andy steel

How can you tell?

It's not just that the young players are being poorly coached (to go by appearances) - they're actively being held back. McKay came into the team in the autumn sunshine and looked like a real find. Three months or so with the first team and he looked not much better than ordinary. MacLeod I give you, but he's the only one to maintain any sort of level.

I didn't know about the fiduciary responsibility, but it still seems like a massively bad move from anyone who tried it on. Denying the supporters information and hiding behind some vague legalise would make even Charles' biggest fans think something iffy was going on.

Seems like an empty threat. Anyone officially connected with Rangers who serves legal notice on Walter Smith for speaking his mind can kiss goodbye to any sort of credibility amongst the support for ever. It would be like cutting your throat to spite your face.

Got fed up copy/pasting after that.

Seems like an unpopular course of action, so far.

Gunslinger notes in another thread that refunds are available to all ST holders. Would you be willing to take this step as an expression of your dissatisfaction with the goings-on? I'm trying to gauge how much or little support such a move would have, because if it did take off it would probably see the City force GreenCo out, but it might well see us back in admin.

I wish there was an extra button for 'totally mega agree' I could click for Max's last post.

I suppose so, but if the city investors insist on things being 'sorted out' - which can only be the sale of the GreenCo stake - things may hurry along a bit. The more pressure on them the better, if it brings about a quicker resolution of this nonsense.

Lawrence Malborough didn't even follow football never mind Rangers, Murray was an Ayr Utd man, David Holmes a Falkirk fan. That takes you back to about 1985, which older Bears may note with a jolt is now just short of 30 years of our history! They don't have to be Rangers men, they just have to be competent. Both would be ideal but it's not a necessity.

I read that doctoral thesis this morning RPB. A bit dismal in places, But fascinating to read that people - not the usual media suspects, people like the CoS which contains many, many Bluenoses- have been agitating against the traditional baggage since the early 1970's. I wouldn't deny that many have signed up to the virtues we're concerned with. But given the opposition from within the club's support for over 40 years now, I think we'll have to come up with a new title other than 'the new breed'!

I meant I could only staunchly back Ally for so long. & I feel terrible and treacherous publicly posting things like this but might as well be honest.

A bit on the high side? Bloody Nora, you could have bought them about 20 books for that amount of money! I mean, it's your money and your family so hardly my business, but that seems like a total rip off.

Sorry mate, but you can only staunchly back someone in the face of results (and maybe even more importantly, performances) for so long. Final straw on Saturday, coming after repeated displays last year seemingly calculated to drive people away from football. I can handle the odd bad result but we don't seem to be able to coach any level of passing football into our team. These players on Saturday are either pros like McCulloch or kids who have come through the ranks. Either way their level of ability is just shocking - it's really unacceptable. I appreciate the circumstances but the coaching staff - all of them - have had just over a year now to get the likes of Robbie Crawford or Ross Perry going and I haven't seen any sign of it. Swansea fans must drool, wondering what their next gen of players will provide. We are so far away from that its unreal, and its the coaching staff who have to take the rap. Don't forget they were in situ for a while before Whyte and armegeddon so they've had a few years and our football is absolutely rank rotten. There's no chance of me booing or holding up a sign at Ibrox. But there's no sign of any sort of improvement outside of the old 'buy other teams' good players' routine and we need to be doing it the Swansea way. There's no alternative. It won't be up until Monday but I'd urge anyone who thinks they are passionate about football to listen to the 'Test Match Special' lunch break podcast with Neville if they have a spare 20 minutes. He sounded just like the kind of person Rangers fans would really get behind, and the kind of person who would 'get' the pressure of OF management and deal with it, in a way that the current two incumbents haven't really.

Having listened to him during the lunch break of the cricket, I wouldn't mind seeing Gary Neville and/or his younger brother in place. But you're really looking at a desperate, older out of work manager who would be willing to overlook the destabilising guff from above. A bit like Hearts.

