BBC Scotland framing the strict liability debate. It was easy at the start, Killie's Steve Clarke had been subjected to sectarian chanting at Ibrox, and Michael Stewart, DrStu', and Tom English demanded the Scottish Government step in and take appropriate action. Across both radio and TV, the big stick battering Sevco was presented as the only action. Truly, it is quite amazing how attracted a lot of Scottish football supporters and PQ journos are to such imagery. The Scottish Justice Minister, Humza Yousef liked the thought even more and began making noises. He was looking for answers as opposed to searching for lost evidence. Three days before Steve Clarke suffering vile sectarian abuse, Kris Boyd had been the recipient from Sellik supporters. Then, Steven Gerrard was the target of sectarian chanting by Aberdeen fans, in between a few songs about the Ibrox Disaster. The PQ Gang Hut retreated and decided to stay schtum, the imagery of fellow Dandies and Yahoos indulging in sectarian chanting is awkward for strict liability going forward. Bravely, DrStu' kept the charge going; he was prepared to compartmentalise any sectarian abuse of Boyd and Gerrard as, 'tribalism', Steve Clarke was the real victim of sectarianism. Cosgrove's concerns were both Boyd and Gerrard being abused was running interference on the real issue of Clarke. We arrive at last weekend's old firm game at Sellik Park, both Jimmy Bell and Gerrard are recipients of sectarian chanting from the jolly craicsters amid the Green Brigade. This can be conveniently ignored because there is too much fun to be had at PQ, getting after Morelos, Kent, and Halliday. In fact, Big Dick and Michael Stewart go out on a limb to clear Scott Brown of any wrongdoing. Of course, on Wednesday night der Broony stands on an opposition player and Michael Stewart tells the Sportscene audience, "where else could he put his foot"? There is dissension amid PQ ranks, both the commentator, Paul Mitchell and 'Thommo' decree Brown's actions as worthy of a red card. The strict liability issue arriving from the Yahoos visit to Paisley, is the detonation of a Thunderflash. Like any other pyrotechnic, it is initiated by a detonator and the minimum safety distance is thirty meters. On Sportsound, Big Dick read out a text from a Gang Hut staffer, assuring us that the pyrotechnic did not strike the St Mirren keeper, it had landed five yards away. Pat Bonner was allowed to talk about young teenagers and lack of responsibility. On Sportscene, Michael Stewart did not mention strict liability, and by the time we reached Thursday evening, PQ were talking about, "a firework". No one mentions minimum safety distance or that a thunderflash landing at such close proximity to the Buddies Keeper, could have blown his eardrums. Now, you would think Chief Sports Correspondent, Chris McLaughlin would step in and bring full gravity to this discussion point? No, we receive old buffer, Reevel Alderson. A safe pair of hands, an Old Aloysian can be relied to chair a debate between Jeanette Findlay and James Dornan MSP. Reevel was scrupulously fair in ensuring all sides of Irish Republican opinion were heard, reading out a statement from the Green Brigade at the conclusion. There you go, over a period of 4 weeks; Strict Liability equates to Strictly Sevco. Peter has announced this morning, "this stops now". It reminds me of fifteen years past when Peter also proclaimed, "no stone will remain unturned util the lighter thrower is found". Fernando Ricksen continues to await the identity of whoever struck him with a lighter at Sellik Park, obviously stones remain to be unturned. Perhaps, Humza Yousef could lend a hand, get out his comfy green leather seat in the north stand and search for lost evidence?

Feeling rather refreshed and most joyful. Can I extend festive felicitations to my fellow Gersnetters. Rangers won the Cup.

