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  1. By Andrew Dickson WHEN the first team has performed well in times gone by, a common complaint – and a wrong one in my opinion – has been the same can’t be said for Rangers’ youth sides. It’s perhaps ironic, therefore, that as Ally McCoist’s men stutter a little just now, the under-20s are showing more promise collectively than many of their academy predecessors. That’s not a criticism of the senior squad. As I said last week, it is operating well overall and although some performances could have been better, it’s moving in the right direction. The pleasing thing is Gordon Durie’s kids are also excelling and they moved into first place in their league on Tuesday when they defeated previous leaders Hibernian 2-0. In a conversation with Durie last week, he and I agreed we can’t do enough to talk up the club’s emerging talents – and that we arguably don’t. Having read a BBC web article which ran through the biggest prospects in the Premiership a few days back, allow me to do the same with some who have caught the eye at Auchenhowie. After all, those I’ve been impressed with in Durie’s team wouldn’t be out of place in such company. On the contrary, they lead many of them in the Under-20 League. Darren Ramsay hasn’t been spoken of much since his Glasgow Cup final goal against Celtic in 2012 but he was terrific in midweek and scored a sensational clincher. In turn, his performance meant we had yet another youngster to get excited about and if he keeps performing at his peak, he’ll have a real chance. Ramsay’s direct, aggressive approach was so effective and it epitomised what you get with the under-20 team. The lads have a pacy, attractive style but when games become scrappy their work ethic is excellent as they graft and fight for everything. Up front, Calum Gallagher is a tireless runner in the mould of Kenny Miller who chases everything. Andy Murdoch is a midfield terrier reminiscent of Stuart McCall and he’s complimented by the wonderfully-talented Charlie Telfer next to him. Jamie Burrows has ferocious speed and great upper body strength so if he can work on his composure a little more he’ll have all the ingredients a forward needs. At the back, Luca Gasparotto is a threat at set pieces and a solid centre-half. Craig Halkett’s the same. There are others I could mention too and there’s nothing to be taken from the fact I don’t. In short, the team’s a very solid unit packed with potential. One disappointment is so few have seen that in person and there were just 170 people at Murray Park five days ago, many of them parents and scouts. When so many plead for youth to be given a chance higher up, it would be great if more turned out to support them. Games are free to attend and well publicised right here on the club website. The fixtures page can also be accessed by clicking HERE. With 14 under-20 ties left, Celtic remain title favourites having had more money to invest in their youth programme. They’ve games in hand too that could send them top but with two Old Firm matches to play, Rangers have given themselves a chance and their destiny is in their own hands. These are exciting times for the kids at Durie’s disposal. Why not come along and find out more for yourself, starting this Tuesday against St Mirren at 7pm in Dumbarton? WHEN the first team has performed well in times gone by, a common complaint – and a wrong one in my opinion – has been the same can’t be said for Rangers’ youth sides. It’s perhaps ironic, therefore, that as Ally McCoist’s men stutter a little just now, the under-20s are showing more promise collectively than many of their academy predecessors. That’s not a criticism of the senior squad. As I said last week, it is operating well overall and although some performances could have been better, it’s moving in the right direction. The pleasing thing is Gordon Durie’s kids are also excelling and they moved into first place in their league on Tuesday when they defeated previous leaders Hibernian 2-0. In a conversation with Durie last week, he and I agreed we can’t do enough to talk up the club’s emerging talents – and that we arguably don’t. Having read a BBC web article which ran through the biggest prospects in the Premiership a few days back, allow me to do the same with some who have caught the eye at Auchenhowie. After all, those I’ve been impressed with in Durie’s team wouldn’t be out of place in such company. On the contrary, they lead many of them in the Under-20 League. Darren Ramsay hasn’t been spoken of much since his Glasgow Cup final goal against Celtic in 2012 but he was terrific in midweek and scored a sensational clincher. In turn, his performance meant we had yet another youngster to get excited about and if he keeps performing at his peak, he’ll have a real chance. Ramsay’s direct, aggressive approach was so effective and it epitomised what you get with the under-20 team. The lads have a pacy, attractive style but when games become scrappy their work ethic is excellent as they graft and fight for everything. Up front, Calum Gallagher is a tireless runner in the mould of Kenny Miller who chases everything. Andy Murdoch is a midfield terrier reminiscent of Stuart McCall and he’s complimented by the wonderfully-talented Charlie Telfer next to him. Jamie Burrows has ferocious speed and great upper body strength so if he can work on his composure a little more he’ll have all the ingredients a forward needs. At the back, Luca Gasparotto is a threat at set pieces and a solid centre-half. Craig Halkett’s the same. There are others I could mention too and there’s nothing to be taken from the fact I don’t. In short, the team’s a very solid unit packed with potential. One disappointment is so few have seen that in person and there were just 170 people at Murray Park five days ago, many of them parents and scouts. When so many plead for youth to be given a chance higher up, it would be great if more turned out to support them. Games are free to attend and well publicised right here on the club website. The fixtures page can also be accessed by clicking HERE. With 14 under-20 ties left, Celtic remain title favourites having had more money to invest in their youth programme. They’ve games in hand too that could send them top but with two Old Firm matches to play, Rangers have given themselves a chance and their destiny is in their own hands. These are exciting times for the kids at Durie’s disposal. Why not come along and find out more for yourself, starting this Tuesday against St Mirren at 7pm in Dumbarton? http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/opinion/item/6139-exciting-times-for-youths
  2. Shocking attendances yet they still don't miss us. Ignoring all the lying surely the actual attendances are a concern for the top flight?
