85/86. Strange but ultimately not surprising!
The silence from Provan regards Sutton was especially baffling when you consider that only a fortnight previously the main thrust of his article was to belittle the 'conspiracy theorists' and in fact to praise the behaviour of Alex McLeish and (wait for it) Martin O'Neill. In fact he went as far as to say that both managers would come out of this season with their reputations enhanced. May I remind you all that O'Neill has still to
distance himself or the club from Sutton's sour grapes. But hey, according to Peace Process that is acting with dignity. Well I suppose it is for a yahoo.
Still, we should be grateful to Peace Process for coming out quite candidly and admitting he was rooting for irafitbalub to win the title. He also added for good measure that staying strictly neutral in this wee hole was not an option taken up by the majority of footballing journalists. This of course is in stark contrast to the opinions of that buffoon Derek Johnstone
a few weeks ago who said quite openly on air that he couldn't wish for Rangers to win the league because he had to stay impartial. Big DJ, the consummate professional, eh? Basically there are two choices you can plump for here. Either Provan is unprofessional in his job or Derek Johnstone is a coward.
Brian Scott over in The Mail on Cup final morning couldn't keep the nastiness in check either. In an article entitled; 'Who cares about Scotland? Certainly not Rangers', we were treated to a puerile dig about Barry Ferguson's impending operation that of course rules him out of this weekend's doing at the hands of the Germans. Bob McPhail not playing at Wembley in the 30s was cited as evidence that Rangers, who have supplied more players for Scotland than any other club by a proverbial mile, are in fact anti-Scottish.
'Couldn't he postpone the operation for just one week'? Asked Scott. No he couldn't. There is not a Rangers fan out there that hasn't witnessed Bazza's dip in form in the last month of the season. This isn't a dig, merely a statement of fact. This injury really was beginning to take its toll on our captain and it is nonsense for any so called professional journalist to suggest that a club should take any more risks with their prize asset than they have already. Still, when have you ever read an objective yahoo on the thorny issue of Rangers FC?
While we're still on the subject. I see Fergie in the Thursday rags was trying to justify having to go in for his operation as early as possible to the Tartan Army. Erm, why? Ferguson and/or his club made the only feasible and logical choice here and I'm a wee bit sad that our captain has to explain himself to Rangers haters.
So it's treble No 7 and a 31st Scottish Cup triumph after last weekend's 'showpiece' final. Let's be honest, it was a poor game and possibly none of us realised just how much effort had gone into securing the title the previous Sunday. At times the players really did look dead on their feet. I'm sure I'm not the only Bear who was wishing for one last exhibition of neat football but at the end of the day I suppose a win is the only thing that matters.
The contrast in behaviour of two of our departing stars as they lapped up the plaudits after the match was telling. Arthur Numan as ever was a master of understatement, whilst big Amo was, well big Amo. When Numan came to the club I was drooling with anticipation after witnessing the guy's form in that year's World Cup. Yet somehow he's never been able to recapture those dizzy heights. Not for me at any rate. But you read how he's ready to take time out from football altogether so he can be with his wife next as she has their first child, it's hard to be critical of the guy. I wish him well.
It is hard though to stomach the contempt the Scottish Press has for Lorenzo Amoruso. Given the level of invective you'd be forgiven for thinking that he's sold Scotland down the river at some point. Or maybe its more simple than that, maybe the rumours about the big man's schlong are true and it's nothing more than penis envy with the press rat pack.
True he's had his ups and downs at Ibrox in the last six years. He's had to suffer the humiliation and ignominy of being stripped of the captaincy for instance. Yet he has always managed to battle back. The praise ringing out for the big man last week was a tribute to his fortitude and also says much about the Rangers support. Yet all we were treated to in the following couple of days from the press was heckling that bordered on loathing.
Neil McCann doesn't half like playing in Scottish Cup finals. That's played 5 won 5 and in just six short years too. Last Saturday saw him join Gray, Brown, McPhail, Ritchie, McKinnon, Millar, Henderson and Davie Wilson in being Rangers players who have won four Scottish Cup badges in just five years. That's some nice company to find yourself in.
I don't suppose I can let go of the fact that the Dundee support helped ruin the match as a spectacle. Large sections of their end lying empty due to four and a half thousand tickets left unsold did kind of take the shine off the match.
