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  1. IAN REDFORD reveals all about the stress and strains of his Ibrox career, the death of his younger brother and his experience as Darren Fletcher's agent in his new book FOOTBALL is a game of fate. A roller coaster of fortune. During my time at Rangers, Ally McCoist was enduring torture from the fans. It wasn’t his fault the club were struggling – but the fans seemed to be on a mission to destroy him. And things came to a head on March 17, 1984 when we played Dundee at Ibrox in a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay. We started well but Dundee pegged us back to 2-2. The crowd were getting impatient and I remember feeling the enormous pressure of expectation on the players. It got so bad for Ally that at one point the whole of the support began chanting, “ALLY, ALLY, GET TAE F***” And it got worse. First Robert Prytz was sent off then I stupidly saw red as well. We heard their winner from the dressing room. Afterwards, we all just sat in the huge communal bath together, no-one speaking a word. Suddenly Ally just broke down into tears, he was weeping openly. The weeks and months of constant pressure and abuse had driven him to the limits of his tolerance. He looked a broken man and I’m sure no one would have thought it possible for him to come back from such depths of seemingly utter despair. But fate intervened. If Prytz and myself hadn’t been suspended for the League Cup Final with Celtic the following week, I don’t think Jock Wallace would’ve selected Ally. He had no choice, though, and the rest is history. Ally scored all three in a famous 3–2 victory, the winner coming in extra-time from a rebounded penalty. Some things are just meant to be. But that’s the pressure of signing for Rangers – and the day I did back in 1980 was one I’ll never forget. I had only ever wanted to go to London from Dundee and play for Arsenal or Spurs but John Greig had offered a Scottish record £210,000. So I found myself at the top of the marble staircase shaking hands with him. I defy anyone to walk through the doors of Ibrox and not feel they are within the boundaries of a special club. But so many things about my move to Rangers weren’t right. Signing for them was an intimidating prospect for a country boy with low self-esteem. When it came to the finances I was at best naive and at worst plain stupid. I got £6000 to sign on, taxed, £150 a week, a four-year contract and never saw a penny of the transfer fee. I became Rangers’ biggest ever signing for practically nothing! I knew this was a struggling team I was joining. I was also just not fit enough to do myself justice and to handle the immediate pressure. My dad was no help because all he wanted was to see me playing for Rangers. That was his dream. He didn’t want me going to England. To be able to say I played 250 games for Rangers gives me an enormous sense of pride. But the timing was wrong. In that first year I didn’t really feel part of that dressing room. In training I had a major bust-up with Rangers’ most legendary hard man, Tam ‘Jaws’ Forsyth. He seemed at that time like a playground bully. We were playing fives on the ash park at our Albion training ground and I took the ball straight past Jaws. He was getting on a bit and didn’t appreciate anyone doing that to him. Next thing I knew was WHAM! I received a forearm smash. I just exploded in rage. Within seconds Big Tam and I were trading punches. We were separated but Tam wanted ‘afters’ and I was up for it because I was past caring. It turned out to be a defining moment because my team-mates no longer saw me as a big, soft, silver-spooned country boy. Coming from the Perthshire countryside, religious bigotry was new to me. Although I’m a Protestant, I would not consider myself a religious person. Early on at Rangers, I was targeted by a bigot at a party. He was goading me then punched me hard in the face without any warning. The next day at training, I was asked by someone what had happened and if I “wanted it taken care of”. The tension of sectarianism is inescapable when you play for either Rangers or Celtic and, like it or not, sectarianism is responsible for the unique atmosphere that surrounds the rivalry. A bigot is just a bigot – no matter what the colour of his scarf is. It’s naive to think it will all just go away. It never will. The wounds of history will ensure a portion of each new generation, no matter how small, will be indoctrinated in hatred. I was also shocked one night at a Supporters’ Player of the Year function when a fan asked for my autograph and wanted me to sign FTP alongside it. I told him “no way” and he began to rant that I wasn’t a true Rangers player. It was an isolated incident though. Generally speaking, the fans are wonderful and make you feel proud to be playing for the club. The best Old Firm game I played in came in the same week as a 3–0 defeat by Chesterfield in the Anglo-Scottish Cup. We took a slaughtering but playing Celtic was ideal because we had nowhere to hide. We thumped them 3–0 – it easily could’ve been six – and I was voted Man of the Match. But John Greig wasn’t able to find a formula consistent enough to win a title. My frustrations led to me feeling depressed and I was drinking to blot everything – but it solved nothing. It was a vicious downward spiral. Then at the end of 1981 – after beating Dundee United in a Scottish Cup Final replay following my missed penalty in the first game – we met them again in the League Cup Final. I was on the bench. Looking back, I can see that I was very depressed. In the second half United took the lead. I had begun to give up on playing any part in the match. So had my friend Billy ‘Bleeper’ MacKay, so we began to tuck into a box of chocolates that had been lying unopened in the back of the dugout. It was comfort eating! Suddenly, Greig shouted: “Bleeper! Get warmed up.” Meanwhile, I was still stuck in the dugout, feeling even more depressed. Then, with no more than five minutes remaining, John shouted: “Reddy, get your tracksuit off. You’re going on – NOW!” I nearly choked on the last remaining chocolate as I stumbled out of the dugout. I had been on the pitch no more than seconds when Davie Cooper equalised. Suddenly, from munching chocolates in depression, I had only one thing on my mind – scoring the winner. It all happened within a split second. As I controlled the ball, I was aware of a gap just inside the top left of the United goal. My first touch had been good but my second touch was even better. I knew in an instant. My lifelong dream came true. I had just scored the winner in the last seconds of a cup final! In front of me were all those Rangers fans who had witnessed that last-minute penalty miss. Like a maniac I was off and running. Had the stadium doors been open I would’ve needed a fiver to get back in! There were too few of these rare gems in my time at Ibrox but even to have experienced one moment such as this made everything worth it. *** My last appearance as a professional player was a cameo role in Raith Rovers’ remarkable League Cup triumph over Celtic in 1994. I was a sub and don’t remember much about the game – but was crapping myself when the tie went to penalties. As a former spot-kick taker it shouldn’t have fazed me but I didn’t relish it. It went to sudden death and it was Paul McStay’s turn, then mine. I wanted him to miss more than anything in the world. Sure enough, Paul obliged and it saved me the ordeal of another do-or-die Cup final penalty. My previous record was one taken, one missed! *** I remember being happy in my early childhood – but a couple of events ended up having a profound effect on my life. The first was the birth of my brother Douglas when I was five. When he was two Douglas was diagnosed with leukaemia and it was the beginning of a nightmare that makes me feel empty. My sister Jill and I were young and had no idea our little brother’s illness was life threatening. I would regularly say things like, ‘When will Dougie be better, mum?’ I never considered for a minute he might be dying. When he began going to school he was teased because he had lost his hair and was fat because of the chemotherapy and having to take steroids. I hated that. He loved playing football when he was well enough but I would never let him win. He would go running off crying to mum and she would come out and give me such a rollicking. I couldn’t understand why mum and dad seemed to go way over the top but the hurt and anger they were feeling made them protective of him. They kept a lot from us but the time they spent with Douglas at hospital with mum meant Jill and I had to fend for ourselves emotionally. Looking back, deep down, I must’ve resented it. We would sometimes talk about how Douglas was their favourite. The atmosphere at home was not what it had been before Douglas was born. I was subconsciously blaming Dougie for the way all our lives seemed to be changing. I was in my first year at Perth High School when Douglas died. I was playing football for the school on a cold Saturday morning in December 1972 and when we got home I was told he only had hours to live. I bolted from the kitchen, threw myself on the bed and sobbed my heart out. The emptiness I felt during that time haunts me to this day. It was a total, unforgettable nightmare. My life felt like it had just imploded with the shock of it all. Christmas followed just days after the funeral. Somehow mum found the strength to make the effort but dad made it clear he wanted no part of it. Every Christmas after that at home was a tense, anxious and depressing affair. For years it was taboo to even mention his name. Dougie died pretty much a stranger to me. I regret not being able to say sorry for resenting the attention he got and sorry for teasing him and hurting his feelings. But as a young child, I simply didn’t know. Over the years I have rationalised this and forgiven myself for my feelings then. The other big thing to happen was when I found I was stone deaf in my left ear. A specialist told me a nerve had been damaged and there was nothing they could do to save my hearing. He told me contact sports were no longer an option – I would end up completely deaf if I received any blow to the head. But there was no way he was going to stop me doing what I loved. *** After my playing career was finished, it seemed natural to get involved on the business side of football as an agent. One major talent I was involved with in his early years was Darren Fletcher. A French contact tipped me off that scouts were raving about his displays for Scotland schoolboys at a tournament in France. I was asked to get him to Lille and persuaded Darren and his dad to come with me to France to see the set-up. They were impressed but Alex Ferguson got wind of the interest and convinced them Darren’s future lay at Manchester United.
