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Reports he is gone, just about to be sacked. Stories in most English papers and all over twitter. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2609419/David-Moyes-sacked-Manchester-United-lose-patience-following-Premier-League-failure.html

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/6761-season-still-a-success Don't see this posted. Where do you start with this nonsense. Suppose its been a success for Ally though.

Mass debate all season but after 2 telling games can Ally lead us back to the top??? Not for me. Lets get a percentage view.

I'm not wanting to start an 'Ally bashing' thread as such as right now I don't think there is any point. We could argue all day about decisions, tactics etc. After speaking to/texting all of my mates/family during/after the game yesterday it was clear than NONE of us wanted Ally to remain in charge. And a few of us were complete Ally defenders of late. Some may have been just a knee jerk reaction to the result I'm not sure. Which led me to this, is there anyone that actually wants Ally to stay? And if so why?

THE Parkhead striker is at the centre of fresh controversy after new video footage emerges of the Edinburgh born player singing a racist song directed at former Hearts player Rudi Skacel. CELTIC star Leigh Griffiths is at the centre of a fresh video storm today after he was filmed leading a pub in a *racist song about former Hearts hero Rudi Skacel. Mobile phone footage passed to the Sunday Mail shows the Scotland striker standing up in the packed pub to start a massed chant branding the Czech player a “f****** refugee”. Footage clearly shows Griffiths, 23, leading dozens of Hibs fans belting out the hateful song in the Roseburn Bar before the club’s *Edinburgh derby with Hearts last Sunday. Wearing a grey top, he stands up with his hands in the air and kicks off the chant before jumping up and down when others join in. Ex-Hibs player Griffiths has already been fined by Celtic and faces SFA *discplinary charges after he was filmed singing a song about Hearts’ *financial problems in the bar. The *incident led to Celts manager Neil *Lennon warning on Friday that the striker – who has been embroiled in a string of controversies – was on a final warning before being kicked out of the club. But Parkhead bosses – who have vowed to take a hardline against bigotry – face a headache over the clip of their £800,000 star, who signed in January. It will anger fans of the club, who were founded to help Irish *immigrants. A pub onlooker said: “Leigh didn’t appear to have a care in the world. “Even though there were a few people filming him on mobile phones, he just carried on jumping up and down and singing. “He was enjoying himself – and the attention he was attracting. “The pub was packed with Hibs fans who were who were loving the fact one of their former players was leading the sing-song.” Griffiths was dropped to the subs bench for yesterday’s match against Dundee United. But Celtic fans showed support by chanting, “Leigh Griffiths sings what he wants” before he came on in the *second half in the 2-0 win. In 2005, former Hibs star Derek Riordan was fined by his club and forced to apologise to Skacel when he was filmed singing the same offensive song in a pub with other fans. Sung to the tune of Beatles’ hit Yellow Submarine, it features the words: “Rudi Skacel is a f****** refugee.” Like Griffiths, Riordan also went on to sign for Celtic. In 2012, Dunfermline fan Andrew Irvine pleaded guilty to aggravated breach of the peace and was fined £200 when he sang the song during a match against Hearts at East End Park. Last night, Anas Sarwar, deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party and MP for Glasgow Central, called for police to investigate Griffiths’s behaviour. And anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card urged Celtic to send *Griffiths to one of their workshops. Sarwar said: “Intolerance and *racism is not acceptable in society, the workplace or football. “It doesn’t reflect the best of *Scotland, we celebrate our *differences and any racist actions from anyone should face the full weight of the law.” Griffiths facing stronger charges from the SFA over latest incident David Foster of Show Racism the Red Card added: “We want to *eradicate racism, bigotry and *sectariansim in all its forms and we believe the best way to do that is through education. “Whatever action Celtic feel they have to take is an internal matter but we hope that Leigh Griffiths will attend one of our events. “The racist words in this song aren’t acceptable and it may be the case that he isn’t fully aware of the damage they cause. “He is a role model and *thousands of young fans look up to him. “Some players wouldn’t choose that status but it comes with the terrority at a big club so it’s *important he’s aware of his *responsibilities.” Griffiths cheered on Hibs with his mates when his former team took on Hearts at *Tynecastle. He was then filmed singing about Hearts going into adminstration in a pub after the match. SFA bosses later charged Griffiths with a breach of Disciplinary Rule 86: “Not acting in the best interests of Association Football by singing in public about Heart of Midlothian FC in administration.” His case is expected to be heard on April 24. The images also forced Celtic to give him a written warning. Lennon said: “We’ve all been guilty of doing daft things at times but that’s his one strike. “I don’t want him doing any more – otherwise his career at Celtic won’t be as long as he maybe wants it to be.” This isn’t the first time Griffiths has been at the centre of a *racism row. Last year, he was arrested and charged over an alleged racist *comment he made on Twitter. Skacel, who’s without a club and considering retiring, was *unavailable for comment. Last night, a Celtic soure said: “The club will take this very *seriously. “They’ve shown outbursts like this won’t be tolerated by players by how swiftly they dealt with the last footage that emerged.” A club spokesman said: “It would be inappropriate to comment until we’ve investigated the *allegation.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/exclusive-celtic-star-leigh-griffiths-3380576

BOBBY Madden has been appointed to referee the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final between Rangers and Dundee United. And the fixture at Ibrox on Saturday week will have a total of six officials. Madden's assistants for the game between the League One champions and the Premiership club will be Graham Chambers and Alastair Mather. The fourth official will be Calum Murray while the additional assistant referees will be John Beaton and Alan Muir. United have sold 10,500 tickets for the semi-final against Rangers. United had previously indicated they would seek up to 20,000 tickets for the encounter. United director Derek Robertson said: "We'll probably have to get back to the SFA in the next couple of days to let them know the numbers. I would urge anyone who has not yet bought their tickets to do so in the next few days." With Hampden Park being redeveloped for the Commonwealth Games, the SFA chose Rangers' stadium to host both semi-finals back in October. Robertson said it would be the biggest support the club had taken to a semi-final. He added: "We're very happy with the numbers so far." United were initially offered 11,063 seats for the match. But the club's representative said that "in order to ensure maximum attendance" United would prefer to only be allocated the 8012-seat Broomloan Road stand. The club had complained about Ibrox being chosen as the venue for the tie. But last weekend SFA chief executive Stewart Regan defended the move. "It was a planning decision," Regan said. "When you're putting a major cup competition together, you spend a lot of time discussing it with your sponsors. "We certainly did that with William Hill. "We needed to take the semi-finals and final to venues that would cope with the demand for tickets." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/six-officials-at-ibrox-semi-final-158049n.23853839

