He Used To Give Me Roses

[andy steel 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3TAAV4Z70

 

Charles is back!

 

Three little words to make you either perk up a little or bang your head off the table in despair, depending on your point of view of Scotland's most famous Yorkshireman. Green, who entered the horribly small and incestuous world of Scottish football only about a year ago - it seems longer - easily pushed aside such amateurs as Geoffrey Boycott, Neil Warnock or the guy from the Plusnet advert to bestride this admittedly small stage as No.1 superfan or No.1 embarrassment, personal opinion depending.

 

Little has changed during his enforced absence.

 

Seemingly there is much support for his return on large but liable to extremism forum RangersMedia, while horror is the order of the day on small but sane Gersnet. Someone else will have to see what massive but apparently Stalinist site FF has to say, as I have never been on it, but from all accounts the reaction is likely to be negativity edging toward hysteria.

 

Why the splits between sites and fans as to whether Charles is a Bear or a Burden?

 

It probably boils down, in the end, to how much you can factor in financial awareness to your support of The Rangers. For those, like me, who have just about no understanding of the shenanigans which apparently make up the average day in the Ibrox boardroom, Charles Green was a Godsend. For, despite advocating the 'dignified silence' approach for many years, my adherence to that stance only worked if, when abuse or lies went too far, the club actually reacted. The reaction would be all the more potent for its rarity; no reaction, at all, ever, about anything, was redefining dignified silence as just plain old silence.

 

So for Charles to fetch up, cricket bat in one hand, brew in the other, eh-upping all over the shop and actually kicking against the pricks...you can see why all but the most suspicious would warm to him, and fans who can't get into financials would salaam before the Messiah, even one with crumbs of Eccles cake on his chin.

 

Against that, when you award yourself a 100% bonus for the not-exactly-unpredictable event of Rangers winning the third division title, little bells start going off in your head regarding motivation and ethical practice. His friends, too, leave you rubbing your stubbly chin and saying, 'Aye, well' to yourself. The fantastic and (seemingly) unfounded braggartism which, while a bit welcome, often lurched over into utter delusion - Dallas Cowboys, anyone? - meant that, for this Bear at least, when Charles left he was part hero and part pantomime villain.

 

And who can blame me? My club (and me, as a fan) have been pilloried as being the root cause of all society's evils for so long that for anyone to appear and tell us that we may not, in fact, by the spawn of Satan upon the face of the earth is likely to see that person rushed upstairs and into bed, without a thought for protection.

 

We may have exchanged one dysfunctional relationship, under Murray, in which we were beneath consideration and the go-to-punchbag for all and sundry, for another one with Charles, in which he chucks us a nice dinner or two but which we end up paying for; and when the bank balance is empty, gone is our new admirer. Charles may have brought us roses, but roses come with thorns attached.

[amms 0]

Seemingly there is much support for his return on large but liable to extremism forum RangersMedia, while horror is the order of the day on small but sane Gersnet. Someone else will have to see what massive but apparently Stalinist site FF has to say, as I have never been on it, but from all accounts the reaction is likely to be negativity edging toward hysteria.

 

I can't help but feel that a lot of that goes back to the Rangers Supporter's Trusts backing of 'The Blue Knights' last year. At a stroke those with animosity towards the RST moved into the 'anyone but the Blue Knights (ABTTBK)' camp. Those with animosity towards the RST seem to be fairly vocal on RangersMedia. So when Mr Green got control those ABTTBK people saw him as a saviour and protector from the RST and the problems that seem to befall it.

But the echo chamber nature of messageboards has led us to this point, where Green's 'obvious' faults seem invisible to many whilst the 'obvious' attraction of McColl and co is ignored.

We're guilty of it too, I read that Bill McMurdo piece and wonder if he is on drugs his views are so left field. Even poor Simply The Best who manfully shows up and explains his support of Green seems like a visitor from Mars, his views make no sense on here if you've been following only the narrative here over the last 6 months.

 

Anyway, great to see you've found your writing groove again.

[andy steel 0]

Aye, that sounds about right. In fairness to the RST they seem to have mellowed out and cut the hyperbole of late.

 

Maybe if Charles does the same he may get away with his second coming.

 

Apparently he's been at it in The Sun (haven't read it) and if that's true my patience with him will wear thin pretty quickly. Really not sure if his style (leaving aside the financials) is what we need now. Last year, yes, now?

[Zappa 0]

Regarding FF, I was over last night for a read and this news of a move from Jim McColl as well as rallying around it seems more worthy of discussion over there than freaking out or getting hysterical about Green's return. There was one thread where they were getting their knickers in a twist, but although it was slightly OTT, it was also justified because they were basically just voicing their disgust at the CharlotteFakes twitter account releasing stuff about Frank Blin to try to upset the move from McColl & co to have Paul Murray & Frank Blin appointed as directors. Essentially, the gist of it was "how low can they go?" with the obvious conclusion that there's no depths the bastards won't stoop to.

 

Regarding the RST, RM, FF and hyperbole: Without going too deeply into it, the RST gets it really tight over on RM and some (a LOT) of the stuff that gets said about them there is really out of order, but unfortunately it's a two way street and the RST seems unable, even to this day, to fully rise above the nonsense and stop lashing out at RM with unnecessary hyperbole on FF. Just last night I was reading something posted on FF by an RST board member and sadly I was left thinking "come on, is this really necessary? Rise above it FFS!" This infighting and sniping will never stop though, so we shouldn't hold out hopes that it will or be too disappointed that it continues. It's a faulty part of the weave in the fabric of the online Rangers support and there's no quick fix.