It has been an frustrating six months for Rangers fans. At the start of June, a poor season 2022/23 had just ended. With Gio sacked this time last year and, despite some decent performances under his replacement Michael Beale, no trophies were won and another league title was lost to Celtic. Nevertheless, there was still some optimism at that point. Dead rubber or not, a comfortable 3-0 win at Ibrox in the final Old Firm match of the campaign offered some confidence that Beale had got to grips with these games with no previous derby wins prior to that. Further, his new diamond formation looked the part, being defensively sound but with an improved threat in attack. Could the summer transfer window allow him to bring in better players and enhance the options available to him? Fast forward to the start of pre-season and the squad was much changed in good time for 2023/24. Previous key, but also undeniably under-performing, players in Morelos, Kent and Kamara were (or were about to be) moved on. Meanwhile, a variety of others were brought in and, on the face of it, the acquisitions looked suitable: Butland, Lammers, Dowell, Sima and Sterling arrived quickly and, by the time the season kicked off in August, Dessers Danilo, Cifuentes had also been added. The best part of £15m had been spent and, despite some reservations about a lack of wide options, most fans were happy with the majority of our business. Unfortunately, things quickly went wrong for Beale. An opening day league defeat to Kilmarnock showed a new team struggling to gel and despite a reasonable rest of the month, it culminated with a 5-1 humbling to PSV knocking us out the Champions League before what many fans felt was an unacceptable loss at home to Celtic in our first match of September. Already we were falling behind in the league and performances were hardly attractive. Another partial recovery followed with home wins against Real Betis, Motherwell and Livingston in three different competitions but a dreadful defeat to Aberdeen at Ibrox resulted in the departure of Beale less than a year after his appointment. The Rangers board moved quickly to replace him after the caretaker coaching team led us to an unexpected Europa League loss in Cyprus. Belgian Philippe Clement came in and both results and performances immediately improved. Although supporters still had their doubts about various players – old and new alike – six wins in an undefeated spell before the November international break showed an obvious improvement. The new manager quickly identified our lack of width as an issue and also offered a slightly more conservative look to the team: not defensive per se but the full backs weren’t as high and we were prepared to go more direct when required. The feel-good factor was back amongst the support as Scotland also secured qualification to Euro 2024 with no club football. The next challenge for the new manager was a clear one. Post international break we had 12 games in just over a month to navigate. These included tricky trips to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Parkhead but also the opportunity to win the League Cup in mid-December and close the gap to a Celtic team that were just starting to look somewhat unconvincing themselves. For his part, Clement was confident: players were arriving back from injury and he had the best part of a fortnight on the training ground to implement more of his own ideas since taking the job. There was also talk of a new Sporting Director to finally replace Ross Wilson who’d left earlier in the year. At the time of writing though, our start to this vital block of games couldn’t have gone much worse with just two draws against Aberdeen and Aris Limassol respectively and both from going behind to extremely cheap goals. Now, at this point we could talk about the positives in that we fought back to avoid defeat. That’s fair enough and I do believe most of the players worked hard enough in these games to deserve not dropping points. However, the obvious issues in both games can’t be ignored. And, first and foremost, the manager has to take his fair share of the blame. For the Aberdeen game the team selection was largely fine and I don’t think may fans took issue with the starting line-up. Injuries to Raskin and Jack meant a start for Cifuentes whilst getting both Lawrence and Cantwell into the same team could surely only increase our creative and goal threat? Furthermore, Clement spoke pre-match about the threat Aberdeen carried on the counter and from set-pieces; surely that message was a clear one to the players. Not so it seemed as Aberdeen took an early lead from a the simplest of moves; just a few minutes after a similar attack had given us a clear warning. After that, to their credit, the team did recover to a degree. We dominated possession and should have equalised well before a late penalty secured a point. Indeed, we should have won the game as Sam Lammers headed straight at the Dons keeper in injury time. Two dropped points it was though and, after Celtic had only drawn at home the previous day, that really was difficult to swallow for Rangers fans. Doubts were forming again about the mental capacity of this Rangers side. Onto Thursday night and the team had an immediate opportunity to restore credibility. On paper we had our easiest game in our Europa League group: even if Aris Limassol had beaten us in October, Beale had just left, the team was in disarray and surely lightening wouldn’t strike twice? Importantly, this time we knew more about their twin threat of pace on the transition and the ability to be clinical with chances created. They were also less than impressive in a defensive sense and could be exploited from wider areas. Despite necessary changes in central defence, surely this time we’d guard against the quick counter and avoid conceding the kind of avoidable goals we seen in Cyprus? Yet again we were let down. Todd Cantwell, ignoring instruction from the manager, skipped inside and lost the ball cheaply. One long ball later our sleeping defenders were exposed once more and behind we went. Cantwell was taken off soon after and the jeers were loud as the half-time whistle went. Fortunately, unlike Pittodrie, we equalised effectively from kick off for the second period but huffed and puffed after that. In fact, for the rest of the game our failings couldn’t be more obvious. From being unable to do the most basic of stuff: players couldn’t control the ball, simple short passes went uncompleted, decision-making was inexplicable and various players abdicated their responsibilities time after time amidst a general unacceptable lack of quality and belief. Even our substitutes couldn’t provide improvement and we timidly surrendered the opportunity to qualify for the next stage of that competition. Post-match things didn’t improve. The manager admitted taking off Cantwell (one of last season’s few shining lights) was a tactical issue and not down to injury (see the continued huge strapping the player wears during training and games). Clement discussed how he felt the player wasn’t following instruction: fair enough, Cantwell was playing badly and culpable at the opening goal. In that case, why play him there in the first place and why were other under-performing players excused? The Belgian then went on to discuss being happy about qualifying for the Conference League. Again, on its own, securing European football after Christmas is usually a positive but, in the context of last night, it felt ill-considered and glib. All things considered it has been a bad week so far for Philippe Clement but not a period he can’t recover from. However, he has to demonstrate he has learned from a difficult five days. For example, he has previously spoken about taking the fans with him during games and he was absolutely right to say so. A packed Ibrox isn’t an easy place for any team to visit and a loud, clear backing from the stands does provide a tangible benefit to our play. That was missing last night and, as much as the players must take ownership for their own bad performances, so too must the manager. Selecting Sam Lammers instead of Ross MacAusaland, Tom Lawrence or even Rabbi Matondo was a strange choice when the Dutchman has perhaps been the best (worst?) example of what transpired to be a poor summer transfer window. To then persevere with him whilst scapegoating Cantwell to a small degree confused almost every Rangers fan last night. The former Norwich man has undoubtedly struggled this season and was again poor last night – as well as selfish – but I’m still puzzled as to why he was taken off whilst the likes of Lammers and Cifuentes made it into the second half. The latter’s selection was perhaps forced but, not for the first time, his lazy style and lack of any key input to games shows a player disinterested in improvement or adapting to his new club. Worse than that though we have other existing players struggling with their contribution. Ben Davies was again poor at centre-half, James Tavernier had an awful game at right back whilst Tom Lawrence still looks less than fully fit and sharp after 15months out. Elsewhere in the side, new father Abdallah Sima has gone off the boil again on the left wing, Danilo struggles to influence games in attack and we still have a variety of players failing to contribute. Be it via injury (Roofe, Jack and Dowell are constantly injured) or just not being involved often enough (Yilmaz, King and Sterling were supposed to be the future), we have a large squad of 28 players with very few actually performing to acceptable levels. The manager simply must change that and I think the last few days has shown again change is necessary on the park. To that end, Philippe Clement will know all this. He will also know there’s not much he can do until first January’s window but more probably until the summer. He will also be aware that without moving on players his budget may not be to the level required to facilitate the kind of wholesale improvement we need. However, that need not mean he can’t continue to deliver improvement. After all, not all has been lost in the last two games. We’re still well in the title race and more than capable of getting a positive result in Seville. We can also win our first trophy of the campaign in a fortnight’s time at Hampden so there’s much to look forward to and I think that can be lost after bad results. Even so, it can be argued we are back to square one with much of the goodwill the new manager has built up lost this week. To hear the team booed off last night was really disappointing but this was an understandable manifestation of our frustration with a poor start to a vital winter period. I’d like to think the manager will have noted that supporter reaction and be discussing it with his players as you read this. Sunday afternoon is an immediate opportunity to right a few wrongs and it will be fascinating to see how Clement reacts. I doubt we’ll see wholesale changes to the starting XI but will he recognise and fix the kind of flaws that seen Gio and Beale flounder in an increasingly negative tactical mindset or will he relish solving the same problems that affect this team over two years since we last won the title? The pressure is already on…

You also said: and so I'm hoping your prediction levels are as off as usual.

