Tom English: 'No reasonable fan can think the media has one rule for Rangers

[pete 2,499]

OUR GOOD friends on Follow Follow and other inhabitants of the cyber world of Glasgow Rangers are an industrious lot when it comes to defending their club's reputation on the issue of sectarianism. Letters, e-mails, phone calls, indignation of all kinds with the occasional threat of violence thrown in for good measure.

Their constant refrain goes something like this: we in the media are all eyes and ears when it comes to bigotry involving Rangers fans but we're mute when similar bile comes spewing from the mouths of the Celtic support. Well, let's see about that.

 

Last Monday, a Celtic fan by the name of Paul Sloan was fined �£400 and banned from every ground in Scotland for a year for shouting sectarian abuse during Terry Butcher's debut as manager of Caley Thistle this day last week, a game that ended in goalless draw with Sloan's beloved but badly misfiring Hoops. The 28-year-old from Wishaw was arrested after police heard him shouting "f****** Orange bastards", a bawled-out rant that his lawyer later claimed was not meant to cause offence to anyone.

 

Sloan, said Eilidh MacDonald, had got "caught up in the spirit of the game". Meaning what exactly? The air was thick with hate? The players were charging about uttering obscenities at one another? Gordon Strachan and Butcher were squaring up on the touchline? The Caley Thistle fans were giving it laldy with the Billy Boys? Caught up in the spirit of the game! Is that not the euphemism to beat all euphemisms? Is that not the most risible defence of a moron you've heard in quite some time?

 

Once you've recovered your jaw from the floor we can move on. Take a minute.

 

Ready?

 

Let's go.

 

If the conspiracy theorists in the Rangers corners of the world wide web are to believed, then Sloan's shame would have gone largely unreported. Actually, it didn't. "Celtic Yob in Bigot Disgrace" was the unambiguous and unmissable reaction of the Sun. Over at the Record it was "Shame Of Sectarian Slur Fan". At the Express? "Sectarian Shame Of Banned Celtic Fan". Other papers carried the story, some did opinion pieces on it. And let us make our own contribution here: Sloan is a thundering halfwit. No reasonable Rangers fan could look at the coverage of his disgusting behaviour and still hold the view that the media has one rule for Rangers and another rule for Celtic. It's just not a tenable argument.

 

Especially if these Rangers fans are aware of the case of the Rangers supporter who got himself into a bit of bother at Edinburgh Waverley train station not too long ago. There is a parallel with this particular chap and Sloan. Late last month Stuart Burgess, 45, was fined �£375 for sectarian chanting on board the Glasgow to Edinburgh train. Burgess had been shouting, swearing and singing the kind of songs that his fellow passengers took exception to. Most Rangers supporters are probably unaware of him because from what we can see only one newspaper, the Edinburgh Evening News, reported this incident. Oh, and he wasn't banned from Scotland's football stadiums either.

 

So next time the Follow Follow brigade get all resentful about the raw deal they supposedly get in the media they might want to consider the coverage of that nice Mr Sloan before they unveil their grand conspiracies. And with that, let the blue backlash begin�

 

One instance doesn't really prove much in any direction.

[biggordy 0]

Who be Tom English and why does he have to explain what happens on a slow news day.

Are these the best examples he can come up with ? Scintillating stuff indeed !!!

What it tells me is that we have the same number of halfwits who feel the need to air their bigotted values as they do. Except our halfwit did it when there were no press around to expand on the incident therefore increasing column inches.

[UCF2008 0]

Another classic piece of unbiased journalism from Mr English:

 

Tom English: The ned in him brought him to the edge but it was his own waning ability to influence football matches that did for him

 

Ferguson has become expendable, that's the simple truth. He was too full of himself, too arrogant by far to realise it, but that's what's happened. Scotland have Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown, James Morrison, Barry Robson, Paul Hartley, Kevin Thomson for the centre of midfield. Ferguson, the way he has been playing, is eminently disposable.

 

Rangers have Pedro Mendes, Steven Davis, Kevin Thomson and Maurice Edu. Not a stellar cast but these are straightened times at Ibrox and if Ferguson goes then his �£30,000 a week goes with him and for Sir David Murray that's no bad thing.

 

For Ferguson, the end has come quickly, but it was coming soon in any event. Nobody is going to mount a convincing case that had Scott Brown been in Ferguson's shoes last week that he would, today, be disowned by the SFA and be on his way out of Gordon Strachan's Celtic. The crisis would have been managed differently and Brown would have survived on both fronts. Of course, as unpredictable as the Celtic midfielder is, it would be hard to picture him giving the V-signs up to the cameras as Ferguson and McGregor did. Brown seems to be his own man. But he would have been spared because he is needed. Ferguson is not needed any longer.

 

Well you can be sure the mhedia would have 'managed it differently, eh Tom?

Edited April 5, 2009 by UCF2008

[26th of foot 5,857]

Who be Tom English and why does he have to explain what happens on a slow news day.

Are these the best examples he can come up with ? Scintillating stuff indeed !!!

What it tells me is that we have the same number of halfwits who feel the need to air their bigotted values as they do. Except our halfwit did it when there were no press around to expand on the incident therefore increasing column inches.

 

Tom English is a journo from the Republic of Ireland, he attempts to portray himself as modern and urbane. However, he is a product of his conditioning, an ardent Irish nationalist. I have long held the opinion that nationalism of any variety is almost always underpinned by a pernicious outlook.

 

Oh, and he hates Rangers, particularly he hates Rangers supporters.

[Gers4Life 0]

So the guys a tit then! F*@K off Tom English

[Super_Ally 0]

Tom English is a journo from the Republic of Ireland, he attempts to portray himself as modern and urbane. However, he is a product of his conditioning, an ardent Irish nationalist. I have long held the opinion that nationalism of any variety is almost always underpinned by a pernicious outlook.

 

Oh, and he hates Rangers, particularly he hates Rangers supporters.

 

A journo from Ireland you say? And he's writing about Scottish football. Sounds like a Celtic fan.

[Yieldshields loyal 0]

who does the guy write for?

[26th of foot 5,857]

who does the guy write for?

 

Scotland on Sunday.

[Guest Gauche.]

More rubbish from the media,they take the line that they are honest and trustworthy and big bad Rangers and their fans are to blame for everything that is bad in Scottish football.

This is the same guy who claims he never hears celtc fans singing IRA songs !