  3. Guest

    fan ownership at Rangers

    Interested in views from fellow Bears about fan ownership at Rangers. I'm seeing a lot more chatter on the subject (especially on Twitter), but RST (the only vehicle at the moment) seem even quieter than normal. I've seem some good articles here: http://t.co/YEgcWYEeFe All the while Rangers market value sits at around £16-17 million. The opportunity to buy a decent collective stake in our club has never been bigger, but views seem divided. Why? Faceless investors sitting in London & elsewhere are buying into our club (at current prices I can see why), why aren't we? As I say interested to know views. I for one am puzzled.
  4. A DEAL to transfer Ukio Bankas Investment Group’s 50 per cent shareholding in Hearts to the Foundation of Hearts has been agreed, the Evening News can reveal. The agreement needs to be ratified legally in Lithuania, but would see a token £50,000 payment for the shares made to UBIG’s administrators, allowing the Edinburgh club to exit administration with the Foundation as their new owners. Hearts’ administrators BDO are proceeding with caution in the hope that the deal can go through despite UBIG’s assets being frozen. Foundation of Hearts already have a £2.5million Creditors’ Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in place to secure 29.9 per cent of the club’s shares from Ukio Bankas, who are also in administration. The CVA is conditional upon the fans’ umbrella group getting UBIG’s 50 per cent stake. BDO have been in talks with UBIG’s administrators Bankroto Administrativo Paslaugos for some time trying to negotiate the handover of shares. This is the only remaining hurdle to Hearts exiting administration after the CVA was voted through last November. There is now a verbal agreement between both parties for the transfer of shares at an agreed price.
  5. The shift to the offence principle is criminalising both words and people to all our detriment, writes Stuart Waiton THE philosopher Joel Feinberg has argued that, in cases of law, “we have moved from the harm principle to the offence principle”. What he means is that increasingly society and the law is less interested in actual physical or economic harm and more interested in policing things that are defined as being offensive. One outcome of this is that actual violence is being treated less seriously than words and the notion that sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me is being turned on its head. Just this month we had a clear illustration of this in the cases of Paul McGowan and Michael Convery. St Mirren player McGowan was found guilty of assaulting police officers, repeatedly kicking one of them, and yet despite having a previous conviction for police assault received only 130 hours of unpaid work as a punishment. Michael Convery on the other hand sent threatening racist Twitter messages to two black Rangers players and received a six-month prison sentence. This is not an isolated example of words being treated more seriously than actual violence. For example, David Goodwillie, while playing for Blackburn Rovers, was charged with the assault of a man who he “repeatedly punched on the head and body and kicked”. He was sentenced to 80 hours of unpaid work, while David Limond, on the other hand, has just been sentenced to six months in prison for making sectarian threats to a journalist. The list goes on. I first noticed this trend to not only elevate the harm done by words but also to downgrade the issue of violence while watching the Panorama programme entitled Stadiums of Hate, which wrongly portrayed the coming Polish and Ukrainian European football tournament as a racist bloodbath in waiting. In this hysterical portrayal of racist and fascist Ukrainians and Poles, images of fascist saluting fans were interspersed with shots of a group of Asian men being kicked to bits by a group of skinhead thugs at a football match. What shocked me was that in the voiceover of these events there appeared to be not only no separation of the two things, one a gesture, the other actual serious (and I thought horrifying) violence, but the fact that far more seemed to be made of the singing and gesturing than the actual beatings themselves. This programme was illustrative of a number of trends that help to explain the increased policing of words. Firstly, there is the overblown fear of the racist (or sectarian) mob by our politically correct elite, a fear that has led to football (where the “mob” can be found) being a focal point for never-ending awareness campaigns, new laws, surveillance and so on. The control of language around football has been elevated into a largely unquestioned principle and words themselves have been increasingly criminalised. Secondly, there is the elitist elevation of certain “right thinking” and “tolerant” issues into moral absolutes, around which politicians queue up to illustrate their worth as people who “oppose racism and sectarianism in all its forms”, leading to the demand that something must be done – that something being an ever-increasing array