Hurting??

[ian1964 10,416]

When Fergie speaks, we listen, especially on the goggle-box where he still refuses to talk to the BBC. Thus, the quick couple of minutes Sky's Geoff Shreeves manages to grab with him, pre-match, take on an almost Frost/Nixon aspect.

On Tuesday we were pre another Champions League. "Wonderful, marvellous, the greatest competition in the world," purred Fergie. He was talking up the first group match in front of the sponsors' board but we savoured his words as if he'd unlocked the secret of life's inner meaning. Then he signed off with his customary "Well done" to his grand inquisitor, strolled to the dugout, a wave here and an autograph there, and settled down to watch ...

 

Well, what was that? Man U reserves plus England's fallen idol and Scotland's captain versus the anti-football specialists? The future of the greatest club side in the world versus our doughty representatives, defending as if their lives depended on it and turning row Z-ing into an art form? Hmm. It certainly wasn't the Battle of Britain, as billed. It definitely wasn't one of those "big European nights" that Sir Alex Ferguson so cherishes.

 

It was all that was wrong with the Champions League. A tournament that rarely lives up to the hype. A contest that doesn't get serious, or even interesting, until March. A goose that was laying golden eggs just fine until UEFA, in their foolishness and greed, decided to stretch its neck. But it's easy to blame the organisers. What of Tuesday's participants?

 

Man U will argue they at least tried to attack, to score goals and to win - that Rangers didn't really have designs on these things. Afterwards Walter Smith offered up an eloquent defence of his hard-up club's tactics, pointing out that, as with England's Premiership, only the super-rich few can win the Champions League. So Rangers have to park the bus.

 

What a quaint phrase. Who coined it? Noel Coward, I think, when he was summarising an Anderlecht-Panathinaikos group match a couple of years ago. Another phrase popular among the likes of Coward and Alan McInally is: "Such-and-such set out their stall."

 

When we first heard that one - perhaps back when Smith would argue the Champions League was more of a level playing-field - we were in no doubt that it involved a statement of defensive intent, but the statement bit was key: as if the team were handing out pamphlets warning of 90 minutes of pinch-faced parsimony from a basic wooden shack - the aforementioned stall.

 

Now, when their frustrated opponents talk of a stall being set out - and both Fergie and Rio Ferdinand used the phrase on Tuesday - we imagine the structure having been dragged into the centre circle to stand next to the bus, with a "Back in 90 mins" sign in the window. This was how Rangers played the game at Old Trafford. Actually, there was more.

 

There was a stall and a bus.

 

By AIDAN SMITH

 

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/football/Aidan-Smith-Rangers-didn39t-just.6539053.jp

 

I feel your PAIN

[Gazza_8 233]

Written by a bloke called Aidan funnily enough. :yawn:

 

I'm getting fed up with this now. So what if we're defensive away from home? It's the only way we can play against european teams and it works.

 

You'd think they'd move on and write junk about something else.

[ian1964 10,416]

Written by a bloke called Aidan funnily enough. :yawn:

 

I'm getting fed up with this now. So what if we're defensive away from home? It's the only way we can play against european teams and it works.

 

You'd think they'd move on and write junk about something else.

 

They can't forget all about it as the PAIN is there reminding them:)

[maineflyer 0]

Anyone who has studied the bheast will recognize that this has almost nothing to do with how Rangers performed at Old Trafford ... And everything to do with the fact the bheast's team no longer have a seat at the Euro table.

 

Transparent and bitter as always, why don't they go home?

[juffery 0]

Quite frankly, they can write what they like. I know, Walter knows, we all know that we got a hard fought, well deserved point at Old Trafford. They got a Tuesday off.

[Tannochsidebear 2,314]

Too right he's hurting, his absolute hatred of us shines through completely.

 

What I wonder is why his editor allowed such poor journalism space in a rarely-read newspaper?

 

I mean, surely the point of an opinion piece from the Scottish press side regarding our Champion club holding the top seeds to a goal-less draw away from home would have to be positive, no?

 

Articles like this reinforce my total paper blackout policy that I have adopted for the last few years, I would have hated to have paid money to read such dross. I wont even click on newspaper website links, as the hits generate advertising income for those who earn a living from us, but despise us all the same.

[26th of foot 5,835]

Ah, horny handed son of the soil, Aidan Smith.

 

Aidan spent a dozen years or more pumping out his working class credentials, the only thing more important to him was articulating his Rangers hating credentials. Then, three, four years past, we find out that Aidan was schooled at Fettes College; yep, the same Alma Mater as Tony Blair, General John de Chasterlain, ...................... and David Murray. Further, Aidan was a Sellik supporter as a bhoy, a teenager, an undergraduate, and WTF .................... he has been a Hibee fror the last couple of decades.

 

The one constant in his fantasy ridden life(shades of Phil McGilliven) is his hatred of all things Rangers, and it's given him and his family a good living. Oh, I should mention, Aidan was a Jambo for a year, wrote a book about it and made a name and a fair amount of cash.

 

Aidan used to be big on the corrolation between Rangers and the Establishment. He empathised with all Rangers opposition, he shared the feeling of perpetual vicTIMhood. Every Fettesian constantly complains about double vicTIMhood, first thing Monday morning carriculum!

 

Aidan is a prick.

[26th of foot 5,835]

Too right he's hurting, his absolute hatred of us shines through completely.

 

What I wonder is why his editor allowed such poor journalism space in a rarely-read newspaper?

 

I mean, surely the point of an opinion piece from the Scottish press side regarding our Champion club holding the top seeds to a goal-less draw away from home would have to be positive, no?

 

Articles like this reinforce my total paper blackout policy that I have adopted for the last few years, I would have hated to have paid money to read such dross. I wont even click on newspaper website links, as the hits generate advertising income for those who earn a living from us, but despise us all the same.

 

Interestingly, Glenn Gibbons penned a similar pernicious take on Old Trafford events. Of course, the discredited journo(ra Bhoy in Corduroy) loves to lionise Gibbons by continually referring to him as, 'the Great Gibbo'.

 

There is a growing raft of journos getting increasingly upset because our club and support do not know(accept) our place. Good.