I think I am going to have a heart attack before this season ends. I didn't enjoy that game tonight at all. We should have scored a few goals in the opening twenty minutes, but then the team became very nervous. Thank the lord for Barry Ferguson.
I think I am going to have a heart attack before this season ends. I didn't enjoy that game tonight at all. We should have scored a few goals in the opening twenty minutes, but then the team became very nervous. Thank the lord for Barry Ferguson.
If Rangers play like that we'll have a sneaky chance.
What are the odds like for a Rangers quadruple now? I fancy them for it.
Rangers fans, quick question - are you all going down to Manchester or going to the beamback at Ibrox?
I'll be watching The Bill.
Even for a dirty rat scumbagging bastard it's impossible not to love you a little something something.
Can't believe I'm going to say this but I will be at Ibrox which is a fucking disgrace but all of my family have said theres no point going down without a ticket (which I think is bollocks personally). So Govan it is.
I'd say chance it but it's not far to go so any spares will probably be snapped up before heading south.
In hindsight I wish I'd entered the UEFA cup ballot even if it means sitting with the neutrals. My dad got offered two tickets for £550 each, way too overpriced fuck that.
I was all booked for Manchester but now I can't get the day off work. Wankers.
Probably end up at Ibrox.
Stonewall penalty for Dundee United and Cousin firing in the head butts again. Guess he never learns. Rangers let off the hook yet again. Dreadful side.
I am quite fickle when it comes to Cousin. I have changed my mind on him quite a few times. But basically he is a talented tit. Hopefully we can get a few million for him in the summer.
We played really well in the first half. We should have had the game totally wrapped up. Novo was amazing. The second goal was goal of the season. Cousin should look at Novo and his attitude. Cousin has more natual talent than Novo, but I know who I would rather have in my side.
Then we got a few lucky breaks and Dundee Utd started to get into the game. Of course, they had to score, just to make things interesting. But we kept calm and we got a deserved third.
Nice to see Furman come on. He looks to be a real talent. He was always looking for the ball and played a superb quick free kick for Novo.
Now then pressue is on Celtic. Come on Hibs!
3 away games to come for Rangers. They'll lose one at least. They are brutal.
Nakas old firm goal was goal of the season mofo
Yeah, all those great wins in the past 6 weeks shows that.
It's going to be tight. If we had two games a week, we would win at least the SPL and Scottish Cup. But with so many games, anything could happen.
Stop making excuses for your team.
That's hardly excuses, the SPL/SFA have treated Rangers absolutely appallingly over their fixtures. Getting to the UEFA Cup final is a great acheievement for a club from such a small country, they should be doing everything they can to help them.
Clubs who get to cup finals should be able to cope with the amount of games they play because of it. It's practically impossible to sort out the fixtures so that nobody is disadvantaged. It's been widely reported that players have had to cancel holidays or pay money to get them shifted. Why should players of Hibs, Dundee Utd etc suffer because Rangers want a couple of days extra rest before a game?
Can you not see the bigger picture here? Perhaps for the benefit of Scottish football?
What exactly does Rangers winning the UEFA Cup do for Scottish football? Fuck off with your 'bigger picture' bollocks.
It's not bollocks at all.
A win for Rangers raises their profile, attracts better players, gets respect for the club and the country. Don't try and say none of that is true.
Rangers have been treated disgracefully badly and you know it. Don't give me any bollocks about they should have to play all their games in a couple of weeks. Zenit have had games postponed etc by their FA, forcing a few people to cancel holidays isn't the end of the fucking world. If Rangers win it will benefit Scottish football, if they end up losing badly, like Boro did the other year, it's no good for anyone, especially when they weren't given the time they should have been.
I don't know how you can possibly deny that Rangers have been treated badly.
A win for Rangers only helps Rangers, nobody else.
You're saying that players losing holidays isn't the end of the world, but if your job changed a deadline and forced you to miss a holiday, you'd be pretty fucked off about it.
Rangers don't deserve any special treatment. The end of it is that not extending the season only puts Rangers at a disadvantage. Extending the season only serves to put players out of pocket, which is wrong.
A win for Rangers raises Scotland's UEFA coefficient. If wiki's to be believed you're currently 10th, 6 points and 2 places off 8th which would give two extra UEFA cup spots to Scotland. A win might not close that gap entirely but it'll certainly help, it's far from a one-way thing anyway.
It would help if the UEFA Cup wasn't a complete joke competition.
No one helped Celtic a few years back.
And they were wrong not to.
And there you have just admitted Melv's point, it benefits Rangers! If Rangers were to win on Wednesday do you think they would think it was a win for Scottish football, or a win for Rangers? They are not looking out for Scottish football's interest, they are only looking out for their own. If they really cared about Scottish football would they have pulled out four players from a Scotland squad declaring them unfit only for them to miraculously recover for a game against Celtic? Or for that matter take Scotland's manager during Euro 2008 qualification?
