Seriously though the contents of the letter and the ramifications of
accepting this invite gave me much food for thought. After all if David
Murray could still bring himself to speak to me after my personal
hostility towards him on the FF message board after the Scottish Cup
exit at CP in January, then it meant that my first and only chance of
having the opportunity to have a 'pop' at him, would see me morally on
the back foot.
Think Liverpool's own goal at Burnley in the FA Cup this season and
that's about the size of it. So it was The Chairman 1 v the gub 0
before a ball was even kicked. Yeah, nice work gubster, ya fud. And
I've got a sneaky feeling DM knew that too.
So anyway I indeed rolled up to Ibrox on March 7th not having a clue
as to how it would all go down. After signing in we were led to the
Waddell Suite where a drink or two was there for the taking. After
ten-fifteen minutes we were led into the conference/press room where
Messrs Murray and McLeish were ready to greet us.
I'd say there were about thirty-forty bears in attendance all told
and the way it worked was you stood up, said your name and fired away
with your question.
Now I'll state upfront that I considered the evening to be a rather
tame affair. This was down to two main reasons; A - the charm offensive
being worked by the Chairman and; B - the feel good factor among the
fans even allowing for the disastrous last minute equaliser to Caley
just 48 hours previously. Such was the effect the win at CP had had on
us. The bottom line is the league is still in our own hands. (Or was at
that point)
As you would expect with the amount of differing opinions in town
that evening there were plenty of questions that were asked. However,
I'll readily admit that the main agenda for me was the post Nov 20th,
2004; anti-sectarian quicksand, the club has waded straight into.
It was evident to all who were there that night that the Panorama
programme from the Sunday previous had rankled the Chairman and he has
since of course went public with the club's new 20-point anti-sectarian
iniative.
The other main issue close to my heart was on the thorny subject of
the press. David Murray made it perfectly clear that he does not want
to make martyrs out of certain individual dregs of Scottish society by
banning them from Ibrox or asking for a boycott of the gutter rags that
employ them. Nothing and no one will ever convince me that he is
correct on that score. Without doubt however, if that had come to a
show of hands on the night, I would have been well outvoted.
The summer transfer kitty was discussed and it is obvious that the
club is now cutting its cloth to suit the current financial climate.
(No argument from me there) The half time stramash v the yahoos in
November and the stalling on the signing of Nick the Greek were all
dealt with, amongst a host of other topics.
After the meeting we were led back into the Waddell Suite were a
nosh-up Jamie Oliver himself would have been proud of was laid out. The
Chairman planked himself at a table, helped himself to a glass of red
wine and made himself available to anyone who wanted to speak to him. I
had certain things to say regards my behaviour on the FF boards after
that Scottish Cup tie but that will have to remain private.
As you would expect everyone wanted to at least say hello to the man
and there is no getting away with it the notion that you've just been
in the company of a guy who gave up selling snow to the Eskimoes years
ago because there was no challenge left in the exercise.
So, did all have a good time? Well fellow FFer, 'Enclosure Blue' and
I asked each other that very question at the end of the night. It would
be pretty churlish to deny that David Murray worked his charm but time
will tell if there was any substance to it, which in the end is the
only thing that matters. I'd say to any FFer who gets an invite (DM is
talking of holding another five subsequent nights over the next year)
go and judge for yourselves.
The sectarian stuff and the press issue apart, by far the most
pertinent point of the night for me was the assurances the Chairman
gave us all regarding the £50m put up on his part for the Rights Issue.
He told us all that this money was not from any, other part of his
business empire. Now the RST might be in a state of inertia at the
moment but as I see it, the RST has forced his hand because of the
almighty financial mess the club was in. Of that at least we should all
be eternally grateful.
And afters
Well, I did tell you that the Panorama scam had left DM's feathers a
tad ruffled and to be fair his time frame in working out a suitable
response has been measured. I've got to say I have no qualms in
agreeing that the 'baggage' at the end of some of our songs leaves the
whole club with a problem. In short the Eff Tee Pee stuff just ain't
clever.
But there are other just as important issues to contend with.
Like the following, which is No 9 of the Internal Ten Point plan; -
'Tocontinue an equal opportunities policy in relation to employment and
service provision.'
