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Chaps, I'm not looking to troll or create tension here, but for the life of me I can't work out why any bear can trust or support the current board. I've seen nothing from the board that can help balance up my own feelings and each passing week sees more shit rolled at supporters. So, in the spirit of good debate, what are the good points of the board which gets them support, albeit a small minority, but support all the same from fellow Bears. What are the positives from board.
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This should be interesting, renewals before the 120 days. Rangers will launch their season ticket renewal campaign at Ibrox tomorrow. As reported in the Herald today, prices expected to rise by 18%.
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When is the 120th day or has it passed? Not sure if we're counting from Wallace's appointment or the AGM. Also, what's the chances of hearing "the review is over and proposals will be out in 4 week" just to keep us hanging on? It's clear the majority of fans don't trust the board so I'm not sure how they can win hearts and minds without making a magnificent gesture which is tangible to us. Even then it'd be viewed with suspicion but our fans are easily led from the Blue Room. Obviously there's talk of a new share issue but is that realistic when they know King might walk in and scoop up the shares, assume control, and go about clearing the decks for his own people? Wallace might welcome this but I highly doubt Easdales and Laxey will. The small matter of BPH and Margerita most likely objecting to their holding and future earnings dwindling is another factor to count in which could scupper any new share issue. Negative loyal!
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I'm away on holiday so will miss the game - hope everyone else enjoys it!
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Rangers fans want the club to provide a facility by which they can pay extra monies to the club. That is the overwhelming message I am hearing from supporters who want to counter any shortfall from season ticket boycotts next season. Whilst the general perception is that any withholding of season ticket revenue will only actually be carried out by a small hardcore of rebels, loyal supporters are keen to make sure that there is no negative impact on club finances. I already know of bears who intend to buy extra season tickets and many more who might not go that far are still motivated to pay an extra sum on top of their season ticket money. In essence, fans want a fund set up whereby they can donate monies to the club. This would mean that when purchasing season tickets, they could donate an extra £25, £50 or £100 to the club. Another possibility is that when supporters buy merchandise at the Megastore, they are given the facility to pay change towards the fund. Similarly, collection cans could be placed in the food kiosks for bluenoses to stick their change into after buying grub. A donation button could be placed on the club website and events could be held by supporters club with the fund benefitting. I have not spoken to one Rangers fan who is not excited by the prospect of being able to chip in and help the club. This is not a begging bowl mentality by any manner of means – it is fans doing what they can to keep Rangers prosperous. The fund could, of course, be ringfenced for the playing pool or specific projects. It would be easily accounted for in the club accounts and could be monitored by an independent body. Far from it being a stopgap method to help the club through a difficult period, this fund could become an important method of non-equity financing over time. It also gives genuine supporters a chance to contribute to the club’s progress and gives them a say in the club’s destiny. If the money is used for the playing pool, it also helps fans feel good that the players they watch have been brought to the club partly by their own contributions. I think another benefit would be to help unite the divided support and give a focus to bluenoses. It also helps fans become proactive in a positive way. Many fans want to help the club at this moment in time but feel they have no outlet. At this critical point in history, the creation of a fund that fans can pay into purely for the benefit of Rangers Football Club is a great way to keep the wolf from the door and is another buffer against financial disaster. All those people who keep telling us that being the fan of a football team is far more than just being a consumer now have the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and prove their argument. The principle is simple: If you love your team, step up and pay! Would you happily pay extra money to keep Rangers strong financially? If so, let me know in the Comments below or contact the club direct. http://www.rangers.co.uk
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http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/qa-rangers-chief-executive-graham-wallace-on-finances-the-review-and-the-clubs-future.1396009021 Can somebody copy and paste.
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http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/a-shameful-state-of-play.html
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According to The Sun. They're contracts won't be renewed but Cribari will be offered a role in youth development. Apparently both are on £5.5k a week. Can't say I'm bothered with this news.
