Well done to Hibernian fans for turning up in sufficient numbers to increase turnover to £8.0m from £6.9m the previous season, allowing the club to turn a profit in Armageddon season, despite some mediocre performances on the field. The challenge for chairman Rod Petrie is to ensure the elevated income level results in the club outperforming village clubs, who survive on a fraction of Hibs income.
Hibernian should tower over St Johnstone, Inverness, Ross County and Motherwell in the race for second place.
Debt remains high at £5.5m (if Celtic’s debt was a similar proportion to turnover it would be circa £40m) but with the wages to turnover ratio at 49% there is scope to both bring debt down and get better value for money on the field.
30 friends, family and supporters of the Tommy Burns Skin Cancer Trust will be leaving Celtic Park on tomorrow afternoon heading to Dingwall where they will start a 400 mile cycle round every Scottish Premiership ground returning to Celtic Park on Sunday 15th September at 3:30pm. Their goal is to raise £100k for Melanoma Action and Support Scotland (MasScot) who are looking to introduce Scotland’s first ever mobile skin cancer screening unit which is bound to save lives given the success rates when diagnosing melanoma in early stages.
You can follow the team @TommyBurnsSCT and on Facebook this week as they begin this amazing fundraising event. Please support the team if you can at MyDonate. Packie Bonner and Frank McGarvey are signed up and Bertie Auld is getting involved in the final day.
You can participate in the last hour of the cycle, from St Mirren to Celtic Park, leaving around 2:30 on the Sunday, by emailing scottmcgarvey@gmail.com. Scott will get you organised and help with a fundraising page.
Our thoughts to Jock Stein’s surviving family today, 28 years after his death, as another former Celtic manager prepares Scotland for a World Cup qualifier. Those old enough to remember his time have a gift which the young will never know.
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Over the last day or so, much has been posted about the impact that Big Jock’s return had on the club players and the fans.
Perhaps it was best summed up by Tom Campbell and Pat Woods in their Centenary History ‘The Glory and the Dream’.
The minutes slipping past were filled with increasing tension, Celtic’s
confidence was growing, and a roar from the terracing desperate in its
yearning swelled in accompaniment; the feeling was growing that
history was on Celtic’s side. The youngsters, reviving Celtic’s proud
traditions as cup-fighters, had twice fought back to level terms and
despite the wind against them were pushing Dunfermline into frantic
defence; it was now or never as Celtic forced corner after corner.
Another corner, this time on the left, to be taken by Gallagher,
hurrying over to place the ball. Across it comes, a high, floating ball and
too far out for the keeper, but he has left his goal . . . somebody is there
— McNeill . . . and his header rages into the net.
For two seconds Hampden’s vast bowl was still, stunned with the
sudden shock of decision, and then erupted into bedlam; the roar
continued, minute after minute, and its prevailing note changed; it was
not merely the burst of joy that a goal produces, rather it was a
tumultuous welcome to the future and the instinctive realisation by all
Celtic’s support that the young men had grown up and that nothing, now
nor in the years to come, would withstand their collective spirit.
McNeill, the young captain, had emerged from nowhere to score the
goal that history demanded. As a member of the team in the past he had
delighted in the joy of victory and been despondent in the misery of
defeat, but now in full maturity he stood revelling in the moment of
triumph.
The manager was quick to realise the significance of the result, and
the authors of a modern history of Dunfermline Athletic, his former
club, revealed his good fortune. Jock Stein, who had got off to the kind
of start that convinced players and fans of his messianic status, would
reflect later that “It wouldn’t have gone as well for Celtic had they not
won this game.” (Black and White Magic: J. Paterson/D. Scott, 1984.)
As if to emphasise the point, for years afterwards the largest-framed
photograph in his office at Celtic Park showed Billy McNeill borne aloft
at the end of the match on the shoulders of his jubilant colleagues. The
glory days had dawned.
Hmmmmmmm
why do i bother?
09:29 on 11 September, 2013
Henr1k: I must have missed something. Did the BBC come out and publicly give backing to Jim Spence?
Article on drum yesterday mate the sevconians are really down after hearing that news.
Quonno.
Made another failed attempt to raise matter in MSM of packman slopers wanting their cake and eat it.
