Only 20 years ago but Mojo reaction now astonishing in this era?

[kyle 3]

everyone always says the media tries to give rangers a bad name and i have always belevied that is a lot of tosh but i beleive it now, our club made mistakes but they wont let us forget that, we have moved on from the days of bigotry but the media need to remind everyone else its utter pish i saw the preview for it in the paper it said theres going to be a 8 page pullout on the story which is absolutely pethetic i cant beleive anyone buys papers like the sun and the daily record

[Tumshie 205]

Rangers could put out a team of 11 tims and as long as we were winnin I couldn't give a fuck

[BlueIsTheColour 35]

Ah the close season. You've got to love it.

I wish the football would get started.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

He truly was a great signing. An excellent player on the park and devastated the tims beyond belief off the park.

If only we had quality like Mccoist, hatley and johnston now fighting for the two striker spots…..

[Frankie 505]

I was too young to understand the ramifications of the signing at the time but suffice to say Johnston proved to be a very good player for us. That is good enough for me.

[Jardy 0]

you just knew as soon as WVB posted that first response this was going to go a few pages, i am proud of my beleifs and religion and always will be. Though i do beleive it was a right thing to break the mould but yet we still kept up out traditions up until a few seasons ago when the media and everyone in general saw us as big bad rangers, as long as catholics respect we are and always will be a protestant club and they improve our side which they have done in the past then it has never been a problem with me

[opportunityknox 1]

Note that most of the "journos" writing about this anniversary are supporters of the Green'n'Grey.

That should tell you everything.

It's lazy journalism and an excuse to raid the archives to attack Rangers and the support.

There is no mention at all of his abuse at the hands of the Celtic support, no mention of his family being attacked, and no mention of the childish threats to boycott the "Auld Firm" charity match in 2005 unless he pulled out.

That's the real story; How Glasgow's RC Community never understood or forgave MoJo signing for us.

It riled them then, and riles them now.

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

From what i remember of being at the games Hateley got a tougher time from the Bears than MoJo did.

He was keeping Super Ally on the bench yet seemed to trip over the ball when it seemed easier to score.

Jeez how that changed,Johnston was great for Rangers and thats why i didn't boo him

[Gaffbear 4,107]

I remember it well.....i wasn't happy with the signing,not cos of his religion but because the wee bastard always blessed himself to the Rangers fans and us with longer memories remember the finger and him blessing himself towards us at Hampden

Also he said he could never wear the blue jersey ever.

All said and done he was a great signing...and he wasn't our first catholic in 116 year history as has been said...1873-1888 we had multiple Catholics at the club and even up to the first world war we had all Ireland internationals playing for us.

[Boab 73]

The article undrestates the incandescent rage his signing brought out in the tims. "Judas" was just the very small tip of the iceberg. His signing fucked them over far more than any wider held perception of fucking us over. Brilliant signing and brilliant piece of brinksmanship on Souness part.

Interesting.

[Tumshie 205]

My dad was at the first supporters club do Mo Johnston was ever at in Stonehoose Masonic Hall. Hia agent McMurdo came in and said he was oot in the motor shittin himself but eventually he came in. Got his picture taken with my dad n my gran next to a huge picture of the Queen. Well done Mo

[Jardy 0]

I was too young to understand the ramifications of the signing at the time but suffice to say Johnston proved to be a very good player for us. That is good enough for me.

iv always thought you were in your fifties lol

[Jardy 0]

My dad was at the first supporters club do Mo Johnston was ever at in Stonehoose Masonic Hall. Hia agent McMurdo came in and said he was oot in the motor shittin himself but eventually he came in. Got his picture taken with my dad n my gran next to a huge picture of the Queen. Well done Mo

lol i can just imagine the scenario

[Barca1972 0]

Aye I remember it well, only one of my pals had any problem with it but he was a dick and eventually got himself stabbed ( not football related ). But none of the rest of us had a problem with it. And our Timmy mates......well lets just say Judas is one of the least frothing-with-hate names they called the boy. Amazing how "Kafflick" and forgiving they were. .

