ian1964 10,457 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Smith slams Gers rivals WALTER SMITH reckons other clubs were ready to dance on Rangersâ?? grave as they died a slow and lingering death. The Ibrox side were voted out of the SPL and dumped into the Third Division last summer. Nine-in-a-row boss Smith believes the rest of Scottish football couldnâ??t wait to get at them with liquidation looming. Smith said: â??I donâ??t think there is any doubt Rangers had to endure a level of punishment. â??But Iâ??m not sure there would have been the same zeal from the clubs in Scotland towards any other club in Scotland apart from Rangers. â??They looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying what was happening at the club. â??We are going to be involved for the next couple of years trying to get back to the Premier Division. â??It looks as though the clubs who voted us out will be in a poorer condition than when we were in it. â??But that was their decision and they will have to live with that. They voted for it.â? Smith quit as Gers boss in 2011 but was brought back to Ibrox by new chief executive Charles Green last November as a non-executive director. Ten days ago Lord Nimmo Smith chose not to strip Gers of any titles following his independent inquiry into the clubâ??s payment procedures to players. But Smith insists they would NEVER have relinquished any silverware anyway. He said: â??Things are settling down now especially after the findings of the SPL Commission. â??In my view the club would never have lost titles anyway. â??Juventus had a couple of championships stripped from them but continue to say they have won them. We would have been the same. â??It was a sensible result last week and it means we can draw a line under it and get on with trying to take the club back to the position it is associated with. Thatâ??s the main thing we have to look at. â??Our job is to get back to the position where Rangers are challenging Celtic for championships. The club is now on as sound a financial footing as it has been in recent history.â? Smith now hopes Green delivers by backing boss Ally McCoist in the transfer market once the clubâ??s embargo is lifted on September 1. He said: â??Once we get the transfer embargo out of the way it will allow us to settle down a bit more and the team will continue to develop. â??Nobody will deserve greater credit when we get back to the top division than Alastair. I hope when he gets there he will work with the level of player I had and become extremely successful. â??We will have to have a step up in the standard of player each year. Smith has taken time to adjust to his new role â?? and reckons his days as a boss are now finished. He said: â??Charles asked if I would join the board. Having been a manager I wasnâ??t sure if I would fit in the boardroom. â??My only previous involvement in that area was giving a managerâ??s report at board meetings. â??It took me a while to find out what my responsibilities would be but Charles kept saying: â??Come on you need to come in and help usâ??. â??He felt I could have an input that would help the club and that was the most important thing. As a non-executive you get kept up to speed with important decisions that are being made but you are not the focal point. â??If there are times you can help then you hope that you can do so.â? On whether heâ??ll return to the dugout, he added: â??It doesnâ??t look like it now. I have not been inundated with offers. â??There were a few opportunities after I left Rangers but they were not positions that I wanted to take up. â??I am happy enough with the way things are going at the moment. I am doing a few things and seeing a few places I never thought I would see. â??You still get a tug every now and again â?? especially on a matchday because the best bit of being a manager is trying to win a game on a Saturday afternoon.â? Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/leaguedivision3/4833898/You-loved-to-see-us-suffer.html#ixzz2N7pDOfKy 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 (edited) "Juventus had a couple of championships stripped from them but continue to say they have won them. We would have been the same." I'm sorry Walter. You are a legend but with that statement you only give Rangers a disservice and provide our haters with more fuel. How was our SPL investigation in any way comparable to the Juventus case? They were found guilty of top level match fixing over a period of time and were rightly punished. Rangers were found "guilty" of nothing more than shoddy paperwork and a respected panel deemed that we gained zero sporting advantages on the pitch. Very poor statement from Watty IMO Edited March 10, 2013 by Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,292 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Is it typical that people these days have a tendency of picking the odd "wrong" or negative thing out of a good statement? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Is it typical that people these days have a tendency of picking the odd "wrong" or negative thing out of a good statement? How is comparing us to the Juventus affair in any way helpful? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,292 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 How is comparing us to the Juventus affair in any way helpful? Not my point, but ... was it match-fixing or some other problems? If it was the latter, Smith probably aims at "having won it on the field of play" and not, as has been stated in Scotland, by "cheating". 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Not my point, but ... was it match-fixing or some other problems? If it was the latter, Smith probably aims at "having won it on the field of play" and not, as has been stated in Scotland, by "cheating". Yes but he compared us to a team that clearly didn't win on it on the field of play using fair means. Let's not forget the Juventus scandal involved refs, managers etc. that were all implicated on stuff that could effect what happened on the pitch 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggy dewhurst 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 lets stop bumping our gums about the past wattie why dont you set up and put in place a scouting set-up to get the best young talent to the rangers 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,292 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Yes but he compared us to a team that clearly didn't win on it on the field of play using fair means. Let's not forget the Juventus scandal involved refs' date=' managers etc. that were all implicated on stuff that could effect what happened on the pitch[/quote'] Maybe he wasn't aware of that. As I said, his point was probably that the players themselves won the titles too, as they will not have been gifted victories et al by default or had been aware of any cheating. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Maybe he wasn't aware of that. As I said, his point was probably that the players themselves won the titles too, as they will not have been gifted victories et al by default or had been aware of any cheating. Maybe he wasn't aware of that? Well maybe he should do some reading before making these statements. I'm sorry to go on about this but Juventus were rightly stripped of their titles because their officials and manager were implicated in complex newtork of cheating with refs. They made decisions that had a major effect on what happened on the field of play. For an official from Rangers to even mention this in realtion to us is a friggin major PR own goal but hey we're Rangers...we seem to excell at that 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54andcounting 0 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 If we had been stripped of titles it would have been because we were found guilty of 'cheating' the very reason Juve were stripped of theirs, Walter maybe should just move on now and stop reminding us of that painful time. Shoosh Walter. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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