Seems that our journalists are only frank, fearless and free up to a certain point..
the raven
09:39 on 11 September, 2013
Hen1rik , whats the story regarding redundancies this friday
From @CelticGossip
Hearing while the big hoose may stay open Friday is D day for redundancy notices for many staff at Sevco. Sad when anyone loses a job HH
Was there a fine for this?
BBC Scotland presenter Jim Spence will not leave his position and has been given the full support of BBC Scotland and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) following the abuse he has received over comments he made about Rangers FC on air.
The Drum has learned that Spence, a long time sports reporter for BBC Scotland, based in Dundee, has faced a torrent of abuse on Twitter, email and even through text in reaction to comments he made while discussing the board of Rangers.
While discussing new additions to the Rangers board, Spence is quoted to have said: “John McLelland, who was chairman of the old club, some people will tell you the club, well the club that died, possibly coming back in terms of the new chairman.”
BBC Scotland is understood to have received over 400 complaints in relation to the comments and is said to have informed complainants that Spence could have better phrased his point.
It had been rumoured that Spence has considered accepting voluntary redundancy as a result of the reaction over the last week.
The Drum understands that Spence today (Tuesday 10 September) met with management at BBC Scotland and has been given their full backing, while they have begun steps to combat the abuse he has received and taken action against those responsible, although it is not yet clear what action that is.
It’s also understood that BBC Scotland will oppose a ruling by the BBC Trust that they breached accuracy guidelines in reporting the financial collapse of Rangers Football Club in 2012.
Paul Holleran, NUJ organiser for Scotland, told The Drum that he was happy with the steps that BBC Scotland had taken: “The BBC has offered its total support to Jim. We do not condone the vile and disgusting emails and texts that he has received and find it totally unacceptable that a journalist has been treated in this way.”
BBC Scotland has declined to comment, stating that it did not comment on individual members of staff.
RhebelRhebel posted this on twitter it’s from Auld yin on kerrydale street.
Wee Red
10 Sep 2013, 11:47 PM
This new Rangers needs to be given a line in the sand, the treatment of Jim Spence by hypocrites like Jabba, demands a firmer line than is being proposed by some wooly headed theorists. Otherwise this sort of thing will just continue.
There should be a solid no nonsense, no effin about response from all Celtic supporters and the club, that despite the PR onslaught this is a new club competing with lower league teams on a weekly basis. However this new club have not dealt with the persons who implemented the underhand management and destruction of their old club, and the authorities have not dealt with the EBT conundrum and its effect on Scots footballs integrity. Hopefully yon tax review is decided upon shortly.
The new Rangers is in fact still an integrity free turd with the same flies and an old familiar smell. Who will have the balls to wield the poop scoop.
What may or may not been known is that the “wee tax case” was the result of an EBT type scheme that an FTT ruled as improper, a decision that a later UTT upheld.
The scheme was called the Discount Option Scheme (DOS) and it was used to pay Craig Moore, Ronald De Boer and Tore Andre Flo from 1999 to 2003. It used shares rather than loans as the premise for payment that was not taxable and differed from the EBTs used from 2003 (in fact all Rangers did was switch from one scheme that had gone past dodgy avoidance to illegal tax evasion when HMRC pulled the rug from under the DOS). Another feature of the payments was it included side letters that were hidden from HMRC and presumably the SFA (but I’ll need to check if LNS was commissioned to look at DOS payments separately from loan EBT ones but his findings made no distinction, so I suspect not.
It is however more than likely that the side letters to the three named players were not reported to the SFA but what is a fact is that when HMRC asked Rangers if any existed, MIH acting as Rangers lead on tax issues said that none could be found in the personal files but were uncovered later.
It was on this basis (that Rangers had lied to HMRC) that Rangers QC Andrew Thornhill, whom I think did the defending on the loan EBTs advised, Rangers in late Feb 2011 to settle the £2.8m HMRC had calculated was owed. Rangers reached agreement in principle before the end of March 2011 to pay but as we all know that bill was never paid. The fully story coming to a CQN magazine (I believe) out soon.
