This will be a tough week for those involved in Operation Soothe.
As regular readers will know, this is a critical strategic objective of the Stenography Corps.
The Ibrox klanbase must be soothed so that everything on Planet Fitba will be to their liking.
Breaking News: It won’t be!
Perhaps this, as the title suggests, is as good as it gets for Glasgow’s newest club.
Any football fan will usually be able to relate to the excitement of their first live game.
The eight-year-old me was taken to Celtic Park in 1966.
For a Hoops fan, it was a rather fortuitous historical moment.
Think then of a little Ibrox person of the same age taken to see the Gers at the start of their Nine In A Row odyssey in 1989.
What age would the person be today?
Well, after some Deep Thought, the answer is 42!
The thing is, the marketing strategy of Charles of Normandy in 2012 was that Sevco was on “the journey“.
New pioneers for a new club.
Nice one, Charlie!
For the Ibrox faithful, the destination of that long march through the leagues was back to the glory days of the bank-funded Laudrup Nineties.
They didn’t envisage it ending up as Simply The Second Best.
The generation that watched Laudrup and his teammates is now staring into their mid-life crisis, fully aware that across the city, they are up against a bigger football club in every sense of the term.
Bigger stadium?
Check
More season ticket holders?
Check.
Better commercial operation?
Check.
All of that leads to a bigger football budget.
Since Fergus built the new Celtic Park, operators of the Ibrox franchise were forced firstly into the fatal EBT route, and since the Off License Putsch, the Sevco operation has been about what Mr King called “soft investment”.
UEFA’s new FSR ordinances will call a halt to that.
Sustainability is the watchword which is just as well as Sevco is on a watchlist|!
Does that mean Mr Beale’s Gumtree Galacticos cannot win at Hampden next weekend?
Of course not.
In the future, the favoured franchise at Ibrox can reasonably expect cup success and the occasional derby win.
However, here’s the rub, the resources to prevail in a 38-match league will be a real challenge for them.
Look at the league table this time last year with what it is right now.
So a lead of six points and 19 goals is now 13 points and 31 goals.
The more sentient members of the Ibrox klanbase are starting to see it now.
I think it is fair to say that our thirty-something Rangers fan didn’t envision this scenario when the journey started in 2012.
This isn’t how it was meant to be for the Ibrox klanbase going forward.
That is because they’ve been soothed constantly that everything will be just peachy.
Just as it used to be when Celtic were minutes away from being placed in Receivership in 1994.
Yet the soothing continues.
We had this birthday caird pish this week.
Yesterday at Pittodrie, we had the reality.
The obedient members of the Stenography Corps are in my thoughts at this difficult time.
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Sevco should be happy. They have made progress over last season, They have 3 more points then at this time last season and a better goal diff. Progress that’s measurable. Beale is the next big thing.
If the Butland deal goes through then the new Ibrox number one will be one of the highest wage earners in the dressing room as he arrives from the riches of the EPL or even the Championship.
The agents of current squad players will be licking their lips at the prospect of negotiating better deals for their clients on the back of Butland’s arrival.
Follow, follow the money.
“…….we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while actually producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.”
Gaius Petronius AD66
Operation soothe and deflect in full swing this morning Phil as I’ve already seen that former England No 1 Jack Butland close to agreeing to join them (on a free of course) and some Greek right back from Panathinaikos but there could be problems there as the chap is under contract until 2024.
All this and of course that the Sevco hierarchy have launched talks with Police Scotland over nasty singing and behaviour by Aberdeen fans on Sunday. You really couldn’t make it up.
I read all of that AND had exactly the same thoughts.
Just looking right now at the news that the serious professional is also off at the summer.
The churnalism has managed a reset after 24hrs. Is Tina Turner about to be dumped for I Need A Miracle? #ProgressiveChance
Droid. No need to dump Tina. How about “We’re simply depressed” or even “The cry was no defenders”?
Sky Sports’ stenographers have gone on the offensive with Operation Deflect. Those Dastardley Dons apparently managed to offend the sensitive goat feckers. Unfortunately Sly and their bizarre “Old-Firm-athon” is one of the few sites I can access regularly where I am.
I’m lucky enough to remember deadco in the 80s before the knight of the realm sir minty of moonbeams blagged his way into ibrokes & corrupted Scottish football deadco struggled to compete against Dons,Dundee united who were winning titles and doing well in Europe at that time even with the honest mistakes and penalties the harsh reality for sevco is that’s where they find themselves now is their true place in Scottish football without deluded moonbeams pretendygers are much akin to 80s deadco the great pretenders of Scottish football
We will probably never see the likes of Charlie Green again,an absolute legend.One of his better ones was when The People lined up outside Ibrox to hand over
their money, Charlie arrived handing out cups of tea to them with a big happy head on him,telling them he there for the long haul…lol
We would be wise to save our gloating until next week.
You miss the entire point of the piece.
Possible reasons:
(1) Lack of cognitive bandwidth.
(2) You’re a troll.
Given that you’re heroically anonymous (unimpressive), it could be either or both.
I don’t think he’s responding to your piece Phil, I think, sorry I assumed, he was responding to the tone of some of the comments. NO Celtic v Rangers game is a gimme.
