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Klaxon, then mouthpiece for Sir Duped/Toxic Jack (TJ), switched sides and went in to bat for 'the good guys' over the spiv years. Other outlets, eg. 'The Scottish Sun' and BBC Scotland (mainly Chris McLaughlin) were used by TJ on behalf of Green&Co, Easdales, etc. Ashley actually possessed 'wealth off the radar' and was initially welcomed by some of the support. Another important error. All you had to do was research his M.O. in business, especially at Newcastle United. Lesson is not to blindly follow follow mainstream narratives without digging deeper. But unfortunately, we are world record holders for Gullibility. Our supporter groups take Be Divided and Be Conquered, to new levels. Any prospective spiv group currently looking at Rangers as a potential project will see a support that will be easily bent over. Just as well that our current custodians are very aware of such dangers. They may be having difficulty in running the club but you can't doubt their motives.

There was significant division in the beginning. Before his tanks rolled up, the PR battleground of social media reflected this, with the general difference of opinion between Rangers Media and Follow Follow. Although, those who had saw the light, were fairly loud in their protests and it wasn't long until it was the many. Not forgetting that Ashely first arrived on the scene somewhere close to the beginning. 2012 or possibly before, Green&Co giving Sports Direct the deal of the century. ----+----- Memory lane I can recall on FF asking you accounting questions by PM, about the numbers being produced from the retail deal 😂 Then, my FF thread being picked up by The Herald to run an article on that retail deal. More than a decade on and we are still not free of the fall out.

It appeared to me that a vast majority of the support were against Ashley's involvement from the start.

Stock phrases and nicknames are so last year.

Another one that’s passed away an excellent football player a very good inside forward

Very good player for the Hibs but even better at Liverpool.

Pretty sure he also cost us 4 million of the back of being a member of one of the best club sides of that era. And was on a pretty penny too. Not sure I would call him an 'unsung hero' as such - however I think compared to some of his teammates at the time we didn't notice him as much.

Yes if he didnt put an end to Marco Negri being a goal machine. But yes a quality player.

And its a valid one, a point I'd hope every supporter we have desperate for 'investment' should be cognisant of.

Another severely boring International break that has no appeal whatsoever. So to get a Rangers chat going with positivity I was wondering about unsung hero's and who everyone thought would fit into this category. (pretty sure we had one years ago but I couldnt find it and they may be new / more opinions now). Im only going to name one. My stand out would be Gordon Durie. He was ever reliable, a seriously hard worker, banged in a number of good goals, formed good partnerships and was a regular at both club and international. He also came at the right time as the Hateley / McCoist partnership was just about to decline after Ally broke his leg against Portugal that year. So for me Durie went a bit under the radar.

Ah yeah, RM went a bit psycho, although from memory they were pretty much an irrelevance, or maybe it was that which pushed them over the edge. 😂😂😂You've got a good memory!

Remember how he was excellent at headers despite not being so tall. He had a funny loping run though.

Oh, no, they appear to be here to stay.

That's what I recall too.

The current board don't want anyone or group, who are looking for a controlling shareholding. So, as it stands I don't think that we are in immediate danger of falling into the hands of spivs. Back in the day, it took an owner, Sir Duped, who was desperate to sell who in turn found a dodgy geezer, Whyte. Who saw the opportunity of a pre packed administration event from the get-go. That was down to our finances allied to the EBT case. However, the direction of travel isn't encouraging and some of our main shareholders aren't young men. John Bennett was correct about what is first needed. A solid, secure and viable business that doesn't spend a lot more than it makes every year. However, it is one thing saying it and quite another, to change the habit of decades.

Agreed but all new potential external investors won't necessarily fall into "spiv group". An example is the guy investing in Hearts. We have to tread carefully in shark infested waters, but without investment in the correct people on and off the pitch (and infrastructure etc) we are doomed to more years / decades of failure and abject misery.

Sign of a great defender you don’t notice him until he’s not in the team anymore

What about this bloke a good solid reliable full back a mister dependable

You've misunderstood my point. The point being that last year we spent way more on wages compare to 2021 (approx 30% more), yet achieved far less under their stewardship. That isn't an endorsement.

