Virtuoso 27,180 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Seems Queersie is scarping the barrel now for things to write about....Mo joins Rangers - and a totem of sectarianism tumbles.Graham Spiers On the morning of July 10, 1989, Scotland woke to a front-page splash in The Sun that put the Scottish media in a lather and forever changed the landscape of Rangers, Celtic and our nation's football in general.'Mo Joins Gers' was the headline, confirming that Rangers had signed Maurice Johnston. It was stunning, not just because Johnston had previously played for Celtic between 1984 and 1987, and had seemed likely to rejoin them just eight weeks earlier. More astonishing was the fact that he was a high-profile Catholic who, in joining Rangers, was signalling the end of decades of anti-Catholic bigotry practised by the Ibrox club.The months building up to the momentous move were chaotic. Johnston's agent was Bill McMurdo, at the time one of football's most famous operators, who was trying to sort out the striker's next move after his career was endangered by financial problems at Nantes, his French club.'I didn't want Mo to come back to the UK,' McMurdo says. 'We had big-money offers from Torino, Stuttgart and Spurs, and others would be forthcoming. It didn't make sense to me for Mo to come back to Scotland. But he seemed to want to.'Celtic played hard to land Johnston and held a press conference on May 12, 1989, to announce his return. Johnston smiled for the cameras in his new Celtic shirt, but in his pocket was a letter from McMurdo, who was barred by Celtic, explaining why the move couldn't go through. The agent had asked Johnston to pass this on to Jack McGinn, the Celtic chairman.'Technically, Mo's contract was owned by a company, which I had a share in,' McMurdo says. 'This wasn't unusual back then '" plenty of players had these arrangements. So Celtic had to deal with me, but they refused to. Fine, I said, but this deal can't go through.'The weeks passed and, slowly but surely, word leaked out that the Johnston/Celtic deal had foundered. Meanwhile, in early June, McMurdo met Graeme Souness, the Rangers manager at the time.'I knew Graeme, and he was pretty upset with me at not alerting him to Johnston's availability,' McMurdo says. 'I said to him, But Mo's a Catholic . . . what about the club's no-Catholics policy?' Graeme said to me firmly, 'I can assure you that no longer applies.' So when the Celtic deal for Mo collapsed '" as I knew it would '" Graeme and Rangers came in for him and the deal was done.'The Johnston move to Rangers changed Scottish football and was a milestone in Scottish society more generally. It signalled an end to the prejudice practised by Rangers FC. Some of their fans ripped up their season tickets in protest, but all of that quickly passed. The incident unarguably moved Rangers into the modern era.Celtic were also affected by it. If they thought Johnston was 'one of their own' then they were soon disabused of that. There was a broader impact too. In the west of Scotland, where sectarian 'closed shops' had been a feature of many industries and professions throughout the 20th century, it could be argued that the Johnston affair led to prejudices and assumptions on both sides being laid bare.http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4628196.eceFucking wank. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cushynumber 25,178 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 getting money for rehashing any old pish that any body could write about at any time. That story has now been redone so many times its frightening. What relevance has it to anything nowadays? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BridgeIsBlue 66,654 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Aye Maurice Johnston was the first kafflik to play for Rangers.I love that old wives tale. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyinroyalblue 16,478 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 A totem of sectarianism tumbled when Rangers signed Mo Johnston,maybe having a non Catholic Lord provost in Glasgow would have a similar effect. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackedactor 157 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 The biggest totem of sectarianism is the sectarian school system. Substitute Islamic for RC and see who thinks it sounds like a good idea in a 21st century secular society. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
We Will Follow Rangers 13,020 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Aye Maurice Johnston was the first kafflik to play for Rangers.I love that old wives tale.John Spencer must have been bemused. As a 12 year old he got bullied at kafflik school and shunned by members of his family for signing for us. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bombaybadboy08 15,660 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I bet his parents regret not taking him to Portugal for a holiday when he was a kid. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BridgeIsBlue 66,654 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I bet his parents regret not taking him to Portugal for a holiday when he was a kid.Same with the Allan family Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bombaybadboy08 15,660 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Same with the Allan family No wonder. Turncoat cunt. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fantana 28,894 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 "anti-catholic bigotry"nae bother. can we see his next report about teams "racism" for not signing coloured players for most of the last century? for not being ethnically diverse? for being homophobic for not signing gays? obviously it'll only be Rangers that are subjected to such shite and bile.The guy is clearly hurting at the fact he has been outed as a shameless apologist for a club known to harbor paedos. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ritchieshearercaldow 22,242 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Actually I like the fact that he is reminding the bheasts of our greatest coup.Never forget that morning when I read he had signed for us, my jaw hit the floor.Them getting the turncoat Allan pales into insignificance against it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluefarm 1,055 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Did he mention Mo's father being slashed by Bheasts or that he had to live in Edinburgh because of Bheast threats?Thought not! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smile 26,622 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Did he not mention the scum not letting him appear for a charity game as they went from one sectarian tirade to the next. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
harlands plater 17,065 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I don't recall any Catholics complaining that they wanted to play for Rangers but weren't allowed to. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibroxholm 2,291 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Old hat. Annoys me that they constantly write this story spouting on about Rangers fans being outraged and 'ripping up their season tickets'. I personally don't know of any of my Rangers supporting friends being outraged - all were pleased to sign a good player and even better that he was snatched from under their noses. I'm sure there maybe some in our support who took time to accept it fully but think that largely disappeared after his last minute winner against them a few months later.What is never written about this story is that it was, and still is, the Celtic minded who had the biggest issue with his signing. To this day, Johnston is ostracised from his homeland, not due to us but because of the potential 'welcome' he would get from them. They even threatened to boycott an old boys charity match with us when it was mooted he might turn up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albertz 78 918 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 My god do these hate filled people just sit around all day thinking about ways to have a go at Rangers? "I know lets just rehash the the mojo story for the thousandth time" Wonder who gave this lapdog the order to write that article? 3 names or Liewell? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
heathen fish boy 8,614 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 it came out I'm sure people got paid by the press to rip season books,easy enough to phone for a replacement one too Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
True Azure 1,414 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Britney must be really running out of ideas for topical football stories for to re-hash this old chestnut. I mean, ffs has he nothing to offer regarding Scottish teams having the lowest coefficiant ever for places in European competition? Does he have fuck all to say about Stoksie's twatter outbursts? Nothing to contribute on the European debacles of ra selliks failure to even stay in before a snow flake has fallen in Scotland?Naw, this cunt with his finger on the pulse of Scottish football in the last knockings of 2015 has reproduced a piece of writing from 1989 just in case anyone remotely connected with Scottish football has forgotten about the Mo Johnston saga? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corkinator 611 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 How old is this article, genuinly, how old? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moody Blue Legend 61,998 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I don't recall any Catholics complaining that they wanted to play for Rangers but weren't allowed to.I'm sure Bill Struth tried for about 3. One guys mum said no the tims wouldn't let another join us, unsure if the other. We tried, what more could we do? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
True Azure 1,414 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I'm sure Bill Struth tried for about 3. One guys mum said no the tims wouldn't let another join us, unsure if the other. We tried, what more could we do?I'm sure we have had more that a few RC's in the team over the years. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky True Legend 2,682 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I'm sure Bill Struth tried for about 3. One guys mum said no the tims wouldn't let another join us, unsure if the other. We tried, what more could we do? We signed Don Kitchenbrand. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moody Blue Legend 61,998 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 I'm sure we have had more that a few RC's in the team over the years.Big bad Rangers!!? That doesn't make headlines mate. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Robot 21,512 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 cunt Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moody Blue Legend 61,998 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 We signed Don Kitchenbrand.Shhhhh, that's a stealth one!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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