I’ve seen nothing of Stefan Johansen but I’m delighted we have signed a central midfield player. Deficiencies up front are glaring, especially in the Premiership, but in Europe, the critical area is central mid, where we need to control more than we did this season.
Central midfield protects your defence and provides the foundations strikers stand on, it has been an important area for Celtic to strengthen since losing our top man last summer.
Conversely, Scott Brown is playing his best football since joining Celtic in 2007 but, as his European adventures were nullified by disciplinary action, the gap was unbridgeable. Honourable mentions should go to Charlie Mulgrew, Beram Kayal and Joe Ledley, but in the case of Charlie and Joe, they were asked to play secondary, or tertiary roles, while Beram was promoted from well down the pecking order to a Champions League starter.
Please observe the usual caveats when a new player arrives. New club, new city, new tactics, team mates, match officials and game atmosphere, Stefan has a lot to assimilate in the coming weeks. It took six months for Victor to settle and at least as long before Mikael, Scott and Joe looked their best.
For Stefan and Holmbert Fridjonsson the primary objective of the next six months is to prepare for Champions League qualifiers, closely followed by a Scottish Cup tie against Aberdeen in three weeks.
Welcome to Celtic, Stefan. You have a fantastic opportunity ahead.
[calameo code=000390171ece27dd9e54e lang=en page=98 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
818 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- »
Tom
01:33 on
16 January, 2014
TET –
I brought up two boys in Scotland during the 80s and 90s and neither of them were ever abused by anyone because their father was a Celtic supporter. Not once.
I am intrigued to know in which part of Scotland your kids experienced such abuse.
THE EXILED TIM-Free the Dam 5
01:46 on
16 January, 2014
Tom
Avonbridge, no far from Falkirk, try it sometime, it may well open your eyes.
You seem to have a problem with me Tom, that I like, I am obviously getting to you >}
Enjoy your day, I know I will.
HH
Ah…..Avonbridge.
Played against their amateur football team many years ago in what was known as The Welfare League at the time…..they adorned orange strips if my memory serves me right.
Just like the colour of the towns Haulage firm.
Might just be a popular colour up that way.
Ive never forgot being spat on by the jambo loving Falkirk Herald newspaper seller that used to “work” on the high street…..and all because i had my school uniform on.
Can it be?
Does this mean im moonhowling?
Might as well get it over with.
Howwwwooooooooooollll :)
Always wanted to get that off my chest…….and the bit about that jambo newspaper bigot.
Tumbleweeds…..i hate em.
TET –
FFS what is it with you and your paranoia?
I asked a genuine, sincere question. I was in no way doubting you or having a dig.
I was genuinely keen to know where in Scotland you lived that your kids wrre spat upon because you were a Celt. That wad all.
I don’t have anything against you mate. Honestly, I don’t spend any time thinking about you other than when I am answering your posts. Get over yourself. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you FFS.
A brave article by Tom English to even mention Walter Smith as a cause in Rangers downfall.
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/tom-english-wallace-must-shake-up-rangers-1-3270114?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Auldheid 3.08
Goodly news,goodly news,oh my boul` shelmaliere……
Not Christian to mock the afflicted,I know.But maybe just this once……
“According to their website, Rangers have 56 full professionals or professional youth players on their books. According to Celtic’s website, they have now got 50, including their newest recruit Stefan Johansen. Wallace will, no doubt, be asking about this. “Why are there so many players here? How many are worth what we’re paying them? How many can we lose?”
Cue muffled explosive laughter from the back.
Furrowed brow and gnashing of teeth at the front.
Morning cqn
Just reading that our new Celtic player was encouraged to go to Celtic by some kind words from ex Ranjurs player Thomas Kind Bendiksen.
Question
Who?
tnt 4.57
Never mind the trivia,where`s the overnight rags?
Mmmmm?
Your public awaits.
STEFAN JOHANSEN last night vowed he’ll prove to be the Real deal for Celtic.
The Norwegian penned a three-and-a-half year contract with the Hoops — then revealed his game’s been shaped by idolising Real Madrid legends Guti and Zinedine Zidane.
Midfield ace Johansen said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“To come to a club like Celtic, it’s probably the kind of thing 100,000 kids dream about. And here I am. This is a chance I need to take. I need to work even harder than I’ve done until now.
