Steelydan1690 20,228 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 4 minutes ago, .Williamson. said: Waking up and realising this has actually happened and it isnโt a bad dream is the worstย This ,it was the first thing that entered my mind when I woke up 2day ๐๐ .Williamson. and RFC55 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrotherTJ 172 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 I knew that he was seriously ill, but hadn't a clue that heย was so close to the end. I thought "Theย Gaffer" was indestructible but sadly, none of us are. It's just an omnipresent reminder of the relentless marching onwards of time when someone goes. Utterly devastated. Sleep well, Walter. You done no bad. ย Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imodium 408 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Such sad news you can see how respected the gaffer was when you read the tributes coming from all across the globe. The tributes reflect what a great family man he was and feel for his family. He gave his all to the club and said it all when he gave up the Scotland job to come back and help us out. To win trophies in that period and get us to the Eufa cup final (with one hand tied behind his back financially) shows why he is our greatest manager ever. In fact he is and always will be Mr Rangers. debs1970 and Paisley Blue Loyal 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
.Williamson. 81,459 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 7 hours ago, GabrielTomato said: ย Mind this being played at Ibrox, HT during the DU game.ย Clearly a song he loved and a title that sums him up.ย (Sorry Walter if you think the song is shite ) Ricky Ross, the singer is a massive Dundee United fan.ย Another reason why if Walter did like this song it fits so well, considering he gave a lot of time to that club aswellย LegendofCoop and Clemdog 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post .Williamson. 81,459 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 Im actually glad Iโm in work today. Iโll be home for the game later and will have a drink then, but I think sitting in the house thinking about it all day would put my head awayย Sparkle, Dan Deacon, magic8ball and 10 others 13 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
6superbarry6 14,109 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Still feel numb that heโs gone and devastated I canโt be there tonight due to covid, this man is the epitome of what our club stands for the class dignity and standards he has set in our club will be seen for generations to come, we really are lucky to have someone such as Gerrard at the helm just now thatโs gets our club and will continue Walters work.ย debs1970 and Steelydan1690 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mclovin9091 1,388 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 Fuck knows what to say. Gutted. ย As little as it means, at least he got to see us win another title, knows the club is on the rise and is in safe hands. RFC55, Paisley Blue Loyal, BlueVanguard and 2 others 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Deacon 54,675 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 1 hour ago, .Williamson. said: Waking up and realising this has actually happened and it isnโt a bad dream is the worstย Aye about 30 secs I was awake and then you realise it actually happened Sparkle, magic8ball and BlueVanguard 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueVanguard 6,399 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Anyone else wake up nearly crying again. I am still a wreck and feel very emotional. I dont think i can sing tonigjt i will be a fucking mess.ย Soon as i see the blue gates i think that will be me tipped over the edge. Safe travels tonight bears. magic8ball, Paisley Blue Loyal and BallochBear 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Deacon 54,675 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 4 minutes ago, BlueVanguard said: Anyone else wake up nearly crying again. I am still a wreck and feel very emotional. I dont think i can sing tonigjt i will be a fucking mess.ย Soon as i see the blue gates i think that will be me tipped over the edge. Safe travels tonight bears. Got up immediately and got busy to keep occupied. Hoping today goes quickly. Paisley Blue Loyal, magic8ball and BlueVanguard 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post SteveEarle 9,680 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 Great piece by Tom English to be fair.ย Even now, seven or eight years later, the look on Stuart McCall's face is as vivid as it was when the bombshell descended that day in the radio studio by the Clyde. McCall was speaking about the anniversary of one of the finest days for his Rangers team under the management of Walter Smith, one of many such days. He was going through the gears in how much he rated and loved his old mentor.ย "Sir Walter was the most inspirational person I ever played for," began the former Ibrox midfielder before delivering a powerful and, at times, moving speech about what "Sir Walter" had done for him. It was cracking stuff, a real insight into what made Smith so special.ย "That was brilliant, Stuart," said the host once the show ended. "But you do know that he hasn't been knightedโฆ"ย "Sir Walter?" replied a bemused McCall. "Yes, he's not been knighted." There was a momentary pause. After registering his outrage that the gong had never gone the way of his ex-boss, he threw his hands to the heavens at the injustice of it all and said: "Well, he'll always be Sir Walter to me." Tuesday was a profoundly sad day for the Smith family and for all those footballers and friends the great man influenced in an epic life in the game.ย There was a vast scale to the eulogies. Big name after big name after big name. Those were the lucky ones, the ones who knew him, who played for him, who managed with or against him, who got to spend time with him and learn from him. If you were in that group then you were truly fortunate. Others only have snapshots.