Since penning the CQN article it turns out that the person at Rangers who set up the DOS scheme that I believe LNS never looked at separately, i.e Rangers first venture into creative tax efficiencies, was Campbell Ogilvie. He may have told the truth that he was not responsible for player contracts under the EBTs from 2003 but his fingerprints are all over the first DOS arrangement and I suspect may have played a part in the way LNS was commissioned with the SFA taking the role of possible body of appeal rather than commissioner. They could hardly have commissioned LNS and not mentioned the DOS items now could they?
Ogilvie’s involvement in the DOS is undisputable (unless the document is a fake) and the fact is Rangers used an irregular method to pay 3 players from 1999 to 2003 and it has been hidden from public view.
In fact the SFA conflated the wee tax case and the big tax case to justify granting of a UEFA licence when the two types of payments were different. DOS ones were/are improper/illegal EBT Loans await the UTT.
In a years time this will be common knowledge and will probably be lost here in a few hours, but I thought I’d give folks a taster.
kayal33
10:58 on 11 September, 2013
Cheers couldn’t find link.
Thomthethim at 10.41
Should that system of punishment be applicable throughout the ground or only to Section 111
Look who tried to delete blog below clown shoes Chris Graham AKA tinfoil nut.
Lucky we have this chap who saved it @JohnMcLean_HS67
Jim Spence Rangers Jibes
By Chris Graham
27
During the past couple of years there have been many examples of malicious reporting on Rangers troubles. During the course of carrying out research for my chapters in the book ‘Follow We Will – The Fall and Rise of Rangers’ I had the misfortune of trawling through much of this and one of the names that stood out enough for inclusion was Jim Spence of BBC Scotland. He displayed a staggering ability to ignore documented evidence and a level of hypocrisy which marked him out, even in the world of Scottish sports journalism. Since then, there has been much talk in the media of the need to “move on” but if events of this past week are anything to go by then this bitter individual is struggling more than most to actually do so.
Spence’s latest slur came during a performance on Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland. During a discussion of the possible boardroom changes at Rangers, he stated the following:
“John McClelland who was the chairman of the old club, some people will tell you the club, well, the club that died, possibly coming back in terms of the new chairman.”
Now there are a few things wrong with this obviously. Firstly there is no “old club”. We’ve been over this before so I won’t bother going through all the times this has been confirmed by High Court judges, by the football authorities and by various bodies asked to rule on it. Most importantly with regard to Spence, the BBC Trust has been through it before when they confirmed that “due accuracy had not been achieved such that the guidelines on accuracy had been breached” in BBC Scotland stating repeatedly across their platforms that Rangers were a “new club”. Spence knows this, so he chose to disregard the finding of the body that regulates the BBC’s output in order to push his own agenda.
Secondly, why would you come out with such a convoluted phrase as the above? The natural thing to have said would have been “John McCLelland, who was previously Rangers chairman” or something to that effect. It’s clear that Spence felt the need to make a point on behalf of the Flat Earth Society on Twitter and those who lurk in the dark corners of the internet with whom Spence regularly interacts. Indeed when the complaints started to flood in from Rangers fans, it was extremely illuminating to see those who quickly jumped to Spence’s defence. Phil MacGiollabhain, Angela Haggerty, CQN, Andy Muirhead – they were all there sticking up for their champion. It seems Spence is one of the few journalists still willing to prostitute what little credibility he has for these people.
MacGiollabhain tells us that his sources (I’m shocked to hear he has some at Pacific Quay….) are saying that BBC Scotland is going to “grow a set” with Rangers over this. We are also told that BBC Scotland are “not happy” with the way that the BBC Trust’s dealt with previous complaints. Furthermore, Jim Spence is “incensed” at the treatment he has received. This is fascinating stuff, but either MacGiollabhain or BBC Scotland appears to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between the BBC Trust and a regional part of the BBC. The BBC Trust exists to ensure that the BBC maintains their standards. BBC Scotland clearly cannot do that and therefore need to be assisted in meeting the conditions of their charter.
