Murray should be hailed as visionary
Ask yourself honestly - if your ship came in would you push the boat out and buy a football club?
It's lunacy. Madness. Financial self-flagellation. Why not just put your £100 notes in a shredder and save a bit of time?
Of course, given the lottery win, I would probably be certified insane in that department just like the rest of the fruitcakes through history who have bled themselves dry over the love affair of the local footballing institution.
We should all be locked up in another kind of institution actually.
It's twenty years since David Murray bought himself a piece of the action. Two decades since his pal Graeme Souness tipped him off that Rangers were up for grabs and that just £6 million would clinch the deal.
It was a shrewd piece of business to persuade Lawrence Marlborough to walk away. You certainly don't get much for £6 million these days.
Of course the running costs can be a little excessive. Murray freely admits to pumping in a further £100m just to keep the club ticking over.
Murray - now Sir David of course - has picked up more than a knighthood along the way. He is an international businessman and Rangers are just a piece of his global jigsaw.
Or "ten per cent of my business, 90 per cent of my grief" as he likes to put it.
I like the man - a heinous crime in the eyes of some observers who see me and various colleagues as his lap dogs. Apparently the canine parallel for interviewers should be Rottweilers.
Over the years he has been accused of much nonsense, including asset stripping - a difficult, never mind illegal, concept given that he actually owns 90 per cent of the club.
At various times he has been lambasted for not spending enough on players or spending too much, highlighted of course by his bête noir when the sorcerer Dick Advocaat wooed him into believing Tore Andre Flo was worth £12 million.
To paraphrase Bill Shankly, ten million wouldn't buy him and I'm one of them.
But then again Murray massaged a deal for Alain Boumsong, a transfer which was to cough profit the likes of which usually only comes with six numbers and a bonus ball.
I cannot, for the life of me, fathom the reluctance of a percentage of the Rangers support to embrace his stewardship of the club.
No chairman has served longer, no other has witnessed such a sustained period of success.
Only in the wake of the Ibrox disaster did the stadium undergo more surgery, but after a century and more he became the first chairman to actually do something about the alarming absence of a training facility worthy of the name.
From the day of my first by-line I preached and recorded the lunacy of both Rangers and Celtic's determination not to have a training ground and youth academy and continue to work their players in various car parks, public pitches and glorified allotments where dog mess was as big a threat to their well being as a straight legged tackle.
Men of vision? In the sixties and seventies there were directors at Ibrox and Parkhead who couldn't have seen their own reflection in the boardroom table.
And think on this: Murray Park cost twice his initial investment in the club.
He blew away a century of signing policy which should have been banished with the slave trade and dragged swathes of the club's support screaming and kicking into the real world.
We still have bigots supporting Rangers, but the club doesn't privately condone them anymore. And for all the Famine Song nonsense, progress has been made in those twenty years.
I came out of the front door at Ibrox when Mo Johnston signed and watched so-called supporters rip up season tickets and burn red, white and blue scarves.
In the days that followed there may even have been Old Firm games with more Catholics in the Rangers team than in Celtic's. Possibly, possibly not, but the point is that few would even bother to work it out.
It doesn't matter...and that is breathtaking progress.
Murray should enjoy his anniversary celebrations. Twenty years is a long time in the job and for sure he won't repeat the shift.
They will miss him when he's gone. Just see if they don't.
"Tell them who you are and what you are about," they said. To be honest, there are days when I struggle to remember myself. Forty years toiling at the coalface of football journalism does that to you. But I have reason to believe that I have reached the heady heights of the title of Football Correspondent of BBC Scotland which gives me a renown, in Scottish terms, of somewhere between Alex Salmond and the deep fried Mars Bar.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~23~RS~)
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So how many 'exclusives' will he give you for this particular puff piece Chick?
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Here We Go 4 In A Row
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Nice use of the apostrophe.
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Cute write up about yer wee pal Chick.
I wonder if he is now getting itchy feet after Rangers playing second fiddle to their greatest rivals for the best part of the last decade? Maybe, maybe not.
He indeed deserves credit for a lot of the things he has done for RFC, Murray Park and the success the team had in the 90's for example, but he could have done a lot more to deal with the rampant bigots who continue to taint the club.
