You and I have been in some dark places. While we remember winning nine-in-a-row by brilliant scouting, tactics and athletic endeavour, we also remember when that proud achievement was violated in 1997 by a considerably less wholesome achievement.
At the end of season 1995-96 Celtic finished second but lost only one game. I convinced myself that our world was about to be put right. Tommy Burns’ team would go one step further and win the league in 1997; it had to happen.
It didn’t.
Today I don’t want to talk about the reasons why we didn’t win the league in 1997, we will discuss that in the weeks ahead, but that season taught us the lesson that simply wanting something to happen doesn’t make it likely.
I thought of those dark days yesterday when I hear Ally McCoist’s rallying call:
“We’re going to march right through it
“I’m as positive today as I have been in a long time.
“This institution has been around for 140 years and I want it to be here for another 140 years.
“You’ll see what Rangers mean to so many people. We are really looking forward to the game.
“We have the best fans in the world.
McCoist loves his club the same way his good friend Tommy Burns loved his, but irrespective of the challenge he faces in the league from Neil Lennon’s awesome team, there is nothing McCoist can do to ensure his club survives until the end of the season.
When you’re on the wrong end of history there is nothing you can do about it.
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My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Barach OBampot.
Yep, you goat that Right,pally.
Kojo
yer pal. .who likes ye aloater
Paul67
Great line about McCoist, and he certainly is in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
He’s the rear end of the pantomime horse.
Surprised and delighted that Kilmarnock beat them, and the whole ‘big hoose’ of cards is collapsing round about them.
The Celtic locus should be winning the league in style, they are in denial about a 19 point swing achieved fairly and squarely, and we are
about to repay all Celtic fans past, and present by bringing the title home to Paradise, and have sewn the seeds of a real generation of domination.
Hail Hail
how the BBC can allow this fat bufoon to speak to people in this manner is beyond me!!!
Hail hail
miki67, deleted. Yellow card.
Kojo, he was not at Ibrox but Whyte is still chairman.
The pain on Radio Scotland is palpable. I absolutely love it.
Radio Scotland is wonderful to listen to tonight. Wonderful. They are hurting like Hell.
Googybhoy
Maybe the BBC are like the guys in charge at “the big hoose”, and just can’t grasp even simple arithmetic!
Traynor is totally out of breath defending David Murray hilarious !
what utter tosh from Traynor there. Did Traynor says there was no debt when Whyte bought the club?
Nice we’ve decided who the bad guy is over the fall of rangers.
C Young.
Fan.
Please any Celtic fan out there do not buy the Traynors newspaper,dont buy the DR,,starve this fat hun of your cash this man is a vile pathetic excuse for a sports journo!!!
Hail hail
Mr Traynor is struggling – he is beginning to realise that the sins of the past are all about to haunt him.
The fallout from all this is just beginning – in the firing line isnt just Whyte, Murray, the old board at Rangers etc. But the SPL, SFA, Scottish Media and to a smaller extent the Scottish Government are all implicated. Now even the administrators are chancing it with the Cousin debacle.
Rangers cannot avoid liquidation.
Murray totally innocent of any wrong doing at Rangers.
Repaid all the debt he run up apparently.
Why did Murray sell for £1 then?
When does the tax evasion stretch back to?
Yet it’s not Murray, Hunbelievable.
Switched off. Total rubbish.
Traynor I think in danger of losing his BBC job after that performance.
Shouting like a banshee in a manic defence of Murray.
He’s hurting bad and is a tad emotional.
Just thinking of MON calling him a fat fecker with a smile on my face.
Happy days.
tully
There must surely be a case of fine wine on its way to Chico.
Gloatfest2012
I love our national radio station.
Headtheball
1. 1967 was not born but my dad reminds me every week how good the lions were.
2. 1988 withbig billy at the helm
3. 1998 stopping 10 and making thems 2 again
4. 2003 mon and Seville plus the Celtic support
2012 under Neil Frances Lennon may get to number 2 but this is just the beginning
We do not need no stinking Huns
Havingapartywhenthehunsdiex csc
I’ve gone to wtch Sun v Ars…..Traynor & Young are pure disgustin’!
Jim
‘The O@@ F@@@’
Shameless.
And no country music, boo
50,000 huns pay to see the huns get beat.
LIFE IS SO SWEET I AM GOING TO LOSE MY TEETH.
Traynor is inappropriate for the position he holds I could think of so many people who could do a far better job.
Seems to be a lot of Aberdeen fans getting stuck in to the huns..
Sir Paul
Ah jist happened tae come across that Remark..
Viz:” Ranger’s FORMER CHAIRMAN”.. in reference tae Whyte.
In a Sport’s Column
It musta hiv bin wan o they…. ” Mis-Speaks”
that is going aroon.
