THE END OF THE AFFAIR … but the passion grows stronger

This might be a bit like when The Daily Retard or The Bun has an “exclusive” on how they got a story before the other one did or how the Record printed a picture of the new Celtic strip which was actually a Taiwanese forgery of the new Rangers strip and The Sun can now exclusively reveal to all hoops fans/Gers fans that blah-blah-blah.

In other words, the following rant might be the very nadir of nepotism but - fuck it - what I read on the previous thread deserves to be mentioned in a stand-alone page. If you haven’t had the pleasure, click on the previous rant - http://rangers.openfootball.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/22/in-memoriam-season-20062007/#comment-45059 - and, after trawling through my opening drawl, get stuck into the thread. Kinda sums up the utter quality and passion of, I’m pleased to say, the vast bulk of the contributions on this wee corner of cyberspace since Paul le Guen departed.

Not that the feedback was ever bland BEFORE the Frenchman with the paratrooper-looks fermed la port on his Ibrox career. But stuff had to be said after January 2nd and it has most certainly got itself SAID by the folk who frequent this blog.

Pwoud. Vewy, vewy pwoud.

The team might not be in a cup final this season but the contributors to Gers@OpenFootball have certainly given me a scintilating curtain-closing finale to the last 2006/2007 of fandom.

Get into that thread and enjoy it. It’s even better than the two-part finale to Ghost Whisperer, aired on ABC1 last Sunday night after E-4 went on teh blink when they were supposed to show it two VERY LONG months ago (What??!! NO! It’s NOTHING to do with Jenifer Love Hewitt’s chest! I find the stories very emotional and scary but uplifting - just like the threads on this blog … and Jennifer’s bras … noh - stop it!).

My failed attempt to give that thread of feedback the “editorial” reply it deserves - which is also my first attempt to move on from the Paul le Guen affair - is reprinted below:

Gents,

Sensational.

Absolutely sen-fucking-sational reading. What a thread. On Colp’s wee point there, I think THIS - the debate on THIS thread - is The Rangers Way; I know I say this too often but it IS one of the main reasons why I love The Teds - We’re blaming no-one for our failings but ourselves and we’re sorting it out amongst ourselves, the punters.

The problem with the PLG situation, as with our image as a sectarian club is that we actually stand to lose our identity if we, the Gers proletariat, stand up for ourselves too volubly. This is the real dichotomy for Rangers in the 21st century:

The Rangers Way, for me and Colp and so many others, is to never bleat and moan about critics, the media or conspiracies or - god forbid - unfair or poor refereeing. We’d rather stay loyal, stand tall, take it on the chin - be hard on ourselves, learn, get stronger, achieve success yet again - all with dignity. The protests of our enemies is just jealousy.

Yet, with no answers, no real insight into the EXACT motivations of the PLG departure, we’re all left a wee bit hung out to dry. I think Lone Star’s point about “Hullo Hullo” not being the last thing to be banned is SOOOOOOOOOO SPOT-ON it’s frightening - so we have to start giving particular members of and articles by the press more stick and we have to start pointing out the hypocrisy behind so much of our attackers’ agendas. And yet, I find myself totally understanding of and ADMIRING of both Murray and PLG for saying nothing - for keeping it in-house. The one and only time I’ve slagged David Murray was the time he came out and told us not to buy the newspapers which printed dirt on Rangers! For me it was the kind of stuff which was BENEATH a Rangers Chairman to say - it was gutterish, sniping, bitter - it was a bit “Celtic” to be quite honest. And yet I think we need to start redressing the balance in the psychotic campaign by SOME celtic fans to have Rangers put out of business, to have us ethnically cleansed. Somehow we HAVE to start getting our regal hands a bit whiffy.

I want to take on the onslaught of attacks on Rangers fan culture and yet I’m desperate that we should attack ourselves for particular behaviour (fuck, I’m absolutely GAGGING for a crowd of us to kick sevens shades of racist shite out the BNP next time they try to sell their pish in Mafeking Street or Edmiston Drive). It depends whose doing the criticising and why. I will buy Speirs book (and I’m certainly NOT in it! Think he wants it to sell!) but only to take on board for yet another angle from a writer whom I actually have a lot of time for. It’s a bit Oscar Wildish to say but even if you don’t agree with what’s being said, it’s nice to read something well-written.

But I just want Graham’s OPINION. I don’t want him to shed any more facts on the situation. I will actually be dissapointed if there was a quote from PLG or Murray in that book because - oh yes - that just isn’t The Rangers Way.

