The Rambling Ger

At 0-0 on Sunday night I found myself running through the players on the field, trying to figure out who would take our penalties and I was not confident. How had we found ourselves in this position again? The hard work was done, we had swatted aside our rivals in the previous round, and from here on out it should have been a formality... That train of thought though is likely how we found ourselves in this position again. The hubris combined with releasing the pressure valve that winning the league so early had brought was always going to make it difficult for the team to put on the same level of performance as the previous round. That being said Rangers still should have won this tie and almost certainly should be planning for a double at the end of the season, and at 1-0 it shouldn't even have been a question. Yet somehow Rangers contrived to throw away a golden opportunity.  Truth be told we should be looking at a treble. Yet for some reason, we just can't seem to do it in ...

  On Sunday Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Miland, and the "big six" EPL teams announced their intentions to leave the UEFA run Champions League, in favour of a new "European Super League". The plan was for the founding 12 members to be joined by another 3 permanent clubs and then invite five teams into the tournament each year. This plan lasted round about 48 hours before it started to crumble under the outrage of the footballing world. Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, PSG & Porto were quick to distance themselves from the plans. UEFA and FIFA called for the clubs to re-think their intentions. Downing Street informed the world they would work on legislation to prevent this going forward. Thankfully the outrage and disgust from the footballing world, and us "legacy fans" in general, was enough to see teams like Chelsea and Man City make a quick U-turn. From what I understand those two teams were the last of the orig...

As I write this article Arsenal are currently beating Slavia Prague 3-0 in the 2nd leg of their QF match. This result fills me, and I'm sure the Rangers family, with joy. Yesterday UEFA announced that they had concluded their investigations into the incidents that took place during and after the match between Rangers and Slavia Prague at Ibrox on the 18th March 2021.  I briefly touched on this game and the incidents from the game in my article  From Red Imps to Racism  but following yesterday's announcement I felt it required a longer discussion. Rangers striker Kemar Roofe has been banned for 4 games for "seriously assaulting another player" following his red card for a challenge that saw him kick Slavia goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar in the face. A tackle that no Rangers fan would defend, but a ban that on the surface seems excessive considering there was clearly no intent to injure the player, as stupid and deserving the red card that the challenge was. However, UEFA no l...

I've actually been planning to write an article on this topic for a while now, but I needed to wait for the outcome of the hearing. I am of course talking about the 5 Rangers players (Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey, Bongani Zungu, Dapo Mebude, and Brian Kinnear) who were caught having a private party, breaking COVID restrictions. The outcome of the hearings was published earlier this week and all players were given 6 match bans, with 2 of those suspended. I would have written this article as soon as this was known however, I've been pretty unwell this week and wasn't able to until now... which has proven fortunate for me as at the time of writing there is another chapter in this tale. It was announced earlier tonight that Rangers have appealed these bans. This article isn't really to discuss the rights and wrongs of the punishments issued, or indeed the appeal lodged by Rangers. Yes, it seems that Rangers players, despite what the dog food eating blogs will have you be...