Graham Anna and Glen

[franker 1]

In the aftermath of Bucharest, Spiers, Gibbons and Smith in particular used their columns to vent their disgust of the Rangers support. Since Speirs friendship with Matt McGlone flourished a number of years ago, you could find it easy to conclude it has affected Britneyââ?¬â?¢s utterings, and he is reduced at times to write his articles as if he was a contributor to a Celtic fanzine. You canââ?¬â?¢t help wonder during their flat share if Matt was injecting him with somethingââ?¬Â¦Ã¢â?¬Â¦ for instance Spiers in todayââ?¬â?¢s article trots out his fairly new slur on us calling our fans ââ?¬Å?a white underclass ââ?¬Å?

 

Gibbons meanwhile penned an article entitled ââ?¬Å?An open letter to Martin Bain, excuser of Rangers serial troublemakersââ?¬Â in which he mentions incidents going back to Newcastle in 1969! and comments ââ?¬Å?are succeeding generations of your travelling supporters afflicted with a congenital disorder that compels them, at semi-regular intervals, to inflict mayhem on stadiums and towns they visit throughout Europe?ââ?¬Â

 

As for Smith, despite no reports of sectarian behaviour at Wednesdays match she brings the sectarian slur into her column in today�s News of the World,

ââ?¬Å?Could it be that the sectarian element fosters a mentality that will always be hell-bent on trouble? We know that where you have sectarianism, you will find thuggery.ââ?¬Â

 

Having spoken to 4 individuals (including a member of Rangers security) who were at the game, the scenes whilst disturbing could not be described as the battle of Bucharest or a riot in any shape or form. Still hyperbole of the negative sort from these 3 journos when discussing the behaviour of Rangers fans is not unusual.

With their opinions there for all to see in this weeks papers, what will the three amigos report regarding today�s pre-meditated disruption of the minutes silence at Falkirk?

 

Will Spiers berate Celtics grey green and white underclass/ their trailer trash republicans? Will Gibbons write an open letter to Peter Lawell reminding him of decades of anti-British hatred from their support?(going back longer than 1969 Mr Gibbons if you know your history) and will Anna Smith explore the racist and sectarian elements of her beloved hoops fans?

 

Lets wait and see but be prepared for a long wait�������.

[ian1964 10,409]

Sweep sweep

[pete 2,499]

Sorry but we cannot keep trying to hide our misgivings behind other peoples weaknesses. I have witnessed our away support and to be honest was totally embarrassed by it. Drunken idiots who have even difficulty slurring "no surrender". We have a fantastic fan base spoiled by a few idiots. We have to start weeding before it is too late.

[Frankie 8,145]

Pete:

 

I've not seen or heard one Rangers fan deny that we have a problem with a small minority of fans who continue to let us down. Every Rangers fan I know has condemned this minority and their behaviour.

 

What franker's point is (and his post is a superb one) is that the coverage of other club's similar minority are not being condemned illustrated perfectly by what happened yesterday.

[26th of foot 5,827]

It is most obvious that the three mentioned and a few others; Bitter Martin at Radio Snyde, Phil Gordon, Ewing Grahame, Hugh MacDonald, Tom English, Martin Hannan, and Keevins are all in regular correspondence. An e-mail list if you like. There is a tremendous similarity in both word and phrase useage. The timing too, almost co-ordinated, I listened to Bitter Martin on Thursday evening going for it big time, and knew the others would pile in to reinforce over the weekend.

 

We have seen and heard it before, a skeleton script is agreed by committee, there are boxes to be ticked and they all comply, adding their own preferred prejudice. It's interesting the way they all go after Bain, the two turnstyles comment comes in for vitriolic criticism. Well, fcuk me but Rangers supporters always wary of the Ibrox Disaster should NOT concern themselves with piss-poor organisation??? I heard Fraser Wishart slap Bitter Martin down on Snyde, complaing at Bain's statement and stating he had lost sight of the main problem. Wishart asked Bitter, "the Rangers Chief Executive is not allowed to defend his club and support"?

 

As for ra Bhoy in Corduroy, he confirms once again his desperate need/craving for acceptance from the unrepentant ******s in both print and broadcast media. Several years ago, his fascination was focused on Glenn Gibbons, then Chief Sports Writer at the Scotsman. He lauded and lionised the man in turn, often referring to him as, 'the Great Gibbo'. As usual, his Sports Diary pieces bordered on homo-erotica, his fantasy included a weekend of lunches and intellectual walks along dramatic topography with the Great Gibbo. Of course, he wished for the Great Gibbo to administer a fisting and facial humiliation too.

