bmck

i get the impression that what we get from rangers world, murray etc is blair-esque soundbite policy. they want to be seen to improve while maintaining the status quo/doing what they like.

http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NOTREGNews/NewsDetail/0,,5~1029046,00.html

From Lindsay Herron in Los Angeles

 

LA Galaxy president Alexi Lalas is hoping that he can develop a fruitful relationship with Rangers on the back of tonight's friendly clash

 

The former US national team stalwart and one-time Padova player reckons there is a good opportunity for the two clubs to work together.

 

He is interested in some of his younger players going to Ibrox and would welcome some Rangers youngsters to come to LA.

 

He told rangers.co.uk: "It's a wonderful opportunity for our organisation on the field to play a world class club and off the field a great way to share ideas and establish a relationship.

 

Rangers are a club with an incredible history and it's an honour for us to welcome them to Los Angeles and to the Home Depot Center.

 

From a Rangers point of view they are obviously looking to push their brand here in what is incredibly emerging market.

 

And from our perspective to be associated with one of the best clubs in the world is wonderful.

 

I am sure we can work together on a lot of ideas. We can learn from them and they can learn from us.

 

There may be scope for players to go from one club to the other.

 

We have the same pressures as Rangers in the sense that winning is what it is all about so we want to have the strongest squad possible.

 

It would be incredible of some of our younger players could go over and learn in the environment that Rangers work in and vice versa it could be beneficial for some of their players coming over here to be part of the Galaxy.".

he makes some good comments, but dont you get the feeling you've heard this all before?

cheers frankie. cant believe how good gow looked there.

i cant help but see murray using players to downscale the sentiment among supporters that we've got major rebuilding required.

this is all nonsense. the exact same thing we hear all the time - tried to get world renowned player a), ended up with mediocre player b). we are never going for player a)! its a nonsense! a chirade!

cant see that on their site, but dear god thats bad.

calscot, if you pad that out a bit i think it would make a great article for the main site.

aye buster. its a horrible state of affairs - its the schizophrenia thats caused between by and large despising the press' power over your average person and the hope in yourself that they can be swayed according to the ends you want, type thing.

MediaWatch ââ?¬â?? Murdo MacLoud awakens the People?

Well, itââ?¬â?¢s been tempting to focus this weekââ?¬â?¢s instalment of MediaWatch on the intense coverage of Scott Brownââ?¬â?¢s signing for Celtic. It would be nice, perhaps, to spend a bit of time watching just how many times the tabloids, and even the BBC, were willing to contradict themselves in the name of a good headline [1]. But I think there was one article with a typically sensational and somewhat inflammatory title that may have furthered the Rangers cause despite itself ââ?¬â?? an article chiefly quoting Murdo MacLoud, no less [2].

Now, articles on Gersnet are largely un-edited and we do our utmost not to preclude people from giving their opinion, even if it doesn�t agree with that of the majority. Despite this, the consensus among our participants seems to be that the appropriate stance towards our Chairman is one of healthy criticism. As our previous articles have outlined (see Sir David Murray Report Card etc) Murray has done much good, but in current times serious questions have to be asked about his management of our club. And these questions are being asked with increased frequency in all areas of our support: from websites to the RST.

However, I am not alone in holding a suspicion that the slumbering masses of Rangers supporters still hold the view that Murray detractors are mere troublemakers, and hold the view that Murray has invested significant portions of his own money in Rangers and will ultimately buy us out of our current predicament. I�ll expand my suspicion by saying that I believe the majority of such supporters get their Rangers news chiefly from places like the Daily Record. I think we�ve started to entertain the illusion that Rangers supporters online (in places like Follow Follow & Gersnet) are representative of the entire support, and that thus, by and large, Rangers supporters avoid the Record and are sceptical of Murray. What may be true online, even in the Fanzines, going by newspaper sales alone, doesn�t seem to be true in general.

The media, and especially the Record, have been almost unaccountably uncritical of Murray during his tenure. Rangers fans, by and large, lapped up Celticââ?¬â?¢s bad old days of struggle and toil ââ?¬â?? we enjoyed, truth be told, the one-upmanship it afforded us in the larger cycle of winning and losing. Iââ?¬â?¢m quite sure no Rangers supporter actually wanted to see them go under. But their famous ââ?¬Ë?biscuit-tinââ?¬â?¢ mentality was a source of constant fun ââ?¬â?? the term, remember, was one created by the media for no other reason than it could either effect smirks from Rangers fans, or incredulity from Celtic fans ââ?¬â?? both of which sell papers. We enjoyed, then, Murrayââ?¬â?¢s famous quips about spending a tenner for every fiver. But the fact that this arcadian dream had soured has long been true for those online, but the general Record-reading population still buy the propaganda (literally, from the Record) that the moonbeamed solution is just around the corner, despite all the evidence of past seasons to the contrary.

Thatââ?¬â?¢s not to say your average fan is to blame ââ?¬â?? most people simply have more, or other, things to do than critically examine the papers and the situation. They have bills to pay and kids to feed and whatnot. Itââ?¬â?¢s easy to let your opinion by approximately guided by the general impression gained from whatever newspaper you read. But the problem with this is that if there is no critical analysis of the situation ââ?¬â?? if itââ?¬â?¢s not forced down your throat along with your coffee in the morning its far too easy not to think about it. The Internet can provide some of this, but itââ?¬â?¢s not until the tabloid media turn, in their typically horribly sensational way, against Murray that your actual average Rangers fan may become unsettled. It happened with Celtic, and it will happen with us.

