andy steel 0 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 If you want a concise and impartial analysis of the legal, administrative and financial disaster area that is Rangers FC, you'll have to look elsewhere. I don't understand it, not for a second. Many commentators have said that the Rangers fans should have been asking questions of David Murray a lot sooner; well, after almost a year of revelations about the behind the scenes goings-on at Ibrox, I still can't follow it closely enough to ask a pertinent question, other than 'what were you thinking?' Which I don't feel much need to worry about, because these kinds of things are not why I like football and love The Rangers. As with most fans of most clubs, surely, it's about sweet passing moves, heroic comebacks, rocket free kicks or crushing your rivals. But this head in the sand attitude won't work for Rangers fans anymore, seemingly, as we're being called upon to make an extra statement. One of humility. Fans of other clubs and the estimable Tom English are the main cheerleaders of this campaign. A director of Motherwell claimed the other day that for their arrogance alone Rangers ought to be punished, while Tom has complained of a lack of contrition. When SPL chairman, anonymously of course, brief their chosen journo pals after meetings, this mantra about lack of remorse is rarely far from their lips. I shall address my weighty, self important words to them. Let them quake! Following a club has nothing at all to do with humility. In my everyday working life over the last 22 years, in retail, I have to bow and scrape daily to people I'd happily skelp in the face then drag bodily out of my shop. When dealing with various financial bodies, I am required to submit, as are most of us, detailed personal details of both family and finance. Even when I try to get a holiday the intrusive state demands all sorts of details before it deigns to let me out the country. If you think I'm going to introduce humility to my escape, the football, you've another think coming! I assumed fans of other clubs shared my arrogant love for The Rangers, for their own club obviously. People don't go along to Scottish football for the silky passing or the exciting winger. God knows why they go along, actually, since the product is dire. But go they do, and I have to guess that we do it from a combination of habit, love, and most of all escapism. When a small and ever dwindling number of away fans huddle together for warmth in their corner of Ibrox, it's rare that they do not sing 'they're by faaaaar the greatest team the world has ever known.' Just as my rendition of the same song doesn't make it true - I fancy Barca hardly fear a trip to Glasgow - I assume they believe it as much as I believe it of Rangers, because we want to believe it. It's self deception on a grand scale, but it's essentially harmless and to call for it to be done away with is faintly ludicrous. Since when did arrogance become such a bad thing, anyway? I am enormously and arrogantly proud of my two sons; I don't need the approval of anyone to justify that. Same with the football. If we're to start punishing people for their attitude, perhaps we ought to introduce a scale of penalties for people who show excessive blood lust as well. No? Ah, I see...humility only cuts one way. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annan Bear 0 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Nicely written piece mate 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,359 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Well said. Ask an East Fife fan if say Dundee United comes up and tries to snatch their best player(s) and start haggling about few tens of thousands. They will all tell you about the arrogance oozing out of clubs in higher leagues and with a "grander" pedigree. *For some reason I just had that image of the Braveheart movie in my head, the scene when all the lairds started their debate who would be the next king of Scotland, who'd sit closer to the throne later on et al. They'd happily stab one another in the back for a little more "sunshine". Bad fault in human nature ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Goog article mate. I had a discussion along these lines with a few Celtic fan recently who were keen to emphasise the Rangers fans lack of scrutiny of their previous boards actions? What exactly were we meant to do? Ask for detailed balance sheets in match programmes as we won another league title? Fans just want to see their football team but our situation seems to have turned all our enemies/rivals into bastions of morality as well as experts on sporting integrity. On a side note (but still related), another part of this discussion is wny didn't Rangers fans mobilise against the board during the last 3/4 years of financial mismanagement. The Celtic fans were keen to compare the actions of their fans prior to McCann coming in to save the day. What these guys fail to grasp is that during the 6 years prior to McCann turning up Celtic were a shambles off and ON the park. They had failed to even come in second in the league and even finsihed 5th one year. Their stadium was a dump and their board was obviously negelcting their duties big time. Compare that to Rangers during their so called "crisis period"... 3 league titles (and one lost on the last day). A UEFA cup final appearance and a handful of cup victories to boot. Let's be honest here. Fans are simple animals. It's hard to get too militant about things when you're team is winning and picking up trophies 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest carter001 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 It has been asked many times 'why didn't we ask where the money was coming from to bankroll our purchases'. The simple answer is no fans, of any club, ask or care. They are just happy it is happening. Take Real madrid for example, they did not have the money to fund a £250m transfer spree, bringing in Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema, Ozil, etc. The fans don't care. The 'assume' the person in charge is working within the banking and financial constraints placed upon the club, just as what happens with every other business. How can you spend more that the banks will give you to spend? There are lots of clubs throughout Europe that are insolvent, they just haven't pulled the plug yet. This is mainly due to a rich benefactor footing the bill or, as is the case with some spanish teams, they are looking for government help. How ridiculous is that? The spanish govenment will help teams financially and then ask US for a bailout!! You couldn't make it up 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim1955 12 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I am a West of Scotland male and along with all West of Scotland males, I include supporters of all teams in this including the orcs, we simply do not do humility, it is not in our DNA. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I've been through the humility stage, but i've had my fill of it, now there just pishing on our back's and telling us it's raining. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewarty 1,896 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 "No one likes us, we don't care" has never been so true. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 "No one likes us, we don't care" has never been so true. Or perhaps we need to challenge ourselves with why we're so hated? Sometimes I just don't get it. If you take away the behaviour of the fans and deal with the club - as the other clubs should be, Rangers have been pretty reasonable over the years. We bring money to their coffers with a big away crowd, TV money and boost their attendances with the attraction of seeing top players. They raise more by selling players to us at what could be considered inflated prices - especially during the three foreigner rule. We've been respectful of clubs - postponing games when asked, moving others when necessary even though it's inconvenient for us. We're also respectful to them in the press. Our managers have generally acted with dignity. We've provided the opposition for many testimonials. We loan decent players out to other teams without asking them to break the bank. We haven't gone out of our way to shaft other clubs or to overly influence referees. We've taken all legitimate punishments (and some not so legitimate) in good grace. We raise a lot of money for charity and support armed services and emergency services. So why do they hate us? We sometimes offer less money for players than they think they are worth - but they do exactly the same to lower division teams. We want a greater share of the TV money but that is just natural. There is the 11-1 voting but that's just so that the other clubs can't just rape the OF. If there were bigger clubs from Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh to remove the duopoly, it wouldn't be needed. When it comes to the club, it just seems like jealousy and unadulterated self-interest. It was interesting to note the comments from the other clubs' chairmen about the newco vote. Celtic and Dunfermline say they will vote purely in the interests of their clubs. That, to me, is disgusting - where is the sporting integrity? They are implying they will shaft Rangers if it benefits them in any way - nothing to do with morals or the good of the game. The only chairman who sounded like he had integrity and talked about the good of the game was the one from Hearts - and he is a foreigner: just shows you the mentality in our country. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Jealousy Cal is the main reason for me. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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