European hangover
Thu May 15 08:58AM
In the end, Rangers' European campaign mirrored their fans' day in Manchester, as great passion and excitement gave way to disarray. In fact there are several parallels:
It started early: July 31 for the team, while the supporters kicked off a mammoth drinking session by queueing en masse to get into Wetherspoon's at 9am.
They defended in numbers: Rangers had nine men behind the ball for much of their campaign, while they moved an occupying force of 100,000 into central Manchester.
There was alcohol involved: much of Manchester was dry by mid-afternoon - the Gers faithful possibly driven to drink watching a side that failed to score in nine of its last 13 European fixtures.
They initially won praise: Rangers' "plucky" play-for-penalties style earned them many fans who appreciated their passion and organisation. It was all fun and games throughout the day in Manchester as the fans got royally pished.
It all ended a bit messily: on the pitch, Rangers eventually capitulated after 70 minutes under the cosh. Outside the stadium, the Glaswegians were under an altogether more literal cosh as they clashed with police. Cue condemnation from the same media that were loving their antics earlier in the day.
They need to get themselves together: yesterday the shops had no booze - today there could be shortages of Alka Seltzer and plasters as the fans take their hangovers back up north and prepare to face the wife. Rangers have the small matter of a domestic treble to win.
It was not exactly the Watts Riots, but the scenes of violence were obviously unedifying (ED doesn't remember seeing anyone mooning at coppers in South Central LA).
If you're surrounded by a 100,000 inebriated Scottish football fans, few things are likely to provoke more disastrous consequences than the big TV breaking.
Although there is no serious suggestion of over-zealous policing, ED wonders if it really took three heavily-armed riot cops to take down the slightly confused-looking man in the photo above.
- - -
Make your mind up. Passive-aggressive Chelsea manager Avram Grant just can't decide whether to be graceful over Manchester United's league title.
May 11: "I sent a message to Alex Ferguson congratulating him. He is a great manager and a great person. I congratulated him for a great season and for the title. I wished him all the best."
May 14: "In England there are some very good referees but some you can influence ...Paul Scholes should have been shown a red card and Wigan awarded a penalty."
Asked whether he was pleased there would be no English referee at the Champions League final, he replied; "I can say it like this - yes."
Trouble is, Grant's attempts at mind games are clumsier than a teenage clinch behind the bike sheds.
Why is he bothering to put pressure on English refs when the domestic season is over? What is he trying to achieve?
The main problem with Grant is that he does doesn't seem very managerial. He doesn't do or say anything that other managers do and just seems a bit awkward.
Forget the results - Jose Mourinho just 'felt' right, Grant does not. And that is why he will be out of a job in a few weeks.
- - -
Early Doors is saddened to hear about the death of Tommy Burns from cancer. Burns is most famous as a former Celtic player and manager, and represented Scotland eight times. He was 51.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Kevin McNaughton explains the sordid origins of his costume for Cardiff's FA Cup song: "The Danger Mouse suit was one I bought for our Christmas bash. Those parties can get pretty messy and I wanted something I could chuck away afterwards but I kept it just in case it came in handy." It's nice to have an outfit for every occasion...
NICKNAME OF THE DAY: "Sir Charles" - What Carlos Tevez is known as back in Argentina. Think of it as their equivalent to "El Tel".
FOREIGN VIEW: Zenit keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev said the team were woken up by a middle-of-the-night fire alarm Tuesday night. He said: "At 12 o'clock (midnight) the alarm went off, everyone ran out of their rooms, we thought we were on fire.But then they explained that it was three Glasgow fans who had set off the alarm on the third floor."
TALKING POINT: After copping all types of flak for criticising Rangers, today Early Doors is putting steven.rowan in the firing line: "Well, well, well!!... The wheels are finally coming off the Rangers glory wagon!! Can't say that I'm surprised - they've been riding their luck throughout every European game this season... So now for the domestic treble?.. I don't think so. Motherwell will rip them apart on Saturday, and surely Q.O.S. are worth a few bob at the bookies?.. As for the after-match trouble - Surprise, Surprise without Cilla Black!!"