“I need to be 100 per cent about the details.
Zinedine Zidane was one of the heroes of Stefan
“I love to play for a club and give something back to the fans.
“This is a chance I’m looking forward to very much. This is inspiring me.
“As a kid I used to pretend I was Guti or Zinedine Zidane. I had seen them on TV and loved the way they played.
“They were probably the smartest guys in the football world.
“It was fantastic to watch, because they always looked capable of finding an opening that no one else could.
“I am a passing midfielder. Of course I want to make assists and goals, set-pieces. I just want to do things better than I did in Norway.”
A whole host of top English and European sides — including Liverpool, Manchester City and Roma — were linked strongly with Johansen, 23. But he insisted his mind was settled as soon as agent and ex-Blackburn player Tore Pederson told him of Neil Lennon’s interest.
Johansen — who’ll wear the No25 shirt that Lubo Moravcik and Shunsuke Nakamura starred in at Celts — said: “It’s a fantastic club, a big club, the best in Scotland.
“They play in Europe almost every year, the fans are probably the best in the world.
“So of course it’s a very big step for me.
Important “But when I heard Celtic was going to make a move for me I told my agent, ‘Go for it’ because the club is FANTASTIC.”
Johansen also confessed the lure of Champions League football was also huge for him.
Real Madrid legend Guti was another hero of new Celtic signing Johansen
He added: “I think it is a dream come true to play for a club like Celtic.
“You have the fans behind your back, it’s a big club, you have the Champions League if we can qualify.
“It is going to be important to be 100 per cent and to work hard because the qualification begins in July. Hopefully we are going to make it.”
NEW Bhoy Stefan Johansen was urged to move to Glasgow — by ex-Gers kid Thomas Kind Bendiksen.
Celtic’s £2million Norwegian sought advice from his fellow countryman, who spent four years at Ibrox before returning home.
Bendiksen is convinced Johansen has what it takes to be a smash hit in the Hoops — at home and in Europe.
He said: “I spoke to Stefan on Sunday and he asked me all about Glasgow.
“The way Celtic play, I think he will fit in perfectly.
“They’re the best team in Scotland by far just now and are in the Champions League every year.
“He needs to get off to a good start to gain confidence, but I am sure he will be a first pick in central midfield.”
Johansen was also congratulated on his move by Norway boss Per-Mathias Hogmo.
He said: “It’s a step up in class for Stefan but he’s ready for it.
“The Scottish League is what it is, but he’s signing for a top club and it is a good choice for him.”
VARDO is a one polar bear town on the tip of Norway.
And Stefan Johansen’s proud of his humble birthplace.
But by the age of 14 he couldn’t quit it quickly enough — to keep alive his dream of becoming a top footballer.
Nine years on Johansen’s journey has taken him to PARADISE.
But he’ll never forget where he came from as he bids to win the hearts and minds of the Celtic faithful.
The £2million capture from Stromsgodset was in awe of his new home yesterday.
In Johansen’s mind Parkhead represents everything he aspired to as he kicked a ball about with pals on Vardo’s one pitch.
SunSport revealed Celtic’s swoop for the dynamic midfielder who jointly won Norway’s player of the year title with Fulham’s Brede Hangeland.
The six-times capped Johansen yesterday provided the Hoops support with the background to his rise to fame. Secured until at least 2017, the 23-year-old said: “I come from all the way north in Norway.
“There’s a little bit of football in Vardo, but it’s a place of just maybe 2,000 people.
“If you are going to move on in football, you need to get away.
“There was one football pitch and one indoor hall with just a floor — not an artificial surface but a hard floor.
“I was always the kid playing football.
“Of course, when it was winter there was a lot of snow on the outdoor pitch and we went to the indoor hall.
“But, if there was any green on the pitch, we were there.
“When I was 14 I needed a move because you can’t go for professional football up there. So I went to Bodo-Glimt, which is lower down in Norway.
“My mother and my brother came with me when I moved at 14. It is quite a big decision, still, but my interests have always been football.
“For me, it was a really easy choice. I wanted to be a footballer very badly.
“Of course, it means leaving behind friends from your childhood, everyone you’ve known from one to 14 years.