Nah, I'm not swallowing that one. When you consider that
Rangers Chief Executive has boasted in print that Rangers fans are not
allowed to get near specific jobs at Ibrox over a certain wage limit
then this is not only an insult to our intelligence it is in fact
taking the piss.
Similarly, No 2 of the External Ten-Point; 'Don't do or
display anything that could remotely be construed as racist, sectarian,
fascist, para-military or offensive.'has far too many rough edges, is
too loosely worded and open to interpretation to work, and against us
at that, in my humble opinion.
Why has the word 'fascist' been allowed to creep into
the equation? Is the Chairman now telling us that he believes the 'Red
Hand' salute is fascist behaviour? If he does then why doesn't he just
come out and say so and let us start to confront that particular issue
head on.
Now if the word 'fascist' has nothing to do with the
Red Hand salute then the only way I can 'construe' the implication of
the word is that it is an attempt by Laurence McIntyre to try and
justify the pathetic, not to say ludicrous banning of the Linwood
'Combat Squad' banner. So, in my humble opinion it's got to be back to
the drawing board with some of the new iniative, I'm
afraid.
It's simply too glib and not nearly good enough to turn around and
say don't do or display anything that can be construed as sectarian. We
live in an upside down, twisted part of the world where displaying the
flag of your own country is 'construed' as sectarian. Can we be sure
that the club will fight the fans' corner here or will they meekly hide
behind the behaviour and say so of a Police Force that is becoming more
corrupt and sectarian with each passing day? I won't be holding my
breath.
Earlier in this 'gentle' wee piece I said that punters should go
along to this 'night' if invited and judge for themselves what it's all
about. But events, as they so often do when it concerns the club
overtake us and bring us onto another level of bamboozlement and
bewilderment altogether.
Unbelievably, on the eve of the Davie Cooper League Cup final, the
club saw fit to ban 28 members of TBO for the heinous crime of standing
up for large parts of the aforementioned Caley Thistle disaster at home.
Now I am not a member of TBO but all in all I do admire what they're
trying to achieve. Furthermore, at that meeting on March 7th, I was
given the impression by the Chairman that he was happy to enter into
dialogue with TBO, although I will stress the fact that TBO having to
comply with the law with regards to standing at Ibrox was not up for
debate.
So my question is, why couldn't the club, following on from the
general feel good factor of that meeting, have sat TBO representative
down and given him a final warning that standing up in that area
continually had pushed the club to the end of its tether? Point out one
last and final time just how serious this matter had become for the
club. A - It would have kept the goodwill going and B - Would have
allowed TBO man, one final chance to ram home to his members just how
perilous their position had become.
This action was made all the more contemptible when we realise that
the banned 28 Blue Order/Rangers fans were handed these letters on a
day when the Daily Record was allowed to tarnish Coop's memory and
imply he was a bigot without the slightest shred of evidence. This on
the same day that the loathsome and odious Spiers and James Traynor
were allowed to do a hatchet job on Cooper's playing career and ability.
In summing up
It's been a strange, curious one-way relationship I've had with the
Chairman basically for all of the last decade. He makes his
pronouncements from on high and I take an instant and cynical dislike
to them. Yet for all that, I don't believe there was any option for me
but to attend this meeting on March 7th. Put it this way, given my
animosity towards the Chairman, not taking up the invite would have
been an act of cowardice on my part.
I'll also state quite candidly that I went away from that meeting
wanting to believe the Chairman, thinking that maybe, just maybe the
penny had finally dropped as to the farce that is the “anti-sectarian”
drive that is bedevilling the Protestant community, and ONLY the
Protestant community at this moment in time in so called multi-cultural
Scotland. 'Wishin', and 'hopin' and 'prayin' that he was irked at the
Panorama sham on behalf of the club and the support and not on a
personal level.
It is of course the proper thing to do that Rangers FC tries to
tackle our club's own problems head on. But the powers that be at Ibrox
should also acknowledge that the all encompassing and deafening silence
from Strathclyde Police, The SFA, NBM, the Scottish press, (footballing
and non-footballing) Scotland's tin pot MSPs, and last but not least
David Murray's peers at CP regards the highly provocative sectarian
bile of Neil Lennon and his manager at Ibrox on November 20th, 2004, is
not only a watershed but a defining moment in this laughable and
pathetic iniative against religious bigotry and sectarianism that is
being foisted upon us.