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Find myself without a lift again, so if anyone leaving from (or passing through) Motherwell tomorrow has a space in their car, could drop me at the broomloan end between 11pm & 11.30pm and is returning back to Motherwell after the game please send me a PM. Taking some petrol money from me will be compulsory!
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.....players must prove they belong at Ibrox after dismal display in Cup. BARRY believes Ally McCoist's men are now playing for their futures at Rangers in the wake of the shock draw with Albion Rovers. EMBARRASSING. The word has attached itself to Rangers for one reason or another over the last few days and I must admit I don’t like it one little bit. Like when Ally McCoist said it wasn’t embarrassing to draw at home to Albion Rovers in the Cup, some people had a go at him for it and thought the manager’s reaction was an embarrassment in itself. Not me. Then Ian Black asked the fans, ‘What more do you want?’ To tell you the truth, I could see where he was coming from too but there was something about the way he said it that did make you want to cringe. And all this over the space of a few days when the team has just won another title. Maybe people will say it was embarrassing for Rangers to be seen to be celebrating that success too because right now it seems my old club just can’t win, even when they are winning. But you can count me out of that camp right away. Yes, it might only be League One and, I agree, there is a big difference between lifting that championship and beating Celtic to the big one in the top flight. Of course there is. But a title is a title all the same. When Coisty and the players started out this season they had a job to do – to win the league and get the hell out of the division as quickly as possible. Well here they are seven months later, job done. With nearly three months to spare. Yes, I know it hasn’t always been great in terms of the quality of the football that has been played along the way. But that will be forgotten about over time and the record books will show that Rangers chalked up two straight promotions on the journey back up through the divisions. So don’t tell me these guys don’t deserve to celebrate what they’ve done. That’s just mean-spirited and spiteful. But – and yes, there is a but – these players must also realise that some of their displays over the course of the season have left a lot to be desired. And I’m talking here in particular about the performance against Albion at the weekend. Because if any of the boys in the team think that was acceptable then they are at the wrong club. I watched the game and it wasn’t great. Look, there were some mitigating factors. I’ll give them that. For instance, these Albion Rovers kids were having the day of their lives. They went to Ibrox knowing they might never play at a stadium like that again. It was a one off and they gave everything they had for their team and their manager, who went there with a game plan. At times it was five at the back and five across the midfield. But good luck to them. They did what they set out to do. Was it embarrassing for Coisty? Knowing the way he thinks I’m sure that inside he was hurting badly. But he did the right thing by not saying so in public. He was absolutely correct when he said that. Had he done so he would have been showing complete disrespect to his opponents. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be criticised for good manners. I understand Rangers fans expected a lot better. I understand because I am one of them and I did too. But no one will have felt more let down by that performance than the manager. He might not say so outside the dressing room but he knows more than anyone what is required and expected of Rangers. Yes, they should be skelping Albion Rovers by four or five goals. So scraping a 1-1 draw WAS probably embarrassing. But it happened and it’s the manager’s job to deal with it and move on. I have no doubt he’ll have given his players a very different message in the privacy of that dressing room. He’ll have been furious and, from personal experience, I know he won’t have missed his targets behind closed doors. Put it this way, he won’t need a long team talk before the replay. If anyone in that team doesn’t know what is at stake on Monday night then there is something wrong with them. In fact, maybe it’s not just the Albion Rovers boys who might never play at a stadium like Ibrox again because a few of Coisty’s own players will now be playing for their futures. A lot of these guys are on good money and the truth is they have not been giving value back to the club, the manager and the supporters. I am positive Ally will have already made his mind up about some of them. He will know which of them needs to be replaced in the summer. The problem he has right now is that he still doesn’t know if he’ll have enough of a budget to make the changes he’d like to ahead of next season in the Championship. And that uncertainty makes it hard for him to be as honest about these players as he might like to be. You can’t throw a guy under the bus one week then ask him to go out there and play for you again the next. They are all he’s got right now and, at this moment in