But, Ah nevertheless.. did Read it.
Kojo
Betting was suspended on the rangers v kilmarnock game today after an anonymous better placed a £24M on Kilmarnock to win.
Ally McCoist is the best possible man to be in charge of Rangers at this particular time as Rangers stare into the abyss. That’s as far as I am concerned, a Celtic supporter. McCoist has shown that he doesn’t have much ability as a coach, tactician or manager of the playing staff. He has presided over Rangers being knocked out of 4 cups, domestic and European. He has presided over Rangers conceding a 15 point lead in the League and falling now a further 7 points behind(not even taking into account the 10 point deduction). A truly pathetic record.
Additionally, his comments in the press during the last week and particularly today are full of empty rhetoric. He couldn’t wait for today’s game, a sellout, wonderful stories of RFC fans abroad buying tickets for relatives and former neighbours, during the game itself the fans would show what the institution that is RFC is all about. This is a man who is relying totally on his relationship with the Ibrox supporters based on his feats as a player. He raised the temperature of the atmosphere for today’s game rather than keeping his players calm. He was faced by a wily opponent whose team have been playing very well this season and comes across as an articulate and thoughtful student of the game. All Kilmarnock had to do today was to keep their nerve in the midst of a noisy cauldron and play the football that they are capable of and in the fullness of time they were likely to overcome or at least match Rangers who have played poorly against astute passing teams this season and so it came to pass.
If Ally dropped the words ‘honest’ and ‘100%’ from his vocabulary he would shorten what he has to say by half. He expected a big reaction from his team today and they failed him miserably. One wonders now what else he has in his locker which was sparsely filled when he began.
How many realise that this debacle & Smoked Salmond’s ‘intervention’ have probaly scuppered ANY chance of Scottish Independence? Was this in the script fae the off?
….I may even have a seeeeegar.
( the wee hunned-up, burred voice shocker has been coaksed out of hiding)
*holds side*
Miki67
Don’t their pain has now made a sadist. Where’s the belt?
Ally McCoist Reacts To TheOriginalSadiesBhoy’s remarks (thumbsup)
what is chic young mumbling on about
James Traynor Elephants Never Forget and Neither will your days of feasting at the Parochial Table of Sir Moonbeams are over….
Daily Record – November 19, 1998 SECRET FEAR THAT DRIVES ME TO WIN 10 IN A ROW:
Rangers chairman David Murray opens up on the highs and lows of his decade in charge of Rangers and promises that the best is still to come
Exclusive James Traynor
RANGERS owner David Murray doesn’t often allow his true feelings to surface, but currently he is finding it difficult to disguise a pain which has been gnawing away inside since the end of last season.
After a period of almost total dominance of Scottish football during which Rangers racked up 17 trophies the club met with failure.
Celtic won the championship and the League Cup and Hearts beat Rangers in the Tennents Scottish Cup final, leaving Murray with nothing to show for a massive investment in time and money.
Even now he winces when he thinks of that season, but it is the vivid memory, and the pain of defeat with which he now suffers, that combine to drive him on.
Last night as he looked back on a decade as Rangers’ owner – come this Sunday, the 22nd, it will be 10 years since he paid Lawrence Marlborough £6 million for the club – Murray’s desire to avoid the miseries of another barren season could not be disputed.
To hear him speak was to listen to a man who believes himself to be charged with some kind of great and mighty mission. Murray, who chose to talk only to the Record about his dreams and ambitions for Rangers, said: “No one should doubt that Rangers are the biggest club in the country, but I know that talk is cheap in this business and that we will have to prove just how big we are.
“That doesn’t really bother me because as long as I am able to influence this club we will be the biggest and we will be the best. “I have spent 10 years of my life, and I know that sometimes I gave up too much of myself to Rangers, but I am not about to give up now.
“Neither am I willing to stand aside and allow another club to overtake Rangers. The failure of last season hurt me a lot and that pain was something I didn’t need nor want.
“It is also a pain which I never want to suffer again, but by God that sort of thing just makes me even more determined to succeed. I am still as driven, still as enthusiastic and I will welcome the challenge of anyone out there.”
Murray was referring not only to the Kenny Dalglish/Jim Kerr consortium who are stalking Celtic, but also the as yet uncovered groups who are bound to make bids to buy out Fergus McCann.
If the past 10 years have taught Murray, who is one of Britain’s wealthiest individuals, anything it is how to win and he believes Rangers will continue to grow and prosper.
“I look upon these last 10 years as a having been a great era, but it is over and Rangers are about to head on into a new era,” he said over a glass of the finest red.
