maineflyer

That wiped the smile off my face and plunged me into a familiar despair. No offence but I sincerely hope you're wrong.

Regardless, I hope Mr Boyd immediately declares himself available for selection. Just to rub it in of course. I see they're touting Levein for the job, which should at least keep him out of contention for Walter's job.

I'd like to be the first here to welcome Kris Boyd back to international football. He only had to wait 13 months.

On the contrary UCB, you need to be laying out what it is you are asking fans to unite around. Let's see the shape of the alternative strategies being considered - then we'll let you know what we think of them. Personally, I don't know what the fuss is about here. I'm very sceptical that the Trust will deliver anything.

So many fans on this and other forums have told you that there is no disagreement with the principle of being better off together than alone. We all want unity. You really don't need to keep trying to convince people of this. Neither do you need to keep promoting the RST. What you, as a Trust board member, need to do is convince your fellow board members that there isn't a cat's chance in hell of finding the unity or support required while they are still in office. You know that I'm far from being a lone voice in this respect. Let me say it again; the present RST board is not trusted and to all intents is untrustworthy. You appear to have the respect of those who know you on here, what have you done since you were co-opted to clear the decks and make the Trust credible again? Sort out your own house, then come and ask for support - you'll probably get it.

If I'd been able to think of words like that I could have saved myself several thousand these last few days.

Reading back through the posts I can see why you might have thought I was targeting something you wrote - but I didn't intent to direct comment at anyone in particular. I actually agree with everything you say about needing to move things forward. However, I don't believe it can make progress unless certain individuals step aside - it isn't hatred, it's simply that they stand in the way of achieving anything..... not because of who they are but because of what they have consistently shown themselves to be. I'm not sure what to say. I pick out what I want to comment upon, if that's what you mean. Like everyone else, I've an opinion on this matter and I'm trying to get it across. There are people around who are involved in a concerted and orchestrated attempt to sanitise an RST leadership that has singularly failed to address a multitude of issues for years. Now we are being asked just to sweep all that under the carpet and accept that now these same people will somehow lead us to the promised land. It isn't going to happen in my opinion and unless there are changes, I predict we will be no further forward a year from now. There is a great deal of talk about inclusion and unity but certain groups are still being excluded - if petty hatreds are being displated, I'd suggest it still comes from the RST itself. I'm not arguing against the basic proposition, I simply do not believe those currently trying to occupy centre ground are capable of delivering it.

UCB, You make the same posts about the RST here and on Rangers Media, possibly elsewhere for all I know. But you don't post the same stuff of Vanguardbears - is there a reason for missing out that particular website?

You know, I don't actually know anyone who has ill feeling towards the RST. I think you'll find that any animosity or mistrust is directed at those who have used the Trust to further their own position, feed their own egos and utterly failed to realise a fraction of the Trust's potential.

It looked to me that Boss was actually giving you a long list of factual reasons why no one in their right mind would offer support to the people running the RST. He's clearly not doing this for his own reasons but for the good of the club and the wider support. The only ones placing obstacles here are those who have made a farce of the RST that many of us have supported since it started. Since you first appeared to promote the RST, you've made it abundantly clear that you actually understand very little about the issues surrounding the failure of the RST. You need a serious reality check and you need to stop misleading people, even if it's unintentional. The fact that, even this weekend, these people are still openly lying about RST membership numbers should tell any reader everything they need to know about the honesy and intent of these hijackers.

There are people living in fantasy land here. Withering calls to arms in the name of unity, as if unity was something that will automatically right every wrong at Ibrox, if only we would link arms and fall in behind these dreamers. We don't even have a plan but already we're talking about voting for a board of directors. We've no means of raising any money but we're already owners and running the club. Some people need to slow down and come up with tangible details before they start coveting support. They also need a severe reality check when it comes to asking fans to follow the lead of individuals who have shown themselves to be serial incompetents and self-promoters. As usual they're trying to generate interest and accolade without revealing any concrete plans for consideration. This "believe in me" crap is an insult and it will cut no mustard with the people who are selling the club or contemplating buying it. If this is the best the Trust can come up with then they will continue to be held in the same contempt as always by the people they will have to deal with, and they will deserve it. I don't have a plan either but I'm asking no one to believe I do. As and when the RST or anyone else has a plan then that will be the time to step forward and ask for the attention of supporters. Until then it would be a good idea to change leadership and keep quiet.

