This weekend has been a very disappointing one for Rangers fans. The shocking display against Stirling Albion has placed extreme pressure on Ally McCoist, and has damaged an already fragile peace amongst the Rangers support.
On Sunday it was evident that some bears are backing McCoist to the hilt, with others wishing him a speedy departure.
To see Rangers fans slate each other on various forums and social networks really disturbs me, and I'm getting a horrible picture of a scenario unfolding where that anger spills over in to the stands.
I stood in the Rangers end at Celtic Park in 1994 when Celtic fans were throwing objects at their board and fighting in the stands.
Like many bears present, I found it hugely amusing.
I'm not laughing now.
While I'd never expect our support to behave in the manner the degenerates across the city do, if this team continues to sink, with fans sniping at each other, I fear the worst.
The conduct of at least two individuals from the RST board following their AGM was also unhelpful.
Some context is definitely required.
In recent months, the influence of the Rangers Supporters Trust has been diminishing significantly.
As the club slid to the edge of the abyss while in Administration, all the major supporters groups formed the RFFF in order to support the club in its darkest hour.
This group, and the communication channels it has opened up between the major fan groups, has gone from strength to strength, and gone a long way to achieving the kind of fan unity that has been the utopia for any Rangers fan.
The RTID NI group too have appeared on the scene, and contributed greatly, although I have learned that this group too have been compromised by RST board members putting the Trust above the RTID NI group.
When representatives from various Rangers fans groups stood as one on the steps of Hampden to protest against the SFA's illegal transfer embargo, it was a proud moment for many.
There was a hope that at last, the Rangers support could at last act as one and act in the best interests of the club, and wield it's power to show the club's enemies that we will no longer be messed about.
Sadly though, some confidential matters started being leaked to the media from RFFF meetings, while the Trust and TBK/Brian Kennedy were attempting to stage a coup and force Charles Green to sell up, before he'd even got his feet under the table.
The same applied when Walter Smith was fronting another bid to force Green to sell, on the day he secured the club.
In fact The Trust issued a statement asking Rangers fans NOT to buy season tickets until Green sold up to Smith.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/home-news/fans-are-urged-not-to-renew-season-tickets.17882069?
THE Rangers Supporters Trust has called on fans not to renew their season tickets until Charles Green steps down as the club's chief executive.
The body urged fans to hold off amid concerns about Mr Green's consortium following the former manager Walter Smith's statement yesterday that he is leading a bid to gain control of the club.
Last week, former director Dave King made a similar plea to Rangers supporters as he called for a "full and frank" discussion over moves behind the scenes related to Mr Green's bid.
The Supporters Trust statement said: "The board of the Rangers Supporters Trust welcome the bid headed by Walter Smith.
"We firmly support the view that Rangers men should be in charge at this critical time in our history and that no profit should be gained by any individuals owning the club.
"This bid is the only one which will ensure all the Rangers family are united and if it comes to fruition we can pick ourselves up and take the first tentative steps on the long road to recovery.
"We ask Charles Green to step aside from any deal to purchase Rangers and allow Walter Smith to lead us into this new era for our club.
"The Rangers Supporters Trust board calls on all supporters to hold off renewing season tickets till this situation is resolved."
New Rangers chairman Malcolm Murray, who is a fan, was earlier dismissive of groups that had previously tried to take control at Ibrox, saying that he was a "blue nose, not a blue knight".
He later said: "All of us would like to see Walter involved in some way.
"I would personally welcome the opportunity to sit down with him and explain to him the role that I am determined to fulfil in the interest of the Rangers supporters.
"It's important for everybody to be behind the club. The owners and the board want nothing but success for Rangers.
"One of the ways to ensure that is to ensure that Ibrox is full, and the sale of season tickets is an extremely important part of that."
When successive attempts by The Blue Knights to gain control of Rangers failed a campaign to discredit Green took place with the RST at the heart of it.
As the FF hordes, aided and abetted by bloggers associated to the Trust, made all sorts of unfounded allegations against Green, the other fan groups were trying in vain to support the club, and Green as it’s CEO.
More recently, all the major fan groups, including the Rangers Assembly, the Rangers Supporters Association, Rangers Unite, Union Bears, the Copland Road Organisation, Vanguard Bears and RTID NI have come together under one umbrella called the Unified Supporters Platform in order to work together for the benefit of Rangers.
