2 European Cups and 10 in a row

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I may have told you this before, apologies if I’m repeating myself.  Around 20 years ago, in a TV studio minutes after a Rangers victory, a former captain, Terry Butcher (what ever happened to him?), told the audience, “David Murray will not stop until he’s won two European Cups and 10 in a row.”

Use of the personal term “he”, not the club name, struck me.  Murray was personally invested in this matter.  Such a burning desire did not make David Murray a bad person, he owned the dominant club in Glasgow, but the team he was dominating had all that glorious history.  If the boot was on the other foot, you’d want the same.  I would.

Perhaps if Jock Stein had stayed at Hibs, Celtic would have stayed in mediocrity, David Murray would have had a more affordable dream and the liquidation of his club would not have been necessary.

You know it’s true…….

On Tuesday’s STV report that Hearts manager, John McGlynn, said:

“How many fans would think they could win the league if Celtic weren’t in it at this stage? All [clubs’] fans would.

“That would cause great excitement and I think it would bring fans back to the game, at the lower clubs.

“If you look at the rest of us outside Rangers and Celtic, we’d all fill our stadiums if we thought we’d realistically have a chance of winning the league.”

There are screeds written and spoken about our game but the McGlynn Plan is the most productive comment I’ve read all year.  Well done to STV for the report, hopefully they will put the same questions to others in the league. This is the most important question for Scottish football right now.

It’s time for these clubs to throw off their downtrodden ways and genuinely compete for the Scottish title.

Still looking for a ticket for Celtic v Barcelona?   Equally keen to acquire a Wee Oscar wristband?  A CQN’er has very generously offered his ticket for next week to raise funds for the Wee Oscar Campaign.  You can bid for the ticket/wristband package on ebay.

Tell everyone who asks you for a ticket to bid on the auction.

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  1. •-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-• on

    Re sacking Ally – I think maybe they realise that the job at the moment would be seen as a poisoned chalice by any decent candidates. In fact I think even Walter Smith would think twice about becoming the ‘mentor’ because of the damage it might do his reputation.

  2. prestonpans bhoys on

    Just noticed from my emails that Thomas Cook have confirmed the overnight stay for Lisbon. Yeehaaaaaaaaaaa

  3. Awe Naw.

     

     

    Read back,thinking I might have been on the sauce when I last read your post and missed it.

     

    I was told in the past that celtic faulted on an overdraught payment which was minuscule and bos were ruthless.

     

    Keep up the good work its most educational for bhoys like me that have the memory of a goldfish.hh

  4. Bhoylo83

     

    That’s more like it.

     

    Who are they? Are they one of those pop combo thingies?

  5. “My intention was to come in to the club, get the funding in place, make sure Rangers’ future was secured and then leave.

     

     

    “That was my job but now I’m staying until I hear that Champions League anthem blaring out once again across Ibrox. ” Charles Green

     

    _________________________________

     

     

    What age is this guy? Does this promise involve some sort of Vanilla Sky Cryogenic deal?

  6. I think perhaps Chunkles, who is a prime confabulist, when talking of his deal with The Dallas Cowboys was perhaps referring to Hugh and his miscreant acolytes in the refereeing wild west environment he likes to think he operates within.

     

    They’re all Texans in their mental minds anyway.

  7. eurochamps67

     

     

    wat age are ye?!!

     

     

    They are indeed one of them pop combo thingies to be honest i cudnt name u one of their songs…

     

     

    sure who cares

     

     

     

     

    B-)

  8. Fortunes Favour Mibbes

     

    20:02 on 1 November, 2012

     

     

    Ogilvie was born for the role, and that’s the saddest part of it.

  9. celticrollercoaster loves Wee Oscar, our Celtic Warrior on

    So the Big tax case moves into November.

     

     

    Perhaps going to a bumper Christmas pressie now

     

     

    HH

     

     

    CRC

  10. BT 100%, that was because yur older n wiser :>)

     

     

    Had a laugh there with wee Derryghirl, we’re changing over to BT for phone and Timternet and she said to me, “so did ye email or phone BT?” my reply was Naw I text him last night!