time, he needs to do whatever he can to bring them with him and get them to up their game. I’m learning myself about how difficult life can be as a manager. Thankfully I won my first game as Blackpool manager on Tuesday but I realise there is a lot of hard work ahead if we are going to turn our own season around. I know how hard I am working on the training field in trying to get my message across and to get the team to play in the manner I want. I changed my game plan completely on Tuesday night and it worked for us but when you send them out across that white line you are a hostage to fortune. You ask players to do a specific job and sometimes it just does not happen. That’s why I have some sympathy for Coisty. We both know the buck always stops with the manager but there comes a time when the players must take their share of responsibility too. When I came back to Rangers after my move to Blackburn I knew there were a lot of fans who didn’t want me back. I knew because they weren’t slow in telling me. So it was down to me to go out there and prove my worth. Every time I pulled on that shirt, I knew my own reputation was going on the line. Maybe it’s about time some of the guys in that dressing room started to see things the same way. If their attitude isn’t right then there is no place for them at Rangers. It’s not too late to save themselves – they could end this season as heroes if they go on to win the Scottish Cup. But to do that they need to give themselves a shake and accept there is more to being a Rangers player than just turning up for training at Murray Park. And I expect to see them prove it emphatically on Monday night. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-title-win-great-3240280
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http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/mccoist-to-meet-wallace-to-discuss-summer-signings.23632214
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alex thomson @alextomo 28m Rangers to go into Administration on Wednesday? At least one senior Glasgow accountant is saying so tonight. https://twitter.com/alextomo -
Seems the board have summoned king to a showdown meeting with the board to explain his statements in the media. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26420403 Hope he tells them to bolt!
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Matthew Lindsay NEARLY 5,000 Rangers fans have committed themselves to withholding season ticket money from the stricken Ibrox club in under a week. The Union of Fans, an umbrella group comprising six supporters organisations, wants to pool the cash in a trust until their demands are met. The controversial move follows a call by former Gers director Dave King last week for supporters only to release the funds on a "pay-as-they-play" basis. It is a radical plan that has sharply divided opinion among the Light Blues support and has been condemned by senior officials at the Ibrox club. Two statements released by Rangers last week called the development "de-stabilising" and "divisive" and claimed that it would "benefit no one". But the Union of Fans have been inundated with pledges of support from fans who are unhappy with the way the SPFL League One leaders are being run. Just under 5,000 of them have contacted the union website since the scheme was announced on Thursday to indicate their intention to withhold their money. Craig Houston, the mastermind behind the Sons of Struth protest group, revealed the number had exceeded the expectations of Union of Fans activists. He said: "The figures are fantastic. I thought we would maybe get close to that sort of figure after a week or so. To get that in a couple of days is amazing. "We have been blown away by the responses we have received in such a short space of time. "We have some initiatives that we are working on that we hope will rapidly increase the number of fans who want to lend their support to the plan." The terms of the £1million loan that Rangers have agreed with Laxey Partners, the largest shareholders in the club, have angered many supporters. The Isle of Man-based hedge fund is set to make a £150,000 profit on the loan when the money is paid back to them in full this September. And the fact the loan has been secured on Edmiston House and the Albion car park facilities also worries followers of the Govan giants. Fans want to have a representative on the club board to look after their interests and are keen to receive guarantees about how the club is run. King released a lengthy statement on Saturday that hit back at the board's response to his call for fans to pool their season ticket money in a trust. He will travel to Scotland from South Africa soon to ensure the trust is set up legally and to help create a fund that secures fans an "influential stake" in the club. He also claimed that former chief executive Charles Green, who led the consortium that bought Rangers in 2012, could still be "de facto" controlling the club. His statement read: "The board wants fans to lend money at no interest and with no security. Rangers fans are loyal but not stupid." lRangers last night rejected internet rumours that the club will enter administration for a second time on Wednesday. A spokesman said: "There is absolutely no truth in these claims."