Dichotomy - dichotomy - dichotomy…

The man who has unarguably let us down - and one who I irrationally feel personally insulted by because I swear I was the only one singing his name at times over the 18 months up til that Fir Park nightmare - is Bary Ferguson, but only because of his going to the Sun so quickly. And, really, trying to look down upon my own irrational self with an out-of-body objectivity, I reckon it’s easier to dislike Barry - will never boo him and will always applaud his efforts and be gratfeul for everything he’s done for us - than it is to face up to the niggling worry I’ve been interpolating, extrapolating and positing for the last six months; ie, that it’s OUR fault - that we can’t rise far enough above the backwater mentality in Scotland to lay on an atmosphere conducive to REAL worthwhile change.

“Irn Bru and a Caramac bar” - fucking genius, Blue Wes, - belter - pishing myself at that one because, like all the best lines, it’s shot through with biting truth.

I hope I’m not adding anything else here which disagrees with any points made above (in the previous thread) because, as promised, I’ve had my say on teh machinations of the PLG situation - I’ve more than had my say and, equally frankly, some of the posts on this thread have made me want to reach through the web and Bear hug the posters. You guys get the last word on this subject.

Derek, Lone Star, Spanish Bear, Moses Mac, Barca72, Thistledhub, Blue Wes, Doug, Bruce, Colp - if Speirs wants to sell plenny copies of his book then all he has to do is get your contributions to this thread and slap them in the opening chapter: Some of you are agreeing with me - but not completely. Some of you are disagreeing with me - but not completely. But ALL of you are giving me fresh angles and riveting insights into what has been the biggest incident at Rangers this century. And 99% of the debate on here has been about RANGERS FC, has been about FOOTBALL matters. There’s politics - but it’s the politics of the boardroom and dressing room. There’s religion - but it’s our religious devotion to the God of Rangers FC. Fuck me, if I can’t actually go ahead and finally say “there’s a lot of love in this (chat)room tonight” - and it’s a love for the Teddy Bears.

My only dissapointment is Boaby’s noh made it onto this one! But I gather he’s doing the prologue for Dan Brown’s new blockbuster … always knew he was too good for us! :-)

Tim Waits? I know he’s off reading that programme from the UEFA Cup Final. At a fiver a go he has to get his money’s worth out it. Just go to the back pages, TW - that’s where it tells you Larsson is the second highest scorer in the history of the UEFA cup - second to a German called Muller, of course! - and he’s joint-first if you count his own goal in his first ever Euro game for the hairy hoops. Plus, has it struck you that there’s an awful lot of copy in that programme about Celtic going to the home city of Sevilla FC for a European final but rather less about Rangers going to the home city of RCD Espanyol for a European final! Wonder why that is??? Coz youse took 800,000 fans and did nowt but endear yerselves to the world and because we took 20,000 fans and fucking trashed the joint?? That’s one for discussion… (Rangers, celtic, Espanyol, Sevilla - all have played European finals in the city of one of the others yet none have played at the home stadium of any of the others, in European competition. Amazing … but I digress…)

I want to do what I can to help us answer what I see as our major new problem - the one which has led to my schizophrenia: How can the club stick up for us and still remain the club we want it to be? How do we attack our attackers without becoming just like them?

I’m gonnae see if I can’t get a wee article published in a amagzine here and there - maybe even do a wee book(let) - on the subject. Hopefully we’ll find a middle ground, we’ll find a way of coming to terms with how we establish our right to be The Establishment without the taciturn methods most establishments employ. Whatever, I’ll just ask the questions to begin with.

And that’s what it is about the Le Guen situation - where there have been no answers, we’ve at least all been asking the questions. Rangers have to be silent to be Rangers. Rangers employees past and present have to keep schtum to be real Rangers men - so it’s the fans, the Bears, The Bluenoses, us, who have to do the talking - we have to come to terms with the big stuff by ironing it all out in discussions. There’s much wailing and gnashing of dentures but if it happens at Rangers then it most certainly IS discussed by Rangers fans - and it’s been a FUCKING PLEASURE AND A PRIVELEGE chewing that very bitter and pivotal cud with the folks on these pages this season.

The season’s over - LA Galaxy succumbed to yet another touchdown by our MVP Kris Boyd in a very strange curtain-closer - and I’ll be keeping these pages going with all the transfer talk and general Gers gossip til the 2007/2008 campaign kicks off for real. We’ll have a wee cheery “best of” highlights-package-type round-up of 2006/2007 - that was supposed to be tonight but this thread has got me ranting on more than enough for any of you to have to read in one evening - we’ll do it over the next few days so I can at least end this season on an un-serious note.

But, as our first weekend of quite a few without The Gers approaches, can I just say THANKS to all of you for keeping this blog alive and for keeping me on an even keel.

Well, when I say “even” …

Thanks, troops. Youse are Simply The Best and, please, DON’T EVER stop saying it: Dont ever stop saying WE ARE THE PEOPLE.

Coz we certainly bloody well are!

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Published:
05.24.07 / 10pm
Category:
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