  2. PETER Lawwell will know that such is the relationship between Celtic and Rangers that he cannot make a joke at the expense of his rivals from across the city without there being a reaction, especially a bad joke, especially a joke that plays to the galleries and is a little cringe-making for a man in his lofty position in the Scottish game. By the sounds of it, there was much talk about Rangers at the Celtic agm on Friday. A question from the floor about why so many still call them Rangers, another question about why Rangers were given their licence to play after the tumult of summer 2012 and yet another about whether Celtic’s assets were owned by the club, the inference being that Rangers’ assets are not. This one was answered by Ian Bankier, the chairman, in a way that summoned up an image of John Brown outside Ibrox and his “Show us the deeds” speech. All of this jolly japery might have gone well with some Celtic supporters but it will only have reinforced the view in the minds of their counterparts across the city that a chunk of the Celtic fanbase are obsessed with Rangers (and vice versa). When the Parkhead agm contains so many references to the blue side of Glasgow then you can see their point down Ibrox way. Obsessed? Lawwell had a chance to kill that charge stone dead when asked about the Rangers new club/old club saga. He could have said: “That’s got nothing to do with us, we are Celtic and we’re doing very well thank you very much.” Only he didn’t say that. He said that “Rory Bremner can pretend to be Tony Blair” meaning that the Rangers we see now is only imagining itself to be the Rangers of the past 140 years. It was so unnecessary and Rangers have complained, inevitably. Their support will have demanded, in thunderous union, that the complaint be lodged and Lawwell will have expected it. He’s been around too long to believe that his “wee bit of humour” defence was going to be accepted at face value among Rangers people. This stuff is toxic. The question of Rangers – new club or old – is one that gets under the skin of most fans at Ibrox and Lawwell knows it only too well. Once he said what he said he would have known what was coming next. The thing is, Lawwell is no longer just the chief executive of Celtic, he is now on the professional game board (PGB) of the Scottish FA, a double-act that makes him one of the most – if not the most – powerful man in the domestic game. When he pokes fun at Rangers’ identity he does rather call into question his role on the PGB, a body that is supposed to above such petty squabbling. A few weeks ago he said that if it ever felt compromised in an SFA vote about Rangers – he was talking specifically about Dave King’s mooted application to become a director of the club – then he would consider stepping out of the room and playing no part in proceedings. In the minds of Rangers people, his Rory Bremner gag might confirm that Lawwell will always be compromised on anything to do with Rangers and, frankly, you can see their point. There is another aspect to this, too. Lawwell wants Rangers back in the Premiership, not because he cares about what happens at Ibrox but because it would be commercially beneficial for Celtic. And when they do get back, and when Sky or BT get ready to up their investment in the Scottish game because the Old Firm derby is once again on their horizon, will Lawwell talk of Rory Bremner then? Will he say to TV partners: “Lads, put away your wallets, this is not the same Rangers, the Old Firm game is dead. They’re only an imitation act over there at Ibrox. Don’t bother giving us more money.” No, he won’t. Lawwell seems to have an adaptable view of Rangers. Depending on who is acting the question, they’re either the same Rangers or new Rangers. He seems to flip-flop between two entirely different positions. All the headlines, post agm, have been about the Rory Bremner joke, which is unfortunate, because there was a far more interesting section of the meeting on Friday, a topic that was written about by my colleague, Andrew Smith, in yesterday’s Scotsman. It was to do with the resolution that sought support for “taking all necessary steps” to make the club a living wage employer, thereby ensuring that all staff are paid at the very least £7.45 an hour instead of the minimum wage of £6.31. This resolution was shot down by the Celtic board, who said that it would cost them too much money, about £500,000. All you hear from Celtic’s top brass is how well they are doing financially on the back of Champions League success and player sales so to come the poor mouth as soon as somebody raises the issue of paying their workers an extra £1.14 an hour is a bit much. Especially since they had earlier trumpeted that no club took their responsibilities to the community more seriously than Celtic while also saying charity and fairness was in the club’s DNA. Cue video of the Brother Walfrid story. Brother Walfrid was an inspirational force for good, but as Smith pointed out yesterday: “If you know your history when it comes to Celtic… it will not be lost on you that his [Walfrid’s] vision was sold out within ten years, when the club became a plc, stopped making charity donations of any note and started paying fat dividends to directors… Walfrid later distanced himself from what the club became.” It might suit Lawwell to get himself embroiled in the Rory Bremner situation because the alternative would be that more attention might be paid to the rejection of the living wage resolution, “one of the grubbiest and divisive decisions made by a Celtic board”, according to Jeanette Findlay, chair of the Celtic Trust. Findlay has, it seems, much support from fellow fans on the issue. And that is to their credit. Their passionate arguments have been drowned out by this Rory Bremner affair. It’s sad, but this is the way of things between Celtic and Rangers. How embarrassing if the SFA have to sanction the newest member of its professional game board for an avoidable cheap shot a veritable five minutes after his appointment. Findlay, and others, would argue that the real mortification can be found elsewhere, however. http://www.scotsman.com/news/tom-english-the-way-of-things-between-celtic-and-rangers-1-3191758
  3. Scotland's claim to be fighting the cancer of sectarianism and hatred took a severe dent at the weekend. Perhaps sadly, the decision not to hold a one minute silence prior to the Ross County vs Celtic match, came as no surprise to many of us. Its embarrassing, unedifying and sickening to hear a one minute silence being disrupted and dishonoured. But there is something worse, far worse in fact - not holding such a ceremony at all. Because in failing to do so we have acquiesced to the morons, the bigots - we have handed them victory on a plate. Let the moronic and shameful actions of bigots within the Celtic support shame all the devils in hell - rather that than our country is forced to fail to remember the fallen whose sacrifice ensured our freedom from evil and tyranny. This morning I wrote to Ross County asking for an explanation into such an omission on Saturday and in particular who made the decision to dispense with the one minute silence - was it from someone in the club or from outside the club? The Ross County support have previously made their club aware of the importance of Remembrance Day and its significance within their support. http://www.north-sta...oldiers-667.htm Furthermore this is an issue which must ascend Old Firm rivalry and the often tit for tat churlish and pedantic tribalism. It is time for the Scottish press and media to stop avoiding the issue and to speak out - ignoring it will not make it go away. It is untenable and unacceptable that men who laid down their lives in order to defeat that which is unacceptable cannot themselves be remembered and honoured due to the actions and behaviour of some in our society which is in itself – wholly unacceptable.
