04 Aug 2024 11:12:39
Around 2005 ish i gave up my season ticket in the Govan Front as amongst other things, i found myself arguing with individuals around me who incessantly shouted at our players, booed if we were drawing/ losing at half time or if they perceived a player to not be having a 10/ 10 game.
My argument back then with them was this;
Q. What do we all want?
A. The players playing well and the team winning.
Q. Is you booing and shouting at the players going to make this more likely or less likely?
A. Less likely.
The fan base back then was much less toxic than it is today.
This worries me.
Negativity on here is one thing. If this manifests itself on the terraces we will destroy the players confidence and guess what, the scenario we all want will be less likely.
Think about cause and effect.
If you're one of the people who boo and shout, what effect will that have on the young guy on the pitch? . When he makes a mistake or is having a 'mare, how about giving him encouragement to try improve.
How would you treat your own kids?
Before I'm accused of being a happy clapper. I can see the problems and the challenges but I'm not going to react game by game. I'll assess the season in May not Aug.
Jesus, after the 1st half yesterday we were at it.
Phil needs to be given the 3 years SG was. I believe in his ability to get it right.
He's not starting on a level playing field. He's inherited a rubbish show.
There have been some excellent posts after yesterday's game which summed up the good and the bad.
There is a difference between an honest appraisal of the situation which highlights the bad and the good and the toxic negativity some with a pre-existing agenda spout.
Think about your actions and please be a bit more resilient and balanced. Everythings not either brilliant or rubbish, there is room in between.
Re yesterday's game. It was as good a 0-0 game as I've seen for a long time. We had some good but also some bad. Thought we took a while to settle but felt we just edged it.
04 Aug 2024 11:38:36
Absolutely spot on.
04 Aug 2024 11:42:29
Fair, balanced and reasonable post, athole. Only problem is you will be accused of accepting failure. But you're right, large sections of the support are toxic and do react game by game. It's just the way it is unfortunately.
04 Aug 2024 11:59:21
Great post mate. Big Phil needs time to weed out the crap and bring in his own hungry players. I don’t condone any booing of our players. Never have and never will. There is a fine balance though where I understand others who voice their concerns when we see players such as Davies, Wright and Matondo consistently giving minutes when they are clearly not good enough. ?.
04 Aug 2024 12:10:34
I shout and even have had the odd disagreement with my own fans around me but this comes out of frustration or when I can clearly see a player isn't trying his best re: Morelos (the last big bust up I had with our own fans around me was the new year OF at Ibrox 22/ 23 I could see by his body language he wanted to be anywhere but at Ibrox but I pay my hard earned money for tickets, travel, merchandise ect so I feel I'm entitled to voice my opinion just the same as if I didn't do my job properly I'd expect someone to say. Footballers these days are too soft if they're getting hurt by what fans say they should use that as a method of improving themselves to say to everyone myself included "I show them"
04 Aug 2024 12:16:34
; at last a fair and balanced post which I couldn’t put better myself, the sense of entitlement that comes from these fans is disgusting, fans need to accept PC came into a mess and very little funds to fix it, player on huge wages which very few teams will pay them so we are stuck with them that’s not the players fault they didn’t roll up to Ibrox and demand to play for our club we scouted them and brought them in, can you imagine how Lammers felt being booed onto the park by his own fans, the abuse directed towards Dessers, Wright, Davis ETC is disgusting and does nothing to help our team, I know we need players in but until funds are freed up that won’t happen, a 0-0 draw away from home to Hearts is not the worst result I know we all wanted a win but we are bang in the middle of a huge transition and will be for a while, I’m glad we gave PC a new contract as we need stability the hiring and firing of managers must stop, as was said ill judge progress at the end of the season not after 90 mins this is a two or three transfer job not a single window with little money so time to be supporters these players need us abusing them brings nothing to the team.
04 Aug 2024 12:24:48
You’ll always get the “I pay my money I can boo if I want” however I totally agree with you. Not only does it have an adverse affect on your own but it also boosts the confidence of the opposing team. I know for a fact opposition managers often tell their team to keep it tight early on and get our fans turning against the team, we’re known for it!
04 Aug 2024 12:40:35
I agree he does need time at least 2 more windows but there is always a but coming playing wright is nonsense and having Tav in the team nonsense and TL for that matter. We lost the midfield battle yesterday because TL is not good enough.
It’s only my opinion but we need another 4 starters before the end of this month.
The decision to keep Tav is going to cost us.
04 Aug 2024 13:50:14
Been saying about Tav for ages, some can't see it.
04 Aug 2024 14:01:45
I don't think anybody decided to keep tav, PC made it clear only 1 player wasn't to be sold. Nobody wants him.
04 Aug 2024 14:05:52
This is the best post I've read on here for a very long time mate IMO ?.
