When relationships hitherto developed and cultivated, alongside being mutually beneficial over a sustained period of time come to an end, it can often from the outside looking in appear to be brutal as both sides lash out at each other. Often those exchanges ultimately come down to money, betrayal, jealousy or all three. There is as the saying goes a fine line between love and hate after all.
That very fine line has been evidenced of late as theRangers fan media meets the Scottish mainstream sports media in a public fight to convince us all they are slightly less bigoted in their social media outpourings than the other. That’s a fairly paltry purse to land for the victor it must be said.
You’ve all seen it by now I’m sure you don’t need a picture painting. It’s the kind of pub brawl where you hope both sides land a simultaneous blow and bring the whole unedifying spectacle to a quick conclusion, whilst at the same time there is a rubbernecking element to any scrap where for a little time at least you are fascinated by the exchange.
Both sides at the moment seem to be slugging it out, with a frightening disregard for what they have to lose. On one side the once hugely popular tabloid – in terns of daily sales – and their claims of historically racist tweets emanating from the twitter accounts of theRangers fan media podcast, and the other with retaliatory retweets from a trawl through the journalist who called it out’s back catalogue.
Meanwhile much of this, serious subject matter as it is aside, comes down to manoeuvring and petty jealousies as an old order of media access in exchange for soft touch analysis being shifted to a fan media willing to pay £25k for twice weekly access to theRangers inner sanctum exclusivity at the expense of the old order. Celtic as you know were at Ibrox last weekend and were asked to participate in this new age of media management but as was exclusively reported at the time, refused to get involved.
READ THIS…Celtic ‘Declined to Participate’ in Ibrox Cash for Questions Venture, BBC Scotland snub ‘Call it Out’
There could in some quarters be an argument to say anti-Irish racism and discriminatory behaviour and a need to call it out was the reason behind the Daily Record’s initial front-page story, however the timing and the previous disregard of the subject matter for many years would call that into question. Instead, the once popular tabloid appears to be using this as a cloak to challenge and discredit a rival who has moved in on their turf, the ex-lover who has invited in the new partner and now the marital bed suffers from a three- is- a-crowd congestion issue, rather than a suddenly developed social conscience.
Under their previous incarnation David Murray fed scribes succulent lamb in exchange for favourable narratives. Under the phoenix from the flames replacement this continued to the point of a denying, having previously prescribed to, the death of football club, an airbrushing of a liquidation event and a replacing of pictures of wreaths and coffins with words like ‘demotion’ and ‘administration’.
I will David, I’ll campaign for his removal. And if it gets anywhere near the sheer cesspit that you and your pals have conjured up – humiliating your football club – then I’ll take it further.
What kind of polluted mind – Ian Hogg – writes: “The rancid bitch deserves herpes”?— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) September 4, 2021
Even now there is little scrutiny on a club’s finances who have yet to post a profit in their entire existence, nor of an intolerance of faiths and cultures spewing from the stands and on our streets that until recently appeared to go unchecked.
Now the hand that fed having been bitten, and whist the printed press is in its dying throes, there is an element of the turf war over all of this. And it’s hard to see how the subject of this battle can come out of it unscathed either. theRangers now look rank amateurs when it comes to due diligence on media partners and the lover scorned won’t be returning if expected to shell out £25k for access, and if they were the fan backlash could be significant.
It’s a rock and a hard place is it not? Particularly when you’re broke and wish to avoid unwanted attention on your accounts and your supporter’s songbook.
I struggle to understand how we’ve gone from supporters rampaging through a city, to being banned for racist singing on a bus, to being arrested for racist singing in the streets to now having that group of supporters feeling like they’re being wronged.
— Michael Stewart (@mstewart_23) September 4, 2021
But then the Ibrox club aren’t beyond deflection tactics at any given time and Celtic would do well to be aware that their fallback from criticism is often whataboutery. Whether it’s genuine or not both theRangers and the press have a habit of approaching such moments with two cheeks of the same backside approach as they seek to conflate. If they haven’t done so already it is only because they are too busy at the moment seeing who can urinate up the public convenience wall of bigotry the highest, but they’ll soon settle back to old habits.
As and when they do Celtic need to be ready to ensure we are ready to defend our corner, that problems of intolerance remain confined to the other side of the city. Because as ever when a break up starts, they begin clawing at each other’s throats, but soon they look for someone else to lash out at.
And the Poppy season is just around the corner.
Niall J
those three rancid sectarian rats EDGAR.BELL & HOGG should be dragged into court & jailed for the damage they are causing. i know BELL & HOGG have resigned but the utter bigoted drivel that clown EDGAR came away with in todays paper is enough to hang himself. also BELLS mate and fellow orange BIGOT. THE rangers PR man GRAHAM should also be sacked from his ibrox duties. for his rancid rants. HAMMER these 4 and show that for once these idiots and their views won’t be tolerated. but i wont hold my breath