“And it was difficult to leave them at that age. But I made new friends in Bodo-Glimt.
“I had something to aim for, I got a professional contract when I was 16. I played there for six years.
“In the end, though, I needed a move and Stromsgodset were the best option.
“I got a new start, I worked hard, played well, so we won the league last season.
“But when a club like Celtic comes after you, you don’t have the possibility to say no.”
You wouldn’t have thought there was anyone more famous from Vardo than Johansen.
Answers on a postcard.
But don’t think for a second this gifted prospect — inspirational for Stromsgodset in their first title success for 43-years — reckons he’s made it.
Johansen spoke with an unmistakeable ambition for greater glory.
He said: “I hate to lose. It’s everywhere for me, in training, especially the matches.
“I just HATE losing. I want to win every time. Even a game on my mobile phone, I hate to lose.
“Of course, when you come to a club like Celtic it’s a big pressure on you.
“But I’m that kind of person who can deal with the pressure.
“The pressure is what I make it — it is not bigger than what I put on myself to succeed.” Johansen got goosebumps just looking at the vast Parkhead stands — imagining what it will be like to play before a 60,000-capacity crowd.
It’s highly unlikely his debut will be against Motherwell on Saturday. More probable versus Kilmarnock on the 29th.
He said: “I love the idea of playing here when it’s full.
“You shouldn’t be afraid of that. If you are then you should find another job.
“This is what you dream of. When you are 12 or 14 years of age you dream about playing for your national team and a big club in Europe.
“Now I’m playing for the national team — and I’ve also just arrived at one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
“So it can’t be much better than that for me.
“I think all of this will inspire me. Just looking around here inspires me, in fact just looking at it on TV inspires me.
“This is a dream come true for me and I’m so excited about it all.”
Certain three-in-a-row champions Celtic could, ironically, face Stromsgodset in the summer Champions League qualifiers.
But that wouldn’t faze Johansen.
He added: “It would be a very special game. But the main thing for me now is Celtic.
“I actually don’t care if we meet Stromsgodset in a Champions League qualifier.
“The main thing is that Celtic go through. That’s all that would matter.”
tnt
Stoater!
STEFAN JOHANSEN was paraded as a Celtic player today – and immediately set his sights on winning trophies.
The Norway international sealed his £1.5million move from Stromsgodset on a three-and-a-half year deal.
Boss Neil Lennon handed him the No25 shirt – previously worn by Lubo Moravcik and Shunsuke Nakamura – and the determined playmaker believes Celtic is perfect for him.
He said: “I’ve watched some games.
“Obviously when I heard that Celtic were interested in me I watched a few more games, but I’ve seen many of the Champions League games on TV and it looked fantastic.
“I’m a passing player, a possession player, but I’m also a winner – I like to win, so the culture here is perfect here for me and Celtic are a team who always try to play football so I think it will be a perfect match.
“It’s an important number but I want to be a player who can improve my game and do my best and succeed, so I’m looking forward to wearing that number.
“But most of all, I’m looking forward to wearing the Celtic jersey because it’s a very important thing for me.
“Celtic fans are known everywhere as being the best in the world so I’m looking forward to playing for them, and I hope I can give something back to them, and keep on winning trophies with Celtic.”
Johansen, 23, is the fourth Norwegian to sign for the Hoops after Harald Brattbakk, Vidar Riseth and Thomas Rogne had successful spells at the club.
And they had nothing but good things to say about the champions as the playmaker considered his dream move.
He said: “I talked with some of the guys in the national team and they all said that Glasgow is fantastic, the fans are unbelievable and the club is one of the biggest in the world so it was a pretty easy choice. And I’m looking forward to playing at Celtic Park.
“When you’re young, you just dream about something like this happening. The club is so big so it’s an unbelievable feeling to be here.
“As a Norwegian youngster, you dream about playing for the national team and also for a big club in Europe, and now I have the chance to achieve both of these things, so I’m very happy.
“The league is better in Scotland, and there are no clubs in Norway who are as good as Celtic, but the type of football is quite similar. They have the passion, but this is very many steps up.”
Celtic fans expecting to see their latest arrival in action this weekend against Motherwell may have to wait as Johansen hasn’t played competitively since November 15.
