Hildy
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Everything posted by Hildy
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Neil Lennon always seemed like the poster boy for the more extremist element in the Celtic support. In that respect, it might not be a bad thing that he's leaving. As for his managerial qualities, he coasted the league and qualified for the CL, and even reached the last sixteen. We dwell on his domestic Cup failings but he succeeded, up to a point, with regard to the main events, and that kept him sweet with his employer. I honestly couldn't predict how things will pan out from here. Celtic have an opportunity to bring in a new man now, and Larsson would certainly generate box office appeal, which is important. I'd be surprised if they invested in Moyes, but not overly upset if he was their rather expensive choice. Malky McKay is probably a contender too but his appointment wouldn't really excite the masses. Larsson could be their McCoist, but Celtic enjoy such a massive advantage over the rest, including us, that he would inevitably get off to a winning start. If ever there was a time to take a chance on a former playing legend, it's now.
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Just as we had fans who worshipped David Murray and were uncomfortable with any criticism of him, on the negative side, we have people obsessed with guys like Graham and Dingwall and they spend an inordinate amount of time opposing anything they say or do - whatever they say or do. Those who subscribe to blind devotion in one case and blind hatred in the other are worryingly misguided. Murray wasn't God and Graham and Dingwall aren't the devil. Football fans tend to love or hate - there is rarely an expressed in-between. When positive feelings about a figure like SDM turn into blind devotion, rational argument doesn't penetrate. When blind hatred overtakes someone, the same applies, and within the Rangers support, we probably have too many who take their positive and negative feelings to extremes, and this isn't healthy.
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It seems to be quite a clever idea. The club benefits financially when there is a new share issue. The fans benefit because they get a unique and reasonably priced shirt to register their protest. The support benefits because it acquires more shares in Rangers with the profits.
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Shirts used to be a big seller for us but I'm not sure how we rank these days. In the Glasgow area ten years ago Rangers and Celtic strips were a common sight. These days they are much less visible whereas foreign and English shirts are probably more in evidence than ever before.
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"The RST board has decided that the money raised will be used solely for the upcoming share issue as outlined in the board's 120 day review." The red and black shirt profit will go to Rangers then, between £7 and £8 per item apparently, but the official shirt, according to some, only contributes around 70p to £1 to Rangers - per shirt sold.
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Does this mean that an unofficial shirt is contributing more money to Rangers - per shirt sold - than the official one?
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It's pleasing to see constructive methods of protest succeeding. Let's hope that the numbers keep rising.
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I can't think of one, Tom. There has been a distinct absence of heroes in this sad chapter.
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Rangers has been many things to many people for nearly a century and a half and over much of this time, excellence and aspiration have ranked high in the club's priorities. To be a Rangers supporter was to be a part of a family that had high expectations, an intolerance of mediocrity, an insistence on elite standards and an undying ambition to be the best. The last few years, though, have been a uniquely testing time. Experiencing the team in the lower reaches of Scottish football has been a ghastly experience. After 120 years of winning or coming close to winning the Scottish League, being dumped in the wasteland of the national sport has been more than just humbling: it has been surreal. Finishing top of the third and fourth tiers may have secured promotion, but it went against the grain that these achievements were deemed worthy of celebration. They might be for small clubs, but for a club like Rangers, promotion was a minimum expectation. There's something unsettling about seeing Rangers celebrating the acquisition of minor trophies. Some will argue that every success should be lauded, especially after flirting with finality, but it feels inappropriate: it feels wrong. The nature of the way the team has performed is a sorry tale. Watching Rangers is about as aesthetically pleasing as a long and lingering gaze at the urban monstrosity that is Celtic Park. An uncultured approach to football is now endemic within the club's football department: it knows no other way. Somehow, and it started before Ally McCoist settled in the manager's chair, Rangers has become the epitome of ugly. The vital matter of club ownership is impossible to ignore. Fans have lost trust in the current regime; its plans are vague and unconvincing, it is out of touch with those who fund it and it can't even convince supporters that it genuinely cares. It is in a hole, a very large hole, and it keeps on digging. Rangers is a shadow of what it used to be. In every single area, there are failings, but most worryingly of all, there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. The club's financial predicament could mean a slow and painful demise, or perhaps a sudden and quick one. The spectre of doom hovers over Rangers like dark clouds over Arran, and even if the club survives, it may never recover to become a domestic powerhouse again. Fans debate the corporate side endlessly, but expertise in this argument rarely offers hope, a way out or a workable solution. Learned fans offer little more than those who know as much about bean-counting as they do about rocket science. A glaring absence of the means, imagination and knowhow to lead Rangers out of this mess has been the most notable aspect of this entire debacle. The vast Rangers family has been found to be badly wanting. It is staggering that a pillar of the Scottish sporting community could be so easily shaken and undermined, but the collective naivete of the Rangers support never dared to entertain the possibility that the club's existence could one day be threatened. From the fanatical element within the Celtic support to provincial club detestation of Rangers and an ever-open door on Edmiston Drive to rogue ownership, the inevitable consequence was hard times ahead for Rangers, but few saw it coming. In this hostile new era, winning a title or two was only going to be half the battle. There are no heroes in this debacle. From millionaires to ex-players and from ex-directors to ordinary fans, the combined wisdom of the lot of them has amounted to failure after failure and blunder after blunder. The air of immortality that once enveloped Rangers has evaporated. The club has been outed as a zone of incompetence and its cheap talk and soft underbelly have made it an easy target for detractors. There are times, when the mood is dark, when one wonders if Rangers has reached the end of the road. Society has changed, but maybe Rangers has never really changed at all. It gives the appearance of being an anachronism, clinging to a past that it can't let go instead of embracing a future that it never foresaw. Regrettably, there is a hateful and sinister element within the Rangers support. For many years, our press and media told us it was there, but we denied the accusations outright. Now, with many contentious issues to deal with, the vitriol that spews forth from one fan to another is beyond the pale. Anyone trying to lead us out of this mess automatically becomes a hate figure for fundamentalists who believe that they and only they are the true carriers of the Rangers torch. Maybe they are, and maybe that's why the torch is in danger of being extinguished - permanently. Two words have sold a million Scottish newspapers over the years: 'Rangers' and 'crisis'. Finally, we have a crisis worthy of such a dramatic description and we have reacted exactly as our enemies would have wanted. There is too much hate in our hearts to provide constructive solutions to the problems that beset us. Until this is successfully addressed, we will get the club we deserve - if we have a club at all.
