calscot
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Everything posted by calscot
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Seems like same old, same old. Gone off this guy already.
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I would like us to pay certain debts but not all. Firstly, HMRC had the choice of about £10m more than they were actually owed, or several pounds of flesh. They chose the latter and as such have been paid in full, case closed. Secondly, I don't see Ticketus as a Rangers creditor, they are a Craig Whyte creditor and their beef is with him. I think the problem with the other creditors is that we are run by self serving businessmen who I can't see having any concept of paying off the old company's debts. That leaves us the fans to organise a fund for paying at least as a start the smaller creditors who are not institutions. I would be willing to contribute an amount that if multiplied by say 10k people, would cover a significant number. Say 25-50 quid each. But I can only see it working if it gets that size of backing and is organised by someone we can trust with the money.
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This line is an incredibly important point. Imagine a twisted, sadistic bully who sees the one guy he's less tough than and therefore hates, injured and on crutches and decides he wants to humiliate, beat up and leave the rival to die. Then after a load of abuse the victim slowly picks himself up, dusts himself down, puts out his hand and says, "I think that's enough, lets make peace."
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That's the huge problem. Can you imagine us getting away with some "equivalent" without media condemnation? Thing is I can't even think of an equivalent. We're usually hounded about nothing at all...
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Incredibly clear anti Rangers spin once again.
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Sometimes you need big consequences to learn the lesson...
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I would love them to be liquidated. Not schadenfreude, I just think it would be good for the Scottish game as a whole and I no longer have any sentiment for SPL clubs to want them to survive to interfere with rational thinking. Having only one Edinburgh club could be great for the long term competitiveness of the league. Plus it would be a warning to other clubs, firstly not to be stupid with their spending but secondly to show that any club can go to the wall and it's best to stick together and look after each other rather than kicking a club when it's down, especially when it removes a load of money from the game that they themselves rely on. We need to drive out some of the selfishness of Scottish football. We seem to be the only club and fans who have any benevolence towards other Scottish clubs. This is epitomised by having executives on the SFA board who publicly state that they are ONLY interested in what is good for their own club.
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I thought they were all for police brutality and unprovoked attacks - even when they are the police of fascist dictators, rather than from a respected deomocracy... Strange how their politics have suddenly changed.
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But it sounds like the board can count on about 40% so far... That's makes them very powerful if they want to switch sides, or if they offer each side their allegiance for something in return.
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I think this would be good timing for us to have a big court case with the SPL - UEFA kick Scottish clubs out of Europe while we can't qualify. Sweet. Plus, some of the immoral and/or illegal stuff they have done could do with coming out once and for all. Only trouble is that our reserves are low and so where would the fighting fund come from? RFFF?
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Possibly, and there's no risk as if he fails to convince or a new board just want their own man, then he'll have a huge pay off to keep him happy, and I'm sure he'll be sent off with a glowing reference. Could be the most lucrative couple of months he's ever had.
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I agree with that and agree that the recruitment policy at my work is not going to bring in any talent. However, what kind of character takes the role on knowing that they could be out of a job in a few weeks albeit with a huge payoff? I don't think we need some kind of rare guru at the moment, someone competent and with integrity would do. But I do think the contract for a role like a CEO needs to be changed across industry to perhaps have review points in the contract where the employee can be let go for say a three month pay-off. That should be more than enough time for any one worth their salt to find another position. And even if they don't their large pay should compensate for the risk. The irony is that anyone truly worth their salt should not require much of a pay-off nor any extra built-in job security. By definition, they should require LESS than the ordinary workforce. Sadly, either they don't seem confident in their abilities or they just use it to further their greed by shafting whoever they work for. So again, what kind of character are we paying for? The type of money thrown at top executives whether they do well or incredibly badly is baffling for most mere mortals.
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To me it seems a strange timing for an appointment. We could really do with a CEO and even more so to organise the AGM but the problem is that we have these weird contracts where he'll require a huge pay-off if we want to change to someone else if a new board is elected. I really hope we've given him a 6 month fixed contract in the first instance - which is what they are doing at my work. It seems the current board have forced a CEO on the subsequent board which could change in just a few weeks. Couldn't they have waited? But then, common sense is not their style, and making power plays is.