[Cumbria_blue 51]

Published Date: 05 July 2009

IT was only 20 years ago, but the public reaction to Rangers' capture of Maurice Johnston seems astonishing in our more enlightened age, reflects Andrew Smith

SOMETIMES AN event from 20 years ago can seem to belong to an entirely different age. When it comes to Maurice Johnston signing for Rangers on 10 July, 1989, elements appear straight from the most ancient, primitive times.

The backdrop to the move retains a power to take the breath away that the passing years will never dim. But the bone-shuddering shock is no longer provided by the boldness of those at Ibrox in making Johnston their first high-profile Catholic of the modern era. Nor the fact that this never-to-be-topped transfer came only eight weeks after the striker had appeared to rejoin his former club Celtic.

What causes eyes to pop now in reading contemporary reports surrounding the most sensational signing in the history of the Scottish game is the reaction to Rangers manager Graeme Souness and owner David Murray ending the club's discriminatory player policy. Or institutionalised bigotry, to be more accurate.

On the do-you-remember-where-you-were day to dwarf all others for Scottish football followers, burning Rangers scarves and burning season books outside the stadium were the visual snapshots of burning religious hatred stoked by Johnston's arrival. Yet, the sectarian sentiments expressed freely on the player's £1.5 million switch from Nantes now seem altogether more inflammatory than any minor fire raising.

"Why him above all?" said David Miller, general secretary of the Rangers Supporters' Association. "It's a sad day for Rangers. There will be a lot of people handing back their season tickets. I don't want to see a Roman Catholic at Ibrox. Rangers have always stood for one thing and the majority of the support have been brought up with the idea of a true-blue Rangers team."

It was supposed to be only a lunatic fringe of the Rangers faithful that indulged in such bile. But it was a fringe with a real force of numbers, comprising punters from as far apart as Larkhall ("It is a kick in the teeth to Larkhall" said one member of the Loyalist Supporters' Club) and Dalkeith. In a pub in that town, the poison spewed forth. "I've been a Rangers supporter all my life but that's me finished with them. I am never going back, never ever. Rangers have no right signing Catholics," said John Potter. His friend James Smith claimed Rangers had been "sly because they made sure the season-ticket holders had paid and then they signed him", while another of their group Frank McKay presented an odd defence of the club's religious apartheid. "It's wrong if you are a Catholic or anyone else, but it's not wrong if you are a Rangers (fan] . It's part of the magic of supporting Rangers."

From the distance of 2009, what is remarkable is not that people held such views in 1989, but that they felt at liberty to air them in public forums. In the years since, the Rangers owner has talked about the need to remove a "stain" on a club he had been running only seven months before breaking with a tradition that dated back to the 1910s. Today, though, Murray is reluctant to overplay the significance of a transfer that undoubtedly did chip away at sectarian divisions.

"I can tell you that, first and foremost, it was a football decision," he says. "To partner Johnston with Alistair McCoist gave us the best possible strike partnership. We signed the player because he was the best Scottish player around, and that is what mattered. Of course, it removed a cloud that hung over Rangers and with the passing of time you can see from our record that there is no consideration of colour, race or creed in who we sign."

Murray isn't interested in being presented as some noble crusader. Neither, however, will he have any truck with the notion that he was an opportunist, who jumped on the Johnston trail when it emerged the player was complaining about contractual difficulties within days of being paraded at Celtic Park on 12 May.

"The transfer wasn't courageous, brave or bold, it was just the right thing to do. Anyone who knows me, or knows Graeme, would know how offensive it is to suggest, almost, that we were willing to forego the religious side only to get one over on Celtic. It wasn't about one-upmanship. Of course, we always want to beat our opponents, but that wasn't what was behind this. I made the decision based on business sense."