Yes I know Celtic have their own problems with factions of the clubs supporters, but the anachronistic attitudes that continue to pervade the mindsets of a significant number of the Rangers support, the wee arra peepil element, should have been dealt with earlier in his reign.
I look forward to the day any Catholic Rangers players can freely bless themselves, as they would at any other club, without facing a barrage of outrage from the support......In reality a very minor thing, but it would really show progress has been made in changing attitudes.
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Chick, did Mr Murray put in £100 million of his own money or did he get rangers FC to borrow it and rangers FC to service the repayments ?
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Chicovision,
Lapdog? Rottweiler? Canine Parallels ? Dog mess? Bête noir ? Directors without reflections ? Bryan Ferry references? Is there a hidden message here? I think we should be told.
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Chick, no other chairmen has enjoyed such a sustained period of success ?
Yer having a laugh.
The last 8 years has been a disaster on the field ....2 titles out of 8.
And off the field ...Manchester riots, Famine song, debt out of control, false promises - new stadia etc.
He's been trying to flog Rangers for the past 6 or 7 years.
So i guess him reaching the 20th anniversary will be a major disappointment to him ....he would have been hoping to have walked away from it all many years ago.
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Poor chick you write a wee note on a noticeable landmark for Scottish football and more comments are banned from being viewed as they broke the rules.... *sighs*
Looking forward to your next blog with great interest so we again can see how narrow minded our supporters can be.
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Chic, the problem with us celtic fans is all down to you brown nosing the Rangers Chairman. Murray has done a good job with Rangers, they are moving in every direction other than the football. His knee jerk reaction to getting rid of PLG was british management at its best. If he had had the backbone to stand up to Ferguson and the blue nose brigade, Rangers might not be watching us enjoy 4 in a row and still in Europe after the schools had returned.
He was gazumped by Fergus and bypassed by Brian Quinn. I hope he stays for another 20 years. He will remove the bigots from Ibrox and maybe most of the reasonable (95%) fans that want too see good football, send them over to Celtic Park and we'll entertain them.
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Rotten to the core
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Is this the samr chairman who appointed as deputy chairman a sectarian bigot....FACT. The only reason that he had to resign was that he was caught on camera, not the FACT that he was a bigot. Well done dodgy Dave
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Top notch piece Chick. Insightful and balanced. 100% agree that the moaning faced eejits who claim to support Rangers but who constantly criticise SDMs tenure at the club, will be wailing and gnashing their teeth when he decides to call it a day.
Fife Bear
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Scotlands Shame
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Must say Chick, I do find you rather biased usually to the Old Firm, in particular to Rangers but this is a good article.
Not a great fan of Murray personally, I feel he could do more about the sectarianism and should worry about his own club before spouting off about Celtic, Dundee Clubs etc.
However he has transformed Rangers into a modern club with modern facilities and still appears to want to improve on this. He obviously made mistakes giving Advocaat money, but that just shows his ambition. He also cleared most of the debt he created from his own pocket. I wish certain other chairmen would do the same for their clubs.
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All Gers fans who don't think Murray has done a good job for Rangers should be carted off by the men in white coats.
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I find it hilarious to read all the criticism aimed at Murray from the other side of Glasgow. Especially when off-field their team has been nothing but a laughing stock. Yes, i know they will come back again with 3 in a row blah blah blah. The point is Celtic have won the league not because they have an array of international talent on their books - it's merely because we have had a lot of turmoil over the last 3 years, something which is now well on the way to being corrected. Whilst rangers have had this difficult time it has certainly not come with the off-fied humiliation Celtic embarrassed themselves with in the 90's
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teuchger@4.57pm, you don't do irony do you? "Celtic have won the league not because they have an array of international talent on their books - it's merely because we have had a lot of turmoil over the last 3 years".
You obviously weren't around in the early to mid 90s when Rangers coasted to 9-in-a-row in a one horse race against a Celtic who were almost bankrupt?
Murray has done some good things, but put everythin into context, he won the majority of the titles when faced with no real challenge, since his main rivals have gotten their act together, he has won 2 out of 8.
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News just in...Edinburgh man mauled by Rottweiler!
