calscot

Yes, reading posts will take twice as long now...

PS She likes the pie and bovril at Ibrox...

Incidentally, how much do you think the tickets will be? I'm presuming they will be cheaper than a league game which start about �£22. I'd be willing to pay about �£20 although the price is double for me as I'll be taking my girlfriend for company and can hardly expect her to fork out for something she's not too interested in. (I usually take her for a good meal too, to "anchor" good memories onto going to see Rangers... She still raves about the lobster in Ipswich although the only bit of football she actually remembers is Dado's spectacular bicycle kick goal against Fulham.)

Cheers! I've missed gersnet and couldn't get into gersforum at all. Ended up on the Scotsman website but kept having the same arguments with the same old bitter Tims.

If Naylor or Hemdani get the POTY then it's a poor indictment of the rest of the candidates. While both have been consistently good they haven't exactly enspired a new generation of young players. I would rather there was someone who had been consistently outstanding. Many people will assume that a Celtic player will get it this season seeing as they are 13pts ahead, but to be honest that's more due to PLG's poor grasp of the Scottish game as Celtic have been mostly mediocre in the SPL, if not a bit lucky too. Rangers under Smith have the best record in the league but his team have hardly set the heather alight either. So no-one should get the accolade by virtue of the team they are playing for. Players like Naismith, Stokes (if he had stayed) and Brown are worth a shout. Although Boyd should be top of the list of strikers, his scoring record is so far ahead that no other forward can touch him. However he's still not exactly worthy.

I'll be in Scotland for a wedding on the 27th so will definitely be going. Need to keep an eye out for when the tickets go on sale as I think this could be a sell out. I could do with us playing an away friendly at another London team too - or a game against the MK Dons when they open their new stadium...

And less face it the stewards must have been blind not to see a pope t-shirt wearing, palistinian flag waving, orange b***** shouting lunatic...

I thought we were fined for inept stewarding...

Cammy you can be into anything you like, but it's got nothing to do with football or Rangers FC. I'm not overly into the UF the OO the Boyne or the Royal Family and my politics are pretty middle of the road and at times borders on Scottish Nationalism. Are you saying I have to find another club to support, other than the one I've supported since five years old, because I don't share the same tastes as you? I was under the impression that we could all be different and yet share a love for the same football team. Football is suppose to be an social equaliser, not divisory. Do you really have a problem with that? Hopefully it goes the other way and you can be a Royalist and support Hibs, a Unionist and support Raith Rovers, be in the OO and support Dundee Utd, etc. I'm into social clubs, good food and wine, cycling holidays, playing football, touch rugby, squash, golf, playing the guitar, watching films, home cinema equipment, sports coupes, motorbikes, giving my opinion on forums. But I don't have to have any of that related in any way with the football team I support. I forget about all of them when I'm watching a game. I don't want to stop drinking wine because Carling sponsor my team, or switch from a Hyundai to a Honda. I don't want to learn to play the flute instead of learning the guitar. I don't want to stand up every time GSTQ is played etc, etc, etc. So really, what is your point?

Craig is right, I'm not saying that the police attacked us for the songs but most people on the street subscribe to the incredibly flawed thinking of "There is no smoke without fire." So the fact that the fans were seen singing bigoted songs and some were obviously antagonising the police, people then come to the conclusion that Rangers fans were on the rampage and deserved all they got. The Rangers fans there say they were victims of an unprovoked attack, the rest of the nation thinks, "yeah, right". The thing is most of us think that way, if a foul mouthed and arrogant ned who likes to intimidate people then gets clobbered by a policeman, he has no sympathy from me. Basically the Rangers fans in Pamplona came across on the telly and youtube as a large bunch neds - and I would say that is the problem we need to fix if we want to have the world on our side. We have a public image problem and no-one will back us up until we change that.

