andy steel

dB has said it for me. Things change, the 'no one holding more than 15%' will fluctuate, hard to see how it wouldn't with all the hue and cry surrounding us. Some people are bound to bail out coz of that/failed CVA. CG may not be keeping us absolutely up to date on everything, but he's a damn sight better than Whyte or SDM ever were, and light years ahead of the regulatory bodies. I really hope he's the real deal. Tired of being let down. edit: sorry, I missed two pages after dB's post. This seems a bit surreal now.

Somewhat surprising conclusion to arrive at based on today's statements, GS.

Aye, but they must have some decent u-18s who could do with what is euphemistically referred to as 'toughening up'.

This is churlish, but...if it wasn't fellow journos who had complained they wouldn't have given a flying one.

CG on SSN this morning, saying how he was now living in a flat rather than moving from safe house to safe house. Went out for a meal, and what happens? Someone invites him to join their table as they were having a birthday celebration. I wish we could take back our town from the internet loonies. CG I hope has now seen the real face of Glasgow and will live his life normally, like 99% of us do. I really hate the image of this city we are projecting, both from ourselves (like the two Ardrossan arseholes) and through the media. Rant over.

They can't all be right. Charles is on SSN this morning telling us that the SFA are being told even now who his people are.

Alright, I admit that is quite a good statement about the other players. And I admit that we need any player we can get! But it still sticks in the throat, the idea of him wearing a Rangers shirt. Not as if we haven't had dirty players down the years, but I do find it hard to forget what he did to Jelavic.

A phone call to Brian Laudrup, who can then get onto his brother, may prove rewarding. Giovanni Van Bronckhorst is now in management. It seems unlikely to me that Dick Advocaat would remain outside management for long. Alex Ferguson could be persuaded, if Walter was to talk to him. Davie Moyes is a decent man, and may feel a twinge of guilt at raiding our fire 'sale'. We are not without friends and can find two or three players from around Europe who could do a job.

So...if we don't accept the embargo, we don't have a league to play in. If we do accept the embargo, we don't have a team. In what world is this normal?

Yes, the nation has never been more together, has it?

I totally agree. I want more than just Regan's head, that's all.

Nah, I went on a YCCC forum to ask how they viewed their former CEO since we can become blinkered in the goldfish bowl here, I can certainly. He seems to have a mixed to good reputation for the job he did there, which I find interesting since there's no axe to grind. But the whole point is to shift attention away from Regan, who I think is on his way off somewhere else, onto those people who have been at it but remain - especially today, Petrie of Hibs, who I reckon stands accused of some pretty shoddy dealings, saying one thing in public and striking secret deals in another. If we cut down the figurehead - and I think he's only going to fall because of other clubs distrust, not ours - but leave the mechanism in place for the same thing to happen again...well, I don't see how that's moving forward.