@ThomAlexWatt 26m Police Scotland conclude investigation on allegations re: abuse of N.Lennon @ LC semi-final at Tynecastle. Insufficient evidence, no charges. Police Scotland’s Football Co-ordination Unit: “enquiry has concluded. Not sufficient evidence to bring charges”. Full story on stv.tv soon

..........gets Rangers fans all fired up to renew Old Firm rivalries. IT was a terrific quote. Nauseating so far as its sentiment was concerned, but a marvellous sound-bite never the less. It was the one Dave King delivered about some Rangers fans who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put shoes on their children’s feet because they wanted to use the money to buy their season ticket for Ibrox. This was portrayed as evidence of the extraordinary degree of passion some fans have exhibited for the club. It’s nothing of the kind. Putting football before your family’s needs is not and never will be a badge of honour. Indeed it is a source of everlasting shame and there shouldn’t be the slightest hint of dubiety about that. But Dave wasn’t indulging in some emotional flight of fantasy, dreamed up one night while he was lying on a sun lounger as dusk fell on his exotic garden and swimming pool in Johannesburg and thinking about his place of birth. These people really do exist. I was once abroad in the company of an old friend who had a long and illustrious career with Celtic. We had been covering one of the club’s European ties and having a post-match refreshment before turning in when he was accosted by a fan. One who proudly told him his children hadn’t had a holiday in any of the previous three years so that he could travel the continent to support his team. The supporter had managed to turn denial where his family was concerned into some kind of imagined virtue He may have expected the Hoops hero to offer heartfelt words of praise but it was all the ex-player could do to maintain self-restraint after the interloper had invaded his company to spout his ?nonsense. Here’s the thing, though. ?Rangers’ survival as a viable concern is essential to the future well-being of the game in this country. The written media have done their usual first-class job of turning Celtic’s latest title-winning exercise into more column inches than would have been devoted to the Second Coming. But the reality is we need, heaven help us, the return of the rivalry that brings out those whose distorted sense of family values is an affront to decency. That also means unleashing the younger element upon us as they represent another part of the baggage that comes with re-establishing the Old Firm. Rangers and Celtic will play an Under-20 league match at Murray Park on Tuesday afternoon. That’s because the number of police who would’ve been required to enforce security if the game had been played ?in public view would’ve been financially inadvisable in times of austerity. It would have been interesting for normal folk to monitor and contrast the clubs’ youth development set-ups. Particularly at a time when 17-year-old Liam Henderson is scoring in a match against Partick Thistle that confirmed Celtic as league champions. But the youngsters’ match would have been hijacked, as those in authority well know, by the flare throwers, the singers of questionable songs and the rest of the misfits who would leave a family audience in fear of their safety. The match would’ve become an irrelevance to both sets of fans while they hurled sectarian insults at each other. It was the business of using rivalry as a basis for thuggery that put King’s policeman father off football when Dave was growing up. But one day, and it’s not too far off now, we’re going to have to deal with a first-team Old Firm derby that troubles society at large while helping enhance the product known as the SPFL Premiership. King knew exactly the right button to press when he started his propaganda campaign to win control of Rangers by instilling the fear of Celtic winning Ten in a Row in the minds of his club’s fans. And that’ll prey on their minds longer than Rangers’ captain Lee McCulloch’s talk about next Sunday’s Ramsdens Cup Final being a “massive” game. The match with Raith Rovers is a by-product of a club fallen on hard times. Nothing more and nothing less. Only those who would contemplate denying the weans shoes to buy a season ticket will think otherwise. Now the Ibrox board have countered King by saying that fans will threaten Rangers’ viability as a going concern if they decide to withhold season-ticket money The fans are now trapped between two sides, each trading on their innermost fears. And gullibility. I was speaking to a fan on the radio the other night who told me Celtic qualifying for the Champions League group stages next season would be a greater achievement than winning the European Cup in 1967. It was breathtaking nonsense, and a moment to ponder whether some fans actually understand history. Celtic were the first British, not Scottish, winners of the competition. Idolising Neil Lennon's perfectly all right, but distorting the truth while tarnishing Jock Stein's memory isn't. Neil would surely be the first to agree. No-one's dismissing his achievements. But there must be a sense of perspective.

.....for the Premiership title in 2015-16 Ally McCoist last night declared that anything less than Rangers challenging for the Premiership title in season 2015-16 will be unacceptable. The Ibrox club will compete in the Championship next season having won back-to-back titles and are hot favourites to pave their way back to the big time with a third successive crown. However, the source of the club’s long-term financing remains shrouded in uncertainty, with would-be investor Dave King so far being kept at arms’ length by the board. King’s willingness to underwrite the £50million he believes is needed to compete with Celtic has chimed with a fan base who are behind his plan to only release season-ticket money to the board if certain conditions are met. McCoist yesterday expressed his hope that dialogue could yet see all parties arrive at a satisfactory solution. But, come what may, the Rangers manager refutes the notion that the aim of a first season back in the top flight could be consolidation. ‘No, it’s not an option,’ he stated. ‘We know it goes with the territory here, you are expected to win the vast majority of games and you’re expected to get promoted and get back in the top league as quickly as possible. ‘So far, these boxes are getting ticked although there have been one or two hiccups along the way, which we always said there would be.’ Asked if he intended building a team capable of challenging at the first time of asking, McCoist continued: ‘Yes, it’s important. We’ve never made up the numbers at all. No matter what league we’ve played in or where we’ve played, we’ve always believed we’ve had a chance of winning the competition and I don’t see any reason why that should change. ‘In fact, it shouldn’t change and it can’t change.' On Thursday, Rangers chairman David Somers issued a stern warning that the proposed season ticket stand-off could cause untold damage to the club. Speaking after the publication of the interim financial results, Somers said the withholding of money could risk the club’s ability to ‘continue as a going concern.’ McCoist has repeatedly taken a neutral stance in the ongoing spat between the board, King and the fans, but yesterday he admitted to having serious concerns about what Somers had said. ‘Of course that would worry me, as a supporter and as a manager,’ he added. ‘That would be a concern for everybody who has anything to do with the club. If the chairman feels that has to be said, it is probably an unpleasant reminder to everybody involved at the club that we have a long, long way to go.’ Notwithstanding the possible return of King to Ibrox, McCoist believes he and the board are on the same page as far as a shared vision for the future of the club is concerned. ‘I’ve said all along that we need investment to get back, there’s no doubt about that,’ he continued. ‘Graham (Wallace, the chief executive) and the board have said that, too, so it’s good that everybody feels like that and shares that opinion. ‘Where the investment comes from we will have to wait and see. ‘In the meantime, it’s good everybody agrees investment is needed. ‘For us to get back to where we want to eventually be, we will need investment. ‘We lost millions when we lost all those players. To get back to the standard of where we were, investment is needed.’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2591972/McCoist-sights-set-challenging-Celtic-Premiership-title-2015-16.html

Looks like he's going to be replaced by Neil Warnock at Forest. Wouldn't require any compensation now...

