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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Dd,
I thought you woulda sorted them oot and put it straight lol.
HH
I detect Sevco supporters.
TIMHORTON on 14TH APRIL 2016 12:01 AM
cant understand tims who will have nothing to do with sundays game and some who will have nothing to do with anymore games,”untill” the games been bent since i can remember and always will be in scotland.
get out and support celtic.
——-
Where is your seat on Sunday mate?
ht bramalea celtic supporters club 7am ko. anything else.
Timhorton
So from Canada you’re telling Tins how to support Celtic?
Nae borra (that translates as not a problem!)
you seem to have a chip on your shoulder ht
TH
You’ve lost me. I was asking where you were sitting on Sunday.
I don’t think you’ve got a right to pontificate when you live in Canada.
How’s TonyD?
GM
Why did the East Neuk never get a rail line to Saint Andrews?
ht. north american celtic fans dont count? iam not pontificating i just dont agree with you and a good few tims on here. thnk god my father did not do walking away.
Tim H
All Tims count I just don’t think it’s right to tell Celtic supporters how to support when you live in Canada.
How’s TonyD?
The Cardigan’s grotesquely misplaced sense of victim status epitomises the mentality of the Hun. Deluded, entitled, supremacist, ignorant, irrational…. I could go on, but will only say that if there is any karma in the world Paul67’s prediction that Sevco might never win a top league title would be justice enough for me. A permanent purgatory, completely at odds with their seemingly impregnable world view of superiority would be just too perfect.
That’s the long view. In the immediate future I won’t be going to Sunday’s game or watching on TV as I genuinely don’t take Sevco seriously in the way I did the old Rangers. Like literally all Celtic fans I know i just don’t consider them to be the same club. Same fans and same culture yes, but not the same club, with the same power and threat to ourselves. A much diminished force indeed.
I will of course be keeping a keen eye on the result. When the draw was first made I was a bit anxious we would lose, but now I’m seriously confident we’ll give them a doing. They have a puncher’s chance, we have the boxer’s class. My one and only concern is that our humble, meek, mild mannered manager will once more infect his own team with those same qualities, rendering us listless and incapable of the energy and purpose this occasion demands.
Ronny, I beg of you, even if only just this once, inject some passion into our team and deliver this sorry bunch of overhyped nobodys the mother of all hidings, in a manner they truly deserve for all the years of bare faced cheating and corruption by their predecessors.
Dd,
There was one many moons ago. I think it was stolen.
You know what they are like over there ;)
There’s hope for it reopening I hear. Hard to believe a place of that size doesn’t have yin.
HH
ht.ok i dont know tonyd know his brother and a few of the tims that he knew from bramalea club.
i know where you are coming from my only regret is that tony found you out way before me.
SAINT STIVS SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 13TH APRIL 2016 10:34 PM
i really believe in a shoot on sight policy for sundays match,
Headshots will be necessary.
.
‘Justifying bitterness’
“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.
..
Why All the Who Wha about this Statement..
It’s Not News..
In Fact During the Early Days of in the Reign of ‘Our Hero’….*Que Bonnie Tyler record playing in the Mind of Every Celtic Fan..
Craighy Bhoy Whyte..
Did Not the Massive Ranks of ‘The Rangers’ Supporters start a Now Legendary Crusade with the Ambiguous Title of….‘We Deserve Bitter’
In Fact in the Secret Plans for the Super ‘AquaDuck Floating Stadium’
In the New.. on Our ‘Bear’ Erses.. Club Lounge that was Circled by a Moat..They even Named a Cocktail after it..
Can’t remember Exactly the Name of it after All My Brain Freezes because of my ‘Jelly and Ice Cream Addiction but I’m sure the Drink was Called..‘Orange Swine and Bitters’..
Your Down Under Correspondent Reporting Live on the Juicifing Bitterness.. Debacle..
