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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article6342409.ece

 

 

At last a good read from the repugnant reporter.

 

 

Graham Spiers

 

Rangers FC, the 2009 Scottish champions, resolutely remain one of the great institutions of British football. And compiling this list of Rangers' greatest 50 players has been quite a trip down memory lane for me.

 

My own particular Rangers journey stretches back to just 1970, but in composing this list I have spoken to Ibrox fans whose recollections went back through the decades and, in one case, even to the immediate prewar years.

 

The old Ibrox prior to its 1980 all-seated refurbishment was something to savour: the great oval arena with the huge terracing covering three quarters of the ground, set against the famous Archibald Leitch stand, with the grass below glowing in the early-season sunshine. Back then, as today, vast crowds rolled up, and, for a little kid, bounding up the steps to take in this sight made for breathtaking excitement.

 

The club's history is littered with great players, as I hope the list testifies. This, naturally, is a highly subjective list, and I take full responsibility for its accuracy or whims. Thanks go to Robert McElroy, Jim B and Fat Rab for their advice, though I disagreed with all of them in the end.

 

 

50 Willie Johnston

1964-72, 1980-82, 393 total appearances, 125 goals

 

Forgive the authorial bias here ... but His Eminence, Sir William "Bud" Johnston, has to be quoted in a Rangers top 50, if only just scraping in. A winger, a dribbler, a fiery personality with a wicked temper (but a lovely guy off the pitch), Johnston was everything to a young Glasgow kid dreaming of such wing wizardry himself. Johnston's colourful career had everything - too much to quote here - but when he took flight over 15 yards few would catch him, especially in 1971-72.

 

49 Arthur Numan

1998-2003, 118 total appearances, 3 goals

 

Numan was the very epitome of the modern full back: quick, strong, intelligent on the ball and blessed (he's Dutch) with bags of self-belief. One of the first of Dick Advocaat's signings when he came to Rangers in 1998, Numan had just starred for Holland at that summer's World Cup and quickly became an Ibrox favourite. One of the club's greatest left backs.

 

48 Neil Gibson

1894-1904, total appearances unknown

 

This Rangers player was once called "the greatest half back of Victorian times". Neilly Gibson was also once described as "Pavlova in football boots". He was an ever-present in the Rangers team that recorded a 100 per cent league campaign in 1898-99, so let not the years dim his reputation.

 

47 Ian Durrant

1983-98, 347 total appearances, 45 goals

 

Many can still recall Ian Durrant's first, fleeting moments of greatness as a Rangers player in 1985. Craig Brown: "He had this amazing ability to streak ahead of the play, to ghost beyond defenders to latch on to through balls." Durrant was magnificent, one of the great Scottish midfield players-in-waiting before injury wrecked his career. His spirit and guts forced him back into the Rangers team in the 1990s but he was never the same player.

 

46 Colin Jackson

1963-82, 506 total appearances, 40 goals

 

Tall, lanky, with legs the length of oars, Colin "Bomber" Jackson was a mainstay for Rangers for a remarkable span of years. "McCloy, Jardine and Mathieson, Greig, Jackson and Smith..." was the Rangers side of the early 1970s, reeling off the tongue like a poetic stanza. Jackson was excellent in the air, and no slouch on the ground for such a beanpole.

 

45 Willie Reid

1909-20, 217 league appearances, 188 goals

 

Reid remains one of the great goalscorers in Rangers' history, his tally of 188 league goals is bettered by only three other strikers. The Great War called him away from Ibrox when he served as a gunner in France, but he was firtune enough to return adn resume his penalty-box exploits.

 

 

44 Barry Ferguson

1997-present, 420 total appearances, 60 goals

 

Despite recent controversies, and some cynics who dislike him as a player, this writer stands by what Dick Advocaat once said: "Barry Ferguson could play in any league in Europe ... in Spain ... in Italy." A midfield player of poise, composure and technique, Ferguson's greatest gift is his comfort on the ball, and ability to take possession in tight areas and open the play up for Rangers. Currently does not have his troubles to seek but would have staked a claim for a place in any Rangers team of any era.

