Uilleam

The uncharitable among us may look at the referee's adjudication of the match, especially the 1st half, and be inclined to conclude that -he is on the take or -he has been put under undue pressure from sources within the game or -he has been put under undue pressure from sources outwith the game as his performance was so egregiously poor as to preclude the usual explanation of making honest mistakes, or even that of a customary general professional incompetence. I should be hard pushed to dispute any of the above positions.

"Hibs are flying...." You haven't seen Rangers but you know this about Hibs.

From the Daily Mail Rangers defender Bruno Alves says his tough tackling style is a family tradition: ' My father was one of the most dangerous defenders in Brazil... I like to play hard but fair too' Bruno Alves has brought his tough style to Rangers after his summer move Alves' father was also a defender who played in Brazil with a similar reputation He brings experience and success to Rangers, having won Euro 2016 By Calum Crowe For The Scottish Daily Mail During his formative years in the Porto youth team, Bruno Alves was taking lessons in the art of defending from Jorge Costa, an absolute brute of a centre-half whose unerring ability to maim an opposition striker saw him acquire the nicknames of ‘The Tank’ and ‘The Animal’. As Costa captained the club to UEFA Cup and Champions League victories under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, Alves watched his mentor from afar after being sent out on loan to apply the finishing touches to a footballing education that can be traced back to his father’s exploits in Brazilian football. Proprietor of a quite magnificent afro which would not have looked at all out of place in The Commodores or The Four Tops, it was a different group to which Washington Geraldo Dias Alves belonged. ‘He was one of the five most dangerous defenders in all of Brazil,’ says Bruno of his father. Given the ruthlessly physical nature of South American football and its capacity for violence, that qualifies as quite a formidable title. Given this influence, and also the fact that Costa was once the most uncompromising defender in Europe let alone Portugal, it is perhaps no surprise that Alves has developed into something of a chip off the old block. When the news broke earlier this summer that their club had signed the veteran Portuguese defender, Rangers fans probably took to YouTube to seek out some kind of highlights package. There are plenty available to watch but few of them contain any goals or skills. Two stand out in particular. Firstly, you have the self-explanatory ‘Compilation Bruno Alves Fouls’. Secondly, there is just over three minutes’ worth of footage in the highly entertaining ‘Bruno Alves - Kung Fu Techniques’. As you watch the clips of Alves almost decapitating England’s Harry Kane at Wembley, a foul for which he was shown a straight red card in a friendly match, or almost breaking both of Chelsea striker Diego Costa’s legs in an outrageous lunge in a pre-season friendly, it is easy to forget that this is a player of considerable pedigree. Fluent and articulate in English, Alves has won major honours with Fenerbahce, Zenit St Petersburg and Porto. Indeed, a remarkable run saw him win the Portuguese league title in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the Russian Premier League in 2010 and 2012, followed by the Turkish top flight in 2014. ‘I like to play hard but I also like to play fair. All of my career, I have liked to play this way. Many people that I know told me that I have come to the right club and the right country because this is the kind of football that I like. ‘I have a really good relationship with Jose Fonte. When I told him about Rangers, he said: “Bruno, this is a good move for you”. He told me it was going to be physical. ‘I come from the north of Portugal and my father came from Brazil to play football in my home town of Varzim. It is a special place because it is a fishermen’s city and they bring a bit of this difficult life to the pitch. ‘We always have a lot of talented players from my city and they have always had this attitude. It is something you cannot explain. So I learned from my father, but also from my city, with this culture they have there. ‘Also at Porto, at that time it was like that. We played all the time very hard, fighting against all the difficulties. Because Porto back then was so small but it grew up so much. ‘Benfica and Sporting Lisbon were bigger than Porto at the time but Porto is what it is because of this kind of behaviour and attitude. ‘I spoke with the coach after the game last weekend to say that this reminds me of the games we used to play in the North League with Porto reserves. ‘The north league is very competitive - rainy days and small stadiums. The games are so difficult away from home. This is the time I maybe grew up the most.’ Alves begins to recount tales of battling Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba in Champions League ties, as well as his days spent training with Cristiano Ronaldo with the national team. A cast list of Anthony Stokes and Simon Murray may not be quite so glamorous, but the assignment is no less important as Caixinha’s side welcome Neil Lennon’s newly promoted Hibernian to Ibrox. Both sides will be seeking to land an early psychological blow in the battle for second place in the Premiership, with Hibs arriving on the back of an impressive 3-1 opening-day victory over Partick Thistle as well as a 5-0 trouncing of Ayr United in the Betfred Cup in midweek. Rangers won 2-1 at Motherwell last weekend before producing the best performance of Caixinha’s tenure so far in a 6-0 thrashing of Championship Dunfermline on Wednesday. Alves scored an unstoppable free-kick against the Pars, a novelty as he readily admits. But it is the task of leading the Ibrox defence which will occupy his mind rather than finding the net at the other end. He said: ‘I have scored some free-kicks previously in my career but none for the national team because Ronaldo never lets me take any! Daniel Candeias was supposed to take the one on Wednesday night, but I asked him if I could have it because I like taking them from that area of the pitch. ‘I am not sure I will be taking them all the time, though, because we have a lot of good technical players, who can shoot from these positions. ‘I bring a lot of experience and I want to help the club and the players. The players listen to me. It is an amazing feeling when they really respect you and listen to what you have to say. ‘My move to come here was because of the high expectations. I am in a team that wins more often than not, and a team that can always fight for something more. ‘This club is so big in terms of the commitment and the history. The coach also played a big part in my decision. It also gives me more experience in life, another country to add to the ones I have already played in. I want to have a good experience here.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4783558/Rangers-defender-Bruno-Alves-toughness-family-style.html

