Come and get it, ya Barcas!

Have ye noticed the lack of preparatory ranting on tonight’s game. We’ve all noticed the relative silence of The Bears on the threads regarding the topic of the Catalan Behemoths in Govan. Why’s that?

I do believe pride comes before a fall so we don’t blow about something when our players’ feet should be doing the talking. True. But I also think that the self-belief required to inflict one of the most sensational results in our history - for the second Champs League game on the trot - can only come from an energy-saving, meditative, contemplative, almost transcendental silence in the 48 hours leading up to that kick-off. And when that ball is rolled forward it’s full circumference at 19:45 hrs GMT on Tuesday 23rd October 2007 … well, THAT is when we let loose:

Ye cannae whack a wee bit of Zadok the Priest

“Nous some les millieurs, wir sind die besten …”

But I willnae hear it tonight as I plan to scream my ti*s off all the way through it. If I don’t see my larynx appearing on my chest sometime between the teams coming doon the tunnel and the game kicking off then I’ll be handing my smart card back on the way oot as I obviously don’t care anymore.

I really haven’t had the time to do a proper preview piece but, to be perfectly honest, If I START talking about it I WILLNAE STOP … and I mean I willnae stop SCREAMING!!!!

Excitement, fear, adoration, awe, bloodlust and rib-cage-bursting pride.

Too exciting to even contemplate. But we have and we will, right up til kick-off: I’ve said “If we lose by anything less than 3-0 I can still cherish the occassion” so often that we’re bound to lose 3-0. When we played Juventus 12 years ago it was like having Elvis in your living room - and then they inflicted our greatest ever European home defeat and I still find it hard to enjoy Serie A football on the telly (Or Serie B last season ya chumps - way-hay!!). The wins over VfB and Lyon have ensured tonight’s game is not essential to our prospects of qualifying - for that I must thank Walter and the lads - but against opposition like this you sometimes give it your all just to avoid the kind of slaughtering which can be detrimental to your entire season.

They might be a corporate monster based on cowardly pretend-seperatism (Athletic Bilbao know what it REALLy is to be “more than a club”) but as a sporting institution, only Rangers and Real Madrid are greater than tonight’s visitors. Any club who’ve had Johann Cruyff, Lasislao Kubala, Bernd Schuster and Diego Armando wearing their “granaublau” (sic?) jersey is well worth the seeing: I’m gutted Deco isn’t playing - he’s the cutest player on the planet. Gutted Sammy Etoo is out too. Marquez?? I want them ALL on our pitch - but Messi, Ronaldinho and Henry will probably suffice … on their own!

But, more than that, I want Barcelona to see the real RANGERS - and I want them to hear us too.

We’ll all go through it tonight, troops and, as Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton used to psychically say to each other as they hit the riff on Crossroads, we might not know how each other’s feeling but we certainly know we’re all working in the same direction and we’ll see each other when we get out on the other side.

Let’s make music, troops. Let’s make music.