The stage is set for a magnificent Celtic occasion but these days often don’t go to plan. Celtic are champions, solvent, united and planning for Champions League qualification next season. Their opponents are none of these things but they remain a formidable team who have four and three goals past Celtic on two occasions this season.
Anyone who thinks tomorrow will be a procession is palpably wrong, Rangers will present as great a challenge as Celtic have faced since slipping out of the Europa League. Out opponents will be motivated by the enormous events taking place in their club at the moment; they are playing for self-respect.
Rangers are also a conundrum; both robust and fragile. Elbows McCulloch will stamp his brand of influence all over the field, the chances of no Celtic player picking up an injury are low, but at the same time, touch them in and around the Celtic box and they will collapse in a heap.
We can hope for a big win but any win will do.
One* team in Glasgow,
There’s only one team in Glasgow.
One team in Glasgow,
There’s only one team in Glasgow.
*excluding, juniors, youths, lower leagues, amateurs and Celtic Ladies.
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£134m in debt.
A silly wee march to an empty Hampden to remind them what it looks like.
Bluff and bluster from the Blue Knight and the LL.
It’s Liquidation get used to it.
HarryJandtheAllStarsCSC
A candle , with Fadd9
A candle , with Fadd9
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 28 April, 2012 at 12:19 said:
Gibbons (like Macdonald at the Herald) has always been fair in his articles.
Fair enough he’s never gone for the jugular before, (no one has) but we’ve never been in this situation before.
A hunskelping from Sammi tomorrow, please:
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Forster :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Matthews ::::::::::: Wanyama ::::::::::::::: Mulgrew :::::::::: Izaguirre
Mcgeouch ::::::::::: Ibrahim ::::::::::::::: Ledley ::::::::::::: Commons
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: McCourt :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Samaras ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Glenn Gibbons: Deluded Rangers fans cannot see real culprit
Published on Friday 1 April 2011 12:54
In A scene from the boxing film, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Paul Newman in the role of middleweight champion Rocky Graziano is taking a severe beating from his great rival, Tony Zale.
Between rounds, the referee takes a close look at Graziano’s swollen features and hints that he may stop the fight.
“You stop this fight and I’ll break every bone in your body,” says the boxer. At which his veteran corner man tells him: “No, Rocky, not him,” and then points across the ring to his opponent and adds: “Him!”.
The episode has swum into the mind’s eye on a regular basis in recent times; in fact, it has been impossible to escape on those countless occasions when a Rangers supporter – or a seemingly disorientated journalist – has misdirected the blame for Rangers’ financial distress towards the Lloyds Banking Group.
This bewildering sense of culpability appears in most cases to be the result of another media overload. Too many writers and broadcasters seem to have been emphasising the bankers’ imposition of economic constraints on the club (this action is almost invariably linked to the ‘appalling’ circumstances under which manager Walter Smith and his lieutenants are forced to work) as opposed to the perfectly legitimate practice of licensed money lenders taking steps to protect their interests by recovering their dues.
The conviction that Lloyds are responsible for the difficulties at Ibrox runs so deep in some quarters that one subscriber to a newspaper hotline said it was a disgrace that the bank should be obstructing the proposed purchase of the club by Craig Whyte by insisting on receiving a 1 million ‘exit’ fee. This disgust was registered the day after the bank’s spokesman had taken steps to assure the public that reports of such a condition were quite groundless; that no such demand existed.
That official rebuttal of the story seemed not to be acceptable to a supporter – he would almost certainly not be alone – who obviously found it much more suitable to his blame frame to believe the misinformation.
But, if there was a Nobel Prize for misplaced finger-pointing, this year’s laureate would be the unchallengeable Stephen Smith, head honcho of the Rangers Supporters Trust, and a man who seems to find it impossible to resist the urge to try to weave himself and his organisation into the fabric of situations that are, in essence, none of their business.
Smith’s swingeing conclusion to the apparent delays in the completion of Whyte’s projected takeover of the club was a gem: “If Rangers lose out,” he said with all the gravity he could muster, “then Rangers fans will not forgive the bank.”