The current situation is unacceptable and the ongoing silence emanating from the Blue Room compounds. Ra Sellik won the Premiership last season. Their automatic qualification for the Champions League group stages was facilitated by the national coefficient, largely established by Rangers efforts in the prevailing four seasons. We qualified for the group stages by playing four qualifying games, winning two, drawing and losing one apiece. I believe we have contributed 6.5 points to the coefficient this season, more than any other Scottish club? I drove to last night's game and heard BBC Radio Scotland's build up, they played a full ten minutes of commentary of all goals conceded by us in this season's CL group stages, interceded by clips of GVB saying, "we will learn", "we are in development" and, "we cannot compete". Big Dick introduced and Liam McLeod screamed with satisfaction. Truly, we are chastened. Currently, we hold the record for the worst performance ever in CL group stages. I am not looking for a sacrifice, I am not looking for pointless reaction that raises the whole tone of the campaign. Certainly, I am not looking for a repeat of November'69 - I stood as a 12 year old schoolboy with my Old Man in Edmiston Drive with 12,000 other Bears. We had just lost 1-3 to Gornik in the ECWC, a trophy we were favourites to win. Lubanski's goal would have won any cup buy Man City beat the unfancied Poles in the final. The Rangers Manager, Davie White was sacked that evening. I do NOT want a repeat. I want the Board to come out and accept responsibility and tell us the way ahead. I want leadership. Without leadership, others are allowed to seize the narrative.

The jury is always out, that's the nature of football management, particularly if you're the Rangers manager. You're only a run of bad results away from criticism and questions, they know this when they take the job. GvB inherited a squad that had hit some wonderful heights last season but was stuttering this season. Our recruitment in the summer hasn't really strengthened us. Sakala reminds me of Lovenkrands, great when he's got space to run into, but he won't contribute a lot against 10 men defences sitting deep. Lundstrom has looked better recently but has taken 6 months to find his form and position. Scott Wright is a bit part player at best and Jack Simpson doesn't seem to have won the confidence of Gerrard or GvB, I expect he'll be back in The Championship in the summer. The least said about the signing of Ofoborh the better. Added to Goldson, Arfield, Balogun, Davis and McGregor all in the final months of their contracts, all senior pros at the club and I expect the guys who 'run' the dressing room and you could see a less that ideal atmosphere to inherit. In January our squad was weakened. Patterson, despite not making any impact at Everton, was an exceptional talent. Ramsay is clearly struggling with injury and is using us as an attempt to get fit, Dialo is a young player who has tricks but little heart or desire from what i've seen. The young Polish lad might prove an astute buy, time will tell. Add that to Aribo having to go to Africa and come back half the player who left. None of this is GvB's doing. GvB got our tactics so wrong against Celtic it's still painful to speak about it. But he got them so right against Prague and Dortmund. The lack of rotation and subs in recent games has puzzled. I feel that's connected to fitness or illness, I mean it's not like the Dutch don't understand how subs work. I can't help but feel there's more to this than we know. Likewise not starting Balogun, I assume he's not fit enough for two games a week and the management team thought we'd be able to beat St Johnstone without him but not Red Star. I'm guessing, but nothing else makes sense to me. Some players have improved under GvB, some have done the opposite. Barasic looks like a shadow of himself, Kamara has lost his spark, Roofe isn't trusted, McGregor is suddenly a weakness. Yet Morelos looks reborn, Sakala started to show something and Bassey is now a first choice starter and Tav looks like he's risen to the challenge. Gerrard was always going to be a hard man to replace. Gerrard brought exciting, entertaining football back after a period of ineptitude and ridicule. His presence and charisma, his media savvy and his instinctive understanding of the club and the support were enormous assets for him and the club. Whoever we replaced him with was going to struggle to match that. GvB isn't charismatic, he's not got the profile of Gerrard despite a stellar playing career, he's a different type of manager as well. This league isn't won or lost yet. I've been bewildered by some of our performances and angered by some of our decisions recently. But, I still don't buy that our city rivals are the world beaters their support think they are, everything is still to play for, fine margins will tell in the end. I'm backing GvB. For now.

Kent's tracking back with McGregor and generally being around him and preventing him getting on the ball was hugely important for us yesterday. Tactically Callum McGregor is their link between defence and attack and Kent had a job to do today in helping prevent that, he did it well in my opinion. We really should step back for a moment and consider our side yesterday. I think it's now clear we've had Covid problems at the club for a while and it's affecting a number of players and senior staff in different ways. Barasic is not fit, I don't know why, but he's not and that's been clear every time he's played this season. He was rightly replaced by Bassey a few weeks ago. Yet he was called upon to perform yesterday and he did. Their young winger is a decent enough player and they were overlapping a lot on that side, Barasic had a lot to do yesterday. It also seems like Helander is a player who struggles to play two matches a week. There seem to be fitness issues with him, he may have historical injuries that need managed, he might simply not yet be over his summer exertions. Yesterday was his second game in 4 days, with nearly 7,000 miles flying too. Balogun is no right back. He might have played there before but compared to Tav or Paterson he's defensively sound but offers a lot less going forward. So much of our attacking play is dependent on our full backs linking with midfielders and forwards and delivering crosses. An unfit Barasic and a centre half at right back makes a big difference to our style of play. Add in a rookie keeper making his league debut for us rather than a commanding seasoned international and you have to say to go through that match without conceding a goal is remarkable. As has been said Kent and Roofe aren't fully fit. Both did important jobs yesterday. Kamara, Davis, Morelos and Aribo played in the heat of Thursday too. Morelos ability to draw a foul is a thing of beauty, he should have a wing dedicated to him in Kelvingrove Art Gallery where future generations can marvel at his dedication to getting his body between their centre halves and the ball before taking the inevitable dunt from behind. He helped break up the play, slow the game down at times and allow us to regroup. Plus we realised they were suspect from set-pieces as indeed it turned out. We'd no defenders on our bench yesterday. No manager in the dug out, no captain on the park. That was an important win yesterday, that was a show character above all else. Loved it.