Listening to Jum Spence, Tom English, Richard Gordon, Stuart Cosgrove,................................ and Stephen Thompson all chorus the caveat, "this not about Rangers" reminded me of the events leading up to the 2003 Scottish Cup final between Rangers and Dundee. Eleven short years past, ra Sellik were on the road to Suvul You must remember? The riot in Vigo Airport, the plane diverted to Cardiff, 28 Banning Orders(remains the highest in UK for a single game) issued after those green'n'grey hooped hordes stormed the main gates at Ewood Park, and the culmination of Jose's Porto leaving TGFITW all hot and bothered in Andalucía. We won the League Cup final, a 2-1 against ra Yahoos and the delicious detail contained a last minute Hartson penalty miss and Lennon dismissed from the field of play. We had secured the Championship on the last day by thumping Dunfermline 6-1 at Ibrox, Neil McCann's second half contribution must never be forgotten. Similarly, Chris Sutton's bitter and twisted reaction at Rugby Park should be recalled. Big Eck's Rangers were a week away from securing a treble. At the beginning of May(3 weeks before), the finalists known and those cuddly stills, the Marr Brothers began an attempt to ensure a 50/50 split at Hampden on the big day. Evidence of a honed campaign soon became obvious as Spence, Gordon, Cosgrove, Nevin and Keevins sang from the same hymn sheet. There was anxiety in ensuring the caveat, "it's not about Rangers" was utilised, because that allowed a flow of phrases designed to convince the neutral ie sense of fairness, sporting integrity, level playing field, and spirit of competition. A wave of momentum saw the SFA agree to a 50/50 split. Despite empirical evidence showing/proving the Dark Blue support would not consume a 21,000 allocation, the usual suspects exercised unbridled joy. Of course, "it's not about Rangers" was a Trojan Horse to ensure regular attending Bears were denied access at the preference of empty seats. The, and so it transpired was inevitable, the official attendance that day was 47,136, just under 5,000 short of capacity. Some of the usual suspects had the neck to complain that Dundee should have sold the North Stand tickets first, 3-4,000 empty seats clearly visible just to the right of the centre line was a TV embarrassment. The 3-4,000 Bears standing outside remained non-plussed as to such crass observation. After the event and big Amo's header had secured the cup and treble, the only comments were along the lines of ensuring cup finals were better organised, the 50/50 split was here to stay. The Scottish Cup final of 2004 was between ra Sellik and Dunfermline Athletic. The attendance was 51, 835. Dunfermline's allocation was 13,000 and they returned 1,800 of those to waiting Yahoos. The 50/50 split and fairness have been conveniently ignored this last decade reference national finals. Obviously, Jum found himself stumbling around Pacific Quay Room 101, found the Manual entitled, 'Euphemisms for absolute Hatred of all things Rangers", turned to the chapter, "It's not about Rangers", and called dearest Stephen. It's a campaign that has so far ignored the further empirical evidence provided by the reality of the 2003 Scottish Cup final.

The Rangers Supporters Trust (RST) is deeply concerned by the comments attributed to the Arab Trust Chairman Stephen Hughes. Specifically that he feels Dundee United fans would not be safe at the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final between the two sides. In making this statement, Mr Hughes does not provide any evidence to back up his wildly inaccurate claims. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Arab Trust is actively trying to create additional tension between the clubs and fans ahead of the game. Furthermore, the Arab Trust does have a history of trying to antagonise the Rangers support, having called the club and the support 'huns' on numerous occasions on their official Twitter account. We would like to point out that, in 2011, Rangers were awarded the SPL Family Champions Award at a time when the Dundee United Chairman was on the SPL board. There is also a great deal of irony in Mr Hughes' fanciful claims given that an Arab Trust board member is actively promoting a 'family only' bus travelling to the game. This would appear to be yet another unprovoked attack trying to damage the fantastic reputation of the Rangers support. Recent remarks regarding safety attributed to United chairman, Stephen Thomson are also of concern, and we would expect the Rangers board to be actively seeking clarification in this regard

RANGERS are set to swoop for St Mirren midfielder Kenny McLean — but fear they could lose him to English football. Ibrox boss Ally McCoist has drawn up a list of targets for next season’s Championship campaign and the Scotland Under-21 star, is on it. McLean, 22, has also been targeted by several English clubs who know his Buddies contract expires this summer. Ipswich gaffer Mick McCarthy watched McLean in action against Hungary earlier this month. Leeds, Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield have also been north to run the rule over McLean. Paisley gaffer Danny Lennon has admitted the highly-rated kid is unlikely to sign a new deal, but Saints will hope he decides to head south. If he does they would pick up around £350,000 in compensation as McLean has been with them since he was 14. If he moved to Gers or another Scottish club, a tribunal would decide Saints’ fee for developing the player. McLean grew up a Gers fan and was discarded by their youth system as a kid. But the prospect of joining his boyhood heroes might sway his decision. Ibrox boss Ally McCoist, has yet to find out what funds — if any — he’ll have to strengthen his squad this summer. But the deals of fringe men Kyle Hutton, Emilson Cribari and Steve Simonsen are all up and that could free up some cash. from the sun

