Leggat - BRIAN PATRICK McNALLY AND RANGERS MONEY?

[ian1964 10,459]

RANGERS legendary manager, Scot Symonâ??s way to the Scottish Football Museumâ??s Hall of Fame at Hampden is being barred by two rabid Celtic supporting reporters.

 

They are Scotsman Publications pair Andrew H Smith, a former editor of the Celtic View and veteran Glenn Gibbons, who just loves to tell stories about his great pal, Jock Stein.

 

Smith and Gibbons both sit on the committee which decides every year who is going to be admitted to the Hampden Hall of Fame.

 

Let us be clear here, this is not the Scottish Football Association Hall of Fame , entry to which is automatic to any player who has played 50 times for Scotland.

 

The criteria for admission to this Hall of Fame is pretty vague, though it seems one thing which makes it harder to gain entry is having been a successful Rangers manager.

 

For instance, it took five years of inductions before the most successful manager in the history of Scottish football, Bill Struth, could find a place and then only after a real argy bargy.

 

Just why was this committee, on which Andrew H Smith and Glenn Gibbons are such influential voices, so reluctant to vote for such an obvious Hall of Fame candidate as Bill Struth?

 

Yet Jock Stein was pushed through the doors of the Hampden Hall of Fame almost before they were opened. An unseemly, but typical rush job from Andrew H Smith and Glenn Gibbons.

 

Since then there has even been a place for Rose Reilly in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame at Hampden. Rose Who? Exactly!

 

But no room for James Scotland Symon â?? Scot Symon, a giant of a manager and a fine man too, whose life and times I chronicle in GREAT SCOT â?? THE JAMES SCOTLAND SYMON STORY which is in the W H Smithâ??s Best Sellers list and is also selling well at the Argyle Street branch of Waterstoneâ??s, though strange to relate, the Sauchiehall Street branch has it hidden away and its Rangers book section is swamped by Philmacgiollabhainâ??s rant.

 

That is because, I am told, Waterstoneâ??s leave the promotion and placement of books in each individual store to the individual store manager.

 

However, I am pleased to tell you that signed copies of GREAT SCOT â?? THE JAMES SCOTLAND SYMON STORY are available at W H Smith and Waterstoneâ??s branches in Glasgowâ??s Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street.

 

Unfortunately none have yet arrived to restock the Rangers Mega Store at Ibrox since my sell out signing stint there with wee Davy Wilson on Sunday December 2nd. But this is not the fault of anyone connected with Rangers.

 

Publishers, Black and White have spent the fortnight trying to get the man in charge of the new system of ordering, to get off his backside.

 

For I know for a fact that the bookâ??s publishers, Black and White, made eight unsuccessful attempts to contact the man all orders for the Rangers Mega Store have to go through since the tie up with Mike Ashleyâ??s Sports Direct. His name is Stuart Middlemiss and he is the commercial manager of Newcastle United.

 

I can also tell you for a fact â?? and I have the evidence to prove it â?? that Rangers commercial director, Imran Ahmad has sent at least three emails to Stuart Middlemiss telling him to get his finger out.

 

And both Imran Ahmad and Rangers financial director, Brian Stockbridge, have already found to their own cost that they canâ??t get what they want in the Rangers Mega Store, thanks to Stuart Middlemiss. Both could not find sweaters they wished to purchase.

 

Now, I have never met Stuart Middlemiss and I do not know who is friends in an around Newcastle - including the Newcastle press pack â?? are.

 

But I do know that when I was based in Birmingham I made it my business to know everyone from every department at Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Brom and to share the odd glass with them.

 

Therefore, it is reasonable to ask whether or not the Sunday Mirrorâ??s rabid Celtic supporter and arch Rangers hater of a sports writer, Brian Patrick McNally and Newcastle United commercial manager Stuart Middlemiss, know each other?

 

Do they, for instance, share a glass in one of Brian Patrick McNallyâ??s favourite watering holes, the Irish Centre, which is just a goal kick away from Newcastle Unitedâ??s St Jamesâ?? Park?

 

For remember, every item asked for in the Rangers Mega Store, from my Scot Symon book, through Rangers sweaters and commemorative crystal, which Stuart Middlemiss has not made sure is available, costs Rangers money.

 

And that would surely please Philmacgiollabhainâ??s pal, the man who reports on Newcastle United for the Sunday Mirror and who has shown a bitter hatred of all things Rangers, Brian Patrick McNally.

 

As for those other two Rangers haters, Scotsman Publications pair Andrew Smith and Glenn Gibbons. All they succeed in doing by barring the way to the Scottish Footballâ??s Hampden Hall of Fame to Scot Symon â?? a manager who won two trophies with East Fife, 15 with Rangers and gave debuts to half the Partick Thistle team which beat Jock Steinâ??s Celtic in the 1970 League Cup Final - is to leave themselves and their newspapers wide opened to accusations of bias.

[kuznetsov 0]

another two tims influencing our game unfairly. this is beyond a joke now.

[der Berliner 3,292]

Well, at least Phil MacThreeNames' book has been taken care of on amazon over here.

 

As for Jock Stein, I wouldn't be surprised if is fast-introduction into this HoF was due to his (in-)famous "death on the field", i.e. pressing the emo-button. And that's not disrespectful, but purely sarcastical.

[gisabeer 409]

Well, at least Phil MacThreeNames' book has been taken care of on amazon over here.

 

As for Jock Stein, I wouldn't be surprised if is fast-introduction into this HoF was due to his (in-)famous "death on the field", i.e. pressing the emo-button. And that's not disrespectful, but purely sarcastical.

 

what happened with amazon?

[RANGERRAB 3,307]

if this is true Green must sort it out

[der Berliner 3,292]

what happened with amazon?

 

Nothing, his "book" just gets what it deserved over here, i.e. nothing.