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Showing content with the highest reputation on 15/05/22 in all areas

  1. A 5th Question, then: "Why don't you go home?"
    5 points
  2. I'll tell you what, it's a disgrace we've lost the league to that lot. They're a shit football team and their fans are vermin. Poor show on the domestic front that needs fixed pronto.
    5 points
  3. From today's Sunday Times, a short piece on GvB. Speak softly, but carry a big stick, as somebody (no, not Dick Advocaat), once said From the Moluccas islands to Ibrox: inside the mind and motivations of Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst Marcel van der Kraan charts Van Bronckhorst’s rise to Ibrox from the remote Moluccas islands via a plethora of Dutch masters Marcel van der Kraan Sunday May 15 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times Football To properly understand Giovanni van Bronckhorst the man and the manager, you must first understand his upbringing and education, and particularly the Moluccan heritage he is so proud of. The Moluccas are an archipelago of islands to the east of Indonesia. With the declaration of a single republic of Indonesia in 1950 to replace the federal state, they attempted to secede. Supported by the Moluccan members of the Netherlands’ special troops, it was defeated by the Indonesian army and the troops were transferred back to the Netherlands along with some refugees of the conflict. Van Bronckhorst, a real family man who is married to his childhood sweetheart Marieke and father of sons Jake and Joshua, has always been a proud Moluccan and has never described himself as Indonesian. Through the stories of his grandma, who died in 2017, the year he won his first league title as a manager, he knows how much the people of the Moluccas have suffered. He is a proud ambassador for them, a minority in the Netherlands, where mum Fransien Sapulette and dad Victor van Bronckhorst raised him in Rotterdam. He has a charity foundation and regularly returns to visit. Despite the political tensions between Indonesia and the Moluccan Islands and people, he has reached out to the capital Jakarta to support his family’s project to educate disadvantaged children there. As a boy, Van Bronckhorst’s mum took him to a small amateur club, LMO, which stands for Linker Maas Oever (Left Bank of the river Maas, which runs through Rotterdam). Everyone from Rotterdam knows that’s the poorer part of the town, but it’s also an area where kids play football on the streets, producing wonderful footballers over the years. It’s also where the famous De Kuip stadium and Feyenoord’s academy is situated, and their scouts soon discovered young Giovanni, inviting him to join the club, which had just started coaching for under-eights. That initiative came from Wim Jansen. Jansen had just retired as a player, most of his career spent playing and training with Johan Cruyff, who also became one of his best friends. Together, they helped Holland to the 1974 World Cup final, giving the world “Total Football”, a super-offensive style played with two wingers, a striker and a No 10, so eight-year-old Giovanni was educated from the youngest possible age in the same style he would later enjoy at Arsenal, Barcelona and with the Dutch national team. Significantly, this quiet and calm Moluccan boy blossomed under managers who carried the same calmness and had excellent man-management skills; Jansen at Feyenoord, Arsène Wenger at Arsenal, Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona. The fiery Dick Advocaat at Rangers was the exception, but then again, it was good, Van Bronckhorst admitted, that he also saw that style of management. He learnt organisational skills from Advocaat and was happy when the former Rangers manager came to his rescue when he went through a bad spell in his first year as Feyenoord manager. Van Bronckhorst learnt one thing in particular from his former manager — “Be tough when you need to be tough” — and used Advocaat’s wise words to win Feyenoord’s first league title for 18 years, making the former academy kid (“he’s one of our own”, sang the Kop at De Kuip) even more popular than he was before. Van Bronckhorst was ruthless when it was required that season. The most popular player was Dirk Kuyt, who had come back from Liverpool, but Van Bronckhorst reckoned Kuyt could not deliver what he wanted and put him on the bench for weeks. That led to an explosive situation, where Kuyt did not hide his frustration and disappointment in the media. Van Bronckhorst stayed cool as ice, knew he had fired Kuyt up and put him back in the side for the final game, which Feyenoord had to win. The outcome? Kuyt scored a hat-trick