  4. ALLY McCOIST has welcomed Kenny Miller back to Murray Park to use facilities as he recovers from recent knee surgery. But even though the manager hopes to sign another striker in January, he insists the 33-year-old’s presence at the training ground isn’t necessarily a precursor to a move back to the club. Miller has been getting treatment at Auchenhowie over the last few days and he’s a player McCoist is a huge admirer of. Indeed, he has spoken in the past about being keen to recruit the forward again and would likely be interested if he became available. For the moment, however, Miller remains a Vancouver Whitecaps player – and McCoist has stressed the arrangement in place is simply to help the ex-Scotland star get back to fitness. “It’s great to see Kenny back,” McCoist said. “We’ve got an open-door policy for our former players see a lot of the guys coming back to pay us a visit. “We’ve offered Kenny the rehabilitation services we’ve got so Stevie Walker and the physios are looking after him in the afternoons. “I had a good chat with Kenny this week and he has had a knee operation. He looks well considering it wasn’t that long ago. “He’s as enthusiastic as ever and he’s in good form so he’s talking about getting back playing as soon as possible. “Kenny is still contracted to Vancouver and do you know something? I haven’t even spoken to him about his situation there. “The most important thing for him is that he gets himself fit again and back playing, wherever that may be. “I won’t lie to you. I wouldn’t mind strengthening our forward area and especially now that Andy Little looks like being out for months rather than weeks. “We haven’t touched on any conversations like that at all with Kenny though and he is with another club at this point in any case.” McCoist feels his forward line needs strengthening after a broken cheekbone and jaw sidelined Little until next year. Only Jon Daly and Nicky Clark are operating as recognised strikers at present in the senior squad, with Lee McCulloch playing much more often in defence these days. The club’s second-top scorer with 10 goals, McCulloch is clearly capable of moving forward if he needs to. McCoist doesn’t want to unsettle his side more than he has to though and added: “The skipper has been terrific for us at the back so we’ve only really got Nicky and Jon up front. “If we can, that’s an area where we’d like to strengthen and I’d be reluctant to move Lee back up front for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he’s playing very well where he is. “We’ve also got somebody up front in Jon who is battering in all sorts of goals at the minute so it’s an option to us but I wouldn’t be too keen on doing it.” http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5574-kennys-here-to-recover
  5. .....................as they pull on their boots, you know things have gone so wrong at Ibrox AS the battle for control continues at Ibrox BARRY says he longs for the day when the club gets back to focusing on football - rather than the politics and back stabbing which are taking over. THE home dressing room inside Ibrox Park. It’s hard to think of any other place that has played such a huge part in my life. I’ve celebrated Old Firm victories in there. Drank champagne after winning titles. I’ve experienced the greatest highs of my football life inside those four sacred walls and the memories will live with me until the day I die. I’ve also suffered horrible lows in there, shed tears and thrown tantrums. There were defeats that hit me so hard I felt like the loneliest man in the world even though I was surrounded by my team-mates. I’ll carry those memories with me forever too. Yes, the home dressing room inside Ibrox Park is like no other place I’ve known. What I remember most of all though is the connection you feel when you are in there and the fans right outside on Edmiston Drive. Everything that’s going on out there comes in through the windows. As a player you can’t miss it. Before the big games you could feel the excitement and energy bubbling up among the punters. I loved it and all that noise and electricity would get my adrenalin pumping – give me that extra edge. It was brilliant. There is no feeling quite like being a Rangers player – especially after a game when those same fans are outside singing and bouncing in the street. You sit there and realise you’re the reason they are so happy. But at the same time you knew all about it if you had let them down. I didn’t need the gaffer to say anything after a defeat or bad performance. I just listened to the punters walking past those windows. I could hear the anger and disappointment in their voices. So I can imagine what it must have been like in there, just before kick-off on Saturday, when 1000 or so Rangers fans stood outside the main doors and protested against the current board. Having looked at the video of punters singing “sack the board” I can picture myself in there wondering what the hell is going on. Trust me, the way the noise comes in from the outside it would have been impossible not to notice. Ally McCoist would have been going round his players giving them a final gee-up and all the while there would be the sound of chaos in the background. And that sums up the state my old club is in. It’s heartbreaking to admit it but Rangers are now completely back to front. Football has become a side issue. It’s now more about the people in the Blue Room than dressing room and I long for the day we get back to being a football club rather than soap opera. I can’t take much more of the politics, back stabbing and dramas. I just want my club back. And that’s why I have nothing but sympathy for these fans who took to the streets on the weekend and voiced their anger so forcibly. As much as the players and Coisty could have done without the distraction, Rangers have bigger fish to fry than a game against Airdrie. Those chants were not aimed at the players or the manager. They were a message for the men in suits. They’ll have heard it loud and clear, believe me, and it must have been embarrassing for them to have fans screaming for their heads. I know I’d be deeply upset if those songs were directed at me because all I ever wanted to hear outside on that street was the sound of Rangers fans celebrating what we had done. But then that was back in the days when Rangers were all about football. Those days can’t come quickly enough and the hope is that, after the agm on December 19, my old club can get back to some sort of normality. I admit I’m losing track of it all. I see Scot Gardiner knocking back the chance to become chief executive and I despair at just how badly damaged Rangers have become. I know Scot. He’s a Rangers man through and through and this would have been his dream job. But it says it all that he’d rather stay at Dundee. I look at guys like Jim McColl and Dave King – with all their millions of pounds – and long for the day they find a way to get control. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier for them just to dig into their resources and buy the shares. But these guys have made so much money because they’re excellent businessmen – and so all we fans can do is trust them to know what they’re doing. I’ll be honest, I’m scared about this agm. I’m terrified what might happen if it all goes wrong and horrified at talk of another administration. Like the fans, all I want is for the noise in that street to be about the football. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-players-can-hear-2793724
  6. Your Sunday morning thoughts on the man who needs a grievance like normal people need air. The SPFL are coming under fire from the permanently disaffected manager of celtc, Neil Lennon this weekend. The monotonous drone of the Ulsterman complaining is as much part of the landscape in Scots football as long balls, a lying media and lunatic supporters, but this time some may feel he has a point: sending his team north to Dingwall immediately after a Champions League match, in which he and his footballing troubadours carry the hopes and good wishes of all Scottish fitba fans, seems scant reward. Leaving Holland immediately after their game - unsurprisingly, given the state his club's supporters left it in - Lennon's team will have gone to bed late on Thursday morning, possibly coming in for light physio or a rubdown that afternoon, leaving only Friday for the tactical plans for the Ross County game to be discussed and players assessed. One session is not enough for any coach to form a coherent plan, but is Neilly right to have a good at the SPFL? I don't think so, since it's the TV companies who are calling the shots. And since the SPFL, which is in effect run by his boss at celtc, Mr Lawwell, signed up to the deal it's a bit rich complaining about it now. The bad luck for celtc is that this weekend is a Super Sunday in England, with first Spurs v Newcastle at lunchtime; then Sunderland v Man City; topped off with the mouth watering Man U v Arsenal clash in the evening. They don't even have space to fit in the always pleasing Swansea game, so what chance of them fitting in what is, frankly, a game which won't interest anyone outside of Celtic or Ross County fans? With FA Cup kicking off this weekend as well, there was no space on the Monday night schedule for the celtc game; and it obviously couldn't be played on Friday night. The bottom line is that the game panicked and sold a rubbish deal to Sky & BT; the only teams they are interested in are Rangers and celtc; therefore they will do as they are told and lump it. The sight of SPFL bigwigs in China this weekend crowing about another deal - £20m this time, which unless it is broken up in a hugely unfair manner means an average of £50,000 per club; one might even raise the spectre of sporting integrity here - drives home the mistake they made when signing up to Sky. The need to get the game on TV and bring in some money is seen as paramount, not just for financial reasons but also because they were terrified lest the absence of Rangers drive away coverage, revealing the rest of the game outwith four Old Firm clashes to be what it is - of no interest to TV companies. All right, if they feel that way, sod them! I might not care about Dundee United games but no doubt Dundee Utd fans do, shouldn't the SPFL be looking after them first? I might not ever look at a St Mirren game but I imagine Saints fans do; why aren't the SPFL watching out for their interests? It's all been said before, but poor old Lenny's latest whinge brings us back to where we started: small leagues and 4 games a season is killing the game, and instead of finding some medicine we are doing the equivalent of buying smack from Sky and ignoring the real issues. Lennon is right that the SPFL is out to lunch: but given who runs it and given which club it appears to be run for the exclusive benefit of, whose fault is that? The chance was there to revamp the game and instead the head burying, the claims of a bright new dawn, the willful refusal to notice the ever emptying stands and the ever diminishing quality goes on. I watched AFC Wimbledon v Coventry last night and the London club had better players than I saw watching Ross County v Inverness the week before. This is not something that fills me with joy but there's no point lying about it. Anyway, no need to run crying to the press, Neil. Just walk along the corridor to Mr Lawwell's office and get him to explain why his Professional Game Board signed up to a shit TV deal. I warn you in advance though, you won't like the answer: because when it comes to football on Sky or BT, celtc (or Scotland) doesn't count for a fart. The shoehorning in of this celtc game at Ross County is proof if ever it were needed that we are nothing more than an afterthought once the real games, the proper football, has been scheduled in. Perhaps in the future we will reject a deal which doesn't allow a certain percentage of each club's games to be played at 3 on a Saturday. Since in effect this only applies to two clubs it ought not be that difficult to manage. Perhaps the resultant coverage of other teams will spread TV money a bit more fairly, creating a more level playing field. Perhaps more fans may turn out to watch if teams play with less fear, although it may be too late already. But perhaps the people who dropped the game in the shit will have the decency to stop moaning about it when they get some on their shoes.