He was about to take in another mouthful of the most succulent lamb – anyone who knows Murray shouldn’t be surprised to learn he is a full-blooded, unashamed red meat eater – when he put down his knife and fork.
It was like a statement of intent and looking directly across the table to make sure I hadn’t yet succumbed to the wine, he said:
“Bring on the next 10 years, there’s more to come for Rangers.
“Understand that I care passionately about what I’m doing with Rangers and believe that in 10 years time we will still be setting the pace.
“Too many of us have put too much into this club and we won’t let someone come along and take it all away.
“What I’m saying here is that no matter who buys Celtic from Fergus, they will need to have the deepest of pockets imaginable.
“The fresh challenge would be good for the Scottish game and lift the profile, but Celtic’s new owners had better be prepared to spend.
“In the past, Celtic’s people maybe just haven’t fancied trying to take Rangers on financially, but if I have to go in deeper to keep my club up there then I will. I have done it too many times to be frightened now.”
From anyone else such talk could be dismissed as no more than empty rhetoric, but with Murray you just feel it is more than bluster and besides, he does have a track record as a spender.
There have been times in his 10 years when he has taken Rangers somewhere between £15m and £20m into debt and he knows that if this season goes belly up like the last one he could be looking at a potential debt of £20m. However, having taken the value of Rangers from £6m to approximately £186m in 10 years he knows how far he can gamble in pursuit of success.
This season alone he has allowed his new manager Dick Advocaat to spend almost £30m, but he refuses to lose any sleep over it.
He said: “I don’t because I consider spending as much as £5million on someone like Andrei Kanchelskis as a necessity. If a club like ours doesn’t do that then we fall by the wayside.
“Look, I have many other businesses so I could find many other things to worry about, but I love sport and I want Rangers to be successful. I know this won’t be accepted by some people but this isn’t about making money. “£56m has been invested in the stadium and in my time £200m has been turned over and after interest our trading profit is minimal. Perhaps as much as £60m has been spent on players and I have even paid in about £1m in hospitality but never taken a salary from the place.
“I get six complimentary tickets the same as everyone else and if I want extra I have to pay for them the same as everyone else.
“There are no free lunches for David Murray at Ibrox and I have never taken part or been at the centre of any of the numerous victory celebrations we have had.”
Murray disappears to celebrate success with a small group of close friends, leaving the roar of the crowd to wash over the players and management.
“Supporters don’t want chairmen hanging around, even though they look to people like me to provide some kind of direction and the new ways to keep moving the club on,” he said.
“I hope I can say that in my 10 years so far I’ve been fairly good at that, but the day I run out of ideas is the day I’ll know it’s over. I’m sure someone will tell me because I have good people around me, I always have.
“But I’m not ready yet to step back and I see enough fresh challenges, staying ahead at home and winning a place at the European table, ahead in the next 10 years to keep my own adrenaline flowing.”
He knows roughly how much it will cost him and he’s heard the rumours that ENIC, who have invested £40m in Rangers, are uneasy at the club’s spending policies but Murray claims these backers have always been supportive of his methods.
He said: “They could kick up a fuss but they don’t. Besides, I am the owner of the club and so far most people seem to like what I’ve done.”
I cant stick Keevins and co,,,,but Traynor in my opinion is absolutely despicable,,,if the BBC after tonights performance dont have words with this fat bufoon then there really is no hope for us!!!!
Hail hail
I have to hand it to every Celtic man who has ever agreed with my intelligent posts.
I love you far more than I could possibly love some ill-informed ignoramus who does not agree with my pitiful contributions.
Maks sense tae me.
from FF..altogether now Awwwwwwww
_________
Jig tears at full time
Anyone else notice that
Shortbread could get people hurt with their tone. What did Neil do wrong? It’s Saturday night in Glasgow for goodness sake. I know a bar owner in the city centre who put his security staff on at 5pm today. Stay safe all. HH.
Paul 67
1995-96 season, we were very unlucky but, too many drawn games. IMO!
Also, all through out that season we were told that, John Collins was our ‘only’ sellable asset.
So, surely when JC left at the end of that season, imo, was the reason we lost the title.
Another way to look at that situation….if your John Collins and, you know that the club is continually trying to sell you to, Middlesborough, because your contract is running out, would you not say to yourself…stuff that! Collins, imo, did that and was quite right as well! I mean, JC went to Monaco and reached the CL semi final with Monaco, something he was never going to do at CP! IMO!
For what it’s worth…I think that the talents of JC was probably, the only reason for going to see Celtic in the early 90’s!
Hail! Hail!
Off oot
laters…
What an absolutely tremendous week this has been and its not over, the best part is still to come tomorrow when we scud the hibbees :)
HH
This Traynor and Young debate will surely make its way onto Youtube. Classic hurting.
Gloatfest2012