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Retweeted by Frankie Andy Newport @Andythemod9 5m Brief interview with Dave King to hit @PressAssocSport wires soon https://twitter.com/GersnetOnline
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..............haven't become any clearer with passage of time at Rangers. KEITH re-examines Graham Wallace's short spell as CEO at Ibrox and finds that events and decisions that at first didn’t appear to be very clear in strategy seem even more blurry and confused now. THE never-ending Rangers crisis is a fast-moving thing. Often the picture changes so quickly that it becomes hard to keep up and almost impossible to remember how it looked before. Dave King’s grenades over the last five days, for example, have altered everything beyond recognition once again. Of course, it may all be different by the time you’ve finished your morning cuppa but, as things stand right now, King appears to be the club’s only viable long-term hope. In the space of four days, King launched two blistering attacks on the Ibrox hierarchy from his South African bunker. These were the opening salvos in what will soon become an all-out war for control and already the current regime looks shaken and vulnerable. In fact, its credibility may be damaged beyond repair. When Graham Wallace was shoehorned into this farrago towards the end of last year, his appointment as the club’s chief executive was something of a masterstroke for a board which had lost the trust of its own customers. In Wallace they found an acceptable corporate face. A man of integrity, experience and substance. Someone whose very presence was enough to ease anxiety levels amongst supporters and investors. Wallace was the calm ahead of a predicted storm at the agm which, at one stage, had threatened to hit the top of the old marble staircase like a tsunami, wiping out its incumbents. After his arrival, though, it petered out into a non-event. He spoke with measure and authority. He asked for time – 120 days to be precise – to put his plans in place and also insisted the club was not hurtling towards another insolvency, despite all of the irresponsible scaremongering you may have come across in places such as this one. “Nothing to see here, folks. Keep calm and carry on spending your blue pounds.” And, for a while, largely because of Wallace’s gravitas as a front man, it worked. But now that everything has changed again it does seem like an appropriate moment to re-examine some of Wallace’s words and actions. Wallace’s problem here, where his own credibility is concerned, is that events and decisions that didn’t appear to be very clear in strategy at the time seem even more blurry and confused when viewed through the 20-20 lenses of hindsight. Let’s rewind first to the middle of January. If you recall, all things Rangers were back on a high state of alarm after news emerged from the dressing room of potential 15 per cent wage cuts across Ally McCoist’s first-team squad. On January 17, in an exclusive Q&A with this paper, Wallace played down the significance of this, dismissing it first as a “conceptual discussion” before adding: “This is not about a need for any immediate drastic action.” All of which soothed a few frayed nerves. But then something very strange happened when Nottingham Forest weighed in with a bid of around the £1million mark for Rangers left-back Lee Wallace. The CEO chose to kick this offer into touch, a move which, once again, suggested that the club’s finances must be a great deal more robust than many of us on the outside had believed to the case. Wallace said around that time: “Without putting a number on it, there is sufficient cash in the bank. Come April we would be confident that the club will have sufficient cash in the bank in order to maintain our operations.” Got that? No need for immediate drastic action. Sufficient cash reserves in the bank by April. Now fast forward to February, little more than two weeks after the Forest bid was rejected. Record Sport broke the news that Wallace was on the verge of securing a £1.5m emergency loan from two shareholders, Sandy Easdale and hedge fund group Laxey Partners. This deal was then ratified and rubber-stamped a week ago today when Wallace confirmed that Laxey would be paid a whopping £150,000 for the favour. So now, in retrospect, the decision not to take £1m from Forest for one of their players seems utterly incomprehensible. Because, even if that million was to be paid up in two or three separate instalments, surely it would have been more favourable for Rangers than the terms of the deal which now sees a bunch of hedge fund managers positioning themselves as the club’s major creditor. Make no