Actually, they might, if they ever get round to remembering how the present mess was achieved. As with Celtic in 1994, Rangers are currently at the mercy of their principal creditors because of what a colleague memorably and accurately called the “financial vandalism” of a previous regime. In Celtic’s case, it was a collective effort by a board comprising the scions of families who had controlled the club since the 19th century and whose business acumen would not have taken them past the first audition for The Apprentice.
Rangers’ problems are, contrastingly, traceable to one man: David Murray. The majority shareholder and former chairman of the Ibrox club numbers among his achievements the leading role in a group of companies whose liabilities at the last published count exceeded 900 million. In the quirky way of these things, Murray’s reward was a knighthood from HM the Queen.
He appears also once again to be escaping a media mauling for his part in Rangers’ economic disarray as the focus, bizarrely, has been trained on Lloyds. But this readiness among fans and commentators alike to scourge the bank rather than condemn the excesses of the owner is not entirely surprising.
Rangers’ sympathisers have been compliant victims of some ludicrous propaganda (“for every fiver Celtic spend, we’ll spend a tenner”) over the past 22 years. If the supporters’ heads were turned by the accumulation of domestic honours, it was at least understandable. But too many journalists were driven by the urge not to upset Murray for fear of missing some imagined “story”.
Even when one of Rangers’ directors, Hugh Adam, warned in The Scotsman that the financial excess was unsustainable and that a day of reckoning would dawn, nobody connected with Ibrox gave it any credence. Instead, there was a concerted campaign to have him publicly ridiculed.
One myth that has persisted over the past few, trying years remains to be exposed. It is the notion that players’ performances on the field of play are adversely affected by the kind of setbacks in business that have been encountered in the Rangers boardroom.
When tackled on the subject, players inevitably express their deep concern, the falsehood tripping off their tongue as easily as a white-lipped child denying he’s been at the milk. In truth, professional footballers do not give a toss who owns or runs a club, or how rich or poor their employers may be; what they care about is that their wages are in the bank.
No senior player is presently at Rangers under duress. None is being underpaid and all are working under terms and conditions to which they have agreed. If that ever changes, it will take about two minutes to become public: that is, the time required to hit the speed dialling number to his agent, followed by the seconds the latter needs to contact the nearest sports writer with an ear as sympathetic as a confessor’s.
Quote of the week from Trevor Muirhead one of the convicted dumbhun bombers……
” They think all the Ayrshire boys are dafties”
And your point is caller?
Best huddle outside a football ground.
Super
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mtXIy04Hc0&feature=relmfu
Thai tims
SwanseaBhoy
Hope you and Mrs SB are settling in well. The Barça Mole was asking after you yesterday.
Praecepta
7.30…
Awe Naw,
Nothing to do with being an acquaintance, that was only for background,just that he has always written fairly, even when wrote for the Observer.
You know as well as I do, that it’s the editor who decides what makes it to the paper.
He never succumbed to the level of the LL, therefore I think that,on this occasion, your comment was uncalled for.
No offence, just my view of your comment.
I take it Glen Gibbons was never one of Murray’s lackies. Great to see at least one journalist being brave and honest.
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/sport/football/glenn-gibbons-mccoist-and-smith-fail-to-see-true-ibrox-saboteurs-1-2261890#
midfield maestro on 28 April, 2012 at 12:17 said:
In the weathermans absence I will tell you it is
Dry grey with the sun playing hide n seek between the clouds
Paul67 Fin. As the French would say.
The 400 blows – une comedie. C’est drôle, c’est bizarre, uh?
Any futher update on the GB’s wee proposal for tomorrows game?
blantyretim on 28 April, 2012 at 12:28 said:
Praecepta
7.30…
_________
Cheers!
.
Celtic to get 3 Penalties tomorrow Just to Even things up Over the Season..;0(
Summa
Paul67,
Will we get our ticket money from rangers even if the big L happens before they are due to pay??
Did the admin give guarantees to all the clubs that any money due after they went into admin will be paid?