......Rovers have got more class. HUGH says Albion Rovers' display helps put Ibrox title win in perspective and says Old Firm fans should be asking why their teams are not in today's League Cup Final. THEY tell me Ian Black drives to and from Murray Park in a bright red Bentley. It should go with his bright red face because the painter and decorator turned midfield huffer and puffer has managed to alienate himself from the Ibrox support in the same week that Rangers won a title. That takes a bit of doing. The process of alienation, that is, not the title success. When squad members are earning enough to drive Bentleys while playing against part-time teams it’s hard to see this championship as a triumph to be discussed in the same breath as others Ally McCoist has been associated with. But disaffected season-ticket holders? That’s another matter altogether. Former Ibrox director Dave King hasn’t moved a rebellious muscle yet and he’s beginning to look like a shoo-in to win the battle for hearts and minds in the debate over where Rangers go from here at board-room level. And if his trump card is the backing of the fans then a Bentley driver asking the support what more they want after successfully “earning” a replay against Albion Rovers is a perfect start in the propaganda stakes. That and Rangers director Sandy Easdale talking about taking fans to the Court of Session for abusing him. There’s commercial suicide and then there’s commercial cynicism, of course. Celtic have lulled their fans to sleep on the back of a season prematurely ended by a championship won with the same unbalanced ease with which Rangers have dismissed their so-called challengers. The Hoops have beaten what is put in front of them and done exactly what they should’ve done in the Premiership. No more, no less. Just like Rangers. But Celtic can always keep their support on side by ticking the begorrah box. The latest edition of the club’s magazine, published last Wednesday, has Neil Lennon super-imposed on the flag of the Republic of Ireland. Above this image is a message wishing everyone a happy St Patrick’s Day from the champions. St Patrick’s Day doesn’t actually take place until tomorrow but who’s counting? And before those who are always waiting to be scandalised reach for the laptop to send the abusive email, my grandparents were from Ballymote in County Sligo and I’m as proud of my family roots as the next member of the Irish diaspora. But no matter where you’re from I’m sure a lot of Celtic supporters would rather their club magazine was talking about this weekend’s League Cup Final instead of camouflaging the fact they won’t be there. The reason why neither Celtic nor Rangers will be there this afternoon is that the former couldn’t get past the mighty Morton at home with the additional benefit of extra time. And even a team with a Bentley driver in it couldn’t find a way past part-time Forfar Athletic – after Rangers also got an extra half hour at Station Park to see if they could find the right gear. So good luck to Aberdeen and Inverness for having made it to the final and selling almost 50,000 tickets to remind us that there’s still life outside the Bentleys and the begorrahs. And well done to Albion Rovers for earning a replay against Rangers and a host of admirers at the same time for deciding to share their financial windfall from that match with the less fortunate. The idea of the Coatbridge club giving away £10,000 to Radio Clyde’s Cash For Kids charity appeal would once have been thought preposterous. But when they came into a few bob by dint of their own efforts on the park the Rovers asked “What do you need ?” instead of “What more do you want?” like a member of the other team annoyed by people having the audacity to criticise their performances. I got a text from someone anxious to point out that Rangers drew with Albion at Ibrox in 1935 when Bill Struth was the manager. My reply to that is, it was an embarrassment then and it’s an embarrassment now, begging Albion Rovers pardon. So sue me for having an opinion.

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon is relishing a return to Friday night football and believes the latest instalment involving his club will not be tarnished by events off the pitch. The Scottish champions will look to take another step towards clinching a third successive title when they face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park this evening. Celtic’s last outing under the Friday night lights saw them produce one of their best displays of the campaign when they dismantled Motherwell with a scintillating 5-0 victory at Fir Park in December. But the performance was overshadowed by damage caused to seats in the stand housing Celtic supporters, some of whom also let off flares and smoke bombs. It prompted the club to take action against the controversial Green Brigade section of their support, provisionally suspending 128 fans from matches and relocating 250 of their home season-ticket holders. Lennon, who last month welcomed the return of the Green Brigade to Celtic Park when they purchased a block of tickets for a different section of the stadium for the league game against St Johnstone, is hopeful nothing will detract from his team’s efforts on the pitch tonight. “I like Friday night football and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Lennon. “I just think the atmosphere is a bit better at the Friday night games. “I hope we play as well as we did the last time at Motherwell. I know we had a few problems at the last one, but I’m pretty confident there won’t be a repeat of that.” Celtic return to action after a free weekend due to their elimination from the Scottish Cup but Lennon is still counting the cost of his players’ involvement in international duty the previous midweek. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/neil-lennon-s-relaxed-about-celtic-fans-conduct-1-3340105