Spence is, whether he likes it or not, a BBC journalist. He is no longer writing for a fanzine. He has a duty to the licence fee payers to be objective, accurate and without bias. It is a duty he regularly fails in. He is not doing his job properly. Spence wants Rangers to be a “new club”, “a dead club” because he doesn’t like us. He is willing to ignore the facts of the matter and put his own job on the line to make a point. He has previous for this and it would appear that the adulation of some of the most bitter people on the internet is enough for him to feel vindicated in his approach.
Rangers fans rightly flooded the BBC with complaints. BBC Scotland tried to cover up the issue by omitting his comments from their podcast of the show. However, despite receiving hundreds of complaints about Spence they have predictably refused to deal with the issue – just as they did with the previously upheld complaints. Those who have gone through the process are now at the stage of moving on to the Editorial Complaints Unit of the BBC in London, where they are likely to have much more luck. Once these complaints move out of the control of BBC Scotland they suddenly appear to be dealt with more effectively.
Spence’s response was predictable. He first attempted to play the victim. He retweeted a few of the more choice comments he received on Twitter whilst totally ignoring the issue, which was his own dishonesty and unprofessionalism. He then decided to liken those complaining to Nazis thereby invoking Godwin’s law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
I find Spence’s reaction to this to be typical of those who regularly attempt to denigrate the Rangers support and our club. He says something which is both inaccurate and inflammatory and which he knows to be both inaccurate and inflammatory and then throws his hands in the air in shock when people react badly to it. The inference that anyone who dares to complain about Spence’s unprofessionalism and bias is akin to a Nazi is also interesting. It is entirely in keeping with the type of language used by people like MacGiollabhain about the Rangers support and one wonders who it was that reminded Spence of the quote he used to introduce the topic.
Spence was joined in this line by Graham Spiers who described those taking Spence to task as the “Stasi” – an odd way to describe people simply exercising their right to complain through the BBC Complaints Procedure. I’m not sure that is the route the Stasi would have taken and Spiers should be more versed in their methods given that he famously suggested to the Scottish Parliament that thoughts should be criminalised.
When pressed on Twitter, Spence stated that he has no such problems with Celtic fans. The heavy inference being that the Rangers support is somehow unique in reacting badly to people telling lies about their club. Here is a novel idea Jim – try criticising Celtic and see what kind of reaction you get. Better still go on the radio and simply tell the truth about Rangers. Talk about all the official bodies who have confirmed that Rangers are the same club they have always been, that our rich history lives on and that it will be added to in years to come. Then let us know what sort of reaction you get from the same people who currently laud you for peddling their demented propaganda.
It is heartening to see that Rangers are taking the issue seriously. Things have improved greatly on this front since Jim Traynor became involved with the club and the BBC Trust, having already ruled on the same issue, are likely to be perplexed about why BBC Scotland continue to ignore their ruling. I would urge those individuals who have complained to take their complaints all the way to the Trust however, and not assume that the club will deal with it alone. The more the behaviour of BBC Scotland is highlighted the more likely it is to be forcibly dealt with from elsewhere in the organisation.
The BBC issue will only be solved from London. BBC Scotland, despite admitting privately that they should be apologising to Rangers, refuse to do so publicly. They are deliberately placing themselves in a state of conflict with our club and then bleating about freedom of the press and persecution when the club and the fans bite back. It is pathetic behaviour from a totally discredited organisation.
One wonders if Spence is really cut out for a position at a supposedly objective and non-biased organisation such as the BBC. He would do well to remember what happened when the same people now backing him made promises about filling SPL grounds. He might find his support evaporates when it comes to stepping up the mark. Spence could simply issue a public apology and undertake to be better at his job, report accurately and try to improve both his own and BBC Scotland’s reputation in the process.
If not then I’m pretty sure he could get a regular spot on the Scottish Football Monitor website. He might even be able to join McConville, MacGiollabhain and Brennan touring Celtic Supporters Clubs. They won’t care that he’s distorting the truth on a regular basis because he’s telling them what they want to hear. If that fails then I hear The Drum are willing to take literally anyone on as a ‘Staff Writer’.
Of course. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.
You wouldn’t expect your neighbour to pay your parking fine, would you?
At school, if the guy who broke a rule wasn’t identified, the whole class suffered.
Collective responsibility and all that.
The Fall of Empires by James Forrest.