 

Anna Smith is beyond parody. She was the Record's Chief Reporter for a decade, specialising in anti-Rangers stories. Her motivation is simple hate.

[26th of foot 5,827]

Reference my post above, I should also point out the following :

 

On Wednesday, the 27th October ra Sellik hosted an lunch. They do so every year, a few days before their AGM. They extend invitations to all broadcast and print media journos that have remained on message. The dynamic duo of Herr Doktor John Reid and Peter Lawwell sit down and lord it over their devoted subjects. It's a long liquid affair and all those mentioned above eagerly look forward to the opportunity of showing their devotion.

 

This lunch has been on the on-message types' social calendar for nearly a decade. There is also a Christmas Lunch at One Devonshire Gardens/Hotel du Vin. The reality, it's a briefing session and a reward.

 

If proof is needed, look at the uniformity of reporting of ra Sellik's AGM. On the evening of the AGM, it was Dr John is in control, argued a forceful and sensible line for continued prudence, slipping in a few well aimed reminders of the dangers of profligacy ie Rangers. Bitter Martin hosted Snyde's SuperscoreboardXtra that evening, he had been in attendance at both the lunch and the AGM, the whole show was handed over to AGM discussion. A full glowing report is broadcast.

 

It's the next morning that we find out that the Chair of ra Sellik, Herr Doktor Reid has overstepped the mark and sneeringly referred to Rangers as, "a bunch of boring Holy Wullies". Bitter and the rest of the gang failed to mention this bon mot, his journalistin nose had failed to pick up the day's most significant news worthy comment? We know he heard it and decided NOT to broadcast it, similarly the rest of them. It was someone who attended neither the lunch nor the AGM, Keith Jackson of the Record who had got wind of the comment and the story moved overnight on to both the Record and the Sun's front page.

 

Is Bitter letting down the Snyde listenership? Are the rest of them letting down their readers? Of course they are, deliberately so because they want to continue receiving the invites to both the pre-AGM and Christmas lunches. They all attend the AGM anyway, after all they are all Sellik shareholders.

 

It will be the same approach reference Sellik's away supports' marring of the Remembrance Day silence.

[calscot 0]

One really has to wonder what "weeding" can be done.

 

Is this really a Rangers problem at all or a reflection of the state of our society?

 

About 0.2% of a HUGE (and drunken) presence of our fans were involved in Manchester.

 

In Bucharest we supposedly had about 5000 fans there and by the TV pictures it looked like about a maximum of 25 people were involved which is 0.5%.

 

Now Spiers likes to call this a "sizable minority" but do you really think that with large provocation against a large gathering of drunken people anywhere in the UK, would not result in the 0.5% of the population who are most prone to violence, to react in a negative way?

 

You just have to go to any British town centre on a Saturday night to see a much higher percentage of people misbehaving.

 

How Rangers or the majority of our fans can be held responsible for a skirmish by 20 odd people against agressive stewarding that would never have happened at Ibrox, is beyond me.

 

If you were moving a pack of dogs into a pen with cattle prods, would you destroy all the animals if one or two of them turned on someone?

[andy steel 0]

The aim is certainly to remove the overt association with right wing British nationalism, no question of that. Even a left wing Scottish nationalist such as myself finds the ass-kissing of one political institution ('them'), compared to the ass-kicking of another, us, unfair. The only comfort is that it is so unsubtle as to be counterproductive. That pisses me off politically, but I'm happy about it football-wise!

 

I am a bit schizo on this subject, in all truth.

 

But there's no doubt these wallopers object to the flags, the songs, and so on, and will attempt to play up the links that come from such an identity as the problem within.

[bmck 117]

im not sure where this stuff about british nationalism comes from. its certainly not in scotland, despite the hordes of evil rangers nazis that abound in the mind of journos, that we have elected bnp members as meps. most rangers fans i know are centre left, when you get down to it - or, like most britons, uninterested at all in politics.

Edited November 9, 2009 by bmck

[andy steel 0]

I think it comes from the crazed imaginations of these writers, to be honest.