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Murray Park could be ten times the facility at half the price but it won't see an appropriate return on investment if the management and coaching staff aren't able to properly exploit it. That's the crux of the matter. Blaming Murray Park for not turning out enough young talent is like blaming Ibrox for Rangers not winning the league. The problem lies with the personnel, not the facilities.
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Forget terms like 'youth academy'. Rangers is effectively based in Milngavie these days. Ibrox is a matchday venue with a ticket office outside and little else. The idea that the sale of Auchenhowie will benefit the club is far-fetched. Various people will profit handsomely from a sale, but the benefit to Rangers will be out of all proportion to the gain made by a relative few. The f word - flexibility - has been used and it should be a wake-up call to everyone, but of course it won't be. When Rangers has nothing left but its history, this regime will still escape censure by those whose unquestioning loyalty to it kept it ticking over. If anyone still thinks the club's assets are safe under this regime, they really need to think again, and that's the polite way of putting it.
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Some eyes will never be opened. We have to accept that. An entrenched allegiance overpowers commonsense and intelligent analysis with some people. They will not see what they have conditioned themselves not to see. Hopefully, enough of us can see that there's reason to be concerned. The board wishes to retain 'flexibility' over Murray Park? Let the alarm bells ring out - loud and long.
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It does indeed. That's a healthy number of sales.
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It's possible to pick up tickets for Old Firm games outside the ground, and this has been the case for a few years. Gold dust they ain't. Daft kick-off times, over-policing, over-zealous stewarding, expensive pricing and live television coverage have all had an effect on demand, and not in a good way.
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You won't find it written anywhere. You won't find hard evidence that it is going to happen, but we know that the club is owned by a regime that is over-generous with remuneration, careless with public statements, and with no obvious blueprint about how it is going to address a difficult future while more and more fans give up on it. We also know that David Murray contemplated the idea until the RST- thank goodness - got wind of it and went public with it, so sale and leaseback is not an uncommon idea. SDM backed off, but I'm not convinced that this regime would back off in the face of fan upset. Should we take a chance and see how things pan out, or should we fear the worst and actually prepare for it? The question, as I see it, isn't a difficult one.
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The ideal alternative is fan ownership. The RST is working in this direction, but no-one is sure how quickly it will happen. It may indeed take longer than we would wish. In the meantime, we could see Ibrox and/or Auchenhowie sold. With this regime, it is impossible to rule this out. It is therefore vital that someone thinks about what we should do if it is attempted. The idea that we should just wait and see is as daft as it is misguided.
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I think there needs to be some serious strategic thinking done about our plight. Some will back this current board to the ends of the earth. To them, the current regime IS Rangers and they will be loyal to it come what may. They need to be ignored while those who have concerns about this regime think about ways to counter or pre-empt the moves it is likely to make.
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Any sale and leaseback would tie us to playing at Ibrox, but it would do extensive temporary damage to us and possibly great long term harm too. It would be good if there was a way out which didn't involve buying it back at a massively inflated price. Is there one? If a 99 year lease is signed by the current board, how can we rip it up - legally?
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That may be true, but the day could dawn when Rangers and Ibrox go their separate ways.
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If Ibrox is taken over by another company and leased to the club on, for example, a 99 year lease, would this get us out of it, and if it did, where would we play if Ibrox was not our property any more?
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I'm not banking on Dave King. He can walk away now and it wouldn't trouble me. He has a role to play if he feels so inclined, or he can walk away and keep his children's inheritance safe and secure.
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If you had a bank balance on a par with Dave King's, what would your solution be to our current problems? The onerous contracts - how do we get out of them? A sale and leaseback - how do we get out of it - if it happens?
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We should be thinking about what to do if a sale and leaseback of Ibrox and Auchenhowie is attempted - or if it actually happens. The idea that rogue ownership could sign the club up to a long lease of either or both is quite sickening.
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A season ticket sales figure has not been provided. It's conspicuous by its absence. It's not a good idea either to be using 'loyal fans' at this stage either. The implication is that those who haven't renewed are not loyal.
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To be honest, I thought this was a lethargic game and fairly dull to watch. It was dramatic in a goals sense and the fact that Hull were in a winning position for a long spell, but the football was pedestrian and the occasion less passionate and atmospheric than the game between St Johnstone and Dundee United. I'd love to have seen it go to penalties. Alan McGregor is not easily beaten from the spot.