Today - Were you at the game/in Manchester last night? Do share your experiences. We'd love to hear them.
COMING UP: England Under-21s are in action tonight against Wales in Wrexham. Should be good fun. As indeed should the League One playoff second leg between Dirty Leeds and Carlisle. Follow both matches in full on eurosport.yahoo.co.uk - they kick off at 7.45pm.
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From karlbillo on Thu May 15 09:07AMI've read Avram's outburst about Fergie and the guy is clearly an idiot. Does he forget that United played over half the game against Wigan with 10 men?!? And what about Malouda's soft pen against Liverpool, cole's horror challenge on hutton, drogbas constant cheating, etc?!? No mention of that. No, his team are 'winners', despite not having won anything this season as yet. I used to respect Grant and thought he may make a worthy replacement for Mourinho, but he is an untalented waste of space and I hope his words are ringing in his ears when they are beaten fair and square in Moscow and he joins the queue at the job centre
From agentblue_99 on Thu May 15 09:08AMvery saddend to hear about Tommy Burns, a propper Gent, a huge loss to Scottish football.
From kev_tech2003 on Thu May 15 09:17AMGreater Manchester Police take exception to Sinbad (from Brookside)'s robotic dancing.
From g_hine on Thu May 15 09:17AMWell, now the majority of England and Manchester in particular know why Rangers are so hated up here. Result didn't go your way? Smash the place up. Big Screen TV not working? Smash the place up. No dodgy refereeing decisions to blame the result on? Smash the place up. Not being allowed to smash the place up by Riot Police? Smash the place up and then claim there was no provocation whatsoever from yourselves, that the Police were just barbaric and treated you like animals. Thanks a bunch, you worked really hard to keep up the stereotype of the 'Boozed-up Jock spoiling for a fight' and managed to set us back yet again. The devastating news that Tommy Burns has died just compounds the misery. A sad, sad day for Scottish Football.
From kevmun82 on Thu May 15 09:25AMRegarding Kevin McNaughton's fancy dress costume, surely you mean: "It's mice to have an outfit for every occasion..."
From tomwilliams83 on Thu May 15 09:26AMAvril has yet to be proven as a manager in any league of significance; sure he won stuff in Israel, but even here one can wonder about the 'management team' that was there, given his love of the role of 'director of football'. It is often said that the observer sees more of the game, and perhaps that is his strength; whatever, I would just like to see someone with even a little charisma at the helm f one of the clubs that we cannot escape hearing about.
Well done Hull City! Good on you guys; occurs to me that they could become the first Yorkshire side in the top flight for, er, some years . . and its not as if our cricket was doing so well . . And, incidentally, I cannot really imagine John Smiths at any price being a great attraction when good stuff such as London Pride, and Jennings (from @#$%bria) is available locally at not much more, even if there is the added attraction of a, presumably, celebrity threatened, top awards event! That's the trouble with a load of soccer supporters (as opposed to the cowblog cricket 'chaps'
no discernment in their choice of beverage, leaves them feeling grumpy if stuff doesn't turn out as they would wish, as in Mcr last night
From c.hawcroft on Thu May 15 09:28AMI know that Phil Jupitus is an obnoxious unfunny prick, but I'm not sure he deserves the beating he's getting in the photo above - then again, maybe he does.
From mpasc66 on Thu May 15 09:30AMsteven.rowan has a cheek 2 slag the rangers fans behaviour then back motherwell to beat them , motherwells captain is a thug who goes around causing trouble ( http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/200
8/02/24/motherwell-skipper-paul-quinn-charged-over
-nightclub-attack-78057-20329236/ ) no wonder he got his jaw broken
From georgemartinesz on Thu May 15 09:40AMApparently, then, all the agro in Manchester yesterday was not about Leicester City being relegated.