Alan McLaren, was signed for a fair bit of money, but wasn't a glamour signing by any means. A superb defender who had a cracking record against the tramps.

Woah there horsey! Nothing about what I said was to say everything is fine, quite the opposite. When Bennett took over as Chair, and even prior to that as Vice-Chair, he was waxing lyrical about the player trading model being fundamental to our sustainability financially. That culminated in this summer's transfer window with millions of potential transfer revenue walking away when their contracts ended. Thats just one example of ineffective leadership within the club that has cost us significant sums of money unnecessarily.

Disagree. Leadership, judgement, professionalism, good governance, performance management. There are lots of things that happen in football clubs that don't cost money. Or at least, are more about the people we employ and how effective they are. For the financial year 2023, our wages to turnover ratio in terms of playing budget was 51%, calculated approximately as £42-43m. Compared to 2021 when we won the league under Gerrard, it was £33.5m. For me thats a pretty stark evaluation of how effective the likes of Robertson, Bisgrove and Wilson have been, at least since Gerrard left. Throwing money at the problem is no longer the solution, its about using the money we have much much better. Just look at Man United. They've a billionaire owner and they throw money around like confetti, but you wont find too many of their fans who are happy with recent performances.

I think in both. He broke into the first team during a difficult period for the club, but during the title winning 86/87 season he played 47 games and scored 8 goals, our 4th highest scorer that season. Not bad for a centre half who played right back for periods. Souness didn't fancy him, as seemed to be the case with most of the players he inherited, and sold him that summer to Hearts. Smith brought him back five years later and again he did everything that was asked of him. He was solid, brilliant in the air and faster than he got credit for on the ground. He was no Richard Gough, but he was underrated and under appreciated by most of us.

Stuart Munro ... back in the day when I started to follow Rangers. And Robert Fleck. For some reason, fullbacks are high on that list of unsung heroes, like Davie Robertson and Stephen Wright, even Alec Clelland. Pieter Huistra or Dale Gordon. Of late, Dean Shiels and Greg Stewart.

Usually got the blame when anything went wrong but in my eyes a good dependable full back

It still depresses me that so many still yearn for a sugar daddy to make everything good again. I do wonder just how many in our support would accept literally anyone in control of the club if it guaranteed we'd win the league and beat Celtic. It's always worth casting your mind back and remembering why you became a Rangers supporter. Was it simply because you expected us to win the league every season? Most seasons? I started 'supporting' Rangers at primary school, mainly because most of my pals, my dad and my big cousins did. It was a north Glasgow primary in the late 1970s, you'd the choice of Rangers or Partick Thistle, no other clubs were available. But the relationship was cemented in the 1980s, when I was old enough to go to games. Here's the thing, in the first half of the 1980s there wasn't a lot of winning going on. We weren't just behind Celtic, we were behind Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and even Hearts for a while. Don't get me wrong there were some good times, a couple of League Cups, a Tennents Sixes too (well it excited me at the time!), but mainly it was a struggle on the pitch. But then going to the football isn't just about the football, is it? It was meeting up with your mates, a common shared interest. It was the ritual of going to the game, lucky omens, lucky clothing, buses or trains, the programme, the pie, I was too young to drink but clearly that was important to many guys too. Then the game itself, the singing, the noise, the smell, the chance to share every emotion, publicly. Football and gigs were probably the only places you could be emotional without feeling stupid or being ridiculed. Winning was always great, a bit of magic from a player a bonus, and a defeat met with anger. Our club is going through the most turbulent period in it's long history since the late 1800s. We're not out of it yet, we're hopefully towards the end, but who actually knows. Football is a very different sport to the one I started watching, but the essence of supporting a club, the things that cemented that bond I don't think they've changed, although pricing of tickets and timing of games does make it harder. Our club is still perfectly capable of being stable and solvent as well as competitive, some stability would help that happen, I think.

Davie Macpherson - 276 appearances, 27 caps and never rated by anyone. He looked awkward but was actually really effective. Stuart Munro - from the same era, underrated fullback, played 179 times, wasn't signed from Italy or England and so was often overlooked by media, supporters and management.