As people who know me are aware, and as I said in a previous piece, I am something of a geek.
As such, I recently purchased the PC game Total War: Rome II after writing a gushing, glowing review of the Total War series in the magazine Smoke & Mirrors.
There’s something cool about the era in which the game is set, something cool about the whole Roman Empire thing.
The Rome we know from the movies, and countless books, was the greatest superpower of its era, an unchallengeable force which so dominated its time that it is said one of its citizens could travel anywhere in the known world free from harm, protected by the talismanic phrase “Civus Romanus Sum” – I am a citizen of Rome.
There’s an episode of the West Wing where that very analogy is used by the President, Josiah Bartlett, in response to a terrorist incident. He is angry, and draws on the idea to emphasise his point, which is that US citizens should be thus protected, and that the wrath of his country should be brought to bear on all those who don’t respect the notion.
The terrorist event in question was the shooting down of a US transport plane. The country which carried out the attack was Syria. The President wants to lash out in his rage. He is calmed by his senior military aid, who presents him with a plan for the kind of retaliation his anger demands, in an effort to confront him with the horror of what he’s suggesting, and by his chief of staff, who reminds him that it is the duty of a superpower to act reasonably, and responsibly, even when provoked. Bartlett is a good man, and he takes more measured action.
The West Wing is my kind of show, a bit of a liberal fantasy, to be blunt, but the chief of staff Leo McGarry was wrong to call the United States the “last remaining superpower.” In the real world, the United States, which is contemplating its own Syrian strike, is more than that. The US is now better described as a hyperpower. It is, today, what Rome once was, with undisputed supremacy on the planet, so far above the rest that no challenge to its status can even be imagined.
The rise of the United States, to that position of prominence, has come about because the power that once challenged it – the Soviet Union – no longer exists. That vast empire came to an end with the collapse of Communism in the late 80’s, with the nation itself finally vanishing altogether in 1991. The Soviet Union is no more.
The Soviet Union died.
You’re beginning to get the gist of this now, yes?
Jim Spence has caused a bit of a flap over the last week, with his comments about Rangers. It’s reignited the fierce debate over the status of the NewCo, and I won’t bore anyone going back over the old ground. I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Rangers Football Club died. I am convinced by the reading of company law, UEFA and FIFA statutes, by the words uttered by dozens at the time – including current majority shareholder in the NewCo Charles Chuckles Green himself and Jim Traynor, the new club’s director of communications.
I am convinced, finally, by doing something which some might regard as cheating. I simply applied common sense to the matter.
You see, twenty years on from the collapse of what Reagan called The Evil Empire, another seemingly indomitable power tottered and fell into ruin, and death, even as a man called Regan sought to prevent it.
Rangers died. The newspapers carried front page pictures of coffins being lowered into the ground. FIFA published a death notice. Former players lined up to say farewell, and to express their regret. Celtic fans partied with jelly and ice cream.
This tumultuous and historic event, like the collapse of the Soviet Union, altered the landscape completely. Scottish football no longer has two superpowers. It has one power – a hyperpower – called Celtic.
If you’ve stuck with this article up until now, stick with it a little longer. I need to elaborate on this theme a wee bit, as I’ve been thinking about this for a while now.
Empires fall. It has happened throughout recorded history, and even the hyperpowers have not been immune to the winds of change. Rome was the first hyperpower, but there have been others, including the British Empire. They get complacent. They get hedonistic. They become corrupt, and the corruption eats them from the inside
For a time, Rangers was a hyperpower. The years 1989 – 1997 will live with some of us forever. Those were the years when Scottish football was last ruled by one club. They achieved their nine-in-a-row in that time, the greatest period of success in their history. At the height of their success they claimed they could field two different sides in the same week, one team for Europe and another for domestic games, and it didn’t seem to matter to them (or the media) that the European team was routinely stuffed when on its travels. They were proud of it, in the way the Romans once built archways and memorials to the glory of its generals.
Some of those generals, of course, grew so powerful that they overthrew the emperors and took over the running of the state. Yet that didn’t matter. Only the glory of Rome did. The plebs were encouraged not to concern themselves with minor matters such as who sat on the throne. It was the same when David Murray handed the club over to Craig Whyte, and the media would have you believe that it makes no difference who sits at the top table now, whether it’s Paul Murray, the Easdale’s or someone else, as long as Ally gets promised a “transfer war chest.”
