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It’s Not What You Say, But What They Hear I made a mistake last Sunday. In a pique of frustration over the inevitability of much of Saturday night’s events and annoyance over some of the coverage it garnered, I sent a Tweet. As Tweets go it was quite long, and was an attempt to remind people that Rangers supporter’s who fight police officers, or themselves, on a Saturday night in town are no more representative of me, or the vast majority of our support, than the Rangers supporter’s who went bird watching, long distancing running or line dancing are. I wish I hadn’t. I’m not a prolific Tweeter and I rarely Tweet about football. If you want occasional photos of my local park, perhaps some obscure research on birds or the occasional insight into international events, maybe I’m your guy, otherwise best ignore me, I’m there to learn, not teach. Prior to Sunday I doubt I’ve ever sent a Tweet that was ‘liked’ more the a dozen times; I’m not interesting or high profile, and I’m okay with that. An hour or so after pressing ‘Tweet’ I was very surprised to learn over 100 people had liked, retweeted or positively commented on it. Almost all seemed to be fellow Rangers fans who had clearly been feeling something similar. This continued for a few hours, numbers increased and my phone battery complained. A couple of friends texted me to say they’d read it and enjoyed it, even my sister, who I didn’t know even had Twitter, called to mock me. All good so far. Then, sometime around mid-afternoon on Sunday, supporter's of the second best side in Glasgow came across my Tweet. The comments changed. I’ve not read them all, there are simply too many and life is too short, but I got the general gist and some clear themes emerged. My claim that it was a “minority” of Rangers supporters who were involved in any disorder on Saturday was widely ridiculed. Also, I’d failed to mention sectarianism, or “anti-Irish racism” as many seemed to call it. Lastly, that drunken, loutish behaviour is recurring and unique to Rangers supporters. The ‘minority’ issue is easily dealt with. I think it’s fair to say Rangers have somewhere around 500,000 supporters. It might be more than that, it might be less, but I think it’s a conservative estimate to suggest that 10% of the population of Scotland would describe themselves as supporter’s of Rangers. Some of them might be nominal, a club they followed as a child but take less interest now, others will attend every match, home and away. The only definition of a Rangers supporter I accept is that they want Rangers to win. Estimates of the total crowd numbers at Ibrox and later in the city centre vary, somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000. 20,000 people is barely 4% of our support, and it’s worth remembering that Chief Supt Mark Sutherland of Police Scotland described that crowd as “largely peaceful in nature”. Even if someone wants to complain that everyone present was breaking Covid guidelines and so at least technically in breach of restrictions, it doesn’t change the fact that the other 96% of the Rangers support weren’t. As for those who actually engaged in vandalism and violence that was a very small percentage of those present and a tiny fraction of the Rangers support. For me those are simply irrefutable facts. I don’t know what ‘anti-Irish racism’ is. As far as I know the Irish and the Scots are the same race. Having lived in both I can also say that in my experience we’re largely identical in almost every measurable way. I’m unaware of any systemic discrimination towards Irish people in Scotland, certainly not in this century at least. I didn’t mention sectarianism as I was unaware of any taking place. I wasn’t there, and I’ve not watched many of the videos that have been circulating. If there was sectarian singing or chanting then I condemn it. The anti-Catholic chants and songs still exist among a section of our support, and, away from the stadium and often after a few drinks they sometimes make an appearance. I wish they didn’t. I expect our board wish they didn’t and I can only imagine what some of our players must think. It’s embarrassing. It would be disingenuous to say nothing has changed in this regard over the years, but it would be equally wrong to say this has disappeared, it hasn’t. I can understand why someone who feels these chants are directed at them reacts with fury when they hear them. That said it surprises me to see how many people liberally sprinkle the word ‘hun’ around their timelines when questioning my views. The refrain, when challenged, seems to be that the word isn’t sectarian and isn’t an idiom for ‘Protestant’. A ‘hun’ apparently is a Rangers supporter. Unless it’s a Hearts supporter. Or maybe an Airdrie supporter, and sometimes even a Morton or Kilmarnock supporter. This is the thing about the English language, the meaning of words changes over time and between people. My children regularly describe something positive as ‘sick’, this puzzles me and makes me feel old at the same time. The meaning of the word ‘sick’ has changed. I took a trip to Belfast before Covid hit. It’s a city I know quite well having lived there for a while a few decades ago, but it’s also a city that’s going through such huge change that parts of it were unrecognisable to me. I decided to do the first time visitor thing and take a bus tour to reacquaint myself. The Belfast bus tour takes you to places that are famous and infamous. It doesn’t hide its past, you see the city warts and all. We visited various ‘interfaces’. An interface is a euphemism for a border, in Belfast that’s where a republican area meets a loyalist area. These are bleak, people-less areas, dominated by high fences and walls, where territory is clearly marked by graffiti. Much of this graffiti is sadly familiar to a Glaswegian and I’d little trouble understanding just whose territory we were leaving or entering. Something unfamiliar did catch my eye though, 3 letters that made a regular appearance as you entered loyalist areas; KAT, and 3 similar ones when you entered republican areas; KAH. The tour guide explained that KAT stands for ‘Kill All Taigs’ and KAH stands for ‘Kill All Huns’. On the streets of working class Belfast it seems that Taigs are Catholics and Huns are Protestants. Not unsurprisingly I’ve recently started to notice these initials in Glasgow too. Now I’m willing to accept that not everyone who uses the word ‘hun’ does mean all Protestants, but that doesn’t mean it’s not what I hear when it’s said. And while some might not use it that way, others clearly do. Meanings change, it’s all of our jobs to keep up with that change, not just Rangers supporters. Lastly, why is it always Rangers? This takes us directly into ‘whataboutery’ country again and I’ve little desire to spend more time there. Suffice to say that over the years I’ve seen violence, first hand, sometimes at very close quarters, perpetrated by supporters of Aberdeen, Dundee, Motherwell, Airdrie, Kilmarnock, Morton, Clydebank, Partick Thistle, Hibs, Hearts, Falkirk, Clyde, St Mirren, Sunderland, Glentoran, Linfield, Cliftonville and, believe it or not, Celtic. Rangers don’t have a monopoly on bams, but I’m not going to pretend we don’t have any either. That there was disorder on Saturday night didn’t come as a surprise to me. I’ve lived in Glasgow long enough to know that there are people in our society for who a Saturday spent drinking will greatly increase the likelihood of them being involved in violence. That hard drinking ‘get mad wae it’ culture is alive and flourishing among a section of our society. I don’t think the blame for that can be laid at the door of Rangers directors, players or indeed me. The Scottish Crime Survey of 2018 recorded that 46% of all violent crime in Scotland is alcohol related. 41% of all prisoners in Scotland report being drunk at the time of their offence, that figure rises to 60% for young offenders. The STAG Trauma Report in 2015 records that alcohol was associated with 33% of all major trauma patients, that number doubles when just recording male patients. Alcohol related death is 7 times higher in Scotland’s most deprived areas and alcohol related hospital stays are 8 times higher in Scotland’s poorest communities. Again, the figures are higher for men than woman. Despite this I’ve yet to read anyone ask what Smirnoff, Buckfast or the makers of MD 20-20 had to say about last Saturday night, far less suggest that everyone who drinks alcohol should be ashamed of themselves and demand action be taken. Rangers draw their support from across Scotland and beyond, but the post industrial heartlands of the central belt are where we draw the bulk of our support. These areas have more than their fare share of economic black spots and deprived communities. None of that is an excuse for violence or religious intolerance. Indeed the majority of people brought up in these areas aren’t violent or bigoted. But the power to change the people who are, to improve their schools, to broaden their horizons, to perhaps give them ambitions beyond the weekend, to deal with whatever demons they currently try and drown and to instil a pride or self worth clearly lacking in some of them doesn’t lie with Steven Gerrard or the Rangers board. It lies, quite squarely, at the feet of those elected to represent these communities; politicians. That’s ironic, because some of them have been very quick to point fingers of responsibility elsewhere this week. It does feel that some people see Rangers as responsible for the actions of everyone who supports them at all times. There were 54 arrests and 429 crimes at T In The Park a few years ago yet no one suggests The Stone Roses are held responsible for that. There is a limit on what the club can do and should be held responsible for. I’m surprised that even needs stated. But then maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s strange that now we have so many ways of communicating with each other more than ever people still only hear what they want to hear.

