der Berliner

The point remains that bar Whyte's team and Bain himself, no-one actually knows what really happened with regards to his suspension and the "financial irregularities" spoken about. For Gibbons should ask who hid this 2.8m HMRC case in the first place and who should have found out about it. Maybe Rangers should counter-sue Bain for bringing the club into such a state and its name into disrepute? Is Gibbons looking for a ban from Ibrox too? Was he amongst those invited - or rather uninvited - to the press conference with Whyte? This really smacks you like a comment from someone who's older than the current Rangers chairman and can't stand the fact that the latter has had the fortune and guile to take over such an institution at such a young age. But maybe it is just a keen journalistic observation ...

Wonder where such animosity comes from? I pretty much explained who these "ranting masses" are, and thankfully enough they are not the only inhabitants of fanboards and websites. Maybe to see that they are not just a "ridicule organization"? If you harbour such sentiments it would be interesting to know where they come from and whether everything the RST does and stands for is is ridiculous too, in your humble opinion. But hey, don't bother going there if you just want to bragg on, as you showed in your latest reply. So that sums them up once and for all. Well well. It's much like repeating what this or that Rangers chairman or player said every now and then and construct a club ethos out of that, something to hold against the club, chairman or said player now. Anyways, the "We deserve better" campaign resulted in fan action and banners shown at the ground. So no matter how minor it was, it actually had a visible result - visible to club and country. Not just to some fellow ranters on an obscure board. Not the point. Good and fair enough. Let me just point out that any opinion I write on here is that of my own and has nothing to do with the RST or any other supporters organization.

Whohoo ... a hornets' nest, it seems.

Part II CNN As interesting as it gets ... yet he garbles it up here ... ... since TBB has not been sung since the ban in any great manner, he miss-writes Fenian, he miss-defines and miss-categorizes Fenian as well.

End Part I

What about the figures of the Monday a week later? What about the figures on the Monday after Rangers won the title? These figures represent next to nothing.

Nothing of that sort I impled nor spoke about. It does - as opposed to the "ranting mass" (definition above) - speak to the media and the club itself and works alongside with the club on various fan projects, including anti-social / sectarian beaviour. You can find these on their website. In turn, one is bound to ask whether you have seen any ranting of supporters on boards change anything or being even heard by the club. The only thing it does is letting off emotions and squaring up to other supporters, filling pages upon pages with stuff that will essentially change nothing at all.And when it comes to real and tangible action, those who filled those pages with their rants are usually those not seen at all. Which tells me that you have not visited their website at all. @ admin regarding the medicine ... read again. Danny implied that the RST writes poorly written articles on FF et al. Which it does not. It has its own website and on occasion FF and other fanboards take articles from there. And even those who are on those website are surely not poorly written, but Danny may prove me wrong here.

There's an article on him on the official club website. Central midfield and left sided, can deliver a wicked free kick, others said.

Methinks it was said he was here till the end of the week or the like. We'll have to wait and see what Ally makes of him.

Ahem ... lay off the medicine. I do not love the RST. I just point out that ranting people on boards change nothing and hardly ever speak to anyone of the club or the media. The RST usually does not "post" threads on FF or RM or here, they have their own website and their representatives like Edgar or Dingwall speak with the club and/or the media. All this is not much, but more than nothing and needs no ridicule on your behalf. Then again, you as one of our prime rant... nay, lets say "sceptics on all things Rangers" on here - no insult intended, btw - were bound to lay into the replies above.

Played in the friendly defeat of Kilmarnock earlier this week, got no special mention though. Kerkar had two own-goal assists though ...

Really? And here was me thinking my style was that of a diehard Bluenose from Germany who's never had the chance to visit Ibrox since .. 1984ish. My opinion posted on here is and has always been my very own. @ Frankie ... my "ranting mass" comment was solely referring to the "ranting mass" on the boards, especially but not solely FF. The "mass" of Rangers supporters will not belong to that (though they will rant about this or that on occasion too). If said "ranting mass" would stop or lessen their ranting on boards and start acting in one way or another, they would actually have the chance to change something or, in the case of the various supporters organisations, make their voice heard. Many of these "ranters" apparently are far more happy to just rant on though ...

I spot the sarcasm ... but he does not actually say anything about "not being in trouble" and there is "no need to panic" nor that "anything is fine now".

I can assure you that I am not full of pish. But at least I do belong to an organisation that speaks on behalf of the support and now also with club officials. Which is something that the ranting "mass" of FF and Gersnet members never does. And hence their ramblings will not be heard by those in power.

Well, much like with a football game - of which you hardly know the outcame ahead of kick-off - you can essentially just take on what you get, try to stay objective and assume that the new Rangers management is not lying about what they do.

I, being a German, account for 20 members alone! :-)

As I said over at FF, he might just jet in for the Old Firm game ...