And so, it is with a very much afflicted sense of happiness that I turn to the article in question: ââ?¬Å?Biscuit-Tinââ?¬â?¢s Changing Directionââ?¬Â by Colin Duncan [2]. Both title and subtitle (ââ?¬Å?Exclusive Celtic signing sensation ... Now itââ?¬â?¢s Celtic who can splash the cash while Gers buy on the cheapââ?¬Â) are of the sort that I typically use this column to berate ââ?¬â?? sensational and purposefully inflammatory. But to the somewhat cynical Internet supporter the main response is not one of indignation, but of relief tinged with sarcasm: ââ?¬Å?What, its ââ?¬Å?Changingââ?¬Â? It changed years ago ffsââ?¬Â or something along those lines. But the truth is that if this rather simple message, so obvious to a lot of us, is now entering the public domain of tabloid sensationalism ââ?¬â?? if David Murrayââ?¬â?¢s spending policy is now a legitimate target of tabloid hype then the truth is that it makes the gravity of our situation apparent to your average Rangers fan.

Phrases like ââ?¬Å?Three times in the past few months the Ibrox men have been close to securing deals for signing targets only to be gazumped at the 11th hour by their Old Firm rivals.ââ?¬Â while being deliberate half-truths, will do as they are designed and, irk Rangers supporters. And from the ashes of this sensation there will arise a desire for change. I hope. And I also hope that they will turn to those genuinly interested in Rangers ââ?¬â?? organisations like the RST.

So, it may turn out that while articles like this, quoting people whose opinions generally do not matter to Rangers supporters (like Murdo, though I think he�s a nice guy), are annoying for all the reasons they typically are, they are the very thing that may spark the slumbering People into action.

[1] See the Recordââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?Celts Land 4.4m Brownââ?¬Â where the article both claims ââ?¬Å?CELTIC last night won the race to sign Hibs midfield dynamo Scott Brownââ?¬Â and ââ?¬Å?Reading have emerged as a serious possibility with an offer that is believed to be marginally higher than Celtic's.ââ?¬Â It took both James Traynor and Keith Jackson to write this particular piece of journalistic genius.

[2] http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/tm_headline=biscuit-tin-s-changing-direction%26method=full%26objectid=19110261%26siteid=66633-name_page.html

canny believe fergie's 29.

i dont think he'll ever see the light of rangers first team action, to be honest.

i think the best idea would be to send him out on loan - a year in the first or second division will suitably harden him up. i think he has the pace to cope with the premier division, but perhaps a year of actual men kicking lumps out him (first division centre halfs etc) will both give him a bit of extra steel and a chance to show that he can cut it at this level.

i'm just never optimistic with walter smith and breaking in young players.

its as much as we can rightfully expect - eh, buba?

That is actually pretty impressive considering he had alot of back row/knock out the corner flag type shots.

i was actually thinking that. think he's improved on that front towards the end of the season.

Cammy mentioned yesterday about us signing a player on a bosman from Spain. Cuellar ticks all the boxes.

well spotted!

Mr edgar on the money as always. Very happy to have him speeking as a Rangers fan.

agreed. sensibleness (a word?) just seems to guide his words giving them a sense of level-headed authority. he, like frankie in recent articles, asseses murray without sensation: he is neither reactionary or revolutionary, he just says "this is good" or "this is bad". i think people can trust that.

excellent stuff.

to be fair we have been the biscuit tin team of glasgow for some years now.

yup, but this isn't acknowledged by the non-internet-browsing majority who still thinks the sun shines out his hin end.

glad to see shitty tabloids labelling us as the new proprieters of the 'biscuit tin' mentality. hopefully that should motivate the masses.

Hopefully, but we still need more pace about the side, and the likes of Gow and McCulloch don't have genuine pace.

aye, i agree. no pace out wide or up front where its needed most.

Aside the fact that i think McCulloch could do a job for us in the spl, i still think we need a major injection of pace in the squad, and a 32 y/o burger king from France aint gonna do that on his own.

think his weight problem was from a while ago. he's referred to in the french press as 'the rocket' because his main attribute is his pace.

Good to see you on here mate... Hope your work doesn't bin it.....

 

As far as I'm aware young Sean is still working as well despite what he told the court...

 

if your work does bin it there are several workarounds. if any info is needed then just let me know.

I'm quite happy to let the boy join Celtic for what they are paying, the true winners from this are Willue McLies and Rod Petrie IMO.

so, so true.

great analysis frankie. its clear sdm cant be arsed. he has no ambition other than maintaining a dubios status quo. you think it would have dawned on him that a team competing in europe (which is, i think, easier now in the initial rounds due to the vast overbalance of money going to the most popular leagues) will be infinitely more sellable than one with a disgruntled and alienated support.

ascender, we're not in a dire financial position anymore. we're running with a very manageable debt. we can't go back to silly spending but as calscot's kept saying most companies are willing to spend a little to get a return if necessary.

the thing is that murray just doesn't want to. he's looking to sell and every penny counts.

forgot about that moron. the most confused political statement i've ever seen.

he should be sent to either school or a decent psychomologist (not that i think there's such a thing) rather than jail, i think.