Just the other day, as there was clearly nothing else going on in football in Scotland, the media was wetting itself over an off-hand John McEnroe quote, where he said that “Glasgow Rangers” were the only Scottish club he’d ever heard of.
I thought that it was pretty absurd that the media was concentrating attention on such a piece of fluff.
Today, whilst commentating on a match on Eurosport, the subject came up, and his co-commentator happened to mention that he was now an adopted Sevconut, as a result of his having heard of their defunct OldCo.
And he asked a question that has me falling about laughing.
“Is that all it takes?”
Cue hilarity and serious sore sides.
Because yes, that’s all it takes.
Having heard of them at all.
And we see this everywhere now, with everything they do.
There was a time when their club announcing the signing of a 35 year old on what amounts to a free transfer would have had these fans up in arms. The notion of signing dreck from teams like Accrington Stanley would have driven them insane. That was before, when they were Rangers fans and not followers of Sevco. There was a time when they would never have celebrated snatching a late draw at Celtic Park or a late win at Thistle as if it was a Champions League winning goal.
Whether they realise it or not, they accept certain limitations as the norm.
It’s why the signing of Kevin Kyle was greeted with jubilation in the first season. It’s how a guy like King can appoint a manager who’d been in the dugout less than 18 months and allow him to buy 20 odd players over two years, none of whom was worth a damn but all of whom were built up as somehow special.
It’s how he could con them so effortlessly … because on some level they know what their club is.
It’s not Rangers. It’s a five year old NewCo the world has never heard of.
And even if it had still been Rangers, the version of it they grew up supporting and which the world recognised as a major sporting institution … that’s gone for good.
Instead is this shambling wreck, this basket case which is so unprofessional they allowed their latest signing to pose yesterday in a Nike top whilst the corporate logo of their official shirt manufacturer was nowhere to be seen.
Because of course, there’s no point to putting him in last year’s shirt … with their out of date shirt sponsor on it.
So of course they were delighted that McEnroe provided them with a little cosmic happiness the other day; he’s heard of Rangers! But these fans don’t follow that club, and their gratitude and glee for giving them something to smile at could only have come from people who realise that on some level and who’s supremacist mind-set is starting to ebb away.
“Is that all it takes?”
Barton could easily have asked the same question after the tweeting of WATP erased, in their minds, years of expressions of love for Celtic and Republican sympathies. Charles Green was not trusted until he gave his famous speech saying what happened to Rangers was as a result of sectarianism, and then suddenly he was a hero. Dave King only had to make Mike Ashley into the enemy and his own grubby hands were on the doorknob. And before it all, Craig Whyte bought and liquidated their actual club for the princely sum of £1, which might never even have been paid, because the media told them he was a “Motherwell born billionaire.”
Yes, that’s all it takes.
Feed them their egos and they’re yours.
A moment after he expressed his surprise at their swift adoption of him, McEnroe did what a guy in his position will always do, when faced with such gullibility. He started to think of a way he could turn it to his advantage.
“I’ll have to do a book signing,” he said.
Well of course you will, man!
Fleece these gullible Peepul for everything you can get from them.
In the meantime, I wonder if this will make the papers?