Do you miss the old firm game?

[Juancornetto 1]

I'd love out of Scottish Football altogether and I think most of us would agree on that. It's no longer a case of competing and winning or losing it's toxic to the point that it will never recover. These last few years have wrought a generations worth of damage, if we were parachuted straight into the Premier League tomorrow I'd be done with Scottish Football altogether, only a season or two to get used to the idea might soften my views.

[der Berliner 3,281]

We may indeed have been the victim of a conspiracy or some kind of criminality, but our ownership in recent times has let the club down - badly.

 

The latter has nothing to do with our downfall and the way we were treated by the SFA and SPL.

 

The details may or may not come out in the fullness of time, but Rangers' failure has been our failure and we can't run away from that. If we're going to claim success for ourselves when times are good, we can hardly duck responsibility when things turn sour.

 

You see, I am quite open to objective discussion, but the above hardly ever comes from people that I know, people who support Rangers FC. No insult intended, just saying.

 

Our new-found 'true friends' were quick to shut the shop on the long-standing SFL when Celtic and friends came calling, and their CEO soon found himself ousted. As the saying goes, with friends like these . . .

 

Nope. The SFL 1 teams, hardly many friends of Rangers FC amongst them, forced the terms unto Longmuir and Co., in truly Scottish clan-(backstabbing-)style. Like the ex-SPL-teams, you'd hope their actions will come to haunt them.

 

We have been marooned and marginalised, and if we are honest, we miss the intensity of competing with Celtic - and they miss us too.

 

Maybe a dose of reality is required. We are just looking at some low-key income seasons, players who are decent but hardly of a quality that would see us compete with all SPL teams over the course of a season and beating Celtic. You like getting beaten by the Scum?

 

We can either admit it and look forward to facing them again, or remain in the huff until the next Old Firm game shakes us up and rekindles our enthusiasm for meaningful and competitive sport.

 

What is there to admit? "Competitive sport" that means four meetings with the Scum per season, four meetings that will decide which way the title is going? Meaningful competition would be a strong team from Edinburgh and one from Dundee as well, so the "title race" does not become the 30odd game trial all geared up to a handful of local derbies.

 

Do we miss beating them? Surely not. Do we miss them now? Nope, for we can very well do without getting beaten by a - on paper at least - superior team. Werder Bremen surely liked to play Bayern Munich last weekend, not least for the full house and atmosphere. The club surely did not like the 7-0 mauling handed to them on the park though. I'm not saying that we can't defeat the Scum every now and then. But for the time being, I for one would hate to give them a Blue Pound in the cup or the satisfaction of seeing us off in grandstand style. We have, right now, a decent chance to build a settled team from scratch and make history in a field never thought plausible. Once the Interval is over, we will no doubt "rejoice" at the idea of having a real chance of defeating the Scum on a level playing field. Right now they can go to Hell or Connacht.

[Hildy 0]

Berliner, this observation is accurate:

 

 

"You see, I am quite open to objective discussion, but the above hardly ever comes from people that I know, people who support Rangers FC. No insult intended, just saying."

 

 

It is, however, perfectly true, and maybe that's why we don't say it. When Murray captained the ship, we bathed in the glory and claimed it for ourselves.

 

When he handed it to Whyte, we said that our troubles were nothing to do with us, and that we were the victims.

 

We can't have it both ways. We have shirked responsibility for the club for so long that we are reluctant to accept any blame when trouble comes calling.

[der Berliner 3,281]

Who is reluctant? Who is to blame for what? Whom do you refer to with "we"?

 

As far as I am concerned, we (club and support) did hardly a thing wrong. At the time, SDM financed some the triumphs we achieved partly with a perfectly legal EBT. That HMRC deemed it wrong is not our fault. You look at Spanish teams and see how they essentially legalised true financial doping. The person who shamed our club was Whyte for not paying tax and PAYE, which brought about the admin event. If a witch has to be burned for our fall, it has to be him. (Though those who let it happen should receive a decent whipping too.)

 

The club and the support took it all on the chin afterwards. We, club and support, started from the bottom and paid for the sins of people out of our reach.

