Ally McCoist: I'd have bet on Ibrox not being picked for League Cup final

[Crimson Dynamo 128]

No English grounds? I can't believe that. Everybody tells me how fantastic Old Trafford is.

 

Old Trafford is on it, I'm sure I read something saying a stadium has to be open a certain amount of time before it makes this list. No Allianz Arena for example or Wembley

[Super_Ally 0]

I got told by Rangers staff when home in July that Celtic will struggle FOREVER to get 5* status. Apparently the reason they dont have it is because the tunnel is too narrow, and with the structure of Parkhead they cant do much about it

 

Would be really pleased if this was the case.

[Zappa 0]

I got told by Rangers staff when home in July that Celtic will struggle FOREVER to get 5* status. Apparently the reason they dont have it is because the tunnel is too narrow, and with the structure of Parkhead they cant do much about it

 

They need to prop the main stand roof up as it is, so if they wanted to do any major renovation or building work they'd probably need to take the roof off completely and rebuild it.

 

TBH, I'm slightly surprised that they haven't managed to wangle that sort of work into the list of work they're getting done for free ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

[pete 2,494]

They need to prop the main stand roof up as it is, so if they wanted to do any major renovation or building work they'd probably need to take the roof off completely and rebuild it.

 

TBH, I'm slightly surprised that they haven't managed to wangle that sort of work into the list of work they're getting done for free ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

 

Glasgow city council will help them out.

[26th of foot 5,822]

They need to prop the main stand roof up as it is, so if they wanted to do any major renovation or building work they'd probably need to take the roof off completely and rebuild it.

 

TBH, I'm slightly surprised that they haven't managed to wangle that sort of work into the list of work they're getting done for free ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

 

Since ra Sellik opened their new main stand in 1971/72 season, they have been in a state of litigation with the Architects. Forty-odd years of having to having to windlass out two enormous steel support beams 3 hours before kick-off, then windlass them back in an hour after the ending of the game.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

If you were starting from scratch then you may be correct but we're not. For all their positives in terms of fan numbers, Rangers (and Celtic) would bring nothing new to the table.

 

The one reasonably unique thing we had before was our intense (religious) rivalry but even that has been diluted/sanitised in recent years. Now, we're just two other average clubs with slightly more passionate/daft fans than the norm. To you and I that's unfair but no English club would be willing to sacrifice their place at the Sky TV trough for us and, if we're brutally honest, why should they?

 

Not to mention there would be plenty of our fans unwilling to leave Scottish football in any case.

 

Rangers' position in European football can only be bettered by improving the way we operate ourselves and as long as we continue to struggle to do that, looking for a jump to another league is just the same as an alcoholic homeless person begging for another 50p for his next drink instead of really addressing the core issue.

 

The good news is that I've spotted where you're going wrong.

 

You're almost dismissing our biggest asset - our ultra-loyal and huge support - whilst suggesting that we need to bring some undefined dimension that other teams aren't required to.

Why do we have to bring *anything* other than large groups of people who want to watch Rangers play, will pay handsomely to do so and will travel in numbers for the privelege?

What additional factors would Ajax or FC Brugge or Porto bring?

 

The only thing holding us back (apart from our boardroom and management) is the fact that we play in a mickey mouse league. We will eventually sort ourselves out, but we'll still be playing in Scotland against diddy teams. So it doesn't really matter how much better we get at operating ourselves, this will have no impact on our ability to perform well in European football. Eventually, we will have the organisation, infrastructure, size, fan-base, history going in our favour - everything, in fact, except where we ply our trade. Nothing, other than a move from Scottish football will allow us to develop to where we want to be.

 

I would therefore replace your jakie analogy with that of a husband whose wife hates him; it doesn't matter how much he improves himself, how often he does the dishes or increases his income - she's always going to hate him. Sometimes, you just have to leave home and find someone else who appreciates your qualities.

[Zappa 0]

Since ra Sellik opened their new main stand in 1971/72 season, they have been in a state of litigation with the Architects. Forty-odd years of having to having to windlass out two enormous steel support beams 3 hours before kick-off, then windlass them back in an hour after the ending of the game.

 

Yes, I heard that the architects cocked up and it wasn't until after it was constructed that it was discovered the extra supports were needed in the main stand and other stand sections too. The common belief is that they are to support/prop up sections of the roof, but engineers have commented that in the case of the main stand the swing-down truss supports are actually locked down because their purpose is to stop high winds from lifting up the roof.

 

Pretty funny anyway!

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I got told by Rangers staff when home in July that Celtic will struggle FOREVER to get 5* status. Apparently the reason they dont have it is because the tunnel is too narrow, and with the structure of Parkhead they cant do much about it

 

They don't qualify on a few points that being one of them. They essentially never will.

[andy steel 0]

I am with TRPB on this one. There's no need for us (and, I suppose, them) to bring anything to a table other than the prospect of attracting viewers to matches broadcast on TV. That's the audience the money men are looking for, and it matters little to them if the audience of @1m is in Scotland or Bolton; they want those people watching to entice the advertisers, who likewise want those people watching to sell their wares.

 

What did Denver or Seattle bring to the Superbowl that it could sell 30 second adverts for $xm during half time? Not a thing. It was the event itself which mattered, which drew the audience, which sells the beef. If you have an event like that and you throw in two teams like Dallas and SF, you could probably stick another couple million dollars on the asking price.

 

Any league with us in it sells more beef, makes more money, can stick more noughts on the price tag. I grant you it will probably never happen but our fan base means we have at least one card to play.

[Hildy 0]

Well, yes......and no.

 

It does seem like fairly obvious double standards, but it can be looked at as an opportunity as well.