Responding on Thursday afternoon, the Celtic chairman said: "We all want to be a little indulgent to David on his 20th anniversary, but I'm not entirely sure of the points he is trying to make regarding inference and innuendo.
"In any case, no one should be under any illusion that in defending the welfare of Celtic and our supporters I will continue to comment when appropriate, without fear or favour.
"I know we all welcome David's respect for Celtic's traditions and we congratulate him on 20 years at Rangers Football Club".
Nice condecending response from Dr Reid.
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this guys a dafty :)
mone the hoops.
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After reading this rubbish,I had to remove myself from my PC,to vomit.
Here we go for 10 in a row.
Oh what happened to your every £5 THEY SPEND I WILL SPEND £10.
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As a neutral i can't understand why people think SDM is bad for the Gers but we could do without the personal love letter.
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As a Celtic fan I love it when the neutrals agree with me before I've said anything. Can we be the "Other 11" now?
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Couple of points:
1. Chick needs a wee course in blogging. The whole idea of links is to take the reader to other articles that will develop the story in more depth or provide background - not to define random words like "shredder" and "fruitcake" or tell us the meaning of phrases like "push the boat out". Talk about treating your readership like idiots.
2. Can someone tell me why it's OK for David Murray to admit, as he does in these birthday interviews he's doing, that he interferes with signings and recommends and signs players himself - and gets no criticism from the media and no headlines about interfering chairmen, yet Romanov at Hearts gets pilloried for doing the same thing?
The double standards of the fans with typewriters we're lumbered with in this country is breathtaking at times.
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Here we go 4 in a row!!
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Chic everyone else has condemmed the famine song including SDM why dont you? rather than say its "nonsence"
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How do you know the Club doesn't privately condone bigots if it's private. I thinks it's clear they don't publically condone bigots, though.
The famine song sinply shows that you cannot remove quickly something you have grown over decades. All of a sudden you can't look into the camera with a face mystified that some fans would want to drag the club through the gutter. It's an insult to intelligence.
Question to ask at the next interview : do you think the Club has fostered bigotry over decades and that only now is it being discussed seriously because there is the possibility of sanctions that could harm the club?
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Should the man getting credit for the Rangers Revolution not be David Holmes? Minty just carried on his work, although he later almost (perhaps still will) destroyed Rangers through financial stupidity.
Also he has not actually condemed the lyrics to the Racist song, ignored totally the vile campaign about Jock Stein and has actually sanctioned policies that pay in bigots wallets - Orange strips, strips with Sashes, menu prices of £16.90 etc etc etc.
Also for his comments about never talking about Celtic!!! Does the phrase "For every £5 they spend, we'll spend £10" ring a bell?
Also well done to John Reid for putting him in his place!
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Money well spent by the bbc again. Paying Chick Youngs wages to write 'in depth critical analysis' of Sir David Murray
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The usual wild attacks from some Celtic fans. Their ill-informed attempts to portray Rangers, Rangers fans and Sir David Murray as the embodiment of evil only betray their own prejudices and bias. "Menu prices of £16.90" for example. Give us a break and stop regurgitating tabloid sensationalism and other smears.
Overall Murray has done a decent job. Made some mistakes but presided over a lot of success as well.
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Love & kisses Sir Minty.......................................................................ughhhhhhh!!!
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David Murray has not only transformed Rangers, he has transformed the entire face of Scottish Football.
Celtic would not be half the club it is now without the influence of David Murray.
Celtic fans would do well to remember this.
The floatation of Celtic after being 8 minutes from bankruptcy ...
... the redevelopment of Celtic Park
... the creation of Lennoxtown
... all done to play catch-up with the visionary leadership of David Murray and Rangers.
So go ahead and score your pathetically pedantic points. We know it is in your nature.
But the truth is: Celtic has a lot more to thank Sir David Murray for than even we have!
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No 43
Do you deny that Rangers had a menu price of £16.90? It seems some bigots/morons on the RFC payroll just can't help themselves.
Also while certain songs, sung by a minority of Celtic supporters may be Political, for example "Boys of the Old Brigade" it is offensive as "Flower of Scotland" to all but the bigoted. I would rather they were not sung at away games (they are not sung at CP at all) and given time they will be no longer sung. However songs sung by some (please note I didn't say a minority) of the Rangers fans are actually Racist & Sectarian and if they were about Black people or Muslims or Jews etc the Police would be charging in in Riot gear!
