Are Rangers fans really that gullible to believe ‘positive’ cup exit spin?
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Do Rangers really think the majority of fans are as gullible as their fan group patsies?
Rangers suffered their first defeat of the season in the third round of the League Cup on Tuesday night as St.Johnstone ran out 3-1 winners at Ibrox.
Despite all the pre-match patter of how Mark Warburton’s ‘magic hat’ [yeah I know]would see ‘another Rangers victory on their way to cup glory’, the top flight side made sure the Championship side were put in their place and that the early season hype peddled by their fans and elements of the media was silenced for one week at least.
But as I looked through the plethora of web stories following the cup results, I couldn’t believe the line that Rangers were peddling following the defeat.
Any other management team, any other Ibrox board would have seen that cup defeat to St.Johnstone as unacceptable – and yet assistant manager David Weir was rolled out to claim the cup exit ‘could prove to be a good thing’ for Rangers.
Weir told RangersTV.tv: “I think first of all we have to give them credit. They took their opportunities when they came along, but we still had the majority of the ball and were trying to do the majority of things right.
“We can do some aspects better, but on the whole, it was a disappointing result. Looking forward though in the big picture, it could be a good thing for us.
“We’re 12 games and three months in, and that’s our first competitive defeat. It’s a new challenge for us and the group, and it’s something we haven’t encountered before.
“We need to think why it happened, how it happened and learn from it. That’s the biggest thing – we need to see what we didn’t do well, and what we need to do better in order to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Are they seriously trying to take the piss out of their own fans? Fans who paid good money to watch the second highest paid team in the country lose to what was essentially [and with all respect]a mid-table Premiership side?
After all Warburton in the run up to the game, claimed there was little difference in the standard between clubs at the top of the Championship and the majority in the Premiership.
Weir did follow on his ludicrous comments by stating: “You can never accept being beaten at Rangers – that’s not something that is ever acceptable or you want it to become a habit. There are certain ways you can lose though, and I think the fans recognised that last night. The players from the first minute to the last tried to do the right things, they stuck to the plan, but credit to St.Johnstone, they executed their plan and it worked.”
The performance and the result proved Warburton wrong. It also proved that the ‘magic hat bloke’ didn’t have a Plan B against a side that knew how to defend and how to counter – with Weir admitting himself there that ‘they stuck to THE plan’.
But hey at least they signed off by praising the fans. A clear PR tactic when trying to dodge incoming flak.
Weir continued: “But the fans were fantastic, their backing at the start, at half-time and full-time was really noticeable from us as a staff, and we’re really looking.”
Just imagine if the previous regime had peddled such a line of taking positives from a cup exit? There would have been another lynch mob outside Ibrox fronted by Dave King’s fan group patsies – Sons of Struth, Rangers Supporters Trust and the ‘Union of Fans’ led by the shamed and disgraced former Director Chris Graham.
But with Dave King in charge – everything is fine and dandy even when pumped out of the cup by a team on half the budget than they are.
Surely the majority of Rangers fans not vying for a slice of the pie handed to them by King are not as gullible to believe such mince?
Especially after the actions and antics of previous regimes at the club. How times have changed when you have good Rangers men pulling the wool over your eyes instead.
Warburton had targeted winning the League Cup to pay back the fans for all their support. I guess the Petrofac Cup may just fill that void now – maybe winning the trophy that has eluded them for three years can be won at the fourth time of asking.
As for the media coverage following the defeat, they fell hook line and sinker for the positive claims and peddled more PR mince freely.
Level 5 PR really are working for their hard earned cash that is for sure.
God forbid it was Ronny Deila who had managed Celtic to a League Cup exit at the first time of asking – after all the media were acting like rabid dogs claiming that Deila was out of his depth at Celtic following one league defeat against Aberdeen – who just happened to be knocked out by championship side Hibernian on Wednesday night.
Derek McInnes also avoided the wrath of the rabid dogs following last night’s exit to a lower league side and being knocked out of Europe once more in the qualifiers.
Wonder why that is?