Hildy
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Everything posted by Hildy
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Can anyone recall a major football club finding itself in this position before - admitting incorrect accounts?
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Who does appeal to the majority of the fanbase? Even Dave King has his detractors now, but if he buys the club and throws money at it, he'll be lauded as the new messiah. This is how fickle and short term we are. The Rangers Supporters Trust is offering fan ownership and democracy. It is about empowering the support. If the support would rather remain as outsiders, they can reject it, but the price for doing so will be a continuation of this sorry saga and a happy ending will be less likely with every passing day. The RST has shown the way. This may be inconvenient for some, especially those who like nothing better than a good greet in the darkness, but it made the first call about fan ownership and the idea is no longer seen as an impossibility. The support may be making a mess of getting there, but if it happened tomorrow, it would be gratefully endorsed by a large majority of us.
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I'm supporting the RST. It needs to be as strong as it can possibly be. I am a member of the Trust and BuyRangers.
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Born Under a Union Flag: Rangers, Britain and Scottish Independence
Hildy replied to Frankie's topic in Rangers Chat
We have been wedded to England for generations. We don't know what it's like not to be standing together in an increasingly hostile world. We do know what it's like to be unified though, and on the same side when the situation is desperate. The idea that oil is even being discussed when the subject is so serious, and so permanent, is quite absurd. Independence isn't for a few decades - it's forever. Once we leave, there will be no turning back. As for football allegiance having an influence - it's the one subject where there is regular agreement between Rangers and Celtic fans. The Rangers support is almost certainly more unionist than independence-minded, but every Celtic fan I know is voting NO. It is possible that the Celtic support is more unionist than we are. This is the current state of play in my neighbourhood. I spoke to someone from the NO camp last week about how things were looking. She told me that my area was running at around 90% NO, but she was still concerned. As she explained: "The YES camp will come out in droves, but the NO camp might feel that it doesn't need to. We need to make sure that NO-inclined people actually make the effort to turn out and vote". I'll be voting NO. -
While the desired solution of fan ownership is being harmed by new schemes appearing and complicating the picture, some in the Rangers support choose to march instead, which is an unsophisticated approach when there are a myriad of problems weighing the club down - and none that marching will address.
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There are schemes in place, which is a problem because more than one scheme leads to confusion and this is an issue which needs to be resolved. It's one thing to want to bring the share price down, but along the way considerable damage will be inflicted on the club and it won't be wholly mended in the future. If Rangers needs to be owned by better people, and it does, a buyout is the way forward, and this is where the focus should be - not on marching to the top of the hill and back down again. Marching won't change anything but buying the club will change everything. Whether we like it or not, Rangers belongs in inappropriate hands. We either work to change this or we can march endlessly in the mistaken belief that lasting good will come of it.
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Buying them out is the best solution. We should be concentrating a little harder on that.
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I get the impression that an element within the Rangers support would march to the sound of almost any protest drum, and while I'm relieved that there are thousands of fans who recognise that the club is in a state, I'm not sure that a march to Ibrox will achieve very much. It seems to be a way to do something in the absence of anybody actually doing anything worthwhile. Instead of addressing our problems intelligently, constructively and meaningfully, we have marches that allow people to think that they are doing something useful. We could have the current regime walking away tomorrow and being followed with more of the same, and then the whole cycle starts over again. All of our problems are to do with ownership of Rangers. Until we understand this, we are going nowhere. Protesting is fine, but solutions have to be offered as an alternative. What solution is being proposed by the marchers?
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Born Under a Union Flag: Rangers, Britain and Scottish Independence
Hildy replied to Frankie's topic in Rangers Chat
There seems to be more books about Celtic than there are about Rangers. I'm not sure of actual figures, but the impression has long been that the other side is more inclined towards literary attempts than we are - even though much of their material is romantic claptrap and revisionism. For that reason, I welcome a larger Rangers footprint in the world of books. It's healthy that a greater effort is being made to articulate who we are, what we stand for and what we believe in. We are a broad church. That's why a full explanation of the Rangers identity - in book form - is more than welcome and long overdue. -
There is plenty of chat about season tickets within the Rangers support, and usually to do with the ongoing political aspect, but the frequent movement of fixtures is almost certainly another reason - albeit a minor one - in why some people would rather not have one.
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I really, really hope it is dismissed, but I have no information on the matter.
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Some people will pay their money to the club no matter who is in charge. They feel that this is a demonstration of loyalty. Others will stop funding the club completely. They see themselves as being loyal to the Rangers cause rather than being loyal to a regime that they have no faith in. Whatever people feel, Rangers is a damaged football club that will never truly flourish until this situation is resolved. And the longer it takes to resolve it, the more damaging it will be.
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Correct. They really have to stay now, but they should be on the sleeve instead of the front of the shirt.
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From Rangers: JON DALY will be sent for a scan as Rangers try to get to the bottom of the knee problem which has ruled him out of the club’s Northern Tour. The Irish striker struggled with it towards the end of last season and it was felt at that stage rest during the summer break would allow him to recuperate fully. But the former Dundee United player has continued to feel uneasy and he is set to see a specialist in the days ahead. Manager Ally McCoist said: “Jon has been feeling his knee over a couple of days in training and he felt it towards the end of last season as well. “He is going for a scan and once we get the results from that we’ll be in a better position and place to give more information. “Our view last season was the problem was fatigue more than anything and that the rest would let him come back fresh and raring to go again. “That was certainly the case at the start of pre-season but after two or three days he could feel a niggle. “Our physio Stevie Walker and the doc felt a scan was the best idea to put everyone’s minds at rest and hopefully it’s nothing too serious.” The above statement from the club is nothing short of a disgrace. The problem was noted last season and despite the player having a history of knee problems, it was put down to fatigue. Despite the title being wrapped up, the player retained his place in the team so if it was fatigue, it was hardly going to get any better. Instead of having a scan last term, we wait until the new campaign is about to begin, and now he's going to be scanned. Any problem should have been diagnosed and treated months ago - not at this late stage when the player is known to have a history of knee problems. Problems with the board are well documented but they extend into other areas too. This latest farce is inexcusable.
