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Keith Jackson - Rangers turning the cameras on journalists is a sinister move.


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I see Michael Grant of The Times uses the "sinister" tag when describing some of those who reacted to Lennon, and apparently they are the ones who should be apportioned "true blame for the drama on Saturday and its aftermath."

Edited by Bluedell
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I see Michael Grant of The Times uses the "sinister" tag when describing some of those who reacted to Lennon, and apparently they are the ones who should be apportioned "true blame for the drama on Saturday and its aftermath."

 

And here is Mick's 'thought piece' in full. I use the word 'thought' broadly, as the article really represents no more than the customary default position for a Rangers hater like Mick,

and required little 'thought' at all. I suppose somebody, somewhere, must have 'thought' the position up, but that is way back in the past, and, I would hazard a guess, that occurred in the East End of Glasgow.

 

My view is that the poor little alpha double plus guttersnipe gestured to provoke and incite the crowd behind the dugout, and that that may well be a criminal offence.

 

Oh , and as for Jim Duffy, poor Neily is under suspension fromn the SFA for being involved in a fracas with him - quite a distance from "respect for opposing managers", in my view.

 

Raw contempt is par for the course, why call the police?

 

Michael Grant, Scottish Sports Feature Writer of the Year

August 16 2017, 12:01am,

The Times

Many fans would have been delighted to have drawn a reaction from Lennon

 

In the aftermath of the latest pantomime around Rangers supporters and Neil Lennon one of the hoary old chestnuts was dragged out again, namely that if fans spend 90 minutes spewing out poisonous abuse to a manager or player they shouldn’t suddenly lift up their petticoats and start simpering if the target has the temerity to answer back. The shorthand for this is: “don’t dish it out if you can’t take it”.

 

It’s an understandable interpretation but it misses the point. Fans don’t think that way. The Rangers supporters who howled at Lennon for cupping his ears and giving them the stiff-arm “get it up you” would have been privately delighted to have drawn a reaction from him. It legitimised, to them, giving him even more abuse. When supporters have a hate figure on the pitch or the touchline it amounts to validation when he breaks the fourth wall and directly reacts to them. It is confirmation that not only can he hear and see them in the stands but he’s actually taking it in and maybe letting it get to him, at least enough to provoke a retaliation. All the condemnation of Lennon and the risible complaints to police about his behaviour did not come because Rangers fans were “unable to take it”, they were because his response gave them, as far as they were concerned, fresh ammunition to demonise him and hopefully get him into new trouble with the SFA and even the cops.

 

Ibrox on Saturday and its aftermath ticked all the usual boxes. Excessive verbal abuse of Lennon? Check. Nastiness and bile? Check. Lennon giving something back? Check. Faux outrage? Check. Subsequent online death threats? Check. Police involvement? Check. Plenty privately revelling in the guilty pleasure of it all? Check. A look at the fixtures to see when Rangers next play Hibs, so everyone can wallow in it again? Check.

 

A couple of trite points can be made here. First, Lennon should not have reacted quite as he did. Cupping his ears to the crowd behind him after Simon Murray’s equaliser, essentially saying “I don’t hear you lot now”, was a wry nod to the fact he did the same thing at Ibrox after managing Celtic to a draw in 2011. It was harmless showboating. The stiff arm gesture was a bit too much. Managers are told how to react and behave at the start of each season and, despite his protestations, that went beyond a goal celebration and was an act of goading. Managers can’t turn towards stands full of rival fans and react that way.

 

But, secondly, Lennon always has been an instinctive, plugged-in character during games, not some sort of cool, detached figure leaning on his dug-out with a clipboard. Given the sectarianism and bigotry he’s been subjected to by some Rangers fans at games and in his private life — and it wasn’t a bank of peaceful choirboys behind his back last Saturday — it was understandable that he might overstep the mark when his blood was pumping in the immediate release of his team’s goal.

 

When he gave the get-it-right-up-ye stiff arm to the main stand the Rangers support reacted exactly as most rival fans would: up on their feet, finger-jabbing, shouting and bawling (although it is impossible to believe fresh volleys of anti-Catholic stuff didn’t also pour towards him then). The raw contempt is par for the course in football and is a consequence of the decades-long erosion of respect for opposing managers, players and referees which Jim Duffy, Ian McCall and others have eloquently lamented since the weekend. But then it went further. It would be refreshing to think that anyone who subsequently told their mates they had reported Lennon to the police was given a swift slap across the face to bring them to their senses for embarrassing their fellow Rangers supporters.

 

Police Scotland’s chief constable is being investigated over bullying allegations. The force has been stretched by centralisation and mergers, has major issues with call handling, faces huge maintenance bills, works with outdated IT systems and is dealing with the consequences of reduced hours and closures of local stations. Exactly what the duty officers need, then, are grown, functioning adults turning up at police front desks or phoning in to log complaints about Lennon cupping his ears or giving them a gesture. Imagine the sighing, rolling of the eyes and shaking of the head that went on among staff having their time wasted by that garbage.

 

Everyone knows by now that the sound and fury, the abuse, some give-and-take and the occasional absurdity has become the established theatre around Lennon and the Rangers support. It was clear from his own comments during the build-up that he revels in much of it. But not all. A darker, sinister element is there among those whose behaviour would marginalise them in everyday life, namely the type who hurl poisonous sectarian hatred and, even worse, those who post death threats and intimations of violence to Lennon on social media.

 

When it comes to apportioning true blame for the drama of Saturday and its aftermath, the inadequates who are guilty of that can be fast-tracked to the front of the queue.

 

Oh, and Ryan Jack is guilty, as one might expect from Mick; and, as for Stokes, pure as the driven snow, one might assume.

 

Rutting is dumb, not dangerous

 

There are headbutts and headbutts. Referees are supposed to give straight red cards when players use excessive force, endangering the safety of an opponent, or brutality. Somehow that interpretation has spread to cover any sort of forward motion of the head into the head of another player regardless of how little harm it could do or whether the act is far more like rutting. Ryan Jack put his forehead into Anthony Stokes’s — it was obvious only after repeated viewing of footage — and duly got his marching orders.

 

It was a dumb thing to do for a player who has to prove he can handle playing for Rangers. But it was fresh evidence of over-punishment of players and a tendency to take them out of games for offences which are nowhere near as dangerous or threatening as lunging tackles which can break legs but earn no card at all.

 

It really is beyond a joke, and is nowhere near fair comment, far less objectivity in reporting.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/raw-contempt-is-par-for-the-course-why-call-the-police-vc3fv787x (Paywall)

Edited by Uilleam
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Sick to death of reading this utter dross. That particular pendulum is not only swinging in but one direction, it is nailed in position up there. You see the Shame Game at the Scumhut, the Mohsni Saga, the Cup Final Shame and now this, with hardly a word being uttered about the actual culprits but only those under attack from us, be it Diouf, Mohsni, our supporters on the field, or now Jack.

 

And then you have that utter bampot Jackson calling upon the images of Trump and Kim here, or reporters defending that scumbag we use to call TLB? That is absolutely unreal.

Edited by der Berliner
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