I think we are being picked on because we are the ones who are the most obvious. The idiots who want to be bigoted are too stupid to do it in a way which can be defended as innocent. How much do you really hear at Parkhead that could so easily be seen as offensive as ***, "up to our knees..." and red hand salutes? They get away with it because they don't cross the "obvious line" as much as we do. The thing is we must be bigoted if we are singing ***, there is no doubt and really it's more than just about stopping the chants and songs - that doesn't get rid of the bigotry. We really have to ask ourselves why our own fans associate Rangers with a hatred of Catholics and Irish republicans. And also the very strange and bordering on unhealthy obsession for "prods", the Union flag, the OO, WWII, the Battle of the Boyne, King William, the current Queen, right wing politics and England. Maybe that's the big issues the decent fans keep sweeping under the carpet... If Rangers were not known for these things, would the idiots be around to spoil things for us? Do these attributes actually bring anything good to Rangers? As far as I can see the answer is, "No".

Yes, but who will take our side after the behaviour of our fans? We're shooting ourselves in the foot every time. You can't bully and then complain about being bullied. Perhaps the biggest problem is that decent fans think the bigger issue IS the Spanish police - when it's the idiots that are taking away our right to complain and in effect making us look like the violent ones. We can't do too much about the police but we can do something about our own fans and especially our own attitudes and passive acceptance of very poor behaviour.

We lost a lot of sympathy about the attacks partly because of the singing... If you are misbehaving with sectarian songs people stop seeing you as innocents. The cameras also caught a lot of antagonistic behaviour by some Rangers fans and it didn't look like they were a bunch of angels. No excuse for the police wading in, but if we want to be taken seriously as victims then we can't look like the culprits. If we stop singing the songs and behave like decent human beings then we will get all the sympathy in the world if we are attacked. More reason to give up the songs and weed out the trouble makers. Basically we need to stop giving people a stick to beat us with.

The question is though, why anyone needs to use the word ****** when a multitude of other words which could have been more disparaging but less likely to be banned. The word is contentious, but we could have easily switched to another to keep out of trouble. Why are so many obsessed with that one word? The same goes for the RHS, why not do a British military salute instead? Is it not intelligent to try to avoid being misconstrued and then labelled bigots or Nazis? Surely giving up the word "******" and the RHS is not the hardest thing in the world? After all we're supposed to be "football supporters".

Hutton has done well and most notably in the absence of Smith. We could have two pretty good full backs when Stevie gets back. Murray has been pretty poor at left back in my opinion - but that's in comparison to Smith.

You might be against the back-pass rule or the new offside rule but where is challenging it going to get you? Anyway you can challenge a rule without disobeying it.

Fans may travel anyway but they would find it harder to misbehave at the home end and if they do Rangers will be far less liable than the home team letting them in. If we can't trust our fans then we have to do this until we can trust them. Do it for a season and see how it goes. Then start increasing the ticket allocation. If there is trouble, then refuse the tickets again. I'm sure the better behaved fans will be far more motivated to sort out or grass up the trouble makers. Meanwhile it's far easier to control the crowd at home and also to punish and remove them by banning orders. There we need stronger measures to stamp out any sectarianism. We need house rules - like not doing anything that looks like a Nazi salute or sing anything that can be construed as sectarian. If people break the house rules they are ejected - just like at any other club in society. We've had plenty of time to change our lyrics and repertoire but we're not capable of doing it ourselves so our right to defend "historical" songs and salutes has been waived by our behaviour. We need a new generation of supporters brought up without all the historical, political and religious baggage and to do that we need to stamp it out.

It all goes wrong when they get the seeding wrong - but I thought the top six was pretty predictable this season... They must have thought Hibs would finish in the bottom half...

Thanks I just found out it was back up from Frankie. Been spending a lot of time arguing with the Tims on the Scotsman website... It's enough to do your head in.

Craig, you're spot on, cheers for explaining it.

Why would you want to 40,000 flutes played, why not 40,000 recorders? Guitars? There is nothing wrong with the flute but choosing it in this context even in jest shows just how far we still have to go. The joking needs to stop as it just encourages our main enemies (Bigoted Rangers "fans"). We need to get serious and show that our support is worthy of our great club. Let's stamp out the bigotry instead of just joking about it. If you want to be a Billy Boy make sure it's Billy Struth you want to emulate.