of laws to police incorrect words. But it is not only at football or with issue of racism that this policing of language can be seen. There are a variety of “offence” cases, usually related to Facebook or Twitter, that incorporate a whole range of offences, for example the Tom Daley Twitter case. Society itself has shifted the goalposts in the last few decades and increasingly treats adults as vulnerable subjects who need protection. Radicals of the 1980s have helped this process by giving up on campaigns for social equality and shifting their attention to the need to police incorrect words – the campaign against institutional racism, for example, has shifted to the terrain of newly defined “hate crimes”. They also helped to construct the idea that certain groups in society were vulnerable groups and as such were more easily harmed and needed added protection. While there remains a caricatured hierarchy of the vulnerable, the genie is now out of the bottle and we can all define ourselves as being offended, abused, traumatised or harassed by certain words. And the newly emerged therapeutic state can step in and find a new role for itself, both to define us as being offended and to protect us from insults. Recently I noticed a poster that read: “We will not tolerate violence in any form including the use of foul language, verbal abuse and aggression.” I was reminded of the philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s profound statement: “What increasingly appears as the central human right of late-capitalist society is the right not to be harassed, which is a right to be kept at a safe distance from others”. For Žižek, in our fragmented world with few clear unifying beliefs or morals, the role of the state has become a problematic one, whereby our isolated insecurity is institutionalised, and they assist us by protecting us in our fragile hamster ball worlds. We are all vulnerable now, the state and law tell us, easily offended and undermined by insults, bogus threats or politically incorrect language, and must be protected. Tragically, this all runs the risk of undermining the moral legitimacy of the law, filling prisons with non-criminals, educating vulnerable groups (indeed all of us) to be increasingly offended, and creating a climate within which the new generation of adults is encouraged to be the most thin-skinned of chronically offended caricatures. • Stuart Waiton is the author of Snobs Law: Criminalising Football Fans in an Age of Intolerance http://www.scotsman.com/news/comment-law-must-focus-on-actions-not-words-1-3271525
  6. http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/st-mirren/257663-st-mirren-boss-paul-mcgowan-will-be-disciplined-over-police-officer-attack/ Surely he'll serve time for this? Can't believe it's not headline news given some of the stories on our players which have made it.
  7. Billy Brown believes the time has come to allow Hearts to add to their meagre squad as injuries and suspensions mount at Tynecastle. With a transfer embargo still attached to the club while they battle to exit administration, Hearts were again unable to name a full quota of seven substitutes in Thursday’s Edinburgh derby defeat to Hibernian. Hearts have 14 fit players to choose from, with further places in the squad having to be handed to youths from the Under-17s. Brown questioned whether the sight of kids just out of school having to be called into the first team could damage the reputation of the game in Scotland and declared that “enough is enough”. He said that the sanctions on the club were punishing the wrong people, with former owner Vladimir Romanov now out of the picture. Brown said: “We’ve taken our punishment on the chin and as far as I’m concerned the punishment should end now. “We should be able to sign players now. Everybody speaks about sporting integrity and it is about time the ban was lifted. “It is not the people here that are at fault for what happened. The man who caused it has gone. “We have about 13 or 14 players to pick from and we can’t fill the bench. Jamie Hamill is suspended on Sunday and Scott Robinson will be suspended [later in the month]. “This isn’t a bluff. Within three or four injuries and suspensions we are having to put 15 and 16-year-olds in. “You tell me if that’s a benefit to Scottish football. “I think the time has now come. Enough is enough and we have to be given a bit of leeway.” http://m.stv.tv/sport/football/clubs/hearts/258929-billy-brown-enough-is-enough-hearts-transfer-ban-must-be-lifted/
  8. Apologies if this has been done to death elsewhere but I haven't noticed any particular complaint about Celtic postponing their fixture this week to play in a lucrative friendly tournament. Has sporting integrity now gone out the window? Is it now ok to move fixtures around to suit the desires of one club? Is the top league now being run exclusively for the financial benefit of one club? All rhetorical questions of course but the answer to the next one is less obvious, at least to me anyway. Why does nobody seem to object to anything they do now?
