JABBA THE AGNIVORE

JABBA'S JINGOISTIC JIGGERYPOKERY

The knives are out for the league reconstruction plans as Rangers try desperately to play the 'integrity' card. 'It's all just about money and self-interest,' they bleat, blissfully ignorant of the irony of such statements given how they treated their creditors!

So what's the problem? Well, apparently Green and his puppets are concerned that they will end up in the bottom tier again. The intellectually challenged are lapping up this disingenuous argument. It falls flat on its face when you look at the fact that next season Rangers will be in the THIRD tier, as they would be without reconstruction, and could be back in the top tier in two years, again as would be the case without reconstruction.

Another argument is that Rangers will be playing the same teams again next season. So will Celtic, so what's the problem? And weren't Rangers playing against the same opposition year-in year-out in the SPL? And wasn't Green desperate to do so again by applying to join the SPL and throwing a tantrum when he wasn't allowed in? 

Even Sooperally has joined in with a rant that shows a distinct lack of understanding of the situation. 

“That’s what we’ve prepared ourselves for — Division Three, Two, One and back into the top league, whatever that may be. So straight away that has been taken away from us."

 How does he make that one out? Instead of Two, One and back into the top league it's now going to be Three, Two and into the top league. Does it really matter what the league divisions are called? It reminds me of the apocryphal story about the change to the Gregorian Calendar in England, when people were supposed to have rioted to demand their six days, or whatever, back! Surely McCoist can't be that stupid?

Of course, stupidity has nothing to do with it. It is easy to detect the hand of Jabba in all this. He has been riling up folk with specious arguments for years and this new tack from Ibrox has his fingerprints all over it. The strategy seems to be to argue and fight just for the sake of it, to convince all the fans of Newco Rangers that they are being hard-done by, even when the truth is that they are not!

Green, meanwhile is threatening to leave Scotland and to take UEFA to court if he is not allowed to. But where is he going to go? UEFA can't shoehorn him into the English League, no matter how many 'discrimination' cases he wins. At the end of the day, it is up to the English League to decide who they want and do not want in their divisions.

Mark Hateley, in his column in the Daily Record, also comes to the same ridiculous conclusions, albeit in a roundabout way. He also finds time to praise the SFL as having "retained its reputation for sane, sterling and solid administration." Did you ever hear him saying such things before this season? The SPL, meanwhile, "have been a laughing stock for too long." Again, does anyone remember him saying any such thing before this season?

The whole thing is becoming a bad joke and Jabba has lost the plot completely if he thinks this strategy is going to get him anywhere. If anything, the events of last summer showed us that most of Scotland is sick to death of the arrogance and triumphalism of Rangers. Not once has there been an apology to the shareholders, an apology for dragging Scottish football down to its current financial crisis and no word of gratitude for being allowed into the Scottish League ahead of other, more deserving teams. No. All we've had are complaints, moans, recriminations and bloodthirsty cries for vengeance. 

As I have said before, if Rangers want to get anywhere with their complaints then they need to get all the other teams in the SFL onside. To react the way they have, even decrying Longmuir and the other SFL clubs, is hardly going to win them many friends, is it?

Rangers are no longer the dominant force in Scottish football, despite the numbers of cheap ticket-holders passing through the turnstiles, and it is about time Traynor, and the ones following his advice, realised this.