JohnMc

Well I've certainly seen the Israeli flag in the Rangers support at matches, I once took a photo of the Star of David flag in the Copland and sent it to a Celtic supporting Scottish Jewish Zionist I know, indeed I was thinking about him last night, he must have been squirming as the Hamas-fest took place. I think it's ridiculous that there's even any suggestion the Celtic support should be censured for this though. It was impolite, childish and reeks of the needy 'look at us' culture that permeates a section of their support, but that's it. I noticed a few years ago that as Irish Republicans started flying Palestinian flags from lampposts in West Belfast that Israeli ones appeared in Loyalist areas so it was only a matter of time before it showed up in Glasgow football too. I've a lot of sympathy with the Palestinian people, they've been treated pretty badly by a variety of countries and peoples but using it as some point scoring, right-on, aren't we all hipster intellectuals bullshit should be mocked. The holier than thou strain in the Celtic support is cringeworthy. The complex issues of the Middle East are unlikely to be influenced by barely reformed football casuals from Coatbridge. Tossers.

So just me then that thinks we over-react to this? I can see from his biog that he's the programme editor and so has some sort of official role, but really, c'mon, he's taking the piss. The very fact that's the game he's looking forward to is surely all the confirmation we need that he's attempting to be humorous. We need to grow a thicker a skin about this, we're going to get this and the zombie stuff for a few years more, laugh it off, poke fun back, deal with it in a mature way. dB, if he's a Thistle fan then rest assured he meets bears in real life, he's probably got several in his family, he's highly unlikely to live in some Thistle supporting only ghetto. He's kidding us on, playing on a sore point with our support, making his own fans laugh. Jeez, we react like he's personally stripping titles. How does writing that make someone a bigot Tb? Come our next visit to Firhill expect a lot of 'you're not Rangers anymore' because clearly it irks us and opposition fans can see that, best solution is to put five past them and they'll soon realise we're exactly the same Rangers they know and love.

Realistically Celtic are still favourites. In Griffiths they've a striker who can score against anyone in Scotland, if they can keep him fit they'll challenge all season. However, they're very dependent on him, he scored more than a third of all their league goals last season, and if he picks up an injury or loses form they've got a big problem, of course they might sign someone else before the season starts. We're different, our top scorer only contributed 18% of our goals, that's unlikely to change this season. Unlike Celtic our goals come from all over the park so losing Waghorn for example whilst a blow isn't as difficult for us. Again we might also have signed another forward before the season starts. Half the SPFL are of the same quality as we faced last year, they're no better than Falkirk, Hibs or Raith Rovers and we should be able to deal with them home and away. The other half will pose us different challenges. Hearts are a big strong physical side, they'll be an interesting side to face, they're direct and robust and will be unlike any side we've played under Warburton so far. We're a small, light team, some of the new guys will add some height and strength but we're still built for speed and movement and sometimes in Scottish football you need to win the physical battle first. Aberdeen are also a big side but I feel are more of passing team. They'll compete with us toe-to-toe at first, at least at home, but they're good on the break and have experience in their team, I'd expect to drop points to them over the season. There'll be a couple of other SPFL sides who'll put a run together, there always is. As St Johnstone showed us early last season a well organised, disciplined defence combined with the ability to counter-attack can cause us problems and we can expect to face that from a few sides. If we don't get an early goal sides will be happy to sit deep and wait for their chance. As for Celtic, well who really knows. I can't decide if Rogders is a good manager or a balloon. He's done well at some clubs and not at others, he tries to play passing football and keep possession and Celtic to have some good players. They have a huge squad though, too big, and a little unbalanced in my opinion. But they have height and strength and that will cause us problems. So, yeah, we can win the league but it will be difficult and we'll need some luck along the way.

I don't think Kranjcar should start the season, he doesn't look fit enough to me, he should be on the bench. In the games he's played you couldn't have asked for more from Windass, he'd start ahead of Kranjcar. I'd also start with O'Halleran before Forrester although I don't think there's much between them. McKay, Waghorn, Wallace, Tavernier, Fotheringham, Halliday, Wilson and Kiernan should start the season, that's the core of the side that got promotion and should get first crack at the league this season. I'd include Holt in that list if he was fit. I'd add Windass, O'halleron and probably Barton (through gritted teeth) to them for the starting 11. Injuries and suspensions apart my concern this season is keeping McKay, if he starts this season like he finished last season I think our directors will be tested in the January transfer window.

Well one of the people elected used to have a season ticket for Ibrox a few years ago now.