  9. Not because it's not deserved, but because Walter played terrible football too but nobody really seemed to care. It used to annoy me that people had such a short sighted view under Walter. The football he played was never going to get us anywhere in Europe (bar 2 successful seasons over both stints, the second success due to playing 10 defenders in the UEFA Cup) and while it won domestic trophies, it wasn't the type of long term philosophy that was going to see the club prosper, without throwing money at players. In Walter's first stint we hardly developed any youth talent and he left the squad in a mess. Is it the case that the football is so poor now that nobody can ignore it any more? Or is it because we are playing such poor opposition now? The common line under Walter was that winning is all that matters. Well we are still doing that.
  10. Bell; Faure, McCulloch, Mohsni, Wallace; Black; Peralta, Law, Macleod; Clark, Daly
  11. The bright spots of 2013's Scottish Football may not be bright enough to light up 2014 according to Craig Burley, as lack of a competitive top flight darkens our game. THE new year promises more of the same on the domestic front – and it’s boring as hell. So desperate have we become that the upturn of the national team under Gordon Strachan and the splattering of talented kids at ?Dundee United have people clinging to some sort of hope. But there can be no sane person left in the country who actually believes fans are better served with Rangers trawling the lower leagues while Celtic canter to another title. Since their side tumbled out of Europe, Hoops fans have headed for the hills on match days. Talk of an unbeaten league run has failed to stop punters going for a Saturday afternoon supermarket sweep with the missus. Rangers’ winning streak ended at the hands of Stranraer but who was really buying into club records when those wins came against the window cleaner and your postman? Can’t we just be honest with ourselves Scotland’s top league needs a competitive edge back – even if it’s just a two-horse race. Although they are playing in different leagues now, there has been more squabbling between the Old Firm than I care to remember. But while the Glasgow giants continue to bicker there have been some changes for the good and some crumbs of comfort. Once most of us have enjoyed the World Cup in Brazil we can look forward to qualification for France 2016 under Strachan. So far the signs are encouraging so let’s hope that snowballs into the Euro qualifiers. Youngsters are the lifeblood of the national team and Dundee United might provide a few top talents. That will be a testament to the work done by my old team-mate Jackie McNamara and his staff. Jackie and I both played for Scotland under Craig Brown and he decided it was pipe and slippers time earlier this year. Craig didn’t get enough credit but his departure at Aberdeen offered Derek McInnes an avenue back into the game. He has given the Dons some vigour and added a bit of quality to the squad. His side lost to Motherwell on Boxing Day and that left the Steelmen in second spot. Stuart McCall has turned down chances to move on from Fir Park and that looks like a good decision as Well continue to ride high despite losing some key players. Last year Ross County gaffer Derek Adams was the best thing since sliced bread and the next top prospect. But 12 months later the only reason County don’t prop up the league is the 15-point penalty for Hearts. And what a shame it is to see another great institution in Scottish football head for the lower leagues. But however tough it seems for Gary Locke and the Jambos, they will come back stronger. On the other side of Edinburgh, Hibs seem to have finally made a wise choice in appointing Terry Butcher as manager. The stadium and training ground are all in place but now Terry has to get it right on the field. The big man’s departure from Inverness will have been a blow ?and it will be interesting to see how new gaffer John Hughes copes. Kilmarnock’s fans have been in a bun fight with chairman Michael Johnson while League Cup-winning boss Danny Lennon has avoided the axe at St Mirren after a dodgy start to the new campaign. The start to next season will be vital for our game as Celtic bid to reach the Champions League and Scotland start the Euro 2016 campaign. If results go pair shaped for both then we are stuffed once more. Unless you’re still of the persuasion that the ?domestic game is flying high.