We abused the privilege of singing the song so have to pay the consequences. If wee Jimmy uses his label machine to mark his name on his own stuff he gets to keep it, if wee Johny uses it to write swear words on household goods he gets it taken away. Basically we cannot be trusted with a song of all things. How shameful are we?

The thing is, no matter how biased people are against you, it's hard to defend yourself when you commit the crime. People biased against us may be our enemies, but our biggest enemies of all to Rangers FC are those who sing the songs, do the chants and do the hand signals. They are the one's who will cause damage to the club not the detractors. For example, there is now a newish rule about tackling from behind, a lot of players were against this as they reckoned it emasculated the game. BUT they have to follow the rules or they get yellow carded or sent off and accumulate bans. Now a team can blame the ref for implementing the rules or the opposition players or supporters that bring attention to the infringement. But the guy who is at fault for the sending off and possible loss of the game, is the player who broke the rules and tackled from behind. If he does it week in week out, not only will he get lengthy bans but eventually his manager will drop him or sell him or sack him. The fans will also go off him and slag him off. The same goes for these guys in the crowd. If they can't follow the rules they should be banned and ostracized. If UEFA ban something else, flags for instance, then again we can grumble about it but we have to follow the rules. What would you think of a player in your Sunday league team who got sent off every week for swearing at the ref. Would you defend him or tear into him? We need to stop defending these people who are so anti-Rangers they are hell bent on getting the club banned from Europe. They are worse than the Tims, they are worse than Gerry McNee and yet we welcome them in our midst.

I think there are only five Scottish managers who have the true credentials for the Scotland job. They have all won a top league and have vast experience. They are: Walter Smith Alex Ferguson George Graham Kenny Dalgliesh Graeme Souness Walter has already left and Ferguson would never take the job while at Man U which leaves the last three. Souness is embroiled in a Wolves take over and like Dalgliesh soured his reputation with Newcastle while Kenny's hit rock bottom after the toon with Celtic. George Graham is a fine manager but for seem reason seems to have disapeared from football after Spurs and never seems to be mentioned. He is the best candidate in my eyes. Out of the rest, the only one that has won much is Eck... which probably makes him the best man for the job even though I don't rate him at all. Burns never won the league and what has MacAllister done in management? I'm surprised more successful managers like Mark McGhee haven't been mentioned as at least he's done something. Billy Davies looks good for the future but give the guy a chance to do something in club football first. Levein hasn't really achieved anything yet either and has just moved to a new job where he looks like he could prove himself. Let him do that and let him finish the job he started, after all it could just be a lucky blip. Jimmy Calderwood is an experienced, respected man but he seems to have underperformed at Aberdeen and needs to show that he can achieve more. David Moyes is also yet to do anything of real note and should be given a chance to do so first and besides I don't think they could match his wage. George Burley is probably the one guy who has done something respectable in Europe although he is proving himself again with Southampton. But at least he is consistently successful and very experienced. So one of the old guard or Burley for me. Failing that, Eck is head and shoulders above the rest which says a lot about our list of candidates.

I've been thinking about our last three managers who had to leave after under-performing and I don't ever remember them looking comfortable in the job. Advocaat looked a bit out of place to start with but then looked very confident in the role which multiplied when he was winning trophies, however when they dried up you could see his feet get itchy and you could tell he wasn't here for the long haul. In came Eck who never quite looked like he could believe he was doing his dream job. He looked like he was pinching himself all the time and that deep down he seen himself as a fake. He grimly held on to the job for four and half years but when he left you could tell it was never meant to be. Then we had PLG who we couldn't believe had taken the job and after a few weeks he looked like he couldn't believe it either. He cultivated a look that said, "Wat ze 'ell am I doing 'ere?" Contrast that with Walter Smith who looks to be settling back into the job like an old pair of comfortable slippers along with McCoist who looks like he's found the perfect stage. We now have a management pair that know why they are there, are completely up for the challenge and in for the long term. And they are completely comfortable and at peace with that.