Durrant didn't decide his salary, someone else is to blame for that. If he was offered a new contract on a lower salary and refused it that's one thing, if he was simply not offered a new contract that's quite different. Is it Warburton that makes decisions on youth coaches then? Is that his remit too? As has been said above who knows what goes on behind the scenes, I just hope he was treated with some respect.

I'm really disappointed to read this, I was under the impression Durrant had been doing a good job and was a popular and respected coach, particularly of younger players. My total love of Durrant the player means I've a blind spot where it comes to him. Durrant was the first genuinely international class player we produced in over a decade, an elegant yet highly effective player capable of winning matches on his own. I recently watched the Skol Cup Final against Celtic from the mid 80s and Durrant was just sensational, we forget just how good a player he was before his injury. I'm sorry no other role could have been found for him at the club, as someone who has been with us literally since childhood it feels like he could have been treated a little better.

Is this the thread to remind us all to take a summer holiday? I've never seen such a mish-mash, car crash of a thread on Gersnet, did someone really accuse Martin Luther King of brainwashing? Aye, he brainwashed all those American blacks into thinking they had rights, the monster. Roll on July so we can all debate Orange Walks again...

I don't believe the SNP are inherently anti-Rangers, no more than any other Scottish political party are. Rangers are not fashionable in political circles, as such there's little to be gained from politicians of any stripe publicly supporting them. That is an issue but i'm not sure that's the fault of the politicians. When you say the SNP didn't support us in the current situation, what did you expect to happen? I mean Hibs fans have been arrested and charged it's not like nothing has happened. I personally would be against government getting involved and putting pressure on independent bodies.

But two wrongs make a right Frankie, surely? I'm as annoyed about Rangers players being assaulted as the next person but I'm fairly sure I don't want the government to intervene. Fas involved should be charged, the SFA should hammer Hibs and the police should be forced to review future policing. But do we want politicians involved? To what purpose, what do you want them to achieve?

I've not made much of a contribution to the cup final aftermath for reasons of time and not being able to add much to the debate. However the way the 'debate' is now going is puzzling me a little. Why do we want politicians to become involved? There seems to be some sort of clamour for that and it baffles me. Hibs, the SFA and the police should be dragged over the coals and heavily criticised. A small amount of our support unfortunately should be too, whatever provocation they shouldn't have gone the pitch. But is this really something that needs to be taken to a governmental level? The assault on the players was inexcusable and I suspect Hibs will pay for that in one way or another, whatever their failings I can't see how the SFA can ignore it, I don't believe Rangers will let them either. But should this really go any further than those organisations? I'm not a Scottish nationalist and I don't want independence, let me say that at the outset. But I have voted SNP at local, Scottish and Westminster elections in the past and may do again. I look at who is standing and choose the person I think best for the job, sometimes that's been the SNP candidate. So yes, some Rangers supporters vote SNP, some support independence. I guess many don't associate the football team they want to win with other parts of their identity or belief system. Some people seem to find this concept difficult, I don't know why. I've lived in Northern Ireland, I spent three years there and have a big affection for the place and the people but let me assure you there is nothing about their politics or political parties we should be contemplating bringing here, nothing. We could spend all summer analysing why Rangers supporters and the club are viewed differently and treated differently from other clubs. But if anyone wants to say it's because we've an SNP government they are wildly wrong in my opinion. We, the supporters, have allowed our club to become unfashionable in some circles and viewed with genuine horror in others. How did that happen? What did 'we' do to contribute to that? We can ask 'how many SNP politicians are bluenoses' or whether a 'Unionist Party will emerge' but it kind of misses the point. We touched upon this a few months ago when the prospective SNP candidate for Glasgow Pollock held a meeting in a Celtic theme pub. Why would a young, intelligent, aspiring politician of Pakistani origin who received an expensive education choose to support Celtic? We can keep focussing on who messed up on Saturday or we can lose that focus and start to kick out in all directions. That might be why we keep being marginalised you know.

No he doesn't, and as someone pointed out he was punished and so should be allowed to get on with his life. However, and I accept I seem to be the only person who feels this way, I just don't think he should be a Rangers player. I'm not some Victorian moraliser, far from it, I just think there should be certain standards expected of Rangers players. Anyway, he's signed now so it doesn't really matter much what I think anyway and if he scores the winner against Celtic I'll be cheering him as loud as anyone.

Before joining us? Did he, I don't recall that but you might be right. I know he certainly was reported to have done that when he was with us and we should have kicked him out there and then.

No problem. I just don't feel someone with his past and his record should be considered for Rangers. The on-field stuff I'm actually relaxed about but his off-field past is too much for me. He is/was a ned, pure and simple and I don't know if I buy the Twitter philosopher reimagining he's got going on now. He'll be a lightening rod here and attract undue attention. He might well have turned over a new leaf, I just would prefer he wasn't a Rangers player.