‘’Thus ended their first match played at the latter end of May 1872 some two months after the inauguration of the club’’. The words of Rangers player William Dunlop from his article The Rangers FC which he wrote so eloquently for the SFA Annual in 1881 using the pen name ‘True Blue’. Rangers Football Club played it’s first ever match 149 years ago this week. Our Club was formed on a spare bit of ground at Fleshers Haugh by a few kids who’d come to Glasgow seeking employment and a better way of life.Their Club ,which they formed for no other reason than the love of football and the pursuit of sporting excellence,would go on to become the world’s most successful. That first ever match was against Callander and ended 0-0, Willie continued,“Their first game was a terrible spectacle with the ball suffering an incredible amount of abuse” William McBeath was given man of the match and then spent a week in bed recovering due to his exertions’’ Founder William McBeath was from Callander and we believe it would have been Willie who approached ex-pats from the town who had settled in Glasgow and that’s probably where the opposition came from for our first match. Willie’s Rangers team-mate Sam Ricketts wrote in 1884 about the boys playing those first few games in their civvies,journalist John Allan wrote about them having to change behind a bush as there were no facilities. William Dunlop described how genial Peter McNeil would travel on a Saturday morning to a desirable part of the Glasgow Green, set up the noted standards and stand guard until the classic hour came when he would be joined by his friends.We felt this was a very dramatic and moving image and commissioned a painting to be done depicting this scene.We presented the painting by artist Helen Runciman to the Club in 2009 and it now hangs on the marble staircase at Ibrox. The Rangers would remain at Fleshers Haugh for three years.We then began our journey around Glasgow to Burnbank and Kinning Park before finally settling in the Ibrox area in 1887 where we would grow to become the world’s most successful football club. The Rangers FC by William Dunlop. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-rangers-f-c-by-true-blue

