I have two significant concerns about Walter Smith’s comments yesterday. He spoke about the events which followed Rangers liquidation in 2012:
“There was no necessity for Rangers to be put down into the Third Division.
“That will always stay in Scottish football. There will be a bitterness in the Rangers ranks. It will be a massive motivation for the club. It would certainly be for me.
“How can they forget what happened to them? Nobody could forget that.”
I’ve spoken to people at Celtic about security concerns ahead of the weekend. The game itself will almost certainly pass off without incident, but what happens on the streets of Glasgow and surrounding towns is anyone’s guess.
You will hear nothing even close to inflammatory from Celtic, senior fans groups, or anyone who cares about the club’s fans and wellbeing. Justifying bitterness due to (mis)perceived persecution ahead of this fixture is inciteful. I’m astonished Smith said this.
On his subject matter, let me give you an alternative scenario:
Newco Rangers are parachuted straight into the Premier League, hundreds of creditors are abandoned, they have a full squad of players and are not a penny in debt. They would have been out signing players within minutes of registration (they even tried to sign a player while still in administration).
With Oldco having won the league accumulating debts they would never pay in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Newco, free of legacy financial commitments, would have an excellent chance of winning again in 2013 and beyond.
This plan was one strand of Craig Whyte’s lunacy and it would have killed Scottish football. Celtic, and others, would have been left to consider, do we pay these millions of debts, or liquidate and spend the money on players instead? I had this very conversation with a senior figure in the game in October 2011, when the realisation of what Whyte was planning became evident. Utter mayhem would have ensued.
The damage done to the Rangers brand of clubs by allowing Newco access only to the bottom tier was huge. It’s consequences are yet to be appreciated by most fans. Newco may never win a top flight league.
But the question was not whether to impose a trauma on ‘Rangers’ or allow everyone to carry on as we had before, this was not an option. It was whether to allow the existing rules and processes to stand, allow responsibility for the enormous mismanagement of Rangers to be carried primarily by Newco, and have other clubs deal with the fallout, with or without a ‘Rangers’ club in the league.
Whyte’s plan replicated what he’d done in other industries, but it would have devastated Celtic in particular. We were beaten for years on the field by a team who could not pay their bills or correctly register their players, then we would be beaten again as they walked away from debts without consequence, which is why I wrote this article in October 2011 on the Prepack route for Rangers Newco.
Pretty much all of what I wrote about in that article came to pass, it had to be stopped (and you’ll never know the key movers in doing so). Smith should consider if the boot was on the other foot, if he would be happy to allow his club to be subverted in the manner he suggests would be good enough for others. It was simply never an option.
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Mr. P is sounding more and more like James Traynor tonight.
Don’t remember him singing at Strathclyde Uni though.
Tag teaming from The Donald as well, who appears to be having a personality disintegration…. again
Turkey bhoy
Biscuits is a diver and a cheat … draws and commits fouls all day long…. as a fan of barca I detest him along with Neymar
Big nir plays a clean game … but no where near as valued as the cheat. Sport is Donald ducked
——-
Bring Back Birching….!
(‘Tic Only ONE Box)
Aye. ☘
Naw. ☘
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Tontine Tim Was it John Lawrence,builders, you are writing about,
Our Mr Pasrty is a lattice of obfuscation with his posting Turnover. He appears to Tortells us loads but really in the end it’s Nunting at all. I’ve yet to see him go into a Huff Paste but privately I’m sure he Kringle’s. He’s all Puff with no Filo. He just seems to talk Kremschnitt and there is every chance he is a Masan.
MWD
Mr Pastry
Res12 never went beyond trying to establish if the rules were observed. If they were not then it’s up to UEFA to decide where fault lay and take remedial action.
If RFC lied to UEFA then it’s up to UEFA to do as they see appropriate with SFA and TRFC to ensure the integrity of any future application from Ibrox.
Celtic would then have to decide what they would do to seek redress and from whom in a way that satisfied shareholders that never again would Celtic be cheated with impunity in as far as that was possible.
An apology would be a requirement but from whom? That would require an investigation to identify if the SFA understood and met their responsibilities and if any SFA personnel with RFC comnections that existed or still exist influenced the SFA’S approach and name the former and hunt the latter.
Both UEFA and Celtic have a responsibility to protect themselves but in a fair and way that is seen to be fair by all clubs.
Only when a wrong is identified and admitted can it be forgiven in a way that heals.
It’s been told he also wears a Baklava in public.
MWD
Auldheid
Stop talking sense … no room for that here ;)
And a boot in the baws for Regan, Ogilvey and Peat, and loss of pension
The Donald,
Will break my rule once, Sir Paul knows you are Kojo :0)
——–
Grasshoppers….
‘One Enlightened Man’s Guru….
Is A BIind Man’s Troll ‘
Petec 7:1967
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SFTB
Doncha know it’s split personality night on CQN?
He’s certainly doing a crackin job!
I see myself as more the Bear Claw type than the attack dog.
Just thought I’d clarify that.
MWD
Auldheid
Dont waste your time.
Its like talking to a pile of sawdust.
HH
Just loved how long it took Carasco to come off the pitch after being substituted, can’t help it , it’s in my genes.
Green man,
My school janitor thought sawdust was useful :-)
———–
Mr Prestonpans….
Securicor Will Send A Van ‘Roon Tae Yer Abode In The Morn’….
Tae Collect Your SIZEABLE DONATION.