Were you a professional footballer Pete? I didn't know that. A poor disciplinary record is usually a sign of a poor professional but to be honest that side of him doesn't worry me, he's a decent footballer I don't think there's any doubt about that. There's surely a scale on these things, no? I doubt Gavrilo Princip thought millions of people would die following his assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, some consequences are unseen. However stubbing a cigar in someone's eye has fairly clear consequences, beating up a fellow player has fairly clear consequences and attacking someone in the street also has fairly clear immediate consequences. I'm not suggesting he shouldn't be allowed to play football ever again, just not with us.

When we signed Gazza he was playing Serie A, the best league in the world at the time, was the fulcrum of the England side, and had never been to jail or seriously assaulted a team mate or a youth player. He was known to be impetuous on the pitch and had the highest media profile of any British footballer ever but he didn't have anything like the reputation of Barton. I wish we hadn't signed Barton and I'm disappointed someone like him is going to pull on our shirt. But, whilst he does I'll support him and the side and hope his time with us passes off without incident.

I'm sorry but I don't think someone who has spent 6 months in prison for multiple assault convictions should be anywhere near Rangers. I don't care if he's a reformed man he shouldn't ever pull a light blue jersey on. I kept hoping this was just a paper story but as it's clear it's genuine I'm appalled. I don't care how good a player he is, he should never be a Rangers player.

I notice he was warming the bench last night along with that other wunderkind Charlie Telfer. Stranraer stuck five goals past Livingston last night and they couldn't get in the starting 11? Livingston are in genuine danger of going out of business, again, so you wouldn't think they'd be too hard to do a deal with.

I wasn't trying to make any political points in the original post, I was simply getting angrier and angrier as Tuesday went on and the day and its aftermath were discussed and analysed again and was moved to write about it instead of ranting about it to my bewildered wife and children. I'm actually ambivalent as to the causes of the disaster, it was a different era and things have now, thankfully, improved. People made mistakes, didn't do their jobs properly or didn't understand the consequences of their decisions. That's the case with almost all disasters and as we can't turn back time we can only learn from them and ensure they don't happen again. My anger is aimed at those who chose to cover up the causes and who perpetuated the lie over who was responsible. That's unforgivable. As others have said much of the culture that allowed that to happen was created by the government of the time. Freedom of Information requests have proved that Thatcher was misled as to the disaster's causes, she was lied too by senior policemen and accepted their version without question. She seemed to find it inconceivable that the authorities might be wrong or that she might be lied too, despite testimony to the contrary from junior officers and appeals from the Secretary of the Merseyside Police Federation. Thatcher had no feel for sport and disliked football, her governments response to Hillsborough was to try and introduce compulsory ID cards, an Orwellian reaction that fundamentally misunderstood the problem. I'm probably more angry at her predecessor John Major. Major was a football fan, and a genuine one too by all accounts. He should have understood better, he should have empathised if, as we're led to believe, he'd attended Stamford Bridge regularly. Successive governments have, thankfully, dealt with Hillsborough differently, through to the current one and that should be welcomed. However, for me, the mind-set that allowed Hillsborough to happen still exists, football supporters are not treated in the same way as other members of society. What i'm not sure is if the culture that allowed lies and cover-ups to flourish is still as prevalent. Here's hoping we never find out.

With respect you've got your timelines all wrong. Thatcher was replaced by John Major, not Tony Blair. When Labour, led by Blair, came into power in 1997 one of the first things the new Home Secretary Jack Straw did was order a new enquiry into Hillsborough. This second report, the Stuart-Smith report, found along very similar lines as the original enquiry did in terms of blame. The Labour government was split on the findings, with Jack Straw accepting them and indeed defending them and Lord Falconer, the Justice Minister, criticising them publicly. In 2009, Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnston, ordered the formation of the Hillsborough Independent Panel to oversee all aspects of the documentation relating to Hillsborough. It was this panel that first uncovered the truth of the cover up. Whatever faults Blair and Brown had, and they had plenty, the governments they were in did bring us to where we arrived yesterday.