Yes there is a fixture congestion for Rangers and while some have been due to unforseen circumstances, Phil O'Donnell's death etc they requested for a game to be postened against Gretna, they failed to beat both Hibs and Partick Thistle in the Scottish cup first time around resulting in replays and their own state of the Art stadium failed to deal with a bit of rain against East Stirling.
Oh also Rangers were really keen to help out Scottish Football in 2000....
Originally Posted by BBC
Of course Rangers don't care about anyone else, I didn't suggest otherwise.
Every club will look out for themselves, but my point still stands. It benefits more people than Rangers to do everything possible to give them the best chance of winning that competition. Look at the long term, not whether or not someone from Dundee United will have to cancel a flight to Ibiza.
If Manchester United or Chelsea had gotten into the FA final do you think that the FA would have moved the date for that so that both clubs could have the week off before the Champions League?
Or if it was Chelsea v Man Utd in the UEFA cup this week would they have rearranged the whole last day of the season so they had this weekend off?
Why should the SPL bend over backwards to help one of its members when the rest of the members don't want it to do so? Would you be happy if Tottenham started getting games moved, games also involving Arsenal moved cause they made the UEFA cup final? Or if the ENglish FA had moved the final day of the season to accomidate Manchester United and Chelsea and ended up putting it on a Thursday night would you be happy if Arsenal where still in with a chance of winning the league? We play today, the 11th, our final game is now on the 22, would you be happy with that big a gap between the second last and final game?
English football doesn't need any help. And there would never be a situation where any team would have to play so many games in two weeks, even if they did get to every final possible.
Boro in 2006:
March
Thu 30 20:45 A FC Basel UEFA
April
Sun 2 15:00 A Manchester City PREM
Thu 6 20:00 H FC Basel UEFA
Sun 9 15:00 H Newcastle PREM
We 12 20:05 H Charlton FACP
Sat 15 15:00 A Portsmouth PREM
Mon 17 15:00 H West Ham Utd PREM
Thu 20 20:45 A S Bucuresti UEFA
Sun 23 16:00 H West Ham Utd FACP
Thu 27 20:02 H S Bucuresti UEFA
Sat 29 15:00 H Everton PREM
May
Mon 1 20:00 A Man Utd PREM
Wed 3 20:00 A Bolton PREM
Sun 7 15:00 A Fulham PREM
Wed 10 19:45 H Sevilla Futbol UEFA
English football is totally different. Zenit is a good comparison; league on the up, with some good players. They do incredibly well to get to the UEFA Cup Final, so their FA do all they can to ensure they get as much preperation in as possible to do as well as they can.
The Russian league has only had 10 rounds of games played so far so there is still plenty of time to fit in the fixtures.
I honestly can't believe more people can't see that the SFA have got this one totally wrong.
They haven't got it wrong you knob end, plus your attempts to argue that they have have been well and truly destroyed. Why the fuck should anyone else help Rangers win trophies?
And then what if they go and get their rest but get battered by Lokomotiv anyway? Then all that's done is help them win the SPL. How is that fair?
Last edited by El Capitano Gatisto; May 11th, 2008 at 9:57 AM.
Andy talks rubbish for a living.
I genuinely think it would be good for Scottish football for the SFA to help Rangers out. Scottish football isn't exactly flourishing, but the general quality seems to be improving. Surely Rangers winning the UEFA Cup final can only help that continue.
I already posted how. Higher coefficient = more European places = better league. I don't know if the gain from this one game would be enough to justify the disadvantages but it would clearly help to a degree.
oh my god of course it's good for scottish football if a scottish league side wins a major (well after champs league and the intertoto) European competiton. Sponsorship, money, credibility, outside interest, co-efficient thingie (ahem) etc... really doesn't take a genius to work out why it's a good thing.
If it's logistically unworkable that's a different matter, but all you bloody Catholics coming in with your 'doesn't help Scottish football if they win' shite is just ridiculous.
So far this month they have played Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, that is hardly a harsh schedule, many teams have had to play two games in a week due to European football, plus is the trip from Glasgow to Manchester that long that they can't play the Saturday before at 12.30?
If they are moaning about having to play Saturday, Monday and then Thursday, and I think now we are getting down to their real agenda for them wanting the league extended further, then that has fuck all to do with the good of Scottish football and all to do with Rangers looking out for Rangers.
Last edited by J; May 11th, 2008 at 3:53 PM.
Rangers are clearly looking out for Rangers. They're not so benevolent they do everything for the benefit of scottish football, or they'd have lent half their best players to Motherwell or someone to try and make the league less boring this year.
However, occasionally the best interests of rangers might just coincide with the best interests of scottish football.
Rangers winning the UEFA cup would be good for scottish football as a whole.
TO be fair you're isinuating they're trying to do it to gain an advantage in the league.. I dont really know enough about the situation to comment on this.