Some agree with him, some don't. If you're going to slag him at least do it without relying on 'the rest of us' to back you up.

My browser tab shortened your title to 'What Happened to Rangers', which is depressingly accurate. Chin up Frankie! Someone will have bought the club by the end of the year, and it looks like it will be people who are Rangers fans, even if many have serious issues with their previous behaviour. If nothing else it will be a basis more solid than the current one to work on. It'll all be over by Christmas, you'll see.

Love him? I worship him and always will. He once touched my shoulder in a Blockbuster (it was actually MacVid in those days) and said 'excuse me mate' and I nearly died. I did get to repay him once in a Bridge of Weir supermarket by clearing away lesser mortals while he did his messages: I only just stopped short of throwing rose petals in his path as he choose his carrots. But these results are absolutely appalling. He's the manager. These two conditions usually lead to one conclusion, mate.

I have to admit, it must now only be a matter of time.

Cripes, I don't even recall posting that abuse of Mather. Must have tripped out before my over-40's afternoon nap. I hope so, because that means I am still asleep & we haven't actually lost this afternoon. Well, it certainly wasn't big or clever but like most people I hate being treated as if I'm stupid & that's what Mather is doing in that statement.

Mather's "statement": He said: â??Rangers Football Club is a 141-year-old institution built for success and along with the Board of Directors, I am determined to conduct business with honour, dignity and integrity. The men who created this great club would expect no less. â??During my time as a main investor and now as Chief Executive, I have learned about the club's rich history and proud traditions. "So it is with deep regret that I find I must address the recent frenzy that has surrounded this great club. "Again there are those attempting to bang down the doors simply because they feel they should be inside before any others and for no good reason other than self gain and arrogance. "It doesn't matter to them that they have not invested or helped the club, or that they failed to make even a remotely credible attempt to save this fantastic club in its darkest hours. "Not a single one of them stepped forward willing to invest their own money. Yet now they think they can waltz into the club. "This club needs commitment and unity. It does not require the type of people who stood back and did nothing when Rangers were in trouble. "Now, as Rangers has been climbing on to more solid ground and as the fans are heartened by what they've seen, these men emerge from the shadows with empty promises. They should be ashamed. "It is surely no coincidence that they waited until the signs are positive and strong. â??Ally McCoist has enjoyed a positive pre-season programme, we have added eight new players to the squad to get Rangers back to the top flight and more than 34,000 supporters have bought season tickets for the new campaign. â??There was a positivity and excitement ahead of the new season and this was heightened by last weekend's victory and slick performance against Albion Rovers. â??It is therefore disappointing that once again we are distracted by non-football matters that do nothing but destabilise this club. â??Rangers fans are well aware that there have been various people trying to grab pieces of their club for years now and to force themselves into positions of power. â??However, all they have ever done and continue to do is have a negative effect when I and the other directors are trying to focus totally on taking Rangers back to the pinnacle of Scottish football. â??It is a difficult task and yet again we are seeing people attempting to make it impossible. "But we will not be defeated, I certainly won't, and we will meet this latest ill-considered and ill-timed challenge head on. â??Let me stress that I, as Chief Executive, a position I am privileged and honoured to hold, and all of the other directors are firmly behind Ally McCoist and his team as we embark on stage two of our journey â??I urge all of our fans not to listen to rhetoric or empty promises and continue to support the manager and those of us who do genuinely have Rangers' best interests at heart. â??Everyone is entitled to an opinion, including Charles Green. But what I want to make clear is this: Backing the manager and the playing staff in their quest to restore Rangers' fortunes is critical to our ambitions. "That and resolving to stand firm against anyone who would drag Rangers down in their selfish desire to promote themselves. "This great club is bigger and more important than any of them, or any other individual." Insult to the intelligence of every Rangers fan. I don't claim to know any ins and outs but what load of absolute shite from start to finish. He must think we zip up the back. This statement shows none of those qualities. Or because they are fans with concerns who think they can do better? Childish name calling is really, really, honourable, dignified and full of integrity, right enough. Here's news for you, Craig: I swithered many times before spending even £20 on tickets because I wasn't sure where it was going. If you think anyone sane is going to lob £££ at you and your pals until you prove yourselves on the level, you're living in a fantasy world. You're right! There have no issues of working capital running out at all. All is 'positive and strong'. As a formerly kinda neutral, doesn't want to get involved kind of fan I can say Craig Mather can go fuck himself after that statement.