https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sri0hv Jas Boyd · @Jas72Boyd While not strictly about Rangers, I thought it worthwhile to post it in the main forum because of the importance of the issue and to give it maximum publicity and it raises questions as to why Duffy was treated differently from Zungu, for example. Celtic Dubai trip – A timeline and where are you SPFL ? November 2020 – Celtic approach the SFA to seek approval to travel to "somewhere" and the SFA subsequently ask the Scottish Government. The JRG rules are very clear that the only way this trip would be allowed if it was to fulfil a winter training camp. 19 December 20 – Nicola Sturgeon announces a nationwide lockdown and return to Tier 4 from Boxing Day. No-one is to leave the country unless “absolutely essential” and unavoidable. 2nd January 21 – Rangers beat Celtic again. A few moments later – Neil Lennon announces live on Sky that Celtic are flying out to Dubai for a bit of “R and R”. This is NOT allowed under the JRG rules as R and R is not a "Training Camp" 3rd January 21 Photo 1 – Neil Lennon, Scott Brown, SHANE DUFFY and various other Celtic players and staff are pictured around the pool with the first 2 having a drink. Crucially, it appears none of them have face masks on. This breached JRG Rule 1. (see end) http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_celticdubai2-copy.jpg Photo 2 – SHANE DUFFY and Scott Brown at the Jacuzzi Bar again with no masks on. Breach of Rule 1 – There are some doubts if this picture is a photoshop or not however if you look at the Bar in front of the players, the reflections match perfectly their body positions. http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_hottub-copy.jpg Photo 3 – 9 Celtic players including SHANE DUFFY are pictured drinking in Shades bar watching the Chelsea v Man City game. Shades Bar is a sports bar situated in Le Royal Meridien and is open to the public. This breached JRG Rule 1 and JRG Rule 2. http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_celticdubai3-copy975.jpg Its important to note at this point that even if Celtic had exclusive use of the hotel, which they did not, then according to JRG Rule 2, in that scenario, the bar should be CLOSED completely so any notion it was private does NOT negate the rules. Photo 4 – SHANE DUFFY is pictured getting a selfie with a fan. To be fair, there is a bit of distance between them however again, he is doing so without his mask on which breaches JRG Rule 1 http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_duffydubai-copy.jpg 4th January 21 – The Celtic PR job attempts to change the narrative from this being a “trip for some R and R” which is a direct quote from the manager to it being a difficult and full training trip. Celtic claim “The training camp was arranged a number of months ago & approved by all relevant footballing authorities & @scotgov through the Joint Response Group on 12th November 2020” 4th January 21 – Photo 5 - SHANE DUFFY flies home from trip. He is pictured in Dubai airport, outwith the football bubble flying home in a commercial, non chartered airline, and not wearing his mask correctly. http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_duffyairport-copy.jpg 8th January 21 – Photo 6 – Picture of Christopher Jullien leaving the plane and airport emerge with his crutches. Jullien had injured himself a week before the trip and is out of action for up to 4 months. His inclusion on the trip cannot in anyway meet the standard of being “absolutely essential” and therefore he broke the Government rule, in fact law, by travelling out of the country. This backs up Neil Lennons view it was R and R. http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=23_jullien-copy.jpg All 49 staff who travelled at a total cost of over £250,000 are tested for Covid upon arrival back home. 10th January 21 – News breaks that Christopher Jullien, who travelled, in my opinion illegally, to Dubai, has tested positive for Covid. First and foremost, I wish him and anyone around him affected a speedy and full recovery. Jullien has been around players at the hotel, on a tin can in the air for 7 hours and on the bus journey back to Celtic Park completely unaware he is now carrying the disease. He had to have caught it somewhere. Was it in the bar watching the footy ? Or in the busy Dubai Airport where Celtic did NOT have the luxury of being separated whilst transiting to their charter flight or even on the plane home from one of the stewards or stewardesses ? The irony it was a player who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the trip Is not lost here. Also that day – John Kennedy is interviewed and amongst other things revealed that: a) SHANE DUFFY would miss the Hibs game as he left the bubble and requires a different round of testing. https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/19000167.shane-duffy-remains-celtics-plans-according-john-kennedy/ b) Celtic players had made “slip ups and minor things” on their training camp in Dubai, a quite astonishing admission. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55603267 11th January 21 – News breaks a further 15 members of staff including players and management are now self isolating due to contact with Jullien. Nicola Sturgeon counter Celtics previous claim by confirming they did not “give approval”: “We set out the rules, it is not the role of the Scottish Government. We are not formally on the Joint Response Group. It is not our role to give approval or not give approval to what a football team is doing. As I understand it, I think at the time when that clarity of the rules was given it was another country that they were planning on going to rather than Dubai and also, that was back in November. “The world and the situation with Covid has changed quite a lot since then and the club itself described the trip to Dubai as R&R.” https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/6518911/sturgeon-celtic-planned-to-go-different-country-not-dubai/ The SPFL bury their heads in the sand and refuse to comment all day. They remain silent. Silent that is until Hibs threaten not to play the game only to be told they MUST play the game or they will forfeit the points. A threat if you will. But the SPFL apparently go one better. They tell Hibs that they must play the game but they shouldn’t worry about their players catching Covid because if that happens, the SPFL will postpone the League Cup Semi Final for them until everyone is ok. Astounding. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/hibs/hibs-reveal-spfl-threat-club-issues-statement-controversial-celtic-clash-3092670 Later that evening – The team sheets come out and SHANE DUFFY is on it. This is SHANE DUFFY who breached JRG rules at the poolside, breached them at a jacuzzi bar, breached them in a sports bar, breached them getting selfies with a fan, mingled with hundreds of passengers in Dubai departures whilst not wearing mask correctly, probably did the same on the plane, according to reports, went back into a English family bubble he had not been part of due to living in Scotland then flew on another commercial plane back to Scotland to play despite the management team saying he couldnt. The Scottish government days earlier announced that all people arriving in Scotland who had flown home from Dubai on the 3rd January had to isolate. This included Shane Duffy. He was no longer protected under the Elite football status. He should be in quarantine, just as Rangers new signing in October was forced to do for 14 days when he flew on a Commercial airline to sign for Rangers. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bongani-zungu-quarantine-blow-revealed-22855325 This story is going to run and run but here are a list of many questions that the SPFL specifically need to answer here? 1) In the middle of a Global pandemic, who sanctioned Celtics change of fixture to a Monday night, despite Hibernians refusal, on the grounds of a R and R trip to Dubai? 2) Will the football authorities ask Celtic about the R and R statement from Neil Lennon? 3) Why was a guy out for 3 months taken on an alleged Training camp ? 4) Why did Shane Duffy travel home and which bubble did he join in England ? 5) Whats the difference between 9 players in a Dubai bar v 8 players in an Aberdeen bar ? 6) What questions have been asked of John Kennedy in relation to minor breaches he said happened in Dubai ? 7) How do these minor breaches compare to the minor breaches at Kilmarnock and St Mirren? ? What changed between Saturday (SHANE DUFFY cannot play) to Monday when he did? 9) Why did Bongani Zungu have to quarantine when Duffy did not ? 10) Why has there been ZERO public comment from any official of the SPFL ? 11) Given that Aberdeen had to cancel 2 games due to the players being in a bar, how come Celtic played last night with at least 2 players on the park who were in the Dubai Bar ? (SHANE DUFFY and Stephen Welsh) 12) Leigh Griffiths party, Bolingoli trip to Spain, Frimpong flying his American girlfriend to Scotland for her to breach quarantine, multiple breaches in Dubai, Duffy breaking government quarantine rules……is it one rule for Celtic FC and another set of rules for the rest of the population of Scotland ? RULES Its important to note at this stage, there are a number of iterations of the JRG rules but the guidance for them is that they all cross over each other and that the rules “IN SCOTLAND” take precedent over any local rules as confirmed in the PHASE 3 - RESUMPTION OF PERFORMANCE (ELITE) SPORT GUIDANCE Step 4 (return to cross border competition – no spectators) issued by Sports Scotland https://sportscotland.org.uk/media/5908/phase-3-resumption-of-performance-sport-step-4-final-draft-with-annex-a.pdf Which states: “All existing government and Public Health Scotland (PHS) guidance continues to apply and takes precedent over any other standards (specified by international Competition Organisers, International Federations or governments) unless otherwise specified” The JRG RULES on clubs staying in a hotel are very clear and see RULE 1 and RULE 2 in conjunction with the points above. RULE 1 “Face masks for players and staff to be used during the stay, outside their own room, the dining room and the team bus” RULE 2 “Ban on access for players and staff to the Wellness areas, gym and other common areas such as the bar, lounges or lobby. Alternatively, if hotel is exclusive to team, these areas should be closed” Where are you Neil Doncaster? £300k + per year and as silent as the night. A job that by his own admission is only there to carry out the wishes of his members. Your members want answers. Aberdeen want to know why its okay for 9 Celtic players to be in a bar in Dubai but not in Aberdeen. Rangers want to know why Zungu had to isolate/quarantine for 14 days despite sticking to protocols but Duffy never having breached rules time and time again. They also want to know why 2 players were given 7 match bans for breaching protocol when a whole team of players is out in Dubai breaching left right and centre. Hibs want to know why they were threatened to play last night. They also want to know why you moved to their game without their agreement to facilitate this abomination of a trip in the first place. St Mirren and Kilmarnock want to know why their admission of minor breaches meant them initially losing games 3-0 yet you are completely silent on Celtics breaches as admitted by the management team. Motherwell want to know why you gave them 6 points then deducted them, without any prior notification on the morning of Boxing Day hours before a match. Hamilton want to know the same. Partick Thistle want to know if yesterdays decision was made BECAUSE of what has happened here with Celtic going to Dubai. Get your finger out of your pie hole Neil !!