  7. Tuesday brings the Scottish Cup draw and the "big boys" entering the draw. Star centre back Bilel Mohsni is (perhaps wrongly?) giving it the bravado and asking for our age old enemy: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-star-bilel-mohsni-were-2671400 There is definitely a feeling among some of our support that we should be hoping to avoid being paired with them or any SPL side to avoid an humiliating defeat and other teams taking advantage of us whilst we rebuild. They point to comprehensive defeats from top division sides last year as their reasoning. Though this ignores the fact that we had an equally emphatic victory against then second placed side Motherwell last year. It also fails to take into consideration the vast improvement in our playing squad and the superior displays and results we have achieved this season. We are much improved throughout the spine of the team. Mohsni appears to be comfortably the best centre back we have fielded since we have been paying in the lower divisions. Nicky Law is not quite at the levels he displayed at the start of this season but is still a fine upgrade on last season. Ian Black this year has been one our best performers when last season he appeared a waste of a wage. Jon Daly has added a serious goal threat to the all round game he displayed for Dundee United in the SPL. In addition to a pretty strong spine we ave Cammy Bell in goal who was one of the best keepers in the old top division. We have the best left back playing in Scotland and we have some decent supporting players in midfield and attack. We may not boast a paying squad vastly superior to all outwith the Glasgow duopoly, as we once did. But we certainly have a team capable of turning over any of those top league sides. They are equally capable o beating us, but to e that is no reason to run scared. Lower league sides who can't call on even half the quality we can have dumped out SPL sides. And that includes Celtic. Worst case scenario is drawing Celtic whist we are currently half the team we once were. Yet the fear of a heavy defeat must be balanced against the opportunity to dump them out of the country's premier competition whilst plying our trade in the depths of Scottish football. That is one result they would ever be able to live down!
  8. Would maybe be a season too early for us but I would take them at Ibrox.
  9. MSPs might review controversial anti-sectarian laws amid concerns from football fans about a heavy-handed approach from police. Scotland’s justice authorities have been urged to explain “a perception of intimidation” among supporters, with Celtic fans in particular claiming they have been unfairly targeted. The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act was introduced by the Scottish Government in an effort to end sectarian chanting following high-profile flare-ups involving the Old Firm in 2011. But fans have complained of having “cameras thrust in their faces” at matches and are confused about what kind of behaviour could land them in trouble, MSPs heard yesterday. Holyrood’s justice committee has written to the justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, Police Scotland and the Crown Office calling for a response to e-mail correspondence from fans setting out widespread concerns. And MSPs made it clear yesterday that they are ready to launch an inquiry into the new laws after receiving the responses. Independent MSP John Finnie, a former police officer, said yesterday: “There’s a deep sense of feeling and a deep sense of concern about how this is being applied to one group. For that reason, I am very supportive of an early review of the legislation.” Stirling University is currently carrying out a two-year academic review of the impact of the new laws. But the MSP said: “If some young football supporter, to quote from one of the e-mails, is having a camera thrust in their face whilst at a football game, then they’re not interested in the academic aspects of this.” He added: “It was the perception of intimidation. I don’t think we can ignore it – I think we must act.” Thousands of football fans who claimed they were being criminalised by “disproportionate” measures converged on Glasgow’s George Square in April. The event was organised after an incident which saw Celtic’s self-styled “ultras”, the Green Brigade, clash with police amid claims that they had been unfairly “kettled”. The controversial practice came to light during the G8 protests and involves the groups targeted effectively being couped up in by a ring of police officers and unable to move. Concerns also centre on confusion about what does and does not constitute offensive singing. Conservative back-bencher Margaret Mitchell said the conviction rate for the new laws was 68 per cent compared with 85 per cent for crimes in general, while there’s a dedicated police unit for the new laws. She said: “Clearly, there’s a widespread problem with the act in operation and the various difficulties it is presenting. “It’s taking up an inordinate amount of resources across the board and there’s even a dedicated unit for it. “Given the pressures facing police and courts, the time is right to review this act to see exactly what kind of impact it is having.” Labour’s John Pentland said there was “so much ambiguity” among football supporters and said it was not just Celtic fans who were concerned. He said: “It doesn’t reflect what’s happening in my constituency – it’s just people going to the local game where there’s this real concern that they don’t know whether they’re doing something right or doing something wrong.” But Nationalist MSPs played down calls for a separate Holyrood inquiry into the legislation, with QC Rod Campbell urging against “rushing into an inquiry”. He continued: “As a first step, before we take any view as a committee, we ought to invite comment from the government – we’ve only had one year of statistics.” The committee will decide in a fortnight whether to establish a Holyrood inquiry into the legislation. http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/anti-sectarian-football-laws-fear-as-fans-complain-1-3174637
  10. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24737531 Not to mention this is actually completely wrong (it was 2011), this article is yet another example of BBC Scotland blowing a raspberry to their Trust and editorial guidelines.
  11. KEITH says only in this business would the people at the top go out of their way to make winning trophies even easier for Neil Lennon and his players. LET’S start by making one thing very clear. It’s not Celtic’s fault. None of it. It’s not Celtic’s fault David Murray sold Rangers for a pound to Craig Whyte in a ruinous bit of business. Likewise, it’s not Celtic’s fault that, as a result, they have been left to operate in a domestic top flight which is only marginally more stimulating than a Miranda Hart box set. No, Celtic can’t be blamed for any of that. All they can do is make the most of it. Pile up the silverware and kill time until Rangers are worthy of more than just ridicule and ready to be taken seriously as a rival once more. Assuming such a day ever comes. But, even so, only here in this nuthouse of a business would the people at the top actually go out of their way to make winning trophies even easier for Neil Lennon and his players than fate has already decreed. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the SFA and its chief executive Stewart Regan. Don’t get me wrong. There is much to admire about Regan’s leadership of the game in this country. For a start, he’s nothing if not reliable. In fact, over the years, he has displayed an uncanny knack for bravely taking on every big issue confronting our game and making a complete and utter mess of it. If there’s a decision to make, Regan and his board will botch it. You can be sure of it. With that in mind, perhaps it ought not to have come as a surprise when it was announced last week that this season’s Scottish Cup Final will be taken to Parkhead. Regardless of which sides may actually end up competing in it. Now you don’t need to be on Ian Black’s speed dial to know Celtic will be odds on to be one of them. So now not only are Lennon and his players winning a league of one but they’re also afforded the chance to make it a double by winning a cup final on their own pitch. Only inside the SFA’s increasingly muddled mind could this possibly seem like a good idea, one that would even get close to passing the sporting integrity test. Deep down even Lennon himself might be left to bristle with indignation if he should end this season clutching a league and cup Double amidst suggestions his side was helped across the finishing line. Again, this is not a mess of Celtic’s making. And let’s be clear here too, Lennon has assembled a side which is miles in front of all the rest. If Celtic do go on to secure another double then they’ll thoroughly deserve it because of the enormity of their domestic dominance. There is, after all, a reason they are playing Ajax in the Champions League this week and that is because they belong in that environment. But – and mark my words here – there will be little snide digs flying all over the place the closer we come to the Scottish Cup Final if Celtic are still involved. In fact, that’s the only thing the SFA got right about this announcement. Making it so far in advance was a smart call as right now it’s not a live issue, merely a distant dream for the teams involved in the early rounds. But the deeper we go into this competition the more ludicrous their reasoning will be made to appear. Especially if Celtic – and maybe even Rangers for that matter – make it into the latter stages. Because the flip side of this predetermined lunacy is that both semi-finals will be hosted at Ibrox. Even if one of them is between, let’s say, St Johnstone and Caley Thistle. You don’t need to have booked a 52,000 all-seater stadium in advance for that one. You could hold it in a phone box in Dundee. Sorry, that’s me being facetious. But Tannadice would do just fine. Regan and his cohorts though do not appear to have given consideration to things such as geographical common sense or even just plain old sporting fairness. All of it has been ignored in an empty-headed rush to make another baffling decision. And let’s take it a step a further. What if the other semi-final is between Rangers and Celtic? Now that very thought ought to be keeping Regan up at nights because if he had stopped to think this through he would surely have realised the prospect of an Old Firm showdown, either in a semi-final at Ibrox or the final at Parkhead, will cause him a living nightmare. Yes, it might seem far off in the distance right now and Regan will doubtless be hoping this perfect storm does not come to pass but if it does then the SFA will have some serious explaining to do. Fans of both clubs will quite rightly demand to know his thought process because one of these sides will go into this meeting – the first Glasgow derby since the Rangers meltdown of 2012 – hugely disadvantaged and with one almighty chip on its shoulder. And that’s all this potential powderkeg of a fixture would need. Short of building a new purpose-built stadium on the dark side of the moon and the sanctioning of a midnight kick-off, such a coming together of this furious twosome, complete with a 50-50 split of tickets, would represent a security dilemma the scale of which has not been seen since someone stole Dawn French’s play piece. And Regan’s SFA will have added to this volcanic volatility by making a decision which ranks right up there beside his most baffling contributions to date. If the worst-case scenario should unfold over the next few rounds, this one might make “let’s give Levein another go” seem like one of their better ideas.
