"Its Rangers For me"

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,749]

Do you know the worst thing about him claiming Rangers connections is that there are gullable Bears who will believe him !

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

Is it really true speirs is a Rangers fan?

Judge for yourself Davie - Would you as a Bear ever trash the memory of Davie Cooper or Jock Wallace - or refer to Bears as "trogladites" ?

Suggest that in the Simpson/Durrant horror tackle that Durranty also had his boot raised ?

Ridicule Big Marv's religious beilefs ?

[Thermopylae 15,288]

I was so looking forward to this book about our club by Graham Walker & Ronnie Esplin which was to be an in depth look at our club and support.

However the decision by editor Ronnie Esplin to devote a chapter within the book to Graham Spiers...to pen his comments... astounds me....I find it incomprehensible.

There is now a fairly comprehensive movement amongst the Rangers support to boycott buying this book unless Speirs input is removed.

I certainly wont be buying it - if this reptile has any input.

So what's his chapter going to be called "How I lobbied against Rangers at UEFA and helped to leave their European future hanging by a thread"

Very illuminating I must say .

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

So what's his chapter going to be called "How I lobbied against Rangers at UEFA and helped to leave their European future hanging by a thread"

Very illuminating I must say .

Exactly Thermo - just serves to demonstrate what a worthless individual he really is.

[*Manticore* 1,893]

I never mentioned bigotry - just think it is funny that this guy you hate is a Rangers fan

And you accused me of attacking fellow bears when you have led the way all this time lol

You cannae beat it

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the thread - I am offski

Firstly if you had followed the debate over the years you would know that he has long claimed to be a Rangers fan.

as for not mentioning bigotry why lie - your words were 'A Rangers fan just sick of the bigots'?

As for attacking fellow bears, I try not to attack anybody I believe to be a bear. Anybody who believes Spiers is a bear should get their head examined.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

Firstly if you had followed the debate over the years you would know that he has long claimed to be a Rangers fan.

as for not mentioning bigotry why lie - your words were 'A Rangers fan just sick of the bigots'?

As for attacking fellow bears, I try not to attack anybody I believe to be a bear. Anybody who believes Spiers is a bear should get their head examined.

And heres what this "Rangers fan" had to say about your boyhood hero Bauba..the player you admire so much you have him as your avatar...

“More remarkable, though, amid the media and marketing frenzy surrounding the game, is the way the memory of Cooper's career has become lodged halfway between legend and myth………..One problem with the Davie Cooper legend is that, as with many public personalities who die young and become subject to mythology, it doesn't wholly square with the facts of his career. For a so-called "genius", you would certainly have expected Cooper, who died at 39, to have won more than his 22 international caps.â€

Written on the eve of The Davie Cooper League Cup Final - A game where 2 Scottish clubs had agreed to dedicate the final to one of the games greats.

[Davy 68]

“More remarkable, though, amid the media and marketing frenzy surrounding the game, is the way the memory of Cooper's career has become lodged halfway between legend and myth………..One problem with the Davie Cooper legend is that, as with many public personalities who die young and become subject to mythology, it doesn't wholly square with the facts of his career. For a so-called "genius", you would certainly have expected Cooper, who died at 39, to have won more than his 22 international caps.â€

I didn't see that wrote at the time D, but thats nothing short of disgusting.

The lowest of the low.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

I didn't see that wrote at the time D, but thats nothing short of disgusting.

The lowest of the low.

Yep... I just hope none of Davie's family ever saw it - particularly his elderly mother.

[*Manticore* 1,893]

“More remarkable, though, amid the media and marketing frenzy surrounding the game, is the way the memory of Cooper's career has become lodged halfway between legend and myth………..One problem with the Davie Cooper legend is that, as with many public personalities who die young and become subject to mythology, it doesn't wholly square with the facts of his career. For a so-called "genius", you would certainly have expected Cooper, who died at 39, to have won more than his 22 international caps.â€

Have you ever heard the mhedia question jimmy johnstone's 'genius'?

No neither have I.

Jinky got a massive 23 caps.

Just me being paranoid again.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

Have you ever heard the mhedia question jimmy johnstone's 'genius'?

No neither have I.

Jinky got a massive 23 caps.

Just me being paranoid again.

Or of course...rather than you being paranoid - we could be dealing with a lack of balance from this journo...a distinct lack of fairness or objectivity.

Na thats plain stupid - you are just plain paranoid.

[delparlane 5,759]

And heres what this "Rangers fan" had to say about your boyhood hero Bauba..the player you admire so much you have him as your avatar...

Written on the eve of The Davie Cooper League Cup Final - A game where 2 Scottish clubs had agreed to dedicate the final to one of the games greats.

The man is beneath contempt. It guts me to say no to what sounds like an interesting addition to the printed legacy of the Gers, but I will not give money to that reptile. SDM had it spot on with what he said about Spiers.

It also is in no way a reflection of talent to be recognised by the National team, as we are aware. How many times was Durranty capped, or Tam McLean for that matter? I don't know exact figures, but I do seem to recall that there should have been far more call-ups for both of them than what they received.