 

43 Paul Gascoigne

1995-98, 103 total appearances, 39 goals

 

One of the most skilful - and troubled - players ever to play for Rangers, Gascoigne lit up the Ibrox scene for two and a half seasons before fading due to off-field problems. It was a memorable coup for Rangers when he arrived from Lazio in 1995, and in some matches of that 1995-96 season Gascoigne was unstoppable. Possibly the greatest case ever of brains being in feet.

 

42 Derek Johnstone

1970-83, 1985-86, 546 total appearances, 210 goals

 

Johnstone makes it on to the list because he was a prolific goalscorer, had a fine touch for a big man, could run well and at ease with the ball, and who was "all Rangers" for so many years. A recent DVD of his exploits reminded many of what a complete striker Johnstone was. To his great credit he was equally adept at centre back, as no less a figure than Jock Wallace ajudged.

 

41 Graeme Souness

1986-91, 73 total appearances, 5 goals

 

Hard, antagonistic, and prone to maiming certain opponents, Souness was no angel but was still a great Rangers player. By the time he triggered the great Ibrox revolution in 1986 he was past his best, but we still saw flickers of the great midfield enforcer of the late 70s and early 80s. A cosmetic surgeon has subsequently pottered with Souness's head but he is still a recognisably intimidating character.

 

 

 

 

40 Tommy McLean

1971-82, 453 total appearances, 57 goals

 

"Wee Tam" was an enduring figure of Rangers teams of the 1970s. If you were positioned high up the terracing of the old, oval-shaped Ibrox, McLean's little legs seemed to flicker like highly-charged pistons as he scuttled to the byline to send in his looping crosses. An intelligent player whose dead-ball distribution was his strongest asset.

 

39 Mark Hateley

1990-97, 222 total appearances, 115 goals

 

Hateley was a powerful and intimidating centre forward who overcame a difficult start to his career at Rangers, when he looked slow and lumbering, having been out of football for 18 months with an ankle injury in Monaco. Lithe and aggressive, Hateley turned into one of the great postwar Rangers strikers, becoming an icon in the club's success in the 1990s.

 

 

38 Bobby Shearer

1955-65, 407 total appearances, 4 goals

 

Red-faced, chisel-jawed and with a sprig of wiry hair, you wouldn't have wanted to pick a fight with Shearer any time. "Captain Cutlass" raked in the medals during his ten-year sojourn with Rangers and was a member of the famous "Ritchie, Shearer, Caldow," line-up which was written in the hearts of many Ibrox fans of the 1960s.

 

37 Davie Cooper

1977-89, 540 total appearances, 75 goals

 

A mercurial talent and winger of outrageous if fitful ability, Cooper's goal in the 1979 Drybrough Cup final will live long in the memory of many Rangers fans. Twisting, turning, duping opponents with his dribbling, Cooper has nonetheless become a mythical figure at Rangers, with many deleting from history his leaner times. The first time I met Cooper, in a TV studio two years before his tragic death at just 39, he said to me: "It wasn't all glory for me at Rangers."

 

36 Alex MacDonald

1968-80, 503 total appearances, 94 goals

 

Come on down, Doddie, lamb-chop sideburns and all! "Alex MacDonald covers every blade of grass, his lungs are made of leather..." How man sports reporters wrote such a sentence while watching this compact machine of a midfield player? Perhaps David White's lasting legacy to the club, MacDonald was a midfield phenomenon who was adept at ghosting in on the blind side of defences.

 

35 Alex Venters

1933-46, 201 total appearances, 102 goals

 

A brilliant, almost insatiable goalscorer, Venters arrived at Ibrox from Cowdenbeath already a Scotland international, and would go on to score 155 league goals - some of these "unofficial" goals during wartime - 18 of them in Old Firm fixtures. The Second World War came at precisely the wrong time for Venters (as well as for half of Europe) but he continued banging in goals during the unofficial war period, hence the discrepancies in his goals tally.