A special mention for / to RTV tonight. Brilliantly presented by Emma Dodds, analysis from Walter, Souness and Neil McCann and commentary from CT and Super Ally. Setting a standard that national broadcasters could only dream of matching.

Ewing is Ewing Grahame, a strict adherent of ra green'n'grey hooped horrors. His commitment to the cause cannot be questioned, he has lost a job because of his devotion. Seventeen years ago, Ewing had made it out of a pack of young, up, and coming cub reporters. He was appointed the Herald's Chief Football Writer. It was early December'03 and Ewing was dispatched to Stuttgart to cover the German champions final CL group game against Rangers. He traveled on the official team flight. Ewing was upset, his beloved Sellik were playing their final CL group game against Bayern Munich at the chamber of secrets on the previous evening. He was spotted in a Stuttgart bar screaming at a TV as his beloveds participated in a nil-nil draw, failing to qualify for the knock out stages. Ewing's bitterness continued into the next day, seen on a number of occasions in a state of uber refreshment in and around the Gottleib-Daimler stadium. Fifteen minutes after kick-off, Ewing stumbled into the press box, braying algebra, he took out his lap top, slumped over it, and succumbed to deep slumber. A story was unfolding, 8,000 Rangers supporters were being crammed into a seating space for 3,500. The German police did not care what stand your ticket placed you, they were determined every Bluenose was to be placed in the designated away area. Thirty minutes after the game, the crushed Rangers supporters filed their way over a hastily constructed scaffold bridge, distraught at a 1-0 defeat, Ewing slumbered on. He missed the team bus to the airport, arrived an hour late in a taxi, and received dogs abuse from players and staff as the flight had lost it's departure slot. The flight arrived in Glasgow four hours late and it was Ewing's unprofessional behaviour that was to blame. Rangers made a formal complaint to the Herald and Editor, Mark Douglas-Home allowed Ewing to resign. Ewing has been a Sellik-minded Freelance ever since. David is David Low, the very epitome of a self publicist. David is renaissance man, an Economist, Investment Guru, Investment Advisor, Old Aloysian, Author, Irish Citizen, ...........etc. He saved ra Sellik by finding Fergus, he ate the biled ham raw, he licked the perspiration from the shuch of Bowie's ar-se, he'll milk the pea from a Jesuit pod, ...... etc. David is the product of his conditioning, carries his own lubrication. Anyways, there's a situation; well, there's several. We have had a month of Neil, Rod, and Shifty McGifty being continuously in both the print and broadcast media. Peter is being linked to attending SPFL meetings with Government Ministers, articles about the asterisk, and Sellik players have been released for free. Simunovic cost £4.5 million, and only six months past, Mark Guidi decreed him to be worth £20 million. Jonny Hayes has also walked, despite sterling service suppressing all Australian bush fires with his face. We cannot have questions. The fail failing publication is the Sunday Mail, like it's daily sister, the Daily Record, has a several year commercial arrangement with ra Sellik. Printing and publishing both ra Sellik View and ra Sellik match day programme. The Sunday Mail can no longer rely on Gordon Waddell to pen his weekly Rangers hating bile, they let him go because they can no longer support the terms and conditions of his contract. Thus, Peter has told Ewing to interview David and fill the pages of the blat. The topic - European Club most likely to go Bust. David told Ewing it was Rangers. Yep, David scoured all his knowledge of Georgian, Israeli, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Maltese, ........................ clubs for a minute and concluded Rangers. As of 13.30 hrs today, all quotes from David Low have been removed from the article. Who would have thought David would take his professionalism to the depths achieved by Ewing? Such partisan comments made in a professional capacity. In mitigation, David was probably pyshed, we know Ewing is; Peter must demand more from Hollicom?