He said: “My last game was on November 15 but I took the fitness test today and it went well.
“But matches are different than training, so we will see, we will be patient.
“I hope to play this weekend but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Maybe the next week.”
Stefan Johansen last night insisted he had no fears about making the step up from little Stromsgodset to Celtic.
Stefan Johansen is ready to grasp ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity
The 23-year-old Norwegian international midfielder was presented to the media yesterday afternoon after signing a three-and-half-year deal for a £1.7m fee which could rise to £2m. The transfer is Celtic’s first of the January signing window and the biggest move in Johansen’s career. “It is a very big step for me,” he said.
Recent signings Amido Balde and Teemu Pukki struggled to make an early impression with Celtic after arriving from overseas clubs for fees similar to Johansen’s, although Virgil van Dijk eased in impressively having been bought for even more. The pressure to deliver remains constant on all new Celtic signings but Johansen claimed to be relaxed about handling expectations.
Having had his first experience of the stadium yesterday, albeit when it was empty, he was clearly excited about the prospect of taking his place in Celtic teams playing to crowds of up to 60,000. The Norwegian club Stromsgodset play in the Marienlyst Stadium which can hold only 7500.
“I love the idea of that,” he said. “You shouldn’t be afraid of that. This is what you dream of. When you are 12 or 14 years of age you dream about playing for your national team and for a big club in Europe. Now I’m playing for the Norwegian national team and I’ve also just arrived at one of the biggest clubs in Europe. It can’t be much better than that for me. If you are afraid of the crowd then I think you work in the wrong job.
“I hate to lose. I want to win every time. Even a game on my mobile phone . . . Of course, when you come to a club like Celtic it’s a big pressure on you. But I’m that kind of person who can deal with pressure. The pressure is what I make it . . . it is not bigger than what I put on myself to succeed.
“I think all of this will inspire me. Just looking around here inspires me. In fact just looking at it on TV inspires me. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To come to a club like Celtic is probably the kind of thing that 100,000 kids dream about, and here I am. This is a chance I need to take. I need to work even harder than I’ve done until now.”
Jostein Flo, the Stromsgodset sporting director, admitted the player would be missed on and off the field. Johansen played 67 times for the club in two years and helped them become Norwegian champions for the first time in 43 years.
“This is our club’s biggest sale and, although we cannot reveal the price, we can say we are very pleased,” said Flo. “Of course we will miss Stefan but some of this money will ensure we can strengthen the team and continue to build the club. Stromsgodset will be fighting for medals in 2014. This is a good day for Stefan and a great day for Stromsgodset.”
Macjay
That’s pretty much it this morning.
All about the new bhoy.
tnt
That was you nearly getting your jotters.
:-)
.
.
Thanks.
As ever.
Macjay
Your welcome
Shower time…..
Good Morning Timland.
Retail news……someone bought 2.2m Sevco shares,Tom
English bought himself a pair of testicles…….away too work,
have a nice day.
wontbelongnowCSC.
The end is nigh in Sevconia if Tom English thinks it’s safe enough to mention The Cardigan, expect the airwaves and internet full of loyal Berrs finding different ways to shoot the messenger today!
“And now, the end is near, we now approach the final curtain…”
Sing up Sally.
Come on, you know you want to …
Good mornign friends. After a night of very heavy (sounding) rain it’s now a clear skied start to the morning as dawn starts to break over East Kilbride.A wee bit chilly.
a very good morning from a grey Lower Saxony,
I see Celtic Connections starts today and will run through till Feb 2…braw
the name of the festival will further enrage the dead ones ,braw…..what a time to be a Celtic loon/lassie………tried out some German rolled oats for my porridge this morning ,beautiful it was………..hoopy days
Tom English in The Scotsman today in shock move at telling it as it is!
“Charles Green may have exited Ibrox but the club still reverberates to the sound of his old cronies feeding at the trough. Yesterday we learned the identity of the person who sold 2.2 million shares in Rangers International Football Club plc – Richard Hughes of Zeus Capital, one of Green’s chums right from the start and a former commercial director of the club.
