There you have it; Madrid wanted the Frenchman so, in Gerry McNee world, there was no way Rangers stood a chance of enticing Le Guen to Ibrox. I mean how can Rangers compete with the big European clubs? Of course McNee was only wishin' ‘n' hopin' publicly in print what many in the Scottish press were prayin' in private.
Let us be in no doubt here, David Murray capturing the signature of Paul Le Guen in managerial terms is the biggest coup imaginable for Scottish football, EVER. So you would automatically think that McNee on hearing Rangers FC here in lowly third world, third rate Scotland had snatched the much sought after and highly respected Frenchman away from the jaws of Galactico FC would have been beside himself with joy at this great news for Scottish football? Don't make me laugh. It didn't even rate a sentence in the scumbag's column after the appointment was announced.
The Chairman, if he had kept his eyes peeled would have noticed the same subdued, almost mute reaction all along the Scottish press watchtower when the news that Le Guen was coming to Ibrox broke. As his one time pal at The Herald said anyway; it was only a MINOR coup.
It's been creeping up on us for a wee while now but there can be no doubts any longer. There are many in this country are determined to have us play Espanyol to Timmy's Barcelona.
Let's keep with the issue of mute reactions from the Scottish press and Rangers. Do any of you out there reading this get the feeling that your club was part of the second phase of the greatest footballing show on earth, a few weeks ago? Nah, me neither. Let me put it another way for you all. I'll say without fear of contradiction; if Rangers had reached the final of the CL this year (indulge my hallucinogenic, fertile mind here) we would not have received a fraction of the press reaction the yahoos got in reaching Seville in the losers cup three years ago.
So why has this open, simmering hatred of our club now suddenly come to the boil? It's simple really; after nearly two decades of neglect by the Chairman in all areas of promoting and defending the club it has now got to a stage where we have been over run by those who hate us. Timmy can now smell blood and is going for the jugular and it is there in glorious yahoovision for us all to see.
There can be no doubt as the club finds itself under investigation from UEFA, that this is a campaign driven from our own shores. From dregs of humanity at the NOTW to useful idiots at The Herald; they are all there doing their best ‘chib' work behind our backs. It's as plain as the bump under a Ron Jeremy fig leaf what is happening but still the Chairman feels the need to keep a ‘dignified' silence.
We've even had a Snyde journalist Keevins on TV, admitting that he wants UEFA to take action against Rangers even though it would be gross hypocrisy on their part with its altogether more lax attitude to the behaviour of Spanish fans, especially in terms of racist chanting. And still we take it all on the chin.
Mind you, perhaps the Chairman has no option but to suffer in silence. For instance, look at the calibre of men he has to hand in the Ibrox boardroom who could help him take on UEFA at the present time. Well there's Campbell Ogilvie, respected UEFA legislator. Well, I mean there used to be Campbell Ogilvie in the Ibrox boardroom but alas not any longer.
So who else can the Chairman rely on to tackle UEFA head on? Perma tan man? I mean if only he could swat the Scottish press away like Ibrox employees who incur his wrath or don't fill in the proper paperwork we could be on a winner there.
John Greig? No, no a thousand times no. JG can't even remember who the best footballer he ever played alongside these days. I think a bus pass back to Planet Reality is called for in Greig's case. He has obviously forgotten that Ronnie McKinnon, Willie Henderson, Davie Provan (to a lesser extent) and his own good self owed their smooth transitition from promising youngster to Scottish Internationalist to one man and one man alone. And that was Jim Baxter. Not to put too fine a point on it, Greig should be zapped with a cattle prod for suggesting Law or Johnstone came anywhere near the slim one in terms of skill.
In short because David Murray has chosen all along to have lap dogs in the boardroom to back up his every whim, now when it has come to ‘le crunch' we have no one of any substance to fight our corner. What a scandalous state of affairs.
Of course in terms of skulduggery the precedent was set years ago. There was an infamous cabal of certain referees who met in The old fruit market in The Candleriggs years ago with the sole aim of the meeting being ‘To ‘GET' Graeme Souness'. This seedy, sleazy meeting took place after Souness called David Syme a poof. They were allowed back then to go on their merry way much the same as Spiers and Co are today. But hey, we've got dignity when we get shafted. Always we have dignity.