     

    Confused dot com TAL

  11. Rangers are liquidated they cease to exist in their original form

     

     

    Whats left is a zombie like replica

     

     

    Just wanted to say that

     

     

    Hail Hail

     

     

    allsoulsday.csc

  12. Just read that Hector is demanding that JP Morgan pay up their EBT swindle!

     

     

    But aye, he’ll cut a deal with Sevco.

     

     

    LOL.

  13. garcia lorca/AweNawe

     

     

    I would be happy just to get an answer to one question, the one about the SPL investigation into sectarian singing at Ibrox in February. I have tried to get an answer from the SPL time after time, but of course got no reply.

  14. If chuck gets rid of Coisty after the share issue goes erm hits up, can we employ him as a clown for match days, I think he’s been playing well in that particular role for many a year.

     

    The Huns are chuffin zombies CSC

  15. Happy Birthday to BlantyreTim….even though I’ve never actually met him (assuming he’s a him) and I could not find Blantyre without a map.

     

    HH!

  16. 67Heaven ... I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors on

    Picked this up from an earlier post…..found it quite appropriate

     

     

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

     

     

    I’m not really one for poetry but I’m reminded today of a poem my English class studied in high school.

     

     

    It’s called Ozymandias and remains to this day one of the few poems I can quote from fairly accurately, although I never did learn the whole thing by heart.

     

     

    It’s quite short, so here it is:

     

     

    I met a traveller from an antique land

     

    Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

     

    Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

     

    Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

     

    And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

     

    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

     

    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

     

    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

     

    And on the pedestal these words appear:

     

    `My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

     

    Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’

     

    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

     

    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

     

    The lone and level sands stretch far away.

     

     

     

     I’m sure there are many different analyses of the poem, but most agree it speaks of the impermanence of worldly power; the inevitability of the decline and fall of empires, no matter how mighty they appear.

     

     

    What struck a chord with me was the idea advanced by our English teacher that nothing can last forever if it is not based on love.

     

     

    On holiday in England a few years ago, my wife insisted we visit Lincoln Cathedral, or to give it its full name, The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln.

     

     

    She’s a Dan Brown fan (God help us) and wanted to see the Chapter House, where scenes were filmed for The Da Vinci Code.

     

     

    I like to think of myself as an amateur historian, so was happy enough to go along.

     

     

    I was reminded of Ozymandias that day too, as a few hundred yards from the Cathedral stands Lincoln Castle, built on the orders of William the Conqueror, beginning in 1068.

     

     

    These twin citadels of temporal and spiritual power have stood together for almost 1,000 years, but the castle is now no more than an empty shell, it’s main tower now half of its original height and most of the internal buildings inside the walls 18th-19th century additions.

     

     

    The Cathedral on the other hand, while not as tall as when it was the tallest building in the world in its heyday, is still used for its original purpose, and while a lot of work is required to ensure it stands for another 1,000 years, there is a sense of urgency and commitment to those efforts.

     

     

    It reminded me of that high school English class on Ozymandias because the castle was built to cow an Anglo-Danish population hostile to their new Norman rulers, whilst the cathedral was built on love.

     

     

    What reminded me of Ozymandias yesterday was the liquidation of the former Rangers Football Club.

     

     

    Lest anyone has already forgotten, Rangers FC was the behemoth of Scottish soccer.

     

     

    Those four boys who had a dream could never have imagined just how successful the club they founded would become. The club that Struth built dominated the game for almost 40 years until the arrival at Celtic of Jock Stein.

     

     

    It took Rangers 20 years to recover their previous dominance, but under Souness, Murray and Smith the club briefly again became the pre-eminent club in Scotland until the plans put in place by Fergus McCann came to fruition.

     

     

    In a very real sense, the achievements of Stein’s Celtic sowed the seeds of Rangers’ destruction. Even when Murray was in his pomp, the shadow of oblivion was, unnoticed at the time, hanging over the club.

     

     

    The deluded like to tell us that Rangers lives on under Charles Green.

     

     

    They claim that the club was not liquidated, only the, “holding company.”