This umbrella group represents all Rangers fans worldwide with the exception of a handful of individuals within the RST.
It is their view that those individuals are not acting in the best interests of the club.
In recent months, with the RFFF and leading individuals from some of the other groups apparently gaining a position of influence within the club, the RST has become increasingly marginalised.
Furthermore, this Unified Supporters Platform released a statement a couple of weeks ago, stating in no uncertain terms that the RST would have to radically alter its behaviour and it’s structure in order to be trusted enough to be welcomed in to this new powerful alliance.
A delay in publication from the RTID NI Twitter account seemed at odds with the agreement of the board members who attended on behalf of the RTID NI group, and it is believed the individual concerned not only sits on the RTID NI group committee, but also the RST Board.
It’s from this position that the RST AGM was set on Friday.
One would have hoped sense would prevail, and that the Trust would embrace change in order to finally achieve true unity across the whole fan base. As approximately 100 attendees out of the hundreds of thousands of Rangers fans across the globe attended, it became clear that the Trust position was not to change. Mark Dingwall still sits on that discredited board, and £93k of gersave money still sits in its bank account.
In the biggest turnout for many years, no doubt due to the appearance of Charles Green, the board declared a surprised Green an honorary member.
In a desperate attempt to ingratiate themselves with Green, this move was to become the headline grabber, as triumphant board members boasted on Follow Follow that Charles Green was now an RST member, and on twitter that “we like him and he likes us”
While the response should have been laughter at such a desperate act and such nauseating propaganda, the response from some on Twitter and other forums was far less measured.
While I would have gone with the laughter angle, I can still understand why people would take issue with a group who have moved heaven and earth to back everyone except Green in the last few months, with black propaganda, leaking of sensitive information, and a singular agenda to achieve a controlling stake in Rangers FC.
That they are now desperately trying to hang off Green’s coat tails, should be a subject of ridicule, not anger.
As fellow blogger The Wee Proclaimer pointed out recently in his blogs, the hundreds of negative posts on FF that were allowed and encouraged about Green have been deleted, as have some RST proclamations.
Clearly, revisionism is not the sole domain of the Celtic minded.
The sad thing is that while some were reacting to this hypocrisy with anger, one RST board member was spying on various Rangers forums and reporting back to Mr Dingwall of “threats”, which became the subject of further propaganda
So we as a support have grasses too, which is utterly shameful.
If there was any threat at all to Mr Dingwall, he wouldn’t be able to stand at his regular pitch selling his fanzine. He does, and always has done, and most probably will continue as long as he can while the money rolls in.
Given that he is the only high profile Rangers fan to have assaulted a competitor, by punching him in the Wee Rangers Club, I’d suggest that only the gullible will believe Dingwall (or anyone else in his clique) is vulnerable.
The AGM may have passed, and the Trust may feel they have both cemented themselves in a position of strength in the club, while successfully generating some negative propaganda against fellow Rangers fans, but the reality is they have alienated themselves even more, and noticeably attempted to damage the unity in the support, while their gesture to Green means nothing.
The fact that Rangers fans, even if in such a minority group, should act in such a manner is really disappointing, and I genuinely hope that in the coming months, as it becomes apparent that the Trust's self serving strategy is not working, that they will see the light and join the wider Rangers family in supporting both the club, and attacking our enemies.
They may come to regret that gesture to Green too.
My observation here is that while Green has been playing a blinder in dealing with the SFA, SPL and other parties out to damage Rangers, he is indeed also playing to the gallery of the Rangers support, as he strives to maximise the return on his personal investment, and the investments of his consortium.
I have been angered at smears of him by hacks intent on discrediting him and the work he is doing at the club, but we should not dismiss out of hand the likelihood that he will make his money and leave, and perhaps before we are back at the top. Of course, he could make more money in selling his shareholding if we are back in the Scottish top flight, and the CL, with Ibrox looking like Dubai, but perhaps he will sell to others to finish the job he started.
Therefor, Rangers supporters should be clear to him, that we are supportive of him in his fights with Regan, Doncaster, Lawwell and company, but not supporting him personally.
We are Rangers supporters, and the club should ALWAYS come first.
Bill.
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