Violence in Manchester exposes Daily Record bias

It's been obvious for years that certain sections of the Scottish press bias their coverage in favour of the Old Firm. Not just in terms of coverage - you'd expect those 2 to dominate the headlines, much as the Big 4 do in England - but editorially as well. Rangers have had the Daily Record in their back pocket for as long as anyone can remember, always handy when you want to unsettle a player at another club or promote your interests.

Yet, you'd assume that there are limits. No matter how cosy the relationship, basic journalistic integrity would ensure that at least an attempt at impartiality remained. Nope, not so. The Daily Ranger has been exposed for the propaganda rag it truly is.

Most media outlets described last Wednesday's violence in Manchester thus: huge crowds, unfortunate technical hitch, question marks over the planning of the event, shocking violence. While there were clearly lessons to be learned for the organisers and the police, it was clear that the Rangers supporters had gone way over the top. End of story.

Well, not in the Record, which last week led an impassioned defence of the Rangers supporters, while also claiming that it wasn't even Rangers supporters who were causing the trouble (work that one out). No, according to their editorial, "almost none of the ringleaders wore club colours or spoke with a Scottish accent. There were, however, many English and Northern Irish accents."

You can spot the obvious flaws. One being that casuals don't wear colours. Another being - roughly half the population of Northern Ireland are Rangers fans. And you also have to ask - how did the Daily Ranger know this? I'm not sure the police have identified the ring leaders yet (although you can bet they are working on it). How did the paper know?

Read an excellent article in the Scotland on Sunday by Tom English about the Manchester violence here.

And to remind yourself what happened, watch this. Or this.

Belatedly, the Daily Ranger put up their own video of the events, handily contextualised with vox pops of supporters saying how bad the organisation was, and an interview with the chief copper in Manchester cut off just before she starts to describe the violence of the fans.

Throwback UEFA Cup Final proves match too far for Rangers

Last night's UEFA Cup Final was curiously reminiscent of the way European finals used to be. It harked back to a time before football was utterly dominated by money, with clubs from outside the biggest, richest Leagues able to get to the final. Of course, it's new money that is powering the resurgence of Russia's clubs, but Zenit St Petersburg lived up to the reputation of Eastern European clubs in the 80s and early 90s - mysterious, full of players unknown in Britain, and technically superior.

Interesting, too, that both clubs' line-ups would have qualified under Sepp Blatter's proposed 6+5 rule, designed to promote home-grown players instead of foreigners. Zenit, being owned by Gazprom and thus effecively a state-owned club, provide many of the players for the Russian national team, while Rangers have rediscovered how to buy Scottish after years of costly imports got them deeper and deeper into debt.

Rangers were also faithful to the traditional tactics employed by teams in finals - do everything not to lose a goal, and then try and win on penalties. In the old days, this was achieved through liberal use of the backpass to the keeper and cynical tackling from behind - both now outlawed.
Nowadays, it's done by giving one man the responsibility to attack, and instructing everyone else to defend in depth. Walter Smith - after teasing that he might employ a more adventurous line-up - was true to form, setting Rangers up to frustrate and disrupt at all costs.

This has been the plan throughout this campaign, and of course it has worked a treat - just so long as the opponents haven't scored. Last night, we got a chance to find out if there was a Plan B, and the answer was... no, not really.

Zenit finally made their breakthrough in the 72nd minute, and what followed next was bizarre. For the next 4 minutes, a suddenly silent stadium looked on as Smith made notes in his chair, deep in discussion with his assistants. The Rangers fans, who'd been so noisy throughout, had gone silent just when their team needed them most, but then they probably knew by then that the game was up. On the pitch, lacking any direction or encouragement from the dug out, the players looked very, very lost.

At long last, the reaction came, Smith sending on 3 strikers in quick succession to try and rescue the game. But he'd left it too late... Zenit, now full of confidence, mopped up everything with ease, and scored a decisive second goal in injury time. They deserved to win.