  12. Luca Gasparotto to Stirling Albion Calum Gallacher to East Stirling
  13. Another weekend with no game...sigh. Here's your Sunday morning 'long piece' a day or so early. Today's musical accompaniment is Hannah Georgas with 'Enemies'. Takes a while to get going but grows on you, kind of like a modern Suzanne Vega. Living with other people isn't always easy. Look at cities - the number of urban dwellers who look for ways to escape tells its own story: living with other people creates tension. So it's no wonder that many of the 20th century's finest thinkers on cities and how to live in them from countries which suffered the most devastation to their cities: having seen their countries convulsed for the better part of the entire 100 years, you can't be surprised that so many French and German intellectuals turned their minds toward how to improve the world for the future. Le Certeau, Foucault, the wonderfully named Lyotard...but what about the Germans? Unfortunately, for many Brits raised on a TV diet these last 40 years, mention of the word 'Germans' brings on a kneejerk reaction where an image of Hitler appears unbidden in your mind, either sauntering 'neath the Eiffel Tower or giving it laldy at one of the lads' night's out he and the rest of the gang were fond of. There he is at the podium, one fist turned backward on his left hip, his right hand karate-chopping an imaginary swarm of bees as he yells 'Niemals! Niemals! Niemals!' A strange man, indeed. But hardly the definitive image we want to take forward of that country, surely? Adolf's ubiquity on British cable TV is now such that it is only a matter of time before someone decides to hive off another arm of the History Channel into a dedicated Hitlery Channel. They may as well: from serious, academic studies such as The Nazis: A Warning From History or The World at War, through well meaning but poorly (cheaply) made cut-and-paste jobs like Secrets of the Nazi Gold to the recent, alarming trend in US low budget movie making to use Nazis as almost a comedy stooge - Nazis From the Moon, anyone? It's a real film, although even it is eclipsed by the appalling bad Nazis From the Centre of the Earth. What Jake Busey, so effective as the ghostly psycho the in Michael J Fox movie The Frighteners, is doing in this trash is anyone's guess: but any answer other than paying off a gangster's bill will reflect very badly on him. Hopefully America, given it provides pretty much the cultural compass for the world, won't go down the Nazi obsessed route the British media is addicted to. If you think the next four years, with day by day accounts of World War One are going to be full on, just wait, if you're old enough, until 1933 - I should think you will have a minute by minute account of what Herr Schicklegruber was up to from the day he assumed power until the Fuhrer's butler served up the cyanide and Lugers in the bunker. Given I'll be 63 in 2033 I imagine I will be either (a) dead or (b) gaga so it won't matter to me. I don't envy the rest of you, though! I suppose it shows how getting your image, your public perception out from under some kind of media imposed identity is not easy. Hence the reluctance in Britain to take people seriously who have names like Mearsheimer, Gadamer, or Bauman. Stuck in a Dr Strangelovian timewarp, we see them as sinister candidates for the experiment room rather than people who may offer something positive. Michael Schumacher, it's true, was popular, but his popularity in the UK was of the grudging respect kind last seen in veteran Desert Rats when they were talking about Rommel. In my lifetime I can think of only Prof.Heinz Wolff, woolly-haired boffin of TV science-fest The Great Egg Race, who has been accepted in Britain. Even he was looked upon with grave suspicion by my mother, although admittedly she was bombed out by the Luftwaffe in the 40's and has never forgiven 'the Germans' since. We as Bluenoses know all too well that if you don't control your own image, others will happily control it for you, and those others will almost certainly have nefarious intent. Our current status in the game - if this were India we would rank somewhere between pariah dog and untouchable street sweeper - have led many, me included, to adopt a defiant stance of 'get it up ye!' and to hold ourselves apart from the rest. They'll need us more than we need them, I have said, and meant it. Now, I'm not so sure. When veteran sociologist Zygmunt Bauman recently took a look at urban life, he diagnosed it to be suffering from two separate but connected illnesses, which, in the time honoured fashion of the intellectual, he gave the unfriendly names of mixophobia and mixophilia. The former sees fear of other groups than one's own run rampant, and those who can do so barricade themselves into gated communities with security guards, gradually losing the ability to communicate with the others outside, the fear of whom grows the more they become unknown. A self-perpetuating cycle where no one wins except, presumably, Barratt Homes. Mixophilia, meanwhile, seems a bit optimistic to me, a happy city with lots of mixing between classes and sects, Bauman foresees 'benign, and often deeply gratifying and enjoyable