 

If we take the last three years or so in the round and add it all up, it basically boils down to the fairly stark fact that Rangers are not welcome in the Scottish Leagues. We were only handed an invite to start in D3 because it was a money spinner, had the old SFL clubs been flush with cash I do wonder whether they might have pointed us toward the juniors...and who knows what they would have felt? 'Sorry, old boy, police advice...perhaps you could try the P&D amateurs?'

 

There is a continual hostility to anything that comes out of Ibrox; while that might be justified at a boardroom level, given the vast quantities of manure that it generates, look at the reaction to McCoist's fairly light hearted poking fun yesterday. No-one saw any funny side; Rangers are not allowed to be in a good mood. They are only tolerated, at best, if they are in a continual crisis and a perpetually ongoing source of stories; stories which have, ironically, provided many journalists, broadcasters and fans with many laughs. Again, only one side is allowed to be entertained: we are supposed to be suffering.

 

Ex-Rangers players who get involved with the club at present are signing their career death warrants - Brown, being the most vocal, is the most obvious, but anyone tarred with a Blue Brush now or in the past is making their own life harder than it need to be. Where are the Bears in the media? In my 30 years of being aware of football on the radio, there's never been a time when Rangers have been less represented on air; Billy Dodds is hardly a club legend and could easily be said to speak for Aberdeen, Dundee or Dundee Utd before Rangers, although he's handy when they want to have a laugh about EBT's; while Derek Ferguson could easily be said to hardly speak at all, such is his struggle with the English language. Diversifying the media to include more than just Rangers and celtc legends is certainly a good thing; doing it to such an extent that what is by far the best supported club in the country is unrepresented is beyond careless, it is making a definite point.

 

Gordon Smith, John Grieg, Mark Hateley, Ally himself, Derek Johnstone; all these and more used to give a voice, and sometimes a kicking, to Rangers and the fans. Now we have nothing.

 

We have no voice in boardrooms, and when we are grudgingly allowed back in to a minor meeting unless Wallace goes along you can be fairly sure it will be mortifying; the briefings will be immediately and scathing about the nitwit sent along from Ibrox. Send for Bullhut!

 

So where's the opportunity in all this?

 

If a marriage reaches the stage where neither party wants to be together, and one party is more or less throwing the clothes out the upstairs window, separation is usually the result. That's the only logical outcome. Sod getting back to the top flight; I suspect that once our money flows through the game like a drug, and clubs feel financially able to put the boot in, they will do so, again and again. You can't live like that and you shouldn't stay to be abused.

 

I don't know where else we can go, we're a Scottish club and it always seemed slightly nuts to be trying to sneak into England. Sad to say I'm left with little option now, ironically enough thanks to the people who whined and bleated about Rangers moving to England for all those years! The whole shebang is riddled with irony...as well as corruption and incompetence.

 

If the SPFL can afford to advance cash to a club in crisis, one of its biggest clubs at that, and help it out it should do so. That seems like common sense, for the game can hardly afford just to watch Hearts stagger back from the brink of death for a couple of years. They, like us, have been one of the few sides to 'put in' to the game since the war and I think they deserve to be helped out.

 

It is basically the definition of 'league': coming together to form an alliance. It's just a shame that when we were being knifed from all directions (including from inside Ibrox) the concept was not only ignored, but taken to the khazi and used to wipe peoples' bottoms with.

 

Naturally that leaves a bad smell, but perhaps that will encourage us to seek an alternative somewhere else. The air is bad, here, bad. We need to find somewhere fresher.

 

That's a decent post, Andy.

 

We have become poison in our own land. People are actually shy about an association with Rangers because they have concerns that it could tarnish their career prospects. I was told once that a former director, before he became a director, used to claim to be a Thistle fan. He just didn't need the hassle that can sometimes go with an admission of a Rangers allegiance - and he is not alone. I've met people who say they are Thistle fans, but when you get to know them, it turns out that they are Rangers fans, but uncomfortable saying so publicly.

 

What can we do about being an outcast?

 

I would suggest that there is nothing much that can be done until we become fan-owned. We are relying on strangers to run the club any way that they want, and they have no real conception of how badly things are at Rangers - not just financially - but as an entity within society.

 

In some respects, I think we are losing the middle class. Just as you are aware that we have become an uncomfortable fit in Scottish football, so too have others who are sick of being tagged as bigots and worse. In some ways, they grow out of Rangers. As they become successful, they leave Rangers behind. Obviously, there are exceptions, but if there really is a drift away by the professional classes from the club, the task of losing 'public enemy' status will be that bit harder.

 

Should we move to England?

 

The short answer is 'no' unless we get in at a high level, which seems unlikely now. Joining the English set-up at a low level and taking an eternity to climb to the top - if we even managed to do that - would finish Rangers as a big club. This would be a recipe for disaster.

 

Where else can we go?

 

There is nowhere else unless an Atlantic League or similar happens. I can't understand why clubs outside the major nations don't get this organised. I'd hope that Rangers were looking at this type of possibility with some urgency, but they are probably too busy at the moment keeping an increasingly dull show on the road.

 

What is the general outlook?

 

Grim. If Rangers really had gone under, it would have been greeted throughout much of Scotland by a mixture of relief and celebration. Some of us are loath to admit it, but we are viewed as a black sheep - not just in football - but across society.

 

This situation can be fixed, but we'd need fan control to rectify it. We could transform Rangers into the finest football club and sporting institution in the land, an organisation that people are proud to be associated with, but it won't happen while it is a vehicle for strangers to make money and exploit.

 

This is a complex issue, and solutions are thin on the ground, but until we do some very deep soul-searching, we'll continue to labour and under-achieve - on and off the park.

 

 

 

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