and the two of them celebrated the title as if nothing had happened. Van Bronckhorst won five trophies in four seasons at Feyenoord and was given a new nickname: Prijzenpakker (trophy grabber). Again, he had proved everyone wrong. In his first season, when Advocaat had to help out, there were doubters. Van Bronckhorst would never be a manager with enough authority, according to the majority of the media. Exactly the same as the critics who said he would never make it in the national team, yet, in 2010 he captained Holland against Spain in the World Cup final in South Africa and played his 106th game for his country. Van Bronckhorst never wanted to be the noisy one, yet gradually climbed to the highest level in the world. Lionel Messi named him in his team of the best players he has played with as left back. Ronaldinho said he saved so much energy for attacking at Barcelona because he had a man behind him he could always rely on. It sums up the character of the Dutchman. Reliable and delivering quality, with a football brain that’s ticking over day and night, fed by some famous coaches. One of them adjusted something in Van Bronckhorst’s style, which maybe gives him that little edge to steer a club like Rangers to a European trophy. Van Bronckhorst was assistant manager at Feyenoord to Ronald Koeman, the man taught by the super-attacking Cruyff and asked to educate a young Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. Koeman told how Cruyff called him into his room and said: “From now on, you have a new room-mate. His name is Pep and he’s from La Masia, our academy. I want you to take care of him.” Guardiola got the gist, loved every detail of Cruyff’s Dutch “Total Football”, and went to the extreme with it once he became a coach, but Koeman, who won 30 trophies in a glittering career, went one step back when he became a manager. He said he loved attacking football, but felt it was wiser to focus a few per cent more on the defence, particularly when the quality is not always Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City. Van Bronckhorst watched Koeman every day as his assistant, took it all in, saw how cool and analytical his talks with the media were, and it looks now as if that was time well spent. ON TV WEDNESDAY Eintracht Frankfurt v Rangers BT Sport 1, Kick-off 8pm https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/from-the-moluccas-islands-to-ibrox-inside-the-mind-and-motivations-of-rangers-manager-giovanni-van-bronckhorst-bgkvvwb63
    4 points
  4. Winning the trophy on Wednesday will add many numbers to our players values.
    2 points
  5. I like to think I'm a bit more realistic than most when it comes to transfer fees but I'd be astounded (and annoyed) if we accepted any less than £12m for Aribo..
    2 points
  6. I'm working Monday and Friday (could only get three days off). I suspect I'll be useless tomorrow and worse than useless on Friday - I can't think about anything but Seville.
    2 points
  7. Who is Gerry Braiden? Gerry is Policy Advisor to Glasgow City Council and Convenor, Susan Aitken's PRO. Gerry was a Journalist with the Herald for a dozen years, became their Local Government Correspondent thus seamlessly moved into his Policy Advisor role with the ruling SNP. Gerry's Twitter describes himself as, 'a Belfast Ambassador and Suburban Guerilla'. He could have been more specific, 'West Belfast Ambassador' but all those repeated photos of Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and, Danny Morrison let you know anyway. Ah mean Danny Morrison? What a guy, most well known for coining the phrase, "who here in this room disagrees if the IRA take power with a ballot box in one hand and, an Armalite in the other"? Less well known is Play Write Danny's last spell in the jail was for taking a RC Pensioner to a Sinn Fein Office, tying him to a chair and, pistol whipping him. All because he refused to allow a PIRA patrol from using his house as an OP. Now, RAB Cosgrove continually tells us, "Gerry is a good friend of the show". He does appear to have a developed interest in football, his Twitter feed mentions one team a lot, guess which one? Gerry has made no Twitter reference to a Glasgow club reaching the Europa League Cup final. As Policy advisor to Glasgow City Council, surely Gerry has the foresight and penetrative thought to present options to Susan Aitken? Would gerry advise Susan travels to Seville as a representative of the peoples of Glasgow? Would Gerry advise Susan to Host a Civic Reception in the City Chambers in recognition of a Glasgow Club's achievement? Would Gerry advise the First Minister to attend Seville in recognition and support for a Scottish Club? We should be told.