Such blindness inevitably leads to disaster. Murray was a criminally reckless leader, and that he handed the club over to a charlatan like Whyte is the final proof of that, but some of us saw it before then. Yet were it not for a pliant media and a support which was focussed on nothing but the glory, and didn’t particularly care how it was obtained, or at what cost, Whyte would never have been able to take, let alone keep, control for as long as it took to sink everything.
Thus too fell the first of the great Roman power structures, the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which began with the rise of Caesar. His assassination ushered in the triumphant reign of Augustus, but things collapsed from that point onward into treachery, madness and murder, culminating in the reign of Nero. He was the one some claim fiddled whilst Rome burned, and whilst the empirical proof of that is lacking, what’s known for sure is that he built himself a vast palace on the hundreds of acres of land the fire destroyed. The parallels with certain “leaders” at Ibrox is obvious.
Hubris, ego, arrogance and short-sightedness bring down empires. It’s an historical fact.
Empires also crash when the money runs out. This is how Reagan and his administration won the Cold War. It wasn’t done with bullets, or bombs. It was done using the national credit card. It was done on the day Reagan returned from Cheyenne Mountain, where he’d been visiting NORAD, and called on America’s scientific community to come up with something that could bring down a nuclear missile. Star Wars was the result, and it forced the Soviet’s to spend money on a new generation of rockets, and it bankrupt the country in the process.
Martin O’Neill took the manager’s job at Celtic Park at a time when Rangers were still locked into the fantasy that they were a force to be reckoned with in Europe. They’d spent big, and O’Neill knew what all rational people did, that the well was not bottomless, that the money had to run out.
He also knew that in order to compete with Rangers, Celtic would need to spend, but with 10,000 extra seats at Celtic Park, he knew we had an inbuilt advantage, and one that would eventually prove to be extremely significant.
He asked for the resources, and he was given what he needed. He spent wisely, for the most part, and that made all the difference. I won’t say he had Reagan and Star Wars in mind, but O’Neill is an avid reader, and strategist, and I do believe on some level he understood that if he could overtake Rangers, and rub their faces in it, that it would lead to reckless action on the part of Murray and his club.
After all, the vainglorious pursuit of European baubles was motivated out of a desire to achieve what Stein had in Lisbon, and the failed quest for ten-in-a-row was a colossally funded effort to beat what our club had done.
Knowing all of this, O’Neill had the measure of Murray from Day 1.
And so he baited the hook, and he cast it into the water. His success had just the effect on the Rangers chairman that he’d been hoping for.
Rangers over-extended. They spent crazy money, but they didn’t have crazy money. Having maxed out their own credit card, they decided to use money that should have gone to the public purse. Forget all notions that the EBT scheme “conferred no sporting advantage.” The man who wrote that must have been wholly ignorant of David Murray’s own admission that they were able to sign players they otherwise couldn’t have afforded. It was cheating, pure and simple, but those actions contained the seeds of their later downfall, as those inside Celtic Park, with an understanding of the historical perspective, might well have guessed that they would.
Empires fall. History is littered with their corpses. There were brief attempts to revive the Roman Empire, under various guises, after its collapse in the 3rd Century, most notably under Barbarossa and then Charlemagne, in the form of the Holy Roman Empire, but these were pale imitations of the real thing. Equally, there were efforts made to resurrect the old Soviet Union, most notably with the swiftly mothballed Commonwealth of Independent States. None of them lasted either.
In the end, what’s dead is lost and gone forever. Nothing can bring it back. Flying the hammer and sickle does not restore the old union any more than first Mussolini and then Hitler revived the old Roman Empire by adopting the fascist salute and the eagle standard. These things are but symbols, like five stars on a blue jersey. They are separate from the history, which ends with the death of the empire, which is why neither Barbarossa, nor the Austrian with the funny moustache, ever ludicrously claimed to be a direct continuation of the line of Augustus.