Just weeks before he was unveiled at Ibrox, Celtic paraded Johnston in front of the press as a £1.2m record Scottish signing – signalling his return from Nantes, the club he had left Parkhead for in the summer of 1987. The first signs that the deal was in trouble came when Celtic refused to meet tax payments. Johnston began to harbour doubts about a move he himself had initiated – crucially, without the help of his agent Bill McMurdo, then persona non grata at Celtic. After overtures by Souness to McMurdo, initially only days after he had been pictured in a Celtic strip, Johnston decided to "break down religious divisions" and earn the "Judas" tag from a spurned Celtic support. There are, though, problems with this version of events. It overlooks the fact that twice during the saga, FIFA, having seen the papers signed by Johnston – who inked two separate documents days apart – and the SFA both ruled that the player's contract with Celtic was legally binding. Indeed, two weeks after he joined Rangers, FIFA fined Johnston £3,000 for "unsportsmanlike behaviour"; and said they "deplored" Johnston's activities.

Yet the perception of the Celtic board as bunglers was cemented. That remains a bitter post-script to the episode for then Celtic chairman Jack McGinn. "In what sense could we have been said to bungle, I always ask myself?" he says. "There are a couple of indisputable facts in this case. We agreed a fee with Nantes, and signed a contract with the player that both our own governing body and the world governing body verified was legal and binding. We are laughed at for following the rules while the player is lauded for cheating. I've never understood that."

Johnston seems to have taken cold feet on the Celtic deal almost the instant he signed a letter of intent: what we now call a pre-contract agreement. And this despite his gushing about his "homecoming" in the boardroom of Celtic Park with some immortal lines.

"When I joined Nantes it had always been my intention to return to Celtic one day, although that seemed unlikely at one stage given the circumstances surrounding my departure," Johnston said. "No one can accuse me of being two-faced because I've always maintained that stance since then. I didn't want to leave Celtic and I don't intend to now. There was some rubbish about me wanting to join Manchester United. But it never entered my head to play for any other club. In fact there is no other British club I could play for apart from Celtic."

That afternoon there was also a memorable nod to his future – by a matter of weeks – employers. "I enjoyed playing against Rangers, but when I left I was unhappy about the fact that in games I'd played against them, Rangers were winning four matches to three. That's something I intend to remedy next season," he said.

Johnston did remedy his success rate in Old Firm games – by scoring three times against Celtic. He did so because McGinn and his board elected not to pay the £800,000 balance on the transfer of a player who "had no desire to play for the club". Two years ago, the Celtic manager of the time Billy McNeill said he felt let down by his board because he had implored them to see through the deal.

"There have been a lot of red herrings thrown out about this affair," says McGinn."When it came to making the player ours from the July, all that we could have done was put him out of the game. No doubt, after a lengthy legal case. What would have been the point in that? We would have been dead in the water if we had sold him on to Rangers for more money. That would have been our 30 pieces of silver and we would have been the 'J'-word our supporters called him."

By that McGinn means Judas. In recent years Jesus' betrayer has been somewhat rehabilitated, forgiven for his actions. It has only taken 2,000 years. Will it be as long before Johnston can expect the same for his part in a religious epic?

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/footb...-the.5429993.jp

What a shit article. It's just an excuse for that journo to spout crap about us all being bigots, burning scarves in a media arranged stunt. No mention of the death threats Mo received from sections of the Celtic support.

[Thermopylae 15,288]

"It's a sad day for Rangers. There will be a lot of people handing back their season tickets. I don't want to see a Roman Catholic at Ibrox. Rangers have always stood for one thing and the majority of the support have been brought up with the idea of a true-blue Rangers team."

Despite everything, that has happened in the intervening two decades, and lets get it straight here, the wee man was a tremendous player for us, of that there is no doubt, but the quote above should be recognised ....there are still lots of us who feel that way. Rangers & catholics dont go.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

This thread is going to turn into a religious battleground

Theres no need . I'm simply stating a point of view. As an atheist i have no truck with religion, but a bit of tradition never hurt anyone.

That aint tradition, that is bigotry. Rangers football club is a better club for breaking away from this "tradition" and you know it.

Unlike the tims, RFC was not build on religious views and this "tradition" was holding us back, since it was broken we have been to a European final and won multiple titles, with plenty of Catholic players helping us along the way

Rangers are bigger than that "tradition"

Do you believe that septic have a catholic "tradition"?