Aye, that sounds about right. In fairness to the RST they seem to have mellowed out and cut the hyperbole of late. Maybe if Charles does the same he may get away with his second coming. Apparently he's been at it in The Sun (haven't read it) and if that's true my patience with him will wear thin pretty quickly. Really not sure if his style (leaving aside the financials) is what we need now. Last year, yes, now?

I know its the Record, but Barry as spokesman? Come on.

This sounds like pish, technically speaking. You're either part of or not part of a group. To the best of my limited knowledge 'cosy with' doesn't appear on many company/corporate law documents. For fuck's sake. YOUR (OR MY) POLITICAL STANCE IS OF NO IMPORTANCE COMPARED TO THE SURVIVAL OF RANGERS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3TAAV4Z70 Charles is back! Three little words to make you either perk up a little or bang your head off the table in despair, depending on your point of view of Scotland's most famous Yorkshireman. Green, who entered the horribly small and incestuous world of Scottish football only about a year ago - it seems longer - easily pushed aside such amateurs as Geoffrey Boycott, Neil Warnock or the guy from the Plusnet advert to bestride this admittedly small stage as No.1 superfan or No.1 embarrassment, personal opinion depending. Little has changed during his enforced absence. Seemingly there is much support for his return on large but liable to extremism forum RangersMedia, while horror is the order of the day on small but sane Gersnet. Someone else will have to see what massive but apparently Stalinist site FF has to say, as I have never been on it, but from all accounts the reaction is likely to be negativity edging toward hysteria. Why the splits between sites and fans as to whether Charles is a Bear or a Burden? It probably boils down, in the end, to how much you can factor in financial awareness to your support of The Rangers. For those, like me, who have just about no understanding of the shenanigans which apparently make up the average day in the Ibrox boardroom, Charles Green was a Godsend. For, despite advocating the 'dignified silence' approach for many years, my adherence to that stance only worked if, when abuse or lies went too far, the club actually reacted. The reaction would be all the more potent for its rarity; no reaction, at all, ever, about anything, was redefining dignified silence as just plain old silence. So for Charles to fetch up, cricket bat in one hand, brew in the other, eh-upping all over the shop and actually kicking against the pricks...you can see why all but the most suspicious would warm to him, and fans who can't get into financials would salaam before the Messiah, even one with crumbs of Eccles cake on his chin. Against that, when you award yourself a 100% bonus for the not-exactly-unpredictable event of Rangers winning the third division title, little bells start going off in your head regarding motivation and ethical practice. His friends, too, leave you rubbing your stubbly chin and saying, 'Aye, well' to yourself. The fantastic and (seemingly) unfounded braggartism which, while a bit welcome, often lurched over into utter delusion - Dallas Cowboys, anyone? - meant that, for this Bear at least, when Charles left he was part hero and part pantomime villain. And who can blame me? My club (and me, as a fan) have been pilloried as being the root cause of all society's evils for so long that for anyone to appear and tell us that we may not, in fact, by the spawn of Satan upon the face of the earth is likely to see that person rushed upstairs and into bed, without a thought for protection. We may have exchanged one dysfunctional relationship, under Murray, in which we were beneath consideration and the go-to-punchbag for all and sundry, for another one with Charles, in which he chucks us a nice dinner or two but which we end up paying for; and when the bank balance is empty, gone is our new admirer. Charles may have brought us roses, but roses come with thorns attached.