Blue Heaven To Black Sheep

[Hildy 0]

Stand back and survey the scene. The institution that once believed itself to be Scotland's premier football club; a national monument, an establishment-protected icon, a pillar of excellence and endeavour, is in disarray once again.

 

The red brick Ibrox facade hides a multitude of sins and an array of secrets. The Old Lady is a bank of opportunity for hedge funds and a safe haven for overpaid, bonus-ridden, bean-counters. Its fading grandeur reflects the impoverishment of its host, and like a stately home with a leaky roof and a never-ending list of repairs, the old ground has an uncertain future.

 

The Old Lady is a victim of the disease of avarice. As she struggles to hide the scars of neglect, a succession of carers has swanned off into the sunset with money-laden suitcases, and now a crisis loan is required to pay bills and keep third division players on top division wages.

 

Rangers' problems have not gone away. Maybe they never will. As smaller football clubs receive public sympathy for their financial difficulties, Rangers, uniquely, stands accused of depriving schools and hospitals of income. As football minnows wallow in victim-status, Rangers is in the dock, roundly condemned by press comment and regularly vilified by public opinion.

 

The world has changed: Scotland has changed: the political establishment has changed. Rangers has become a misfit. In modern Scotland, the club has few friends and even less powerful allies. The club has been so denigrated in recent decades that it taints reputations merely by association.

 

As the club flounders and falters, there is an almost unspoken hope in polite society that its final act will be to disappear altogether. To Rangers fans, this is an unpalatable prospect, but there are people across Scotland - not just Celtic fans - whose most fervent wish is that Rangers goes away: permanently.

 

To them, Rangers represents intolerance, sectarianism and bigotry, and in this hypersensitive and politically correct age, the club is perceived to be an anachronism that has outlived its usefulness. They want it to wither and die because only hardcore bigots and sectarian morons will mourn it. Decent people, in their eyes, will be glad to see the back of it.

 

Beleaguered Rangers fans can attempt to deflect blame, point the finger elsewhere and proclaim innocence, but no-one is listening. The jury has already made its mind up. Rangers has lost the respect of a nation and edged towards the precipice. It has become the black sheep of Scottish football.

 

Administration and liquidation didn't kill the club, but they highlighted something that should be deeply concerning to a support which aches for a leader to look up to and respect. Within the million-strong Rangers fanbase, there is a noticeable lack of people who have the means to rescue the club and the willingness to actually do so.

 

When David Murray bought Rangers in the late nineteen-eighties, it seemed like a marriage made in heaven. Scotland's biggest club had been taken over by a young businessman who had the means, the cojones and the ambition to further the Rangers cause, and enhance his own reputation along the way.

 

From being a well-known business figure, Murray quickly became a household name, and he relished the fame that was part and parcel of being owner of Scotland's establishment club. In time, he became Sir David Murray - a dream come true for a man whose ego matched his not inconsiderable bank balance.

 

Would a thrusting young Scottish businessman buy Rangers today, or would he prefer to duck the opportunity and steer clear of the hassle that being custodian of Rangers brings? Given that there are no budding David Murrays knocking on the Ibrox front door, it would appear to be the latter.

 

What respectable businessman or woman would want to take on an ailing institution that has incinerated millions of pounds at an alarming rate and now has to borrow to keep the wheels on the wagon? What entrepreneur needs his name associated with a club whose existence is played out while the spectre of sectarianism still haunts it? What hard-won reputation wants to take a chance on a club that habitually pays out too much money for too little reward?

 

What business type would enjoy being the man or woman to sack the club's management team and bring in new blood more appropriate for the task ahead?

 

Would the young David Murray be as quick to buy Rangers in 2014 as he was in 1988?

 

Rangers Football Club is a bloody mess. The team plays dreadful football, the club spends exorbitant sums in the process, it makes the undeserving rich, it is owned by people whose God is greed; it has a reputation that will take years to repair, it can't afford to look after its stadium, and its fans excuse incompetence out of a misguided sense of loyalty.