Sadly, the match was a reminder of earlier times for different reasons, too. As more and more footage comes out from last night's violence in Manchester city centre, it becomes less and less possible to blame the trouble on a few neds getting angry when one of the large tv screens failed. Hundreds of Rangers fans ran running battles with the coppers, throwing objects and doing much to undermine the "carnival" atmosphere that had been reported during the afternoon.

Few people in Scotland are surprised, sadly. The build up to the match had focused on the racist attitudes of the Russian fans, but the likelihood of trouble if Rangers lost was always there.

The truth, not often mentioned, is that not all Celtic fans behaved in exemplary fashion when they lost the UEFA Cup final in Seville in 2003. But, although there was some bad behaviour, there was little violence.

Today, Rangers should be basking in approval for their achievement in even reaching the final, if not the football they played to get there. Instead, the mindless thuggery of some fans is dominating the media attention.

Ugly anti-football reaches the UEFA Cup Final

Lionel Messi and Adrian Mutu are far from the only people to criticise the way Rangers play football this season, but they can't argue with its effectiveness. After a penalty shoot out in Tuscany last night, Rangers are in the final.

With respect to the rest of the team, at times it was Carlos Cuellar and Davie Weir against Fiorentina, as Rangers hung on and hung on against relentless pressure. Had Christian Vieri come on a little earlier, the chance that fell to him a couple of yards from goal might not have been his first touch and he might have buried it. Had Mutu gone down in the box later on when jostled by two Rangers players, Fiorentina could have had a penalty inside normal time. Ifs and buts, though... Fiorentina couldn't score in 3 and 1/2 hours of football, and Rangers came away with the prize.

Now things get really interesting. For the past few weeks, the European adventure has seemed like a distraction, allowing Celtic to win the past 2 Old Firm derbies and close the gap in the League. Without a doubt, stopping Celtic getting their third title in a row has been the priority for the blue half of Glasgow, and the narrowing race in the SPL - plus the injury list - has caused mounting anxiety.

However, Rangers have now emulated Celtic's achievement in 2003 in reaching the UEFA Cup Final. They came home from Seville empty-handed, save for the beginnings of a tale about how 4 million supporters (or something) created the best final atmosphere ever*.

It's unlikely Rangers will attempt to mythologise their own support in quite the same way. There have been enough distasteful scenes from their travelling support in the past couple of years to make such an attempt pointless. But they might just go to Manchester and win the damn cup. And that will be a far greater prize.

Are Rangers great or just fucking lucky?

Rangers are into a European semi-final for the first time since 1972 after their second leg win over Sporting Lisbon tonight. Ok, it's the UEFA Cup, not the big one, but still... nae bad for poor wee Scotland, eh?

For an outsider, it looks like a club from one of the poorer leagues in Europe heroically over-coming the odds and sticking it to the big boys. But to those of us who've actually watched them this season, its seems inexplicable. They eventually won 2-0 this evening, but for the first hour Rangers were being battered by a visibly superior team. Then Jean-Claude Darcheville scored an (admittedly fine) break-away goal, and the ITV commentary started talking about a famous mugging. Needing 2 goals, Sporting poured forward, created plenty of chances, but couldn't score. Then substitute Steven Whittaker danced through a tired defence and scored another.

So Rangers are lucky, and they've had their fair share of luck all season, from the last Old Firm game to countless other matches throughout the season. They've frequently played poorly and with little guile, yet managed to put away their chances and keep the opposition out. They turned in possibly their worst performance in 10 years at Easter Road in December, for example, yet had the fortune to face a leaderless Hibs who played even worse.

Yet there is more to it than that. Firstly, Walter Smith has built a big squad that has a bit of talent but a lot of experience. People like Barry Ferguson, David Weir and Christian Dailly have seen it all, while Carlos Cuellar really deserves to be Scottish Player of the Year. But there is also the Uncle Watty and Super Ally show - the managerial duo have got the magic ingredient to making Rangers tick, all right.