I'd prefer if we didn't start shouting about stripping titles. It's not about us. It's about the victims, and getting justice for them. Let's not cause any deflection from that and then allowing people to focus on the validity of any such stripping claims as all it will do it is take people's attention away from the hideous acts, the ongoing cover-up and compensation for the victims and their families.

This is my favourite thread in all of Rangers messageboard-dom, I look forward to 26th’s posts, they are invariably witty, prescient and well written. I don’t know 26th, I’ve never spoken to him far less met him, so like so many people you see online you create your own impression of them based on what they post. These assumptions could be well wide of reality of course, I suspect most of us are a lot more nuanced in real life than online. Anyway, for what it’s worth I don’t think 26th of Foot is anti-Irish, but I can understand how a new poster only reading posts 2149 and 2150 might think he is. I’d recommend a wider reading of 26th’s posts PoohBear, they’re usually pretty good. I too have an Irish wife, (and will soon have children sporting Irish passports, thanks for that Brexit…) and spent a few years living on that side of the Irish Sea. It certainly gave me a different perspective on things, particularly on the nuances we all have. I don’t know what ‘anti-British’ actually means. Do we mean the Irish government is ‘anti-British’? Is it the Irish people? All of them? Most of them? Just a minority perhaps? And are they anti everyone and everything in Britain, just the government perhaps, or maybe certain politicians and policies? It’s a difficult thing to define, isn’t it. So here’s my experience, others will have had different ones. Ireland has a complicated relationship with the UK. The war of independence and its precursors and aftermath still play a big part in the culture of the country. This year has already seen controversy as we approach important centenaries in Irish history. But in the 25 years I’ve been visiting Ireland it has changed enormously. Ireland was a very conservative country, wary of change and slow to adopt many of the things other European countries took for granted. There is no way an openly gay man of half Asian parentage could have become Irish Prime Minister 25 years ago for example. The influence of the Catholic Church is diminished to be almost irrelevant now, certainly in terms of governmental policy and wider cultural norms. From the top down it’s a very different country to the one I first visited. In terms of their relationship with the UK it’s fair to say it’s complicated. Almost everyone in the Republic of Ireland has family in the UK, they’ve all visited, they’ve all consumed ‘British’ culture from the day they were born, be that music, television or, to try and get relevant again, sport. The best supported football team in the whole of Ireland is Manchester United. Second best supported is Liverpool. Very few people take much interest in ‘local’ football, both north and South of the border. It’s not a great standard and English football has been available to watch live for decades now, long before the advent of Sky. Most Irish I speak to treat Scottish football with a mix of curiosity and disdain. Most will ‘have a Scottish team’, this normally takes the form of a side they’d rather see win but wouldn’t actually cross the road to watch. In the North this is usually Rangers, elsewhere Celtic are more popular. I’ve pointed out the error of this many times, but it can be hard to argue when one side is flying Irish flags and, well, the other side isn’t. But in actual fact most of them couldn’t care less who wins in Scotland, they’d rather talk about Rashford or Mane. I’ve met bigots in Ireland. Small minded, scared people incapable of seeing the other persons point of view. Some of them were inconsequential and easily ignored, some of them, unfortunately, were harder to ignore. But Ireland is complicated, its history has created things that are hard. I’m not Arlene Foster’s biggest fan, but I can see why seeing your father shot outside your house and having your school bus bombed might colour how you see life and the compromises you’re willing to make. Likewise I can now understand why someone from the Creggan might not see the Poppy symbol in the same way I do. We don’t all have to see the world the same way. For what it’s worth my Irish wife has been largely made very welcome in Scotland. She considers Glasgow her home, we chose to raise our children here, almost everyone is friendly to her. But, on rare occasions there have been snide remarks, the occasional insult, sometimes not intended, but felt all the same. Someone recently was incredulous that she got to vote in the General Election (she’s lived in Scotland for 17 years and the UK for 25) and told her she had no right to a say in what happened ‘here’. There are morons everywhere, Ireland has some, Scotland does too. Don’t judge an entire country on them is my one piece of advice.

