Rangers in danger of looking as ridiculous....

[ian1964 10,386]

….and detached from reality as the SFA – Keith Jackson

The Ibrox club released a furious statement on Tuesday that questioned why Celtic’s Jozo Simunovic isn’t in the dock along with Jon Flanagan.

 

Keith Jackson

 

When Jon Flanagan appears in the SFA’s kangaroo court this afternoon he ought to do himself a favour by refusing to take any part in the proceedings.

Hold up his hands - whilst resisting the temptation to throw an elbow into anyone’s face - and acknowledge that he is absolutely deserving of the red card that ref Kevin Clancy ought to have given him during Sunday’s Old Firm derby.

Apologise for being so needlessly overly aggressive and accept his punishment. That would be the classy thing for the Rangers defender to do.

If, on the other hand, he allows those running his club to go through with their intended ‘vigorous defence’ of his brain-farted actions during that flashpoint with Celtic skipper Scott Brown, then he will succeed only enabling them to make a further mockery of this entire farce.

Honestly, the more Rangers listen to the ranting voices inside their own heads, the less able they seem to think clearly let alone act with the kind of dignity they once used to hold so dear.

Yes, they have every right to question the inner workings of an SFA disciplinary department which has made itself a laughing stock over the course of the season based entirely upon its own increasingly bizarre and apparently random approach to applying the laws of the game.

There’s not a club in the land who can’t see for themselves that compliance officer Clare Whyte has been stinking the place out all season to such an extent her name is already being used as rhyming slang for the kind of mess she has repeatedly dragged in across the sixth floor.

But while the rest of us have watched this ongoing calamity with open mouths and occasionally winced at its most glaring inconsistencies, the apoplectic state Rangers have been busy working themselves up into has almost been equally as jaw slackening.

In fact, they are now in serious danger of making themselves looks as ridiculous and detached from reality as the very organisation they are complaining so furiously about. It’s almost as if Rangers have become the new millennial Celtic - a throw back to the days when Walter Smith’s supremacy was reducing the neighbours to a paranoid wreck.

Time and time again this season they have hinted at some sort of sinister conspiracy to single out their players and drag them up to Hampden for retrospective punishment.

Or, like on Tuesday - when they questioned why Celtic’s Jozo Simunovic was not also pulled up for a clash with Jermain Defoe - they have pressed that whataboutery button.

They did so without stopping to consider that the Simunovic incident was captured from one angle only and shown at full speed, which makes assessing his guilt so much more difficult. Unless, of course, they think the producers at Sky Sports are in on the conspiracy too.

The facts don’t lie. Rangers have had more than their share of involvement in video reviews over these past 10 months.

On top of the 12 red cards Steven Gerrard’s players have shared during matches, both Allan McGregor and Ryan Kent were also cited after incidents caught on camera at Pittodrie and Parkhead. So that makes 14 red cards in total, with a 15th in the post for Flanagan.

So at what point does anyone inside Ibrox take a look inwardly and start to question if there might, in fact, be some sort of indiscipline problem at the heart of all this?

That’s certainly the conclusion Gerrard appeared to be reaching the other week after McGregor went all Mr Mayagi on Hibs striker Marc McNulty for no apparent reason and ended up being banished to the stand for the final Old Firm derby of the season.

No wonder Gerrard had reached the end of the road with his players. As a young, inexperienced manager he was bound to make mistakes along the way and, with the benefit of hindsight, he can now look back to the way in which Alfredo Morelos was mollycoddled at the start of the season as an error of judgment.

It sends out a mixed message to the players inside Gerrard’s dressing room who may even start to wonder if their own manager is really calling the shots or not.

If Gerrard is true to his word then he’ll have dragged Flanagan over the coals since watching the replays on Sunday afternoon. This was a blatant example of a player openly ignoring the commands and instructions of his manager, jeopardising the best interests of his team-mates while indulging his own pointy elbowed selfishness.

Had he been dealt with properly at the time then Rangers would have been reduced to 10 men and a match which was under their complete control might have raced off in any direction.

Flanagan should be being fined internally for his utter stupidity and warned never to make such a bone-headed mistake again.

Instead, on the contrary, the Ibriox hierarchy seem determined to champion Flanagan’s case and use it to further some skewed agenda against the authorities.

It’s difficult to calculate which act may do most damage to Gerrard’s own credibility.

Rangers have done well to recruit a young manager of such outstanding potential. It might be a good idea to let him call the shots from this point on.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-danger-looking-ridiculous-detached-16023736

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Thx to Ian for posting (remember to use bleach mate) but I hope everyone else remembers not to give this waster the clicks!

Edited May 16, 2019 by cooponthewing

[ian1964 10,386]

 

[buster. 4,808]

It's fair to say that the club have been verbally aggressive towards officialdom and the authorities at times this season.

To a level of which I don't think I've seen before.

 

You have to look at context, the background, where it will take us and if it will have a positive impact on the system/process going forward.

 

My first thought when I saw the statement was to wonder if it would have been better to raise the issue via another conduit.