First of all, Uncle Watty employs his familiar tactics... five across midfield, centre backs at full back, that sort of thing. Rangers are hard to break down. And then there is the Rangers affect... the boss and his sidekick are both confirmed bluenoses, and they've ensured the rest of the squad are too. The players seem willing to run through walls for the cause... and as the results have come in, the commitment has increased, keeping the run going. It's been a virtuous circle of Proddy graft (that's not sectarian, by the way) and a sense of grievance that this club went for two seasons without a single trophy.

How long will it last? Well, thanks to their extended European and domestic cup adventures, plus a catalogue of postponed fixtures, Rangers now face an immense backlog of matches that will test that squad and those tactics to the limit.

Well, it will if Celtic turn up for the final two Old Firm games. And if not them, surely Fiorentina will prove too much, with Barry Ferguson and Kevin Thomson (two thirds of the first choice midfield) suspended.

But then, who knows? If Rangers really are lucky, a quadruple is on the cards.

European success undermines Old Firm's moaning

Rangers might have benefitted from goal-keeping errors last night, but the 2-0 result against Werder Bremen gives them a great chance to get through to the UEFA Cup quarter finals. Walter Smith will have been pleased by his team's defence, with Christian Dailly and Brahim Hemdani in midfield snuffing out the opponent's attack. Rangers have now gone 19 games unbeaten, with a big enough squad to challenge both in Europe and at home at the same time.

Meanwhile, Celtic were clearly second-best against Barcelona, but the club still saw signs of progress, with Chief Executive Peter Lawwell saying he saw "no reason" why Celtic could not go one better next season and get through to the last eight of the Champions League.

Of course, once you are in the quarter finals of a knock-out competition, anything can happen.

So if Celtic and Rangers both think that getting to the latter stages of the Champions League or UEFA Cup are now realistic rather than hopeful ambitions, what exactly have they been moaning about all this time. The argument was that the SPL was holding them back, that they would never be able to reach their potential while "forced" to compete in poor old Scotland. They lobbied and lobbied to be allowed to join the English Premiership so that they could provide the success that their huge fanbases deserved.

Of course, there is no chance of them doing that now, and it turns out that the SPL isn't all that bad after all. It's not the most exciting or richest league in Europe, but it doesn't seem to be doing too badly for the Old Firm at the moment.

Aberdeen given UEFA Cup draw

Dear God, that's harsh.

Aberdeen today found out who their opponents will be in the UEFA Cup group stage, and it's not easy reading for the Pittodrie faithful. Panathinaikos, Lokomotiv Moscow, Atletico Madrid and FC Copenhagen make for a formidable quartet of fixtures. What makes things even worse is that only one of these clubs, Atletico, comes from one of the "big" football markets in Europe, which will affect television revenue for these ties.

Finishing anything other than bottom of this group looks a tough ask: FC Copenhagen are the only other club even vaguely comparable in terms of their player budget, but they have much more European experience in recent years.

Still, if Jimmy Calderwood can successfully negotiate a way out of these matches, and keep Aberdeen in the mix at the right end of the SPL, it will rank as an achievement as great as any in his management career to date. He has always expressed a desire to test himself: it looks as if his wishes have just come true.

Dunfermline drop through the floor

Imagine being a Pars fan.

Relegation looked nailed on months ago. There simply was no way back. The season would be remembered for a great, improbable run in the Scottish Cup, but there was no chance of staying in the SPL.

And then they went on a run, becoming the SPL's form team as the two clubs above them, St Mirren and Motherwell, went into freefall. Victories over both those teams had dragged the Pars back to within a point of St Mirren, and suddenly survival looked possible. Maybe, even probable. On Saturday, Dunfermline were 1-0 away to Inverness, while St Mirren were 2-0 down to Motherwell. If those scorelines remained the same, Dunfermline would have leapfrogged St Mirren at the bottom of the table, with just one more game left to play.

