Thoughts: Is Smith’s Collusion Behind The Bitterness ?

El cormaco asks if Walter Smith’s rant is down to his own mistakes, and wonders if he’s just getting his version in first….

I wanted to stay away from talking about Rangers / “Rangers” and all parts in between. “Rangers” are a real club now, and will be in the SPL next year. Fine. I m still interested in finding the truth of the EBT years, and the birth of Sevco into “Rangers”, but day to day I couldn’t give a hoot about  their team, players or fans, but Walters “bitter” comments I couldn’t leave alone.

I’ve taken some of his comments and addressed them, in I hope a factual manner. Even if Walter has a laissez faire attitude to facts I d like to rise above that.

“I think it [ill feeling] will always be there. There was no necessity for Rangers to be put down into the Third Division.” 

Rangers weren’t “put down” except in the same way a sick dog is. If Rangers really were put down, why didn’t they still play in Europe the following season, or enter the Scottish Cup at the same point when SPL teams do? Or sue the SPFL / SFA for loss of earnings / unfair practice? Among the multiple protests they embarked upon in 2012 I don’t recall a single whimper about this “being put down” business.

The gates of their own stadium are pretty clear – Rangers FC was a limited company, and when the company went bust – the Ltd part, guess what, the club did too.

The truth is Rangers applied to join leagues as a new club, as even Walter at the time acknowledged, and were accepted in SFL 3.

“I think that’s the thing that will always stay in Scottish football, I think there will be a bitterness in the Rangers ranks that it happened. It will be a massive motivation for the club, it would be for me.

“There will be a bitterness in the Rangers ranks that it happened”

Rangers brought their own dissolution upon themselves by setting up off the books payments to players, running up unsustainable debts (which we as tax payers ultimately paid for) and what happened – a new club having to start at the bottom, was a consequence of the actions of “Sir” David Murray, and the other board members, even prior to Craig Whyte rocking up.

Are fans of other clubs not allowed some sense of bitterness for the years of living beyond your means, paying some £45 million in salaries – pending any Supreme Court reversal that’s what they were, acting deceitfully for years – non disclosure of these contracts, lying about the existence of side letters, maintaining a in my view farcical stance that these were non contractual loans (not a penny of which have been re paid).

That’s bitterness I can comprehend; being bitter because your own greed and stupidity put you to your death. If Rangers fans were out in the streets barracking Murray, King et al for their irresponsible  (illegal?) actions that would be bitterness I could empathise with.

As it stands, with their not inconsiderable bitterness directed wrongly at these perceived haters it only adds to the senses of bitterness pervasive in Scottish football at present: “Rangers” fans bitter that “they was did wrong” by the haters, everyone else bitter they rigged the game for years and were able to escape with no more than an unpaid fine

And this nonsense about the club and fans doing nothing wrong by the way, for whose benefit were these arrangements set up? I d argue to satisfy the demands of an irrationally self entitled support who believe they are “simply the best” and demanded the absolute best players possible, even when the club could not afford them. It was all for the glory of the Rangers, driven on by their fans, not for the good of Scottish football or any other nonsense.

“There’s no doubt it was the wrong move in my eyes. Scottish football’s been worse off and a lot of the teams who were happy to see Rangers go down there have suffered and found themselves relegated or in the process of being relegated. So there will be that bitterness.

Again, other clubs were disadvantaged for years by Rangers actions, for which there is no contrition, and while it may be true that clubs have suffered financially, something important, called sporting integrity, thankfully won the day.

Rangers had to live with the consequences of their own actions, and other clubs had to live with the consequences of Rangers actions. To blame other clubs for adhering to some ideal of sporting integrity is to completely miss the club responsible for this issue having to be addressed at all.

“How can they forget what happened to them? They can’t forget that. Nobody can forget.” 

On this I agree with Walter, but the “they” he refers to in my eyes are the fans of every other club, who not only had years of a game played on an uneven field, and had to see, and lets be honest here, a large money generator in Scottish football go to the wall, which yes affected other clubs, then had to be told repeatedly that the phoenix club was in fact the same club, history intact, that went to the wall, and now we must listen as we are being told now how hard done by this club was, and how should all be ashamed of ourselves for the way we treated them.

Put all that in the mix and I d argue that yes, there is a case for bitterness in Scottish football, but not from the “Rangers” people who shovel this shite at us.