Three Colours: Blue
Un film de BillyUnionJack
Praecepta , HT , anyone else who’s going
The Kano Foundation End of Season Night
Requisites :
7 for 7:30 tonight
smart, casual
enjoy yourselves
that is all
Sanna
Ridicule
Un film de Le Gros Paul Le Guen
GreenLantern(((((o)))))
Jardines full name is William Puller Jardine :)))))) I kid you not
HAIL HAIL
sannabhoy
is it tonight? o))
Une équipe à Glasgow
Publié le 28 Avril 2012, en Paul67
Le décor est planté pour une occasion magnifique Celtic, mais ces jours-ci souvent ne vont pas au plan. Celtic sont les champions, solvants, unie et la planification de la Ligue des champions de qualification de la saison prochaine. Leurs adversaires n’en sont pas de ces choses, mais ils restent une équipe redoutable qui ont quatre et trois buts passé celtique à deux reprises cette saison.
Toute personne qui pense que demain sera une procession est manifestement erronée, les Rangers se présenter un aussi grand défi que Celtic ont été confrontés depuis glisser hors de la Ligue Europa. Adversaires hors seront motivés par les événements qui se déroulent énormes dans leur club pour le moment, ils jouent pour le respect de soi.
Les Rangers sont aussi une énigme; à la fois robuste et fragile. Coudes McCulloch estampillera sa marque de l’influence sur tout le terrain, les chances de ne joueur Celtic ramasser une blessure sont faibles, mais en même temps, les toucher dans et autour de la boîte de Celtic et ils s’effondreront dans un tas.
Nous pouvons espérer une grande victoire, mais victoire tout fera l’affaire.
* Une équipe à Glasgow,
Il ya une seule équipe à Glasgow.
Une équipe à Glasgow,
Il ya une seule équipe à Glasgow.
Fin
a wee song for tomorrow
The Doors “The End”
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…stranger’s hand
In a…desperate land
Lost in a Roman…wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Kenny MacDonald in today’s Sun on the Hun’s ‘Triumph’ in Barcelona.
Just read the last eight paragraphs to get a flavour of the Hun mindset that
Exists intact to this day.
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/article4284378.ece
Shameless moronic Huns
Let them Die
les diaboliques mcculloch
fin
Aye TAL
Celtic_First
Aye, settling fine. Got my furniture delivered last Saturday so now doing all the stuff I love again like putting up curtain poles etc.
:0(
Moved to G66 in the end. Looking on the internet for my nearest supermarket…turns out it’s Sainsbury’s in Kirkintilloch.
Sainsbury’s, Shamrock Street, Kirkintilloch.
Sainsbury’s, Shamrock Street, G66 1RA
No joking.
:0)
Be quite happy shopping there!
Long hours at work coupled with limited internet access has kept my blog time limited recently but things should return to normal fairly soon.
Hope you and all the First’s are in good fettle and the Bhoys in St Werburgh’s are cheering heartily tomorrow!
I’ll look out for The Barca Mole on the blog and say hello.
SwanseaBhoy
From a RTC poster
Doon the slope says:
28/04/2012 at 9:19 am
17 2 i
Rate This
Kotton
Thanks for the link to the Scotsman article.
Two weeks ago, Ibrox season ticket holder John McLellan was sacked as editor of The Scotsman.
RanchoFranco on 28 April, 2012 at 12:43 said:
—————————————-
So, it wasn’t the hordes of Rangers fans invading the pitch that interrupted the game? it was the efforts of the Spanish police to stop them!
Stupid stupid huns.
If anyone fancies a wee free meal and a dance in the company of a few RGT’s from CQN I have a spare ticket for the TKF EOS night tonight. First to post that they want it gets it.
MWD
Paddy McCourt’s Fenians armée
Fin CSC
Southampton take the lead.
Happy for Big Jos.
SwanseaBhoy
I remain entirely unconvinced by Glenn Gibbons. He is one of the better ones. He was an elastoplast as his profession died of cancer. Far too little and far too late.
Last word on it.
HH
Tell all the Hunnies you know that 2012 is a as they’ll go.
leftclicktic. That makes him a Willy Puller then, nest ce pas?
La Haine
un film sur la brutalité