Excuse me for saying so but what a load of utter nonsense. What olive branch is this exactly? Where do I find it so that I can have a better look? Is it an olive branch because you say it is or because SS/MD say it is? Where is the evidence of this olive branch? Where were these champions of unity and resolve when other supporters groups wanted to protest the BBC - why were they the only people to refuse to take part? I'm sorry TB but it will take a lot more than the same old weasel words to convince more than the desperate or the gullible. There's no small coincidence that these people want us to believe they've found contrition at precisely the time when they need us, having all but ignored us for so long. I've got many flaws but rank naivety generally isn't one of them. These people have form and it's particularly unimpressive form. With all respect to you, both you and they need to take on board that, while the direction may have some merit, the majority of fans will not offer their support until these people step aside. In my opinion and in the opinion of a significant number of activists, they do not have the integrity and personal qualities required to deliver. They've shown for years the ability to talk in headlines but have repeatedly shown a complete inability to offer a clear and detailled plan - or to bring with them more than their immediate "dependents". If the mission is so important and the plan so good, surely it would be only good sense for these individuals to show their confidence and goodwill by stepping aside and clearing the way for a new leadership that carries no baggage and behind whom we could actually unite. Until that happens, together with many others, I will continue to offer only doubt and opposition. Do you honestly think the future of the club can be divorced from the people involved in shaping that future? I don't and I will tell you now that there are a many committed Rangers fans who will fight tooth and nail to ensure that these particular people never gain a position of influence in the running of our club. You may not like that but you need to accept it. MD and SS would be contributing more to the future of Rangers if they shoved their olive branch where he sun has never shone. You can talk all you like about unity but you will never achieve it while there is any danger of either of these two gentlemen advancing their personal positions.

I'd never call you a lily-livered, hand-wringing wishy-wshy PC type. But you do need to make sure you see a spade when you look at a spade.

Yes but maybe one manager's change is a good change and the other's is a bad change. Not all changes are the same changes.

Yes but you're still a sectarian racist, a pope hater, a disciminatory right wing protestant supremacist. You must be, you're a Rangers fan. Everyone knows that.

No one can tell me we haven't had the talent through Ibrox to win ten championships. I feel enormous excitement at the prospect of exploiting that talent.... when one day we have the management and backroom structures to do so.

Sorry TB but for all the wonderful rhetoric, if you really want to contemplate the future and not just present activity, you first have to believe in those who will lead the charge and shape that future.... and that's where it is simply impossible not to judge on the basis of their past. We're all for unity of purpose and collective strength but you're telling us this is now being proposed by the very people who have shunned collective action over the last couple of years and who have refused to engage with the initiatives other fans' groups. When others have come together and acted together, why was it that these people would not? How then should we judge these latest words from specific individuals who have criticised the efforts of their fellow fans and made it abundantly clear they did not want to act in concert? They cannot simply sweep the boards clean because it suits them now. If they want to be taken seriously then they will first have to explain and justify their previous isolationism. It's a basic matter of trust. HSV have 52000 members paying 48000 Euroseach year. That's almost 2.5m Euros, of which as you say about half is donated to he club to be used in whichever way it sees fit. We have a Trust with a falling membership in the region of 1500 members that includes captive life members who pay nothing each year. Apart from the completely different scale achieved by the two organisations, there is the irony of Satrday's meeting being organised by the very people who have failed so spectacularly to create any sense of inclusion and have been unable to grow the RST despite years of opportunity. How am I or anyone else supposed to take any of this seriously. Instead of stepping aside in the interests of progress, we now have the emblems of failure trying to persuade us that what many have been suggesting and pursuing for years is what we should be doing, despite the fact they have been resisting these objectives all the way. I'll watch with interest and I'll hope I'm wrong but I'll take this opportunity to predict that nothing whatsoever will lie beyond the rhetoric until and unless Stephen Smith, Mark Dingwall and a coterie of others depart the scene and allow more able people to take their place. Leopards and spots, old dogs and tricks.

Impossibly corrupt journalism. He sets about establishing examples of racism in football and the punishments handed down for it. He then mentions punishments received by Rangers and impicitly condemns us as racist, when no accusations of racism were made against us. They have to write an article for Sunday. They hate Rangers. They write an article and flange in Rangers wheher it's relevamt or not. And still the club will not fight back against this. By the time someone at Ibrox grows a set, Rangers will be the pariahs of Europe, established in popular folklore along with Adolph Hitler and the bubonic plague.

Then I'll enjoy watching your realism develop. ...... and your FF username was.....?

It's got nothing to do with a low post count, everyone starts with that. It's got everything to do with the way you've implicitly criticised Rangers players and supporters since you appeared. I could be wrong but I doubt it. I don't believe I slagged off FF, I don't think that would be right, but I did repeat what I've heard on may occasions. D'you think it's untrue? What was your username on FF? By the way, I hate the words "tim" or "timothy". They sound like pet rabbit. I prefer an altogether more expressive description.

Perhaps not but we'll still have more chance than your lot.

FF, wow, I stand amazed. A real live FF member, I am impressd. Listen bud, that's nothing to boast about in my opinion - it's been said, not unreasonably, that that place has more member from the dark side than bears. If you're a bear, you're a damn strange one.

You're no bear, why are you here?

Totti, which club do you really support?

I'm with you big fella. Except the club will never be owned by supporters..... however, it might one day be partially run by them but only if an enlightened owned decides to make it happen. The current nauseating self-publicity from Bearwood Bear and his Nobody's Supporters Trust will never achieve anything.