ย It can be cringemaking when people on the periphery insert themselves into the narrative of a tragic loss like this by recounting their own tales from yesteryear that show what a tremendous person X or Y was (tales that are really a self aggrandisement dressed up as tribute). We run that risk here, but it's a story we'll tell none the less.ย In early 1993, this writer was in his early months in Glasgow, an alien city in an alien country; early 20s and unfamiliar in the ways of Scottish football. Perhaps he saw the vaguely bewildered look, but Smith showed a kindness that was appreciated then and is still appreciated now. He talked warmly for half an hour in his office at the top of the stairs at Ibrox. Even in my naive state it was obvious this was unusual and special. "If you want an interview with anybody then fax the club on a Tuesday and I'll make sure it happens."ย I did - and it happened. Again and again. It was a very big deal. He had no need to help. Nothing that I wrote would have registered with him or mattered in any sense, but he did it anyway.ย If that's a self-indulgent story, then apologies, but I've always that felt it was a glimpse not of the football man, but of the man, the thoughtful character those closest to him would have known and loved.ย That decency was one side of him, the personal side. Of course, there was another side, that of the operator. At a media conference weeks later, he walked into the room and confronted some poor misfortune whose newspaper columns had annoyed him. A senior writer. Actually, it was a friend of his. "You've been writing some amount of shite latelyโฆ" On his way out of this verbal evisceration there was a definite trace of a smile on the manager's face. I'd wondered why everybody - even the most gnarled pros in the writing game - seemed to sit up straight when Smith appeared. Now I knew.ย 'If we name a stand after him, he'll always be with us' This was one formidable manager, not just in the way he coached footballers but in the way he dealt with journalists. Respectful, insightful, funny and kind with his time - but when the mood struck, boy, was he tough. If there was a world staring championships, Walter Smith would not have been stopped at nine-in-a-row. His connection with Rangers was life-long, since his days as a schoolkid going along to matches with his grandfather. There's a story about him breaking his leg in a game when he was 14. His father wrote to the club and asked for permission for young Walter to sit pitchside so he could stretch out his wounded limb.ย The written reply from then manager Scot Symon stayed in the family until the letter was donated to the club. Sympathy was expressed and support offered, but the answer, in short, was no. The snub never put him off. He was, from top to toe, a Rangers man, steeped in its history.ย But he meant other things to other people, too. He was a Dundee United player for 14 years. He made almost 200 appearances, some under Jerry Kerr, some under Jim McLean. He did his coaching badges at 25.ย He was assistant to McLean until 1986 (a 20-year contribution, give or take) when Rangers came calling. He was only 38 at the time. His death comes just 10 months after McLean's passing. The Scottish football team in the sky is not struggling for geniuses to lead it.ย What's been telling in the tributes is the affection in which Smith was held throughout British football. His spell at Everton was a largely turbulent one, played out against a backdrop of money troubles, questionable governance at the top of the club, and a fanbase living in fear of the drop.ย And yet those seasons of constant struggle have done little to reduce Smith in the eyes of the Goodison fans who knew what he was up against.ย Some of the journalists on the beat in Liverpool, like their counterparts in Glasgow, have been practically in tears since the news broke. They remember a man who rose above a boardroom decision to sell Duncan Ferguson behind his back in his first season. "I thought long and hard about leaving many times," Smith once said. "Day after day I reviewed my position and asked myself if there was any future for me." They remember the mess the club was in and the lengths that Smith went to in order to wrestle it back up the table. They also remember his mischievous humour in the face of such tumult. The strength of his team was poor across 143 Premier League games, but the strength of his character never lessened, not even after he got the sack.ย He spent some months at Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant. That was from March 2004. Darren Fletcher credits Smith with starting the process that turned Cristiano Ronaldo from a showboating circus act into one of the game's greatest ever footballers.ย Smith went on to manage Scotland in the wake of the farrago that was Berti Vogts' tenure. It was a depressed landscape. You'd have needed a telescope to pick out any sign of life, but when he left the job to go back to Rangers he'd stabilised things and improved performances. Scotland beat World Cup finalists France on his watch. A minor footballing miracle. The lure of Rangers was always going to be too much for him, though. Winning those early titles alongside Graeme Souness was one thing, but he came into his own when taking on the manager's job and bringing Rangers to another level.ย At one point, before foreign investment started to crash into English football with a vengeance, Rangers were the best team in Britain and, briefly, one of the best in Europe. For all that, you could easily argue that it was Smith's second spell as manager from 2007 that showed his genius in greater clarity.ย His nine-in-a-row teams were expensively put together and had class in all corners. The one he inherited second time around wasn't even in the same ballpark - and the financial climate was totally different. The distress flares were visible on the finance front when he returned. The big-money signings had dried up. The squad depth became shallow. The stress factor increased.