Early Weekly Rants

[CammyF 8,007]

Celtc And The Art Of Losing

 

Us Rangers fans are no strangers to the petulant and sometimes, bam right frightening way a Celtc player, manager (and most scarily) fans mind works after a defeat and especially an Old Firm defeat. No one can forget Chris Muttons scandalous comments after we defeated DAFC 6-1 to secure our glorious 50th League Title. For a fellow professional to come out on live TV and claim that his fellow professionals had cheated not only Celtc, but the rest of the league, DAFC fans etc left most people with a bitter taste in their mouths. To us Rangers fans who have witnessed such gracious comments in defeat, we just laughed and commented that it was the ‘Celtc Way’.

 

In my lifetime of watching Rangers, I don’t think I have ever, in the aftermath of a title celebration, or an OF victory, picked up a post-match paper and read that Rangers won fair and square and that the game was ‘controversy free’. Today, after such a drubbing, the TWATS are keen to portray a well deserved victory, but you have the undercurrent and undertones that the referee was somehow ‘corrupt’. McCurry booked 9 Celtc players (didn’t send any off) and from my perspective, he got MOST (not all) of those bookings correct. In fact, you could criticise McCurry for not red-carding McDonald for his petulant kick at Alan McGregor and Scott Brown dished out some meaty challenges whilst on a yellow card.

 

I came away from the game thinking that the worst decisions from the officials actually benefited Celtc – we had a very decent shout for 2 penalties that weren’t given and Lee McCulloch’s goal in the final minute WASN’T offside. Yet, listen to post match analysis and all the talk is of Celtc amassing 9 bookings.

 

Now, we can not move on without a word regarding the Holy Goalie. Borat has previous, and not only in OF games. He has gestured to fans at Easter Road, Tynecastle and The Pits (to name a few), and yesterday seemed more interested in stirring up some passion from the gather MOPES than shaking hands with fellow professionals. Even his manager mentioned this in post-match interviews, but GS should take a look in the mirror before slating Borat. During his interview, GS refused to refer to Rangers, by name, once. It was ‘them’ and ‘they’. Compare and contrast this to Barry Ferguson and Walter Smiths post-match interviews. But hey, we are used to this, it’s the ‘Celtc Way’.

 

The game itself developed into a very one-way encounter. We didn’t start the game that well but managed to impose ourselves and won ALL the personal battles. This allowed us to build momentum and establish our game plan. Barry Ferguson once again showed that on his game, he is one of the best midfield players in Britain. He has shown in 4 huge games this season (Stuttgart, Ukraine, Lyon and now the OF game) that he is everything that Scott Brown isn’t (as yet). His maturity shines through and he is a great leader on the pitch – he simply lifts those around him onto his level. We could had should have won by a more emphatic margin but we can be delighted in the 3-0 victory, or third OF victory on the bounce. This should be a platform for us and up next is the small matter of a visit from some team called Barcelona….

 

Big Jock Knew

 

No matter your feelings on this chant, expression, topic, there is no doubt that Jock Stein was aware of child abuse at Celtc Park and did little / nothing to stop the abuse of children under the care of Celtc Football Club. There has been a subsequent court case concerning the perpetrators and during this case, evidence was given that Jock Stein and the Celtc board ignored warnings and refused to hand over these paedophiles to the Police. They were more interested in the clubs image.

 

Now, at the game yesterday Police were confiscating scarves with the legend ‘Big Jock Knew’ on them. They weren’t giving any reason for this, they were just telling fans to bin the scarves or run the risk of not getting into the game, having their season tickets removed or facing a night in the cells. Surely you cannot be refused access to a football ground for carrying a scarf that is states a factually correct statement that has been proven in a court of law? Well, in Scotland you can. A Rangers fan in the Govan Stand was told to remove his top that had BJK on it. When he refused, he was arrested and was told that his details were being sent to Rangers and to expect a ban from Ibrox.

 

The Police were asking Rangers fans entering the stadium to show them their scarves and Police were examining them. One fan with a ‘We Are The People’ scarf was told that this was offensive and sectarian and the Police confiscated the scarf. I wonder if the travelling supports scarves were under the same scrutiny? I doubt it as I saw a few with ‘FCUK Rangers’, God Bless The Pope (so much for keeping religion and football apart) and Bobby Sands scarves (there is a joke there, but we’ll not go there just now).

 

MOPES Next Campaign

 

I hear that the MOPES are going to lobby UEFA in an attempt to remove the five stars from our badge. According to Timmy (the oracle of world football) you can only display stars on your badge once you have won a European trophy, so we, like them should have only one star.

 

Unknown to Timmy, issuing a star for 10 league titles started in the early 50's when Juventus won their 10th league title and added a star to their badge. This honour was then used in other countries like Germany and Turkey and once we won our 50th title, in started in Scotland.

 

Little do Timmy know is that Rangers actually received permission and 'blessing' (sic) from UEFA to use the five stars as recognition of our world record of 51 titles. Nice try MOPES.

 

Talking of MOPES, anyone hear the idiot on the phone-in last night? Complained that Rangers fans sang sectarian songs yesterday and that he was offended. The panel asked him what sectarian songs were sung. He then stated that he didn't know the titles of said songs. So then panel then asked him what the offending lyrics / lines were. He then said this, and I quote 'Look, I don't know what the songs are called and I don't know the lyrics to them but I do know that they offend me'.......

 

Cammy F – We Are The People….