It took us a while, due to work commitments and a general inability to organise anything, ut we finally got round to giving Lou Macari the money we raised at our christmas dance to help him continue his work at the homeless centre in Stoke.
Here he is holding a cheque for £1000, which we were unfortunately unable to steal back off him, and so no one is getting a refund.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed.
The serious danger of distraction as we look over the river at the implosion of our newest rivals cranked itself up a notch again yesterday, not so much from the noise of their tooth gnashing, but when a rather serious letter to the directors appeared.
Well, it would have been if not the the first paragraph, which reads as though the sender is the chairman and a director…
Dear Mr King,
I write to you as Chairman and a Director of Rangers Football Club following the totally unacceptable 4-0 defeat to our biggest rivals on Sunday 15th April.
In March 2015 Mr King assumed boardroom control. You and the other Directors have reigned during a time of embarrassing and disgraceful results – some of the worst in our history. Only twice in my life have I left a Rangers game early, both of these games were under your tenure – the 5-1 defeat to celtic at Ibrox and the 4-0 defeat to celtic at Hampden. I simply could not watch any more.
The loyalty of myself and other Rangers fans cannot be questioned. I and many others have followed Rangers through the hard times, with administration, liquidation and expulsion to the bottom tier of Scottish football being the lowest of them all. I and many thousands of others followed Rangers home and away as we made our return to the Scottish Premiership. We now feel that this loyalty is being taken for granted by the current administration at the Club. We have only won Scottish Challenge Cup and the SPFL Championship since the takeover in March 2015. It is totally unacceptable that our next chance of silverware will be in 2019 – 4 years since the takeover. By then we will have been 8 years without the League, 10 years without the Scottish Cup and 9 years without the League cup.
It has not helped that the Club seem to go from one managerial disaster to the next. The resignation of Mark Warburton, David Weir and Frank McParland in February 2017 was a disaster and took several days to be confirmed. The appointment of Pedro Caixinha on a three-year deal in March 2017 was followed by a 5-1 defeat to celtic at Ibrox in the April, losing for the first time to Aberdeen in 26 years in the May, and being humiliated in Europe by Progres Niederkorn in the July. Records were being broken but not the kind we want. It took the board until the October to sack Caixinha. Then there was the embarrassing and very public McInnes debacle which left Rangers without a viable replacement for Caixinha. The public pursuit of McInnes ruled out all other managerial options which may have been in consideration at the time. After all, who would want to be the second choice? This was a careless and costly error.
With seemingly no other option available, Graeme Murty was henceforth appointed as manager for the rest of the season with no experience of managing a club before, never mind one the calibre of Rangers. In this appointment, the Board effectively wrote-off the 17/18 season when we were still very much in contention for silverware. It is clear Murty’s team selections and tactics have been woeful. After Sunday he has clearly lost the confidence and respect of the team, and certainly the support of the fans. The players, manager and directors owe the Rangers fans a public apology for that humiliating display. How and why the Board continue to support Murty is unknown. It is imperative that he is now removed before we play the remaining 5 games of the season which are so important in determining where we finish in the league. We need to recover some pride.
It is apparent that there is a lack of any sort of public relations or communications strategy. This is evident through the managerial controversies with Warburton, Weir, McParland and McInnes. More recently, during the January transfer window, had the Club reacted quicker, the rumours circulating around the future of Alfredo Morelos and the transfer fee would have been silenced. Now the latest controversy follows after Sunday and surrounds several players – Kenny Miller, Lee Wallace, Alfredo Morelos, Greg Docherty, Andy Halliday and Daniel Candeias. Again, rumours are circulating. Our slow and weak response to events, in and out of the Club makes us a laughing stock to other football fans and to the press. Becoming proactive is key in once more establishing the respect we deserve.
In light of the above, it is difficult to understand how the Board can expect fans and others to invest money into the Club whether through share issues or season ticket renewals. The Board has shown little or no evidence that it can be trusted. How can fans be expected to renew their season tickets when the next managerial appointment is unknown? How can fans trust the Board to appoint a successful manager when the appointments of Caixinha and Murty have been disastrous? For too long the Board has taken the loyalty of the fans for granted. The Board has shown little competence to date. It is now time to either show the fans you merit the status as directors of Rangers Football Club, or you consider your resignation.
This could be it.
Its finally becoming apparent to them that they have had their pants pulled down, and they are not going to let it happen again.
If that is the case, we can expect a new entity net season, but this time without Ibrox, without Auchenhowie and without anywhere near the same amount of laughs.
But as I said yesterday, its just a distraction.
Celtic must now concentrate on winning the league as soon as possible, and the Cup when it comes around.
The first crack at securing the title will be on Saturday in Edinburgh against Hibernian, and that is by no means a certainty.
Chris Sutton, the former Celtic striker and now BT sport pundit agrees, and he told the Edinburgh Evening News..