[bluestrike 0]

A couple of years after he left Rangers, I went into his website in the states. I had never before, or since, read such evil hatred directed towards anyone, and all of it coming from the GFITW. It was very quietly reported at the time, that the comments section of this American 'soccer' site was to shut down, as kids were reading things no one should read. That lot seem to have a special penchant for abusing kids in the name of their twisted institutions.

When the news was first announced I was actually driving through South London where I was going to a meeting with a NI Scumbag and a Sheep amongst others, when I heard the news I had mixed feelings, we had to change, I knew, 'but why this one'? When I got to site, I found the sick pair waiting on me with shit eating grins, these soon disappeared when I told them I thought it was a great move for us, they thought I would be suicidal, the Scumbag even bet me £10 that Johnston would be murdered by Protestant paramilitaries within 3 months, thanks for dodging that bullet Mo, a tenner was a decent drink in 1989.

Ibrox is not the place to look for a story, it's been almost forgotten here. The rhags of this country should head to the Piggery for the current hate chapter in this story, the Scum will never forget it.

Charity match anyone?

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,792]

"It's a sad day for Rangers. There will be a lot of people handing back their season tickets. I don't want to see a Roman Catholic at Ibrox. Rangers have always stood for one thing and the majority of the support have been brought up with the idea of a true-blue Rangers team."

Despite everything, that has happened in the intervening two decades, and lets get it straight here, the wee man was a tremendous player for us, of that there is no doubt, but the quote above should be recognised ....there are still lots of us who feel that way. Rangers & catholics dont go.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

This thread is going to turn into a religious battleground

Theres no need . I'm simply stating a point of view. As an atheist i have no truck with religion, but a bit of tradition never hurt anyone.

But we had signed catholics before Johnstone?

A wee bit of tradition never hurt anyone??? You fucking insane?? How many leagues would we have won with 11 Prods???

Some folk just dont care about the team, I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Oh hold on, your the guy that would be willing to sacrifice points and CL football just to be able to sing what we want. No point discussing anything here.

He seems to follow Rangers on beliefs, not for football reasons.

He is a bigot, of that there is no doubt.

BD and one or two others will be in here flexing thier internet muscles, Papa's right this will go nowhere. You make a good point though.

What an absolute fcuking wanker you are, and boab too ! T.F.I.O.

[908 14]

Typical t****** article. What this really shows is that 20 years on, vermin like Andrew Smith still cannot get over the fact Johnston turned his back on their beloved hoops and signed for the club who offered him more money, like any professional would.

I was delighted we signed Mo Johnston. My reaction would probably be different nowadays, but back then I was a naive child and truth be told all I was interested in was us getting one over on celtic. Although some will argue we signed RCs before, the support at the time sure as hell didn't think we did. In reality the club peddled the line that we never signed any, as that was what the supporters wanted, but Rangers always had Catholics. John Spencer was already at the club when Johnston signed.

I suppose we could have done without Scottish RCs who followed Johnston, the likes of Neil McCann and Christain Dailly, though I was a fan of those players, whose workrate could never be faulted. But what would the reaction of the fans have been to the likes of key players like Amoruso, Albertz, even Pedro Mendes, if Johnston hadn't broken that taboo first? It is realistic to say that Rangers could have fallen out of SPL contention if we never signed cosmopolitan players while all our rivals did - look at Athletic Bilbao, who's fans accept mid-table mediocrity every season while they refuse to sign non-Basque players.

On the other hand, the Johnston signing could be viewed as the start of the end of freedom of speech, of political correctness ruining football at Ibrox. In those days, you could say, shout and sing what you wanted at any football ground in the country. Now republican reptiles like Andrew Smith has the cheek to say "From the distance of 2009, what is remarkable is not that people held such views in 1989, but that they felt at liberty to air them in public forums." Of course they could, in those days freedom of speech was a human right, you could state an unpopular or politically-incorrect opinion without having to worry about being carted off by the gestapo, but journalists like Smith have put an end to that.

