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quote: MP: }Some credit to Walter Smith – like Jack Charlton did with Ireland, he got a side of equally relative unknowns on the world stage to play to their strengths. If he had sent them out to play "entertaining" football, the purists may have lapped it up, but I doubt very much if they would have been involved in tonights final!
If your talking about style of football you have a sort of point…but for saying unkowns??
packie bonner, mark lawrenson, kevin moran, mick mcarthy, paul magrath, liam brady kevin sheedy, ray houghton, john aldridge, ronnie whelan hardly unkown’s i have also left out a good few more names not their faul tthe gaffer played that way
There wasn’t any trouble between rival fans, the trouble was caused by a minority of Rangers fans amongst themselves. There has also been reports of other football fans joining the crowd but I’ll not go there.
Here are a few reports and quotes that you lot wouldn’t be able to get access too… (copied and pasted)
report 1
Last night on Piccadilly Approach about 2-3 minutes walk from the train station there were about a dozen or so Rangers fans, some girls, standing in front of the riot police arguing with them because they wanted to get passed them to make their way up the road to wherever they were going.
The riot police seemed to be charging every 5 minutes or so, beating up any people standing on the road, so I feared for these fans who were not being aggressive.
I took it upon myself to get on to the road and persuade the fans to move over to the pavement and find another route as I feared the police were about to charge. I managed to get all but one of the fans off the road and was still on the road persuading him to get to safety when the police charged us.
The guy I was standing with was beaten by the cops and I avoided being hit with a police batton by a whisker. A cop actually swung for me but I was sharp enough to avoid it and get myself to safety, I was very lucky. Once the riot police had come to a halt I spoke to one of them about what had just happened, explaining I was very nearly hit, his response was, “if you were on the road you deserved to be hit”. At this point I stopped trying to reason and took his identification number. I’m writing a letter of complaint to Manchester police. Some of the tactics they employed were unneccessary and over the top. Many Rangers fans were bang out of order last night but the policing was every bit as bad and added to the trouble. Many innocent bears got caught up in it.
report 2
We waited, very patiently i might add, until about 3 or 4 minutes to kickoff. Then the boos came.
It wasnt until after kickoff we were told (by text on the screen) that they werent getting the signal and were working on it.
Time went on with more boos until after 8pm where the words on the screen looked to say it wasnt going to happen and to head for the velodrome which was “5 minutes away”.The engineer then came up to try and explain the situation on the stage they had built with microphones. He was met was a barrage of abuse and boos. The first words out the mans mouth, with no word of a lie was “Shut up”.
However, what happened next utterly sickened me. The man got pelted with missles. Beer cans and most importantly, glass bottles of beer and wine! The bottles were shattering all over the stage sending glass flying everywhere. He was lucky to make it off stage to be honest.
This devided the fans. Those that were in a rage with the engineer and those (including myself) screaming at the scum throwers with words to the effect of giving our great club a bad name.We decided to leave for the velodrome as the big screen got turned off. People were smashing bottles as we left, jumping over things and stamping on the roofs of the buildings. We got out as soon as the crowd would let us and started what turned out to actually be a 40-50 minute brisk walk.
We got to the velodrome with 50 minutes of the game gone. The place had a **** atmosphere after everything that had happened. (big shoutout to the locals who were letting bears into their houses to watch the game on the way there. A nice touch).
After the game we headed back to the car, passing Piccadilly on the way. The whole road was glass….i mean completely glass, with railings ripped to shreads.
Even before the screen problem i could tell the place was full of wankers. Anyone who wanted to party rather than see the team. Someone pissed right next to me in a crowd of people, lobbing beer cans etc.
Simple fact was that due to how close to home the final was – any scumbag could jump in a car and head there. It wasnt your regular Rangers fans that you’d find at any other match.After such a good day, what a shithole of a night to top it off.
report 3 and probably the more interesting one (fill in the blanks)
Got this from another forum … a stewards point of view…. interesting reading……..
“Ive just got back from Manchester now. The firm i have just joined where doing event security for the game. Until we arrived this afternoon, we didnt realise that we where actually working on the fan parks in the city centre.