[bestiadegranada 0]

Have you ever heard the mhedia question jimmy johnstone's 'genius'?

No neither have I.

Jinky got a massive 23 caps.

Just me being paranoid again.

Excellent post, great research!

[Dillinger 0]

You can add me to that list D.

I'll second that.

There has been enough inaccuracies and distortion about Rangers, our history, our achievements, our key figures, even some of our worthiest opponents, and above all THE SUPPORTERS, without us giving Spiers a free pass to write some more. I suspect he will either try to sabotage this work or make an attempt to ingraite himself.

Spiers should be removed from this project immediately. I do not argue this in terms of 'payback' or 'revenge' but strictly for the sake of historical accuracy, fair (or unbaised) representation and journalist integrity. In the case of his treatment of Glasgow Rangers, Spiers lacks all three.

[dummiesoot 16,123]

Have you ever heard the mhedia question jimmy johnstone's 'genius'?

No neither have I.

Jinky got a massive 23 caps.

Just me being paranoid again.

I must admit thatwas my first thought when I read the write up on Coop.

Another issue is, and make no mistake the press will have a field day, that any boycott of this book because of Speirs, will not be highlighted as a stance and a message, the journo's will stick together and once again make us out to be the bad guys;

"Rangers fans boycott G. Speirs book because he speaketh the truth"

you heard it here first.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

I must admit thatwas my first thought when I read the write up on Coop.

Another issue is, and make no mistake the press will have a field day, that any boycott of this book because of Speirs, will not be highlighted as a stance and a message, the journo's will stick together and once again make us out to be the bad guys;

"Rangers fans boycott G. Speirs book because he speaketh the truth"

you heard it here first.

They do that anyway Dummiesoot...

Its better to have fought and lost - than not have fought at all.

Flashing Blade Loyal RSC

[*Manticore* 1,893]

I must admit thatwas my first thought when I read the write up on Coop.

Another issue is, and make no mistake the press will have a field day, that any boycott of this book because of Speirs, will not be highlighted as a stance and a message, the journo's will stick together and once again make us out to be the bad guys;

"Rangers fans boycott G. Speirs book because he speaketh the truth"

you heard it here first.

Aye you could be right dummiesoot, but it's a moot point for me, I couldn't bring myself to buy anything the bastard's involved in.

Although I still think there's a possibility that he might be dropped before it is published. How would the press handle that?

[dummiesoot 16,123]

Although I still think there's a possibility that he might be dropped before it is published. How would the press handle that?

If that happens then it shows that we have achieved something and that we will no longer tolerate the unbalanced reporting.

Aye you could be right dummiesoot, but it's a moot point for me, I couldn't bring myself to buy anything the bastard's involved in.

whether we boycott his newspapers or not, would not matter to the press, it would be negative story to write about us once again, no one cares whether Manticore et al don't read his stuff, we're just big bad bigots.

[*Manticore* 1,893]

Great news bears and bearettes, the contribution to the book from the Dublin Loyal has been pulled. dublinbluenose found out about Spiers' contribution before he had agreed the final draft.

This is getting a head of steam.

[DadoPrso9 7]

What did he say about Marv?

Speirs is a grade A wank. I cringe with anger when i hear him on the radio going on and on about fenian - a word he actually knows the truth about. Arsehole

[Guest orangpendek]

in response to those who have said we will stand accused of avoiding this book on the grounds that spiers is merely holding up an unflattering mirror, we must realise - the opinions of those who will most likely come out with this line simply don't matter. this particular subject, the avoiding/ignoring/boycotting of a product involving a dumpling few can stand, gives a good template for dealing with other puddings like gerry or traynor. no need for campaigns or the like - simply deny them your money and attention. that inflicts the greatest damage upon them. having read (at work, i hasten to add - i would never waste legal tender on the record) keith jackson's pitiful attempts at keeping the pot boiling over the summer (osasuna 'ridiculing' a bid, kilmarnock reject 'derisory', or 'laughable' offer - the lack of subtlety is not surprising but all to depressingly familiar) i wonder, tho, whether rangers fans as a body have the cohesion to act in a disciplined fashion regarding those who act contra the club. after all, the record still sells - god knows why. the sales history tells us that no matter what, bears will continue to buy this and other excuses for newspapers.

[Dillinger 0]

in response to those who have said we will stand accused of avoiding this book on the grounds that spiers is merely holding up an unflattering mirror, we must realise - the opinions of those who will most likely come out with this line simply don't matter. this particular subject, the avoiding/ignoring/boycotting of a product involving a dumpling few can stand, gives a good template for dealing with other puddings like gerry or traynor. no need for campaigns or the like - simply deny them your money and attention. that inflicts the greatest damage upon them. having read (at work, i hasten to add - i would never waste legal tender on the record) keith jackson's pitiful attempts at keeping the pot boiling over the summer (osasuna 'ridiculing' a bid, kilmarnock reject 'derisory', or 'laughable' offer - the lack of subtlety is not surprising but all to depressingly familiar) i wonder, tho, whether rangers fans as a body have the cohesion to act in a disciplined fashion regarding those who act contra the club. after all, the record still sells - god knows why. the sales history tells us that no matter what, bears will continue to buy this and other excuses for newspapers.