mistake, this was a hugely smart piece of business by Laxey Partners. Not only are they charging exorbitant, high-risk interest rates of more than 30 per cent APR, they have also secured their loan against the Albion car park which is worth many times more potentially than the £1m they have handed over. In fact, a cynic might suspect that ultimately Laxey will be hoping the club is in no position to repay this debt in full because ownership of the car park might give them a great deal more bang for their buck. There is, you see, an interesting subtext to this arrangement because, as per a planning agreement from the time Ibrox was redeveloped, the 7000-capacity Club Deck cannot be opened for business unless the car park is available. So the closure of that piece of tarmac, for whatever reason, could be very costly for Rangers. In other words, Laxey now has the club by the short and curlies. What’s more, in the event of another administration – as improbable as Wallace makes such a Doomsday scenario out to be – they would also retain control over the entire process. There is another man in the middle of all of this who has gone about his business with much more stealth. His name is Norman Crighton, the recently-appointed chairman of the club’s investment committee. And a man with friends in high places at Laxey. So should we really be surprised that thus far Crighton’s contribution to this saga is to propose and recommend a loan with his old pals? Again, this is where Wallace’s credibility takes a bit of a pounding as it was left to him to take centre stage and talk this deal up rather than present it for the disaster that it almost certainly is. He said: “There is a level of return that they would expect for their money. The cost we’ve agreed with Laxey is deemed appropriate in the market. I don’t think there should be any concerns about the level of commerciality on that.” And this from the mouth of the same man who said in January: “The business has to be able to stand on its own two feet without huge amounts of investment coming in just to fund the on-going operation. “It’s not a case of looking for investment to cover on-going operation losses. That, to my mind, makes no sense at all.” You said it, Mr Wallace. Come to think of it, Dave King himself couldn’t have put it any better.
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https://twitter.com/TheSundayLife/status/439897127913656321/photo/1
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ALLY McCoist has stressed he needs cash to strengthen his squad this summer if Rangers are to challenge for the SPFL Championship next season. Disgruntled Gers supporters this week threatened to withhold season ticket money in the summer unless a series of demands are met by the board. The Union of Fans - an umbrella group comprising the six main supporters' organisations - was responding to a call from former director Dave King. The South Africa-based businessman urged supporters to pool their season book money in a trust until they had been given guarantees about the club's finances. And the Castlemilk-born multi-millionaire also urged them to demand representation on the board before releasing on a "pay-as-they-play" basis. Gers boss McCoist has refused to get drawn into the increasingly tense stand-off between the two factions and is instead concentrating on football matters But he did admit that he will need money to bring in new players in the close season in order to challenge for a place in the top flight in the 2014/15 campaign. McCoist said: "I'd like to add to the squad. We've got to strengthen to continue the build. "I don't want to start the build by losing people rather than getting people in. "I think the Championship is a lot stronger than a lot of people think. The majority if not all of the teams are full-time." McCoist added: "I'd far rather being in a position to strengthen to move forward, not just for next season but for longer term as well. "Without strengthening ahead of next season there would be no guarantees (of promotion). It would be very tough. "But Graham (Wallace) and the board share my concern because they want to continue improvement and continue the success on the park and get us right back." Meanwhile, McCoist has confirmed he would like to keep Arnold Peralta at Rangers - despite the Honduran claiming he wants to leave this summer in an interview with a website in his homeland. He said: "It's a delicate issue as I don't know what he's thinking. But I would like to keep him." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/mccoist-gers-need-ticket-cash-to-move-forward-154164n.23570268
