Take a little look at the
following:
“I started thinking about the Celtic
game as soon as it got drawn, to be honest. Everybody has got their opinions
and are entitled to them. The fans will
probably be dreading it because in the big games this season, we haven’t
done well.”
-Steven Smith on Old Firm
clash, 9th January 2015
“They are flying right now, playing a
lot of football and scoring a lot of goals. There is a confidence in their
squad, and they have a good squad. But I
still think that we have a better squad than them and better individual players
but we need to go out and prove that.”
-Fraser Aird on Hearts, 14th
January 2015
“There is a lot of personal pride at stake
for me. It’s not as if I’ve been going home and made a cup of tea and thinking everything’s
all right. It’s killing me inside to be honest with you to see Hearts so far
clear in the league and we’re nowhere near them. It’s not nice and it’s not
what we want or used to. So it’s up to
us to finish the season well. It is time for everybody to stand up and be men.
To demand the ball in front of a crowd and not hide and go and show that you’re
good enough to be here. I think everybody does that (hide) when they are going
through their career. I am not saying we have a team full of them, never in
a million years am I saying that. It’s just sometimes when your confidence is
low you aren’t wanting the ball as much as you do when your confidence is high.
That is basically all I am saying.”
-Lee McCulloch on Rangers’
poor form, 14th March 2015
“We are looking forward to it. We know
it’s a massive game for us but every game is massive at this club. We can take a lot of positives out of
Tuesday’s game. I thought we did well. Wee Walshy was brilliant again,
Temps made a difference when he came on. So
we will take confidence into Sunday.”
-Nicky Clark
on upcoming Hibs’ clash, 18th March 2015
If there is one thing that
rankles supporters of any team when they are experiencing a dip, this would sum
it up: players with verbal diarrhoea, spouting absolute misguided nonsense in
the press, which is as much defeatist as delusional.
There is a fair argument to say
footballers are not the brightest bunch, and that they are only addressing the
press and answering a question they are asked, but under the full glare of the
Glaswegian goldfish bowl, any public comment gets scrutinised to microscopic
proportions, and the slightest hint of anything which is either overly
optimistic, pessimistic, or plain disagreeable, and fans will be all over it.
Unfortunately, Rangers’ players’
displays in the press this calendar year are only exacerbating the current
situation exponentially, and with the most recent wishy-washy twaddle from Clark one wonders if manager Stuart McCall has decided
the time for press conferences from the players is over.
McCall himself stated the time
for talking was over, and if we take that further would us fans object to
players being banned from speaking to the press so as not to give out
ridiculous messages of positivity or ghastly ones of depression?
When Lee McCulloch routinely
spoke to the press during dips under Walter Smith, he earned the nickname
‘Rent-a-Quote’ as he always appeared to be on-hand to provide the latest
nonsense following another low-key result.
We appear to be returning to this
kind of valueless diatribe, but with half of the rest of the squad joining in.
It goes without saying radio
silence would be now welcomed if it was also met with an upturn in performances
and results.