  12. FERNANDO RICKSEN'S motor neurone disease is his personal tragedy. It is his family’s grief to contend with and his cause of inner turmoil. It shouldn’t be an excuse for the maudlin sentimentality that afflicts football supporters or for some to hijack a serious illness because it involves one of the game’s personalities. And it shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity for two-bob philosophies on how the victim’s suffering will unite the game. Fernando is a human being who is facing up to the reality that life expectancy is, on average, 14 months from the point of this appalling condition being diagnosed. There are no words adequate enough to express the sympathy that one person can have for another who has been confronted with his own mortality in such devastating fashion. But whether it’s Fernando or Stiliyan Petrov, struck down by a life-threatening blood disorder, they should be allowed to get on with coping. The game can, and must, take care of itself in the meantime. If Rangers want to organise a tribute match against Fortuna Sittard and give the proceeds to Fernando, it’ll be a decent gesture to make and will serve a practical purpose. Just as Celtic’s match in Petrov’s honour in September put tens of thousands of pounds into Stan’s charitable foundation and proved to be a worthy cause. But we don’t need to have either man portrayed as a martyr by those who revel in the grief industry. Fernando and Stan would be the first to tell the hijackers that you can walk into any hospital on any given day and find ordinary families who are trying to come to terms with a harrowing medical problem affecting a loved one. But they’re paying the penalty for having been made famous by Celtic and Rangers – and therefore forced to share their private ordeals with a wide audience. The supporters of both clubs can always be relied on to turn up in exceptional numbers and dig deep to honour the memory of their former heroes. In that respect they can’t be faulted. Where some leave themselves open to criticism is when they spout their nonsense about illness putting football into perspective and try to tell us that rivalry will be diluted for the rest of time out of respect for the personal sorrow of others. Sir Alex Ferguson will make the draw for the fourth round of the Scottish Cup in an Aberdeen hotel on Tuesday. If he manages to pair Celtic with Rangers we will all have to brace ourselves for a tie of unsurpassed intensity. There will not be a single thought given to either stricken hero if that day dawns and the dislike that one set of supporters will have for the other will reach new levels of polarisation. So spare us the need to trivialise matters of life and death by attempting to measure their impact on football. It’s an intrusion into private grief. And Fernando and Stan have too much to do in their private lives to be used in that way. We can’t even agree where cup finals should be played in this country without the issue descending into the usual farcical allegations of collusion in high places and private agendas. Easter Road got the Ramsdens Cup Final between Rangers and Raith Rovers because it was the right thing to do. The Fife team are entitled to a fighting chance against a much-bigger club and they’ll get that on a smaller ground rather than having to go to Ibrox. Celtic Park is rightfully holding the Scottish Cup final, with both semis at Ibrox, because a ground of that size should be necessary for a national showpiece. Time to put that row to bed in any case because Remembrance Sunday is coming up. We’ll need all our energy for the annual desecration of the war dead’s memory by arguing over who is or isn’t wearing a poppy. The illness hijackers can then turn into the guardians of our moral welfare for a weekend before moving on to their next bandwagon.
  13. ALLY McCOIST has no issue with the SFA hosting the Scottish Cup final at Parkhead – but admits he’s ‘baffled’ by the choice of Easter Road as the Ramsdens Cup final venue. It was announced yesterday the last game in the country’s main knockout competition will be staged at Celtic’s home ground next may, with the semi-finals taking place at Ibrox. And while he feels it might have been worth waiting a little longer before making that call, the Rangers manager is content enough with that decision. He’s less settled with where the Challenge Cup decider will take place given demand for tickets is likely to significant exceed the capability to accommodate. Hibs’ stadium in Leith holds just over 20,000 fans and it could be argued the ground is a size which is reflective of the competition it will host the last tie for. Past figures suggest Gers would easily fill the stands in Leith themselves and McCoist doesn’t see why somewhere bigger couldn’t have been selected. He said: “If the Scottish Cup final can get held at Celtic Park, I’d have thought the Ramsdens Cup final could have been held at Celtic Park too. “That baffles me, to be honest. If I’m the managing director of the sponsors, I’d want it at the biggest venue. “It would have been an opportunity for coverage and revenue. That would have been more sensible to me. “They’ve decided to take the game to Edinburgh and in doing that, I would have given it to the club (Hearts) that needs the money. “I’d have given the final to a team that’s in administration and tried to help them out that way but for whatever reason the game’s at Easter Road. “We are fine about that and I don’t have a problem with it at all. For the reasons I’ve given, it’s maybe a strange decision but we’re not going to moan about it. “We’re delighted to be in a cup final and we’ll go to Edinburgh but I can understand why our fans aren’t happy about it. “I’m on their side. I want as many Rangers supporters wanting us in that cup final as humanly possible. “We’ve got 36,000 season ticket holders and I don’t think there’s any doubt we could fill wherever with our supporters.” McCoist admits he wasn’t consulted on the Ramsdens match venue, which will host that game on April 6, when it is fair to think he might have been. He’s more at ease with the Scottish Cup climax happening at Parkhead, even if he thinks it would have been worth seeing how far the Old Firm went in the tournament first. McCoist added: “There are arguments for and against it. A similar argument would be that if we were lucky enough to get to the semi-finals, we’d have a home tie. “I can understand if people aren’t happy with it and I’d certainly be happier with it if I was Neil Lennon and Peter (Lawwell). “One thing I would say is at least we know where we are. A marker has been put down and the rules have been made so we can get on with it. “Possibly it would have been better to wait and for me that would probably have been more sensible. “If ourselves or Celtic weren’t in the competition, a decision could have been made in terms of taking a home advantage away. At the same time, we are where we are.” Copyright 2013. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to http://www.rangers.co.uk http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5431-a-baffling-decision
  14. When the cracks open, the light gets in. NO one likes admitting they are lost. We’ve all took a punt at a crossroads and ploughed on, only to have that growing gnawing feeling we’re going further in the wrong direction. When you start seeing cows rather than buildings it finally dawns on you there’s nothing else for it, you’ll need to go back. Turning round is sore for the ego – but a far better option than charging on into the wilderness. Let’s face it, this new-but-really-the-same Scottish football set-up is heading in the wrong direction. We need to go back. I know the idea of going back to reconstruction talks is about as appetising as a roll ‘n’ cowpat but whether we like it or not we have to take another bite. It’s just isn’t working. The Premiership is all over before Halloween. Talk about scary. We might as well hold the end-of-season dance this weekend. The title race is over. Not that it ever really started. Same in League One. Relegation is pretty much a done deal in the top division as well. Even Hearts fans know they have more important battles to win. All that’s left is heavily-weighted relegation play-offs and the scrap to see what teams get to start pre-season the earliest to prepare for a European tie in deepest darkest Belarus. Not great is it? And we can’t say it hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Christmas decorations will be getting dug out soon and we still don’t have a title sponsor. Big companies won’t touch our game with a bargepole. They’re not interested and it won’t be long before everyone else feels the same. The one positive from those endless meetings in the last 18 months is we have one body in charge. It’s as easy to change the format of our leagues now as it is to change the curtains at Hampden, so let’s just do it. Fans have constantly been told we can’t afford a bigger top flight but wait and see, it won’t be long before we’re told we can’t afford not to have one. It doesn’t take the gift of second sight to see what’s around the corner. Scottish football is heading back down the rabbit hole. Next season we are likely to have a First Division – or Championship in new money – that includes Rangers and Hearts. Dunfermline could be in there too as well as St Mirren or Kilmarnock. Chuck in Falkirk, Hamilton, Dundee and others and it’s going to look like a mirror image of the division above. There will be weekends when attendances in the second tier outnumber the first, which would be bonkers. Scottish football will never have a better chance to have a bash at a bigger top flight again. So let’s just go for it. Ram the top two divisions together and do the same with the bottom two. Have a top 20 and bottom 22. Can’t hurt to have a go. I’d bet there would be a queue of sponsors who put down the bargepoles and get all touchy-feely. The Old Firm would be back. We’d have derbies in Edinburgh, Dundee, Fife and the Highlands. A 38-game campaign and freedom to play without constant fear of the drop, no split and a proper spread of money. Tempting, isn’t it? Ah, but... of course there’s a but. The undoubted howls of protest. It’s a leg-up for Rangers and a bailout for Hearts, they’ll say. Well, they’ll need to grow up. Rangers have had two years on the naughty step. It’s time to let them back in. If we need to wallop Hearts further to appease the rest then we can take more points off them next year too if need be. But what would be the point? There’s been enough self-harm in Scotland. There’s time to mend wounds and patch up the product. We’re all in this together. We need to turn round before it’s too late to find our way back. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/michael-gannon-scottish-football-never-2659293