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34 Davie Wilson

1956-67, 373 total appearances, 157 goals

 

Davie Wilson, dapper and fleet of foot, was a marvel of a Rangers left winger, who still managed to "drift inside" to score 157 goals for the club, including six in one game against Falkirk in 1962. To this day Wilson, now 70, plays five-a-side football in Glasgow and says: "I'm no more than three or four pounds heavier than I was in my heyday."

 

33 Willie Henderson

1960-72, 426 total appearances, 62 goals

 

"Wee Willie Henderson" was a revelation when he burst on the scene as a 17-year-old at Ibrox, a winger of amazing trickery, skill and pace who was a brilliant dribbler, but also a powerful runner and accurate crosser. Henderson was capped by Scotland at 18 and savoured the 1960s with Rangers, though by modern standards it seems a minor tragedy that his Rangers career was over by the time he was 28.

 

 

32 Eric Caldow

1953-66, 407 appearances, 17 goals

 

Caldow came to Rangers having been steeped in Ayrshire junior football - if that didn't prepare you for life at the sharp end, nothing would. A full back of magnificent pace and determination, the Ibrox crowds adored him, as well as respecting his sense of fair play. Caldow never once let success come before foul play, never being booked in his 13 years at Rangers.

 

31 Herbert Lock

1909-20, 221 total appearances

 

Lock was an amazing character, a fearless, agile and accident-prone (in terms of broken limbs) goalkeeper who, scarcely into the 20th century, was an early trailblazer for great English footballers coming north to play for Rangers. Lock won five league championship medals in his ten years at Ibrox, and perfected a trick that is coming back into fashion with goalkeepers, whereby he stood nearer one post than the other - "off-centre" - when facing penalties before often diving correctly to make the save.

 

30 Andy Goram

1991-98, 260 total appearances

 

"The Goalie" was one of the outstanding goalkeepers of the modern game, a shot-stopper supreme whose anticipation and quickness of speed and thought were his greatest traits. Goram also excelled at cricket - and at drinking and chasing women - but goalkeeping remained his greatest pastime. One in a long line of accomplished Rangers keepers.

 

29 Ralph Brand

1954-65, 317 total appearances, 206 goals

 

Among the many golden memories of Ralph Brand - an unstoppable 206-goal Rangers striker - was his hat-trick in the club's famous 8-0 destruction of Borussia M�µnchengladbach en route to the 1961 European Cup Winners Cup final (in which Rangers lost 4-1 to Fiorentina, alas). Brand was relatively small for a striker - 5ft 7in - but astute in his running and thrilling to behold around the six-yard box.

 

 

 

28 Geordie Henderson

1919-27, 223 total appearances, 161 goals

 

An Angus man from Forfar, Henderson, amazingly, was never capped by Scotland, despite a brilliant and ceaseless scoring record with Rangers. He was an integral member of the great Rangers team of the 1920s, scoring 161 goals in 223 games, and many old-timers of the 1960s still said Henderson was the finest centre forward to play for the club

 

27 Sammy Cox

1946-55, 310 total appearances

 

Sammy Cox was called "a great Ranger" and held the team together in spirit and character when Rangers somehow contrived to go three trophyless years out of four in the early 1950s. A player of refined technical ability, with balance and intelligence, Cox was at home either at full back or wing half. In true Rangers tradition he had a tactical brain complimented by a rugged tackle, though Cox wasn't a physically large man.

 

 

26 Jimmy Smith

1928-46, 259 total appearances, 249 goals

 

One of the club's greatest goalscorers, Smith's tally of 249 goals (a sometimes disputed tally) in 259 games remains an unsurpassed goals-to-games ratio in the club's history, even including Ally McCoist. These days Jimmy Smith is an unknown name to legions of Rangers supporters, which is an unfortunate omission. Smith's rumbustious, full-blooded style was said to be quite a spectacle.

 

25 Willie Woodburn

1937-54, 329 total appearances, 2 goals

 

An outstanding, yet sad and tragic figure in Rangers' history. Perhaps the most gifted centre half of them all, and the pivot of the "Iron Curtain" defence, Woodburn was commanding in the air and a sound tackler who had superb anticipation. Having distinguished himself with Rangers he was banned sine die by the SFA in 1954 for headbutting a Stirling Albion player. Three years later the ban was lifted but the incident ruined Woodburn's career.