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We don't know what the attendance figures will be next season but it is increasingly clear that there is a very real disillusionment within the Rangers support. Some will renew, some will support on a casual basis and some will chuck it altogether. The irony is that having won the battle to remain as the same club we always were, many fans speak openly about us not being the Rangers they grew up with: "The old Rangers is dead", they say. "This isn't the real Rangers". Something remarkable is going to have to happen to bring people back into the fold. A gradual disintegration is underway and pleas by those who continue to go to Ibrox to those who have walked away are falling on deaf ears. Maximising supporter strength is becoming impossible in these circumstances, and if things don't change, Rangers will travel into the future weakened, vulnerable and short of what is required to compete with Celtic. The club is perceived to be incompetent at all visible levels and every public statement released - like today's concerning Daly - is a reminder that the club is not just mismanaged - it is living in an old boys' bubble where intelligence and commonsense are alien concepts. Frankly, Rangers has become so dysfunctional that is has lost the respect of many who were brought up to support it - and they are learning to live without it.
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I know people who have given up season tickets in recent years. They did so for various reasons, but none were to do with disaffection with the board. None attend regularly now. Games are attended from time to time but the day out is such a grim misadventure that they become selective in what games they attend. When they have a season ticket, they come back for more unthinkingly, but when they have to pay out every other week, they start to miss games, and when they realise that missing games isn't as painful as they expected, they start to miss even more. Expect season ticket lapses to either stay away altogether - for political reasons - or to go to most but not all games. If the season is exciting, it will be the club's best hope of getting people through the gates, but as this could mean the manager being publicly outed as not good enough, it could work the other way too. Most Rangers fans I know don't go and don't want to go. It will take a rebirth of the club to win them back, and depressingly, some will be lost forever.
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Within the context of all that has happened to Rangers these past few years, I struggle to have any interest in the Challenge Cup at all. It is a nothing tournament to win and a nothing tournament to lose. A club with a history like ours makes the very act of participation in a Cup like this a painful experience. Being in this tournament is an unwanted reminder that Rangers' history has been badly tarnished by recent events and humiliations. I wish there was no such thing as the Challenge Cup.
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Too often we hear about yesterday's men being guiding lights towards a better future. I don't want Smith and Souness anywhere near Ibrox. They have had their time. We need better men now to deal with a tougher future. Rangers needs to re-invent itself as a football club that is effective, watchable and successful - and utterly professional in everything that it does. Smith and Souness should have no future role at Ibrox other than to meet and greet. Let's create a Rangers that wants to win with style rather than sticking to the dogged, the dour and the interminably dull.
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Whatever happens next, the return of Souness and/or Smith would be a huge backward step. We need to move on from the personalities of the past and develop an ethos more suited to 21st century football. We need new blood at Rangers. We need to stop clinging to the past.
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No matter the opposition? The opposition has to be a factor when analysing our football statistics. Are we to give the same credence to figures against part-timers in Scottish football's basement to those which are recorded against full time players in the top division and against decent level European talent? Frankly, in the grand scheme, and bearing in mind the history of Rangers, everything achieved at this low level should have an asterisk against it to remind future generations that we were competing against a level of opposition so low that we had to look up to see the gutter. Lee McCulloch has been given a new lease of life because we have been up against rotten opposition. If demotion had never happened, he'd have been out of his depth in the top tier. Against Stranraer he can shine, but against Celtic he'd be sh . . . shocking.
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Question: Who earns most at Rangers - the kitman/bus driver or McGregor?
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My apologies. It was indeed.
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If, as expected, there is a NO vote in the referendum, it won't kill the SNP. The argument for an independent Scotland won't go away just because it loses the popular vote. In a generation or so, there could be another referendum that threatens to take Scotland out of the UK. From a British perspective, it makes sense to strengthen the bonds between England and Scotland now to make future separation less likely. Having a major Scottish club, or perhaps two, playing in the lucrative English set-up might actually be positively encouraged by the political left, right and centre after the referendum. The time could be near when the prospect of the Old Firm playing in England becomes not just possible, but probable.
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In this country, we're not sure what a director of football actually does, but the title suggests that he would be above the manager in the pecking order, so if this appointment actually happens, Ally might not be over-keen on the idea. The director would surely be in favour of a particular football ethos and not inclined to fit in with a system that he doesn't like or approve of, and having been at a major club that played with adventure and belief, how likely is it that he'll endorse the ghastly football fare that is served by Ally and the boys? The concern is that Nerlinger will be a scout rather than a director and an administrator rather than a leader. If he is in charge of football operations, he could be a good acquisition, but if he is required to fit in with Ally's methods, it will likely be another waste of money. If Nerlinger comes, and if he is the new top football man at the club, I think it is likely that a new manager will be required to deliver a product that actually resembles the game many of us grew up loving. If we keep seeing the same junk football, we will be fully entitled to question the Nerlinger appointment. It could be good news, but these days, we have to see it before we believe it.
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You said: ". . . until expectations are lowered, there will be no let up on the misery front". This would tend to suggest that a lowering of expectations is your recommended course of action. Perhaps you can clear it up - should expectations be lowered - in your view?