It is not objective journalism, it is cheap sensationalism designed to manufacture a crisis when there is none. I'm still surprised at the no of Bears and Bearettes who take all this tabloid guff at face value.

[Guest orangpendek]

but then, that's the nature of most if not all media in this country - the coverage of politics is risible, with virtually no coverage of substance. celebrity affairs receive undue prominence for no good reason i can see, while the environment raises its head when movie stars give a press conference, usually to sell a movie. how, then, can we expect coverage of what is after all a sport, a leisure industry, to be balanced or objective? i can't see it ever happening, therefore the only course of action is to ignore it. imo, of course.

[gers_boy_john 2]

I will defiantly not be buying this book if Britney is still involved in it :angry2:

Some of his articles on Rangers legends, Rangers Fc, the fans is nothing but disgusting. the lowest of the low

Oh by the way is he still welcomed at Ibrox on match days and given his free pie?

[*Manticore* 1,893]

Oh by the way is he still welcomed at Ibrox on match days and given his free pie?

I think so.

Although I wouldn't eat his pie.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

I didn't see that wrote at the time D, but thats nothing short of disgusting.

The lowest of the low.

And worth comparing and contrasting it with the writings of others.

This is one from Chick Young - not everyone's cup of tea of course - but an excellent piece by him which demonstrates the contrast.

"We shouldn't let the misty eyes cloud the issue. He wasn't called the Moody Blue for nothing.

Davie Cooper's worst injuries were usually huffs. And that can be a serious problem for a player.

Mainly, he was out of sorts when the favourite he had backed in the 2.30 at Hamilton didn't perform. The worry for his managers was that Coop would follow suit.

But, for all that, you couldn't help falling in love with him. And if you didn't drool over his ability then it was probably because there was a vision fault in your green-tinted glasses.

I'll tell you how good a footballer Davie Cooper was. He's up there with Law and Baxter, Johnstone and Dalglish - and my boyhood hero, John White.

His only problem, except that he didn't see it as a problem at all, was that the elastic band that tied him to the West of Scotland in general, and Hamilton in particular, wouldn't break.

He was a home-loving boy who wouldn't have bothered buying a passport if his club and country hadn't needed him to come fly with them.

I first saw him play for a wonderful Clydebank side in the mid-seventies, an awesome natural talent with a left foot that could hypnotise and then strike like a cobra.

Kilbowie Park was the unlikely setting for a sell-out crowd, but I remember Christmas Day 1977 and a lock-out for a table-top game against St Mirren.

There were 10,000 of us sardined inside the ground, thousands more outside listening in like it was radio without the commentary.

Coop didn't like the press - didn't like the attention at all actually.

But I got chatting to him in a civic reception held for the team in Clydebank Town Hall, where plainly he would rather have been anywhere else in the world. Preferrably, though, somewhere with jockeys, horses and a bookmaker.

He was a good-looking bugger you know. He could have been another George Best. He could have blazed a trail for Beckham.

But high-flying wasn't Davie's style. In these days, he couldn't even drive and wasn't interested in learning. He travelled to Clydebank from Hamilton by rail, which seemed to me the equivalent of a voyage on the Orient Express.

Then Rangers came calling. Big Jock Wallace paid £100,000 after Coop ripped the knitting out of his team in a League Cup tie.

Clubs in England wanted him, but how the hell was he supposed to get home to Hamilton every night from, say, Birmingham. And there was also the small point about him being a Bluenose.

Cooper was fantastic for Rangers - as entertaining in his own way as his namesake, Tommy. And much more magical.

I remember Graeme Souness telling me that he couldn't believe how good he was when he inherited him as manager at Rangers. "If I wasn't so selfish, I would be telling the big clubs in Italy about him," he confessed. "But why would I hunt a talent like that out the door?"

In the end, Coop did go, of course - way before his sell-by date, to the eternal gratitude of Motherwell, with whom he won another Scottish Cup medal and who were easy favourites to sign him given Fir Park's proximity to Hamilton and the race course.

By now, Davie had come out of his shell with the media. And he had learned to drive.

The metamorphis happened mostly at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986, or more exactly in the two weeks altitude training at Santa Fe in New Mexico and Los Angeles.

I talked a lot with Davie on that trip and I saw him discover that there is a big world beyond the M74.

And that's the tragedy. His post-football life was just coming into full bloom when he died. He had mellowed. His outlook had changed. He was purring with happiness.

I cried when I heard. Not that I was alone. I liked Davie a lot as a friend. As a player, I adored him.

Ten years later, I can close my eyes and remember that left foot, that body strength that opposing defenders never realised was in his artiliery. That venomous strike. That dribbling wizardry.

Death is seldom anything else, of course, but this was particulary cruel.

But I wonder what he makes of it all 10 years on. His old clubs meeting in a cup final. The Coop final. Lovely.

Even Davie might be smiling as he looks down from his Moody Blue Heaven."