As usual with stories about Rangers and the wider Scottish football picture, by the time you type something it has usually been overtaken by events. It's with some trepidation, then, that I post this; but I think that, even in the disturbed times we live in, this picture will not change too much in the days ahead. If anything, I think the scenario described will become ever more apparent as the week goes on. Some years ago, in a bid to define actual support for Scottish nationalism as opposed to fans at Hampden to see Scotland, Alex Salmond described the football Scot as a 90 minute nationalist, happy enough to wave the Lion Rampant during a game but unconvinced by the wider idea of complete separation from the UK. This idea was later transferred to Rangers fans, in the form of the 90 minute bigot, who sings from the Forbidden Songbook but doesn't, in his or her 'real life', actually bother with religion much. There's some merit in both caricatures. Now we can add another species to this tartan sub-genus: The 90 Minute Social Conscience. While this sounds like a title on one of Mark E.Smith's early records, it pretty much sums up the smell wafting from panic stricken boardrooms and fan sites. The idea seems to be that Rangers require punishment on the grounds that it is the right thing to do; that integrity is essential in football; and that, should the game crumble still further, the government ought to intervene to protect this crucial, societal issue. As a bit left wing politically I'm delighted to be joined on the moral high ground by so many previously shy socialists. At the last general election, I and (iirc) 886 other souls in the Paisley South constituency voted for the Scottish Socialist Party. The majority of my fellow voters returned the appaling Douglas Alexander, a lightweight crony in the Blair administration who makes up for his lack of substance by leaning forward and earnestly assuring people he only entered politics to help people. Perhaps he could get a job delivering meals on wheels, since his record of helping to date is not glorious. Be that as it may, the fact remains that a huge majority of voters plumped for parties which openly and unashamedly embrace the UK policies of the last 30 years - all is fair in the pursuit of money and possessions, rights and expendable should they prevent the first goal, and the law can be regarded as an inconvenience rather than rules. How sweet it is to see this vote for Thatcherism swept away in the world of football. Sweet? Well, decaying corpses are often referred to as having a sickly-sweet smell, and that analogy seems most apt for the game at the moment. Suddenly, workers' rights are vital! St Mirren's throwback chair, Stewart Gilmour, is in the papers today wringing his hands, tearing his hair and warning of staff redundancies. I'd take him more seriously if he'd been seen on one march against a plant closure; to the best of my limited knowledge his only public statements outside of St Mirren have been to try and reverse the hard won legal rights of people and clubs by insisting football clubs ought to abrogate their right to legal appeal. The idea of a fan spring may appeal, but in reality is nothing more than people whistling in the dark to keep up their spirits. Society is monetarist, and football is the same. Not only does the concept seem unlikely to work in the wider context, even at a micro level the numbers don't add up. If clubs are reliant on a hard core of supporters rather than sponsor and TV money, their financial resources are going to be less than at present, leaving them all yet more vulnerable to the predatory advances of our southern cousins, for whom money is little issue. The much talked about revival of teams filled with young Scots simply won't happen - it will be Conference, League and Championship sides who will have these players. I should note that I include Rangers in this vision - indeed, we're the first team to suffer from the exodus, with the players who left following administration showing what is likely to happen for the forseeable future. Within the wider European picture, the reliance on money is every bit as entrenched as it is in the UK. UEFA fair play rules or not, we will see the same clubs challenging for the leagues across the continent, and they will ony be joined by those with huge investement on tap. Yet we are expected to stand against this monolith, with our inferior stadia, retrograde playing style, players of mediocre ability and backward coaching: all this, somehow, will spark interest in the game enough to usher in a New Dawn. I fear our isolation will increase, not the opposite. Anyway, I imagine you are getting pretty bored by now, if you are reading this far. I'll finish with another quote from St Mirren's Stuart Gilmour: "As directors of football clubs we need to look at everything but I hope there are other options. The government needs to have a look at this. This is now a society issue and itâ??s time for government to take a close look and get involved." Ah, if only. Governments these last 30 years and more do not intervene, until they lead to events like the London Riots. Just because you have screwed up royally and are facing extermination, you can scarce expect the government to bail you out. When one considers the money that has gone into football over the last 20 years, it would be outrageous on a scale to match bankers' bonuses should we see the State suddenly come back to life and pump money into football. No, your 90 minute conscience won't save you now, Scotland. You have chosen this society, where being rich or powerful guarantees survival and the poorest are rubbed out, deservedly or not; now you have to make the best of it.

Not many Rangers fans have any time for the CEO of the SFA, Stewart Regan. Seen as little more than a media mouthpiece for celtc's Peter Lawwell, his record since coming north from Yorkshire has seen him comfortably installed in the top 5 'public enemy' list for Bluenoses. I can't help feeling that, his gaffes notwithstanding, that this is a little unfair. It's not that I think he has been effective at his job - I don't. Nor do I think he has been impartial or balanced in dealing with Rangers as we stagger from crisis to crisis - he hasn't. It's because I can't see how or why Regan should be the one to shoulder the blame while others skate smoothly by without a word of criticism. The first thing to note, as always in these kind of articles, is that we are the authors of our own misfortune. Since no post about Rangers may proceed without The Ceremony of Abasement demanded by the self-righteous, I blame Murray, Whyte & I suppose myself for the wreck that we have become. Regan didn't take up his job, don top hat and cloak, jump on the first tube to Ibrox and begin his nefarious work of destruction; we managed most of that all by ourselves. As the face of the SFA, he's first in line of fire. But as the leaked email of last weekend showed, he is the man who collects the threads of others and tries to weave them into a whole. When you are confronted with people like Hibs chief Rod Petrie, your life becomes much harder. Petrie claimed, while campaigning to have us expelled from the SPL, that integrity was beyond any price. Now we find that, far from being beyond measure, integrity stops at position 12 in the Scots football structure. Petrie was charged with keeping secretly Charles Green informed of what the SPL clubs were up to and what Rangers could expect in votes. This blatant hypocrisy can't be simply laid at the door of Stewart Regan - if you rely on people whose morality is no better than alley cats you are on a hiding to nothing from the word go. Fans of other teams, who have joined us in an unlikely alliance against Regan, may feel aggrieved that Regan has been actively trying to limit Rangers punishment to 'only' a 10 point penalty, relegation to the second tier, a fine and a transfer embargo. Seems quite a lot to me, when added to a three year European ban, loss of an entire squad, financial collapse and 6 months of torture. Nevertheless, as the panic stricken statements of some SPL chairmen have shown over the weekend, the relentless whipping of The Rangers may lead to the loss of 5 other clubs. In this light, Regan has a duty to balance skelping wur erses with avoiding the much predicted apocalypse. You could argue that that's what he's been trying to do, while faced with our collapse and untustworthy colleagues. His previous job, at Yorkshire Cricket Club, has often been pointed to as evidence that Regan can't handle such big jobs. Yorkshire fans seem to differ; while doing some unpopular things, he seems to be viewed as having done his best and had some successes, too. It's not likely that he'll be viewed in the same light in Scotland any time soon; Rangers fans are convinced he's out to get us at the behest of our enemies, while our enemies are convinced he's trying to save us at the behest of...The Queen, or something. Maybe we should focus less on the figure at the top, and more on the moral corruption of those he relies on.

