WHEN Ally McCoist followed Walter Smith into the Rangers hotseat he compared it to being handed a microphone by Frank Sinatra and shoved on stage. Tell me about it. Last week my friend James Traynor left Record towers for the final time. Some of you may have noticed. Itâs not as if he went quietly. A giant of these pages has gone and now itâs left to some other mug to pick up his pen and attempt to fill his column. So here we all are folks. That mug is me. Olâ Blue Eyes has left the building. He is Olâ Blue Nose now. The Malcolm Tucker of Ibrox. And while Iâm tempted to say âWhoâd have thunk it?â there were people out there â most of them lurking around in cyberspace â who suspected it was just so all along. Theyâve been telling us all for long enough that Traynor was a closet Rangers man and now that heâs stomping around Govan in a pair of regulation brown brogues, they say they have their proof. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. Jim Traynor was never a Rangers man. He was a journalist and a damn fine one at that. (Just like you Keef) Having worked with him for 14 years I have no hesitation in describing him as Scotlandâs best connected, most knowledgeable and well-informed football writer. Yes, he was also Machiavellian and at times even brutal but those were tools he used to help him in a relentless pursuit of the truth. Now he has removed himself from it, this countryâs pool of journalistic talent has become a great deal more shallow than it was just a week ago. But what on earth has he dived into? Something jarred a bit with the timing of his arrival at Rangers, which came as Charles Green was busy bending over himself to pander to the very people Traynor nailed on his way out the door last week. You know who we are talking about. Those warriors of the interweb. The message-board mentalists. Now letâs get this straight because these guys get a bad press. Not everyone who logs on to a fansâ forum is some kind of deranged lunatic. Just as not everyone who tweets is a tw*t. But some of them are. And theyâre usually the loudest ones. And hereâs the crucial bit â these very people are also one of the main reasons why Rangers are where they are today. When the time came to punish Craig Whyte for his reprehensible reign, the club found itself being trampled into the Third Division in an online stampede to stick the boot in. A succession of cowardly chairmen trotted out the line they were âlistening to their fansâ when the truth was they were terrified that if they did not follow the orders of the keyboard clatterers then they might be next to get it. Traynor grew weary of operating in such a climate. In the end, he became exhausted by it. So it is ironic he is now teaming up with Green just when the Yorkshireman has moved to embrace his own extremists. By backing their calls for a boycott of the Scottish Cup tie at Tannadice in February, Green has effectively denied other Rangers fans the chance to support their team. And that canât be right. What about the wishes of the ordinary fan, if such a thing still exists? The old-fashioned type who would rather watch a match than obsess about wreaking vengeance here or seeking retribution there. These are the very people Traynor and I tried to serve by uncovering the truth about the demise of their club. When I first wrote that Whyte had put the club at the risk of financial ruin I was banned from Ibrox. And Whyte was positively hero worshiped for it by the #getitrightupye brigade. So it is hard for me to believe Traynor would have given his blessing to Greenâs decision to play up to that very crowd. (But thatâs exactly what he did in his last article) If asked, he would have advised Green to offer some form of token backing for a boycott. To let the fans know the club understands why feelings still run so high among so many. And to stress they have every right to stay away. But imposing a blanket ban? That was an official endorsement of the mentality which got Scottish football into such a mess. Itâs divisive and dangerous for Rangers to go down that road. What was the point in saving a team from destruction and then not allowing its fans to go and watch it? Itâs outrageous Green has told them they canât go to Tannadice. Just because itâs the Arabs doesnât give him the right to act like a tinpot Middle Eastern dictator. That Green feels so empowered as to act in this way ought to worry those fans who were grateful to him for keeping their club alive. It is their club after all. They saved it. There would be no Rangers without them. Traynor grasped that fact and itâs now his job to keep a lid on this loose cannon. Good luck with that JT. Someone pass me the mic.
"A succession of cowardly chairmen trotted out the line they were “listening to their fans” when the truth was they were terrified that if they did not follow the orders of the keyboard clatterers then they might be next to get it. Traynor grew weary of operating in such a climate." I see. So they weren't worried about the supporters who pay their money but they were **** scared of some anonymous people on the internet, most of whom were probably not even fans of their club? The quicker you **** off to Ibrox with the human-slug hybrid the better it will be for Scottish journalism.
Someone told me that Traynor was actually very good back in the 80's. I don't believe it. I still think there is room for professional journalists....capable ones.
Even a stopped clock n' all that..... "Well, they should get their pumps and tap shoes tied up because it won’t be long now. Yesterday the CVA proposal put forward on behalf of Charles Green by administrators Duff and Phelps was rejected by HMRC. They didn’t even wait until tomorrow’s creditors’ meeting, although that will still go ahead. But Rangers FC won’t. They’ll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended. No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers as we know them died".
Dev, Do you think anyone at all read that long saga you posted at 1.01pm today. You must have been up all last night preparing it, and then no-one read it.
As I said at the time, using that as a signature says more than a million words ever could, not least because you disregarded (Or simply were too stupid to understand) what I actually said, so you batter on and make a complete **** of yourself...as usual. ****ing stalkers eh?