When the Soviet Republics broke up, they adopted new constitution’s, new systems of government, even new flags. They didn’t make any effort to wrap themselves in the cerements of the grave, to assume the identity of the country which had died. When the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern entities in the 3rd century neither one maintained the flags and standards of what had come before. They didn’t kid themselves that they were the same.
Superpowers collapse because of irrational decisions taken by desperate men betting everything on the last throw of the dice. Those who eventually pick up the pieces do so when they eschew the circumstances and mind-sets which caused all the trouble in the first place. You cannot build something new when part of you is still clinging to the past. The Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire were designed to keep control of a situation which had long since outgrown it, but it wasn’t a convincing facade, and before long there were barbarians at the gates.
The Commonwealth of Independent States collapsed under its own irrelevance, with its authors knowing full well they’d failed before the job had even started.
NewCo Rangers was built to look like the old one, with its creators knowing, like Frankenstein waking the monster, that what they’d brought to life was actually a zombie. That didn’t matter. It suits them that, for a while at least, the fiction can be maintained. The very sickness that lived in, and consumed, the Oldco is thriving in the new club, because it was ported over, whole, to keep the illusion alive. The arrogance and ego, the notion that they are a superpower still, has given them a temporary lease of life, like a shot of adrenaline, but it will not last.
Sooner or later, the host will exhaust itself, and the NewCo will go the way of the old. It is inevitable when a reversal of fortune does not result in real change.
As much as I admire Rome, and all that goes with it, I’ve also maintained a lifelong fascination with Greek mythology, from which much of the great art of our age flows. One of the greatest works of literature of all time, Dante’s Inferno, infuses Greek mythology with Romanic ideas, to create a staggering, and illuminating, work that everyone ought to read once in their life.
In the Inferno, the pilgrim wanders through the Nine Circles of Hell. To enter that dark place, he first has to take a boat ride across a river called the Acheron, which Greek mythology called the River of Pain. The Roman poet Virgil wrote of it that it was the place where the newly dead were ferried across to the Underworld.
Instead of acknowledging that journey, Rangers fans would rather pretend it never happened. We can wave the boarding pass in their faces until we exhaust our own patience, but they prefer to maintain the fantasy that they are still clinging to life.
Dante’s pilgrim faints on the journey, so he cannot remember enough to recount it in his tale, but he is quite clear on the nature of those who inhabit the dark land beyond the river, regardless of which of the Nine Circles they end up in. For all of Hell’s prisoners, no matter their iniquities, have one thing in common. They are those who refuse to repentant, who continue making excuses for the sins they committed in life.
Once more, I take it the parallels speak for themselves.
Yes, empires fall, and in the end most fall because they deserve to. The Roman Empire spanned the globe, and contributed much that was wonderful in the world. As you’ve probably gathered, I’m a huge fan. Yet the “greatness of Rome” was built on the subjugation of others, on blood and war, and its citizens lived the high life on the backs of millions of slaves, and conquered peoples. That’s what makes it such fun to play as them in the Creative Assembly’s wonderful games.
Likewise the Soviet state was built on fear, and run on fear, until the day the walls came crashing down. It’s satellite states in Eastern Europe, created in its own image, fell the same way.
Some will argue that the American hyperpower has been built on similar foundations, and whilst I have a certain sympathy with that view I don’t accept it in its entirety. Likewise, the Celtic hyperpower may not get everything right, but it plays by the rules and does nothing that is openly, blatantly, wrong. Perhaps its leaders have learned something from history.
In the meantime, over at Ibrox, as they spin from one disaster to another, as boardroom battles hot up, as the fans fail, again, to hold their own leaders to account and once more turn the guns on those outside the club, this time in the form of Jim Spence, I wonder just who in their right mind would actually want to inherit this shambles, or take over and try to run this ungodly basket case of an institution, cobbled together from the broken bits of a dead one.
On his way into the Inferno, Dante’s pilgrim has to pass through a vast iron gate, on which is inscribed a message, a warning really, of which the last line is the most famous. If those running the new club ever get tired of trying to maintain the fiction that Rangers Football Club Ltd is still alive and well, they could do worse than to give notice to their successors, by removing those words from their own iron gates, and inscribing instead those Dante reads on his way in to Hades.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.
Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.
From MattMcGlone9 Twitter
I’ve known Jim Spence for 20 yrs, he’s the most genuine of people, the bile he’s received tells you everything that’s sick about Scotland
Oh Chris Graham. The stupid Sevcovian’s thinking Sevcovian.
I bet the Drum would take you as a writer.
Scratch that – I meant wouldn’t. They have standards.
That is one of the things I always find most astonishing about the stuff emanating from the Sevconians is that they actually believe it. Is it just me or are these guys on very strong drugs or what?
They decried Phil Mac for the content of his book, RTC for it’s prophetic postings, claiming everything they wrote was complete bunkum.
Yet, after it all came true, they still don’t accept reality.
Just how do you get a hold of those kinda drugs?
Shouldn’t they be on prescription only?
According to the numbnuts on sevco media they’re planning another 10’000 strong pitchfork and flaming torch march on Pacific Quay to protest to the bbc about being called “a deid club”.
I wonder if they’ll require a licence for that. They didn’t for their last Nuremberg style rally down the quay.
Let the kettling commence………………………………..Aye right.
TTT at 11.07
Dont understand that post.
You seem to be championing two ends of an argument at the same time.
Hrvatski Jim @ 23 21 .
Jim Croce
” I cannot understand why his songs have not been covered by others ”
You may be interested in these ——-[ LPs ]
The Ventures ——-The Ventures Play the Jim Croce Songbook .
Jerry Reed ———– Jerry Reed Sings Jim Croce .
There is also a dire Nashville [ Various Artists ] tribute to Jim Croce .
Trapatoni been mutually consented
Trapp has left the building
The Fall Of Empires by James Forrest, was an outstanding read, a mix of truth and humer, ten out of ten.
thomthethim for oscar ok
10:41 on 11 September, 2013
Did it ?
Passed the new (new) ragers store on way to my hols.1872 stamped on sign outside
the shop,I believe there is no such date on new club badge or they would get done.
With Trap gone it has to be the blessed MO’N for the Eire managment position.
McCoist Fav for the Ireland Job
Kenny Shiels being interviewed y ROI :)
James Forrest
You are doing yourself a disservice ,I don’t have to buy your books,
just read one of your novel size posts on here.
Well done Mhate .
So let me get this right,tinfoil heid Graham is telling his minions to get behind James Traynor ( “Rangers as we know them died. Rangers FC are dead.”) ?
Well he is consistent bhoys,he said to the hun hordes to get behind Murray,Whyte,Green,P Murray,King,Bill Miller,Kennedy,Smith,McCoist,have I missed anyone from this group of shysters? As long as Graham and the other poster boy who sells badges and scarves outside Poundland,and doesn’t even go to the games,they are in safe hands.
clink\o/
11:30 on 11 September, 2013
TTT at 11.07
Dont understand that post.
You seem to be championing two ends of an argument at the same time.
******
No.
What I am trying to say, badly, is that in the event of an individual perpetrator being identified, in the classroom case, the whole class got punished.
In the UEFA fine case, the individuals were not identified, so, it would be reasonable and responsible,for the whole section to pay the fine.
Self policing, and all that.
Certainly, it is unfair for the club to take the hit.
PS.
My originsl post on this was accompanied by a ” smiley”, therefore it was a bit if a kite flyer to see what reaction, if any, it received.
PPS.
Trap gone.
Oglach
11:42 on 11 September, 2013
With Trap gone it has to be the blessed MO’N for the Eire managment position.
________________________________________________________________
If it were true I’d be interested in internationals again :)
I was only a wee bhoy when Mr Stein was the manager of Cellic
So, when MO’N was manager it was the best times in my Cellic life.
BRTH
Thanks for posting the link to Gerry Hughes’ voyage. What a wonderfully uplifting story. Great stuff.
*
Correction,
NOT being identified.
Leaving the building.
Off oot.
Re the fall of empires – i don’t like those pesky Romans. Definately more of a Vercingetorix and Boudicca fan myself. Come on the Iron age Celts
‘Galli in portas’ -The gauls (Celts) are at the gates.
!!Bada Bing!!….
missed out??… the cardi.. but i forgot he walked away……!!