Merry Xmas to all at Gersnet, hope you all have a great Xmas and let's hope Rangers finish this year with two wins.

t the moment the club are currently heavily looking into what to do with Edmiston houseThese plans include a proper ticket office, a Museum and a huge cafeIt is unclear whether they will knock it down and start again or completely revamp it, it is currently undergoing treatment for Asbestos Plans for the Museum are hugely encouraging, there is now a staff member hired to collate & catalogue every bit of material within Ibrox - from medals to scrap books etc - this is ongoing Although definite plans haven’t been concluded & studies are ongoing, big plans to give the club the platform it deserves for these things, are most definitely underway The boards promises continue to be carried out(Thought it was worth sharing, especially news on museum becoming more than just lip service)

I've got some sympathy for Clyde on this. Firstly I think we have to accept that child abuse is a very difficult subject to talk about on a sport's programme. Super Scoreboard has a wide audience age wise, that creates problems in subject matter, it's on in the early evening when children could be listening. Personally I'd turn over a programme that was discussing child abuse if my 11 year old was listening. It's not an appropriate subject and it is most certainly not an appropriate programme to be discussing it. Secondly no one on that programme is even remotely qualified to discuss the subject matter. I mean the presenters and guests struggle to say anything vaguely informative on football, what possible insight could they bring to this subject? And a phone-in on it is a horrifying thought. I understand why some people feel there's double standards being displayed. After all no one on Super Scoreboard is an insolvency or tax expert yet they were happy to discuss and comment on that for months on end. However, I think there's a huge difference between spouting ill-informed gibberish about EBTs and spouting it about a paedophile ring. For me the latter is a subject that should only be covered by the 'news' shows. Whilst it concerns a 'sports' club it's not a suitable story for sport journalists to cover. It's news story, it's a big news story, potentially a huge one. A paedophile ring operating inside one of the biggest and most successful sporting institutes in this country, apparently for decades, requires a level of investigation and analysis no sport's programme is capable of providing. I agree with those that have called for a public enquiry, that's not point scoring either. I knew boys who played for Celtic Boys Club, their families were so proud of them. Even as a Rangers supporter you recognised the kudos that came with being able to say you were good enough to play for them. Evil, evil men preyed on young boys, deceived their families, lied and abused their positions and ultimately destroyed the lives of who knows how many people. That shouldn't be allowed to simply be forgotten.

Earlier this year I was in Manchester and saw a car being broken into in broad daylight. There must have been 40-50 other people watching this happen and yet they did nothing. As the thieves struggled to combat the car's defences I ran over and confronted them. There were 3 of them which appeared to give them the confidence to mouth some abuse back at me. Just then, another two people joined me and only then did these criminals run off. I thought about all the others who stood back and watched, possibly just thankful that it wasn't their car. In the past 3 years we've witnessed a collapse in the democratic system. I don't want to get into a political debate but the point is that once again a huge portion of the public will just sit back and watch a referendum result be overturned by politicians because they didn't like the result anyway. And now this clear corruption at the heart of our game. I'm sure many Celtic fans will just love how we (and other clubs too) have been negatively affected by this system. They will sit back and treat it as entertainment because it causes them no harm. However, supporters and officials from all clubs should be considering the bigger picture. How has this been allowed to happen? The rules of football (yes .... RULES) are being changed by one woman who is more interested in pursuing an agenda rather than protecting the integrity of our game. The rules regarding the role of the referee are not being applied and yet very few other clubs are in outrage about this. Are we to wait until their cars are stolen or vandalised before they react? Are we to wait until their votes mean nothing before they show their support for law and justice? All clubs' officials and supporters should be demanding that this situation is addressed immediately. Everyone should be insisting that this should not ever be allowed to happen again. It's in my opinion clearly corrupt (but I'll settle for "not fit for purpose") and it's an embarrassment to our nation's premier league that we continue to tolerate it.

The outcry from Saturday has been as predictable, as it has been expected, from certain parts of the media. Suddenly ‘operation stop the ten’ has become a ‘thing’ and the paranoia has been ramped up to Defcon 1, remarkable considering it was already way out of control. https://fourladshadadream.blog/2019/02/05/faux-outrage-only-applies-when-rangers-benefit/