 

24 Jerry Dawson

1929-46, 211 total appearances

 

One of the truly great goalkeepers and an outgoing character, Dawson's greatest asset was the speed of his reflexes and the command of his area. The goalkeepr became an iconic figure in his yellow jersey for Rangers and is still adored by a dying breed of venerable Rangers supporters. Known as "The Great Dawson" in that once-chivalrous age.

 

23 Brian Laudrup

1994-98, 150 total appearances, 44 goals

 

Brian Laudrup was world-class, an elegant, slaloming dribbler with the ball, whose pace, control and trickery could be mesmerising to behold. For all that, his career in Italy had stalled when Walter Smith signed him for �£2.5 million in 1994. In truth, Laudrup never fully fulfilled his talent, as his later, dismal period with Chelsea confirmed, but he was a great Rangers player.

 

 

22 Jimmy Millar

1955-67, 317 total appearances, 162 goals

 

"The Old Warhorse", Jimmy Millar was a dashing and inspirational centre forward who formed a never-to-be-forgotten partnership with Ralph Brand, winning five Scottish Cup finals, in two of which he netted twice. Scorer of 162 goals in 317 games for Rangers, including 44 in 55 games in 1962-63, Millar thrilled Ibrox with his exploits.

 

21 Terry Butcher

1986-90, 176 total appearances, 11 goals

 

More than anyone else Terry Butcher epitomised the "Souness Revolution". Fans were agog when, in the summer of 1986, Graeme Souness lured the then England centre half to Glasgow ahead of a host of other clubs. The fans lionised Butcher, whose skill and spirit helped define the modern Rangers. Souness, in pique, turfed him out of the club in 1990 when Butcher developed a knee problem, but he remains a Rangers legend.

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20 Jim Baxter

1960-65, 1969-70, 254 total appearances, 24 goals

 

Ah, boozing "Slim Jim" Baxter, elegant, gallus, strutting, the king of Ibrox for five glorious years in the 1960s. "The best left-sided player since Alan Morton," it was said. Baxter was a wing half of imperious class and vision, dominating and controlling the play with an arrogance fully justified by his ability. If only, like quite a few great Scots, he hadn't doted on that fateful B&B of birds and bevvy...

 

19 Sandy Jardine

1965-82, 674 total appearances, 77 goals

 

Jardine had everything as a full back - skill, pace, ball control, a decent tackle - and had a marvellous Rangers career, even when the team had its dips against a formidable Celtic team under Jock Stein. The longevity of his career spanned over 1,000 games, 674 of them for Rangers, and he was twice voted Player of the Year in Scotland. A cultured, enduring talent.

 

18 Alex Smith

1894-1915, total appearances unknown

 

Smith makes the top 50 simply because the sketchy details of his career are still awe inspiring. Every shred of evidence from the late 1800s to early 1900s places him among the greatest wingers to grace Scottish football. A Rangers player for 21 years, Smith, from Darvel in Ayrshire, had exceptional talent, an outside left who was a superb creator of scoring opportunities. The passing of time should not be allowed to dim Smith's greatness.

 

17 Jock "Tiger" Shaw

1938-54, 287 total appearances, 2 goals

 

One of those rugged, unflinching players who made Rangers renowned in the postwar period, Jock "Tiger" Shaw - he is never quoted without his nickname - applied the sort of uncompromising, biting tackles that made opponents fear and respect him in equal measure. Shaw's haul of four championships, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups would have been much more had Adolf Hitler, in invading Poland, not mucked up the careers of a whole regiment of British professional footballers like him.

 

 

16 Andy Cunningham

1915-29, 389 total appearances, 182 goals

 

A powerful and celebrated inside forward of skill, purpose and longevity, Andy Cunningham served 14 years at Ibrox before becoming the oldest Football League debutant with Newcastle at the age of 38. With Rangers he scored 182 goals in 389 appearances, and his self-confidence and flair allowed him to become both a football manager and a perceptive sportswriter in later life.

