In a scarcely believable twist to an already extraordinary plot line, a consortium of Rangers supporters organisations have decided to threaten Lloyds Banking Group with a boycott if the "club's current situation is worsened by their actions".
If any fans are stupid enough to believe that boycotting Rangers' bank is an appropriate response to the "current situation", then Lloyds will no doubt be delighted to get the sub-prime eejits off their books. They've got a credit rating to worry about, after all.
Hubris aside, it's quite breathtaking how a group of supporters can so spectacularly vent their spleen at the wrong target. Let's be clear - Rangers have got themselves into a pickle entirely of their own making, and the bank, owed £30m, is in no position to do them a favour.
But with David Murray in hiding, the new chairman operating from safe distance (about 4,000 miles away from Glasgow), and Walter Smith and Martin Bain seemingly untouchable, perhaps the bank is the only target left.
The statement goes on to call for a swift sale of the club - but to who? It's been for sale for years, with no takers, and as Murray's other businesses continue to tank, who would front up with cash now?
One of the groups behind the statement, the Rangers Supporters Trust, has a dream of owning the club one day. Has that day not arrived?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Celtic 0 - 1 Hearts
So much to talk about following Celtc's defeat to ha-ha-Hearts in the CIS League Cup last night, but let's ignore the Old Firm angle for a moment - they've had plenty coverage, no? - and think about Hearts for a moment.
In the build-up to the game, manager Csaba Laszlo gave a frankly hilarious press conference in which he expressed his anger at the current situation at the club, beset by problems and lacking a clear structure.
Hardly helping to bring clarity to the situation, owner Vladimir Romanov jetted into Edinburgh ahead of the match, and apparently introduced the club's new sporting director to the players, but not the manager. All nice and straightforward, then.
And so to the game, which Hearts won after Christian Nade - a player who admitted this week to personal problems affecting his game, but didn't elaborate on them - was brought down in the box, and Michael Stewart - who was booed by his own fans in Hearts' last game against Falkirk - converted the penalty. Unsurprisingly, he passed up the opportunity to celebrate with the Jambo support.
Celtic were unlucky last night, but that didn't prevent the 18,000 or so that turned up from venting their fury at Tony Mowbray at the final whistle. Georgie Samaras once again showed that he is far from a lethal finisher, while captain McManus committed probably the most cynical and reckless tackle you'll see all season. If you haven't already seen it, you really should - it's a shocker.
Is Mowbray's job on the line, just 3 months into the season? The board won't pull the trigger yet, but the faithful are getting madder and madder and things might come to a head if the results don't improve soon.
Scottish football's pretty exciting at the moment. Who'd want to leave it?
In the build-up to the game, manager Csaba Laszlo gave a frankly hilarious press conference in which he expressed his anger at the current situation at the club, beset by problems and lacking a clear structure.
Hardly helping to bring clarity to the situation, owner Vladimir Romanov jetted into Edinburgh ahead of the match, and apparently introduced the club's new sporting director to the players, but not the manager. All nice and straightforward, then.
And so to the game, which Hearts won after Christian Nade - a player who admitted this week to personal problems affecting his game, but didn't elaborate on them - was brought down in the box, and Michael Stewart - who was booed by his own fans in Hearts' last game against Falkirk - converted the penalty. Unsurprisingly, he passed up the opportunity to celebrate with the Jambo support.
Celtic were unlucky last night, but that didn't prevent the 18,000 or so that turned up from venting their fury at Tony Mowbray at the final whistle. Georgie Samaras once again showed that he is far from a lethal finisher, while captain McManus committed probably the most cynical and reckless tackle you'll see all season. If you haven't already seen it, you really should - it's a shocker.
Is Mowbray's job on the line, just 3 months into the season? The board won't pull the trigger yet, but the faithful are getting madder and madder and things might come to a head if the results don't improve soon.
Scottish football's pretty exciting at the moment. Who'd want to leave it?
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Rangers cut their own throat
Walter Smith says that Scottish football is "in danger of dying".
Well, we're certainly losing the will to live, Watty, if that's what you mean, with the incessant bleating coming from the Old Firm - as this rather fine article by Bob Brannan, Chairman of Dundee FC, makes clear.