“Neil was on a BT Sport panel beside me a year ago and was asked about his realistic aims and he said second place,”
“I was laughing inside when he said it. I thought it was absolute madness. But they are a team which has come in and over-achieved. You can look at what’s gone wrong at Rangers and Aberdeen, but Neil will be focusing on Hibs and, if they did it, it would be a remarkable achievement to finish above Aberdeen and Rangers.
“They are three points off it and it is there for them. “
There have been times when there has been frustration about performances and results, but for them to be in the mix is a big achievement. Hibs are on a good run and Neil will be looking at what happened with Aberdeen and Rangers and thinking about second.”
there are those who think that Hibernian will lie down, and there are those that think Celtic will allow Lennons side to get the points, firstly to help them out, and secondly so that Celtic can wrap up the title next week against “rangers”, although the Ibrox side would probably jump into liquidation to avoid that scenario.
In actual fact, what we do have is a fixture that could turn out to be one of the best games of the season..regardless of the result.
Both teams, put simply, will want to win.
For their own selfish reasons.
Lennon wants the Celtic job, and Rodgers can;t wait to head south.
Well, if you believe Alan Stubbs, that is…
The time is going to come when Brendan is going to go. It’s inevitable. The one thing is Brendan’s in control of his own destiny and he seems very content, you can see that.
But with him being the person he is, he is always looking to test himself at the highest level.
“It’s going to happen. He has been linked with Chelsea, there were links with Arsenal. There’s so many balls being juggled in England.
“From Celtic’s point of view, it’s not what they want to see but I think the people at boardroom level know it is going to come.
“Neil is a better manager than he was when he left Celtic. You always are. It’s anyone in any line of work. You grow in confidence.
“Lenny was thrown in from being a player and did very well, he was really successful and then left.
“If he went back would he be better? That’s a difficult thing to say because he was so successful. But would he be more experienced with how he dealt with different things? 100 per cent.”
Alan Stubbs. I used to like him, you know.
However, he has now been dropped from my Non -Lions Satellite TV Era Best Eleven, where he had been picked alongside Marc Reiper in central defence.
In comes Johann Mjallby, and that means there’s also a place for Joos Valgaeren, as Reiper is dropped as well for being a former team mate of Stubbs.
That’ll teach him.
Tosser.
And now to the Daily Express, where the creative and imaginative sports team are at it again..
Celtic transfer SHOCK: Villarreal plan mega Moussa Dembele swoop after cash windfall
CELTIC striker Moussa Dembele is being lined up by Spanish cracks Villarreal for a £15million summer move.
Newly released figures have shown that Celtic earned more TV money than Manchester United in this season’s Champions League.
The Parkhead side banked £27.6m from their participation in Europe’s elite tournament. Brendan Rodgers‘ side finished third in the group ahead of Abderlecht and were parachuted into the Europa League where they were put out by Zenit St Petersburg.
Celtic have benefitted thanks to the monumental TV deal for British clubs with BT Sports claiming the Champions League rights.
Celtic earned around £13.4m from television rights because they were given 10% of the total £134 million deal to British clubs. Scottish clubs get 10 per cent of the total pool if they qualify for the group stage.
Will Brendan be given the debit card and be told to use it ?
If he thinks he needs to strengthen, he will strengthen. We’ve already been told he’s got around £15-£20m to play with.
We will all have our opinions on where that should be spent, but there is a refreshing new mentality among the players, and a desire to succeed as a group that has arguably been missing before.
I would venture to suggest that the money is used to replace those who leave rather than just for the sake of spending it.
Brendan is building his own thing here, and there seems little point in ripping it up and starting again.
But if a key player leaves, we have to replace him with at least similar quality, if not better. Otherwise, we are just going round in circles.
New strip ?
Well, we haven’t had one for a few months… so there must be a few due.
Meanwhile, and I know I said it was distracting, but the comedy really is gold these days, and we hear that the BBC comedy unit has hauled the Only an Excuse team in for questioning , as they seem to be the only people who can;t raise a laugh about Scottish football..
NACHO Novo has been suggested as a ‘honest and reliable’ saviour of RangersFootball Club by his girlfriend.
The former Rangers player’s glamorous partner Stephanie Heaney wrote online that he should be helping out manager Graeme Murty in his hour of need.
Following reports that the manager is due to be dismissed, model Stephanie said: “Nacho should be back at Rangers helping and supporting Murty. He’s honest, reliable and has Rangers and the fans best interest at heart.”
Nacho has been recovering from a heart attack but has been seen getting back to fitness in recent weeks.
His name was mentioned in connection with the search for a new boss of the Irish League side Glentoran, which also sees former Rangers man Bob Malcolm in the running.
As well as going ice skating and trying his hand at indoor climbing he’s been back at work at his pub NN10 and was even seen pulling pints.
Stephanie Healey, football pundit.
Still, she talks as much sense as the rest of the SMSM , I suppose.
And I hope she gets her wish, Novo would, er , raise the bar considerably, and at the same time charge a tenner for using it.
Yesterday, we showed you this picture..
Very difficult to pick a winner, but this one edges it..
Can we go now, everyone else has gone granpa?
No junior its only half time.
Today, what are they laughing about ?