...............and staff were threatened... but Raith Rovers chairman Hutton says: I'd do it all again It's now 20 months since Turnbull Hutton stood up to be counted amid threats and warnings of the imminent 'slow lingering death' of the Scottish game. But the only thing dying around Stark's Park in March 2014 is the chairman's latest attempt at comedy on his club's website. With no victories for Raith Rovers in the Championship since mid-December, a tongue-in-cheek message from the 67-year-old to fans declaring 'Don't Panic' and signed by 'Captain Mainwaring aka Turnbull Hutton' has gone down like a lead balloon among the denizens of Kirkcaldy. 'Supporters of other clubs liked it but I've been accused by Rovers supporters of patronising them. I've even been accused of being on the sauce while writing it. I've not had a drink this year,' chuckles the Harvard University-educated former head of United Distillers. His point to the malcontents is that Rovers are, these days, in pretty decent nick. They reached the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup before crashing to St Johnstone and a Ramsdens Cup final against Rangers awaits at Easter Road next month. Grant Murray's team might be just four points from the relegation play-offs, but they are also sitting six points from fourth place in Scotland's tightest league. And, vitally, off the park, Raith Rovers turned a profit last year. After the fall of the SPL that Hutton so reviled, clubs like them are now earning four times as much as they did under the old set-up. It's certainly not the Armageddon chillingly forewarned by the SPL's Neil Doncaster two summers ago; an episode that saw Hutton endure a crash course in fan animosity that makes the current levels of disgruntlement at his Dad's Army stunt seem akin to a spot of love-bombing. In July 2012, Hutton led the fightback against what he saw as attempts by the SFA and SPL to 'blackmail' the SFL into solving an SPL problem, using 'a campaign of misinformation and disinformation'. SFL club reps like Hutton were told by SFA chief executive Stewart Regan that a 'slow lingering death' awaited the national game if newly-liquidated Rangers were sent all the way down to the Third Division. Hutton's impromptu Monty Python-inspired speech on the steps of Hampden, when he branded the SPL a dead parrot, saw him emerge as an accidental hero to a wider Scottish football public unimpressed by the authorities' attempts to give the fallen Ibrox club a softer landing in the old First Division. But the fallout also saw Hutton labelled Public Enemy No 1 by Rangers fans. He still maintains his motivation was to stick up for his under-fire director, Eric Drysdale, who was on the SFA's supposedly-anonymous panel that, in April 2012, handed Rangers a one-year transfer embargo and banned Craig Whyte for life from any involvement in Scottish football after he ran the club on to the rocks of ruin. Despite a particularly nasty backlash, however, the redoubtable Hutton says he would take the same stance if it happened again. 'There was all this talk about Armageddon and the slow death of Scottish football, but the best thing to come out of that whole episode was the death of the SPL,' he said. 'I didn't need or want that kind of profile. People forget that situation did not come about because of the Rangers financial situation. It was because of the involvement of Eric on that three-man panel. 'Ally McCoist's famous "who are these people?" speech kicked off a whole series of events that placed me to the fore. Eric was eventually outed, we had threats to our staff, supposedly viable threats to burn our stadium down. 'Eventually you think: "To hell with this!" How could I support the rule book being ripped up for Rangers? I came out on the steps of Hampden, had 25 reporters in my face and I told it like it bl**dy well was. 'But you stick your head above the parapet and suddenly you're all over the bl**dy internet and it spiralled out of control. I became "Turnbull The Tim", which I found quite amusing. But pro-Celtic - or anti-Rangers - had nothing to do with me taking the stand I did. 'I got some charming personal emails. One said: "I hope you die of cancer" and "The only slow lingering death I want to see is yours, Hutton". 'But there were far more supportive emails than nasty ones. I tried to answer them all but it got too much. I stuck them in a "love" file and a "hate" file on my computer and I've still got them to this day. 'Looking back, would I play it different if it started today? I don't think I could and I don't think I would. 'You've got to stand up for what you believe in. The consequences of speaking your mind are beyond your control but I'd do it all again. Everything that's happened since then suggests my view was the right one.' In a month's time, Rangers - still mired in a financial maelstrom - are due to cross paths with Raith Rovers for the first time since that fateful summer. Hutton expects a backlash. 'Ally McCoist is the only one from Rangers we've spoken to,' he nodded. 'He came to see us playing Dumbarton. Eric Drysdale and I passed the time of day with him, and it was fine. But the other faces at Rangers keep changing and we've never played them since. 'There's still a hangover from when that whole episode was at its peak, with the likes of Sandy Jardine mouthing off about boycotts and stuff like: "We won't forget". 'I don't know if we are still on a boycott list but I'd imagine the Ramsdens Cup Final won't be a happy family day, filled with brotherly love. 'I've been involved with the tournament from its inception and there have been some wonderful finals over the years, like Dundee United vs Stenhousemuir and Alloa vd Inverness. They were all happy family days out but I've a feeling this year's won't be.' This season also 'marks' the 10th anniversary of another dark episode in Hutton's colourful Stark's Park tenure. Not even his formidable 35-year business background could have prepared him for the crazy five-month tenure of Claude Anelka, brother of France's enfant terrible Nicolas. Claude's previous job had been as a DJ in a Miami nightclub and he arrived with a fearsome sidekick named Styx amid promises of luring a stream of 'new Thierry Henrys' to Kirkcaldy. 'It was Monty Python stuff, frankly,' says Hutton, who joined the Rovers board in 2000 and found himself increasingly 'sucked in' to becoming a 'reluctant chairman'. 'I took a stroke in April 2004 and I was out of the frame for around eight weeks, which was unfortunate, because at the same time Claude Anelka surfaced. He promised £180,000 per season for the playing budget and, as a struggling First Division club, the board had to look at that. 'He was going to be director of football, with Antonio Calderon staying as manager - but Antonio couldn't work with him and he packed up and returned to Spain. 'Claude became boss and, unknown to me, held a press conference and gave a line about making Raith Scottish football's third force. 'Then Styx arrived with all of his belongings stuffed in the back of a Peugeot van; a pile of soul records, 10 to 12 pairs of trainers and a heap of unwashed jeans. 'We had supposed "young superstars" turning up who had never played 11-a-side before. There were Czechs, Muslims, French players, English guys and the odd Scot. You name it. 'Raith at the time had more rented housing in Kirkcaldy than the Scottish Special Housing Association. That came back to bite us when they all disappeared and we were left to pay the outstanding council tax and electricity arrears. 'Anelka did put the money in, but the additional costs far exceeded his investment. It was a pretty big fiasco and, when it came to a halt, we were left to pick up the pieces. 'There were meetings with our local MP (and future Prime Minister) Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, as the Reclaim The Rovers campaign gathered pace. 'But some investment failed to materialise and that rescue deal was seriously under-funded. We've been battling that legacy ever since. 'Ironically, it's only in the last two years we've seen a turnaround, helped by league reconstruction. Before it was £60,000 to win the First Division, now it's £60,000 per place.' Hutton has seen high times with Rovers, particularly when Jimmy Nicholl's team stunned Celtic to win the League Cup in 1994. He was also in the Olympic Stadium with his son and daughter the following year for a 'once-in-a-lifetime experience' when Danny Lennon's goal saw the famous, if short-lived, scoreline: Bayern Munich 0 Raith Rovers 1. Given the club's chequered financial history in the modern era, however, in typically blunt fashion Turnbull prioritises Championship survival over a potential first Scottish Cup triumph in Raith's 131-year history. 'If I had to make a call, I'd rather we stayed up,' he says. 'I don't want to be a Wigan and win the Cup and go down. I know some supporters would take a different view but balancing the books is paramount. 'Winning the Cup would be a fleeting moment of glory and then a short-lived trip to a Russian outpost. Cup success would also bring its own financial challenges in terms of stadium improvements for a one-off shot at European football. 'I'd be more excited about the St Johnstone game if we weren't on a disastrous run. St Johnstone's Tommy Wright and Callum Davidson came to see us against Hamilton last month and we were 4-0 down at half-time. I hope that lulled them into a false sense of security.' With that, the chuckling Hutton heads off to an appointment with his dentist. 'His name is Graeme Smart and he supports Hibs, who we beat 3-2 at Easter Road in the last round. His brother Gordon is married to Kate, daughter of (Dunfermline legend) Jim Leishman. If Graeme goes above the usual pain threshold this time, I'll go for him …' Whatever else has been said about this Burntislander, and there has been plenty, nobody would ever describe time spent in Turnbull Hutton's company as akin to pulling teeth. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2576251/Rangers-supporters-branded-Public-Enemy-No-1-stadium-staff-threatened-Raith-Rovers-chairman-Hutton-says-Id-again.html#ixzz2vs7DmEeS Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