We got given high vis jackets then I was posted with 6 others to one of the gates at Picadilly Square Fan Park at around half 5. The crowds where unbelieveable, reminicent of Tacksim and Syntagma square for us, except in a much smaller area. Our job was to stop people entering with glass bottles. Bearing in mind this was my first ever shift, it was quite daunting. Alot of the people who i had to challenge for bottles where sound, had no objections because we provided plastic cups for them to enter their bottles in to. But there was alot of scum aswell, ***** out of their faces who had none of it. I asked one big feller to empty his bottle in to a cup, very politely, and i was told to *****. I then went over to him again, and he ***** me in the chest, i asked him again with a plastic cup in my hand for him and he threw me in to a fence. ***** this, i dont get paid enough for this ***** so i left him.
It was clear by then the sqaure was becoming dangerously overcrowded. Our gate was getting crushed, and we where pulled away by police for our own safety. We where moved further up to the entrance of the square, where barriers where accross preventing people from entering because it was too full. A lot of lads tried to get through, and the vast majority where sound about it and good natured with me. I had many a conversation with jocks when they noticed my scouse accent and realised i wasnt a manc. My advice to them was to find a pub before the rush, which went against what we where told to tell them which was to head for the fan park at the ground. I knew theyd have ***** there so i didnt tell them that. No problems whatsoever at this point.
Then about 20mins before kick off, an older scots feller came over to me and said hoow dangerously crowded it was in the square, he said “someone was going to get killed”, and thats why he left. He also said to me “mark my words, there will be a riot in there”. I had those suspicions myself. From my experience of Istanbul and Athens, you can tell when something is not right, and i definately sensed that then.
We then hit quarter to 8, and the square is rammed with Rangers fans, singing and watching the big screen for the adverts to end and the game to start. By 5 to 8, still no game. Then a supervisor gets it over his radio that they werent showing it. I couldnt believe it. My words to him where “there will be absolute ***** murder here, its ***** suicide”. Jocks where coming over asking us what was going on, and we had to tell them. They where understandabely ***** fumin. I tried to tell them that i totally agreed with them, and that it was a ***** disgrace. Some where sound with me, recognising it wasnt our fault as event stewards. But then as people started to twig on what was going on, it started getting nasty.
There was about 15 of us on this gate with a few police near by, and the scots where fuming with us. Coming over, pushing us, screaming in our faces. What could we do? I agreed with every word they said, id be ***** fuming aswell, but it had ***** all to do with us. Then it got quite serious, bottles where being thrown, passing just past my face and lads where getting really aggresive with us. It was then when our head office told us to pull out, and the police moved us down a side street. We where getting dogs abuse, bottles thrown down at us, everything. Obviously the fact we where in uniform attracted it.
Then our supervisor said they had to try and move us in to one of the portacabins back in the middle of the sqaure. We walked through as a group, through thousands of scots who where going crazy, throwing all kinds, screaming in our faces. We eventually had to take our jackets off and run. When we made it to this portacabin, all hell was going off around us. Riot police where coming from everywhere, and hundreds of rangers fans where charging them. Bus shelter where ripped down, and metal and wooden poles used as weapons to charge the police. The place was totally trashed. A bottle landed right next to me which had been thrown from someone. This went on for 3hours solid until 11 oclock. We had to take off all jackets and ties, and when it quietened down about half 11 we where able to make way to our coach at the GMex. Back at the coach we heard a Russian had been stabbed too.
you can believe what you want to believe but the last quote sickens me about the screen being turned off deliberately.
Don’t say I’m not good to you all, now does anyone actually want to talk about the game???
Don’t say I’m not good to you all, now does anyone actually want to talk about the game???
Not really Jim – it was shi*te.
In no-one wants to talk about the football then maybe it’s best to lock the thread as some are making their own stuff up and it could get out of hand.
your choice!
or how exciting rangers football was over the whole tournament!!!! the best team won, would have been a bad night for football had rangers held on for a 0-0 and won on peno’s
No probs Grassy, a player with he amount of european appearances (club record) as he has can’t be shÃte and he is also playing through the pain barrier at the moment, they guy is a legend and to say he is shite? well those kinda comments could only come from those that have a taste for the green side of the city and edinburgh for that matter
I’m off now to enjoy the rest of the party, still lots of bunting and parties going on over here and there’s a small game on Saturday to get ready for.
Good article here
A Graham Spiers article good? are you really serious? the man hates the club, but don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
ALSO :-
RANGERS Football Club issued the following statement in light of incidents involving supporters in Manchester.
Martin Bain, chief executive, said:" The club has had discussions with Greater Manchester Police and Manchester City Council in view of incidents in the city last night.
"The police and council praised the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of Rangers fans and estimates suggest there could have been around 200,000 in the city yesterday.
