The Minister of Propaganda speaks!

As a journalist and broadcaster, Jim Traynor came across to me as something of a patronising big mouth. Personally, I found his writing style to be as fluid as treacle and as interesting as being locked in a coal bunker. His bleating that Scottish football was out of order ganging up on the now dead Rangers FC and ensuring that any New Company start at the bottom was unconvincing. Rangers were liquidated and Charles Green bought the assets of a dead company. His Newco were just that, a New Company and a new Club. By all historical and moral precedent they should start in the lowest rung of the game. That is exactly what happened and that is fair. Now that Traynor’s paycheck comes from Charles Green, he is turning his acid tongue to churning out statements of the type we read today. Normally I’d ignore the ramblings of a third rate Journalist at a third division club, but he mentioned my team and that can’t go unchallenged. Mr Traynor stated…

‘’Many Rangers fans like to think the frenzy to cause the club as much additional pain as possible was driven by one club but that wasn’t strictly the case. Many fans of many clubs waded in but this is not to say Celtic fans or their club didn’t attempt to influence the outcome of debates on Rangers and possible sanctions. Of course they did. And they are still at it on social media sites and on blogs clattered out by individuals who are no better than semi-literate.’’

Traynor like McCoist before him mistakes the consequences of going bust with sanctions. What sanctions have been imposed on the new company?  McCoist stated that they had been thrown out of the SPL, banned from Europe, denied entry to the ECL after finishing second in the league and demoted to division three. All of this is demonstrably untrue. These were all the consequences of financial mismanagement and liquidation and not sanctions applied by the football authorities at all. UEFA rules state that no NEW CLUB can enter European competition without showing 3 years accounts. As a NEW CLUB the SPL could not allow them direct entry into the top league. As for demotion to Division 3, they were not demoted at all. They were a NEW CLUB seeking entry to the Scottish game just as Annan and Gretna had in recent years. You could argue they were given priority over clubs such as Spartans and others who have long lobbied for entry into the senior game. All of this propaganda is poured out to convince the average fan of the New Club that the history is unbroken and that strong men now stalk the marble staircase at the once mighty Ibrox. My advice is always to ‘Follow the money’ as telling people what they want to hear usually happens when you’re selling them something. Green and his new mouthpiece are selling the fantasy that Rangers never died as well as shares, season tickets and merchandise.  Followers of the Newco are eating all of this up and have an increasing anger and persecution complex about what happened to their old club. They lash out at other clubs, the SFA, the SPL and even ‘semi illiterate bloggers.’ As if any of them brought down the house of Murray! Rangers 1872 died of terminal greed, rampant arrogance and financial mismanagement on a grand scale.  Traynor may trot out tired lines from Bill Struth about  revealing ‘Tolerance and sanity’ but the truth is that the history of the old club was littered with intolerance and arrogance. Struth managed Rangers for over thirty years and cemented their ‘No Catholics’ policy. Is he really the man to be quoting in the brave new Scotland?

I may be just another ‘semi-literate blogger’ to you Mr Traynor but I won’t sit idly by and watch you re-write history to suit your own agenda. I'll still be here writing long after Rangers have shown you the door. Your real gripe is that reconstruction talks are going on at Hampden and the once mighty Rangers are not involved. That is the new reality. No one fears the bluster and arrogance anymore. The ordinary fans Aberdeen to Annan stood up to the bully. The NEW Rangers are where they belong and despite dire warning of Armageddon, we’re getting by fine without you. Take your time climbing up the leagues because no one misses you.

Tirnaog