As every football fan in the country knows, these past couple of weeks have been very bad for the delusions and mad fantasies of the Ibrox support. Their forums are febrile places right now, as the shock of Celtic’s win there continues to reverberate.
But they are especially aflame because of the the news the other day that Celtic is ready to discuss a settlement of that court case they’ve told each other for years would be our ruination.
As a consequence of us now offering to do what they have been demanding we do for an age, they are just about ready for a full-scale eruption. In a stunning example of their own self-pity and blindness they have made this about how much they suffered in 2012 … think about that for a minute and realise how perverse it is.
But for so long, some of them have told themselves and each other that his was their 2012 comeuppance. The possibility of it being snatched away from them, with Celtic stepping up to do what is right, appals them and has gotten them angrier than ever.
Tonight, that anger could erupt fall-scale across their own club, and all it will take is for Real Betis to turn up at Ibrox and do what they are well capable of doing; handing The Mooch and his dire side a football lesson. If It happens, that man might have no place to hide.
Their side has a decent record at home in Europe. They even managed to hold PSV to a draw in the Champions League home tie before being thoroughly dismantled away. But Betis will go to Ibrox in no mood to settle for a point; if they can get off to a good start they will be overwhelming favourites to win the group. It could all get very ugly if they score early.
The Mooch is in a very bad place at the moment, and this is only heightened by the raging insanity that is rampant across their support. They have been out for this guy’s neck on the block since the opening weekend of the campaign, and their patience with him officially ended when we went there with a makeshift side and got a result against them.
I have had one eye on goings on over there for years, and I’ll be honest; this is the craziest and most bloodthirsty I’ve ever seen their fans. Every single grievance, whether major or minor, has them in an absolute frenzy.
They want The Mooch out, they are questioning their board and, as we saw during the Celtic game, they are not shy even about punching the daylights out of each other when they have none of our fans around to throw objects at.
By any rational metric, Betis are a better side than they are.
A support which was not smouldering with resentment and boiling over with hate might even respond to a defeat the way Celtic fans have to the other night; with a coherent discussion about where we go from here and how we can improve, but above all a realisation that we have a long way to go to compete at this level.
But they do not fit the category of fans amendable to reason.
Any defeat tonight will be met with rage. A bad defeat will be met with something much darker than that, something will make fear and loathing seem like positive emotions.
Their fans are not looking forward to this tonight one bit.
The manager is looking forward to it less.
Bet is in place – Betis to win !!!!
Will keep an eye on this game result on teletext…
If it’s going the way I want at half time… say – Sevco 0 v Real Betis 2 –
I might just need to tune into BBC Radio Scotland to truly enjoy their brutal pain…
Oh and Clyde Superscoreboard tomorrow night to complete ma Schadenfreude –
Here’s Hopin !
Hope real betis play in there
Green and White stripes that will send them crazy.
They are gung ho, We can get bla, bla one of the phonies has them treble winners and at least QF Europa League. Fair play first quarter of game and listening to radio they’re giving it a good go. Canny last.
PS That’s, SSB Phonies btw.
Is Real Betis the name of a pub in Spain or is it Spanish for headless chickens? Have they ever actually managed to score a goal far less win a game? What a shower of useless fairies..
And what happens if they win? Like they did.
You’ll see tomorrow cause I’ve written about it already!
I hate having to eat humble pie James, don’t you?
Well it looks like they’ve pulled off another “shock” result. A result that we maybe should be glad of because at least someone from Scotland is trying to keep the coefficient points up. Maybe we have to be honest here and say at a certain level in Europe they are actually not bad.
They know how to win. We don’t, well not consistently enough anyway. Tonight’s result may be a blessing in disguise as it buys Beale more time in the hot hot hot seat. Seems like the man has more lives than Donald J Trump. I can see the headlines already ” Michael Beale, making Thu Rangurs great again!!”
I wish we had more of their constitution in Europe! (See what I did there!! 🙂
It’s not a case of eating humble pie. I said in the piece, their record at home is damned good.
This is another good result for them … but as I’ll write tomorrow, it’s only stretching out their long nightmare.
I’ll tell you what James,much as we slag them off they have once more got off to a good start after their disastrous CL qualifying round,I don’t know if we could beat real betis,and you were certainly bumming them up as a team that would thrash sevco.
No I said that they are comfortably a better team than the Ibrox club, which they are.
But at home, Sevco are a well-organised and well drilled side in European competition. Perversely, they have exactly the kind of experience, and thus discipline, in the Europa League that our side lacks. They can play back-foot, hit on the break football because their guys have been over the course. If there’s a lesson to be learned from them it’s that, but I wouldn’t trade our policies for theirs … because as well as it works in Europe it doesn’t work in the SPFL, which is why we’re current champions.
The cracks have been filled, but they have not papered over it yet. They are one bad result away from pandemonium.
The sevconians have the street smarts that we lack on Europe hence why they get results. We don’t go down under fouls, then lose the ball and the opposition breaks. They do, breaking the game up and helping them. It’s cynical, it’s dirty… It’s effective. Especially at home.
That and they have tall players who don’t get bullied as easily.
But they won last night because their keeper made a series of saves. When we last got a good result in Europe it was because Fraser Forster made a series of saves. We need to have a great shot stopper for Europe. Hart is declining (I’m not of the he’s currently crap brigade, but he shouldn’t be our 1st choice next season).
And to clear it up before people asked. Roofe’s accidental handball doesn’t invalidate Sima’s goal, that rule was changed in 2021.
Strange inconsistency there.
Roofe’s ‘accidental’ handball not penalised but if a defender ‘accidentally’ hits the ball with his hand or the ball bounces onto his hand or arm in the Penalty box then he is penalised.
Guaranteed if he’ wearing the ‘Hoops’.