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I used to be of the thinking that since we have a small population that I have no problem with Scotland playing crap football and scraping wins as long as we are punching above our weight, result wise. We just don't have the choice of players to attempt to play total football and win. So I'm happy with the Norway result - it might have been lucky but the it's the run of results you really need to look at for the bigger picture. I thought I would get my entertaining football kicks from supporting one of the richest teams in Europe, who could sign high quality players from anywhere in the world and so were unrestricted by Scotland's population size as we made up for it by having one of the largest supports. Although disappointingly, we've only achieved that sporadically. However, these days Rangers are hampered by the population for finances, as well as our narrow minded people and unconstitutional government departments who have forced us into a more impoverished state. We're now pretty much in the same boat as the Scotland team and actually worse as we are mostly relying on not even the best local talent on offer. And so for me, the results have become more far important than the style of play, and I don't think we have skilful enough players to play champagne football against a parked bus every week. With all the goings on and with two managers I detested - along with embarrassing results, I've fallen out of love with the Scotland team and so not been watching them much (being on Sky doesn't help either). I don't even recognise a fair few of the players. However, I'm starting to rekindle my fondness for the team with what Strachan is achieving. Some pride is coming back and so he can scrap all the wins he likes in my book.
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The board will want to at least keep an option for mortgaging or sell and lease back when the money eventually runs out. So far they have seemed more interested in the gravy train than the good of the club.
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I would say we've gone from an often tense détente to a bitter and dangerous cold war which could go nuclear the next time we meet. Not challenging on the football pitch means everything is put into the political side and Celtic fans, board and manager seem to escalate the hostilities at every opportunity. We have now have two one horse races out of four and no big fight for the title so our league has no competitiveness whatsoever. The worst aspect is that even with a duopoly, every team has a small say in where the title goes with each win or draw over the top two, with a monopoly, the title is decided no matter how you play each game. There has been a trickle effect to the lower leagues, money wise, with all the travelling Rangers fans and the extra games in the Challenge Cup. However, the amount of money Rangers are bringing into the game in total is about 1/3 it was before and a significant proportion of that shortfall will be missed by the rest of the clubs who would have benefited. The Premiership is also bringing in far less money from other sources such as sponsorship and media rights. Scottish football as a whole must have lost about 20% of its income.
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Match Preview Schedule - Volunteer to write a Gersnet Match Preview
calscot replied to Gribz's topic in Rangers Chat
I'll volunteer for the Dunfermline game. -
As much as I agree with the sentiment, unless something dramatic changes then I can't see any non-OF game being of interest outside Scotland - or even in this case having that much interest to non Edinburgh club fans in Scotland. The Sheffield Derby is much larger but you don't see us snapping up the rights to it. The trouble is that we have two huge clubs that could compete at the top of the English Premiership and the rest of our top league are comparative minnows to many English teams that the top half of them would be struggling to stay in the Championship and the bottom half would be struggling to stay out of the Conference. You can't even expect outside interest in an Edinburgh derby unless the game has significance in the league title race. As I've said before, if Edinburgh want the outside world to take their football seriously, they need to merge and try to form a club with 30k fans that can somewhat compete with the top two. It'll never happen and Dundee are another city that should do this, but it's what kills the outside interest in Scottish football, and is why the TV companies are not interested and we're becoming a provincial league with no money. And thinking about that, it's kind of what OF fans want, another bigger club to make a better competition, but not as big as their own club. Imagine an Edinburgh super club that filled Murrayfield every other week and could outspend us? We'd hate it. But then, we hate it now when the likes of Crystal Palace have more than three times more money from TV than we have altogether. We're between a rock and a crazy place.
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Summer football wouldn't transform our game but it would give a boost. I know I much prefer watching football in a sunny afternoon or warm evening - and if it rains, it's not freezing rain. I'm not sure how many more it would attract but there would be less finding an excuse not to go than in the middle of winter. Exclusive TV coverage could at least attract a lot of Scots to the telly or the game when denied their English fix. Less postponed games means less needless money lost for clubs and fans. Less money spent on heating, lighting, under soil heating and replacement turf for what can become plowed fields. It's makes a groundsman's job easier and cheaper. Even the cleaning bill should come down. Summer holidays are usually difficult time to fill for the kids and so the attraction of going to the game is increased. Increased chance of qualification through to the proper stages of the European tournaments. Less injuries and more enjoyable conditions makes it easier to attract players from abroad and gives our own players a more enjoyable time where they can start thinking about playing decent football rather than slugging it out in freezing weather on a hard or muddy pitch. It also means less medical bills. That's just off the top of my head. It may not transform our game but it would definitely bring a ton of benefits, and I can't think of many reasons for not doing it. We can work something round the WC and EC finals as it's only two weeks and not many of our players are usually involved. Even 6 weeks of swapping to summer football with two games a week is a quarter to a third of our season played in what will undoubtedly be better temperatures and therefore conditions than the winter alternative. We're just too stubborn about tradition to do it.