Regarding the big HMRC case again ... (why was the other thread closed?) Methinks this was a tax loophole, until HMRC closed it a wee while back. Now they possibly want some of that money back, by pre-dating the law's viability or the like. What is of greater concern is that press and media make it look that if the case goes against us, we will be in oblivion the day after. Which is rubbish, since we will most likely appeal it - or they will, if it goes against them. Thus, either way, it will not be settled for months, if not years, unless Whyte manages to pay them off with a smaller sum, or we go into administration and the taxman gets next to nothing. Thus, the scaremongering these days is utterly ridiculous, but it does have serious effects on other stuff, such as dealing with the court of Bain, dealing with new customers and whatnot. Implying that there's a concerted campaign to harm us and our good name is probably not that far fetched.

The point remains that the big club used by all right now (and very unnecessarily) is the "50m HMRC" case that is bound to drag on for years, unless Whyte has a neat plan ready to see it off, either by winning it or using the administration tool to get it off our backs. But the way it is being used by press and judges these days is probably not even intentionally (though you never know with the media) bound to have serious repercussions for the club right now. Just noting that Mr. King rides in from the RSA, possibly not with bags of money, but a demand of his cash ere we go under. Here's a saviour when you need one.

Now, there is not much that I know about Bain's dismissal. He's been "suspended" was the last I heard, over financial irregularities. Now, he may argue differently, but you do wonder that ... a) Whyte's folk find out about the 2.8m in the first place ... b) which should have been noted by Bain (when the big HMRC stuff came calling at the very latest) ... c) Bain gets into hot water with Whyte about this and gets the boot yet now has the cheek ... d) to demand payment for his failures? f) Not to mention that the 2.8m frozen are due because of an extra charge of 65% to that HMRC case WE uncovered and are willing to pay! You would have assumed that said judge had shown some sense and stopped this freezing of money, for, if that goes on, the club will eventually end up being unable to pay some bills. You'd hope that a verdict is being achieve very quickly here.

From the homepage ... I Stepped Up And Paid We Shall Not Be Moved ... and you would hope this cuts the rumour-mongering down to a minimum. Of course, every article that features Whyte in the press also has and will have the compulsory 50m-case mentioned, as if there's someone within Scotland who don't know about it yet. You wonder what people would say if we would have a line in every article on Celtic saying: "Of course, this is the club that covered up the deeds of a paedophile." As for the wage bill, it appears to be obvious that SPL top wages even at Rangers shouldn't top the 10k margin. Else we pay out wages that will exceed income - as they do now. Can such a wage of 0.5m per year get you class players? Only if you look hard enough and aim for what is realistic for a club within Scotland. Even if we "only" pay 0.5m per player, we'd still probably easily double the wage bill of e.g. Malmö ... What people should understand here that this is by no means the end of the world or Rangers as a power in European football. The latter essentially - if you are realistic - ended in the early 1970s. Much like the rest of Europe, we became also-rans behind the Italian, Spanish, English, and German giants. And there's a reason for it and you can't solely blame this on Rangers - be that players or managers. Now, we have to meet a cut and once that is done and we are healthy again, we can look forward to another attempt at glory beyond Hadrian's Wall. If it helps, spend a thought on those supporters of minnows like Queen of the South, Stranraer or Albion Rovers. Their supporters have never seen 1/1000 of our success and still go to support their team through thick and thin. Our chins should be up, now that we are facing a "thin" spell for a few months or maybe a couple of years. For we know that Rangers will be there again challenging ...

Ain't he working for the Scottish sports team of The Times? The one with the low circulation figures, as TomCommentator would put it.

According to sources of FF, said journalist has been booted from Ibrox / Murray Park today and was not allowed to take part in Craig Whyte's press conference.

Regarding Spiers and others who write on that topic: Would you and your lot keep in mind that "if Rangers lose their tax case" is nothing imminent. No matter how often it is repeated, it will not come to our doorstep anytime soon*. The only thing you lot do is discredit the name of Rangers FC for something of the past and something that is currently looked into. *The case might be presented in November, but as has been said the outcome will most likely be challenged by either side and will most likely go on for years. Just keep in mind how long a certain über-Rangers fan in South Africa held the local tax authorities at bay. (Anyone knows the outcome here?) I would assume that both Murray International and Whyte had/has the best legal team working on this, as neither wants to lose another few million.

At the time it was said that we paid in full. I would assume that we paid a certain amount up front and - as is usual these days - additional sums at set dates. Nothing strange these days, just remember that cash-rich (you would expect) Liverpool does the same with Wilson. (Even though his money was tied on appearances et al - which is the worse deal, IMHO.) Yet, with us it is all just assumptions and hearsay, born out of the rumours regarding the tax bills and law case. As I said on the time, this will grow arms and legs unless it is checked early on. We will have to counter any silly rumour uttered by the press or on a Hooped Horror board ... and all this see our reputation suffer. On a sidenote, while Bain's papers may claim this or that, I would assume that he knows next to nothing about the way Whyte handles Rangers' finances and payments these days. If you consider that money was there to finance the various deals which did not come off (Goodwillie, Verhoek, Juhasz ... ) and don't follow the rather hysterical assumption that this was all a bluff to appease the fans, I for one can't understand why people think we are in monetary difficulties. Of course, the current actions by HMRC make us look a bit stupid, but shouldn't we have the right to contest bills we deem irregular? It's what every company this side of Saturn's ring does .. and usually isn't questioned for it.