I will throw in something from the past here. In the reign of Dr Joe, Celtic were beaten by St Johnstone 2-0. The following week we played Rangers. No one gave us a chance. I personally know Celtic fans who gave away their season ticket voucher for the game.
A wee Slovakian scored two as we put FIVE past them. The week after that Rangers put SEVEN past St Johnstone. Football can be, nae IS, a fickle business, and NOTHING can be taken as a certainty.
Personally, I absolutely hate hearing Celtic fans crowing about what we’re going to do before we’ve actually done it. Let the team talk on the park and then the fans can celebrate later.
The key issue is that the resource landscape is untouched by cup ties.
It is all about the 38 game marathon.
That’s all about resources.
Finance.
Oh undoubtedly. Robinson is going at the end of the season from sevco.
At worst, Celtic win just two trophies tbis season. Rangers will need to rebuild their squad this summe, with a wage budget lower than laat year and their fans demanding an improvement. Celtic have cash im the bank, Rangers need a monthly whip round to pay their bills. Celtic will soon have won 17 out of 24 titles this millenium and 6 out of 7 titles since Rangers were promoted to the top division. If Celtic can’t boast now then when can they?
Couldn’t agree more!!
Looking at those numbers from this and last year, Sevco are having a good year…and they’re still second.
That’s the funniest bit of it all, VAR has handed them loads of points and they still cant win.
For some of the rangers players this will be their Swan song. A few more meaningless games to get through with those moving onto other teams not wanting to pick up an unnecessary injury. Finishing like a damp Squid. I wonder how the Klan will take to that. Could be a fun last 5 league games also.
All those involved in operation soothe by the media regards the franchise playing out of Ibrox do so as it pays their salary each month ,to tell the truth would jeopardise that situation .
They know the facts regards the situation at Ibrox
But self preservation stops them telling them .
Plus they have to think of their own safety given the fan base at ibrox are not averse to threatening individuals who they deem anti Ranjurs just ask Mr Clancy .
The reality for them is if you did not see the 90’s, you have been dominated for 6 out of the last 7 decades.
I think 5 out of last 7 would be more accurate.
No one dominated in 1980’s which made this such a competitive decade for domestic Scottish football. Not to mention 2 clubs reached European finals (winning one) and clubs often went deep in European competitions. In addition the national team qualified for every world cup with a healthy representation of domestic players.
Different times now but the fall from grace in so many ways shows how bad the governance has been in Sctottish football.
Aye, and almost everyone who supports either Celtic or the dead club and its tribute act, forget that the shaggers are actually the ONLY team from Scotland who have won TWO European trophies.
Yes Aberdeen and Dundee Utd did Scotland proud in the 1980’s. Celtic are the only Scottish team to have won the European Champions Cup and getting to two finals and two semi finals in that tournament. This was pre Bosman and pre billion pound TV contracts plus oil rich despotic countries being allowed to take over football clubs. I’m afraid the 1980’s was the end of anything like a level playing field in football,
As I said above different times which will not come back again unless UEFA take drastic action to level playing field – don’t hold your breath.
Celtic, not a supporter, under Jock Stein were a magnificent team and did regularly make the later stages of European Cup mind you when you win 9 titles in a row the law of averages dictates you will go far in competition on a few occasions!
The changed circumstances cannot be blamed for failure of national team in last 25 years though – this has to be laid at door of SFA & SPFL.
Lastly for Celtic fans here may I say that IMO the greatest dedication is shown by the fans of the10 clubs in SPFL who buy a season ticket knowing they have a minimal chance of competing for league title. Perversely the season ticket does not cover cup competitions i.e. the very competitions they have a bigger chance to win. Just consider this the next time someone make a disparaging comment about supporters of ‘diddy’ clubs.
Really? Does the European equivalent of the FA Charity Shield count as a European Trophy? We’ll be inlcuding Glasgow Cup victories and the Tennents Sixes too 🙂
It will be really interesting if Celtic go two goals up on Sunday. They may start to look for bodies !
Celtic haven’t played well for ninety minutes since before the international break but, with the exception of Saturday, we’ve always managed to get the job done. We desperately need some of our flair players back.
Then of course you have the “Collum” factor. It’s a bit like a tornado: you never know where it’s going to touch down and wreak havoc.
But surely the goldmine that is New Edmiston House will wipe away Celtic’s advantage? Lol.
“Rangers striker Kenny Miller believes Mark Warburton will go on to become manager of England”
” Ally McCoist sought as Tottenham next manager”
“We call Pedro the Portuguese James Bond. He looks the part, he is absolutely immaculate and he really is an action man.”
Now we have the Mole man being compared to Tuchel and Co , they never learn which is nice as it keeps the banter years rolling along nicely.
I think my favourite was when the press had Warburton pose in the Magician’s outfit. What a total dick!!
What kind of journalist comes up with this crap? Apart from the targeted few everybody else is laughing their heads off at the suggestion.
What a job Beale must be doing to fuel these appraisals of his talent and where he might end up.
Reality Check- if he comes away on Sunday from Hampden defeated then his coat’s on a shoogly peg. If that defeat is of the heavy kind then it’s bye bye Micky.
They either go all out to win or all out to maim next Sunday. Several of them have nothing to lose.