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Hildy

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Everything posted by Hildy

  1. Hildy
    With Rangers being so unwatchable, I'm looking forward to the World Cup to experience some high quality sport, edge of the seat drama, passion in abundance and even the debate that goes with it, especially as the tournament develops. If you love football, can you really say that you are getting all the football that you need at Ibrox? Rangers fans have been fed scraps for too long. I want to see Rangers performing at a high level but as it has no apparent ambition to reach a lofty standard any more, the World Cup is even more appealing than normal - and it has always been enormously appealing.
  2. Hildy
    It's just more drivel to reassure fans who mostly can't be reassured any more that the club has a clue what it is doing. Most fans I know feel that the club is taking the mickey every time it opens its unthinking gob. People who graft for a living and are well paid to produce a high standard of work look at their football team and see a jobs for the boys culture, low standards, inaccurate public utterances and and a brand of football that is about as appealing as a wet day in Saltcoats. People feel disrespected by the club because it operates at a standard far lower than the companies they work for and they wonder why they should fund a mediocrity that would see them pushed out the door if they produced similar in their private lives. Not only are people tiring of the bull that comes out of the club, they are beginning to dislike it for expecting them to listen to its tainted message. Supporters are growing apart from the club and unless there is wholesale change reasonably soon, the time is coming when they will give up on it completely.
  3. Hildy
    A third strip is a luxury too far. It is all about raising money because there are few occasions when it actually needs to be worn. It's over-expensive and quickly forgettable leisurewear and about as meaningful to the Rangers identity as pink boots. I like to see the team in its home strip every time unless a colour clash necessitates a change. Seeing the team in a needless third shirt borders on the disrespectful - and the same accusation can be made against every club that allows its players to become fashion models for kit that has little meaning and even less worth.
  4. Hildy
    Rangers, according to some, make around 70p to a pound for every official shirt sold. This protest shirt will raise between £7 and £8 per shirt for the club at its next share issue. This protest shirt won't stop anyone buying whatever they want from Rangers, indeed, it seems to me to be a constructive and very civilised method of protest. It raises money for the club at the same time as raising awareness that it is not well run. As most people seem to believe that the club only makes 70p for every official shirt sold, the people who are depriving Rangers of money are the people who put such a perverse commercial deal in place at Rangers. If this red and black shirt reminds people how pathetic and hopeless our board is, it will have done all of us a very big favour.
  5. Hildy
    There are typos, errors and miscalculations that can be found in journalism at all levels, but sometimes, a monumental gaffe shows a level of carelessness that is both illuminating and concerning. I think this is one of them.
  6. Hildy
    It is definitely a factor but no-one can be sure how much of a factor it is. I'm aware of quite a few who are bored rigid watching Rangers under Ally and they won't become regulars again until the football operation is taken seriously. People who are honest with themselves know that the day out at Ibrox is awful and they see no reason to keep paying to be a part of something that they no longer enjoy. Some of them won't easily be tempted back either. Other interests get taken up and returning to Ibrox starts to look like a luxury too far.
  7. Hildy
    From the Express: "Estimates of season tickets sold range from 10,000 to around 18,000, but until a definitive figure is given out by Rangers it is all guesswork." http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/479508/Rangers-fans-rage-over-boards-silence
  8. Hildy
    I tend to agree with this. The extremist fringe is being acknowledged for being unable to conduct itself in an adult manner. Really, it should be ignored. From a PR point of view, Rangers fans trooping along to a football fan version of couples counselling could be quite damaging if it is reported in the media. It risks making the support the story when really it is the ownership of the club that should be in the spotlight. It's unfortunate, but any fanbase as big as ours will have an element that drags it down. Meetings such as this won't change that.
  9. Hildy
    This sums it up. If they get 35,000 renewals, we dance to their tune. If they get hardly any, they dance to ours. Paying as we go gives us a little bit of influence. Buying season tickets denies us that influence.
  10. Hildy
    If they won't say openly that 20,000 sales have been reached, it's fair to assume that 20,000 sales haven't been reached.
  11. Hildy
    It'll cost a few bob to cross the Atlantic and spend time there. Are we paying for this ourselves or have we received an all-expenses paid invitation?
  12. Hildy
    Are the police still investigating the possibility that there was a criminal aspect to the club's takeover? If they are, and if there was, this would surely help in getting certain contracts rendered null and void.
  13. Hildy
    What would the odds have been this time last year on Hibs being relegated?
  14. Hildy
    'Normal' is probably perceived to mean being genuinely competitive with Celtic and predictably disappointing in Europe, but there has been an oft-stated view during this saga that we'll be back 'bigger and stronger', which I don't share at all. Unless something unexpectedly positive happens, I think the club will fade from grace and decline. It's interesting to look at the dark days of the eighties when Rangers weren't competitive in the league and crowds were down. The club was in trouble and there was no light at the end of the tunnel, and then the Souness revolution came along. We have to wonder what would have become of the club had a rebirth not happened. The support was passive and diminishing in number and there was nothing to suggest that anyone was going to help the club out. Apathy overtook the support as Rangers lost its way and without the advent of a spectacular new era, the club could have gone past the point of full recovery and drifted into mediocrity and a possible terminal decline. Unfortunately, I share your gloomy outlook for Rangers. The revolution of fan ownership is essential for the club's long-term well-being, but a clued-up SDM-type figure might be required in the interim. If we continue with this regime in charge, the only reasonable outlook is a pessimistic one.
  15. Hildy
    Individuals will inevitably be concerned about the way things are and probably feel that there is little that they can do, but collectively we can't afford to sit and wait this out. Anything, within reason, that we can do to make change happen should be done. We either drift into the future aimlessly while the club sheds assets and makes promises that it can't keep, or we do all that we can to bring this to a head sooner rather than later, and yes, there are risks attached. The biggest risk off all is believing that things are going to return to normal simply because we are Rangers.