daily encounters with the humanity hiding behind the frighteningly unfamiliar scenic masks of different and alien races, nationalities, Gods and liturgies'. I remain doubtful how enjoyable daily bumping into hordes of celtc fans would be, especially in a city with trams, but I do take his point: hiding ourselves away in a ghetto will, in the long run, do more harm than good. Hang on , though, I hear you cry. What about Timmy? When O'Neill appeared, they drew back into the cultural enclave, they've never come out of it since and they're doing alright, aren't they? Well, not really, no. Although they have people at the top of the game and are very much the country's strongest side, there are two caveats. First, obviously, we handed it them on a plate, both due to our implosion and our mismanagement of the game during the SPL period. If we were to pursue the Germanic theme of this piece a little further, you could call the SPL period the Weimar Republic and the present lot the early days of Adolf. It certainly looks like a one party state, anyway. Given the delusion which appears to run rampant through their support - 'we bring smiles wherever we go' must rank up there as one of the best lines of this or any other year - perhaps Stalin's self-delusional Soviet Union would be a better comparison. Secondly, in broad terms they are dying every bit as much as the game as a whole. Although many Bears see the Sectarianism Legislation as directly only at them, it reflects a wider belief in Scotland that the day of Old Firm bigotry is past. Teams may be multicultural but the fans you are obliged to step past, usually pished and almost always giving it something from some idealised Irish folk history song book certainly are not. Scottish society, which seems to have been taking a look at itself in recent years (probably due to devolution and the independence referendum) has clearly concluded that shibboleths like the Old Firm are shibboleths no longer and must either change or wither. I think we're both doing a pretty good job of withering at the moment, crowds or no crowds, the mutual hate and societal impact of recent events causing disquiet among those who are fans of neither club. How appealing will the present antipathy be to the generation which comes along after us, which has to have the last few years explained and which, like all new generations, will probably look at us with the same unconcealed contempt my son directs at me when I tell him to cut his nails or tidy his room. Certainly it will keep me going for years, this hate, but as a long term marketing strategy it is lacking. We exist in the Scottish leagues, and we're going to have to come to some kind of understanding with the Scottish leagues. Hans Gadamer, in a book called Truth and Method, explained that mutual understanding can only occur when there is a 'fusion of horizons' between peoples. This fusion can only come about through shared experience and that shared experience can only come about in a shared space: if we exist in a vacuum, our horizons, whatever they may be, will be ignored in favour of everyone else's. Given how much everyone else's appear to accord with those of celtc FC, this is a genuine worry, but more broadly, if the OF continue on their road to cultural isolationism, they may well both be victims of the rest of society's impatience and end up moribund. This may seem needlessly pessimistic to celtc given their CL money, but it goes out as soon as it comes in and even it is far from guaranteed. Another German, philosopher Emmanuel Kant, talked about a general association of mankind: 'allgemeine vereinigung der menschheit'. For this Scot, who suffered at school trying to get his bunged up nose and gutteral, throaty accent around the romantic cadence of French, German is a godsend - it is basically 'say what you see' and none of that Froggie rubbish about silent letters or nasally stops. It even sounds like English. How two countries with so many similarities as the UK and Germany ended up so far apart is one of the great questions of the century gone by, but it's generally ignored in favour of endless programmes about Hitler, Goering and the rest. Unless we take steps to address our current position in the game: no power, no influence, no friends, nothing other than a sometimes useful chip to throw down for small clubs looking for a payday - we may end up more a curiosity rather than a vibrant player, and contribution we might have to make ignored in favour of bone-picking over the last few years. Given the present shambles that is the club, any kind of future vibrancy may seem like lunatic optimism but we fans have a duty to at least try and shove the club into engaging with the outside world. A voice which is constantly telling everyone else to go stuff themselves is unlikely to win many arguments. I suppose at some point we have to engage: even if the ultimate aim remains the annihilation of certain clubs,we don't have to shout it from the rooftops. The AGM is coming up: there will be a possibility of change, though it varies from day to day and depending on who you read. How I hope we seize this chance, for the alternative is terrible: Rangers from the Centre of the Earth, anyone?