  15. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-saw-scottish-fans-2528944 YOU need a thick skin to be a professional football player. If you’re going to fall to pieces when fans scream abuse at you then you’re in the wrong game. But there are occasions when lines are crossed and when behaviour becomes so disgusting it’s unacceptable. That line was crossed in Moscow the other night. It wasn’t the thickness of Yaya Toure’s skin that made him a target for the bampots in the CSKA support. It was the colour. And this is exactly the kind of incident that should get football stopped. I’m deadly serious, if UEFA have any intention of stamping racism out of the game they should hit the Russians hard and fast. Kick them out of the Champions League right now and show the world football takes a zero tolerance approach to morons who think making monkey noises at black players is just a harmless bit of fun. I take my hat off to Toure for being able to handle what was going on around him and to concentrate on playing football. If it was me I might have walked off the pitch, as Kevin Prince Boateng did last season during a friendly for AC Milan. Maybe if Toure and his Man City team-mates had done the same thing – bringing a Champions League game to a standstill – it would have forced the powers that be to hand out proper punishments. But I can’t blame the guy for dealing with it in his own way. He stayed out there, took everything they could throw at him and did not quit until the game was won and his team was heading home with three points. He left them with nothing and I have to say I really admire Toure for being so strong. The question now though is what exactly are UEFA going to do about it? They talk a lot about “fair play” and “respect” but it’s time for them to put up or shut up and to show Toure they’ve got his back. They have a chance to make a real difference. Handing out two bob fines or closing stadiums for a one-off game won’t wash. It is time for a clear message to be sent around the world there is no place in football for behaviour such as this – and I’m speaking as a guy who is not easily offended. In fact, I’m all for rival fans giving the other team pelters. I used to love walking off the Rangers bus outside Parkhead on Old Firm day. As soon as you popped your head out of the door you’d hear the Celtic fans screaming and booing. It was brilliant. I’d go so far as to say I thrived on it. The moment you walked off that bus the game head was on. There was something special about walking out into a stadium knowing 55,000 people hated your guts – but the other 5000 were standing shoulder to shoulder with you and your team-mates. It created a feeling we were all in it together and that brought the best out of me. If you’re going to s*** yourself at the thought of getting abused you’d be as well walking back to the bus. It’s a man’s game and I don’t recall any team-mate of mine quaking in his boots because they felt intimidated by any set of supporters. Yes, a few of the foreign lads might have had that “what’s going on here” look about them when they first played in an Old Firm game but for me this was just the way it was meant to be. But I remember one game when I felt a line was crossed. It happened at Ibrox shortly after the 9/11 atrocity when Claudio Reyna was at the club. Some halfwit at the front of the Celtic end made an aeroplane gesture when Claudio was over there taking a corner. That one was hard for us all to take. I had sat in the dressing room with Claudio on the day the World Trade Centre came down so I knew how devastated he was. He had friends who were in one of the towers so it hit him on a really personal level. So for some idiot to stand there, arms outstretched, trying to goad and mock him at a football game? No, that was completely unacceptable. But what was done to Toure was even more appalling. I remember 1988 when I was just nine years old and Mark Walters had signed for Rangers. I used to go and watch a lot of games back then because my brother was in the team. To this day I can still see those images in my head of bananas being thrown on to the pitch. I was a kid, I didn’t really understand what was going on. But looking back, it turns my stomach to think Scottish fans could have acted like that. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. If such a thing happened in a British stadium today there would be a massive outcry. You just need to see the stick Roy Hodgson has taken for telling a joke about a monkey to see how seriously the subject of race is treated. That ridiculous episode should never have got further than the dressing-room walls. Andros Townsend didn’t take offence because it wasn’t racism. It was just a bad joke. But what went on in Moscow on Wednesday night really does deserve all of our outrage. I just hope UEFA have the courage to do the right thing.
  16. How many truly World Class players have played for the club? Jim Baxter for one. Any others?
  17. Our happy go-lucky, main site correspondent Andy Steel asks if Rangers starting afresh was ever a realistic possibility: http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/latest-news/177-myths-of-rangers
  18. IT IS hard to escape the irony. Three years ago Nacho Novo brought out an autobiography, the title of which riffed on the episode where he was pursued by both sides of the Old Firm when a player with Dundee. I Said ‘No Thanks’ was the unusual title, one that seemed to delight in the choice of Rangers over Celtic that he eventually made. It was a slightly more humble figure who presented himself at Hampden yesterday to help make the draw for the third round of the William Hill Scottish Cup. Novo, 34, is now cast in a football wilderness and desperate to avoid being forced into retirement. He has already agreed to be the star attraction at half-term holiday Ibrox stadium tours next week, when he will discuss the part he played in great matches for Rangers. This won’t completely satisfy someone who says he finds it hard to watch games at the moment without wanting to “run down on to the pitch and score a goal”. However, it provides him with an opportunity to run into Ally McCoist, someone he says he has had trouble contacting since his return to Scotland earlier this year. One by one yesterday, Novo picked out the names of clubs, even handing Rangers a home a draw against Airdrieonians. If only it was so easy to pick up a club in his professional car-eer. Even Rangers have said “no thanks”. Or at least that is what he assumes they have said, since he has not heard from McCoist since playing in a Legends match against Manchester United at Ibrox in May. “You know McCoist,” Novo lamented. “It is a nightmare to get him to answer phone calls.” So he has had to accept that his dream of a return to Rangers is over. Novo stressed that he was still in good shape. He certainly looks no different to the Nacho Novo who scored regularly for Rangers, and before that for Raith Rovers and Dundee. Since leaving Ibrox he has played in Poland and also for Huesca and Sporting Gijon in his homeland – indeed, he was playing at the Bernabeu in a league win for Gijon over then manager Jose Mourinho’s side as recently as 2011. From playing in front of 95,000 people to now training alone. “I am starting to get bored, to be honest with you,” he said. “I can definitely do a job for someone.” A trial period at Kilmarnock earlier this season did not result in a contract offer. He has no complaint with manager Allan Johnston, who explained to him that what he really needed was a right-sided midfielder rather than a forward. “He has been brilliant and the thing I like best about Allan is he is an honest person,” said Novo yesterday. “He is a good manager. I know it is not the best situation at Kilmarnock just now, but having been there, his training and everything is fantastic.” However, there is definitely some dismay at the silence from McCoist. He would, of course, argue that he is under no obligation to re-sign Novo just because he is such a fans’ favourite. Indeed, it is possible to wonder whether Novo did himself more harm than good during that Legends game, when he missed several one-on-one chances and then was upstaged by McCoist, who came on and scored twice at the age of 50. “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”, seemed to be the gist of what McCoist said to Novo after that, and the Spaniard is still waiting. “It’s a long story,” he admitted. “I always thought I would come back to Rangers and lots of things came out in the papers that McCoist wanted to speak with me but it has never happened. You have to take that as obviously they don’t want you, so that’s football. “You don’t always get what you want and you just need to walk away and work hard.” The rejection, he added, has “made me stronger”, and now he “wants even more now to get back on to the park and give everything for a team who wants me. “He [McCoist] never said anything to me at all, so when that happens, you have to think about other options. “At the Legends game he told me he might be able to bring me back here. He said he’d have a chat with me but he never spoke to me.” So Novo remains for hire, and he was quick to assure those in attendance yesterday that he was still as fit as he always has been, while he claims to have lost none of his pace. There was heavy poignancy attached to Novo’s appearance at Hampden Park yesterday. Requested by photographers to wander out onto the pitch, his mind could not help but flash back to 2009, when he scored the winning goal for Rangers over Falkirk in the Scottish Cup final. It wasn’t so long ago that he was a contributor to a Rangers side expected to win major honours. Now both Novo and his former club are experiencing more trying days, although he still believes his old side have a chance to win the Scottish Cup this season, after being knocked out in emphatic style by Dundee United at the fourth-round stage last season. “They have a bigger squad – probably the biggest after Celtic,” he said. “They’ve done very well so fark, so you never know. In the Scottish Cup there can always be a surprise because the teams are changing. There’s always a team who come into it and do well. “I remember last year I watched Rangers against Motherwell [in the League Cup] and it was probably the best game Rangers had. “I think the boys will really get up for it if they drew a Prem-iership club. They would want to show how big a squad they have and prove themselves.” Novo is hopeful to be fixed up with a club by the time the next round is played, at the start of next month – perhaps he might even be participating in one of the ties. Among the stand-out matches are Alloa Athletic hosting Highland League club Inverurie Loco Works while Raith Rovers travel to Ochilview to take on in-form League Two leaders East Stirlingshire. There are two all Championship clashes – Queen of the South v Hamilton Accies and Dumbarton v Cowdenbeath. Lowland League side Preston Athletic will face League One side Ayr United should they win their replay with Queen’s Park, after last weekend’s impressive 2-2 draw at Hampden Park. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/nacho-novo-still-waiting-for-a-call-from-rangers-1-3130066