Surely, this is a joke? It's similar to an incident that occurred this morning. A chap walked into his GPs this morning, informing the Doctor he was attending his Mother-in-Law's funeral next Thursday and wanted advice on removing the permanent smile from his face. He felt a happy visog was most inappropriate for the occasion. The GP said, "no problem, I can book you in for the necessary minor surgery on Tuesday morning". Then, the GP asked, "just to ascertain the length of anesthesia required, how long have you had this condition"? The Bear answered, "oh eight weeks, since Rangers won the league". The GP solemnly asked, "are you a Rangers supporter"? The Bear beamed, "absolutely". The GP sighed, "since Humza Yousaf in now the Health Secretary, all vile sectarian Rangers supporting scum go immediately to the bottom of the NHS waiting list, see you in two years".

With 51% of the main end of season forum vote, the big defender - an ever present in all our 56 games of this season - wins the Gersnet Forum PotY vote for season 2020/21. I'm currently having a new crystal decanter and glasses commissioned to be presented to Connor over the summer (he's getting married next week) so I'm sure we'll all look forward to that when it happens. If you'd like to contribute to the cost then please get in touch via PM (absolutely no obligation of course). Out of interest, in terms of the PotY race that we were running based on match-by-match votes, Ryan Kent was the defacto winner of that with 8 MotM awards followed by Glen Kamara and James Tavernier who both had 7 awards each. Kent also won 11.7% of the total votes cast across the season with 11.95% votes of cast for Kamara and 10.65% votes cast for Tav. Kamara was placed in the top 3 most often (19 times) followed by Kent (16) and Steven Davis (14). As such you could conceivably make the case for the Finnish midfielder as our most effective player. FWIW, Connor Goldson won 3 man of the match awards and could only muster 4.92% of votes cast. It's interesting that people seem to have gone for his consistency over the whole season in the main final vote. Interestingly, Tav won all his 7 MotM awards by mid-December so there's no doubt his injury two months later where he missed ten games certainly may have cost him our prestigious prize.

Regarding the origin of the use of the word Hun. It may be derived from a line in the republican ballad "The Foggy Dew" And from the plains of Royal Meath Strong men came hurrying through While Britannia's Huns, with their long range guns Sailed in through the foggy dew

Does this sound like what I think it does? Doctored video in 3, 2, 1.....?

It will, ahem, come under the sub section which states "and like full protection under this Act will be given to anybody, person or group, who might conceivably vote for the Scottish National Party"

Humza is similar to Trump in many ways. A provocative Rent-A-Tweet.

"extensive enquiries"

There will be a lot of tweets and articles getting re-read and deleted tonight. Ti(c)k To(c)k indeed..

Please tell me they are going after the Transport Minister who forgot to keep his tax disc up to date, the Justice Minister who very selectively Tweets about live Police investigations and the businessman who lost over £200k of taxpayers money.

I can say without any shsfow of a doubt have zero interest in how BBC Scotland view our title win.

This is the trouble with police these days superintendent Emma in my day police were mostly men and nearly all six feet four red faced teucters

What are Emma and Mark blabbering for? If a crime’s been committed, go out snd feel a collar two. It’s not a copper’s job to comment randomly on nothing much.

Perfect fit for Parkhead

Faggots, mushy peas, and Brown Ale are enough to turn any man's head.

Maybe unhappy with the Castore deal

He wasn't sacked. He wanted to leave. Spurs?