Given that the Simunovic elbow was apparently looked at by the panel of referees, I tend to think another conduit would have been the way to go this time.

 

We all know the state of play regards Trial by Sportscene etc but I think you need to have a convincing case built up over time that is backed up by video evidence, eg. Scott Brown and his untouchable status compared to others in different coloured shirts and it's probably a good idea to include various other teams as having suffered....Even then, I'd publish that via other conduits.

 

There is enough material out there or in other words, I think there was better quality ammunition available to go after this particular target.

[Bluedell 5,329]

1 hour ago, ian1964 said:

 

 

Yes, they have every right to question the inner workings of an SFA disciplinary department which has made itself a laughing stock over the course of the season based entirely upon its own increasingly bizarre and apparently random approach to applying the laws of the game.

There’s not a club in the land who can’t see for themselves that compliance officer Clare Whyte has been stinking the place out all season to such an extent her name is already being used as rhyming slang for the kind of mess she has repeatedly dragged in across the sixth floor.

The facts don’t lie. Rangers have had more than their share of involvement in video reviews over these past 10 months.

 

And despite all that, it's Rangers that are detached from reality and have a cheek to complain?

[der Berliner 3,219]

It seems KJ (haven`t heard of him for a while) have been away in the Hooped Horros universe and failed to exit the right warp channel. Thus, he`s clearly suffering froma mild to moderate bout of the Disfunctional Reality Perception Syndrome, a plague known to very virulent over in said galaxy.

[Bluedell 5,329]

1 hour ago, buster. said:

It's fair to say that the club have been verbally aggressive towards officialdom and the authorities at times this season.

To a level of which I don't think I've seen before.

 

You have to look at context, the background, where it will take us and if it will have a positive impact on the system/process going forward.

 

My first thought when I saw the statement was to wonder if it would have been better to raise the issue via another conduit.

Given that the Simunovic elbow was apparently looked at by the panel of referees, I tend to think another conduit would have been the way to go this time.

 

We all know the state of play regards Trial by Sportscene etc but I think you need to have a convincing case built up over time that is backed up by video evidence, eg. Scott Brown and his untouchable status compared to others in different coloured shirts and it's probably a good idea to include various other teams as having suffered....Even then, I'd publish that via other conduits.

 

There is enough material out there or in other words, I think there was better quality ammunition available to go after this particular target.

The incident was seen by the ref and a decision made. In what other country in Europe would they take that incident, hardly the worst, and reassess it? No wonder it's pushed the club over the edge. 

[Bluedell 5,329]

1 hour ago, ian1964 said:

 

They did so without stopping to consider that the Simunovic incident was captured from one angle only and shown at full speed, which makes assessing his guilt so much more difficult.

When Rangers tried to appeal Morelos's red card against Aberdeen, they were told that only full speed video could be used and their slowed down video which showed Morelos was innocent was deemed inadmissible. Now it seems that an incident can only be found guilty if it's shown in slow motion. Yet again, the rules are changing.

 

And that's ignoring the fact that one angle is sufficient to assess that Simunovic is guilty.

[Bluedell 5,329]

Keith Jackson is another who has become Lawwell's bitch!

[JFK-1 1,666]

They're the ones going over the edge not us and I suspect we're likely to see anti Rangers bias cranking up a notch if anything. The grunts of 'they're skint' and 'be in admin anytime' have run out of steam as it becomes ever more obvious even to the Forrest Gump elements of Scottish football support that it's fantasy nonsense.

 

We spend more money signing single players than the also rans combined can spend on their entire squads in multiple seasons and it drives them crazy. If Kent is available for 5 million I hope we sign him partly just to have them frothing at the mouth about that too.

For the first 2 seasons of our return to the SPL they also ran with a cry of the sheep are the second best in Scotland. But now with just one game remaining and us going to finish potentially 17 points ahead of those sheep along with a gigantic GD superiority that bubble has burst too.

The sheep followers actually imagine we have a special hatred for them which will result in our manager fielding a weakened side against Kilmarnock just to deny them a 3rd place finish while in reality I'm more than confident he couldn't care less where they finish.

 

They're not a rival of ours for the title, they're just another also ran whose greatest ambition has been to finish second and personally I despise hubz more than I do them. 

 

It was also claimed far and wide and by Keith Jackson in particular that we were 10 years behind the yahoos. This season we arguably outplayed them 3 times the most recent time comprehensively playing them off the park.  And that in a season where we were ridiculed for hiring a rookie manager which was bound to end in disaster.

All of these fantasies have fallen by the wayside and that rookie manager in just 12 months has turned us into a force that went 11 games unbeaten in Europe and are now grudgingly conceded to be genuine title challengers by the media including the afore mentioned "ten years behind" Jackson.

I truly don't get where the spite for us among the opposition comes from when the yahoos have for years being screwing them all while taking their best players then never even utilising many of those players Scott Allen being a prime example.

The meltdown if we take that title next season is going to be a joy to behold. I can actually remember the last time we stopped them getting 10iar.  This time will be even more gratifying.