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. Clyde News can reveal Scottish football bosses have agreed a £20 million deal to show Premiership matches on Chinese TV. First Minister Alex Salmond is expected to announce details of the deal on a trade mission to Beijing today. He says it is a great source of income for the Scottish game and gives clubs the chance to show their skills to the global economic powerhouse and the world's largest population. http://www.clyde1.com/news/local/scottish-footballs-chinese-takeaway/#.UndnWYtSIf4.twitter
  17. 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
  18. For your Sunday morning consideration. Just like the best newspaper keech, brought to you the night before! Unseeing seems to be the order of the day, alright. From the lights going out at Ross County, to the media blackout of celtc's 'Oranje Bastard' ditty, to media and SFA Prophets of a New Dawn, proclaiming Great Days Ahead. Those of you who played the music above will no doubt be reflecting on the stirring, rousing tune which inspired so much hope, fear and ultimately despair, as the Soviet Union sank from revolution to eventual collapse in 1991. I imagine those with no time for the doctrine of Marx and Engels can concede that, coming from Tsarist Russia, it was a noble attempt, even if it failed in gallons of the blood of its own people. What does this have to do with Rangers, I hear you ask? Hunners. Images of the old Soviet Union rushed back into my mind last week when the Pacific Quay CSC, in a move of unparalleled daftness even for them, decided to ask Jim Spence to cover the latest Rangers story; and then Josef Vissaronovitch Rhegan himself emerged on the back on some decent results for the national team to laud his latest useless initiatives. Perhaps Spence was being tested to see if the he could actually manage to report on Rangers without being inaccurate; perhaps it was to punish the listeners by making them listen to his awful ,stuttery, regional accent more than usual; perhaps it was an 'up you' to the Rangers fans who apparently lined themselves up with those other emblems of totalitarianism, the Nazis and the Stasi, by invoking the feared, Gestapo like tactic of emailing the BBC complaints department. Many of the survivors of world war two have, now you think about it, mentioned in their memoir the resemblance between the BBC and the authoritarian regimes they had help destroy, so this should come as little surprise. Who can forget Airey Neave's classic 'Colditz? A Holiday Camp Compared to the Beeb', or Douglas Bader's 'No Legs is Nothing Compared to No Freedom at the BBC'. Anyhow, those images of communist days. As a young leftie, I often watched with open jaw as representatives of the USSR came on the screen to tell us how everything there was wonderful and the western media were lying. That this was so obviously untrue left one wondering what it was they were trying to do; and the obvious answer was, of course, that they were trying to cover up the truth. Those old enough to recall the Chernobyl disaster will perhaps also remember the special, English language edition of Pravda which was on sale in Britain, and which sought to limit the consequences of this aged nuclear reactor blowing up to roughly akin to those of Kirk Broadfoot microwaving his breakfast. No-one was fooled. All the more nostalgic then, that Soviet Jim Spence should wind up his piece last week with a heartfelt op ed about how wonderful things were in the Scottish footballing garden, and that only Rangers were kept inside, locked in a permanent argument with its mum and not being allowed out to join in. Pravda got nothing on you, boy. No doubt the fans of Dunfermline & Hearts, going through their own miseries, felt a trifle piqued at being lumped in with the everybody happy! gang. It's unlikely many premiership treasurers are licking their lips at the thought of Hamilton winning the championship and bringing the bonanza that is the Accies travelling support (last home games, attendances 1,113 against Raith and 1,059 against LIvingstone) to the behemoth that is the SPFLP. Big Money!!! Kilmarnock fans, fighting their board to see who can hurt their club the most, might take issue with his comments; it goes on and on. Aberdeen close stands; the game is vibrant, apparently. celtc hide empty swathes of seats with banners; never been better! If only Pravda still existed, a job would be made for Spence instantly. The lights going out at Ross County during their game against ICT the other week says it all - if you don't want to see it, you don't need to see it. You can't help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox's 'danger glasses' in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which black out whenever danger threatens. Cool facewear, and great writing, but no basis to plan the future of the game. And what about us? A tartan version of Trotsky, exiled to the Mexico that is the fourth division, one can sense the ice-picks being readied lest we attempt to get back to what it known, apparently without irony, as the top of Scottish football. This expression seems to me to be akin to trying to find the top of your arsehole, but let that pass. The terror among some media commentators lest someone with money to invest get inside the doors of Ibrox is palpable; Rangers, the betamax to the SPFL's VHS, the Oracle to it's Teletext, the Scott Brown, if you will, to their Mezsut Ozil, are going to face some serious barricades which are being hastily erected to hold us back. Red Rhegan has broken his recent and extremely welcome media silence to re-assure the fans of other clubs that should Dave King try to get a job at Rangers, well, blimey, he will certainly have a good look at it and by gum, there will be no hiding places! Only the best of people for us! No doubt we'll all sleep better tonight knowing Stewart is looking out for us. Only a churl would recall his total lack of action when not one but two shysters bought our club, and conclude that he's more afraid of Rangers getting themselves organised than he is of any more damage to the club. We certainly have our problems and some our fans are probably as blinkered as Spence on some issues. But at least we don't pull the commissar's cap down over our eyes and insist that paradise is just around the corner. The bad news for Rhegan and his media mouthpieces is that our eyes are well and truly open now...we see you, and we know what we're looking at.