 

The Rangers support, for the most part, doesn't welcome soul-searching and reflection. It prefers to talk itself up and believe that a full recovery is not only possible, but likely, and this is a mistake. Rangers urgently needs to be re-born. In a relatively short time, the club has descended from being the centre of the Scottish football universe to become an outcast within the sport - and a much-ridiculed laughing stock within the country.

 

The Rangers support has played a minor role in the club's downfall, but it will never fully recover until it plays a major part in its recovery. Fan ownership has to be the future for Rangers. Nothing else will return it to where most fans believe it should be.

 

Only a revolution - a people revolution - will save this club now.

[ian1964 10,409]

What BHEAST wrote that pile of shit?

[der Berliner 3,231]

What BHEAST wrote that pile of shit?

 

Going by his previous mantra and the last line of the above, I would say it was Hildy himself.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

Stand back and survey the scene. The institution that once believed itself to be Scotland's premier football club; a national monument, an establishment-protected icon, a pillar of excellence and endeavour, is in disarray once again. <snip>

 

Excellent. Every word is true and until we all realise that we'll be going nowhere.

[bluebear54 0]

An excellent piece Hildy.

Kudos dude.

However, to my eyes it reads like a first class summary with a non-evidenced opinion about fan ownership patched on at the end.

[amms 0]

Have to say I can't fault a word of it. If it was written by Tim it doesn't change my view, but it really didn't read like it was to me.

Real question is what we do about it. We've started these discussions before and they usually end up in acrimony but our lack of broader appeal in Scotland is going to be a bigger and bigger problem in the future.

[andy steel 0]

We've been a black sheep for well over 20 years now, ironically more or less since the moment the club officially left all that sectarian rubbish behind. It's only some fans who have led us to be quite so hated as we are, not by easily ignored celtc loons but by society in general.

 

Expecting the same people who attach baggage to the club to get rid of it seems overly optimistic.

[andy steel 0]

Have to say I can't fault a word of it. If it was written by Tim it doesn't change my view, but it really didn't read like it was to me.

Real question is what we do about it. We've started these discussions before and they usually end up in acrimony but our lack of broader appeal in Scotland is going to be a bigger and bigger problem in the future.

 

The way we're going, 'the future' doesn't look like it will be an issue for long.

[Hildy 0]

Just to clarify - I wrote it.

 

It crossed my mind that it might not be welcome here, but I know there are people on this forum prepared to look at articles like this and dwell on the content rather than dismissing it out of hand.

 

Make of it what you will.

[Bluedell 5,329]

As the club flounders and falters, there is an almost unspoken hope in polite society that its final act will be to disappear altogether. To Rangers fans, this is an unpalatable prospect, but there are people across Scotland - not just Celtic fans - whose most fervent wish is that Rangers goes away: permanently.

 

To them, Rangers represents intolerance, sectarianism and bigotry, and in this hypersensitive and politically correct age, the club is perceived to be an anachronism that has outlived its usefulness. They want it to wither and die because only hardcore bigots and sectarian morons will mourn it. Decent people, in their eyes, will be glad to see the back of it.

 

I don't agree with that. That's not what I come across in my day-to-day life.

 

However there will be some people who do think like that, but any changes that are made to the club will not change their opinion or their level of hatred.

 

The Rangers support has played a minor role in the club's downfall, but it will never fully recover until it plays a major part in its recovery. Fan ownership has to be the future for Rangers. Nothing else will return it to where most fans believe it should be.

Bluebear54 makes a valid point. You have made that statement but failed to suggest why and how fan ownership would work. Where would working capital come from? If we couldn't get a loan, would we just sell Lee Wallace, for example? Would Ally be sacked by now? Would our reputation actually be that much better?

 

I think that there may be answers as to how it would work but it's certainly not an immediate solution to all of our problems.