ย In making it all the way to the Uefa Cup final in 2008 and then winning the league in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Smith showed he didn't need riches to get the job done. His pragmatism and intelligence allowed him to construct a formidable unit even with the gathering sound of financial chaos in the background.ย He never allowed himself to get distracted by a turmoil he knew was inevitable. What is that if not great leadership, brilliance under fire.ย He returned again when the club was at a new low, this time as chairman under the wretched reign of Charles Green. It was an ill-advised move and one he came to regret quite quickly. You could see why he did it, though.ย Angry at what become of his club under Craig Whyte and fearful of what might happen under Green, he re-entered the fray in a role he was totally unsuited to. He did it out of concern. Nobody in the Rangers support would have been happier to see the club win the league last season. He bore some scars from getting them back to where he felt they belonged.ย On a rainy Tuesday night in May 2011, Rangers beat Dundee United, the club that had such a profound impact on his coaching, in the penultimate game of the league season. It was Smith's last game as manager in his spiritual home.ย When club officials asked him to go back out after the game was over to take the acclaim of the supporters he was initially reticent. "I was worried everyone may have gone home as it was such a bad night weather-wise," he said.ย Those images are unforgettable, the lights and the incessant downpour making it all the more poignant. As he walked and waved, 50,000 people in the stadium got to their feet to applaud him. And they're applauding still. magic8ball, geneva_ger, KaiserJon and 20 others 23 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wully 46,763 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 ย kelvd1873, Hadron Collider, TEFTONG and 3 others 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post scottyscott1963 17,994 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 13 hours ago, The Godfather said: From 2011 to now has been like a click of the fingers, be that trying to blank out certain events to being successful again.ย It's true what they say that the older you get the quicker times flys by. ย My 40th birthday and my Mum said "that's it,your life will just get faster" That was over 30 years and since 2011 we have had to shut out some amount of GRIEF. BUT!ย look at us now,and i'm just thankful we had Walter Smith with us for that journey. You could always sense him in the background.ย cstamomusa, magic8ball, Willis and 5 others 8 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Deacon 54,675 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Did not see this yesterday Sparkle and dee9 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLUEDIGNITY 33,610 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 IMG_7478.MOV magic8ball, Bobby Hume, Clemdog and 3 others 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueVanguard 6,399 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 The respect from the other side of the city is very good to see. Few tims in work where class last night and spoke about some old firm classics with Walter.ย I am still in pieces i cant believe how badly this has effected us all. Never cried so much since my Gran passed away. I just love this club and love all the fans also. So thankful my Granda showed me this great club it has grabbed me by the balls and everything i do and we do evolves around Rangers Football Club. That last home game on a wet cold rainy night when Walter waves farewell i knew that was a special moment of being there to witness it. It was the end of an Era and everyone knew in that stadium they where lucky to be there to see such an iconic moment. magic8ball, GA1972 and bornabear 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sparkle 53,252 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 ย scottyscott1963, Bluekev, superallysbears and 20 others 23 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingKirk 25,461 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Worst night sleep I've had in a long time. Today is going to be another emotional long day.ย ย BallochBear and Sparkle 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post aird 3,721 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 ย ย ย don logan, GA1972, BridgeIsBlue and 23 others 26 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrLaudrup 4,437 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 6 minutes ago, aird said: ย ย ย Laudrup as eloquent now as he was then. A legend praising a legend. Itโs special to hear it from the overseas players and some real insights there as to what it meant to play for him and Rangers during that 9IAR period.ย murzo, Bobby Hume, Laudrup1984 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bornabear 6,186 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 58 minutes ago, BLUEDIGNITY said: ย IMG_7478.MOV 10.96 MBย ยทย 4 downloads That just set me off again mate. Wonderful though. BLUEDIGNITY 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post STEPPS BOY 73,141 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 AS Scaffoldings yard. Nelson loyal, sRcFoCt, mearns loyal and 38 others 41 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bronzy 25,953 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 McGregor looks absolutely broken. BookWorm, BridgeIsBlue, Rangers_no1 and 13 others 16 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post esquire8 41,909 Posted October 27, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 1 out of the 5 stars we wear with pride on our shirts was because of him.ย Unbelievable seeing that today. SteveEarle, bornabear, Steelydan1690 and 6 others 9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEPPS BOY 73,141 Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 McGregor looks shattered in that video of wreath layingย JackAlex93 and graeme_4 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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