So far at time of writing (a month down the line from the Chairman's
'do') the signs do not look good for David Murray's bright new dawn at
Ibrox. For example;
1 - Rangers FC has banned 28 committed supporters for standing up.
Not only that but three of those 28 fans have been singled out for
special attention and libelled by The Daily Record and the club has sat
back and allowed it to happen.
2 - The club and the RSA, the organisation that was hand picked to
thwart the progress of the RST, seem to have been unaware of the latest
anti-sectarian con featuring Spiers, NBM and Sense over Sectarianism
who huddled together and gave the public an anti-sectarian workshop at
St Mungo Hall between the hours of 14:00 - 16:00 pm on Sunday 3rd April.
That's right folks, this serious anti-bigotry debate was going on at
the exact time that Rangers were playing Motherwell at Fir Park in an
effort to get themselves back at the top of the SPL. So we do have to
ask in the interests of balance and impartiality how many Pro
Rangers/Protestants do you think were going to be in attendance at this
meeting at that time?
As we all know, this anti-sectarian stuff is a yahoo driven farce
but it is not only a great worry to me but a telling sign also that
those who we are putting our faith in at the club to combat it don't
even know what's going on.
Then again, it's practically impossible to discern what actually is
going on at Ibrox. In my opinion the club's management seem to be
cocooned in a plastic bubble, inured to, and if not entirely ignorant
of, then most certainly distanced from, the outright hatred aimed at
the club.
David Murray wants us to move on together. I personally would like
nothing better. Imagine the management of Rangers FC and the fans
united and welded together?
One Nation under a groove, getting down just for the funk of it
One Nation cos we're on the move, nothing can stop us now
That ideology, folks, is one of the great dreams I have left in my
life. However, as long as David Murray is prepared to tolerate the
likes of Spiers, McNee and other assorted vermin off the park, then
that dream is as far away as a CL triumph on it.
Like every other person who is reading this, I love Rangers FC
unconditionally. In my lifetime I've experienced the crushed dreams as
a youngster when we always seemed to lose in the big games against the
filth. I've plumbed the depths of the Greig and Wallace #2 years. I've
experienced a lifetime of European frustrations and the ultimate
alienation of the Murray era. Yet through it all my love for the club
has brought me back asking for more.
However, at this moment in time, quite frankly I don't know how much
there is left of me to give.
I'm sick to the back teeth of the club turning the other cheek
I'm weary to the point of despair with club's refusal to take action
against journalists who put the boot into;
Dead Rangers fans
Dead ex Managers
Dead ex players
I'm now officially classed as a squatter in Dead End St, when I look
in from the outside and see the club won't challenge hypocritical non
entities who would take the so called moral high ground against our
club with regards to sectarianism and religious bigotry.
I'm also sick to my stomach that we employ a security firm at Ibrox,
Rock Steady, who when they are deployed at the cesspit during an OF
game look the other way when Rangers players are routinely hassled,
subjected to religious hatred and bile and more importantly stricken
with objects and saliva. Yet the same people who accept Rock Steady's
double standards and utter disregard for our own players' safety will
come down like a tonne of bricks on a wee guy at Ibrox who stands up at
periods during a game. The question has to be asked, is someone's palm
getting greased here?
In short I've had my fill and I'm now beginning to wonder if this
Royal Blue umbilical cord that has tied, enthralled, enchanted and
caused me great pain in equal measures throughout my entire life is in
need of cutting?
Why should I take all this frustration, anger and resentment and let
it all spill over into every other department of my life, be it in the
workplace, the pub, on the FF message boards and last but not least my
home life, when quite frankly the man at the top of the Marble
Staircase doesn't appear to give a toss?
As I said at the start of this blatt, the notion that David Murray
deciding to have dialogue with me, even after all the vitriol I've
aimed at him has caused me to take long, hard look at myself.
He has stated that we, as a club, need to move on together. If he
doesn't realise that keeping the fans onside will help him achieve this
goal, then I do have to wonder where we're all going to end up?
The Govanhill Gub.