 

15 Richard Gough

1987-98, 427 appearances, 26 goals

 

Gough was an excellent player of the modern Rangers era, a man who epitomised the nine-in-a-row era and provided the Ibrox club with leadership and authority in defence. A supreme athlete, of remarkable fitness and stamina, he stood in a long line of inspiring Rangers leaders. Post-football, Gough has drifted somewhat, becoming a faintly Hedonistic character, but still pops up doing TV or newspaper punditry.

 

 

14 Bert Manderson

1915-27, 400-plus total appearances

 

The first Ulsterman to captain Rangers, Bert Manderson formed an indomitable full-back partnership with Willie McCandless, with speed and sheer consistency his greatest assets. Manderson played for Rangers for 12 years before mysteriously - and after some internal bickering - leaving to play for Bradford City. In his day it was said there was no better right back.

 

13 Sandy Archibald

1917-34, 580 total appearances, 148 goals

 

If you could go back in a time-machine to the 1920s you would drool as a Rangers fan over the majesty of Sandy Archibald. The free-running winger is recalled for many things, not least the two long-distance potshots he blasted into the Celtic net in the 1928 Scottish Cup final to help Rangers to their 4-0 win, their first cup triumph in 25 years. Archibald won a total of 12 league championship medals with Rangers and would have been worth a mint in modern football.

 

12 Ian McColl

1946-61, 526 total appearances, 17 goals

 

This elegant and athletic wing half was a rock of the Rangers team for more than 15 years. He played during a time of transition in the game - when new formations were coming in and players were being asked to adapt - and the cerebral McColl took to these changes better than many others. Died as recently as October 2008, and is fondly recalled by older Rangers supporters.

 

11 George Young

1941-57, 428 total appearances, 22 goals

 

A Rangers giant in every sense of the word - big, rugged, robust, a ferocious defender - George "Corky" Young counts among the greatest leaders of men the Scottish game has seen. Along with Willie Woodburn and Ian McColl, Young formed the famous "Iron Curtain" defence of Rangers in the 1950s, so-called for obvious reasons. Young was one of the great Ibrox captains, playing either full back or centre half, and was one of the most dominating characters Scottish football has known.

 

10 Bob McPhail

1927-40, 408 total appearances, 261 goals

 

Signed from Airdrie United in 1927, having already won the Scottish Cup with them as a teenager, McPhail was simply a goal-machine, whose league goals record of 230 over 14 years stood for over 50 years before a certain Ally McCoist broke it. Nine league championships and seven Scottish Cup winners medals bespoke a prolific, powerful, hard-hitting forward.

 

9 Dougie Gray

1925-47, 700-plus total appearances

 

The legendary Bill Struth described Gray as "probably the greatest signing I ever made", the word "probably" indicating an uncharacteristic, unStruth-like lack of certainty. But the tribute remains great enough. Gray was a full back of extraordinary duration who played his entire career - 22 years - at Ibrox, a club record. At the time was viewed as a resolute defender who could also make an adept pass. The exact number of Gray appearances for Rangers has been frequently disputed, but at 700-plus they were plentiful enough.

 

 

8 John McPherson

1890-1902, total appearances unknown

 

"Jock" McPherson, like a lot of players of his time, might have looked lumbering today, but he remains one of the most versatile players to play for Rangers - McPherson played in every position, including goalkeeper. Was named, no less, as the finest player of the first 50 years at the club's jubilee dinner in 1922.

 

7 Moses McNeil

1872-82, total appearances unknown

 

As one of the club's four founders, the colourfully named Moses McNeil deserves his place high in the top 50. McNeil not only co-founded Rangers and played in the club's opening games in the period after 1872 but was also influential in choosing the evocative name of "Rangers" for the new team. A tenacious winger, McNeil was also the first of the club's players to receive international recognition.

