ian1964

?

Rangers 3-0 win Hagi FGS

VIRUS FEAR Celtic Dubai row: Leitch says leagues could be at threat over Covid surge as he says UAE has DOUBLE Scottish cases Stewart Fisher 9 Jan 2021, 13:59 Updated: 9 Jan 2021, 14:36 JASON LEITCH reckons Scotland's football authorities will have to revisit the question of whether leagues can be played to a finish in the next few weeks as Covid-19 cases continue to rise. The national clinical director was responding to a question that Scotland's lower division players - who are untested - could become SCARED to fulfil their fixtures as cases of the pandemic rise. Testing is only mandatory right now in the Scottish Premiership - with Scottish Cup matches this week seeing untested stars travelling across the country to play matches. Asked about the possibility of the leagues being completed, Leitch told BBC Off the Ball: "I honestly don't know the answer to that. "I hope so, I hope we can get society in general, not just professional sport into as good a place as possible. "But we have got 2500 cases a day, we had 90 deaths registered yesterday, we have got higher numbers of hospital admissions than we have in 12 months. And London is absolutely losing the fight because of the intensive care challenges. "The judgement of whether Ayr United should travel to Elgin is not for me, it is for the football authorities. "But we were asked an interesting question about a lower league team who were now scared to play because of the level of the virus. And I think they have got a point. "I think it is now getting to the point where the prevalence is so high that it does seem quite worrying. "The question about the leagues, I think the football authorities will have to look at it over the next few weeks depending on what happens with the numbers. "I'm very, very worried about the next couple of months." Leitch also turned his attention to the topic of Celtic's Dubai training camp. The Hoops' decision to travel to the UAE for winter training has caused huge controversy, with Ally McCoist slamming the decision last night. While he explained why the Hoops DON'T have to quarantine upon their return from Dubai, he said it was up to the football authorities to confirm that the rules were observed throughout. And highlighted the fact that Covid-19 cases in the UAE are currently TWICE the level of Scotland. "The rules are that professional sports people can go on winter training camps, that is allowed. "So if you are Mo Farah and you need to train at altitude in Ethiopia then come back and run the London marathon that is permitted, it is a reason for travel. "So professional sports, football included, are allowed to go on winter treaining camps. "They are not allowed just to go on a holiday, like the rest of us aren't. "But that winter camp is therefore allowed. Now that is a judgement for the authorities and the clubs and the authorities about what that it is. "That exemption - if they stay within their bubble - means they don't have to quarantine when they come back. "But I should tell you that the UAE yesterday had 5,000 cases, nearly double the Scottish number of cases. So there is a lot of Covid in Dubai. "And the club when they are in Dubai, have to follow the rules. "They have to distance, the only exemption is over the white line, whether you are training or playing. "They have to behave the same as the rest of us, when they are there. "But they are allowed to be there, just to be clear." https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/6511629/celtic-dubai-leitch-leagues-threat-covid-uae/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1610201642

Another strange one, the very little I have seen of him he always looked a real talent, no idea now if he has a future with Rangers but he defo had/has the potential

Peaky Blinders?

An absolutely fantastic player, he was class, yet in Scotland they celebrate that tackle that should have ended his career but it did stop him becoming a world class player.

Maybe I am being too cynical? but it's strange how SG says both Jones & Edmondson are both unavailable for selection through injury! are they retaliating? maybe just me barking up the wrong tree?. Off topic, but my commas are missing? I am typing them in.