You know that old stock exchange warning about how a share price rises and falls? Well, that doesn’t really apply to the likes of Hughes or anybody else who bought into the club at 1p a share. When you’re in the door at 1p then there’s really no way you can lose. The Rangers share price has tanked with a devastating speed leaving those who bought at the top end in a hole to the tune of God knows how much, but the only relevance of a share price collapse to Hughes is that his profit is not as large as he thought it might be. He sold up and walked away with a return of more than half a million pounds. Another one who has done very nicely out of Rangers, thanks to Green and chums.
The steaming mess that is Rangers’ financial plight has now been dumped on to the desk of Graham Wallace, the Rangers chief executive. As an outsider, Wallace must be incredulous at the freewheeling ways of his predecessors, not just the way they sanctioned a first-team wage bill of £7.8m while in the Third Division (contributing to a financial picture so bleak that it made the eyes water) but also the apparent inability of some to accept that things needed to change profoundly.
One of these characters was Walter Smith, a man who brought huge glory to Ibrox when he was manager but whose attitude to the finances, during and after his stint as chairman, belonged to the distant past when Rangers thought they had money, when in actual fact all they had was credit and mountains of debt, most of which they torched. At the risk of dredging up events of the past (the recent past, albeit), it’s worth recalling what Smith said in the wake of the Rangers accounts being published last autumn. Commenting on an operating loss of £14.3m including payments to Green of more than £930,000 with £825,000 going to Ally McCoist and more than £400,000 going to finance director Brian Stockbridge on top of that first team wage bill of £7.8m, Smith almost shrugged.
He said: “People come out and say ‘Ah, it’s not necessary for them to have those players in that division’. But it’s not just the division that matters at Rangers, it’s the fact that you have 45,000 people coming to watch something on a football pitch…they are still losing money. But when you make a decision to be involved at Rangers, there is no common sense to it. The financial bit of Rangers Football Club and common sense don’t often go together.”
Why not? What makes Rangers so different that financial common sense has no place at Ibrox? Smith’s analysis was plucked from the David Murray era; freakonomics born of hubris. No common sense? He’s right, there hasn’t been. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be or that there can’t be. There must be. It’s just as well that Wallace has arrived and seems determined to cut costs. Somebody had to shake the club out of its economic time warp and bring certain people to their senses.
It is estimated that Rangers are losing about £1m a month and that come April they will have just £1m in the bank. Around that point they will be going to the supporters looking for season ticket money for 2014-15, a support that they are continuing to refuse to engage with despite their lofty talk at the agm last month of some new spirit of openness. There hasn’t been any contact, unless you count a letter from a lawyer acting on behalf of some board members to a fans’ group. The upshot of the communiqué was that the Sons of Struth supporters’ lobby felt they had no option but to shut down their Facebook page.
Somebody should be talking to the fans. Wallace, you can forgive, because he has so many other things to be doing, most notably speaking with McCoist about cost-cutting. The questions are obvious but the solutions are less straightforward. According to their website, Rangers have 56 full professionals or professional youth players on their books. According to Celtic’s website, they have now got 50, including their newest recruit Stefan Johansen. Wallace will, no doubt, be asking about this. “Why are there so many players here? How many are worth what we’re paying them? How many can we lose?”
Why are there so many? That’s one for McCoist. In the summer he signed Steve Simonsen as his reserve goalkeeper. Simonsen is a fine goalie and proved as much at Dundee last season, but Rangers didn’t need him then and they don’t need him now. They have Cammy Bell and they also have Scott Gallacher, a 24-year-old who has been at the club since 2006 and who has played only a handful of games. For the less than arduous task of sitting on the Rangers bench and, very, very occasionally, covering for Bell in matches, why not go with Gallacher and save yourself the expense of Simonsen? We don’t know how much Simonsen is being paid – more than Gallacher for sure – but whatever it is, it’s money for old rope given that his sum total of minutes played since joining Rangers stands at zero.
It’s easy to envisage Wallace going through the Rangers squad and continually asking a simple question. Steve Simonsen – why? Emilson Cribari – why? Dean Shiels – why? David Templeton – why? Richard Foster – why? Steven Smith – why? Ian Black, on those wages, why? All of these, and others, are on more money than they could expect to get elsewhere and won’t be in any great hurry to leave. So, for now, Rangers are stuck with them because they can’t afford to make them redundant. This is the legacy of the club’s scattergun accumulation of players they didn’t particularly need to meet the challenge they were faced with. Namely, the Third Division last season and League 1 this season.