I would say that UEFA's stupid fucking gay bollocksing up of the UEFA cup makes fixture congestion a bit inevitable, but I wouldn't have thought it would make quite so much difference at the business end of the season as it would nearer the start. (WAFA group stages and stuff)
The problem is that today Celtic and Hibs played their second last game of the season, the league was supposed to finish a week today. Due to fixture pile up though and Rangers reaching the UEFA cup final the final day of the season has been put back (at short notice) to a week on Thursday, that means Celtic, Hibs, Dundee United and Aberdeen have a week and a half to wait for their final game of the season. Rangers want the season extended further, this would make it an even bigger gap for Celtic, Hibs, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen and would possibly mean a rearangement for the Scottish Cup final. Queen of the South, one of the finalists, have not played since the 26th of April.
Imagine if all Villa's fixtures got moved about because it was the Champions league final this week and Manchester United and Chelsea wanted the weekend before it off.
Extending the league doesn't benefit Scottish Football, moving the Scottish Cup final won't benefit Scottish Football.
Rangers should be able, as a professional football team be able to play on the Saturday then travel down to Manchester and play on a Wednesday night. They have had help this season, the asked for a game against Gretna to be postponed on a Saturday so they had time to prepare for a champions league group game, they got it, the lost the champions league group game (before you ask, no it wasn't a game in the furtherest corner of Europe, it was at home to Lyon).
ah right fair enough then really.
I should probably find out what I'm talking about before blundering in ranting about Catholics and such
A scottish side winning a European competition would probably do more to improve scottish football in the next few years than fucking up the domestic league this season would damage it... but that doesn't mean it should happen of course.
i wasn't aware of the impact on other teams and am going to blame the BBC for their one sided reporting of the issue to cover for my laziness and subsequent ignorance.
Just had a look and it seems that Rangers don't have a game today.
Has the world gone mad?
Finally got to see the incidents from the Rangers game. What a lot of shite that was. All I've heard is huns going on about the decisions we've had this season, but that game can shut them all the fuck up.
Stonewall penalty denied, perfectly good goal disallowed, Cousin not being sent off. All ridiculous decisions. A rangers fan that comes into my work even said that Broadfoot should've been sent off as well, but it didn't show you that.
McCurry has come out and admitted he got both decisions wrong, so when Levein gets into bother it'll be a fucking disgrace.
Absolutely gutted for the co-efficient lads.
I'm older than I wish to be
This town holds no more for me
All my life I try to find another way
I don't care for your attitude
You bring me down I think you're rude
All my life I try to make a better day
It's hard enough being alone
Sitting here by the phone
Waiting for my memories
To come and play
It's hard enough sitting there
Rockin' in your rockin' chair
It's all too much for me to take
When you're not there
shit, forgot about that. Scottish Football is fucked.
R.I.P.Celtic's Burns succumbs to cancer
Celtic legend Tommy Burns has died at the age of 51 after losing his long-running battle against cancer.
Burns had been undergoing treatment in both Glasgow and France in recent weeks after being diagnosed in March of this year.
In 2006, the former Scotland midfielder received treatment for skin cancer but it returned two years later.
He played for Celtic from 1974 to 1989 and was the club's first-team coach before being granted leave.
A statement from Celtic said: "Tommy, a true Celtic Legend and wonderful man will be sadly missed by us all. Clearly, our thoughts are very much with Tommy's wife Rosemary and his family at this extremely difficult time." [/b]
I just woke up, and thought I'd turn on the tv to see what the aftermath of last night was. Instead I see a SSN banner tribute to Tommy Burns.
Suddenly, the actions of a few idiots no longer seems that important, when one of the few gentlemen in football is gone at the age of 51.
rip tommy. true legend.
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Everything remains as it was.
The old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no sorrow in your tone.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting, when we meet again.
Nicest guy I knew, was always up for a chat and a laugh, Celtic today have lost one of the greatest members of its family.
Also some of the Rangers buses on the way back at Manchester are apparently stopping off at Parkhead to lay down scarfs, a nice touch.
R.I.P Tommy.
Celtic jerseys are not for second best, They don't shrink to fit inferior players!
Damn.
R.I.P.
R. I. P. Tommy Burns: the man who brought the greatness of Pierre and Di Canio to British football.
R.I.P Tommy. He had the Celts playing some unreal football and but for Andy Goram (who broke his heart) we'd have been Champions that year. 1 defeat all season.
Legend!!
I'm older than I wish to be
This town holds no more for me
All my life I try to find another way
I don't care for your attitude
You bring me down I think you're rude
All my life I try to make a better day
It's hard enough being alone
Sitting here by the phone
Waiting for my memories
To come and play
It's hard enough sitting there
Rockin' in your rockin' chair
It's all too much for me to take
When you're not there
RIP Tommy Burns. I think I'm right in saying he was one of those Celtic guys universally respected by the Bears, no matter how good he played against us. Condolences to his family.