From hktonyw on Thu May 15 09:49AMI was at one of the big screens in Manchester (not the one that broke luckily), and I can say that the majority of the 'aren't football fans a disgrace' talk is rubbish. There was very very very little in the way of agressive behaviour, the only agression that I saw was when we were being kept squashed outside the 'fan zones' and there was shedloads of space inside them, but even then it was only shouting at people to get out of the way of the screens etc. I'll be honest, I was a bit scared about getting home, I was convinced there'd be a Russian hunt, but all I saw was thousands and thousands of people singing together.
My sympathy is with anyone who's suffered a negative effect from yesterday, but all in all it was a cracking experience, in the majority good behaviour (unless you count people using doorways as urinals when there are 400 toilets for 100,000 people, or climbing on ice cream vans for better views - frankly that was just funny), and well done Rangers for getting there.
From not_blonde_really on Thu May 15 09:51AMThe guy in the photo has just said "ALEX CHICK IS THE ONLY ED". Hence the problem he is having.
From james_ssmith on Thu May 15 10:03AMBy the way, 'Russian hunt' may sound like some sort of innuendo, but it's not supposed to be.
From not_blonde_really on Thu May 15 10:08AMRIP Tommy Burns
From davybroo on Thu May 15 10:09AMagentblue_99 you are a tupid idiot. the biggest pile of @#$% Ive ever seen anyone write on this. The actual article aint much better, Grant is right, the ref did hand them the game and he's glad it aint an English ref in the final. thats fine to say. he still said well done to Man U. whats wrong with that, more than most would do. why dont u stop hatin Chelsea so much n actually write somethin worthwhile.
As for Rangers, hglad they got beat. they were @#$% again, played as they have all season n finally got what deserved. as for the small amount of fans that are idiots, they have made all scottish fans look bad. I seen sum footage on the news and they are all big neds that are only interested in fighting.
From sav46e on Thu May 15 10:13AMThe guy in the pic did say, we could have WON IT
From packington7 on Thu May 15 10:20AM@ sav: You're the dumb one. Live and let live.Everyone has a right to his opinion in here. The fact is that it's quite hypocritical for Grant to first say Man United played well this season and deserve to be Champions..and then turn around to say the ref gave United the cup. Chelsea won the game at the Bridge with a pen that most refs won't have given, of course Fergie raged about it...but it's all in the past now. for some reason u Chelsea fans keep forgetting that your team didn't win their game. So even if we had drawn (trust me, even without Ronny's pen we wouldn't have lost that much)...so even if we had drawn, we'd still have taken the league. U guys drew with Wigan and Bolton...Wigan and Bolton!!...in double squeaky bum month. We didn't win by goal difference..we won by 2 points.
P.S. funny thing is most Man Utd fans don't trust Bennett...we've gotten some nasty decisions off him in the past. The only evil that could come out of a European ref for the final will be the number of fouls and cards given...UEFA refs just dont get the pssion of the Prem.
From tosinsbox on Thu May 15 10:31AMi am not sure to be happy about rangers' defeat. i was torn between rangers' negative football and those russian racist bigots. i just hoped they both lost.
From toksonice on Thu May 15 10:37AMwell said, tosinsbox post no.17; keep trying, but sadly i don't think we will never get rid of the word control freaks, now past their time since we've had 1984 and the thought police even; just enjoy the positive contributions to the blog, eh?
From c.hawcroft on Thu May 15 10:44AMU honestly think Chelsea would have said played the last 10 min in the same way if Man u were drawin or gettin beat.
Ur the hypocrit anyway sayin everyone deserves an opinion and the sayin Grant cant have 1. What he said is fine, Man u deserved the league over the season but it took a ref on the last day to be the deciding factor. that is true! And I was callin the boy an idoit for talkin bout the penalty against Liverpool and Cole's challenge on Hutton. that all uve got for against Chelsea for the whole season? I could start with 1st game of season n say Liverpool shouldnt have beat Villa, wasnt free kick n they scored it in last kick of ball. Chelsea have had least luck out all big teams, well arsenal pretty unlucky this season too, so dont start tryin to bring up stupid decisions that say they've been lucky or got way with things!