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Dave King’s latest intervention in Rangers’ affairs is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. His call for fans to boycott the club in terms of buying season tickets – and his ridiculous idea to drip-feed monies to the club – is a blatant attempt to destabilise Rangers. King’s statement is a smoke and mirrors job for me and the club has had to shoot down in flames a newspaper’s assertion that the South African-based businessman had offered a £1 million loan interest free to Rangers. It could be reasonably argued that if Dave King does intend to invest in Rangers, his latest pronouncements have a good chance of driving the share price down. A cynical ploy it could be argued. I noticed that King mentioned he had lost £20 million at Ibrox previously. As I recently blogged, there is some dispute about this. However, if it is true it is a pretty self-damning example for King to use, given that he was a director in that previous regime which ended in the sale of the club for a shiny pound to a certain Craig Whyte. Hardly the best track record for success – “I lost £20 million of my own dough so let me have another go!” I have nothing personally against Dave King. I previously blogged of his potential to be a unifying figure at Ibrox. Sadly, he has become a divisive figure and is feeding Rangers-haters with every doom and gloom pronouncement he makes. Yes, there is a need for a short-term injection to help the club through a potential shortfall in income. In response up stepped Sandy Easdale with an interest-free loan while non-shareholder King is dreaming up schemes to hold the club to ransom and strangle cash flow. No doubt King’s comments will be met with glee by the fifth column in the Rangers support. I don’t propose – unlike some – to speak for other fans but I find his ideas to be nothing less than a crude concept of extortion which would hold the club in thrall to the whim of fans. In short, yet another attempt at fan power – otherwise known as mob rule. I have no doubt some fellow fans will share my repulsion at this power grab by a man who talks big but doesn’t get put his wallet where his mouth is. As far as I am concerned, King is nothing but a tyre kicker and we will never see the colour of his money. My message to Dave King is simple: Butt out or match Sandy Easdale pound for pound and give Rangers an interest-free loan. http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/blog-2/
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I watched a wonderful short film this week, on the effect the reintroduction of wolves has had on Yellowstone National Park in America. Wolves were wiped out in the area 70 years ago but several packs were brought back twenty years ago in the hope they would breed and reestablish them. A highly controversial move, the wolves were closely monitored and the effect they had on Yellowstone was studied during this period. As a large carnivore there was much apprehension about the wolves; would they decimate other species, clear large parts of the park of other mammals, indeed would they endanger man? The actual findings were mind blowing. The wolves mainly hunt deer and prior to the wolves return the deer had enjoyed decades with no natural predator except man. As such, they grazed where they wanted for as long as they wanted, they moved slowly through the landscape and their numbers grew and grew. The reemergence of the wolves changed this. The change wasn’t that large numbers of deer were killed (there aren’t that many wolves and there are tens of thousands of deer) it was that the return of the deer’s natural hunter led to a dramatic change in deer behaviour. Previously the deer grazed where they liked but now they were much more cautious and this was particularly noticeable near rivers. The grazing is good there, but it is open, and the deer were easily hunted. As the deer modified their behaviour and avoided grazing on the lower ground the vegetation changed, grass grew longer, bushes and trees reached maturity instead of being stripped back by hungry deer when small. This led to insects returning which in turn brought birds. The longer grass brought rabbits and the eagles who hunt them. Bears returned to eat the berries that now ripened on the bushes, beavers returned and used the mature trees to make dams. Most astonishingly of all the course of the river changed. Previously it meandered, it flooded regularly and the rain ran off the surrounding land quickly eroding the area. Now the increased vegetation soaked up much of the rainfall and its roots held the soil together. So the river ran deeper and faster, it no longer meanders it flows true. The wolves had indirectly been responsible for changing the course and flow of a river. What must be