JABBA THE AGNIVORE

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

 

Remember those words? Celtic had asked for help in their European campaign and that was Traynor's reaction. Conversely, he was the first in line to support Walter Smith's call for help in 2008. The words came back to me when I read Charles Green's latest tirade against everybody in Scottish football. Jabba, as is usual of late, has had nothing to say.

Green has decided to demand that Rangers be placed in the second tier if league reconstruction goes ahead. Some might say that he doesn't actually use the word 'demand' but he certainly doesn't ask! According to him, Rangers deserve to jump the queue, like they did when they entered Division 3 in the first place. To him, however, this is not Rangers jumping ahead of others but merely natural justice!

In Ancient Greece rich young men would go to philosophers to learn how to do public speaking and how to construct persuasive arguments. The top dogs, like Plato and Aristotle, would sneeringly refer to many of these teachers as 'logic-choppers.' The way Green makes his argument you would think that he'd gone to one of these characters.

His argument is that Rangers winning Division 3 means that they deserve promotion to Division 2. League reconstruction would mean them staying in Division 3, which is patently unfair. Others have jumped on this bandwagon and trot out the 'sporting integrity' line. This is the phrase that Traynor was fond of belittling so it is easy to smell his clammy hand behind Green's latest diatribe.

Green says that it would be more just to wait until next year to bring in reconstruction. The problem is that he would try to play the same game then, demanding to be put into the top tier since Rangers had won Division 2!

The fact is that, as things stand, it will take Rangers two more years to get into the top tier. With league reconstruction it would take Rangers two years to get into the top tier. This is the proper way to look at things, instead of Green's twisted logic-chopping.

So how does Green think he can get away with making his demands? It all comes down to allowing the lie to be perpetuated that Green's New Rangers is the same as the old one. Letting Green array his team in the same strip, complete with kid-on stars, has allowed him, and others, to claim that Rangers were demoted as a punishment. With this in mind Green feels that he is perfectly entitled to demand that Rangers do not deserve to be where they are. Our football authorities need to come down firmly and tell Green that his is a new team, which was graciously allowed into the SFL and which has no voting, or any other powers. Surely that will shut him up?

And stand by for Traynor coming out of hibernation soon. As I predicted, he disappeared after the Nimmo-Smith announcement. He no doubt already had his polemic written about how everyone was out to get Rangers but had the rug pulled out from under him. His whole agenda depends on nothing more than finger-pointing and hatred and he needs something new to foment this. Green's latest nonsense is Jabba dipping his toe into the water to see how things are. If, as he hopes, there is a backlash against Green his huge head will once more appear above the parapet to tell us all that everyone is out to get Rangers, they're all bad, boo hoo hoo etc. etc.

Loony Leggat ignores all this and instead decides to concentrate on the Green Brigade march. He has a go at the Herald for daring to suggest that the police might have been heavy-handed. Isn't that the excuse trotted out by Rangers apologists for smashing up Manchester and rioting in Barcelona etc? He also, with a perfectly straight face and with not a hint of irony, calls the Green Brigade 'Fascists.' Hasn't he seen the EDL people on the telly? There's usually at least one Rangers top to be seen among them. There is also the Rangers link with the SDL, an association that has links with far-right groups in Europe. There is also the fact of the Orange Lodge's links with the BNP, the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Also Leggat's fellow Presbyterians in South Africa brought in the Apartheid regime and carried out terrorist activities on behalf of Nazi Germany. The words pots and kettles spring to mind!