KEITH says the resurgence of Aberdeen under the impressively astute Derek McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged at a time when Scottish football is struggling. DEREK McINNES has done the first part of the job. A huge red monster has been poked in the ribs. Consciousness has now been successfully regained. But here’s the trouble with waking a sleeping giant. You better make sure it gets out of the right side of the bed because you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry. And you most certainly don’t want to be the cause of its ire. For example, if McInnes does not win the League Cup Final – after watching the abysmal manner in which Inverness Caley Thistle self-destructed against Dundee United yesterday – then he may suddenly find himself with some explaining to do. Worse still, even if McInnes does deliver the Pittodrie punters with their first piece of silver since 1995 on Sunday, he might still be chased the length of Union Street by the natives should somehow fate dictate that he loses a Scottish Cup Final to Rangers. Now don’t laugh. I’m serious. Okay so first Ally McCoist will have to find a way of getting past Albion Rovers in a replay next week. And you wouldn’t bet bad money on them doing anything of the kind. Then – against all odds – they’ll have to deal with the effervescence of Dundee United in the semis. At the same time, McInnes will have to negotiate a way past St Johnstone. But the truth is if Rangers somehow make it to the Final, McInnes might never recover from the shame of not seeing this lot off. In fact, the most damning thing about this latest Rangers humiliation is it did not even register as a shock to see them scrambling to salvage a 1-1 draw against a team of part-time kids on £20 a week. A mild surprise? Perhaps. Shockingly unprofessional? Absolutely. But anyone who was actually, genuinely left slack-jawed in amazement at what went on at Ibrox yesterday afternoon has clearly not been paying due attention to the mess this club has made of itself on and off the park in recent times. So woe betide McInnes then if he should somehow find a way not to do away with his old club. Aberdeen, you see, are standing on the shoulders of history. For more years now than anyone cares to remember this has been one big Incredible Sulk of a football club. Consistently, almost without fail in fact it has punched way below its weight. Often embarrassingly so. But two cups and a second-placed finish in the league can end all that. To put it simply even though there was a similar high point back in 1990 the recent years of bottom-six finishes and the ensuing onset of being comatose this could be the single greatest Aberdeen awakening since Gothenburg. Or it could take crestfallen to new levels. But before it goes one way or the other let’s add a sense of perspective to Aberdeen’s rise while remembering “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King”. We could rework that old saying for the modern-day game in this country. In the land of the incompetents, the mediocre man wins medals. And before this mighty and mobilising Red Army starts frothing at the mouth let me make one thing clear. Recently in these very pages, not only did I write that Aberdeen are now well and truly back but, what is more, all of Scottish football should be glad about it. The fact they have shifted more than 40,000 tickets for Sunday’s cup final at Celtic Park merely confirms that a healthy, vibrant Aberdeen is good for business. The game in this country doesn’t have a lot going for it right now but the resurgence of this club under the impressively astute McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged. They have been out cold up north for far too long. But while all of that is true, it would be absurd to start fawning over this Aberdeen team or to mistake McInnes’s players for a new batch of Willie Millers, Alex McLeishs and Mark McGhees when evidently they are not. In today’s world they do not need to be. Aberdeen must only achieve competence to emerge as this country’s second force. McInnes has simply been smart enough to recognise this as a fact. Just look at the slapstick defending that cost Inverness their place in the semi-finals yesterday. Some of it was hysterical. Much of it was beyond parody. And this from a team competing in the last eight of the Scottish Cup? It would not seem unreasonable to expect better of a team playing on a public park. In the current climate, simply being competent, resolute and organised is enough to turn any team into genuine contenders. The difference at Pittodrie is McInnes is both smart enough to realise it and capable enough to make it happen. When he brought in Barry Robson and Willo Flood in the summer, McInnes was hanging his hat on the tried and tested. Men who have been over the course and back again. Even at the peak of their powers they were never considered to be world beaters. Their career highs came and went more than five years ago when both of them ended up at Gordon Strachan’s Celtic. The truth is, they’ve been on a downward trajectory ever since. The fact they are now the joint powerhouses in Aberdeen’s engine room suggests clearly the decline of the Scottish game has been a great deal steeper and faster than that of their own. McInnes was shrewd enough to identify even if this pair’s best days are beyond them they are still better than most of their contemporaries. And it was the same in January when McInnes pulled off another fine piece of business in bringing Adam Rooney back to the Scottish top flight. That signing, in my view, secured second spot in the table. It may well turn out to have bought McInnes a cup double too. And yet the reason Rooney was available for free was because he had just been released by League One outfit Oldham, despite his previously prolific stint in Inverness. On Saturday, Rooney scored his sixth goal in eight appearances for Aberdeen to knock Dumbarton out of the Scottish Cup quarters. McInnes conceded after that nervy 1-0 win some of his players are starting to feel the pressure that comes with the weight of expectation bearing down on their slender shoulders. That’s human nature and perfectly understandable. But they should worry not. They are the best of the rest and now is no time for self-doubt to get in their way and stop them from reaching out to claim what is theirs. It’s not rocket science. They have the second-best team in the country because they have assembled the second-best group of players. McInnes has spent well. His squad’s wage bill is significantly short of £2million and miles shy of the £6m currently being wasted by Rangers. Which just goes to show sound management is not just as simple as signing big cheques. Yes, McInnes has made Aberdeen a force again. He had better not blow it all now.

.......can only trade on his past glories as a player for so long. HUGH believes the Ibrox manager misjudged the mood after the draw with Albion Rovers and has only increased the pressure on himself from the supporters. IT would take James Ward, at his current rate of pay with Albion Rovers, 100 years to earn what Ally McCoist gets in 12 months at Ibrox. That’s not a flight of fantasy plucked out of the air for dramatic effect in the aftermath of Sunday’s 1-1 Scottish Cup draw between the clubs at Ibrox. It’s a cold fact underlining what two opposite worlds look like when their differences are written down in black and white. Football is indivisible from money, and that holds true with a vengeance at hard-up Rangers, where they’re borrowing money to look after their borrowings. What Albion Rovers did at Ibrox was to come within 13 minutes of eliminating the home team from a competition which would be worth £1million to Rangers if they won it. That’s also how close Ally came to losing his job as manager for non-commercial reasons. Defeat from Rovers would have been the most humiliating result in Rangers’ history and formed employment law’s grounds for constructive dismissal. It didn’t happen in the end, and slipping the noose is perfectly allowable in football. Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager of them all, did it when he went through the barren years in his start at Old Trafford. Neil Lennon was forgiven a 2-0 defeat from Ross County in a Scottish Cup semi-final and promoted from interim to permanent manager at Celtic Park in spite of that embarrassment. But there are those who believe Rangers’ off-field problems have disguised McCoist’s shortcomings on the managerial front. Not any longer. The manager’s declaration that a replay against Albion Rovers did not represent any kind of embarrassment has resonated badly with the Rangers fans. It has focused their attention on matters on the field while they wait for the next battle in the civil war for power at Ibrox to commence. Ally said he was withdrawing from the front line on that issue to get on with being the manager. And he was quite right to do so. McCoist has compromised his better judgment and given public support to individuals he might otherwise have left well alone over the past couple of years. But his desire to see Rangers emerge from the morass created by administration, liquidation and manipulation by people who used the club for their own ends got the better of him. Now he’d be better advised to focus on himself because too many Rangers fans are questioning his judgment as a manager. Ally might genuinely have been trying to be respectful to Ward, his counterpart, and all associated with Rovers when he said there was no embarrassment attached to being taken to a replay by them. That’s not how the Rangers fans saw it, and they’re the barometer of public opinion the Ibrox boss has to be aware of at times like these. The season started with a League Cup defeat suffered in extra time against the part-time professionals of Forfar Athletic. Not much changes, it appears. Ninety-five minutes against a League Two collection of gas fitters and office workers wasn’t enough time for Rangers to remove Albion Rovers from the Scottish Cup. There comes a time when past history as a player becomes an irrelevance. The greatest of them all on both sides of Glasgow’s great divide – John Greig, Jock Wallace, Billy McNeill, Tommy Burns and Davie Hay – were dispensed with when considered to be unfit for purpose. Reputation saves no one if your face no longer fits. It’s astonishing to think Ally will, in all probability, win a second, straight league title tomorrow night when Rangers host Airdrie while bedlam breaks loose all around him. But he’s lived in that frenzied environment since he signed for Rangers from Sunderland just over 30 years ago. Ally’s in the dock, and his list of “previous” where domestic and European failures are concerned has been brought up to be used in evidence against him. Uncertainty is in the air at Ibrox as Dave King prepares to fly into Glasgow tomorrow and challenge the club’s idea of proper governance at boardroom level. The manager will sit that one out as he prepares for the replay with Albion Rovers on Monday night at Hamilton’s New Douglas Park. Defeat is unthinkable. If you want to be judged purely on what you do as a manager then you must expect a jury to be formed for that purpose. And there are more than cinema’s Twelve Angry Men waiting to pass sentence on Ally unless he can offer a more convincing case for the defence than was evident at the weekend. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hugh-keevins-rangers-manager-ally-3228364

