Bill McMurdo - Rangers: Team GB

[ian1964 10,625]

September 9, 2012 · by billmcmurdo · in Uncategorized

 

Things are what they are.

 

Sometimes, though, it takes a crisis to bring out the reality for everyone to see.

 

Several burning questions have surfaced in this fateful year of 2012 over the very nature â?? and the future â?? of both football in Britain and British football. Such matters as fiscal probity and footballing national identity have featured prominently, with Financial Fair Play regulations kicking in and the Olympics stirring up the prospect of a Great Britain side to replace the four teams we have at present.

 

Rangers have been at the heart of both these issues.

 

This year has seen Rangers Football Club fall into the pit dug by years of financial mismanagement and neglect as megalomaniac David Murrayâ??s â??Mini Meâ? Craig Whyte plunged the company that ran the club into administration.

 

The glorious Murray years had ended in ignominy and near-ruin. I say this as a Rangers supporter, one who had heard Hugh Adamâ??s prophetic warnings before the disgraceful bullying of this now frail old man by discredited journo Alex Thomson.

 

Hugh Adam is one of my fatherâ??s oldest friends. He is a man of impeccable character and integrity. In a nutshell, he saw through David Murray and Murray knew this.

 

David Murrayâ??s regime was always going to crash and burn. Astute Rangers fans saw this. Thatâ??s why Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and his supporters are talking nonsense when they claim he broke the story of Rangersâ?? downfall.

 

People like Hugh Adam predicted it twenty years before it happened.

 

Sadly, few were listening.

 

But thatâ??s all in the past, although this coming week will see another kangaroo court go through its ritual of pretence at equity and fairness as once more the vultures of Scottish football seek to feed on the dead body of Rangers.

 

The problem being, itâ??s not there!

 

Rangers Football Club has risen from the grave and is doing rather nicely, thank you!

 

When you think about it, the SPLâ??s witch hunt is rather ghoulish as they are effectively dealing with something that isnâ??t there anymore i.e. the company that ran Rangers. You could interpret it as ghoulish or just be real honest and say it is naked spite.

 

The point is, Rangers march on as a football club and as a potent symbol of Britishness in a year where the entire nation has been swept along in a euphoric wave of patrtiotism and pride. We have had the marvellous 60 year Diamond Jubilee of our glorious Queen and the stunning achievements of our British Olympians and Paralympians to celebrate, as well as the thrilling Champions League triumph of Chelsea.

 

Itâ??s been a good year to be British.

 

Also, as we approach the end of the year, it must be said that Rangers FC has emerged from this year in a much stronger position financially and otherwise than it has been in for many a year.

 

Charles Green has so far proved himself a great figurehead as he seeks to steer the Rangers ship into calmer waters. Rangers also have a manager who has demonstrated astonishing loyalty and leadership to the club he loves and the team is knitting together nicely after the traitorous exit of some players.

 

The feelgood factor is back for Rangers fans and their astounding devotion to the team is the wonder of the worldâ??s media, as well as the provocation of deep embarrassment and envy in SPL clubs, whose laughable attempts at attendance growth are an epic off-the-charts fail.

 

Itâ??s good to be a Bear and itâ??s good to be British.

 

Which brings us back to the issue of national identity. In yesterdayâ??s blog, I highlighted the massive gulf of division in Scotland between those who support Craig Leveinâ??s team and the vast majority of Rangers supporters who will never again give their backing to Scotland as a national side.

 

This division reflects the one appearing in Scottish society as people choose between a separate republican Scotland or a United Kingdom under the British Throne.

 

Rangers being a traditionally loyal club with a strong Unionist ethos, it falls naturally upon the club to represent the massive majority of people in Scotland who favour Union rather than separation.

 

Which kind of answers that burning question people have been asking before, during and after the Olympics i.e. Do we need to have a team that represents Great Britain in football?

 

The answer is, we already have one.

 

The Queenâ??s Eleven.

 

The Boys in Blue.

 

The Famous Glasgow Rangers.

 

http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/rangers-team-gb/