BTW if you count almost bankrupting the club and continually allowing anti-irishness/catholic as a decent job I fear for you and the future of RFC. Murray equaled 9 in a row, but has laid the foundations of quicksand that could see Celtic get their 2nd 9 in a row but maybe even better it.
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No45
"All done to play catch up with the visionary leadership of David Murray"
Nope, David Holmes as I stated in an earlier post. Murray just jumped on his bandwagon.
"Celtic have a lot more to thank Sir David Murray than we have"
Looking at the state you lot are in just now? Oh yes indeedy. LOL
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#46,
You could only get the alleged "menu price of £16.90" by ordering a strange combination (something like a starter and a dessert with nothing to drink).
As for the supposed "political" songs sung by Celtic fans, that makes it sound like singing in support of terrorists closely linked to one half of a religious divide is akin to handing out leaflets for the Liberal Democrats!
And you have no need to "fear" for me, since your distortions of the situation at Rangers certainly do not constitute my views.
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No47
You're suffering from the same predilection for innuendo as your Chairman.
At least try to get your facts right.
Lawrence Marlborough brought in David Holmes.
David Holmes brought in Graham Souness.
Graham Souness persuaded David Murray to buy Rangers from Lawrence Marlborough.
And so this completes the virtuous circle.
It was Sir David Murray who revolutionised Scottish football ... starting with a £50 million redevelopment program to turn Ibrox into a 5-star stadium.
He then invested £13 million into the best training facilities anywhere in the world while you were still clearing dog poo from Barrowfield as part of your warm up routine in training.
Every major step forward Celtic has taken in the last 20 years has been in response to the vision and leadership of Sir David Murray and Rangers.
He is your saviour every bit as much as ours.
You would need to be blinded by prejudice not to see this.
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How many millions has he taken out?
Security
Computer system
Catering
Rangers pay his companies for these services.
If Rangers play a youth player from Murray Park, Rangers have to pay the company that owns Murray Park, I wonder who that is?..... oh Sir David.
That is why Rangers fans don't like him. All this is covered up, he puts in less than he takes out.
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"If Rangers play a youth player from Murray Park, Rangers have to pay the company that owns Murray Park"?
Rangers FC own Murray Park.
And Rangers Youth Development is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rangers FC.
Check the club's accounts.
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Chick, can your next blog please be about this?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/10/29/exclusive-msps-friendly-football-match-with-writers-abandoned-after-mass-brawl-86908-20849352/
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As an Aberdeen fan and watching my team train in a "public park, I look upon the vision and finance this man has brought to Govan. Breaking down the secrarian barriers and investing in the future of the club through state of the art training facilities. Remember a lot of this has been out of his opwn pocket.
If you dont want him we at Aberdeen will... in a flash, his stewardship of Rangers has been top class, you people should learn to appreciate a good thing when you have it.
You will "know all aboot it" when he is gone. There are not too many "football sugar daddys" left, the ones that remain are investing in English clubs not Scottish.
Well done sir David, let me know when you want to tansfer up north. Good piece Chick... for a St Mirren fan.
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Chick say something please! You never, ever respond. C'mon dawg, man up! You'd get a helluva lot more respect if you piped up than you're currently getting.
Decent if obvious article. However, someone made a comment about how Murray shouldn't have ditched Paul Le Guen or allow him to leave or whatever. I completely agree. The league was lost by that stage so what did it matter? The football they were playing was loosing but was effective in Europe which showed fundamental progress. Can anyone say they actually enjoyed a single second of the subsequent slog to Manchester? Clearly not the fans as they were so upset they had to have a riot to get their moneys worth! Oh, God. Scottish fitba is depressing. What was it Renton said again?
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David Murray has done some good things at Rangers and some bad things. But, by far the goodthings outweigh the bad things.
I'd prefer him to stay, but if he can't take the grief no more, or he's genuinly wanting a change, I say thank you to a great leader and chairman.
Thank you David Murray.
The best thing I like about David Murray though is the way selick fans get really upset by him, or anyone that supports his methods.
You selick fans will certainly have someone to miss.
Then again, you'll quickly start on any newcomer to the position.
