GLF 62: Eddie enjoys seeing one of the OF struggle.

Oh the bluebells are blue !!!!!

There aren't many things in this life as sweet as watching an Old Firm side struggle from pillar to post, without a cats chance in hell of landing any silverware in the near future.That's why I've been completely hypnotised by the opening to the current 2006 / 07 season,despite the fact that my own Motherwell side have, in the main, been poor.

Narrow minded and shallow ?Yep,that's me.Irrespective of Motherwells' performances,I just love it when things go tits up for either Celtic,or in this case Rangers.I always proclaim that us ‘Well fans can (usually) take the high moral ground against the average Old Firm fan,and can normally justify supporting Motherwell FC better than they can justify supporting any of the terrible twins.In this case, sadly,I've let the team down.I'm no better than any Tarrier who's just as desperate for Rangers to lose than see their own team win !

Rangers and David Murray (when we've heard from him this season) have bored us all to tears with Ibrox suddenly being a family environment at the moment,with as much of a chance of hearing a Hail Mary as asectarian chant !!You'll probably know already that they've introduced the Brass Band to keep the “faithful” happy,tooting along to the Engerland songbook.And of course our old“Sunday Joint”friend,Andy Cameron now reads out the teams resplendent in his blue suit and gives a bi-weekly plea to “get behind the light blues !”.

I almost began to believe the hype coming from Govan when they issued every season ticket holder with the “blue song book”.Obviously,I'd realised that Murray was fighting to keep onside with UEFA,but I did think that if maybe the pressure was put on,finally a solution to the Celtic/Rangers disease might be on its way.Cue, Eggs Benedictgate.

But then that was just a laugh right ?No sensible bugger would actually take something off a menu because of a name clash with a World spiritual leader.Would they ?Paul Le Guen, after months of press coverage, finally took his bow at Fir Park, and to be honest Rangers could've scored five or six in the first half hour, and yet again I thought things really were about to take off for our Govan friends.I (and they) should've known better.Here we are a little over three months later and “Le Gaffer” is in some trouble.

Not only that,but the Ibrox legions who we'd been told had finally turned the sectarian corner, have now reverted back to singing their bile, only this time with more venom and defiance than before.

I first noticed it when results began to fade and (even at Ibrox) the odd party tune could be heard as the bears became restless.Come the match at Tannadice on Bonfire Night,when they got a rocket from the Terrors,it was wall to wall “feinan blood stylee”.Four days later and an illusion that David Copperfield would've been proud to perform was in seen in Ibrox Stadium.31,000 people were seen to become a mere six thousand within seconds,when with twenty minutes to play the super Perth saintees went two up,depriving the famous Glasgow Rangers of their one true chance of glory this season……..the CIS Cup,the diddy Cup,the Cup their fans never tire of telling us disnae matter !!! All of a sudden it matters alright and hundreds turn into Edmiston Drive and begin singing “sack the board”.I mean,can they not even think up their own songs for demonstrations.

Now everybody has got an opinion on what's went wrong with Rangers,and although I'm loathed to spend too much time thinking about it (just enjoy it folks !!) and writing this in a ‘Well fanzine, I feel it's justified.Any Scottish club (never mind Rangers) playing with just one striker is on a collision course with their fans right from the word go.It's just not in the Scottish psyche.We fans demand to see 100% effort more than 100% skill,and you will get that more with two strikers haring around, looking for scraps than you would watching a midfield 6 trying to unlock a packed defence.Le Guen got away with it up to the point they began dropping them.After that the questions were piling up in his in-tray,his problem was that he wasn't dealing with them, as he was right and everybody else was wrong.Don't you know he won the French League with Lyon three times,he must be bloody right.He spent what little cash Murray allowed him to,and frankly he would've been better putting it on the latest Euro Millions draw.Sebo, Papac, Letitzi and the rest, thought they were coming to some backwater League to pick up some easy dough,just like Mr Le Guen.

Don't you know that he's only here for a couple of seasons before taking over at Arsenal,‘cause he did win the French League, blah, blah.Paul Le Guen may just be the latest to under estimate Scottish football,but he sure won't be the last to find the diddy teams, like us too hot to handle.

Eddie Steelman

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