 

6 Ally McCoist

1983-98, 581 total appearances, 355 goals

 

One of the greatest Scottish strikers of the modern age, "Super Ally" grew into a prolific goalscorer, whose talent and personality nonetheless had to win over the Ibrox fans after a difficult start to his Rangers career. McCoist had the mysterious knack for drifting to the right spot in the penalty area to meet a loose ball and score. Quite often he scuffed them in - or aimed a header one way only for the ball to go another - but it all remains a part of the McCoist legend.

 

5 Willie Thornton

1936-54, 308 total appearances, 194 goals

 

In the booming postwar period the packed Ibrox crowds marvelled at Willie Thornton, a centre forward who bashed in goals - and headers - with abandon. The first Rangers player of the modern era to break the 100-goal barrier, he and Willie Waddell made for a formidable double act. Thornton gave dramatic new emphasis to such football phrases as "striking" and "leading the line" in the 1940s and 1950s.

 

4 Alan Morton

1920-33, 440 total appearances, 105 goals

 

Dapper wee Alan Morton, the "Wee Society Man" or "Wee Blue Devil" as he was known, was a winger of supreme class who may lay claim to being the finest "footballer" in the purest sense Rangers ever had. Standing 5ft 4in, Morton had exquisite poise and balance, and constantly flummoxed defenders during his 13-year career at the club. Helped to make Rangers the dominant force they were in the 1920s.

 

3 Willie Waddell

1938-56, 301 total appearances, 64 goals

 

A certain generation of us remember Waddell only as an inscrutable manager, who led Rangers to their 1972 European Cup Winners Cup triumph. But few in the long history of the club have made a greater contribution than Waddell: a winger of devastating pace and power, then manager, then general-manager, director and finally vice-chairman. Waddell was a star of Scottish football in the postwar period, a winger of pace and, especially, an inventiveness with the ball which was ahead of its time.

 

2 John Greig

1960-78, 857 total appearances, 120 goals

 

The long-serving, skilful, indomitable spirit of Rangers, Greig is the only Ibrox player to have played in three treble-winning sides, who also went on to serve the club as a manager and director. Greig played in a variety of positions, mostly with great distinction, though latterly in his career, in the mid-1970s, he began to take some stick from the Ibrox crowd, even once aiming a V-sign at a hollering fan from the pitch. Greig, nonetheless, remains among the greatest Rangers players.

 

1 David Meiklejohn

1919-37, 490 appearances, 46 goals

 

Appropriately born in Govan with a shipyard steel about him, Meiklejohn is cited here as Rangers' greatest player because he in unarguably the finest captain the club ever had. A wing half or centre half of peerless ability, resolution and composure, Meiklejohn's haul of glory as a Rangers player remains staggering - 12 championship medals and five Scottish Cup triumphs - and his legacy inspired the club for years. "With Meiklejohn beside you no cause was ever lost," Alan Morton memorably said.

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Just as he did in 'It's Rangers For Me', "boyhood Rangers fan" Graham Spiers tries to prove to us how much he knows about the club, yet fails miserably once again. His tactic here is to fill the list with Victorian-era players in an attempt to prove his superior knowledge to the "white underclass" as he likes to call us. Unfortunately his omission of a bona fide Rangers legend in Harold Davis strips his piece of all credibility.

 

Another epic fail for the discredited journalist.

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Yet again Speirs, son of a Church of Scotland minister, spends a great deal of time penning a piece about the club he supports.

 

Yet again he will be pilloried on here and on other forums because he is openly disgusted by the bigotry that continues to be displayed by a minority of the support which he himself, like it or not dear readers, is part of.

 

*Dons riot gear*

 

It's a long quiet summer, thought I'd start a fight:devil:

 

What say you chaps?

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Aye very good Cotter. You clearly need reminding of the sinister nature of this particular bheast.