And why do you continually moan? Well I'll just let you work that out for yourselves.
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Ah man, I've been away from Scotland for almost two years now, but I never cease to be amused by the bickering of some of the puddings who support the Old Firm.
As far as I - and many other supporters of the terrible twosome - am concerned, you're all as myopic and deluded as each other. It doesn't matter whether you wear the hoops or the royal blue, you're all part of the same laughing stock. Domestically, the OF retard the national standard of football by purchasing promising Scots for peanuts and letting them rot on the bench or make occasional appearances in the 88th minute, meanwhile bemoaning how there's not a challenge in the league when they're put out of Europe by a bunch of part-time opal miners from Eastern Europe. And still, the irony escapes not only a lot of the fans, but also members of the board.
It's comical, but simultaneously tragic as the status quo is slowly smothering the life out of the beloved sport we all love. It's a miracle and testament to the optimism and be-damned stubborn-ness of the rest of Scottish football fans that any other clubs are in business at all.
As Mr Le Guen may well have said as he was getting punted out of Govan at the behest of club hero Barry Ferguson and training dynamo Kris Boyd, 'Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose'. There is absolutely no trajectory for the sport in Scotland under the present circumstances and administration other than downwards into ruin, and this - along with that spasmodic shadow of sectarianism - should also perhaps be considered as Scotland's Shame.
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Anyone who actually thinks the state of the game in Scotland has anything to do with Scottish football are as myopic as the idiots in the FA who are helpless to do anything to save it. I was a regular Ger when i lived in Glasgow the history of the game is exactly that....history. Too many people neh pundits constantly bemoan the state of the game today and compare to yesteryear. Football clubs used to be owned and run by football people even Sir David is a football man at heart (Business has to come first to allow him his toys and purchases!) but the F.A particularly the EPL has been drained by busienssmen exploiting what was and still should be a working mans sport. The individuals invloved in the F.A. who stand back and allow free access to purchase mighty clubs such Man Utd and Liverpool should be hung drawn and nutted! It is they who will ultimately come back to supporters cap in hand when these clubs start to go belly up, and they will, and they need help and investment from those who made the clubs attractive investments in the first place.. the supporters. Sir Davod has been at the helm of what was a great revolution at Ibrox, left, watched his empire near crumble, come back and resurrects it and rescues it from dark times. You wouldnt see any Selik ex owner attempt that would you? They would have ran a mile and hid in the Carlton with the rest of the ex owners!
Just because Chic's a bear doesnt mean he cant make sense! gaunygeesabrekyoos
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Pele-Duarte: "retard the national standard of football by purchasing promising Scots for peanuts and letting them rot on the bench or make occasional appearances in the 88th minute, meanwhile bemoaning how there's not a challenge in the league when they're put out of Europe by a bunch of part-time opal miners from Eastern Europe"
Celtic bought Scott Brown for how much? How much does he - and Barry Robson - and Scott Macdonald - rot on the bench? Who have we gone out of Europe to recently?
You need to update your cliches, mate.
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David Murray will be the death of Rangers
a disasterous chairman
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Why do these journos all talk about the old firm all the time ? BORING. Let's talk about the rest of the SPL, you know the other teams that are only ever live on tv if they are playing the old firm, the other teams who's players are only ever talked about in the press if the old firm are interested in them.
And, let's not hide behind the convenience of being a St. Mirren fan WHEN WE ALL KNOW THE TRUTH !
ANGRY HIBBY
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Mark RP:
Thanks for providing the exceptions, rather than the rule. I give you Derek Riordan, Ian Murray, Kevin Thomson (who only got games while Barry Ferguson was injured), Gavin Rae, Alan Gow, Kenny Miller (first time at Rangers - scored 5 against St Mirren at Ibrox one week, and was dropped like a stone for the next match), Steven Thompson, Paul Hartley, Steven Pressley (the latter two were obviously delighted to gt away from Heart of Midlithuania, but it still stands up). And - oh - Kris Boyd.
If you add foreigners to that list, players who did well for the non-OF who were hoovered for next to nothing, how's about Didier Agathe, Claudio Cannigia, Nacho Novo, Scott MacDonald (more on whom later), Chris 'Who?' Killen, Zurab Khizanishvili, Russell Latapy, and, to an extent, Dariusz Adamczuk. That's just for starters as well.