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I don't read RM, and I'm only on here I suppose and so may live a sheltered Rangers life. But you look at any of their sites and it's almost a 100% hate fest with what seems like more bile filled threads about us than talking about their own stuff. Look at any anti-Rangers "journalist" and those more "pro-Rangers" and it's chalk and cheese with the lies, smears and propaganda almost entirely in one direction. (They do criticise Celtic but it is done far more respectful and is usually very justified.) Look on the Scotsman or equivalent for comments and Rangers articles riddled with hate-filled crap by Tims unwilling to even step out of the repetitive, dumbed down rhetoric to debate, but you don't see much of a vice versa going on. Their manager and CEO make totally out of order remarks, quips and jokes; ours just don't - even Green. Ours criticise our board and fans about political stuff and behaviour when they think it's due, theirs close ranks and start a huge propaganda defensive. Theirs complain and campagne in huge numbers to anyone they can about the smallest things about us, ours don't. Theirs infiltrate the SFA, the council and bigotry watchdogs and turn everything against us while helping their own, ours don't. I could go on and on.
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Boom boom! Maybe his father just wanted him to grow up tough... it worked for John Wayne...
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While I agree with that, I think there is a vast difference with the proportions. We seem to have a large proportion of slightly biased but reasonably objective thinkers that is not apparent for them at any level from fans to player, to manager, to chairman - or even most of the press in this country.
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He starts off sounding almost objective and then returns to type at the end, demonstrating a massive lack of self awareness in the process. There is plenty wrong with his article even down to the Lawell and Green comparison which is at least as different as a serial felon who is significantly in a position power, and some Joe perpetrating misdemeanours while protesting against the very real sins of the state. But the second big difference is that our support actually are savvy to what is going on. We drove Green out while Celtic fans would be happy to have Lawwell canonised. We cringe at the Rangers board outburst while they rejoice in the lack of integrity from their leader. There is only one set of people, (from all fans, boards, the media and the SFA) who show any sort of class, intelligence, self awareness or sense of objectivity. I suppose this explains why, "we are the people".
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Sorry, I admit to not knowing what RLS stands for - Robert Louise Stephenson?
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I'm ambivalent about league size as I don't think there is much evidence to support an increase in attendance or interest from abroad in any format. It's all pretty much pure speculation. Looking to the past doesn't always help as there are too many variables and the change since the introduction of the SPL is mixed. According to one website Rangers have increased their average attendance by over 50% compared to the late 60's and first half of the 70's, and Celtic have increased by something like 80% (But then some of that could be due to them under-reporting attendances). And this is despite both clubs winning a European trophy and having huge, half filled stadia with far more standing than seats. The biggest sustained level of OF attendances have been in the SPL with all seated stadia which goes against the somewhat rose tinted spectacles of the past. The likes of Hibs have lost about 25% of their average attendance and if you extrapolate that across the league (due to lack of quickly accessible data), I don't think it comes near to balancing out the increase in the OF attendances. This pretty much explains the far wider gap in financing these days which stops other clubs from even coming close to second almost every season, these days, never mind challenging. It takes a very bad season for one of the top two for this to happen. The OF dominated the championship before the SPL but not so much second place, where Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock had a reasonably big say in the matter. In the first of the 80's it looked like the SPL was working and providing competition to the big two with Aberdeen and Dundee Utd winning four titles between them although this did coincide with them having two of Scotland's best managers of all time and a very badly run Rangers and a complacent Celtic whose journey to stark decline due to nepotism and ineptitude had already left the station. But after that, Rangers brought in a new CEO and manager with a previously unimaginable budget which allowed us to dominate the league for over a decade. Celtic had their cathartic moment of almost going bust and recovered to mount a pretty similar challenge to the leading club in the country, restoring the old duopoly. So the effect of the league structure is very hard to discern when looking at the competitiveness of the competition. We shouldn't forget that the league was changed for good reasons and they are endemic in a small population country that has dreams of grandeur - after all, we pretty much invented the game and could easily have been multiple world Champions had there been a World Cup to enter in the early part of last century, or that we had bothered to attend the first few after it was inaugurated. I think we have the diagnosis of our league but with today's money polluted, toxic environment, it's an inoperable and untreatable disease that is very debilitating, and we can at best vaguely manage some of the symptoms while being unable to fully halt the inevitable decline. The recent, severe self-harm performed by our game, really doesn't help its already poor health, and we now seem to have quacks for doctors and a patient that continues to defy common sense when it comes to its well-being. I think we need a miracle cure in the form of a British, European or Atlantic league and reconstruction is at best a plaster and a couple of aspirin. There could perhaps be the effect that a change is as good as a rest, and positivity always helps, but it will be a short lived remission before the malaise returns. There does not seem to me to be any real internal answers, although I do think summer football would be a shot in the arm - a bit like Dustin Haufman's Ratso moving to Florida for his health had he made it in time, and perhaps we'll mirror that in leaving it too late to save the game from demise.