The weekend saw the return of the famous Rangers statement. The blue crayons were dusted off and brought out on Saturday afternoon as the Ibrox club penned a strongly worded letter to the SFA with the dust still settling after Saturday’s Glasgow Derby.
If only they were that quick to put together a statement condemning the thuggish behaviour of their woman’s coach Craig McPherson or the even more thuggish behaviour of their own supporters when one scarred a Celtic employee for life.
They haven’t worded one for a while, so it was inevitably going to happen. As always it made interesting and humorous reading. As we all know it basically said they wanted an explanation for Kevin Clancy’s decision to disallow an Alfredo Morelos goal.
It’s their right i suppose, how dare an official not award the mighty Rangers a goal. it’s uncalled for, he should be sacked with immediate affect. No that’s a bit harsh, maybe he should just be overlooked for any fixture involving Rangers for the foreseeable future. Like Willie Collum. That’s the aim isn’t it? Of course it is. We’re not all buttoned up the back.
This was all nothing more than a convenient squirrel to deflect from another poor performance and result for the Ibrox club. Clancy is a scapegoat that’s all. He didn’t have the best of games, but he didn’t have the worst. His decision making was harsh on both sides. Not as bad as the decision making of the Rangers central defenders though.
Just like the equally incompetent Willie Collum, Clancy is a hate figure in the eyes of the Ibrox support. Collum is a Catholic and Clancy has a Catholic sounding name so that’s their crime. Not that the media will report that.
A bit of a leap? No it’s true. No other referee has been the victim of such rage from Rangers or their support. Remember Collum was sin die from officiating in Rangers games after the club complained about his decision to send off Daniel Candeias against St Mirren a few years back?
Clancy was also previously the victim of an Ibrox complaint after he sent off Ryan Kent at pittodrie while also having the audacity to award a penalty against Rangers in the same game back in 2022 ( the last one they have conceded in the league) he wasn’t sin die like Collum, but that’s a forgone conclusion now.
That’s the aim. They will succeed. In doing so they have left a man frightened for his safety after the man in question Kevin Clancy received threats from irate delusional Rangers supporters after his personal details were leaked online.
It’s not all down to the club of course but they have a responsibility as do the media and the major Rangers supporters forums and social media accounts. All week leading to the game, Clancy’s allegiances were called into question. By leading Rangers social media accounts. Vile and personal digs at Clancy, it should’ve been nipped in the bud by the club.
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- Photo: Celtic Star Editor
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- Photo: Celtic Star Editor
Then in the aftermath of the game manager Michael Beale and skipper James Tavernier were spouting nonsense about a Jota ‘handball’ they two were the only ones who seen it, and this in turn allowed the delusional rangers supporters to ‘see’ the same thing. Not even nipped in the bud by the Scottish media, although to be fair Kris Boyd called it nonsense, telling you how bad it was!
For the Ibrox club to say a decision against them was astonishing is ironically astonishing in itself. A club who have benefited more form the sham that is VAR than anyone else, the joint most penalty’s received in the league and none conceded. It’s bizarre. They should have a good look at themselves and question their manager and playing squad. That’s where the problem lies, not with Clancy or any other official.
They know this though, this is why they need a scapegoat, they can’t admit they aren’t good enough and that Celtic are a much better side than they are. On and off the park. It’s eating away at them, it’s desperate and downright low that they would put a man’s safety in jeopardy over their vanity. Or should I say it’s astonishing.
JustAnOrdinaryBhoy – follow on Twitter @ordinarybhoy
What is fantastic is the reality that Celtic don’t have to play anywhere near their best and they are still too good for the plucky newcomers.Hopefully Celtic turn it on in the semi and give them a real doing.
In recent weeks Rangers have had a ladies team coach head butt the Celtic coach after a game – with no condemnation, meaningful apology or disciplinary action – had three players sent off in a home B match against Celtic and seen one of their corporate guests jailed for throwing a bottle that scarred a Celtic member of staff for life. That in a game where broken glass was found by the Celtic goalkeeper in his goalmouth when he came out for the second half – with no explanation of how that might have got there.
They now have stoked up a tedious row about one decision denying them a goal early in game that history and evidence shows they would probably not have gone on to win in any case. This continuing row and phrases like ‘demanding’ an apology and ‘astonishment ‘ at a referee decision now have put an official and his family at risk.
A club that refuses to acknowledge or mention the League’s sponsor while happy to take their money – possibly due to the uncertainty around the tightly held details of their financial position. And all at a time when they continue to fall behind their closet rivals in football and financial performance.
Tax dodge, liquidation and disgraceful disregard for their creditors is probably just old news now.
It really is time the footballing authorities called them in and told them to stop behaving like some bitter old relative marginalized by the rest of the family . Who knows they might begin to become more successful and win a few friends that way.