But then it all went wrong. Dorus De Vries, the goalkeeper who has been in heroic form since January, made a blunder and allowed Caley back into the game. Then he was defeated by a wicked deflection in the 89th minute. Meanwhile, the Buddies found 3 goals to snatch all the points from Motherwell. Dunfermline, finally, are relegated, and their fans are distraught. As John Cleese said in Clockwise:

"It's not the despair...I can TAKE the despair. It's the HOPE....."

Somehow, they are going to have to lift themselves for the Scottish Cup final in a fortnight, but you can't imagine it being much of a party now.

There now remains just one issue to be decided... who is going to finish third and grab the UEFA Cup spot? Aberdeen now lead Hearts by just a point, after their defeat to Celtic and Hearts' victory in the Edinburgh derby. Aberdeen's claim to be the third best team in Scotland is undermined somewhat by their failure to take a single point off the Old Firm this season, but if they are to guarantee that 3rd place, they will need to beat Rangers this coming weekend, because Hearts will surely fancy a win against Kilmarnock, who have nothing left to play for.

Aberdeen's season is about to be defined by one match.

Rangers march on towards the promised land

Rangers are through to the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, after an ultimately comfortable victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv at Ibrox. The tie finished 5-2 on aggregate, with Rangers scoring 4 at Ibrox to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the 1st leg.

Yet the result represents so much more than just progress in Europe's second cup competition. In many ways, Rangers have now firmly put the turmoil of the first half of the season to bed. But they have also realised that their much vaunted campaign against bigotry has some way to go.

The one positive from Paul Le Guen's brief tenure was the club's progress in this competition. By parting with their French manager in January, the danger was that the momentum gained in the UEFA Cup would grind to a halt as Rangers focused on rebuilding their domestic reputation. By getting through this round, though, anything that happens from here on in the UEFA Cup is a bonus. Walter Smith has shown that he, too, can cope with the demands of European competition.

More startling, though, is the transformation of Barry Ferguson. When Le Guen instructed his captain to play further up the pitch, where his passing and vision could cause more damage to the opposition, Ferguson openly rebelled, chasing the ball deep into his own half and pulling the team out of shape as he did so. A furious Le Guen dropped him, removed the captaincy, and issued a he goes or I go ultimatum. And lost. When Smith asked Ferguson to do the same on Thursday night, he turned in a Man of the Match performance, plundered a brace of goals, and played with a smile on his face.

Nothing better demonstrates the subtle nuances of football management - it is not simply about getting the tactics right, but also about man management, communication and creating the right atmosphere. Put simply, Smith knows how to get the best out of Ferguson. Le Guen did not.

Their reward is a last-16 tie against Osasuna. It was characterised by the BBC interviewer last night as a "massive tie", but only in the sense that it will test Rangers to the limit. With all due respect, Osasuna do not represent the glamour and prestige that Rangers seek to restore their self-image. If they get through, maybe that will come in the next round, where they would crave an appointment with Newcastle.

Yet Smith will know that further progress is not guaranteed. Rangers have been getting impressive results in the SPL, and the final scoreline here was emphatic, but Hapoel - hardly a "big" team themselves - threatened frequently throughout the game. With a more incisive attack, Rangers could have got punished last night. There is much work still to be done on improving this Ibrox side.

Their is work to be done off the field, too. Rangers escaped sanction from UEFA for the behaviour of some of their fans in the first leg in Israel, who were alleged to be making Nazi salutes. UEFA accepted the explanation that they were, in fact, making Red Hand of Ulster salutes. Not that such a thing exists, at least not in Ulster. The photgraphic evidence (try here: http://i18.tinypic.com/3zu44ec.jpg ) might not be enough to convict, but is a deeply unpleasant sight.

Rangers has a facist, right-wing following, however much of a minority they may be. Pretending otherwise does nothing to banish bigotry and racism from the club.