Wallace is having to deal with the consequences of such financial waste. He is surrounded by “money men” at the club – Stockbridge, Ken Olverman, Andrew Dickson and the accountancy firm Active Corporate – but he has gone outside Ibrox for a financial advisor in the shape of Philip Nash. On one level that looks like more waste. On another, given the state of the club, you can understand why he’s looking for fresh thinking on the fiscal front. The incumbents have not exactly covered themselves in glory.
For years, Rangers celebrated men – Murray et al – who spent vast amounts of money and improved the team. The guy they should be celebrating now is the one who calls a halt to the financial waste and makes the club face its reality, even if his actions run the risk of putting him in conflict with his manager.
There will be bleating, but only by those who are mired in the past. Those who truly conform to that much-abused description of “having the best interests of the club at heart” would say bring on the cost-cutting to stave off disaster.
In trying to move on from the damage of the past, Wallace knows what the club needs to do. But it promises to be a tough and lonely journey for him.”
Tom English
hahahaha Graham Wallace …………the dead ones will not survive,even if it was William Wallace …………they are doomed ,doomed ………….absolutely Braw….
From BhoyEddie twitter.
189 0 Rate This
TSFM
Reply from slim shady
Jack
For some reason your humourous response to me at 9.40am appears to have disappeared so I can’t comment on precisely what you said as I can only see snippets in later posts by others.
To cut to the chase, my philosophy in life is to work hard and treat others as you would expect to be treated.
Today I spent most of the time assisting three clients who have genuine financial difficulties, particularly in relation to HMRC. They want to pay what they owe, they acknowledge the debt and, with assistance from their legal and financial advisers they are taking steps to sort themselves out and pay HMRC. Yes it will be late, and yes it will be paid over a longish timescale, but they will get there in the end.
Those are the kind of people I respect. We are after all travelling this road together so it gars me greet when I see other people (“the big shots”) who regard red traffic lights, rules & regulations and social taxes as an irrelevance and just for the little people.
If we all aped the behaviour of the big shots who consider the rules don’t apply to them, there would chaos. Thankfully the vast majority don’t.
In the context of this and previous fori, what inspired me to put finger to keyboard in the first place some 3 years ago was the knowledge that in the sporting realm, one of our biggest clubs, with enormous responsibility, to football, to its supporters and to the larger society, had decided some time previously that it was one of the big shots to whom the rules didn’t apply.
Friendly banks would offer soft loans to it with no inkling as to repayment,
high falutin advisers would come up with fancy tax schemes to avoid the basic social taxes required to keep the wheels of society turning,
responsible journalists turned a blind, blue-tinted eye to the goings on,
PR guys would plant stories, bluff and threaten their way through the Scottish press to paint a picture which was a travesty of reality
employees of the big shot were encouraged to, and did knowingly, shred documents which the law required to be kept and produced,
employees of the big shot prevaricated for 4 years in dealing with an enquiry by a government body into the non-payment of taxes
falsehoods and half truths were advanced to allow a public hearing to be heard in private and the witness given anonymity, against all the laws of the tribunal
officers and employees of the big shot lied and dissembled in front of this tribunal, having delayed its course for over 18 months
the authority in charge of the game turned a blind eye to everything, being itself headed by an individual who for 27 years had been employed by the big shot, been part of such goings on and had himself enjoyed being a big shot to whom the normal laws regarding taxation did not apply.
Thankfully, this Biggest of the big shots got its come-uppance – liquidation, humiliation and repudiation, but not before shafting the people with whom it did business, from the heights of HM Treasury down to the shoddy depths of its near neighbour, the newsagent round the corner in Copland Road.
The squalid list of creditors should be writ large and pasted all over the red brick facade of Ibrox Stadium, as a reminder to all.
Had the remnants of the biggest big shot reformed, adopted a pose of genuine remorse and sought with humility to play its way back into the sporting life of this nation, we could all have accepted that and indeed most including me would have welcomed it.