Meanwhile sandwiched in between these pops at Rangers and their fans, Radio Snyde (and more on them later) saw fit to read out a hoax fax on their yahoo propaganda phone-in from a rheptile mocking a well known Rangers fan who used to frequent FF who had died of a heart attack at the age of 38 in December 2004. And the beat(ing) goes on.
Apart from anything else the less than excitable reaction to Le Guen coming to Ibrox tells you all you need to know about the Scottish press anyway. To be perfectly blunt they don't need a dead Celt to play down what happens at Ibrox. In other words the ‘Espanyolification' process is well underway. And it comes in a variety of differing ways.
For instance you can hardly get a Charlie Nicholas column these days that doesn't mention the fact that he thinks Rangers will pip Hearts to second place in the league. He's obsessed, not with Count Alucard's behaviour at Tynecastle you understand, but the notion that PLG can galvanise our club and make a decent fist of us in the CL next season if we get that chance via the second berth. After all if the dross we served up this season could get us beyond the first round then who knows what a decent managerial set up is capable of?
Then there was the ludicrous article by the literary mollusc that is Ronnie Cully, in The Evening Tims in which he treated us to his best foreign XI, who have played in Scotland. Let's see now, there's the Swedish diver, there was his Bulgarian pupil, there is the Slav no one had ever heard of before scoring against Rangers in 1998 and a clapped out Frank Suazee, but NO Brian Laudrup.
You may claim I'm nitpicking but tell you what, if a journalist here in Scotland had the audacity to omit the Swedish diver from any such selection he'd be bombarded on all sides by irate yahoo journalists making sure they got their digs in. It's just a continual drip, drip, drip and chipping away every day at anything and everything we hold dear.
The main issue here is that the Rangers support has now been browbeaten and conditioned into accepting that a Celtic minded hack or an ex Celt in the media will always promote their club. But it is imperative that so called pro Rangers journalists or ex Gers in the media MUST be impartial. It's a pretty lop sided and skewed outlook if you ask me. And one that means we will continue to be constantly on the back foot.
On and on it goes. Last season Radio Snyde carried a recurring advert about young Old Firm fans getting the chance to play/train/be put through their paces at Ibrox or the cesspit by the respective coaching staff at both clubs. The blurb went something along the following lines;
‘Hi there, this is Andy Walker here and if you want to train at CP then phone us here at Radio Clyde on 0141 – blah, blah, blah or text us at di-dah, di-dah, di-dah.'
‘AND, this is Alex McLeish here and if you want to play at Ibrox then etc, etc, etc'
Look at how this advert was played out once again. Here we have the manager of Rangers FC clearly playing second fiddle to a third rate hack on a fourth rate yahoo propaganda station. It is vomit inducing stuff.
This season Snyde has got together with the Evening Tims and have something similar on the go and surprise surprise guess what club and bunch of kids are once more second in line in terms of being picked and the event taking place? I'll ask again, when did we just meekly accept playing second best? And it has been allowed to permeate through all levels of the club.
Back once again to the attitude of the fans. I've lost count of the punters who wonder if we could fill a 60,000 capacity stadium. ‘We can't fill it as it is'. ‘We'll only fill it against the Tims and Europe'. ‘It's fine as it is' seems to be their reasoning. Well given that 500-1,000 seats seem to be lost every home game due to lack of travelling fans and the need for segregation then there's your answer regards why we don't hit the magical 50k every home game. It is a second rate, second best attitude. When did we start to think this way?
So the reason for this gentle blast, which I'm sure, has provoked memories of my travels down Hysteria Lane in the latter years of the Smith era? Well, April 12th is looming large and becoming very a much a day of destiny for the club and there are only two ways the club can go after UEFA's pronouncements. Either it meekly accepts this kangaroo court's decision or it finally stands its corner.
If the Chairman makes a pact with the devil and takes it on the chin then the club is basically finished anyway as this will give the Rangers haters the green light to come at the club from all angles. It should not have to be endlessly repeated. If you keep running they are going to keep chasing.
However, should the Chairman finally grow a backbone then the Rangers support also have to make a definitive stand. Do you want to be Barcelona in this city or Espanyol? Well if you choose the Barca option (and you are not a true Rangers fan if you don't) then you have got some tough, personal choices to make.
Not only will you have to start fighting and railing against the Rangers hating filth who are out there. You will also have to start tackling head on the so called pro Rangers people who either out of cowardice or self interest refuse to defend us. The choice is yours. Barcelona or Espanyol? It's time to make that call.
Yours in Rangers,
The Govanhill Gub.