Irrespective of how many games this latter list got, they were still tapped up with the promise of much-improved wages which - let's face it - they would be mad to turn down. That's business, as I suppose Perthgerinoz would bemoan, but it's unsustainable and it weakens the distribution of the local pool of talent while perpetuating the supremacy (and lunch bill) of the two richest clubs.
As further amendment; Scott MacDonald is Australian (but still went for peanuts), Scott Brown was sold for $4.4m - big whoop, the same season Alan Hutton went to Spurs and Craig Gordon went to Sunderland for $9m each, which even in crude terms would suggest that he would have commanded a larger fee over the border - and you have just been knocked out of Europe by AC Aalborg about half an hour ago. Minor oversight on your part, that one.
Essentially, the overwhelming trend is that the OF treats the rest of the league as a bargain bin. If I worked for either of Rangers or Celtic I would probably conduct business in this manner also, as it's an easy way to stay on top and be successful. However, if the SFA and SPL were to stand up and produce something as simple as a salary cap of even a figure as comparatively high as $10k p/w per player (or an overall figure spread across all player wages), it would make a massive difference. True, in the short term the domestic game may suffer as big-name players look to the foreign leagues to build up their credit-crunch pinched pensions, but it would force - and force is required - all teams to invest in their youth policies and get Scots involved in first team football at the highest level in Scotland. More games, more experience, better players, better national team. Even simplistically put, surely this is something worth considering?
Cliches or not, I hope this is enough of an update for you. Let me know if there's anything else you need. And finally - as an afterthought - for your list, there's Rab Douglas; thank you for giving the brickie a good run in the side. The rest of us got enormous satisfaction - and even a few points - out of his constant fumbles and flaps at the fortress (and some might suggest, refereeing vacuums) of Darkhead.
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Pele, you've probably guessed that I'm a Celtic fan, so I don't feel I have to justify Murray, Thomson, Rae, Gow, Miller, Thompson, Boyd, Cannigia, Novo, Khizanishvili, Latapy and Adamczuk.
Which leaves Riordan, Hartley, Pressley, Agathe and Douglas.
Hartley has made 59 starts for Celtic so far, Agathe made 169 and Douglas 161. And I certainly don't think the intention was for Riordan to sit on the bench (if so, why would we let him go back to Easter Road?)
So what's your point? You don't like Celtic buying players off smaller clubs?
It's the same everywhere and most of the clubs claiming the moral high ground here do the same to clubs smaller than them.
But where did Hibs get Agathe from?
Where did Hearts get Hartley from?
Smaller clubs.
PS. what difference does it make that Macdonald is Australian? To the best of my knowledge Agathe and half your Rangers examples don't have their own tartan.
And yes, bit of an oversight not being able to predict my club's results.
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Oh, sorry forgot Chris Killen. Nasty Celtic not giving injured players a game.
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As a Celtic fan i think what SDM has done for Rangers should be in large applauded by Rangers fans. Over the years he has ploughed vast sums of his own money into the club and at times even floated shares and sold off other parts of his buisnesses to keep things ticking over at Mordor.
At the same time i can understand what some Rangers fans are on about because despite the stadium and the 'world class' training facilities (£13 million in and only really Allan Hutton out) he has had to plough his money in because the club has at times been mismanaged financially and responsibility for that has to be placed on him.
In addition to this he has at times got himself needlessly involved in the media on subjects that just make an obviously intelligent and passionate man look silly, in turn reflecting badly on the club - for example comparing the rivalry between the two Dundee clubs to that of the OF (considering a friend with infinatley more knowledge on the subject than myself informed me that Dundee casuals from both sides would work together back in the day against any teams visiting the city - which you would never have caught OF fans doing, not that that type of behaviour is to be appauded - it is simply an example of how wrong the comparison is)
More recently another example of this type of media folly can be seen by getting into a slagging match in the press with John Reid. I would have hoped a man like Murray would know by now not to comment on issues raised by his opposite numbers. If he really thinks what they have said is so wrong then he should just leave them to hang themselves in the media - or else he may end up looking like he's trying to defend the indefensible as is the case here with the famine song 'non-sense'.