  16. Hildy
    Most people would agree with you. The idea that Ibrox could be sold against the wishes of almost every Rangers fan is quite repulsive, but when there are no Rangers fans on the board, when the club ownership is shrouded in mystery, when its motivations are unclear and when it spends money quicker than Larsson and Sutton used to go down in the box, we really shouldn't be surprised when the sale of Ibrox is considered to be an acceptable option.
  17. Hildy
    There are so many questions to ponder and we really aren't in a fit state to address them. From what I hear, there is a growing unease within the Celtic ranks. They are worried about Rangers. They know, as we do, that Ally is not a manager so they have no fears on that score, but they are beginning to believe that Rangers are not going to recover even if Ally is replaced. While it's true that our plight gladdens the hearts of many of them, the more influential within the Celtic family are contemplating what this will actually mean for the Parkhead club. Their crowds are down, there is no domestic competition and they have little or no realistic European ambition any more. There will be a flurry of activity, of course, when Rangers return to the top tier, but if Rangers are dismissed by Celtic as easily as they dismiss everyone else, they are wondering what sort of future they can have if their rivals are either rotten - or defunct. It should be no surprise then that Celtic are exploring every possible avenue to find a more lucrative environment in which to play. They have been doing so for a while, but there's a new urgency about it. In and around the corporate areas of Celtic Park, increasingly, the question is being asked: what happens if Rangers are finished? When the laughter subsides, the realists ponder a future where no-one is able to compete with Celtic, and then they realise that the clock is ticking for them too. Celtic are being sucked in to an uncertain future unless they find a way out. We really have to think about this. What if Celtic get out - and we don't?
  18. Hildy
    Rangers may need to go through another Souness-type revolution to generate the kind of excitement and anticipation that will make lost souls return to the fold. If, for example, Dave King won control of Rangers tomorrow, the feelgood factor would be compromised if he backed the present manager. I believe we are a club in decline, and the longer that it takes to arrest the decline, the greater the damage will be and the more difficult it will be to repair it.
  19. Hildy
    We went bust without fan ownership. Liquidation was managed with rogue ownership - not fan ownership - and our door is constantly open to more of the same. Nothing can guarantee survival and a flourishing club, but an open invitation to rogue ownership practically guarantees failure somewhere down the line.
  20. Hildy
    The question is simply this: do fans want a democratised club which is professionally run and supporter-owned? This is basically a question on whether fans agree with the principle of fan ownership. Imagine a country's population being asked: do you want your country to be a dictatorship or a democracy? The people are being asked to agree the principle before actual details are ironed out - whether it should have a PR system of voting or first past the post, whether the president or prime minister should be elected for four years or five etc. We may not be able to make fan ownership happen for another few years, or maybe a few decades, but the opportunity to make it happen could also come quickly and unexpectedly so it is best to be prepared. A blueprint to show the benefits is worth having. It will not be the finished article but it might be close to it.
  21. Hildy
    The RST should consider doing this. Rangers could use the Barcelona model, the German model or any number of examples out there, but perhaps the best one for Rangers would be to cherry-pick the best bits from a variety of examples. The initial blueprint might not be perfect, but it would provide a sample to be tweaked and adjusted until it became something people could relate to and endorse.
  22. Hildy
    I'm in favour of reasoned debate, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of heat being generated from time to time and it can be done without being abusive. A little bit of a radical edge is no bad thing, but it has to be used to construct as well as to disagree. The RST had to happen, and it gave the club a shake as well as provoking all sorts of fan reaction, which was good. To this day, the RST generates debate and keeps fan ownership on the table. It may have upset a few over the years, but omelettes and broken eggs come to mind. Overwhelmingly, it has been a force for good.
  23. Hildy
    I know someone who was ready to commit a six-figure sum to SaveRangers. When it was replaced by RFFF, he kept his money in his pocket: understandably. We went from the beginnings of hope (SaveRangers) to a scheme which played on the emotions of fans (fighting fund!) that was a loser from its first breath. The overwhelming attitude within the Rangers support has been deferential for a very long time. If people can't live with a characteristic that fairly aptly describes us, they should dwell on where we are and why we are here. We have been ducking responsibility for Rangers for too long, and even now many want Dave King to come in to write the cheques, make us successful and square up to a hostile media. We need to stop being passive and become active in the way the club is organised. This is hard to achieve though when folk instinctively want a leader to follow rather than having any kind of belief in themselves. Frankly, I think the Rangers support needs to give itself a shake. If accusations of being deferential stir it into life, it will be no bad thing. If it takes the huff, though, it will get everything that it deserves.
  24. Hildy
    SaveRangers, if I remember correctly, had around £13,000,000 in pledges although it's difficult to know how much of this figure would actually have come in. I think we were as ready for fan ownership at that point as we have ever been, but the advent of the ill thought-out and pointless RFFF effectively took it off the table. "Deferential' should not be insulting to those who are naturally inclined this way. Those who believed every word said by SDM and want another just like him, most probably King, are more than happy to defer to a rich and powerful man. They often accuse ordinary fans of 'getting ideas above their station' when it comes to fan ownership, and this could certainly be construed as being insulting. Those who want fan ownership are arguing that every Rangers fan who wants to have a contributing opinion should get it. That is about as respectful as it gets. Those who don't want fan ownership are asking their fellow fans to pipe down and defer to an all-powerful individual. That's not very respectful at all.
  25. Hildy
    An official launch? That's great news. The project seems to have come together quickly. Plaudits to the guys involved.
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