Fair Play? No Way!
At the outset, let me make one thing clear. If I thought he had deliberately gobbed on O'Grady, Amo could look elsewhere for sympathy. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say I wouldn't want to see him wear a blue jersey again. Spitting is a dirty, cowardly, Tim-like act, a scumbug's way of noising up an opponent when he has neither the brains nor the bottle to sort him out properly. If that wee shite was getting under Amo's skin, the smart thing to do was wait for the right moment, then hang a hook on his beak.
Getting caught at the fisticuffs ain't too clever either but at least you can put your hands up to the crime, claim mitigating circumstances and accept your punishment with some dignity. That is the manly thing to do, the Rangers way, and while the subsequent fine/suspension (knowing the SFA, probably both!) would be no laughing matter, there is no stigma attached to the incident. Amo could wake up in the morning, look at himself in the mirror - I understand he is prone to more than the occasional glance - and feel so shame whatsover.
Spitting is something else entirely. Nobody in their right mind likes it, even if it does happen by accident, and I'm sure O'Grady couldn't believe his luck when some arse-licker from the Beeb went running to him to say they'd caught the Amo thing on camera. And he didn't have to be asked twice to appear on screen that night to milk the story big-time.
This is where our 'custodians' are so out of touch, badly letting down the good name of Rangers, the fans and, more than any other, Lorenzo Amoruso. Nobody needed a degree in media studies to know the story would grow so, at the first hint of controversy, the club should have raised the drawbridge and, in the interests of justice, instructed a lawyer to make sure the matter wasn't mentioned again until the SFA sat in judgement. Instead, every self-important Press Gangster got up on his soap-box to give the world the benefit of their hysterical utterances, it all dragged on and on until Amo decided he'd had enough of such one-sided coverage and gave his version of events in his post-match rant at Livingston.
Of course, the media morons loved it. They grabbed the opportunity to rake over old ground and, depending on which rag you read, some even suggested Amo might now be up before the beaks for the additional offence of disrespectfully (?) referring to a fellow professional and discussing an incident ahead of the SFA's kangaroo court. O'Grady's 90 minutes of nonsense at Somerset Park and his provocative appearance on Sportscene a few hours later have conveniently been forgotten.
When will our club ever learn that the best form of defence is attack? For years now Rangers have sat back and allowed the nonentities of the SFA and the media to sit in judgement of our players. Off the top of my head I can recall Gazza, Big Dunc, Amo in Dortmund, Fernando Ricksen and Kevin Muscat being called to account for televised incidents...and all this from an organisation which is known to be reluctant to accept video evidence. There can't be one rule for Rangers and another rule for the rest but, while those in control at Ibrox refuse to defend the club's corner, the parasites will continue to party at our expense.
Until Rangers employ a Media Director, a clued-up Ibrox-friendly journalist who knows how the Hack Pack work and can project the image of Rangers positively, we will be an easy target. Our club is big news and simple little things like a player failing a breath test, another clearing his throat during a game or an incident in a bar, will be blown out of all proportion and portrayed, just like Dutch Day at Hampden, the Union Jack Cup Final to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee or the introduction of the orange strip, as something more sinister. By accepting such nonsensical coverage, our directors laid the foundations for a totally unrelated matter, like the murder of John Gregg in Belfast or any act of thuggery in Glasgow, to be laid at the club's door.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo Amoruso must hope against hope that he gets a fair hearing from the SFA. I wouldn't bet a brass ha'penny on it but, if the big man lands lucky, he can be sure he got a break not because the club staunchly defended him but despite Rangers' indifference to his plight.
It has to change, sooner rather than later, but I fear our club will have to suffer a major indignity at the hands of our enemies before the men at the head of the house see sense.
LITTLE BOY BLUE