I've jumped between defending him this season along with trying to understand his position as the only ever Rangers manager to have dealt with the cards he's been dealt with. There's not a bear who'd deny that Ally has managed under unprecedented circumstances. The other side of the coin is that his resources still far outweigh all other Scottish sides except the ****s. Yet I, and quite possibly, many bears can't even describe what type of football we are meant to play. Little motivation, no tempo or obvious flow to the game is, besides board room shenanigans, putting supporters off. Think back to the early stages of the season where we played some lovely football and racked up silly scoreline after silly scoreline. The team won the league so early that it rendered October/November onwards meaningless. Then the cup results in February played us the best hand we could have wished for. When the draw was made I chatted with friends and stated that if Ally and the players can't get us to the final based on its Albion fucking Rovers, and with the semi final being played at Ibrox, then they're no good for the long term of Rangers. My expectations is that we should be collecting the treble based on the fact our squad is of premiership standard and very well paid. Throw in the fact the players and management have a golden opportunity to write themselves into the history books, then motivation and attitude should be a given. Many will be there already, some for quite a while now, but now I'm edging closer to adding to my sack the board chants. Only the chants might be aimed at the only genuine bear left at the club in a position of seniority. Any of you who has defended Ally now seriously considering Ally must go before the playing side reflects the executive side of the club? when does it become okay to add Ally besides the board in cleansing the club?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/10686563/Rangers-Cup-Hall-of-shame.html Rangers' Cup Hall of shame Ally McCoist’s three seasons as manager of Rangers have put the shock into shocking when it comes to performances in the cups. Here are nine of the worst Rangers 0 Malmo 1 July 26 2011 Champions League third qualifying round, first leg The beginning of Rangers financial crisis which led to administration and liquidation. A goal from Daniel Larsson in the 17th minute gave the Swedes a vital victory and they drew the second leg 1-1 to deny McCoist’s men entry to the most lucrative competition of them all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NK Maribor 2 Rangers 1 August 18, 2011 Europa League play-off first leg Forgotten man Juan Manuel Ortiz gave Rangers a half-time lead in Slovenia, only for Agim Ibraimi to equalise in the 52nd minute. Etien Velikonja back-heeled the winner past Allan McGregor in stoppage time and a 1-1 draw in the return leg saw another revenue stream shut down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Falkirk 3 Rangers 2 September 21, 2011 League Cup fourth round Goals from international stars Dorin Goian and Nikica Jelavic looked to have taken the tie into extra time but Mark Millar’s last-gasp free-kick was fumbled over the line by Neil Alexander and the First Division side celebrated a famous win. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rangers 0 Dundee United 2 February 5, 2012 Scottish Cup fifth round First-half goals from Gavin Gunning and Johnny Russell put United in Easy Street and they cruised into the quarter-finals. Nine days later the club was forced into administration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rangers 2 Queen of the South 2 (Queens win 4-3 on penalties) September 18, 2012 Ramsdens Cup quarter-final Nicky Clark (remember him?) fired the Third Division minnows in front after 49 minutes and, although Barrie McKay and Lee McCulloch put them in the driving seat another last-gasp goal proved costly as Gavin Reilly took the game into extra time. Rangers’ Kevin Kyle and Queens’ Willie Gibson were sent off before Dean Shiels and Anestis Argyriou missed from the spot in the penalty shoot-out, allowing the underdogs to go through. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rangers 0 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3 October 31, 2012 League Cup quarter-final Hampden hopes were raised by a 2-0 win over SPL high-fliers Motherwell in the previous round but they were comprehensively beaten by the Highlanders. Andrew Shinnie gave Thistle a first-half lead and goals after the break Gary Warren and Graeme Shinnie emphasised the superiority of Terry Butcher’s men. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dundee United 3 Rangers 0 February 2, 2013 Scottish Cup fifth round Jackie McNamara’s first game in charge of United got off to the perfect start when Russell gave the home side the lead after just 13 seconds. The Rangers fans who boycotted Tannadice were the lucky ones as their heroes were ripped apart. Jon Daly made it 2-0 before half-time and Russell had already made it 3-0 before Ian Black and Kal Naismith were sent off in the dying minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forfar 2 Rangers 1 August 3, 2013 League Cup first round A double from Gavin Swankie gave the Loons a surprise win at Station Park. He took advantage of a McCulloch error to open the scoring and, although Fraser Aird equalised six minutes from the end the part-timers looked the fitter side in extra time and Swankie struck again in the 115th minute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rangers 1 Albion Rovers 1 March 9, 2014 Scottish Cup quarter-final A controversial goal from Bilel Moshni 12 minutes from time rescued ropy Rangersat a half-empty Ibrox and earned the part-timers a money-spinning replay. Long-serving Ciaran Donnelly had fired the £30-per-week journeymen from the Second Division into a shock lead after only 13 minutes and they looked set for a famous victory until referee John Beaton allowed Boshni’s late header to stand.