remembered is that wolves weren’t artificially introduced to the area; rather their absence in the first place was artificial. The ecology of Yellowstone evolved over thousands of years and at the top of the food chain was wolves. This large carnivore was meant to be there, nature had decided that a long time ago, the rest of the park actually depended on it. Its removal caused the damage, not its reintroduction. Every aspect of the park relied on the wolf directly or indirectly. Rangers play Stenhousemuir for the fourth time this season on Saturday. We’ve won our two previous league meetings and our meeting in the cup. Our last match at Ibrox saw us triumph by eight goals, our subsequent meetings have been much closer affairs. This match is being played against the backdrop of continued problems in Scottish football. The removal of Rangers from the top flight has upset the trophic cascade, the natural order of things evolved over more than 100 years is seriously out of kilter. Celtic have no serious rival as such and they are now meandering, their club is selling its best players, their manager speaks openly about being unsettled and their support, as well as showing apathy towards attending matches now fill their time by promoting songs about Irish murder gangs, making ill-thought-out political statements or indulging in good old fashioned hooliganism. The game’s governing bodies now no longer even hold the pretence of parity. They award cup finals and semi finals to grounds months in advance rather than wait to see who’ll contest them. Their decisions regarding cup matches and Inverness have bordered on the corrupt, the ticket allocation for the League Cup final being only the latest example. The side who finished second in the country last season, Motherwell, still managed to make a loss of nearly £200,000. The prize money they should have received was drastically cut half way through the season you see, no surprise there. This happened despite them cutting their player budget the previous close season. Still the league has no sponsor, in the top flight the champions and the side relegated was decided before a ball was kicked and the standard of play and player continues to drop. Without its largest animal the competition is reduced, the drive is lost and the revenue that follows it dries up. All of these things are interconnected, remove something from the natural order of things and it takes a long time to recover, if it ever does. Stenhousemuir go into this match with a new manager, former Scottish international and feted wunderkind Scott Booth. Although the current Scotland under 17 coach doesn’t take up his post for a few more weeks we can expect his new players to be eager to prove their worth to him. So motivation shouldn’t be an issue for stand-in coach Brown Ferguson’s side. Stenhousemuir are in a bad run of form with no victories this year, only their early season good results afford them the relative safety of sixth place. Rangers go into the match without Moshni who remains suspended. Cribari did well against Ayr and should retain his place although I expect McCulloch to return to the defence and Foster to drop out. Beyond that the side should pick itself, MacLeod should come into contention if fit again but I expect Bell, Law, Wallace, Black, Daly, Faure, Templeton and Aird to start. I don’t expect a repeat of the early season 8-0 but half that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow particularly if we score early. Stenhousemuir have both suffered and benefited from being in the same league as Rangers. Having the largest carnivore in the country close by drastically reduces the likelihood of promotion for every other club in our division, but it does offer them other tangible benefits. Our presence is artificial though, man made and it is upsetting the natural order of things. The trophic cascade refers to interconnectivity, how removing something from the top of the food chain has consequences all the way down that chain, how these changes can’t all be foreseen or managed and it is vital that chain isn’t allowed to be tampered with artificially. Recent meetings aimed at securing a voice for Rangers supporters in our boardroom should be welcomed, not only by all Rangers fans but also by all football fans. Whatever your feelings towards our club, we are all connected and interdependent, it’s in everyone’s interests that we’re back where we belong believe it or not. The only thing that should prevent that happening is our side not being good enough. Financial stability and accountability are vital, not just for our sake but for every club in the country. Nobody should fear the return of the wolf, its return should be welcomed by all.