  19. The prospect of a competitive Scottish Professional Football League fixture being played abroad has taken a step nearer after confirmation yesterday that international sports rights agency MP & Silva have been appointed as the SPFL’s International Development Partner for season 2013-14. It is understood that discussions have already taken place at SPFL boardroom level about a game overseas with MP & Silva having also been appointed as the SPFL’s broadcast partner for nine years, from next season. The terms of this season’s agreement with the SPFL means that MP & Silva will be the sole licensee of the SPFL’s broadcast rights in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia for the rest of this season. Efforts are now being made to establish strong ties with what SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster yesterday described as “key” regions. The possibility of staging a match in these territories is one idea that has been discussed with clubs. The new agreement is worth a seven-figure sum to the SPFL and, as part of the deal, games will be shown on television, phone and digital platforms, while low resolution streams will also be made available on betting websites within these regions. MP & Silva will own all the broadcasting rights for regions outwith the UK and Ireland from the start of next season. News of a planned game abroad is likely to concern supporters. A friendly match between Rangers and Celtic in Boston was considered in 2010, but did not take place after one local newspaper highlighted fears of crowd trouble. Any plan to play a competitive fixture abroad would be a yet more controversial proposal. In 2008, Richard Scudamore, the then chief executive of the Premier League in England, raised the prospect of all teams playing one extra match in foreign territory, something which was termed “the 39th game”. The suggestion caused outrage among fans’ groups and the idea was shelved. However, the concept of playing matches abroad has long been established in American sports, most notably American football. “We are delighted to announce that we will be working with MP & Silva, one season earlier than planned, in the key territories of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, including important territories such as China, Japan, South Korea,” said Doncaster yesterday. “This will extend the coverage of Scottish football around the world, as well as delivering a financial boost to all 42 clubs in the league.” http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/spfl-keen-to-explore-possibility-of-foreign-game-1-3132580
  20. FERGUSON says the £200,000 bonus financial director Brian Stockbridge pocketed for the club winning the third division was more than double what he received for winning the treble. FORMER Rangers captain Barry Ferguson has launched a stinging attack on financial director Brian Stockbridge and says he is tearing his hair out at the latest figures to come out of the Ibrox boardroom. Ferguson responded to the club's annual accounts, in which they posted an operating loss of £14.4million, in his column in today's Record Sport. The midfielder claimed the £200,000 Stockbridge pocketed for Gers winning the third division title last season was more than double what he received for leading the club to the treble of SPL title, Scottish Cup and League Cup 10 years ago. Ferguson claimed the bonus culture at Ibrox is bleeding his old club dry and said: "Unless I’m losing the plot I’m sure financial director Brian Stockbridge was trying to talk up the fact the club had lost £14million in a year. "As a fan, I’m tearing my hair out at what’s going on. "Stockbridge is also the guy who received a £200,000 bonus for Ally McCoist and his players winning last year’s Third Division. "Can someone please explain why the guy in charge of finance is getting bonuses for winning titles? "Let me tell you something, I was captain of Rangers in a UEFA Cup Final. If we had won it my win bonus would have been nowhere near £200,000. When we won the Treble my bonus was less than half that. Barry Ferguson helped Rangers win a treble Alan Harvey/SNS Group "The money Rangers have spent is actually frightening and all I want to know is where it’s gone. "Rangers fans deserve some honesty and transparency and, most of all, they deserve people they know they can trust in the boardroom." Ferguson went on to urge Stockbridge to hand back the bonus to prove to fans he has the club at heart.
  21. Apparently Tam Coawn has been suspended by the BBC for mocking ladies' football. No doubt he'll claim it was just banter. Not a courtesy he extends to us, much. I admit to liking him & think he can be funny sometimes. But his hypocrisy about slagging Green for racism when he's had a misogynist radio show for nigh on 20 yrs really got on my tits. Hear that? That's the sound of chickens coming on home to roost, boy.
  22. written by Mr S. Funk I read an excellent article titled "The Rangers Support - Unfit for purpose?" today which was written by one of the widely respected writers and bloggers in the online Rangers community, D'Artagnan. The article tackled some of the issues our support and specifically the online Rangers community is currently facing and it inspired me to write something on the subject too because the following quote from the article says almost everything I've been thinking myself in one powerful sentence: If this online Rangers community is to fulfill its true destiny then it must change, because at the moment the schisms, historical feuds and bitternesses are holding us back from unleashing that potential on the real enemies of our club. That sentence will no doubt ring true with more than just myself because it's something which has been brought up on the various messageboards time and time again. A common factor in the discussions is that we aren't all in agreement as to how serious or difficult to overcome the problems actually are. Some people think the problems are completely blown out of proportion and could ideally be easily swept aside for the greater good, while at the other extreme some think they're so deeply rooted that they can't ever be fixed or even slowly healed. Others like myself believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle because we know these issues exist, so in theory we should be able to identify what they are and tackle them head on. To do so though, perhaps we need to start with the small things and some of the root causes of the ongoing and seemingly unending warring between sections of our online support. We won't even all agree on what some of the root causes of the problems are, but we don't need to agree about everything, we just need to talk about them respectfully and try to reach some common ground on issues such as our use of language and respect. I've seen a fair number of people mention that the constant 'spiv' references which are being used a lot at the moment to describe people in our club's boardroom are problematic, unnecessary and someone here on the Gersnet forum today even said they are undignified. The use of the word "spiv" to describe certain people who we've had and still have associated with our club and even sit in the boardroom wearing a club tie is very subjective, but depending on your point of view, in some cases it's possibly quite fitting by definition. I do think that the "spiv" references are now becoming overused and even misused at times, but it's absolutely nothing in comparison to the language used by sections of our online support to describe men like Jim McColl & Paul Murray. Recently, I've seen those men regularly being referred to as "cunts", "rhats", "bastards" and all manner of vitriolic abuse and the most astonishing aspect is that's on a Rangers forum, not Kerryfail Strasse or one of the other sites full of hatred for Rangers. They literally get called almost every filthy name under the sun. Is that befitting of Rangers fans? Is it befitting of our support to abuse people who are trying to help get our club to a better and ultimately safer place? Not only that, but this disgusting language has also been getting used to describe fellow Gers fans who've simply shown or voiced support for Jim McColl & Paul Murray. That's the sort of action from people within our own online community which is not only disgusting, but completely unacceptable in my opinion. Sadly, this behaviour goes almost completely unchecked in the name of freedom of speech and that same freedom which allows people to write moronic vitriol about fellow fans is pile driving a permanent wedge between sections of our online community. Despite not being our only issue by any stretch of the imagination, that must be regarded as an issue worth addressing. It would seem that the most obvious way to look at starting to address it is for platforms which allow the disgusting language and behaviour to introduce rules and guidelines to tackle the problem and also to tighten their existing rules. Yes, people who are accustomed to constantly being abusive in their faceless online cocoon will moan about losing their freedom of speech, but frankly, if people can't be trusted to treat others within their own team's fanbase with acceptable levels of respect, then they deserve to have some of their rights reduced. If they don't like it, then tough. Needs must. Please don't get me wrong because I know none of us are perfect or angels. I like having a wee dig, taking the piss and sometimes using colourful language myself just like a lot of us do, but when it's gotten to the stage of sections or pockets of our online community going to obsessive levels to use certain platforms to post abusive vitriol about fellow Rangers fans, then it's blatantly obvious that something needs to be done to help facilitate positive changes and to simply help tackle some of the root causes of the issues. If nothing is done, then these issues will only escalate and the problems our online support face in working together as one will just get worse. It's already so bad, that I actually read things on a daily basis that make me wonder if they were even written by a Rangers fan because the level of obsession and hatred in the drivel being posted seems more like mad tims infiltrating the Rangers communities than anything else. Surely that's when we need to be saying to ourselves "Houston, we have a problem!!"? Ultimately, it may just be as I suggest and that the onus is on the platform providers to alter or introduce the necessary rules and for forum admins, mods and posters to try to help mend these issues by setting standards and an appropriate example for everyone. I'll have to change my own ways too as many people will and the rifts and problems in our online support won't be magically fixed overnight, but for the love of Rangers, we need to at least try to do it. A united Rangers support might yet be a pipe dream, but where there's a will there's a way. We'll never know until we try, so why not start with language and a little respect.
  23. http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/article.php?i=102&a=one-man-and-his-dog I know this group divides opinion for one reason and another but I think this is excellent work.