 

 

ââ?¬Å?Should Rangers not survive Group E, one consolation is that the arenas of Europe will be spared the putrid stench of their travelling supporters appearing like savages in their midstââ?¬Â The Herald Nov 6th 2003

 

On the song Follow Follow: ââ?¬Å?Like the Rangers orange strip, the song cannot be listed among the great criminal acts, it merely offends" The Herald Oct 8 2002

 

ââ?¬Å?'Nice one, Jimmy, nice one sonââ?¬Â¦' the Dons supporters sang, a hymn to their mercurial Mr Calderwood,the new cock oââ?¬â?¢ the north. Poor Calderwood looked a mite bashful after this outcomeââ?¬Â The Herald Nov 1 2004

 

Spiers wrote that Jock Wallace was a bigot and a bully, the day after he died.

 

Bill Struth was ââ?¬Å?either an idol or idiot depending on your point of view" according to Spiers

 

 

Do you really think if Spiers was on some kind of innocent moral crusade as you seem to infer, he would ignore the week in, week out, home-and-away IRAoke from Celtic fans? Really?

 

The man who wrote about Rangers fans....

 

ââ?¬Å?....rancid chantingââ?¬Â...."the putrid stench of their travelling supporters appearing like savages in their midstââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?zealotsââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?poisonous singing at Ibroxââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?it must have felt like being revisited by the Dark Agesââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?this desecration of a football atmosphereââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?wholesale yobbishnessââ?¬Â....ââ?¬Å?the stinking, bigoted religious stuff was no choral minority or even small majority, almost to a man they were stomping and chanting sentiments which most people would regard as belonging to a backward culture....ââ?¬Â

 

....yet when confronted with Celtic's "backward culture", called the despicable desecration of the Armistice commemoration at Shame Park last November a mere result of "the political and religious complexity of Celtic". The man who describes Celtic's Catholic identity and the wearing of Republic of Ireland shirts at Celtic Park as "perfectly legitimate", yet describes the Protestant-Unionist tradition of Rangers as "mythical".

 

When Mike McCurry was called a "hun" and "dirty Orange bastard" by Celtic fans in 2008 it wasn't sectarianism apparently. No, it was "denominational ambivalence".

 

When Robbie Keane was booed during the Liverpool friendly at Ibrox last summer, Spiers wrote "it must be tough being an Irish Catholic in these parts". The boos had nothing to do with the fact Keane had come out in the papers that week and said how much of a Celtic fan he was you understand.

 

When the Lurgan Bigot spat on a Rangers scarf and shouted "dirty Orange bastards" (as verified by professional lip-readers) at the Rangers dug-out what did Spiers write about him? Oh, wee Lenny was "a remarkable human being".

 

When was the last time you heard or read Spiers take issue with sectarian chanting from Celtic fans? Ever?

 

His book about Paul Le Guen featured the word "bigot" around 60 times.

 

The discredited journalist has fabricated Rangers-supporting credentials in a desperate attempt to find some legitimacy to his constant stream of anti-Rangers (and let's face it, anti-Protestant) attacks. None of his earlier contemporaries have corroborated his tales of "paying good money to see over 200 games at Ibrox" in his formative years. Indeed he made no mention of this until the publication of It's Rangers For Me in 2007.

 

In recent times Spiers has gone from Chief Sportswriter of The Herald - circulation 60,150 - to football writer for The Times in Scotland - circulation 27,750. Have you seen him on television recently? Me neither. Not only is his campaign of vilification of all things Rangers effectively destroying his career, he is a virtual pariah in his own media circles.

 

But with friends like you eh? Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

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Something tells me cotter was fishing Norris...

 

I don't know of any Rangers fan that think Spiers has had a raw deal from our support due to his biased, petty (and usually just poor) writings.

 

Journalists like Spiers (and the editors that employ them) contribute just as much - if not more - to sectarian tension in Scotland than the people they attempt to vilify.

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Just as he did in 'It's Rangers For Me', "boyhood Rangers fan" Graham Spiers tries to prove to us how much he knows about the club, yet fails miserably once again. His tactic here is to fill the list with Victorian-era players in an attempt to prove his superior knowledge to the "white underclass" as he likes to call us. Unfortunately his omission of a bona fide Rangers legend in Harold Davis strips his piece of all credibility.

 

Another epic fail for the discredited journalist.

 

Saw this before and had the same thoughts.

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