Yes, but we have to be clear; I have never met a fhilth supporter, even from the apparently educated and intelligent cohort, who feels that the term 'Hun' is in the slightest degree unacceptable, never mind offensive. Nor have ever met one who regarded the term as applicable merely to Rangers, its players, and support.

I admire your ambition.

Shame about the threads.....

Well, that makes you a member of the same club as the dog handler, Speirs, and that, for a Rangers' man, is not good. Doubleplus ungood, actually. Be careful lest we have to judge you by the company you are keeping.

Lochgelly; need one say more?

Tom, presumably, visited the divers slophouses frequented by Pacific Quay Emerald CSC, and after conducting rigorous interrogation on the Kerrydale Tax Law Catechism of the regular patrons, or bar flies, if you will - men, and women, of experience, no book learners they, but graduates of the University of Life- found a clear consensus. Tom's expenses claim for this vital research may raise the odd eyebrow.

Can it deal with the sasquatch in the away dug out?

Coitus porcus hibernicus. Or, as we say oan ra soo'side: the hibernian fuck pig. Which ever way you look at it, it's a fuckin' animal.

Limericks are to poetry what T English is to journalism.

It is early, very early, in the season, but it does seem that Caixinha has lost one dressing room -Warburton's- and found another - his own.

Interesting story. How did the piece of fhilth manage to get a 'chib' into the 'stadium'? He can't just have grabbed one from the table, because, well, they don't use cutlery, do they? And, if they did it would be of the plastic kind, to remind them of their other home, The Queen's Hotel (locations various). I suppose that it is all part of the wonderful 'matchday experience' at the piggery, home of 'a club like no other'.....

MacBeth was clearly a dhim. MacBeth: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? Doctor: Therein the patient Must minister to himself. MacBeth: Throw physic to the dogs; I'll none of it.

Because he's guaranteed to punt the obligatory anti-Rangers editorial line..... as you very well know.

Really, is there any other form of mhank?

Ah, you're talking about Josh Windass, who confessed that his legs had gone by HT v M'well.

"Tunnel Club"? Old hat; there used to be one in Mitchell Street.

CQN, to the chagrin of many other of rasellik-minded, seemingly has long operated as an informal, but itk, conduit for Lawwell/rasellik, allowing the circulation of views, opinions, etc., which could not emerge officially, and permitting Lawwell/rasellik plausible deniability. That's not to say that it avoids the Rangers hating delusional rubbish and fantasy which all such sites have in common, of course.

One might almost imagine that fhilthfc, through its official, semi official, and unofficial media conduits, to be ably supported, when required, by its on message friends in press, TV, and radio, is laying a false trail about Rangers systematically lying, cheating, bribing, extorting, and blackmailing its way to success in the 80s, 90s, and 00s. That all of such asserted activity was underpinned by abuse of Masonic principles goes without saying. One might almost imagine that the outlandish allegations currently in the public domain, and given their frenzied dissemination, are designed to create a diversion, or smokescreen, to distract attention from, or render obscure, or reduce the significance of, something(s) which fhilthfc would not wish to see, nor to be seen by its own support, far less the public at large, in the full bright light of day. One might almost imagine that fhilthfc, and its devotees, are driven by some large amount of desperation. One might almost imagine that some rather bad, perhaps disturbing, news about fhilthfc may be about to surface during the coming season. One might almost imagine that I am developing a paranoiac attitude, akin to theirs. Am I to believe that the grotesque and increasingly grave contentions and insinuations emerging, and continuing to emerge, are the work, merely of random sellik-minded wing nuts, operating in isolation, and in ignorance of each other's activities? Am I to assume that the latest bizarre suggestions are no more than the usual default position of a febrile anti Rangers background wash? Or am I to think that there is a reason for, and a purpose behind, the current bunko?

When I read of these epistolarians and bloggers, official, semi official, completely unofficial, and the corps of fellow travelling football writers, I can think only that Shakespeare, unsurprisingly, has each and every one of them nailed (and in The Scottish Play, forbye): Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Of course, this "arrangement" with an unofficial mouthpiece gives fhilthfootballclub (and Lawwell) 'plausible deniability' for anything it would like to see in the public domain.

Yes; I thought that they had a facility within the main stand, of recent provenance. I'm sure that I read about it, possibly on here.