04 Aug 2024 14:39:55
Very well written and delivered post Athole, I could nameover 100 players who I have seen take fan abuse in 70 years of attendance at ibrox. Up r right it’s unlikely to make even one of them better
Social media highlights the toxic fans more as they have a channel to vent anger on, on Friday the vast majority were delighted to see PC get an extended contract, saying this helps us have stability as the rebuild is massive, one draw later its meltdown
Most on here say we prefer europa league, but wait for over the top reaction when we go out CL
Imo pc made a mistake telling certain players they did not have a future, however I’m not aware of any fan wanting to keep McLaughlin Barisic lundstrum Jack roofe this season
We have sold Mccrorie, Lammers Goldson possibly cifuentes, likely to sell cantwell hagi hopefully sell Davies, Lawrence matondo, tavernier and dowell.
I’m not sure how many thought this would be easy, but we r seeing the early shoots of progress in removing players who are not the standard required to take us forward.
My biggest fear for our club is a takeover of non rangers people who will have no interest in our history,
I’ve said before careful what you wish for, I’ve even read some would want MA back or a predator like fox to take over, that imo would be catastrophic .
04 Aug 2024 15:07:06
I share your fear John mate. Losing the tradition of the club and selling to these types of characters and for me it would be game over.
We will become a diluted version of our great club. And they would only care about their own profit margin not about our club and us supporters.
As long as we keep their grimey hands of our club and we are run by guys that bleed Rangers we will be fine. Is it perfect, no. But at least we know these guys have our club at heart.
Do we need investment? Of course we do but not if it comes with the high price of letting these snakes and charlatans in who are only interested in making a quick buck.
04 Aug 2024 15:22:04
I still can't believe we find ourselves in this position after the highs of 55.
04 Aug 2024 15:28:11
I reckon that the booing is borne out of frustration and while it is easy for us to criticise, (and I do agree that booing a player never makes them a better player), I can equally understand the discontent when players that are simply not good enough are played and we seem to stumble from one self made hurdle to the next.
The previous Board certainly did not make things easier for the players or the support and Bennett certainly has his work cut out for him to turn things round quickly. It will take time and resources, but I do believe that PC and his team has the skill set to do this. Unfortunately, without change upstairs this will be exceedingly difficult because I do believe that our Board is stale, needs new blood and new ideas. That will only come with new investment, taking out some of the current shareholders and having sufficient support within the Boardroom to make change.
Will it happen, I still believe that the answer is yes. I keep hearing that some of the current Board want out and equally I keep hearing of interest among existing and prospective new investors that want to come in!
Picking up on John's point, I believe that some of the names that I have heard would certainly work in the best interests of the Club and the support. Others, I suspect, would be more interested in the commercial attraction, (which might not be altogether a bad thing) .
We need change, we need new ideas and we need to stop the own goals such as we have seen with the work on the stadium.
04 Aug 2024 21:18:22
John that's concerning to hear re ownership of the club.
These guys that we have/ just had at the helm are far from perfect but they are fans who have the best interests of the club at heart.
This nonsense about new investment makes no sense. We can only spend what we make. I hope everyone gets that now.
Re PC telling players they are no longer wanted. I find that a strange way to work, especially the timing of it.
Still doesn't make him wrong. I wouldn't have kept any of the players we released.
04 Aug 2024 22:13:51
The toxicity of the fans and always getting on the players back, especially at Ibrox. I have always said that our title 55 was made easier with no fans in the ground as that pressure wasn't there.
as for John2561 post, really good post. I like seeing all the names of those gone and we will try to move on, what is scary is the number who were not regulars last season (16 players named and we could say, what, 3 were regulars Tav, Goldson, Lundstrum, maybe Todd too) which shows how bloated the squad has become. So while it looks like we are selling lots, we are not selling many first team regulars.
I watched the match twice yesterday, I don't think we were as bad as some made out, we just weren't particularly good either and there lies the problem. We want to get a style and a flow, we want to get ahead and keep going like Celtic do and at the moment we just are not creating that much. We were wobbly at times in defence but we still did not concede, Hearts are a strong team who I appreciate more than most because they attack rather than low block us the whole game and they have a great home record. Yes, there are guys there that we feel aren't good enough but i am sure they don't appreciate getting told it all the time rather than supported by the fans.
Shankland may well score lots for us but we need to create first. Thought Tav actually had a number of dangerous crosses and corners compared to sometimes, no one there to put them away. I hope Barron becomes our Macgregor/ Brown type of player when he settles as that is something we have missed for years, a player who drives the team on, never let's up and his available most of the games. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the guys because of who they play/ ed for but I do respect how they made sure all their teammates were on page, how they could grab them all by the scruff of the neck and get them over the line. we have lacked that type of player for years.
John, you also note re takeovers again, is there some possible concrete offers being lined up?
05 Aug 2024 08:18:41
Good post Athole, I can't fault anything you said. We need to learn quickly to be 'at it' as you said from the off, not just in one half of the game.