Now I've never been the biggest fan of The SFA but I believe they have come in for some unwarranted criticism this time around. The facts I'm led to believe is that they gave Dundee an initial allocation of 16,000 tickets. Dundee were also told that if they could sell out their allocation then they would receive another 4,000 briefs. This they did and they demanded the extra allocation even though the word on the street in Dundee was that the sales were beginning to slow down. As far as I'm aware it was Dundee who made The SFA hand over the second batch of tickets.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have the right to deny fans of the 'smaller' clubs a chance to a Scottish Cup final ticket. Especially when you consider in Dundee's case it was the first in nearly 40 years but it has to be wrong that nearly 5,000 seats are left unsold whilst four or five times that number of your opponents would be willing to snap them up. Maybe The SFA
will need to rethink their strategy and make sure that tickets for the North Stand and behind the goals are sold first so that to the TV cameras at least there doesn't appear to be any empty spaces. I won't hold my breath though.
I don't know about you lot but to my cynical mind, there didn't appear to be the same tributes by the press to Alex McLeish winning the Treble in his first full season as Rangers manager as there were two years ago when the bespectacled reptile achieved this feat also. Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone.
In fact the good old Evenin Tims tried to make out in midweek that winning the very first league title way back in 1891 really didn't count because we shared it with Dumbarton. Aw diddums. The correspondent also claimed that Celtic would have won this season's title if it had been settled on goal average. Again, it is worthwhile pointing out that not one yahoo has ever thought it unfair that they pipped Hearts on the last day of season 85/86.
Of course if Timmy wants to right some wrongs then he could always scratch from the record books the league title they stole back in season 1904/05 from Rangers. Back then it was decided to have a play off even though Rangers would have won the league on goal difference AND goal average. But c'mon here, we're talking about a shower who dismiss the 8-1 OF defeat in 1943, but count their solitary goal as official. The bottom line is, the rules were set down before the season started. It is a joy to behold watching just how much Timmy n Timetta are hurting at present. Loven it, Loven it, Loven it.
Mind you I nearly choked on my meusli and semi-skimmed reading Ally McCoist in Sunday's News of the Screws. Yup Ally was on his moral high horse DEMANDING that Rangers fans are not to be kept in the dark regarding Amoruso's proposed move down south.
There is just no shaming some people. All of a sudden the rights of the Rangers support are of paramount importance to Ally now that the treble has been secured. But where was he when the Rangers support was looking for a wee bit of a defence of the club by ex Gers in the media over the April 27th stushie?
It would be churlish to deny what Ally McCoist achieved for Rangers FC and the Rangers support. But I find it absolutely astonishing that three of the biggest cowards on display regards 27/4, McCoist, Gough and Hateley are being feted and wined and dined in Texas even as I type this, by the very people they couldn't be bothered defending just 6 weeks ago. It's an upside down world right enough.
What really did take the shine off Saturday's result however was the news that Rangers have commissioned a T-shirt, which has some snide wording on it that is clearly a dig at the yahoos in general and MON in particular. I've only got one thing to say on the subject, please bears don't buy this trash. It is an absolute disgrace that we would lower ourselves to Timmy's bog standards. In fact, if it were up to me the imbecile who thought up this idea would be sacked immediately. It's proof once again, not that anyone should require any, of just how totally out of touch the Rangers management is with the support's feelings.
I see also, that our old friend Brian Wilson MP has been in the news again. Wilson, who you may recall wanted to haul Rangers before the UN for not signing RCs in the 1970s but has never uttered a single word about the sporting scandal of all time, which festered at his own club. But I digress, Wilson was supposed to be representing Scotland at a major official bash concerning the Oil Industry. This deal was a couple of years in the making and is worth billion of pounds to the country. Wilson couldn't be bothered turning up and went instead to Seville. For good measure he sent along one of his minions. No apologies from Wilson were forthcoming, nothing.
Now to be perfectly honest I have no problem with Wilson or any other politician having footballing allegiances. But that is not the issue here.What is at stake is whether underhanded Rangers hating slime like Wilson would help secure a sports complex for the yahoos courtesy of the taxpayer? When you consider that Wilson once spent an entire chapter in his book gushing on about the day of John Thomson's funeral yet made no mention of the poisonous statement made by Maley at the Official Accident Enquiry.Then I think that tells you everything you need to know on the subject.
So anyway that's the end of a season that was more successful than anyone would have dared hope especially for those of us who trudged out of Rugby Park on the opening day. To all of the players who made it happen all I can say is thanks lads. As for the manager? I've been racking my brain to think of a season when we've won the league after being such overwhelming underdogs at the start, and I can't think of any. That man McLeish deserves all the plaudits coming his way. Although I'm sure he realises that there are no laurels to be rested on. That's the way it's got to be.
Ciao for now,
We are the People!
THE GOVANHILL GUB