"There was a tremendous atmosphere all around the city and the vast majority deserved credit for the way they behaved.
"The police and council have identified the failure of a big screen in the city as a key point in the evening. We are deeply disappointed that a small minority soured what was great carnival atmosphere and this is a view shared by our fans who travelled in unprecedented numbers to Manchester.
"We would like to thank everyone in Manchester who made such a great effort to welcome our fans to the city yesterday."
They are a disgrace.
Well done Mr Spiers for telling it as it is. Spiers is a Rangers fan – despite the protestations in the blue corner over there.Well done Zenit St. Petersburg for finally consigning ant-football to the bin – where it belongs. (hopefully forever).
Rangers scored 5 goals on their road to Manchester, which says it all.
Hopefully Motherwell will add to their abject misery on saturday.
Quadruple … my a*** !
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Jim, my position is only that of an educated observer – I have no axe to grind with Rangers whatsoever.
But Ferguson is mince – or at least, he is vastly inferior to the legend that surrounds him.
Saying he has a record number of club appearances doesn’t mean very much. The captains at Steau Bucharest and Rosenberg probably have as many European games under their belt.
Granted, he must have some level of talent to have lasted for as long as he has, and I don’t deny that he is a handy player. But as soon as he is out of his comfort zone in the SPL, he becomes anonymous – whether it be for Rangers or Scotland.
He couldn’t hack it at even a second-rate Premiership club like Blackburn (sorry Rovers fans). Put him in against players of Premiership ability, and he is like a little-boy-lost – he rarely influences the game.
And if there’s anyone in the game that’s delivered more hospital passes – his name must be Postman Pat.
He is a journeyman, by any standards.
Rangers themselves have hired a PR agency
What’s the pay like Jim?
Brilliant.Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Oh my god – as they say, comparing race goers with football fans?
Why ever not? Both comprise fans (allowing for shades of interpretation) prepared to fork out for their sport, and in many cases go to the ends of the Earth, metaphorically speaking, to see it played. It’s how they conduct themselves when they get there that possibly differs – certainly it did last night compared to the example I gave.
I don’t condone any trouble
I’m sure you don’t – despite all the bluster about the Forum clock, the dislike of jumps racing, etc., you have a good heart.
However, I will tell you what I am having the most trouble with in this instance.
I approached the papers and telly this morning with an entirely open mind about the trouble. I appreciated that such an influx of fans may prove hard to segregate from negative influences entirely, and that the trouble may conceivably have been caused by any Manchester United or Manchester City supporters / sympathists / delinquent factions fancying themselves a bit of Scotsman to kick off against. As an alternative, I was quite prepared to learn that the trouble may have been caused by Zenit fans not having been adequately kept at bay.
…Anything at all, in fact, other than some Rangers fans causing bother among the other Rangers fans that would ultimately tarnish all of the Rangers fans by association.
The reason that I was so desperate to be proven wrong is that my only first-hand experience of Rangers fans to date has been during my five years in Scarborough, where each Spring the sizeable Rangers Supporters Club in the town would team up with the local BNP and Orange Order sympathists to bring a micro-version of the marching season to the streets of North Yorkshire – bands, songs, sashes, cracking of heads, and all.
I am hopeful that the Scarborough model almost certainly represents behaviour that the majority of true Rangers fans would refuse to condone. I am also hopeful that there was no similar religious, racial or political influence to any of the trouble last night. All the same, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that the Rangers fans were not able, to a man, to conduct themselves without resorting to any fisticuffs or disorder. I genuinely don’t know how unrealistic an expectation of mine that was.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Grassy you are being unfair, Blackburn fans adored Fergie but his heart was with Rangers and he wanted back, it’s all about opinions but he’s had some great games for Scotland and people that know more than you or me have said so and he remains one of Scotlands finest players.
Himself, stop the crap talk, anti-football doesn’t even exist, a silly statement spouted from the mouth of a 20-year old Barcelona player (you know who I’m talking about) and everyone wants to use the phrase, football is all about winning and if something can be won without scoring goals in normal time then it all counts, Spiers is never a Rangers fan get real.
The ONLY team that stopped us in Europe were Zenit, well done to them but they were helped by the SPL, and that is Dick Advocaat the Zenit managers views (words to that effect).
it’s funny when I post truths that people feel hurt, you must have a problem with truth. jealousy is a bad thing, Rangers were at the party and thats what counts, we cannot win all the time but this was an opportunity missed thanks to the SPL.
Here is another fact that will hurt many,
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