He has overseen a massive and at times spectacular change in Rangers fortunes and I think it's unfair of certain sections of the Rangers support to willfully disregard those accomplishments - but at the same time when you look at a club with the financial issues Murray himself admits they have, who have won two of the last 8 league titles and were out of Europe before qualification was even finished it's hard to say the nay-sayers don't have a point too.
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Markrp:
You're right, I did guess you were a Celtic fan - not difficult as you defended only Celtic players in response to my earlier post and asked who 'we had gone out to in Europe recently'. And that's fine that you don't need to justify the Rangers players to whom I referred, but seeing as my point was addressed to both sides of the Old Firm, you can't shut one eye and tell me there's no evidence.
In response to your other points:
One; fair enough, Hartley has made 59 starts for Celtic so far, and is better classed as a player picked up for next-to-nothing along with Agathe. Out of a potential full game complement of 87 games during his Celtic career, that's not too bad, I suppose. He would still have to be considered an exception to the rule, however.
Two; I have absolutely no problem with Celtic - and Rangers, for that matter - buying players from rival clubs in principle. There are no rules against it, and it's a free market. My point was, however, that whenever the Old Firm crash out of European competition their board and fans often bemoan the state of the domestic league in which they reside, conveniently forgetting that they purchase the stronger players fielded by their domestic rivals, thus weakening the standard of their division.
Three; furthermore, yes, Hibs got Agathe from Raith Rovers and Hearts got Hartley from St. Johnstone. Unfortunately for the logic of your point, Raith and the Jays were in lower divisions compared to the buying club when they were transferred. Every player I listed above was purchased by the Old Firm from an SPL rival. It would indeed be ridiculous to suggest that Celtic and Rangers' purchasing policy is harmful to their European prospects as a direct result of buying players from a division in which they don't even participate. Certainly, I don't hear Hibs and Hearts, or latterly Motherwell and Queen of the South, doing that.
Four; I pointed out that MacDonald was Australian because you used him as an example against my argument of the Old Firm 'purchasing promising Scots for peanuts and letting them rot on the bench'. Go and read my original post again, and then read your response. You called him Scottish, not me! And again, I listed Agathe as a foreigner purchased for small dough! If you're going to nit-pick, at least read what's been written already!
Five; I am surprised that you didn't predict Celtic going out of Europe the other night. I'd have said your shocking away form in the competition - one point in seventeen previous fixtures, now one in eighteen - would have been indication enough, to be honest. And as a great European footballer who would know once said, 'Form is temporary; class is permanent'. Celtic have away form in Europe - all bad - which would be temporary if only they had more class and, yes, fortune in tight fixtures like the other night.
Six; Chris Killen made three (yes; three!) starts for Celtic in season 2007-2008, along with 27 substitute appearances. I suppose he's not exactly rotted on the bench there, but he started more games at Hibernian in two injury-disrupted seasons that he would for Celtic in six seasons at his current game rate. This year, he made one (YES! ONE!) start for Celtic and was set to go away with New Zealand when injury struck. Strachan has had ample opportunity to play him, but he hasn't - which is explicable from a tactical point of view, but it still sticks out as an example of a player purchased by the Old Firm who would more likely be getting a regular run in a rival team.
In a perfect world, the SPL would be a competitive division and the Old Firm would regularly start eleven youth-academy graduates, who would carry them through to the latter stages of the Champions League each season. Then, I would perhaps applaud their achievements. The reality is - with the exception of Rangers last season and Celtic in Seville a few years ago - that they very rarely bother even the second round of most European competitions, and when they go out, it's generally somebody else's fault. It's an entirely frustrating system to be a part of, and until wholescale changes are made - and not only to the way in which the top two clubs operate, because I'm not so blinkered to think that it's entirely their fault - it's the way it's always going to be. Honestly, are you happy with the present performance of the top two teams that Scotland promote to European competition? If you are, then fair enough, but I would suggest that you have a substantial lack of ambition as opposed to blind expectation.
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Does anyone at the BBC check what is being put in these blogs ?
There must be some kind of editorial checks made or we will end up with more of the above.
Come on BBC you are meant to be impartial, yet you allow this to be published, Russell Brand got the sack for less than this.
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