A Horse called Juan Face wrote:I'm an Aberdeen supporter. We wear red. Obviously you didn't see my post about old firm paranoia. And do you not see how childlike the whole fingers incident is. He's 31 ffs. It's absolutely ludicrous to think that the media have some sort of vendetta against these two players. Paul Le Guen has been proven correct about Ferguson, it just took three years for anybody at Rangers to realise it. And as for the question of punishment to the other players, maybe that will be handed out in the next game, (though i doubt it), as Ship called Dignity stated that Burley didn't know all the details prior to the game on Wednesday. Thought that was common sense, but then I wouldn't expect a paranoid Old Firm fan to have any of that.
blueboyno1 wrote:....There are also reports that newspaper reporters were sitting drinking with all the team ....
4th gen Suthen' wrote:Pity Burley did not read the riot act, tell them all to get to their bed and not to re-emerge till totally sobered up, cleaned up and smelling nice.....kept it all in house and within the Scotland camp. He could then have dealt with the players how he wanted without the huge media circus that has ensued.
This is bad for the Scotland team, Scottish football, Rangers and the players concerned.
I have been reading forums of English clubs and letters pages of various football websites. It is fair to say that Scottish football is, once again, a laughing stock.
4th gen Suthen' wrote:Pity Burley did not read the riot act, tell them all to get to their bed and not to re-emerge till totally sobered up, cleaned up and smelling nice.....kept it all in house and within the Scotland camp. He could then have dealt with the players how he wanted without the huge media circus that has ensued.
This is bad for the Scotland team, Scottish football, Rangers and the players concerned.
I have been reading forums of English clubs and letters pages of various football websites. It is fair to say that Scottish football is, once again, a laughing stock.
Hume wrote:But to blame Burley is ridiculous too. He shouldn't need to tell them what is expected of them - it you are told be down for brunch at 11.45 that in itself is enough. I know its a stange one to even go to the bar at 4am in the first place, but anyone with half a brain would have known he meant for one or two drinks maximum.
blueboyno1 wrote:I may be wrong but i think the last time there was so much controversy between the Scotland manager and the captain was the Andy Roxburgh and Richard Gough incident .It took us ages to get over that and re-unite the nation .It can still start some heated arguments in pubs and clubs .I wonder how long it will take to get over this one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chickyoun...gh_enough.html
It was a tough enough shift for Barry Ferguson and Allan MacGregor looking on at Hampden on Wednesday.
It's going to be sheer hell for them if Scotland make South Africa.
It was meant to be one for the road at Cameron House. It turned into the end of the road. Oh, boys what have you done?
Two careers in disarray, Rangers in a mess and the Scottish FA in utter shambles.
It started as a molehill and turned into a seething volcano.
Scottish football, the greatest soap opera in the sporting universe, has done it again. Walter Mitty couldn't have made it up.
Let's analyse this chronologically.
Several Scotland players start a drinking session on return from Holland, albeit around 4am when they splice the main brace. More morning than nightcap.
They make two big mistakes. They keep bevvying in the bar rather than the privacy of their rooms - and they get caught.
At this stage, it's an error of judgment by several of the squad, but it's the Ibrox pair who are hung out to dry - in not quite the required way - by the tabloid press. In fact, it turns into a witch hunt.
There is a sanctimonious, holier-than-thou savaging by self-appointed spokespersons of various backgrounds and the two players are left out of the team to face Iceland, having apologised to the manager.
In my opinion, George Burley arrived at the right compromise, albeit by a circuitous route. Why ostracise players who may yet have a role to play en-route to Cape Town?
But then came the V-sign madness. Not even a full blooded get-it-right-up-you job, but rather a wee camouflaged effort with fingers either side of the nose as if to suggest "honest, I was just scratching my cheek".
It was directed at the photographers - of course it was. But, in a heartbeat, the Tartan Army - many of them Rangers fans - took it as a personal slight. Well, they had already booed the players.
And don't tell me that is always right. They were bang out of order when they gave it tight to Gary McAllister - a marvellous player and servant to his country - who consequently quit playing for the dark blue jersey.
But, from that second, the booze brothers were adrift without a lifejacket.
It was a moment of utter lunacy by Ferguson and McGregor and at that point I resigned from their defence council.
Actually it was just about then that Walter Smith, who had telephoned the players and told them to apologise and keep their heads down, went off on one...and all hell broke loose.
But don't think it's just the players who have gone down for the last time.
While Rangers moved swiftly and decisively to take action against their own players, SFA president George Peat and his crew are adrift on a sea of confusion.
First, they say they want to draw a line under the affair and move on - that's Thursday afternoon - before Peat blows his top at the statement issued by his organisation.
Excuse me, but he's the president. Shouldn't he actually know what his organisation are doing?
And, if he wanted the players sent home, why didn't he do it himself when the story broke on Wednesday morning?
Like Ferguson and McGregor, the bungling SFA were all over the place, but at least the players had an excuse - they were mortal.
I am actually beginning to feel sorry for Burley, who, amid all this insanity, did salvage three points that keep us on course for Cape Town until the new season at least, and who now is being undermined by a president who appointed a chief executive and a manager to handle these very matters.
Meanwhile, the SFA ban the players but fail miserably to look in the mirror at their own miserable inefficiency.
Curious, is it not, that the association could not act efficiently when the players were on their watch but waited until they were returned to Walter Smith, who hesitated not a heartbeat.
What an embarrassing, unholy, undignified, shocking mess.
4th gen Suthen' wrote:I hate the Rangers/Barry bashing from some Scotland fans and the Scotland/Tartan Army bashing from some, but not all, Rangers fans.
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