DESMOND, who this week celebrates 20 years with Celtic, said the club's financial position and performance on the field exceeds any other team in Britain. MAJORITY shareholder Dermot Desmond claims Celtic are the best-performing club on and off the pitch in Britain and predicts a “visionary” future on the international arena. Desmond this week celebrates 20 years with Celtic after joining forces with Fergus McCann to help rescue the club from going out of business under an intransigent and unpopular board. Celtic are now arguably in their most stable financial position and Desmond feels the next 20 years can be even brighter. Desmond told Celtic TV: “If you look at the financial metrics between Celtic and other clubs in the UK, our performance, the balance-sheet performance and the performance on the field, I think, exceeds any other club, recognising that we are shackled by lack of revenues we have from TV and other comparable income that Premier League and Championship clubs get. “We have got financial stability, good organisational structures as far as scouting, development squad and coaching go. We have a vision of how we want to keep on improving the playing squad. “If you look at the squads over the past few years, they are getting better and better each year.” The Irishman also hailed Neil Lennon as a “first-class manager” and Peter Lawwell as a “wonderful chief executive, as good as you will find in any football club in the world”. And his main pride over his time with Celtic is the culture. When asked for his highlights, he said: “I have too many to mention. I liked the evening we beat Barcelona and I liked when we did the same with Manchester United. “I like any moment at Celtic Park when we have had victories, especially over teams that wear blue. “Seville (the 2003 UEFA Cup final) was a great highlight but there’s many of them there. “But I think the highlight of the 20 years I have been involved with Celtic is that it’s an independent club with wonderful supporters and we have a great future. “I see the club getting stronger on the playing field. I see the club being visionary in developing internationally. And I see the Celtic fans and the club having a partnership that will be a model for all other football clubs.” Meanwhile, Celtic have arranged a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday, August 2. Celtic Park is unavailable at that time because of the Commonwealth Games. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-majority-shareholder-dermot-desmond-3215293

Just as the truth is widely recognised as the first casualty of war, the most striking and predictable consequence of the kind of circumstances in which Rangers have floundered in recent years is almost invariably the proliferation of myths and misapprehensions. Principal among these is the ludicrous notion that the Ibrox club (and their traditional rivals, Celtic, for that matter) warrant being referred to as “a massive institution” whenever their descent into the fiscal void is discussed, as if another General Motors has gone to the wall. This is clearly a preposterous description to apply to an organisation whose latest financial returns show an annual turnover of £19 million. That equates to about three months’ takings for the average-sized Asda supermarket. Hard evidence of the regard in which the market held the new Rangers company which was formed after the liquidation of the old – that is, their status as a business as opposed to a crowd-pulling football team – first emerged with the results of the share issue launched under the former chief executive, Charles Green, in December, 2012. At the time, Green talked of the “huge” interest from “institutional investors”, a claim which was less than convincing, given the recessionary times in which the prospectus was offered. Nor did it seem to make sense for institutional investors – these are hedge funds and the like handling pensions and other monies on behalf of clients – to be risking substantial amounts of cash on a football club, and especially one in Scotland that would be operating in the relative penury of the bottom tier of the game. In the event, these so-called heavy hitters limited their commitment to a total of just £17m, with another £4m worth of shares bought by individual fans. Now the eight most prominent institutional investors (not counting Sandy Easdale, an individual businessman) own equity worth an average of £1.3m. This is a figure that would not cover the annual remuneration of the common-or-garden hedge fund manager. Indeed, as an accountant friend confirmed, it suggests the kind of throwaway “investment” that results from the company involved having been advised it would be tax-efficient, rather than a source of profit. Nor could these reputed heavyweights be accused of an attempt at seizing power at Ibrox, since the biggest among them, Laxey Partners, holds a mere 12.47 per cent of Rangers. Curiously, the company about which there has been so much intrigue over the past year or so – with puzzling, widespread demands for the identities of their personnel to be revealed – appeared only this week to show a pronounced insouciance in the matter of the Ibrox club’s business affairs. Having agreed to lend the club £1m in return for an interest payment of £150,000 as well as security over the Albion car park and Edmiston House in the event of failure to repay the loan, Laxey seemed surprisingly ready to cancel the deal in order to allow an apparently wealthy fan, George Letham, to step in with the funds at a more favourable rate. This hardly seems to be the action of a City predator, interested only in maximising returns for minimum stakes. If anything, it is an episode that hints strongly at the possibility that, whatever priorities and imperatives drive their interest in Rangers (unlike certain individuals such as Green) making a quick killing is not among them. Celtic’s ‘lost’ treble is hardly unprecedented The impish cast to Fergus McCann’s mind would surely have been highly activated by the events of this week. While Celtic fans were remembering and celebrating McCann’s rescue of the club from the financial quicksand and looming oblivion during the most critical days in its history in 1994, there was a simultaneous outbreak of disgruntlement that the team under Neil Lennon at present were only 21 points ahead of the pack on their way to a third successive league championship. For those apparently endowed with the memory of a goldfish, this is clearly just not good enough. The notion that Celtic should stroll virtually unopposed to a domestic treble every season on the nonsensical grounds that their traditionally strongest rivals, Rangers, play in a lower league, is a supposition not 
supported by historical statistics. Some observers refer to Lennon 
“losing” a treble, seemingly unaware that you can’t “lose” one, but simply fail to win one. During the periods of virtually unchallenged domination by each member of the Old Firm, those many occasions on which they fell short of a domestic grand slam were almost inevitably the result of defeats by lesser opponents. Graeme Souness managed five years at Ibrox without winning the Scottish Cup, unforgettably losing to Hamilton at home in 1987. Martin O’Neill contrived to have the most formidable side in the country in 2003 and win nothing as Rangers under Alex McLeish lifted everything. O’Neill took his team to Seville and the Uefa Cup final. He also took them to Inverness and lost in the Scottish Cup, before conceding the championship on goal difference. In one bizarrely contradictory article, Lennon was first of all chastised for his part in two “avoidable” defeats, by Morton in the League Cup and by Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup, thereby failing once again to land the treble. A few paragraphs later, however, Lennon was accused of being “ungracious” following his scathing remarks about referee Craig Thomson’s performance in Celtic’s defeat in their latest league match at Pittodrie. It is a perfectly legitimate view, but Lennon was “advised” by the observer that he should simply have accepted that “these things happen” and allowed Aberdeen the credit they deserved. These things certainly do happen – but, apparently, in some quarters 
they are only forgivable if they do no damage. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/glenn-gibbons-big-hitters-see-rangers-as-small-fry-1-3333239

Five people have been arrested in connection with crowd trouble at the Motherwell v Celtic game last week A reported £10,000 of damage was caused to seats in a section housing Celtic fans, a flare was let off in the same area before the game and two green smoke bombs were thrown on to the pitch during the match at Fir Park stadium on Friday. Celtic said they were ''appalled'' by the actions and issued precautionary suspensions to 128 supporters preventing them from attending home and away matches, while 250 season-ticket holders seated in the Green Brigade's corner of Celtic Park are to be moved to other parts of the ground. Police said 18 smoke bombs, three fireworks and one flare were set off. There were also disturbances and vandalism in Motherwell both before and after the game. Officers said five people were arrested in connection with the disorder on Monday and inquiries are continuing. The incident was the latest in a spate of trouble at Scottish football matches. A teenage girl was arrested after a flare was thrown from the Rangers support after their win at Falkirk on November 30, damaging the pitch, and a smoke bomb was thrown from the Motherwell support during their defeat by Albion Rovers on the same day. Last Saturday, 10 people were arrested in connection with football-related disorder before the Falkirk v Raith Rovers match. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/u/five-arrested-after-celtic-fan-trouble-at-motherwell-match.1386845170