Ronnie Esplin picks up the same theme in this piece for STV. No one is denying that Scottish football has problems (this isn't strictly true - we'll return to the head-in-the-sand merchants in a minute), but it's also clear that the stance of the ugly sisters is making things worse. By constantly moaning, they are attacking the morale of a league already suffering from the collapse of their media partner and a general drop in attendances.
Anyhow, judging by last night's performance, Rangers are not dying slowly, but are trying to kill themselves as quickly as possible. Unless they are allowed to join the Romanian League next season, of course. After all, it must be awash with money if their clubs can beat the mighty Gers so easily.
Well, we're certainly losing the will to live, Watty, if that's what you mean, with the incessant bleating coming from the Old Firm - as this rather fine article by Bob Brannan, Chairman of Dundee FC, makes clear.
Ronnie Esplin picks up the same theme in this piece for STV. No one is denying that Scottish football has problems (this isn't strictly true - we'll return to the head-in-the-sand merchants in a minute), but it's also clear that the stance of the ugly sisters is making things worse. By constantly moaning, they are attacking the morale of a league already suffering from the collapse of their media partner and a general drop in attendances.
Anyhow, judging by last night's performance, Rangers are not dying slowly, but are trying to kill themselves as quickly as possible. Unless they are allowed to join the Romanian League next season, of course. After all, it must be awash with money if their clubs can beat the mighty Gers so easily.
Monday, October 12, 2009
A fresh round of Old Firm bleating
Surprise, surprise. Rangers appoint a new chairman who's a director of IMG, the global marketing company that believes heritage and tradition are only useful if they can be exploited for their own profit, and the prospect of the Old Firm leaving the SPL is back in the media again.
We all know the routine by now. Rangers use what residual power they believe they have to make threatening noises about "needing to leave" Scottish domestic football, presumably in the hope that the authorities will bow to the pressure and cut them a deal.
Celtic, meanwhile, play the humble card, with Chief Exec Peter Lawwell this week saying that the club would only leave the SPL if they were invited to join somewhere else, and only in the interests of "telling the Celtic story". This being a euphemism, of course, for "hoping to make even more money".
Dutifully, though, the media have once again been sucked in, with even Jim Spence on the BBC (normally a journalist who speaks a lot of sense) blogging about the chances of the Old Firm leaving.
Others in the Weegie mafia, meanwhile, breathlessly reported the news that FIFA have said that a move is "possible", as if this has any real value. It's "possible" that George Foulkes could become Scotland's next First Minister, but that doesn't make it any more likely.
At least Rangers are being honest about their intentions, while Celtic are becoming increasingly devious. Lawwell's latest reasoning is that the English Premiership might invite the Old Firm in order to increase the competitiveness of the league, ignoring the fact that such a move would destroy the competitive integrity of the league system - namely, that any club can go up or down.
As Mark McGhee said, who shouldn't Aberdeen (incidentally, the last non-OF team to win the championship, not Dundee Utd, Mr Lawwell) apply to join the Premiership? Or what would happen if Celtic or Rangers, having joined the English top flight, got relegated? Could another Scottish team replace them?
So many questions, so few answers - but then, Celtic and Rangers have never been interested in anything other than themselves. Hence the creation of an SPL rigged to favour the top two teams, which they then point to and say - look at how uncompetitive this league is; we have to leave.
Who knows where this story will end. The only certainty is, we have a lot more of this bleating to come, unfortunately.
We all know the routine by now. Rangers use what residual power they believe they have to make threatening noises about "needing to leave" Scottish domestic football, presumably in the hope that the authorities will bow to the pressure and cut them a deal.
Celtic, meanwhile, play the humble card, with Chief Exec Peter Lawwell this week saying that the club would only leave the SPL if they were invited to join somewhere else, and only in the interests of "telling the Celtic story". This being a euphemism, of course, for "hoping to make even more money".
Dutifully, though, the media have once again been sucked in, with even Jim Spence on the BBC (normally a journalist who speaks a lot of sense) blogging about the chances of the Old Firm leaving.
Others in the Weegie mafia, meanwhile, breathlessly reported the news that FIFA have said that a move is "possible", as if this has any real value. It's "possible" that George Foulkes could become Scotland's next First Minister, but that doesn't make it any more likely.
