Glasgow Rangers

[birdieman]

Confused!
Watched Rangers last night get to the final of the UEFA Cup. That really is some achievement for a fairly ordinary team. I still can't decide if they are any good or not and is the UEFA Cup any good, I mean you've got 2 rejects from the Champions League contesting the final.
This Rangers team doesn't seem nearly as good as the Celtic team that made the final in 2003 or have I got it wrong?
Most of the time I can't bring myself to watch Scottish league or cup football, whenever I watch it I despair as they can't seem to string 2 passes together, it's all hacking and no-one gets control of the ball but maybe that's just because of the pace of the game in Scotland - no-one has any time to show any skill?
Italian football is played a slow pace and that seemed to suit Rangers as they passed it around pretty well despite being under a lot opf pressure.
Surely with the final being in Manchester it's going to be like a home game for Rangers and playing a fairly unknown, if decent, team from Russia it's gotta be their year - what do you think?
p.s. How can someone be so stupid as Cousin to head-butt another player 2 yards from the ref, 10 mins from the end of extra time when his team is drawing and a penalty shoot-out looming when he's already on a yellow, letting down his team, himself and missing the final - what a tube! He probably makes £25k a week to behave like that. Rangers should get rid of this idiot!

 

[John_Findlay]

A few questions in there, birdieman.

a. I don't think the Rangers team are as good offensively as the Celtic team that reached the final. We had Larsson. End of argument there. Their defence is clearly better, though.

b. Rangers were outplayed start to finish last night but still won. Never count them out. Their spirit is tremendous and that's all due to Walter Smith, a fantastic, if entirely treacherous, manager. I'll never forgive him for resigning from the Scotland job.

c. Having the final in Manchester has to be a big boost. Yip, it'll feel like a home game.

d. Cousin? Yes. Idiot. In any normal job he'd be sacked on the spot. The French seem to like putting the head on the Italians. Zidane in the World Cup Final springs to mind. Is there bad blood there?

As an aside, I was quite happily supporting them in my local last night (they're a Scottish team, after all) until some idiot decided to give everyone abuse for not supporting them "enough" and started singing " follow, follow". No footy songs allowed in my local. Ruined my entire night and just confirmed my thoughts that it's not the team itself which I dislike...it's the manner of many (most?) of their fans.

Steps back to a safe distance.

 

[mboy1980]

I hope they get slaughtered in the final.

 

[shanker]

Personally, I wish the Gers all the best in the final. I caught some of it in a bar and it wasn't pretty, to be honest, but they got the job done. Lots of whinging today from the Italian manager and chairman about the way Rangers played. What the hell? Fiorentina had 3 hours to score and couldn't do it. It's not as if Rangers kicked them off the park! Well..one head butt.

 

[viscount17]

heard on the radio tonight that the Russian league have allowed St Petersburg to postpone their game(s) before the final to 'prepare'.
Rangers have such a back-log of games (and the SFA are so supportive) that they're playing one about every two days between now and the final and again afterwards.

 

[sandford93]

good luck hope u get the quadruple

 

[holein1]

They may get the quadruple but Celtic have won 5 in a row and won every competition they entered in 67.
We won the European cup, The League Championship cup, The Scottish cup, The League cup and The Glasgow cup.

 

[madandra]

As a genuine Motherwell fan I hope Rangers win it. I think they could outnumber the 1.3 million Cel'ic fans that went to Seville (the number goes up every time it gets mentioned).

I wonder if Rangers get beat, will Arthur Boruc (Celtics keeper) pull his shirt off to reveal a t-shirt with a picture of Dick Advocaat on it?

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Got to laugh at the Italians complaining about negative football. Have they never heard of The Catenaccio system? They bloody should have, considering they invented it!
Before anyone replies, I know that Rangers haven't deployed catenaccio, but my point is that the Italian style of football hardly encourages freestyle attacking play and it's a bit rich for them to complain when someone else uses their tactics on them.
For the record, I hope Rangers win tomorrow night about as much as I wanted Celtic to beat Porto in Seville.

 

[Dodger]

The fans of the huns have yet again brought shame on scotland,ban them from europe for 1 season I say,the scenes were disgraceful. Manchester I do not think had any idea for what was to hit them in terms of fanatical numbers but that does not make any excuse for the behaviour of these morons.
Oh and glad to see Zenit and football win last night,in fact don't ban them from europe just force Smith to play with 2 up front next season.....that would really punish them!

 

[Atticus_Finch]

Tend to agree with your points Dodger. Not sure about the language though.(not required)
An utter disgrace to Scotland. We've got a lot of work to do in the future to restore our international reputation because of these morons.

 

[bunkered]

Scum, thats what they are.

 

[Tommo21]

You know, I really don’t have any time for them anymore. Celtic fans go about with Irish flags, Rangers fans go about with union jacks and I never seen one single Scottish flag amongst the Rangers supporters.

 

[madandra]

I have just watched the CCTV footage of the attack on the policeman and I hope every one of those captured on film are charged with attempted murder. If that copper hadn't got back to his feet I am sure they would have kicked him to death.

 

[SS2]

Sadly the CCTV scenes would probably be inevitable if you put 100,000 supporters of any team in one place. The big screen breaking down is no excuse for the violence. All in all, a real shame.

 

[viscount17]

no excuse for the behaviour of what, in fairness, was a tiny minority of the fans. however that minority has scuppered any chance of us holding the World Cup for some time. they will also be remembered far longer than the thousands of the tartan army who have embellished previous competitions - and no I'm not a jock.

I don't think Manchester had a clue as to what to expect, whether they could or should have done is another issue. A local guy on the radio this evening was saying that one of the venues, I think the one where the screen went down, had 40,000 stuffed into a space that might hold 10.

One thing is certain though, don't try this in Moscow!

 

[madandra]

My mate just got back and he told me guys in vans were going out of town to supermarkets and filling it with cases of beer and selling it to Gers fans for £30 a case, thats 3 times what they paid.

 

[StuartD]

I hope all the “fans” that have tarnished the name of our club are all caught and severely punished


As a Rangers fan who attended the UEFA Cup final in Manchester and enjoyed the event despite some woeful organisation, I to say how excellent the Zenit Support were and enjoyed their company both on train to Manchester and outside the stadium.

Reading some of the views above on the Rangers support I shall not be posting on these boards for a while as I do not wish to be labelled as Scum or a disgrace. Thanks to those who pointed out that it was only a minority.

 

[bunkered]

Sorry stuart if you thought i was refering to you, they always come out and say its only a minority, but with over 100 thousand there its always going to be minority, Martin Bain has come out and said those people are not Rangers fans, well sorry Martin what about the scum that go to the away games in Scotland and spout there religious vile.

 

[SammmeBee]

As a Rangers fan who attended the UEFA Cup final in Manchester and enjoyed the event despite some woeful organisation

I love this type of statement - can you expand on UEFA's inadiquacies (sorry for spelling) or your too high expectations?