Thirty years ago Aberdeen beat Rangers 2-1 at Pittodrie. But that game is not remembered for any of the football played By Steven Pye for That 1980s Sports Blog Life was pretty good for Rangers fans at the start of the 1988-89 season. Seven wins out of eight in the Premier Division – including a 5-1 destruction of Celtic, who had won the title by finishing 12 points ahead of them the previous season – had catapulted Graeme Souness’s team to the top of the league. Rangers did suffer their first league defeat on 8 October, but that in itself was no disaster. Their loss at Pittodrie to an unbeaten Aberdeen side was hardly a shock. However, the events of that afternoon would have far-reaching consequences for some of the players involved and both sets of fans. With the emergence of Aberdeen as a force in Scottish football under Alex Ferguson, a rivalry developed between the two clubs – emphasised by two fiery matches in 1985 – and the antipathy showed little sign of abating when Souness arrived on the scene. The landscape of Scottish football was shifting; Ferguson had departed in 1986 and Souness, backed heavily in the transfer market, was delivering success to Rangers once more. Their great start to the 1988-89 season was the beginning of Rangers’ run to nine titles in a row. If the flames of the rivalry between Aberdeen and Rangers had been flickering before their meeting in October 1988, a huge barrel of fuel was poured on to that fire in the fifth minute at Pittodrie. Neil Simpson’s horrific tackle on Ian Durrant would cement the hatred forever. Be warned: if things like this make you feel a squeamish, it might not be best to follow the YouTube link of Simpson’s tackle on Durrant. Challenges had already been flying in beforehand, with former Aberdeen midfielder Neale Cooper laying down a few markers in a Rangers shirt. Sadly, Durrant was about to be on the receiving end of one tackle too many. With the ball loose in front of the Rangers box, Simpson and Durrant headed towards each other. The Aberdeen midfielder, went completely over the top of the ball and stamped down on Durrant’s leg, the full horror of the injury clear for all to see on the replays. Football during this decade was a tough business, but quite how Simpson remained on the pitch is a mystery. “Durrant’s exit after five minutes’ play should have been followed by the departure of his assailant, Simpson,” the Times reported. It was a sending off in any era. Durrant lay on the turf in agony, desperately in need of medical attention. Astonishingly, he had to leave the pitch on the back of physio Phil Boersma. “At the time, the medical service said the only available stretcher was outside the ground in an ambulance,” Durrant recalled later. And some people bemoan that health and safety has gone mad. The tackle did little to calm matters and the challenges continued to fly in, with both Alex McLeish and Ally McCoist suffering cuts in a match that the Times described as “blood and blunder.” Occasionally there was some football played, Aberdeen eventually running out 2-1 winners. Cooper gave Rangers the lead – no refusing to celebrate a goal against your former club on this day – but second-half goals from Jim Bett and Charlie Nicholas secured the points for Aberdeen and inflicted a first league defeat of the season on the visitors. Unsurprisingly, Rangers were furious. Skipper Terry Butcher was later fined £500 for kicking a hole into the referee’s dressing room door, with Souness unable to contain his anger. “We accept that every game we play is a cup final for the opposition,” said Souness. “But it’s very difficult to restrain my players under the provocation we experience on many occasions, such as Saturday’s match at Aberdeen. The whole of Scottish football should be concerned with the tackle that has threatened Ian Durrant’s future as a professional footballer.” With his cruciate ligaments in his knee torn by the challenge, Durrant’s faced a battle to play again at the top level. He had a four-hour operation the Monday after the match and, after another session under the surgeon’s knife, he went to the US for a second opinion and yet more surgery. “When I eventually went to America to get it fixed, they couldn’t believe what the Scottish surgeon had done to my knee in terms of how he had rebuilt it.” The midfielder, rated as one of the brightest prospects in Scottish football, continued to battle back to fitness and eventually made his Rangers return in 1991, when around 30,000 fans turned up to Ibrox to watch him play in a reserve match. It’s a testament to his character that he returned at all, but Durrant never shone as brightly again. “I was never going to be the same player,” he reflected later. “I went from being a runner breaking the lines to being more of a passing player. My whole game changed. I never had the spark that I used to have. I lost a few yards, which was a big part of my game. I had to adapt and use my left foot more than I did because of my injury. I was predominantly right footed. All I did in training was kick the ball with my left foot.” Durrant went on to win major honours after his comeback and starred in Rangers’ memorable European Cup run in the 1992-93 season. Having been robbed of almost three years of his career, he sued Simpson for £2m and later accepted an out-of-court settlement reported to be around £350,000. It is hard not to think of what might have been though. There was one certainty surrounding the whole affair: the uneasy relationship between the two clubs was now at the point of no return. Willie Johnston’s stamp on John McMaster in 1980, the rise of Aberdeen as title rivals, and Rangers’ resurgence under Souness all combined to add to the growing tension between the two clubs. The Simpson challenge on Durrant is often seen as the tipping point. With some Aberdeen fans singing about the tackle on Durrant and the two clubs continuing to contest for major honours at the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, there was no chance of the bitterness evaporating. The rivalry is still very much alive three decades on from that fateful day. https://www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2019/feb/06/aberdeen-rangers-horrific-tackle-changed-rivalry-durrant-souness