    1 point
  8. That actually happened before we got married. Another ex referred to me as a 'musical fascist'...a term I gladly accepted. 😀
    1 point
  9. We should be grateful that RAB Cosgrove in his dotage became increasingly garrulous, this time last year he was continually telling us, "Gerry Braiden is a big friend of the show". Remember, both broadcast and print media were battering us again because of the George Square celebrations. There is no doubt in my mind a fair bit of the criticism was justified. Drunken vandalism and an addiction to unfettered pyrotechnics should be highlighted. RAB was garrulous because he wants folks, certain folks to know he is a Man in the Know. He was comfortable congratulating Gerry because he knew Gerry was leading the media by the nose. Highlighting damage to George Square benches, making members of Glasgow City Council Cleansing Department available for silent hours interviews, encouraging politically motivated members of Police Scotland to speak out, wheeling out Susan Aitken in front of both cameras and micrphones and, finally releasing press releases from the First Minister and Health Secretary was Gerry sticking it on the H-u-ns and, RAB always wants to be seen to be part of that action.How is Gerry performing this year? RAB stated on the show, "the behaviour of the Rangers supporters is simply a disgrace". Yesterday, the Sellik support left ra Stade de Gadd and congregated a mile down the road in the Council created Plastic Paddy Theme Park. Trongate was invaded, businesses had to close, the Tron Theatre cancelled a performance and, residents told of the terror of continuous threats and urination. Drunken vandalism occurred at the Listed 1930 Edith Burnet Hughes Mercat Cross building, the doors were kicked in and three-four dozen Bhoys took to it's roof to wave flags and sing sectarian songs. The whole area was closed off by the Police for six hours. So far, six arrests have been made. The photographs of littering are as bad as last year. i have seen video footage of exposure, domestic assault, Yahoo on Yahoo violence, ......... etc. Gerry's Twitter feed has dozens of messages, pictures and, video clips of his favoured team securing the Premiership. Last night, his Twitter feed got slightly camp as he satisfied an obsession with Eurovision Song Contest. A Scottish Nationalist imploring his followers to remember Ireland's Dana winning the competition in 1970? In fact, Gerry's Twitter feed is bereft of Saltires his flag of preference is the Irish Tricolour. I wonder if Gerry will be orchestrating the media this afternoon and urging his Boss, Susan Aitken to bill his fellow Sellik supporters for the damage to the Listed Mercat Cross building? Would he remain a good friend of the show?
    1 point
  10. I have voted for Adam Devine. I suspect life could get much harder for Adam? He is the grandson of Sydney Devine, country and western chanter from deepest, darkest Lanarkshire.
    1 point
  11. I actually called a couple sports bars in the local area to see if they were gonna have the game on. "The what?" "Europa League final" "What's that?" 'click' I even called an Irish Pub... Don't judge me...any port in a storm. "Aww yer takin de piss mate" I was shocked TBF...not by his tone...but that an actual Irishman answered a phone at an 'Irish Pub' in Arkansas. Never see that. It's usually in a thick southern accent. "O'Shaughnessy's Irish Pub...Top o' da mornin to ya, this is Bubba" This is Arkansas... Paramount+ My house...
    1 point
  12. I'm just quietly going about my business pretending this isn't even happening. Then sure as hell fire and brimestone, when the ref blows for kick off I'll be going mental.
    1 point
  13. I'd expect more. Patterson went for £16M and Bassey is further ahead development wise than Patterson. £20M and not a penny less IMO.
    1 point
  14. I think Gio and has staff like pushing youth players through and they will get their chance, also have to remember that Rangers have to win every match so it’s always difficult for young players to break into the first team, however they all showed they are capable today but would you rather have Tav or Devine for instance? I would play Lowry than Amad for sure
    1 point
  15. I'd want £60m for Bassey! In the real world, we'd probably be more likely to get around £10-15m.
    1 point
  16. This morning I am reliably informed a fourth question has been sent by letter to Gerry Braiden. A chap who knows his marine engineering, Dan MacPhail kens what should go roon'n'roon as opposed to up'n'doon, is willing to serve as Engineering Officer on the MV Glen Sannox. Dan has asked Gerry if the MV Glen Sannox which was launched over two years past by the First Minister, is available to sail to Algeciras, southern Spain? Dan sees no major problems in the state of the art technology currently aboard the vessel, painted on windows and cardboard funnels are assets in these days of biodiversity. Dan has a few mates, a Deep Water Skipper with decades of experience in Clyde estuary trade, a First Mate named, Dougie and, a melodeon playing Deckie, Sunny Jim. The cargo is a thousand Rangers supporters intent upon attending the Europa League Cup final in Seville. The appeal includes a gesture of goodwill, both the First Minister and Glasgow City Convenor are invited with spouses to sail on the vessel's maiden voyage. Peter Murrell and Gordon Archer are Happy Hibees and most creative. Peter ring fenced £620,000 of raised funds whereas, Gordon utilised technical difficulties to withdraw two six figure sums from a soon to be bankrupt company where he was a Director. These sums could prove crucial in any negotiations with Barbary Pirates. Now, I hear you say there are outfitting problems on the Glen Sannox ie no seating. Dan has asked Gerry if GCC can spare any of the newly provided and paid for benches from George Square? Further, Susan Aitken has been asked for an assurance that she will NOT swim alongside the vessel, as this will be deemed a hazard to navigation. Any Gersnetters wishing to participate in this buckling your swash adventure, Phil McFournames is taking even more names as of Noon tomorrow.
    1 point


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