A Thistle with Graceful Leaves

[andy steel 0]

Sorry if this is a bit dated! Anyway.

 

'A thistle with graceful leaves'. So wrote Meleagar, the Argonaut, describing the rather filthy Greek poet Archilochos.

 

You can't help thinking the epithet neatly sums up The Rangers, too. Only the most cyclopic of fans could deny we have 'issues', as the modern parlance has it. Social behaviour, constantly in a state of flux, demands a lot of crowds: be they pickets on the line, protesters at a summit, or football fans. We've failed at times; Manchester, Barcelona, and now Bucharest.

 

And now we receive yet another UEFA fine, this time 18,000GBP, for recent disorder in the game against Unirea. It's a measure of the nervousness with which UEFA's decision was awaited that this has been greeted as virtually a victory, or vindication. How can being fined for crowd trouble be positive?

 

I think it's because Rangers fans are being 'conditioned' to think the worst, and who can blame them? A constant stream of newspaper, radio and TV reports, in the most hyperbolic language, forecasting a just and deserved chastisement coming down from on high, or at least from Switzerland.

 

Leaving aside the crass, sensationalist nature of these reports, this raises two points. Firstly, that we are our own worst enemies: if we didn't read these papers or listen and contribute to these programmes, they would soon be struggling. Secondly, and far more importantly, for all the faults we share with every other set of supporters in the world, we have much to be proud of. It may just be me, but the drip, drip effect of negative coverage these last years has brought a bit of doom into my following The Rangers, and I need a dose of reality.

 

Who hasn't been on a trip somewhere, and been at the end of some kindness from a stranger? Who hasn't fallen into easy conversation with the bear beside them, regardless of never having clapped eyes on them before? Cutting through the Scottish macho reserve: at the Title party at Ibrox last May, I hugged, danced and cried with a bunch of people about whom I knew nothing other than this - they were Rangers men, and that was enough. And on the field: a trail of wonder, blazed from Alan Morton, through Willie Thornton, Davie Wilson, Davie Cooper and Brian Laudrup. That's a drop in the ocean of talent that has graced pitches the length and breadth of Scotland for the last 120 odd years - you could fill a book with names.

 

It's time to remember the positives about being a Rangers man. There will be times when you wonder what your fellow fan has been drinking, and why no-one told him he'd had enough; but there will be many, many more times when you feel the bond of comradeship that comes from following our team. Yes, we're prickly and if you are doing us down you can expect a furious response, but the Blue Rose of Govan is a thing of beauty. Hell, we even have a load of manure delivered twice a season to keep it healthy!

[alexscottislegend 2,064]

"Blue Rose of Govan" - that should be a song!

[Frankie 8,151]

This is an excellent article that should make bears stop and think...

 

We do have every reason to be negative at the moment but I do feel that sometimes we take this negativity too far. Of course in a modern game of football finance is ever more important than sentiment alone however, we only need look back to the days of big Marv and that incredible UEFA Cup run to realise that we're still capable of upsetting the odds when we all come together.

 

Yes, the bears and the Rangers are things of beauty. Imperfect, yes but that only gives us more character and we should all be proud of who were are.

 

WATP

[R.B. 0]

Great read mate

 

WATP

[pete 2,499]

"Blue Rose of Govan" - that should be a song!

 

 

There�s a blue rose in Govan

It has petals so pure

And its roots feed on a compound of Parkhead manure.

And when the blue rose is blooming

The sweetest scent it does emit

And over on the east side

It only smells of shit.

 

I had a wee spot in Europe in my head. +\-