~~~~
Prestonpans Bhoys
Seasame St type pile of sawdust….singing a wee song.
” Why does it always rain on me”
Big Bird explaining the birds and bees to the wee pile of sawdust:)
HH
PB
Pish soaked sawdust is much more descriptive. :)
timbhoy3 on 13th April 2016 9:04 pm
Tontine Tim Was it John Lawrence,builders, you are writing about,
*Correct, I actually worked for them in my youth down in Craigendoran before leaving for the colonies the first time.
DD
LOL
Buckfast and vomit type sawdust:)
HH
South Of Tunis on 13th April 2016 8:04 pm
TONTINE TIM @ 7 27.
Souness
Right city but wrong team .He didn’t play for Genoa, he played for Sampdoria .He left with 1 Cup Winners medal.
*I meant Genoa the city and not the club, no matter Sampdoria weren’t exactly one of the Milans or Juve.
La Gazzetta dello Sport marked his departure thus –
” a good player but nowhere near as good as he thought he was “
*exactly and that’s what Scottish punters felt until the summer of ’86 and then he became a super star, a bit like laudrup.
Barca get what they deserve, a doing. Commitment , playing to your system and skill in front of goal goes a long way… All the way to Seville in fact.
Tontine
Loved that read from earlier. A tale written in a distinctive West Dunbartonshire style. Thanks
Barca not at their best but I just don’t like Athletico.
Something about the cynical way they play conjure up memories.
TGM
Buckfast and vomit is Bommur Broon sawdust. The most despicable hun I know, alongside Richard the Kelvin Walkway Cruiser and Grandmaster Diablo Myth.
Barca oot, i was only a pup when the thugs of Athletico robbed us, it’s still fresh.
Thoroughly deserved victory for Atletico.
Auldheid
Don’t think they are that cynical, a team playing to their strengths. That game in 74 is one of my earliest memories watching Celtic , seems a bit unfair to link that bunch of psychos with their present team
Walter Smith’s behaviour is identical to McCoist’s in trying to generate a backs-to-the-wall, no-one-likes-us-we-don’t-care semi-religious struggle, The fervour is there, as is the bizarre sense of having been wronged. Smith ignores the issue of creditors, as do all those who want eveyone to collude in the ludicrous myth that this is the same club that was liquidated. (I heard Louise White on Radio Scotland tell one caller that “it was the administration that was liquidated, but lets not get boiled down into that (sic)” ) Yesterday, Smith went on to talk about the damage that Rangers “getting put down” (if only) had done to Scottish football, then had a dig at Dundee Utd, Hearts and Hibs, because evidently he was content with the notion that Scottish football had shot itself in the foot. Bitterness is what has sustained them during the last 4 years, and let’s be honest, it was pretty much ingrained in the old club’s DNA.
However, I have to say that Celtic is in the process of letting me down in the manner it is handling all of this. I get the sense that the company simply wants to get on with the money generation process that the new “Old Firm” will initiate. I believe that the entire ethos of Scottish football as a competitive sport is being traduced and undermined, and Celtic, in failing to denounce what is happening, is part of that. I will think hard before deciding whether to renew my season ticket. I don’t mean that as any kind of threat, but I just don’t know if I want to be part of the pretence that this is about anything other than money.
Nothing good will come of this, either on Sunday, or in the long term. This was never about putting Rangers in their place, for me anyway, When Rangers died, I felt mainly relief, but also satisfaction that fans had forced club chairmen to stand up to bullying and the manifestation of “the King is Naked” in Scottish football. Like Rangers FC, that’s history, and now we’re expected to believe in ghosts.
Barca were however denied a blatant pen at the end when the ref gave the free kick outside the box when it was handled inside.
I can admire Atletico’s defensive abilities but they are not great up front- they do not thrill.
AULDHEID
I agree and they still annoy me, cannot use hate to describe a football team but sometimes there is an urge. Atleti deserved it over two legs even though the ref shat out of giving Barca a penalty. He also gave Iniesta a sympathy vote for the deliberat handball going unpunished.
I would like Bayern to pump Citeh, Atleti to put out Real and we will see a very evenly contested final.
To be honest the whole CL has lost a lot of allure for me. When we hear about the obscene money, the tax dodgers, the oligarch owners it has lost a lot of charm.
Well Done Ath Madrid…Men Playing A Mans Game..Superb Performance….And Listen Up…Thats Why We Will Win On Sunday….We Have More MEN….than the huns have…So Bring It….We Will Cane Thems….No Doubt In My Mind…COYBIG…
DD,
Must say in our school, St Joseph’s Kilmarnock, we knew how to pish correctly in the bog, might have smoked the sawdust though……..
DD
Its like Game of Thrones and Star Wars
The Satanic Cardigan skulking in his derelict fortress….cursing everything on earth, and praying to his master Satan
Jabba the Hun behind his vast desk….with three million pens on it.
Lord David Darth Vader…and Broon of the poison and snake infested swamp and his mystical quest for Ra Deeds.
And thats only episode 1
HH
The penalty that barca should have got came from a cross/shot by a (favourite of mine) player who should already have got a red for his own handball.
Barca have plummeted in form.
Athletico hunted them in packs.
HH jamesgang
Incredible to think less than four years ago this Barcelona side almost scraped a draw at Celtic Park
There is a proper footy tourny taking place at the mo, it’s called the Copa Libertadores, the best club competition on the planet.
Racing v Boca and Sao Paulo v River Plate on later.