This must be one of the worst cut and paste jobs I have ever seen. It's so bad the confusion it engenders surely must be deliberate. Here is the relevant part of the article: Gerrard and players encouraged fans to gather at Ibrox after St Mirren win, say police Mark McLaughlin Friday May 21 2021, 12.01am, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gerrard-and-players-encouraged-fans-to-gather-at-ibrox-after-st-mirren-win-say-police-0sxkfbf86 Steven Gerrard and his Rangers players “actively” encouraged fans to gather and celebrate the club’s anticipated league championship victory in a “disgraceful” disregard for coronavirus public health measures, Police Scotland officers have said. The manager and team members engaged with fans who congregated outside Ibrox stadium as Rangers came to within a point of winning the Scottish Premier League with a victory against St Mirren on March 6. More than 4,000 people tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland that week, there were 639 people in hospital that day and about 13 people were dying every day in early March. Police Scotland officers urged the club to put out a “stay at home” message before the game but instead players and management “actively” encouraged fans to gather, according to documents released by the Scottish government. After the final whistle Gerrard, 40, and some of his players were seen peering out the dressing room windows. Players also approached gates where fans were gathered on the other side. Superintendent Emma Croft and Chief Superintendent Mark Sutherland said: “The Rangers team engaged the crowd through gates and by hanging out of open windows despite assurances from the club that no such activities would happen. “On conclusion of the event engagement with Police Scotland and Rangers FC continued to encourage the club to strongly support a stay-at-home message. “Whilst assurances were given, this did not materialise. Further engagement did not result in any further statement relating to fan behaviour or responsibilities being issued, despite numerous statements encouraging celebration, including from the manager. “Both the manager and players actively engaged from within the stadium with fans gathered in disgraceful displays of encouragement, in solid opposition to the public safety issues arising, to their responsibilities given the privileges under which football operates, and to the commitments they had made around public communications.” Rangers FC have been contacted for comment. WHIT? "Steven Gerrard and his Rangers players “actively” encouraged fans to gather and celebrate the club’s anticipated league championship victory...." As far as I can see, they did not, and post hoc, ergo propter hoc argument is piss poor copy from The Times, and, at best, disappointing. "The manager and team members engaged with fans who congregated outside Ibrox stadium..." "After the final whistle Gerrard, 40, and some of his players were seen peering out the dressing room windows. Players also approached gates where fans were gathered on the other side." “The Rangers team engaged the crowd through gates and by hanging out of open windows..." The Club, as I recall, consulted with Poileas Alba and the Government, prior to the match, and had asked supporters not to pitch up the the Stadium. Such request(s) fell on stony ground, clearly. I have neither seen, nor heard, any report, official or otherwise, which justifies the opening paragraph of this piece. The players 'engaged' with the support, but this occurred, only after the support had gathered. I seem to recall, too, a report which said that the players approached the gates only after consultation with the police at, and on, the ground, the logic being, presumably, that of one curtain call, and the crowd will disperse. (I didn't work.) Prior to the final match I recall Mr Gerrard asking/advising supporters to stay home to celebrate. The last para of this part of the article should be read as third last, to avoid confusion.

Didn't help when he lost his main striker Jimenez

He got promotion, got them to impressively high league positions and has had one disappointing season though nowhere near relegation. Worth another go and sack him in November if it doesn’t work. Perhaps there’s something behind the scenes we can’t know about.

It took people 9 days to find that easter egg ... and all the glory go out to Bluedell! ... ?

I think La Sturgeon more likely to encourage, condone and applaud such community activism against outmoded and repressive UK laws.

Considerable disturbance in Swansea last night as mourners after a funeral set fire to a car, crash another one into it, break windows and attack police. Residents warned to stay indoors for their own safety. Will FM Sturgeon be calling on fellow celt-socialist, Drakeford, to deplore the incident and take the strongest measures against those involved and anybody else he can think of while he’s at it? Nothing to do with the SG, of course but that’s never stopped her from yapping about other people’s business.

Yes there are, and Mr Scott7, I expect, will be along to explain the origins of said name.

But there are keelies!

Ok here we go - last weekend of teaching you lot how to predict. I'll do a tally from next season onwards - just a wee running table. Arsenal 2-0 Brighton Aston Villa 1-1 Chelsea Fulham 3-3 Newcastle Leeds 2-0 West Brom Leicester 2-1 Tottenham (with Chelsea drawing that should put Leicester into the CL spots) Liverpool 5-0 Crystal Palace Man City 3-0 Everton Sheff Utd 2-1 Burnley West Ham 3-1 Southampton Wolves 2-3 Man Utd

I'm really looking forward to the interviews with the management and playing staff.

How would bbc know? They weren’t there.

I just googled Lewis May. Didn't recognise the name.