Instead what we have witnessed over the past 2 years has been nothing short of disgraceful as lawmakers have sought to bend the rules,
agreements have been drawn up in secret,
journalists have ignored the truth and peddled lies,
employees of the new entity have pronounced consequences to be punishments, used dog whistle tactics to scare and intimidate people, harassed those few journalists who do tell the truth and insisted that the big shot is still exactly the same big shot as existed two years ago, bar the debts
the same PR guy continue to place stories that seek to rewrite history, cover up the truth or just plain muck-spread in the hope that some of it will stick.
On top of all of that, the public service broadcaster in this country has proved itself to be partial to an unacceptable extent to the interests of the big shot, old and new versions (though of course they are purported to be one and the same); its sports programmes are packed to the gunnels with ex-players, managers and agents of the big club so that no impartial comment is permitted but rather the lies and half-truths surrounding the club that didn’t die (just shed its debt you know) continue to be broadcast on radio and television ad nauseam.
That cover up and the continuing lies are what drives those of us who believe in equity and fairness. We are not driven by bile, but are we angry? You’d better believe it.
It is clear to anyone with a modicum of a financial knowledge that the new big shot is shortly going to run out of money.
That it should come to this after everything that has happened is a scandal on an unprecedented scale. Scottish football is coming to a crossroads and seems ill prepared to make the right decisions, mainly because of the distortion of the truth that has plagued the game for the past 2 years.
Finally, to those who thought my references to assisted suicide in poor taste, there was absolutely no offence intended and I regret if you were.
For the past 2 years this and other similar sites have referred to self-inflicted wounds, slow lingering deaths, autopsies, post-mortems, zombies, skeletons and worse. So I trust I can be forgiven for not foreseeing that drawing a parallel between the self-inflicted (with assistance from HBOS and a compliant press) death of the inanimate object that was Rangers and the much heralded assisted, but mainly self-inflicted (so I am told) death of a fictional person in a television soap opera could cause offence.
54 (paragraphs, sorry!)
Yes, a very brave piece from Tom English.
aye Slimshady is a top top bloke………….been on since RTC days ,a brilliant mind and not someone to be the wrong side of……..and he is far from alone …Braw
hen1rik
Cracking piece of writing that..
dim sam
The question is why now, not to judge Mr English but everything he wrote he could have written two years ago so why now why does he believe it safe to go with the winds of doom??
I don’t consider Mr English to be a very brave or even a good journalist and I don’t know if I would put myself and my family on the line to bring this story through when there are hoards of angry Orcs around while their Empire crumbles.
So fair play to Tom English today but I am intrigued as to why now??
Starry Plough @ 0848,
My thoughts exactly!
Had most of the so-called broadsheet journos with their pseudo-intellectualism had any baws then that article – or one very similar – could and should have been written 2 years ago.
Plaudits? Nae Chance!
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Slim Shady post should be required reading. Excellent.
anyone know the Kandy Bar …Saltcoats………….the wee fat sleekit one might be queuing up for there newly awarded World Champion Scotch Pie…………” a bag of pies please” ,reads Tom English,s peice…..”make that a BIG bag of pies please”….
braw
starry…
Why now?
Its because there is a growing realisation amongst the general The Rangers support that the money has gone, really gone, not a Timmy inspired rumour but gone!
There is now a constituency to be communicated with, the ordinary relatively sensible supporters previously self blinded to the realities. Oh there are still the orcs who even when the scythe comes out will be on the blame game…blaming everybody else. But the realisation has begun…
That’s a very good read about Stefan on the homepage. The bhoy sounds very grounded and determined. Talk is cheap of course, but he is not lacking in confidence.
What have I been saying all along…….£22m my erse……..those spivs who got their shares for 1p now bailing out for circa 20p……you could not make it up……but who’s buying them..? …… silly ming ?
justafan
Who took the frighteners off is my question? English today, Regan yesterday and Spiers last week all talking off message, what pup are they trying to sell us with this Brave New Truth?
Call me paranoid but all of them make me sick!
Not one trend setter among them, English in particular only writes after he has been given the go ahead, so who’s behind this Brave New World of Orcdom ??
hen1rik
08:28 on 16 January, 2014
What a ‘truth’ that is……we rest our case….!!!!