Summa of SweetDreamsCSC
TIMHORTON on 14TH APRIL 2016 1:11 AM
ht.ok i dont know tonyd know his brother and a few of the tims that he knew from bramalea club.
i know where you are coming from my only regret is that tony found you out way before me.
——
Not a bother. You kept telling other Tims how to support Celtic from Tobermory whilst the rest of us are at Hampden.
Night all :-)
ht good night talk tomorrow.
TIMHORTON on 14TH APRIL 2016 1:11 AM
LOL, Toady was found out on here about 2 secs after he first pressed post comment. I understand he has something in common with our tax dodging neighbours from Govan but never tells that story.
HT on the other hand goes out of his way to help his fellow Tims week in week out. Guys from all over the world can testify to that.
I would love to be able to knock back a ticket but all my trips to Glasgow don’t count as an away supporter . Guys who payed for but never turned up for home cup games are proper Tims.
SUMMA OF SAMMI…. on 14TH APRIL 2016 1:14 AM
Take it you will be heading along to the Melbourne Club for the big gemme Sunday night.
Hope we get a better result than the last time I was there.
Sammi`s penalty. Hush.
:-)
Aw crap….my last post was on the last thread ;-((
Anyway, it listed my top 3, descried walturd smitty & asked 4 tech help
H.H.
Road to Seville was 3rd
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-i-yYbloU
First was Harold Brattbakks goal 1998
Second was Fergus McCann’s takeover of our club
H.H.
This link(I hope) is wat I meant
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-i-yYbloU
H.H.
THELURKINTIM
Here you go,bud.
THELURKINTIM on 14TH APRIL 2016 2:53 AM
My favourite TIc moment has to be:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCVzEqGEvo24uCdJs-7SqScg
Followed by Fergus McCann’s take-over ;-))
That’s my top 2 – Road to Seville is 3rd…;-))
re “The Rangers” game – we should trounce them ( and we will ) but am worried about our players being deliberately targeted early on…..
Walturd Shitty deserves his name…..hope he dies in bitterness
—————————————————on a lighter note…..need some techy help…..I’ve just put Kodi onto a firestick without using a computer…..and (after fukin about with tons of addons) loaded Wookie Lite…..is this the best pseudo android box I can get?…..
H.H.
Terry O’Neill
Dawning of the Day
http://youtu.be/i1bUC1JtFFE
THELURKINTIM on 14TH APRIL 2016 3:38 AM
Thanks.
That`s what I really didn`t need.
I`m hyper enough about Sunday`s game as it is.
Or,to put it another way………..
This expat loved it.
‘GG on 14TH APRIL 2016 4:15 AM
Same theme.
Different country.
Corries.
Dawning of the Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjGOQAc0h4
My better, more tender half came across this at the weekend and it’s being played regularly, trying deifferent versions.
However, she keeps coming back to Finbar Furey
The Last Great Love Song.
http://youtu.be/DZsv_NJlZ0s
I hope the entire Celtic first team squad is well tucked up in bed dreaming and visualizing the net bulging from Griffiths’ hat trick and Roberts’ double.
Time for me to go do likewise.
BMCUW @4.14
Wookie light will do the trick,
One of the best addons for football is robbing cop.
Robbo cop!
LAFAN
Cheers,bud. It was THE LURKINTIM who wanted to know,I just c&p his post.
Including the sweary bits-sorry,PAUL67!
I’ll mail him the info,put him out of his misery…
HH
Good morning from a dry, windless, train-free bit of Fife. I wonder what utter mince the blog will be subjected to today.
Theyre really scared of Res12 and that the NewClub will be on the wrong end of a cricket score this weekend.
DHARMA BAM
Ironic title for an article,considering the amount of trolling that went on.
BMCUWP,
Some people don’t need any justification for bitterness, apart from their wage slip, in my opinion.
DHARMA BAM
Aye,I get bitter every time I look at mine!!!!
I thought you were a Guinness drinker?
Is it safe to come back in?
Think so. Just my usual guff.
No doubt, it won’t be long until the coffin lids creak open, though.