  19. Good to hear Boyd scored twice against the poor wee Jambos:) A Kris Boyd-inspired Kilmarnock made it two wins on the trot as Hearts were cast further adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership. Boyd showed good composure to shoot low past Jamie MacDonald for his first goal on 16 minutes. Callum Paterson came close to heading a Hearts equaliser after the break at a rain-lashed Rugby Park. But Boyd showed class to cleverly lift his second strike over MacDonald and take Killie up to 10th place. Allan Johnston's men climb above St Mirren and are now 16 points clear of Hearts, who are themselves 15 points short of the Buddies.
  20. How many truly World Class players have played for the club? Jim Baxter for one. Any others?
  21. Georgia 2-1 Scotland. Wonderful 20yd volley by sub Macleod. Game on out of nowhere. 81 mins. A wee bit of good news.
  22. New Pitch Laid At MP WRITTEN BY ANDREW DICKSON http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5251-new-pitch-laid-at-mp
  23. Posted by Roy Greenslade It will be interesting to see if any newspaper covers the fact that members of Britain's armed forces appeared to join in with Scottish football fans as they sang sectarian songs at a match yesterday. Initial reports suggest not. Some 400 uniformed soldiers, seamen and air force personnel attended an armed forces day at Ibrox, the Rangers ground. After a formal march and band music, a group of soldiers (they were in khaki) were filmed dancing, clapping and singing along with the crowd. Although it is difficult to make out the exact words on the video posted on YouTube, people have identified sectarian songs and chants celebrating the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. Rival Celtic fans were quick to point to songs that are supposed to be banned from all Scottish football grounds under a new law passed by the Scottish parliament. One commenter to the YouTube site wrote of it being a "disgusting vile and tawdry spectacle". Another wrote: "Shocking stuff. I hope this vid is forwarded to the footballing and army authorities." Two media reports about the events that have been published - one here on the STV site and another here on the Daily Record site - make no reference to the soldiers' antics. The STV report mentioned that an army band "entertained fans" and quoted Major General Nick Eeles, general officer commanding Scotland, as saying it was hoped to make it into an annual event. The Record did write that "the match-day experience began in dramatic circumstances" but only because two marines "abseiled down the Govan stand ahead of kick-off, before delivering the match ball to the referee." How odd that both outlets missed the story? Or do their reporters think soldiers chanting jingoistic sectarian songs in unison with football fans is unworthy of comment? Incidentally, Saturday was not the official armed forces celebration day in Britain (that falls in the close season). The club, with the full approval of the military, decided to stage its own separate event. http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade
  24. DAVID TEMPLETON and Dean Shiels will be among those featuring for the under-20 team tomorrow in their latest SPFL fixture against Motherwell at Ibrox. Both players have been left frustrated by a lack of game time lately, a result of their limited involvement in the pre-season programme due to injuries. They have each scored in substitute appearances – Templeton most recently at the weekend against Stenhousemuir – but boast just six starts between them in 11 games so far. They’ll each be in the first XI for tomorrow evening’s meeting with the Steelmen, which kicks off at 7pm. Entry is free. It’s a match in which coach Gordon Durie is looking for a positive reaction from his side after its 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen in its most recent outing almost a fortnight ago. Even before that, in a 2-1 win over St Mirren in Paisley, the Light Blues weren’t always at their best. Durie wants a better performance as Gers look to build on other victories against Dunfermline and Ross County, as well as an opening-day point against Hamilton. They currently sit fifth in the table, three points off the summit with a game in hand, ahead of a full card of fixtures this midweek. Durie said: “We’re looking forward to the game after the result a couple of weeks ago against Aberdeen and we want a good reaction from the team. “We’ve played five games so far and we feel there’s a lot more to come from the side so hopefully that’ll come tomorrow. “We’re happy with our points return but we’re looking to win every game we play in and in that respect we’ve not got what we’re looking for up to now. “I’m sure in the coming weeks we’ll get that from the boys and it can be quite hard for them because we’ve got to chop and change the team quite a lot with first-teamers coming in. “That’ll happen again this week and we’ve got Temps and Dean coming in, along with Kyle and Steve. “David and Dean need match time. You can train all you want but you need minutes under your belt in games. Hopefully the two of them will benefit from getting 90 minutes.” http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/academy-news/item/5193-duo-set-for-20s-test
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