With my big Kilmarnock bunnet? Ne'erday'68 was hugely exciting, Rangers new Manager, Davie White had the team playing open, expansive football. It was just as well, Rangers dismissal of Scot Symon the previous month had been controversial. Thirteen successful years were not enough, Jock Stein had arrived and his brand of winning football was perceived as modern. It was a stark dichotomy, Symon was blazer and flannels, Stein was strictly track suit; Symon blended players, Stein annotated blackboards and fitted players into his system. Rangers needed a modern manager to compete with Big Jock. White had coached Clyde to a third place finish the previous season, he had been appointed Rangers Assistant Manager just four months previous. After the Bells, Davie White's ten game tenure was brought to focus. Eight league games won, including a ten-2 demolition of Raith Rovers, and Cologne knocked out the Inter City Fairs Cup by a 6-1 aggregate. The day before, Rangers had journeyed to Pittodrie and won convincingly, 4-1. Goals were flowing, Our summer signing, (Sir) Alex Ferguson had notched nine in the period, Persson and Johnston achieved the same total between them. The next afternoon, Partick Thistle were battered 5-2, and the three games in four days culminated in a 2-2 draw at Celtic Park. Looking back, I blame my Uncle Eddie. He had been doing missionary work in Newmilns, Ayrshire for a dozen years. The deepest, darkest Lanarkshire/Ayrshire cross pollination downside, was having to listen to dear Eddie's Ne'erday interpretation of, 'My big Kilmarnock Bonnet'. Killie, under Wullie Waddell's tutelege, had won the League Championship two and half years before. Uncle Eddie was a convert. We would receive our comeuppance at Rugby Park at the penultimate game of the season. We traveled down to Ayrshire in sunshine. It was the last week of April and a New Year run of 14 games had seen 13 wins and a draw. We were level on points with Celtic, their goal average was better. The draw had occurred the previous midweek, a 3-3 draw at Cappielow, and Celtic were playing at the tail o' the bank whilst we took on Killie. Comparatively, the Rugby Park surface was deemed the best in the UK. The previous year, the then world cup holders, Brazil had based themselves in Troon, utilising the Juniors pitch in morning fitness sessions, but doing afternoon ball work at Rugby Park. I was excited, the pitch was akin to a bowling green, in those days Ibrox was a sand pit after Christmas. Primary school was finishing, and I knew I would begin Secondary supporting the Champions. Kilmarnock had a team of household names, King, Queen, McInally, McLean, McGrory, .... etc and 25,000 Bears had a quick intake of breath when Killie took the lead on the eleventh minute. Dave Smith and Andy Penman took control, both Henderson and Persson on either flank were seeing a lot of the ball. Our Swedish world cup semi-finalist scored a typical Orjan goal, working along the bye-line before shuffling the ball on to his weaker foot and slotting into the far corner. Drawing level before half time had everyone smiling, but Persson was clearly injured as he hobble off. The substitute was Alec Willoughby, cousin of Jim Forrest and a fine player. He scored the winner with a dozen minutes left to play. We turned our attention to the numerous Bears cradling large radios, 'what's the score at Cappielow'? It was 1-1 and remained so when the referee blew at Rugby Park. We were a point ahead with Aberdeen to play at Ibrox. We invaded the pitch, whooped in the sunshine for a few minutes; then news arrived that Lennox had scored a winner in injury time. The wailing began and continued the following Saturday when Rangers lost their only league game that season, the Dons winning 2-3. Uncle Eddie's party prophecy was wrong, we had triumphed in Kilmarnock. Another attendee at my parents' Hogmanay party was a near neighbour who played a significant part that day. The referee at Cappielow was John Paterson of Bothwell, he allowed a couple of injury time minutes and Lennox reportedly scored with the last kick of the ball. I suspect it is the fate of all ten year old lads to both whoop and wail within a few minutes, I cannot help but think a more timeous Mr Paterson should have possessed greater awareness? Celebrating a title win that never was, continues to live with you. I offer tomorrow night's game has the same importance? Our last game saw a first victory over the dominant Brendan Rodgers, the first in thirteen games. There is a momentum to be garnered, it's difficult because the fixture fates have Rangers visiting both Killie and Livi on two plastic pitches in the space of four days. Rugby Park's surface these days is arguably the worst in the top flight? We have had two players(Waghorn and Murphy) sustain long term injuries at the venue. We have to get on with it, we won handsomely in the league cup earlier in the season, courtesy of an Alfredo hat-trick. Tomorrow, we must take the game to them, right from the first whistle. Killie's offensive threat is diminished by the loss of Greg Stewart and Steve Clarke must be indecisive on playing Jordan Jones? Boyd and Burke might be obvious replacements, these days neither are going to run away from any defence. Thus, we must maintain a high press and line, do not allow them wide and the opportunity to throw the ball into our box. Clarke's success at Killie is well reported and much deserved; in the calendar year of 2018, he has accrued the most league points. I believe the foundation of Killie's continuing dominance lies with their midfield central pairing. Alan Power and Gary Dicker are real deal professionals. The Dublin born duo are the wrong side of thirty, but get around the pitch with purpose. They play on the legitimate side of legal, tough tackling, winning it, and feeding the ball wide. Opposition teams attacking, quickly have to find their defensive feet when hitting the Power and Dicker wall. Our team will probably mirror the starting eleven against Helsinki? The evidence was Morelos pushed wider, mostly left and Kent abdicating width for the front point of the diamond. Attacks broke down and two quick passes wide and back in, found Helsinki on the edge of our box. I would hope we go with a more recognisable system and team : McGregor, Tavernier, Worral, McAuley, Halliday, Jack, Davis, Kent, Arfield, Candeias, and Morelos. I would leave Defoe to the final 20-30 minutes. I prefer whooping to wailing, 3-1 to the Bears; another Morelos hat-trick(four goals) would suffice. We MUST win it.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our contributors and listeners and wish them - as well as our all site users - all the very best for 2019.

It was a pleasure walking into Ibrox today and not having to have my ears and eyes assaulted by the great unwashed. Great decision by the club to reduce their allocation.

The games keep coming thick and fast and the latest has Hibs visiting Ibrox on Boxing Day with a 3pm KO (UK time). Like the previous game and the one to follow, this sees another hugely important and significant 3 points at stake. After our crucial and notable late comeback at St. Johnstone, it would be typical of this December if we were to drop points in the next match because we don't seem able to do consistency. This game is where that needs to change if we want to harbour any hopes of providing a title challenge. The first half of the season has seen a gruelling but welcome non-stop timetable of games, with 3 International breaks providing some respite for some in the squad. It is now ending with a particularly heavy block of fixtures and it's therefore no surprise to see an extensive injury list going into the final two games of 2018. In short, over the next 2 games Steven Gerrard & Co need to get more out of a squad of bare bones than they previously have from a fuller squad. - Tav is looking tired but gives 100% and still provides creativity. - Central defence has become an issue and just when we seem to settle on a partnership, McAuley gets injured. - The Barisic injury is a huge blow IMO and you now have Boyle and Forrest licking their lips. The midfield and wide areas have taken a real hit. On top of the long term injuries and departures, we have at least question marks over Arfield, Jack, Kent, Rossiter, Grezda and Coulibaly for either injury, poor form or a lack of gametime. It's just as well that we have Morelos and Lafferty up front. Any debate over formation/playing them both may be decided due to lack of midfield options. For all the criticism Alfredo gets regards his discipline, you have to marvel at how over a heavy season and a half at Ibrox he doesn't seem to pick up injuries; the guy is a machine. Steven Gerrard mentioned an adaptable approach and one option is to play Lafferty and being able to switch between a deeper role and one closer to Morelos (only an option if the Ulster Gazelle is fully fit). If Jack is fit then he'll surely start and that may in turn push Halliday back to LB. McGregor Tavernier - Goldson - Worral - Wallace Candeias - McCrorie - Halliday - Middleton Lafferty Morelos Hibs haven't been playing that well of late and we should have taken all 3 points from Easter Road last week. However they often raise their game at Ibrox and I'd expect them to again. Recent history has seen this fixture providing goals (except for last week) and no team with a clear upper hand regards wins. In my opinion, it's one of those games that could go any way, but if we can up our conversion rate then I think we win. Prior to the 2 goals in 25 minutes on Sunday, we'd scored 2 in 550 minutes; hopefully, we have turned a corner. Certainly Lafferty is due a goal. Am I right thinking he's started to celebrate goals in the last three matches, only to be halted by a bad offside decision at Dundee, a great save by the Hibs keeper and a somewhat unfortunate deflection and save at St. Johnstone? I call upon the footballing gods to give big Laff a deserved break!