On the 15th of April 1989 I was at a football match in Glasgow. It was one of hundreds of matches I’d attended by then, I was 18 and going to ‘the football’ was something I’d done since I was at primary school. Unusually for me I was in the ‘The Jungle’ at Parkhead that day, it was the first time I’d ever been in that famous stand. It was a Scottish Cup Semi Final against St Johnstone, in those days they didn’t play 2 matches on consecutive days at Hampden so Parkhead was chosen as the neutral venue. I don’t remember much about the match itself, a nothing each draw that went to a replay, but I’ll never forget the day. The ‘Jungle’ was like a lot of terraces I visited in those days. Big, open, barely stewarded and poorly policed built in the Victorian era and upgraded in the 60s it was still controlled by men who Dickens would have thought twice of creating for believing their avarice might have been a fiction too far. There was of course no mobile phones, no Facebook or Twitter, but there were ‘tranny men’ guys who had small transistors with them and would be constantly pestered for scores from other matches during the game. From them word started spreading that there had been some sort of incident at a match in Sheffield. Over-crowding, people being crushed, even talk of deaths, although no one was sure, was being passed around like macabre Chinese whispers. What did seem clear was the match in England being played at the same time as the one I was at had been held up. The official attendance at Parkhead that day was given as 47,374 although as anyone who attended matches in those days knows it was always a good few thousand more. A blind eye was turned by everyone to this type of fraud, indeed it was the subject of comedy, everyone knew and no one really cared how many people were actually squashed in, as long as they’d paid. After all, we were only football fans. Leaving Parkhead after the match is all I really remember of the match. I’m not even sure who I was with although I could guess, it was a social event and I went with the same four or five people every week. As always happened at the end of a match thousands of people turned as one and headed for the poorly marked and criminally small exits. A crush ensued, being literally carried off your feet was commonplace and it happened that day. Most if not all the Rangers supporters around me had never been in the Jungle before, we didn’t know the layout, where the exits were or how steep it would be. No one in authority cared; there were no police or stewards around anyway. The exit involved funnelling thousands of people through a small passage, with a wall on one side and a fence on the other. It was bedlam, it was frightening but it wasn’t unusual, it was the same when you went to Tynecastle or Easter Road or Tannadice. I remember hearing a girl break her leg in a crush at East End Park in Dunfermline during a match once. The sound will live with me forever, she had to be passed down over people’s heads because medics couldn’t get through the mass of bodies in front of her. That’s just how it was, more fool us for accepting it I suppose. Ibrox of course wasn’t like that, but it took the deaths of 66 people in the early 1970s for that to happen. As everyone now knows that day in Sheffield 96 men and woman were killed at a football match, crushed to death in an open terrace. Ninety six people, think about that number for a minute. That’s more people than were killed in the Charlie Hebdo or recent Brussels terrorist attacks. These were people who went to see a football match and never came home. On Tuesday, something that most of us have long suspected and a few have always known, the law finally accepted that they were unlawfully killed. It took this time because those responsible covered it up, there is no other way to describe what happened. People made mistakes or were criminally negligent and rather than accept that they covered their tracks and blamed the dead. They were abetted in this by large numbers of the media and politicians. The victims were only football fans after all. The victims were demonised and the survivors were blamed for their deaths. Football wasn’t the omnipresent, class-bridging, super Sunday, bet in-play commercial love-in it is now, in those days football fans were regularly described as animals, and worse. So the next time you hear someone describe the supporter of another football team as ‘scum’ or ‘sub-human’ or ‘Neanderthal’ pull them up, that language eventually leads to people being treated that way. And the next time you hear a politician or a policeman asking for your trust, particularly when it involves your life, check who is going to hold them responsible, and how, first. People in power will lie rather than face an unpalatable truth, people in power will blame those without power and it usually takes a generation before that can eventually be proved. Stadiums have improved, stewarding is much better and policing too, but the attitudes of the authorities towards football supporters still leaves a lot to be desired. Football supporters are still treated differently from the rest of society, never forget where that road has led in the past.

I'm not sure what I was looking forward to more, the match on Sunday or Germinal's preview. I hope the match is as enjoyable as this was.

Craig Thomson was once a season ticket holder at Love Street according to my St Mirren supporting mate. Surprisingly few people mentioned that when he sent two Rangers players off against St Mirren in the 2010 League Cup Final.

Forrester is a loan player and he's been excellent, improvement from him in every match. You need competition for places and both Oduwa and Zelalem provided that. Oduwa put pressure on McKay and Zelalem put pressure on Halliday, it might not be coincidence that both have been very consistent this season. How they'd have been had there been no one to step into their role is unknown. It was no coincidence that Mark Hately had one of his best seasons at Rangers when we signed Duncan Ferguson for example. I doubt either Oduwa or Zelalem will be in the Spurs or Arsenal first team next season but they've experienced first team football now and all that goes along with it, so they are better players now than when they first arrived. Young players need first team football, Warburton understands that. I'd expect to see Liam Burt out on loan next season for example but Hardie and Thomson back in our squad.

Excellent stuff Frankie, well done.