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Closing the Window


Danny

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After all the hype of the transfer window, and the anticipation of a rugged overhaul of the playing personnel, the outcome of January’s dealings really ended up as rather a disappointment.

The first sign that the expected influx of quality players was not going to transpire were the events of the afternoon of January 31st, when Celtic hijacked the Hartley deal and proceeded to sign the lifelong Celtic fan. The Parkhead club weighed in with an instant £1.1M+ bid, which was accepted and personal terms soon followed, leaving only a medical between Hartley and joining the green half of the Old Firm. Rangers retaliated by matching the bid, but it was too little, too late, and the midfielder had made up his mind to become a Bhoy. A thoroughly disappointing loss, and a player who could have substantially enhanced the Rangers midfield. Regrettably, the player himself never received any contact from Rangers, so it does suggest a lack of full-blooded courting.

Another player strongly linked to Rangers was Thomson’s former Hibs team-mate Scott Brown. This was a long-lasting saga, much like the Hartley affair. In Brown’s case, however, he remains at his present club with Rangers having made no bid for him. Rumours persist that he is a definite for the summer, but the price-tag has apparently been installed at £3M.

The last piece of concrete business was the signing of Falkirk forward Gow on a pre-contract. He will join his new team-mates this coming summer on a 3 year deal.

In other matters, a stark reminder of the club’s current plight was brutally hammered home this week when two cup competitions reached their own respective latest phases. The CIS Cup and the Scottish Cup enjoyed their moment in the spotlight, with one notable absentee from both tournaments. Rangers, having been dispatched by Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup, and ‘infamously’ by St Johnstone in the CIS, were on the outside looking in as these opportunities for silverware were being pursued by the remaining clubs. How truly desperate it was for a club of Rangers’ size to have been eliminated from both competitions at such early stages by two relative minnows of the Scottish game. The St Johnstone result went down in history as one of the all-time upsets, and prompted protestations at the era of the time, the Le Guen period. None of this matters now, but it remains critically depressing to Rangers fans to be deprived of these chances to win something. Even claiming the CIS cup would still give the supporters the pleasure of a trip to Hampden for a big-time occasion. Regrettably, such privileges will have to wait till next season.

The last piece of news to arise recently was an outrageous public slur on Thomson. The BBC have always been a highly respected broadcaster, but it has been long-held that their website, once a fine example of a public information resource, has been sliding badly recently, with such examples of sloppy journalism being headlines failing to reflect the content of the article. This, so often the reserve of gutter red top ‘newspapers’ whose content is designed to appeal to the gullible masses, is evidence of the increasing degradation of the BBC’s website. However, the four-letter slur on Thompson, revealed when exploring the properties of an image of the player as featured in an article on him, is surely the worst and most disgusting thing to feature on their sports section in quite some time. A public apology was issued when one of aforementioned red-tops seized the story.

That all said, there are indeed more important things for Rangers fans to worry about these days. It does not help when the media appears to be insulting players though!

http://rangersmedia.blogspot.com/

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