At least Rangers are being honest about their intentions, while Celtic are becoming increasingly devious. Lawwell's latest reasoning is that the English Premiership might invite the Old Firm in order to increase the competitiveness of the league, ignoring the fact that such a move would destroy the competitive integrity of the league system - namely, that any club can go up or down.
As Mark McGhee said, who shouldn't Aberdeen (incidentally, the last non-OF team to win the championship, not Dundee Utd, Mr Lawwell) apply to join the Premiership? Or what would happen if Celtic or Rangers, having joined the English top flight, got relegated? Could another Scottish team replace them?
So many questions, so few answers - but then, Celtic and Rangers have never been interested in anything other than themselves. Hence the creation of an SPL rigged to favour the top two teams, which they then point to and say - look at how uncompetitive this league is; we have to leave.
Who knows where this story will end. The only certainty is, we have a lot more of this bleating to come, unfortunately.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Celtic rue defensive mistakes
You get the impression that Tony Mowbray is not enjoying life at Celtic as much as he hoped. Instead of a team gelling under fresh leadership, Celtic seem to get rattled more and more easily as the weeks go by. This has not been a dream start for the ex-West Brom and Hibs manager.
Of course, the aftermath of an Old Firm derby defeat is always depressing for the losing party, but Mowbray - who normally defends his players in public - was uncharacteristically scathing about them after the match. He didn't mention him by name, but he was clearly seething at Glenn Loovens' performance, especially for letting the ball bounce in the area for Kenny Miller's second goal.
Sunday's first Old Firm meeting of the season exposed Celtic's problems at both ends of the park. Defensively they were a shambles, while upfront they failed to make an impact, despite enjoying lots of possession and facing a patched-up Rangers back line.
With all due credit to Rangers (and Kenny Miller, who once again excelled in this fixture), Celtic really failed to put their stamp on this game. Yes, Shaun Maloney was denied at least one clear penalty, but that doesn't excuse their myriad failings.
Of course, Celtic are also experiencing difficulties in Europe. Getting into the Champions League would always have been a tall order, especially once Celtic were drawn against Arsenal in their second qualifying tie. But the Europa League should be a rather more comfortable environment - instead, Celtic are struggling with just a point from their first two games.
The Celtic board gave Mowbray £4m to sign Marc Fortune over the summer, and N'Guemo has been a fine addition in midfield (albeit on loan), but was that enough? He was willing to listen to offers for Stephen McManus, and probably wanted to reshape the squad more than he was able to.
With their rivals in such dissarray, now would seem an ideal time for Celtic to invest in building a team that could really achieve something under the new management team. Yet again, by not spending money, Celtic seem determined to let Rangers off the hook. They have only themselves to blame.
Of course, the aftermath of an Old Firm derby defeat is always depressing for the losing party, but Mowbray - who normally defends his players in public - was uncharacteristically scathing about them after the match. He didn't mention him by name, but he was clearly seething at Glenn Loovens' performance, especially for letting the ball bounce in the area for Kenny Miller's second goal.
Sunday's first Old Firm meeting of the season exposed Celtic's problems at both ends of the park. Defensively they were a shambles, while upfront they failed to make an impact, despite enjoying lots of possession and facing a patched-up Rangers back line.
With all due credit to Rangers (and Kenny Miller, who once again excelled in this fixture), Celtic really failed to put their stamp on this game. Yes, Shaun Maloney was denied at least one clear penalty, but that doesn't excuse their myriad failings.
Of course, Celtic are also experiencing difficulties in Europe. Getting into the Champions League would always have been a tall order, especially once Celtic were drawn against Arsenal in their second qualifying tie. But the Europa League should be a rather more comfortable environment - instead, Celtic are struggling with just a point from their first two games.
The Celtic board gave Mowbray £4m to sign Marc Fortune over the summer, and N'Guemo has been a fine addition in midfield (albeit on loan), but was that enough? He was willing to listen to offers for Stephen McManus, and probably wanted to reshape the squad more than he was able to.
With their rivals in such dissarray, now would seem an ideal time for Celtic to invest in building a team that could really achieve something under the new management team. Yet again, by not spending money, Celtic seem determined to let Rangers off the hook. They have only themselves to blame.
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