[Juancornetto 1]

Berliner, this observation is accurate:

 

 

"You see, I am quite open to objective discussion, but the above hardly ever comes from people that I know, people who support Rangers FC. No insult intended, just saying."

 

 

It is, however, perfectly true, and maybe that's why we don't say it. When Murray captained the ship, we bathed in the glory and claimed it for ourselves.

 

When he handed it to Whyte, we said that our troubles were nothing to do with us, and that we were the victims.

 

We can't have it both ways. We have shirked responsibility for the club for so long that we are reluctant to accept any blame when trouble comes calling.

 

Do Man Utd fans blame themselves for the Glazers? Do Liverpool fans feel responsible for Gillette and Hicks leveraging the club to the hilt? Of course not, all you can do as a fan is support your team, if it's winning then all the better and if not then you quite rightly have earned the right to voice an opinion as to why that might be, but that's where it ends.

 

This idea that fans are the Watchmen of their club is nonsense, as has has been proved. All the moralising and gnashing and wailing of teeth has changed nothing...we are where we are because those who have either the money or the illusion of having the money have perfected the art of ripping off struggling businesses with huge turnovers whilst hoodwinking the fans into believing they're the answer to the previous con artist who did exactly the same. We're victims as much as the loyal shopper who witnesses a shoplifter pilfering goods from their favourite store.

[Hildy 0]

Who is reluctant? Who is to blame for what? Whom do you refer to with "we"?

 

As far as I am concerned, we (club and support) did hardly a thing wrong. At the time, SDM financed some the triumphs we achieved partly with a perfectly legal EBT. That HMRC deemed it wrong is not our fault. You look at Spanish teams and see how they essentially legalised true financial doping. The person who shamed our club was Whyte for not paying tax and PAYE, which brought about the admin event. If a witch has to be burned for our fall, it has to be him. (Though those who let it happen should receive a decent whipping too.)

 

The club and the support took it all on the chin afterwards. We, club and support, started from the bottom and paid for the sins of people out of our reach.

In our extreme naïveté, we trusted SDM to pass on the club to good and sound ownership. There were warnings that we shouldn't, but most paid no attention.

 

We paid a hefty price for that and lessons still haven't been learned.

 

This expectation that a wealthy Rangers-minded business type will always be there to take the reins at the club is madness.

 

If we want the club to be run in a proper, trustworthy and accountable manner, we have to take full responsibility for it, and that means ownership.

 

Unfortunately, we have failed miserably to do this - so far.

[der Berliner 3,281]

Again: who is "we"? You throw that word around rather loosely.

 

Responsibility? Do you refer to fan-ownership of the club? It is a nice idea, but nothing more. BTW, maybe I am mistaken, but should King take over some day, we would actually have "fan-ownership" ...

[Hildy 0]

Berliner, 'we' are the fans of the club.

 

You know perfectly well what I mean when I talk of fan ownership.

 

Fan ownership is a lot more than a nice idea. It's a means of running the club more democratically, and it keeps the club in the hands of the only people who can be trusted to actually care for it.

 

You might put all your faith in the strangers who roll in and out of Ibrox.

 

I don't. My faith is in us - the Rangers support.

 

 

 

 

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[MikeN63 0]

a lot of good comments here on both sides of this debate, however we've explored a few options to try and get out of the Scottish league, none of which have come anywhere near fruition. It is very unlikely and the naked truth is that to qualify for the CL in the future we're going to have to beat them to win the league title.

 

despite everything that has been said I look forward to those matches, but I do agree that if it was a diet of Man U, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea on a weekly basis then I'm sure I'd get over not playing them 4 x a season, but the reality is that this will be the main fixture to look forward to, from a league trophy and CL qualification perspective, for our short to medium term future.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Berliner, 'we' are the fans of the club.

 

You know perfectly well what I mean when I talk of fan ownership.

 

Fan ownership is a lot more than a nice idea. It's a means of running the club more democratically, and it keeps the club in the hands of the only people who can be trusted to actually care for it.

 

You might put all your faith in the strangers who roll in and out of Ibrox.

 

I don't. My faith is in us - the Rangers support.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Fan ownership