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Scottish Youth Cup quarter-final against Dunfermline Athletic at Murray Park today, kick-off 1pm. Put the Pars in their place. I hope the overnight weather has not ruined the playing surface of the pitch? -
IAN Black has vowed to earn a new deal with Rangers - and help the Ibrox club complete every stage of 'The Journey'. The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hearts man is out of contract at the end of next season. But he is keen to pledge his future to Rangers so he can help them compete against their Old Firm rivals. Black said: "I have been consistent this season and the manager has been happy enough to play me every week. I have been doing something right. "I just need to work hard, keep my head down and try to earn myself a new contract. "I have got this year and next season just now. When you have got a year-and-a-half left then you obviously look to get a new deal and a bit of security for my career and for my family as well. "I just want to work hard and hopefully things behind the scenes can work out for me." He added: "My aim is to play in the top flight. Coming here when we were at the bottom my aim was to help the club get back up. "Hopefully I can be rewarded with getting a deal to play in the Premiership with a club this size. It is up to me to keep playing well and trying to get one." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/black-aim-is-a-ticket-to-ride-on-journey-152249n.23438571
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Can someone please explain to me why we don't sing this greatest anthem anymore The "authorities" (define them) have said we cant so we follow like sheep. It is legally proofable (is that a word) that this isn't a bigoted or sectarism song....so say lets start a campagn to bring back our anthem. If it means missing a word then so be it....but they cant ban 1 and not for another Hullo Hullo
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...........by bigging up small achievements HUGH believes under-achievement is being covered up at Parkhead while talk of Trebles involving the Ramsdens Cup embarrasses Ibrox club. WHEN Albion Rovers go further than Celtic in the Scottish Cup it’s time to hold your hands up and come clean. And when you’re photographed holding an advertising board aimed at selling tickets for Rangers’ ‘title run-in’ when your team is 23 points in front with 13 games left to play you might at least have the decency to look embarrassed. But part of the deal now with Scottish football is you agree to have your intelligence insulted at regular intervals without ever complaining about it – or even admitting that it’s happened. A properly-developed grown-up, however, should reserve the right to examine the nonsense they’re being fed and give the now traditional answer in return – are you having a laugh? Neil Lennon tells everybody Celtic have had a “brilliant” season. But how can a brilliant season possibly contain an extra-time defeat at home to a lowly championship side in the League Cup, and without managing to score a goal in two hours of play against Morton? How can a brilliant season include a Champions League group stage in which, for the first time, Celtic looked as if they were out of their depth? Finishing bottom of the group while taking a six-goal beating in Barcelona, and failing to make the consolation prize of the Europa League, is what it is. A worrying glimpse of a difficult future at that level for Celtic while their squad is voluntarily diminished in quality season after season. Also, how can another season without a Treble being won during Rangers’ time in the lower orders be excused on the basis that only Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill have managed that distinction throughout Celtic’s history? If those two men could manage it when Rangers were battling them for everything then they should be left out of the argument. The question is why can’t a Treble be won by Celtic when the championship is a given at the start of every season for the current team? And on the subject of perspective, Rangers fans are now supposed to swallow industrial quantities of guff about their team’s current standing. I’ve no doubt Lee McCulloch was only delivering the party line when he was used as the frontman to sell tickets for the remainder of this season. But he can’t possibly believe in his heart of hearts that reaching the Scottish Cup Final in May would be the equivalent of the run that took Walter Smith’s side to Manchester for the UEFA Cup Final against Zenit St Petersburg. Lee was part of that run and must know the difference between beating Panathinaikos, Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina and getting past Airdrie, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Albion Rovers. It’s an insult to the memory of those involved in Europe to compare their efforts to a romp through the lower leagues. Whatever Rangers have done in the Scottish Cup this season is no more, or less, than they should have done under the circumstances. And spare me this ongoing fantasy about the Ramsdens Cup forming part of a hoped-for “Treble”. That word is being used by those who clearly don’t mind having their intelligence insulted. The truth is Celtic and Rangers are not what they once were and have chosen to live in a world of their own invention for the time being. Lennon asks if it’s realistic to expect Aberdeen to challenge Celtic for the title next season when there’s an obvious gulf in points between them at present. “Have you looked at the league table?” he asked during his press conference at Lennoxtown on Thursday. So the manager uses realism when it suits him, and questions reality when there’s an inconvenient argument to be made for saying Celtic’s season has been inadequate. He should have a look about him this afternoon when Celtic get a skeletal crowd for the visit of St Johnstone and take a reality check. Celtic fans are disgusted by under-achievement and if Rangers are cavorting around Celtic Park with the Scottish Cup after the final is staged there then their disenchantment will rise to a new level. Two clubs are trying to take two lots of fans for mugs, and only the gullible are falling for it. The rest have used the evidence of their own eyes, exercised adult judgment and decided to stay away until these two clubs are more recognisable. That’s why season tickets are still on sale in February. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hugh-keevins-celtic-rangers-conning-3150978
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That our squad of players are capable of playing short passing, possession based football with creativity in the final third. Against the second best team in our division. Over to you Ally.