And it was 100% a penalty at the bridge. unlike the 1 old trafford.
From sav46e on Thu May 15 10:45AMU telling me ur team preferred a draw in the last game of the season (at home) to a win just because we were winning? OK. I give it to you. We won the league because the ref likes us and not because we deserved to (by getting more points and more goals). Who cares?? Only you guys
From tosinsbox on Thu May 15 10:58AMP.S. I remember posting somwhere this season that I'd rather Chelsea kept their unbeaten home record and we kept our cup...than otherwise. I still feel so.
From tosinsbox on Thu May 15 11:00AMA sad day for Scottish footbal and it's fans all round.Tommy Burns will be sorely missed as a great player, a good manager and a genuine man - R.I.P. Sad for the fans that they have been singled out as trouble makers due to the actions of a few. Not sad for Rangers - this is a team playing 5 games in 11 days and they go for E.T. and penalties - strange mind set! Rangers will, probably, win the treble - if they score some goals.
From geelte on Thu May 15 11:02AMLooks like the old guy in the picture has just felt the full force of his fourth kebab with some major follow-through action. The guy in the riot gear on the left is inspecting the damage, while the one on the right is just shielding himself against any aftershocks.
From garethcoletranslations on Thu May 15 11:04AMAll football teams have a section of mindless thugs who enjoy a s@#$% when things go awry for their side. Some even when their team wins, they have always been there lurking for any excuse to start, but with CCTV cameras everywhere, things are a little more difficult for the culprits not to get identified. Shame the Rangers fans had to go on a rampage, but when they have been drinking vast quantities of alcohol all day, add the defeat and
you have a potential explosive situation. Hope nobody was seriously hurt in all the fracas, in the cold light of day, is it worth the repercussions? Some over testosterone filled thugs may say 'yes' in bullish defiance, but to be honest they are a minority these days... thank goodness !!(those that would not have been out of place in "football Factory" or "Greenstreet" anyway....
From barny1158 on Thu May 15 11:15AMAlas , just read that someone was stabbed...over a football match? I know there is passion and adoration for one's chosen team, but to let things go that far, is just crazy....
From barny1158 on Thu May 15 11:26AMAnother tale of the underdog running out of steam and failing to make it all the way! I sure do love it when there are no suprises.
From methusela05 on Thu May 15 11:32AMDont confuse being a rangers fan with being scottish, Celtic took at least 80,000 to Seville, 1 arrest, we lost also, need I say more? Celtic got EUFA and FIFA awardsc for the fans behaviour, so believe me this is not a scottish thing, ITS A RANGERS THING
From james.connolly67 on Thu May 15 11:34AMtypical rangers, cant take a defeat, so lets trash the place!
bunch of idiots. Granted, its not all rangers fans that are involved.
i find it funny that many people took rangers side over the zenit bigotary issue. of course i dont agree with zenit, but its funny no1 mentioned rangers long association with religious bigotary. ironic somehow.
again, im not saying its all rangers fans but there is still that strong element that exists amongst some morons out there.
a word on the game itself, thats the best anti-football that rangers have played in the uefa cup, still awful, and thankfully football won last night.
any team that has kirk broadfoot in their ist XI should know a uefa cup final is no place for them!!
From marcgrant7 on Thu May 15 11:39AMDid I say that? no! You could see the Chelsea heads went down once Man u got the 2nd goal, if the players had heard it was a draw then of course they would have more into the end of the game. If you say otherwise then your an idiot. I also didnt say thats the only resoin you won the league. I siad on the last day it came down to bad decisions. which is true. Grant won more points than Ferguson from when he arrived. Chelsea also lost less games. couple last minute goals conceded through concentration loss and severe bad luck, as well as Man u scorin lot late goals was big part of who won the league.
Dnt matter anyway, I think Chelsea could win Champions league. Ive not seen them get outplayed in an entire match against anyone for 4 years now where as they have outplayed Man u on a couple occasions each season. plus there big players are big game performers. be close but
From sav46e on Thu May 15 11:47AM
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