Fact is though, former Rangers players who signed for celtic like Alfie Conn and Kenny Miller are welcomed back to the club by officials and many supporters. Former celtic players who signed for us like Johnston are forced to live in exile due to death threats from celtic fans. But according to filth like Andrew Smith, it is us who are the bigots!

[Jardy 0]

"It's a sad day for Rangers. There will be a lot of people handing back their season tickets. I don't want to see a Roman Catholic at Ibrox. Rangers have always stood for one thing and the majority of the support have been brought up with the idea of a true-blue Rangers team."

Despite everything, that has happened in the intervening two decades, and lets get it straight here, the wee man was a tremendous player for us, of that there is no doubt, but the quote above should be recognised ....there are still lots of us who feel that way. Rangers & catholics dont go.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

This thread is going to turn into a religious battleground

Theres no need . I'm simply stating a point of view. As an atheist i have no truck with religion, but a bit of tradition never hurt anyone.

But we had signed catholics before Johnstone?

A wee bit of tradition never hurt anyone??? You fucking insane?? How many leagues would we have won with 11 Prods???

Some folk just dont care about the team, I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Oh hold on, your the guy that would be willing to sacrifice points and CL football just to be able to sing what we want. No point discussing anything here.

He seems to follow Rangers on beliefs, not for football reasons.

He is a bigot, of that there is no doubt.

BD and one or two others will be in here flexing thier internet muscles, Papa's right this will go nowhere. You make a good point though.

What an absolute fcuking wanker you are, and boab too ! T.F.I.O.

boab will get Alex Salmond to hammer you BD

[DougieJ 0]

The article undrestates the incandescent rage his signing brought out in the tims. "Judas" was just the very small tip of the iceberg. His signing fucked them over far more than any wider held perception of fucking us over. Brilliant signing and brilliant piece of brinksmanship on Souness part.

Very good point. I'm certainly not defending the few numpties who burned scarves and season tickets but if MoJo was to return to live in Scotland, Celtic fans wanting to lynch him would be a far bigger danger for him than he'd get from our side. The scarf burning paled into insignificance compared to the support he got from the vast majority of fans. As usual, history will probably show Celtic in a better light than us - much like the myth that 'it was Rangers fans who threw bananas at Mark Walters'.

[BRICKY1872 118]

The article undrestates the incandescent rage his signing brought out in the tims. "Judas" was just the very small tip of the iceberg. His signing fucked them over far more than any wider held perception of fucking us over. Brilliant signing and brilliant piece of brinksmanship on Souness part.

Interesting.

That's how I saw it at the time and how I still see it now.

[cooperonthewing 0]

What a shit article. It's just an excuse for that journo to spout crap about us all being bigots, burning scarves in a media arranged stunt. No mention of the death threats Mo received from sections of the Celtic support.

Andrew Smith is ex-editor of the Celtic View. Enough said.

[Boab 73]

Graeme Souness has admitted mischief-making was a key factor when he shocked Scotland by signing Mo Johnston for Rangers.

It is 20 years since Souness stunned fans by taking on Rangers' first Catholic player in modern times and the memory still makes him smile.

In an exclusive interview, he said: "There was an element of mischief. I believed we were hurting Celtic by signing him.

"Stealing him from under their noses was a real smack in the chops for Celtic.

"They were our biggest rival and that's the name of the game."

At a Press conference at Ibrox, on July 10, 1989, Souness tried to lay to rest the bigotry that had haunted Rangers for 116 years.

He knew that to be taken seriously as a European team, Rangers couldn't continue the practice of not signing Catholics. And Souness didn't choose just any Catholic, he chose Celtic's poster boy, the striker who made the sign of the cross when he was sent off in the League Cup final against Rangers in 1986.

When Souness spotted Johnston in a newspaper posing in a Celtic shirt with the club's manager Billy McNeill, the seed was sown.

He said: "I had no idea Maurice was thinking of coming back until I saw that.

"It wasn't just signing a Catholic, it was signing a Catholic who had played for Celtic. It was a double whammy."