In connection with another thread about Regan and whether he is so dreadfully to blame for everything in the whole wide world ever, thought I'd put up this post from a Yorkshire cricket forum. Despite vague suggestions that Regan was chased out by an angry mob wielding Eccles cakes, he seems to be fairly well remembered down there; this post, by someone called Triple Centurian, may be dodgy of facts (opening para especially) but gives an excellent flavour of how the game up here is regarded. "its the usual story that somethign negative that grabs the headlines overshadows all the good stuff you do elsewhere. He sorted out the referees crisis, has had to deal with petty rivalries between Lennon and McCoist, put in a simpler structure that was welcomed by all and seemed to be doing well at the grassroots level which will provide longer term benefits. I fail to see how rangers going to div 3 is going to do any one any favours at all, the one club who may benefit is actually rangers newco themselves. Why would you join Celtic now? Whose away fans are going to subsidise the minor SPL teams? How many clubs up there will now go into administration? It was like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas but in this case the Scottish clubs are the turkeys who won't survive to the new year. Yes relegate Rangers one division, yes put a transfer ban on them, yes deduct them 10 points for next season, yes make sure their new ownership is more professional. i would like to think if the same thing happened down here in cricket, then the other counties would be a bit more supportive to the county who had gone into administration. The game itself is what needs preserving and rightly or wrongly a Scottish league without Rangers is about on a par with the Faroe Islands league. It may not appear "fair" but it will do in the long run and sadly thats a result of centuries of allowing Scottish football to end up where it is and to just undo that based on one rash decision will be catastrophic for all clubs. So be it - what do I care for Scottish football."

"Have you found any mistakes in this article?" asks a strap line under that piece. I imagine Timmy will be furiously typing even as we speak.

Emos notwithstanding, at this moment yes they are!

Funnily enough I was thinking about this over a cuppa only the morning. Rod Petrie is the one the RST should be making statements about; one day, the sporting integrity of the game is beyond any price, the next day he's secretly liasing with Charles Green about shady deals behind the scenes. Regan is toast, if you have (at a guess) 3/4 of the clubs belonging to the SFA with no confidence in you it's only a matter of time before you go. Instead of pursuing a line which is already winding it's way to conclusion (Regan) they should be highlighting the hypocrisy and possible corruption of others, others whom the media are atm not focusing on anywhere near enough. We need to set the agenda as much as possible, not react to it. Difficult in our position, but since the RST seem to have their releases reported quite heavily, they are the ones I hope will call attention onto the Iron Moustache.

It's not going to die. Sky, even on a reduced contract, need a product to cover. It follows, then, that they are not going to let the league collapse, and so the talk about 16m disappearing overnight is hot air. If it is to go, it will be staggered so as to allow clubs a chance to cope. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

It would place Longmuir, the new Messiah, in an interesting spot should he be the leak. I mean, you can see why you'd want this info in the open, but leaking is leaking, hardly the sort of thing you'd want your top men doing. Or, it could be media hacking. Who knows?

What a crock of shite! 'less away fans at Ibrox' is about the funniest line in that....was it meant to be a comedy turn, or something?

But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren to move the goalposts over Rangers. But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to lie about integrity while doing deals. But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to punish Rangers for not dealing with Craig Whyte. But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to inflict this scenario on an alreadu suffering Rangers. But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to be run as a a parasite of the Old Firm, facing collapse without one of them. Acceptable? But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to lecture and punish Rangers for failure to take responsibility. But it was OK for the SPL, including St Mirren, to lecture Rangers about lack of humility! A classic post from FC Bernard Matthews.

You could say the same for the chiefs!

<agrees with the sound of Sid James laugh>

I hope not...if I'm ever in the same room as Spiers I should find the temptation to bop him one on the self-righteous nose overwhelming. No way for a 41 year old man to behave.