  24. Scotland it would appear has a new form of immunity allowing persons to express an opinion with apparent impunity. All that is required is to precede whatever you have to say with the phrase "Some would say". The phrases' creator - BBC Scotland's Jim Spence - has overlooked one small detail however - his previous comments on the subject. A quick search through the BBC archives reveal that Jim Spence has previously alluded to Rangers having died or being no more. Therefore not only is he erroneous in with his use of this "get out clause" - he is also disingenuous. Perhaps the BBC Scotland investigation into this furore will consider this fact in it's conclusions. If it fails to, then their investigation will be deemed little more that a whitewash. In some ways it should come as no surprise to us that there is a movement to pronounce life extinct over Ibrox way. I say that, having recently re-visited American Psychologist Gordon Allport's Scale of Prejudice, where the conduct of these proponents that Rangers are dead display all the characteristics required of the prejudiced bigot. Allport's scale determines the following 5 stages :- Anti-locution – this would include jokes, negative stereotypes as well as hate speech Avoidance – the target is treated in such a way as to be effectively isolated Discrimination – Denial of opportunity, restriction of rights etc. Physical Attack – self explanatory. Extermination – the majority group seek extermination or removal of the minority group. Whilst often applied in situations which involves genocide, Allport's Scale is also used in modern day Britain as an industry standard in determining prejudice within the workplace. In such a setting the extermination stage manifests itself with the victim either leaving or being forced to leave the work place. For a Rangers support often referred to as “Huns”, likened to a “bunch of bigoted troglodytes, almost to a man”, and whose club were denied the fundamental principal of innocence until proven guilty, along with numerous other instances of unfair and unjust treatment, it should come as no surprise to us as we tick through the various stages that we would eventually end up at extermination. Of course that hatred and prejudice manifests itself daily on social media networks where Rangers supporters are no longer “Huns” or “Orange Bastards” instead they are “Zombies” or “Sevconians”. However this appears to be little more than a “wish-list” mentality, which requires “believers” to ignore considerable evidence, rulings and judgements to the contrary. I wont recount Lord Nimmo Smith's commentary regarding Rangers continuing as a footballing entity - it has been cited in many a previous discourse on this subject - suffice to say one of the most respected legal brains has passed his judgement on the matter. So too of course have the SFA, The European Clubs Association, UEFA and, perhaps as an indication of how desperate some are to confirm the death of Rangers, even the Advertising Standards Authority. Those proponents of “Zombies” and “Sevconians” appear more than happy to ignore the evidence in order that their wishes can be realised, in fact they give new meaning to the term “Ignorance is bliss”. Who said blind hatred was a bad thing ? But what of the Jim Spence's and Graham Spiers of this world, who, whilst not using the terms “zombies” or “sevconians”, continually repeat the mantra, that Rangers have died ? What separates them from the knuckle dragging element motivated by hatred bigotry and prejudice, who scream about “zombies” and “sevconians” ? The answer is – very little. For in arriving at such a conclusion they too have exercised the necessary exclusion of facts and chosen to ignore the authority and expertise of those previously cited. What is particularly interesting with both Spiers and Spence is that in making such assertions they refuse continually to mention or comment on Lord Nimmo Smith's ruling, the SFA Transfer of licence or the European Club's Association determination on Rangers. The real question for me is why they are doing this. Why are allegedly objective and impartial journalists choosing to ignore the considerable body of evidence available and arrive at conclusions which are at odds with that evidence ? Or do our journalists now have a right to deliberately mislead and misinform the public ? It is perhaps ironic that last week, Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News, who has a colourful history with the Rangers support released the following tweet :- “it's a pointless debate - you cannot "kill" an FC like Rangers. Isn't this obvious? And an FC is more than a PLC end of.” So over to you Messrs Spiers and Spence, the floor as they say is yours – explain to this Rangers support why you have arrived at the conclusion that Rangers are dead. It shouldn't be that hard for you – you have after all repeated it often enough. Tell us why Lord Nimmo Smith is wrong in his legal conclusions, why the SFA were misguided to transfer the licence and why the ECA have determined the situation incorrectly. Because at the moment their appears to be little to separate you from those whose motivations are based on prejudice, blind hatred and bigotry.
  25. No-one likes a thorough examination. It could be a test for English, it could be a check-up at the dentist. God forbid, it could even be the prostate exam from an overweight medico with fingers like fairtrade bananas. This week saw the appointment of that bogeyman figure for many Rangers fans, Peter Lawwell, to the Professional Game Board of the SFA. Leaving aside the hilarious irony of anything connected with the game in our country having the sheer balls to call itself 'professional' - the name of the new league was, for me, the highlight of the summer, an act of self-mockery and criticism not seen since the Red Guards were touring the Chinese countryside in the 1960's - you'd think the raising of another Celtic employee to another administrative role ought to have aroused some examination. As things stand now with the SFL gone, the SPFL Board consists of Steven Thompson of Dundee Utd, Eric Riley of Celtic, Aberdeen’s Duncan Fraser, Les Gray from Hamilton, Mike Mulraney of Cowdenbeath and Bill Darroch of Stenhousemuir plus CEO Neil Doncaster. Even Celtic fans must realise Mssrs Riley and Lawwell's various roles raise some interesting questions. Is it good for the game, or their club? Is it good for them, personally? Can they avoid conflicts of interest, and can they operate best with a work-load of this nature? What does it say about the structures which oversee the much vaunted reconstruction of the game in Scotland? Gersnet poster Brahim Hemdani sums up the bemusement may feel when he said "Quite why the other clubs think that having two represetatives from one club in the top echelons of power is appropriate is beyond my comprehension but that is the state of play that we have to live with." I ask these questions because they will affect us, like every other club, and because the overall coverage of the move has been muted to the point of fearful censorship. Tom English has taken refuge in slating OF fans for being loonballs rather than look at the appointment itself, while no-one else seems to have mentioned it at all. Maybe no-one is a little concerned that one club looms quite so large over the landscape (you may recall Kenny Shiels swift demotion by the ever sensitive Pacific Quay from colourful entertainer to highly suspicious proto-bigot when he touched on this subject), or, more likely, maybe they're worn out by all these saga and don't care anymore. Dangerous attitude, if true. We need to care. My own view is that no-one from either Rangers or celtc should be on any governing body, nor anyone with a connection to them. Rules out a hell of a lot of people, doesn't it? But look at the history! Since the mid-1980's, the Old Firm have more or less run the game. First them then us have been, during that time, complete basket cases. Prior to that, with faceless, anonymous men who enjoyed the benefits, yes, but were primarily upholders of the game as a concept - that is, as a sport - Scotland actually did not too badly, certainly by comparison with its later, hideous self. Of the two potential scenarios - well meaning if possibly bumbling amateurs, or corporate OF types - one would have to be a follower of either side to support the elevation of the latter to the running of the game. If that maybe sounds like accusations of bias toward the media, maybe it is - given the outrage we saw over such issues as contentious capitalist contract practices and internal SFA inquiries, surely they would feel the make up of game boards also need a revolution? No? Happy to carry on as we have for thirty years, are you? Thirty years of continual decline and failure? Quite content to see the setup which has brought the game to the laughable stance of not even having a sponsor - bear in mind, this is a league which reaches both Rangers and celtc fans every week, that's market penetration many a company would give their right arm for; you are looking at well over 2,000,000 potential customers on a more than weekly basis being exposed to your product - and think this is a suitable plan for the future? Well, fair enough. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. But you can hardly be surprised when people raise a quizzical eyebrow, and wonder quite what the reason is for your optimism. celtc's current dominance is the reason put forward, I guess. That ignores their two decades of shambolic behaviour since the early 1980's; no doubt our period of insanity will be as quickly forgotten. It also forgets the wasteland that the rest of the game is; perhaps a momentary lapse in memory by our writers, or again, perhaps they just don't care. The game desperately needs diversity, in terms of cup winners and media coverage. We're unlikely to see the latter, since the media is as self interested as the next man. I can't see how having the people from the top club running the leagues will help create that diversity; the logical outcome will be a set up which favours that leading club. Cravenly avoiding the fairly obvious self interest inherent in this move, and whining about how Old Firm fans are loonies while you pretty much cowardly refuse to actually examine the move, won't impress anyone. Maybe, when this blows up in the face of Scottish football (as OF people running the game always will, in my opinion), those who have airily seen it through on the nod will have the guts to examine their own role in it. I won't be holding my breath, though. As the dire Neil Doncaster happily points out "“The relationship between the SPFL and the SFA is a good one and I think a much better one since the reconstruction’s completion on the 27th June.” This is unsurprising when the same people, two of whom are from the same outfit, sit upon these boards. If blissful happiness and an end to dissent is the aim, I can see the point. If running the game in a progressive and accountable way is the aim, it becomes rather more questionable. But questions are good, in a healthy democracy. We need our media writers to question, to examine. Their current craven obedience will be just something else we will all come to regret.
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