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markorose

Listed below are comments made by markorose between Wednesday, 26th November 2008 and Thursday, 28th May 2009.

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Managerial merry-go-round spins out of control 12:34pm on 28 May 2009 There are alot of the above comments I can happily agree with in terms of why Strachan left when he did and why that was the right decision for every one concerned - primarily, it was obvious to everyone who watches Celtic on a regular basis that things had run their course under his leadership. He had done a great job up until the last 18 months or so and there is obviously no way you can argue with his record in terms of tophies won in his time in charge and for that he should be whole-heartedly congratulated by all Celtic fans regardless of how they percieve WGS on their own personal level.

However, a few basic truths are totally and utterly inescapable. Firstly, the quality of play has slowly but sureley deteriorated in the last year or so and if Rangers hadn't went to the UEFA Cup final last year we could easily have been having this debate a year ago. Secondly, in terms of this season, European exit at the hands of a Scandinavian pub team is wholey unacceptable considering the strides the club had made in Europe in previous years. Couple this with a Scottish Cup defeat at the hands of a very poor St.Mirren side and the fact that we surrendered a sizable lead on several occasions in the league this season and I personally feels WGS's position would have been untenable in just about any league you care to mention.

As for his attitude to the media - Celtic fans have come to expect no favours from the scottish hacks so WGS's attitude towards them doesn't concern me in the slightest, however a club of Celtic's stature has media coverage on a worldwide scale, especially when you consider guys like Nakamura having press gaggles from their own country at parkhead on a regular basis and in that sense he should have been more aware of his responsibilities as an ambassaor for the club.

On the whole I thank him for his service and wish him well - we have a resonably good, fairly young squad with plenty of potential to improve under the right man going forward, lets just hope we get the right man, 'Celtic-minded or not'
European hangover set to linger 12:11pm on 27 Nov 2008
What about a scottish team in the last 16 of the worlds premier club competition in three of the four last run outs in the competition

What about a scottish side in the uefa cup final twice in the last decade?

How many other countries outside England, Spain or Italy can claim those stats in recent years?

It's a bad season on the continent- thats football, but it's hardly the end of the world.

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Russia, Germany, France, Holland, Portugal... etc

Ok lets look at it in terms of the last two years or so that was being reffered to in the first place:

Italy are the World Champions, Spain are the European Champions. Man Utd hold the European Cup and fair play Zenit hold the Uefa Cup - but compare the resources available to the two European club competition holders to that of Scots clubs - the gulf is outragous, even tho Zenit had to beat a Scots club in the Uefa Cup final.

As for other Russian block sides - Shaktar Donesk are in position to drop out of the champions league, again (just like last year when a Scots team finished in front of them)as are Zenit and Dynamo Kiev - so they're not exactly setting the world alight are they?

Munich are doing ok for Germany even tho they were again held by a Scots team in Aberdeen last year (if only for one game) - their counterparts Werded Bremen are set to drop out of European cometition altogether so your only half right in terms of German football.

As for France - Lyon are through the group stages of the Champions League but when have they ever really mounted a serious challenge for the title? Marseille and Bordeaux are both looking at Uefa Cup football at best and in the Uefa cup PSG are bottom of their group - so the French league isn't exactly batheing itself in glory this season - the only reason their national side does well is that a large proportion of their players play outside the French league.

As for Holland - when was the last time a Dutch side won anything outside of Holland? Ajax, ten years or so ago? This year won't be their year either as far as i can see since PSV are out of the Champs League.

Portugal have done well in the last few years in the form of Porto, but again their Uefa success was against a Scots side in the final and since their Champs league win the next year they've hardly figured in the clubs in the running for any European title, Sporting have qualified for the last 16 this year - but it's the first time they've done it so theyre hardly consistent campaigners are they?

So who are the 'etc' - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Croatia, Serbian, Slovakia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania, Monaco, Poland or Switzerland? Is it Israel or Turkey because i can't remember any of these side winning any of the competitions we're talking about recently - maybe you mean Iceland or Ireland (North or South) or Wales?
European hangover set to linger 6:22pm on 26 Nov 2008 This season has been poor but what about just missing out on European championships qualification to the reigning world champions in a group populated by three of arguably the best 10 teams in europe including the losing world cup finalists?

what about back - to - back wins against france?

What about a scottish team in the last 16 of the worlds premier club competition in three of the four last run outs in the competition

What about a scottish side in the uefa cup final twice in the last decade?

How many other countries outside England, Spain or Italy can claim those stats in recent years?

It's a bad season on the continent- thats football, but it's hardly the end of the world.
Murray should be hailed as visionary 4:59pm on 26 Nov 2008 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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