The prodigal son was coming back to Glasgow after a stint with French side Nantes and Celtic fans were ecstatic - but Souness had other ideas. He got his chance for devilment when he bumped into Johnston's agent Bill McMurdo at Ibrox.

Souness said: "I came down the stairs after a game at Ibrox and Bill McMurdo was leaning against a radiator.

"I said, 'You should have told me Maurice was thinking of coming back'. It was a throwaway line. I turned to walk away and he said 'Why? Would you be interested?'.

"I stopped in my tracks and turned back to talk to him."

McMurdo was a Rangers fan and he knew the money would be big. After all, Souness was on one of the biggest spending sprees British football had ever seen.

His predecessors had said they would sign a Catholic if the chance arose.

But Souness said: "Every manager politically would say yes but I actually meant it. I was married to a Catholic, my children were christened Catholics.

"I was brought up in Edinburgh. Every day I walked with a Catholic friend to school. It was never an issue in our house. I was brought up by very level-headed, right-thinking parents.

"Maybe I was naive but religion just wasn't an issue to me."

In his first three years at Rangers, Souness spent £11million and for the first time Rangers were attracting the best players available.

English clubs had been banned from Europe after the Heysel disaster and Hillsborough had led to the financially draining refurbishment of their stadiums. The money and the draw for the top players was no longer in the south and Souness considered the £1.5million needed to secure Johnston a"bargain".

One of the first to be told of the idea was Walter Smith, his assistant manager.

Souness said: "It took the wind out of his sails. He was stuck for words but after about a minute, he was fine and he thought it was a great idea."

He then drove to Edinburgh to see chairman David Murray.

Souness said: "At first, he just went silent but again within a minute thought it was a great idea.

"They both knew that if Rangers was to be accepted as a proper football club it couldn't have this ridiculous situation hanging over it."

Travelling in secret, separately from McMurdo, Souness flew to Paris and met Johnston in a suburban cafe. Souness said: "I persuaded him to sign for Rangers. I had played for Scotland with him. I had a relationship with him. It was relaxed and there were no difficult moments. It was an exciting time in Glasgow and he wanted to be part of it.

"He was a Scottish international, we needed a striker and he would complement what we had at the club."

The deal was kept secret for weeks but a month before it was publicly announced, Johnston confided in Rangers striker Ally McCoist when they shared a hotel room before Scotland played England.

McCoist said: "I was sworn to secrecy. I just could not believe it.

"I was more nervous than he was. I remember laughing nervously when he told me. He was fine about it. He just carried it off perfectly."

McCoist knew Johnston could help take Rangers to the top. He said: "I remember thinking that's a great player we are getting. I think Mo did it for football reasons.

"Graeme transformed Scottish football and wee Mo wanted to be part of that, to be part of the European scene and part of a team that was going to win."

McCoist remembers biting his lip when an irritated Souness dropped a hint of what was to come after Celtic secured the Scottish Cup.

"They've got a shock coming," announced a raging Souness to the dressing room but would say no more.

Celtic had already paid a deposit of £400,000 to Nantes for Johnston.

McNeill wanted to keep Johnston out of Rangers' clutches but his board refused to back him.

Souness said: "I have never spoken to Billy about it but he wouldn't have been best pleased."

Minutes after the Press conference announcing Johnston's arrival, Souness was faced with a thuggish gang of hate-filled Rangers fans who spat at his car and hurled abuse.

Some fans burned their season tickets and their scarves and death threats reached Ibrox.

But when he scored on his second outing, against Celtic, the doubters and some of the bigots were silenced.

Souness said: "I know there will still be people who think it shouldn't have been done but I am not interested in them. I wouldn't want to mix with people like that."

But he reserves his greatest praise for Johnston.

He said: "If anyone deserves credit, he does. He broke that ridiculous situation that existed here in Glasgow.

"Any level-headed person who has an interest in this country would think he has done his bit for Scotland."

http://www.<No links to this website>/football/spl/...86908-21500722/

Thought I'd add this in here and got it merged and thanks to who done that

[radlord 24]

I love Graeme Souness.