     

     

    Utter nonsense of course.

     

     

    From November 1988, Rangers’ “holding company” was MIH. Before that, its “holding company” was The Lawrence Group, owned by then majority shareholder Lawrence Marlborough.

     

     

    After Murray sold Rangers for a shiny pound coin in May 2011, the “holding company” was The Rangers FC Group, owned by Craig Whyte.

     

     

    Charles Green did not buy Rangers from Craig Whyte. He bought Ibrox Stadium, Murray Park and the Albion car park.

     

     

    Of course he claims to have bought, “the history,” too, but that’s just ridiculous, and even he knows it.

     

     

    Yesterday, Rangers Football Club had its life support machine turned off.

     

     

    It’s not dead yet, but under the palliative care of BDO, its shuffling off of its mortal coil will be eased along until the inevitable moment when it will breathe its last.

     

     

    Rangers Football Club was founded by those four boys in 1872.

     

     

    In 1899, it ceased to be a club in all but name when it became a company limited by shares.

     

     

    Bill Struth, Allan Morton, Willie Thornton, Scot Symon, Jim Baxter, Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne – none of these ever played for or were employed by Charles Green’s Rangers.

     

     

    Whenever Rangers fans tell you, as they inevitably will, of their 54 league titles and over 100 “major trophies,” just think about Ozymandias’ inscription – “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.”

     

     

    Remember that nothing beside now does remain.

     

     

    For The Rangers Football Club, round the colossal wreck of Ibrox Stadium, the lone and level sands really do stretch far away.

     

     

    The club built on bigotry, triumphalism and supremacy is gone.

     

     

    Like Lincoln Castle and Cathedral, Ibrox Stadium and Celtic Park remain together in Glasgow. You can see them both from the same spot on the Kingston Bridge.

     

     

    Like Lincoln Cathedral, Celtic is not what it once was. In the not too distant past, Celtic was a colossus bestriding Europe, the finest team on the continent.

     

     

    It has seen better days, but the club remains, the same company playing out of the same stadium on the same site since 1892.

     

     

    Ibrox is fast becoming an empty shell. Like Europe in the aftermath of the fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the physical remains but the institution is gone and Visigoths sit in the imperial palace.

     

     

    Why then has Rangers collapsed into liquidation while Celtic continues to thrive?

     

     

    Many and varied complex analyses will be promulgated by the historians of the future, but while dodgy tax schemes, corruption and hubris will have their place, I think the answer is much more simple.

     

     

    Celtic was formed by Irish immigrants to provide for the poor of Glasgow’s east end. It was founded by Catholic clergy and laymen for the purest of Catholic motives – charity.

     

     

    Celtic, like my high school English teacher might have said, is built on love.

     

     

    Rangers was not.

  17. CultsBhoy loves being 1st forever & ever on

    arty

     

     

    I’m usually out at night playing or coaching so use SSB rewind to hear the greeting Huns later at night – I go to itunes podcast version usually as it is easier to scroll past points about clubs I’m not interested in…

  18. Aww naw

     

     

    Do you mind matey if i post a few of them ?’s on twitter.

     

     

    A few boys tweet @scottishfa so it would be good to see if we would get a reply

  19. The Exiled Tim @ 20.21

     

     

    Was there an investigation into that? Probably not. But in February this year, after appalling sectarian singing at Ibrox, which was so bad it was even mentioned in the MSM, an official investigation was launched. The SFA, typically, abrogated their responsibility and passed it on to the SPL. Since then … nothing.

  20. Estadio Nacional

     

     

    Messi we can handle…

     

    ————————————————————-

     

     

    Gonnae no say that till Thursday.

  21. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Hen1rik

     

     

    Its as much hours as it is mine. Feel Free

     

     

    Btw the SFA answers onof these questions it ceases to exist in its present form

     

     

    HH

  22. Estadio Nacional on

    Jeezo, the night of BlantyreTim’s 60th and still folk are talking about the various versions of that rangers/sevco monb.

     

     

    Have a bit of respect for the older mombers of CQN.

     

     

    Well played BT in your 60th old yin

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