Why Rangers fans deserve an apology

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Why Rangers fans deserve an apology

It is not often a signing is made which goes against nigh-on everything Rangers stand for, and which appears to violate all aspects of common sense from all sections of management, but with the signature of now officially departed Joey Barton, we got exactly that.

The most controversial player in the modern game must go down as the most ill-judged, ill-advised, and downright farcical signing Rangers have made in decades.

In fact, off the top of my head, I simply cannot think of a more ludicrous signing in over 140 years of this proud Club’s existence.

Nothing about securing Joey Barton made an iota of sense, and with the termination of his deal by mutual consent, the embarrassment factor has hiked beyond repair.

Yes, ‘beyond’. This is something Rangers cannot recover from; by this I mean Mark Warburton will be forever remembered not for getting Rangers promoted, not for being a ‘Magic Hat’ but for being the manager who made the stupidest and worst signing.

Even Flo was a success by comparison – only the transfer fee counted horribly against him; but Barton was just an absolute disaster on every single level and such a dreadful loss of judgement from whoever was ultimately responsible for dredging him up to Glasgow.

Worryingly, it cannot just be cited as a one off – Warburton’s era has been littered with truly embarrassing trials, decisions, signings, and mistakes which absolutely should not have been made.

John Eustace being given five months to prove himself. That affair went beyond farce.

Targetting Joleon Lescott; this confirmed Warburton’s bizarre choices of player in signing Barton was not isolated.

Oguchi Onyewu; American international who did absolutely nothing wrong in trials or in his friendly appearance at Battery, but was rejected without any reason attached.

And frankly, in yours truly’s eyes, the Rangers fans deserve an apology, an official statement acknowledging Joey Barton was a mistake and showing contrition for it. Naturally it will not happen – a contractual gagging order goes hand in hand with mutual consent and the current official statement is that no further comment will be made.

Well it should.

Dave King will be quietly seething that his management team have sullied Rangers’ reputation with this nonsense; and Rangers fans have frankly been poorly treated by the debacle that was the handling of it.

It is why a small apology really should be forthcoming – Rangers fans spend our hard-earned money watching the team, buying the merchandise, and while we do not spend cash to expect a win every match, we expect respect.

The way this farce has been dealt with shows no respect to the supporters, and either Warburton, Weir or McFarland has made a giant mess of it.

I hate this entry. I hate being so critical and even looking it over it sounds like something an East End blogger would probably write about us (not that I would know, I have never read a single piece of trash any of them have ever vomited out), but it is also utterly true.

Joey Barton is gone, and should never have come in the first place.

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40 COMMENTS

  1. This is a wee statement to ibrox noise(who's blogs i've always respected & liked) and my own supporters in general.Answer me this guys, for those of you who continual canvas for derek mcinnes to become our new manager.WHY???This guy ISN'T a better manager than our current manager, as his failure in the english championship will testify,so why the purge for mcinnes to replace warbs as our manager??Imho the glasgow rangers job is too big a job for derek mcinnes!!Seriously,what amazing things has he done at aberdeen that would warrant him to become the glasgow rangers manager??Nowt imo!Stuart mccall IS A BETTER MANAGER than mcinnes!!He's done well in both scotland & England!!Honestly guys i can't for the life of me understand why anyone,and i mean anyone would come to the conclusion that derek mcinnes is a better manager than billy davies(incidently my choice as our next manager) if something does happen to warbs,who i still back!Billy davies would imho make a great rangers manager as his record in management would back up strongly!Please ibrox noise and all bears out there,feel free to air all your views regarding this

  2. Don't agree with everything you have said but do agree 100% Barton should never have set foot inside Ibrox .Scott Brown must be killing himself laughing.

    • I think Warbs should have been there to parade our "marquee aquisition".I know he was on holiday but many managers have cut short holidays to parade players.On another note,who's the"bigot in a suit"that's bangin that poor wee guys wife?

  3. I find myself agreeing that MW is not the manager I thought and is not good enough for Rangers. The tactics are wrong, we are so predictable and MW is incapable of making or even seeing the need to make changes IMO. It's been obvious from last season that we needed to sort out the defence, that has not happened. The signings still have a lot to prove and it is clear MW plays his favourates. Kind of like Strachan! Not sure who replaces him, on the whole we have a good squad, but they are not doing it for MW.

  4. I used to enjoy reading this page but now it has become a petty witch hunt. When rangers signed Joey Barton everyone including myself were extremely optimistic with what he could bring to the team.
    Unfortunately this never happened but to expect an apology is embarrassing. We all know the rumours of what happened and Warburton is clearly doing what he thinks is best for the team. We need to stay positive for the team and management.

    • Hi Gary, thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

      The truth is 99% of fans are absolutely mortified by this whole episode. It is less the signing itself and more the handling of the fallout. It's been poor, and is it really above Rangers to apologise to our fans for how much of a mess they made of this?

      Incidentally as fans it's our job to support our new signings, even overruling our own doubts about their merits – it's the management's job to make sure they bring in the right players, and that's their judgement. We do not meet Barton in person, or judge his merits on the training ground – that's why we trust McParland and Warburton to judge correctly. And on this occasion they have massively let us down. With both the signature and their handling of the accompanied mess.

  5. Tommy wright doing good job with provincial club st.J.IMHO tommy wright nowhere near good enough to be glasgow rangers manager!What amazing things has he done to warrant a massive job as the glasgow rangers manager.I look forward to your reply "THE REALIST".Do you honestly think that tommy wright is a better manager than billy davies mate??By the way "THE REALIST" who's MB??

    • John macadam,billy davies is working nowhere at the moment, as you would know!You would also know, if you read the daily record interview, with billy davies, a few weeks back,that dr sportswriter mcdermott, who did the interview with davies actually told you he's been wrongly bad mouthed in england because he's fighting a case against the notts forest owners regarding this.The wee man is certainly not a yes man!!

    • John macadam,billy davies is working nowhere at the moment, as you would know!You would also know, if you read the daily record interview, with billy davies, a few weeks back,that dr sportswriter mcdermott, who did the interview with davies actually told you he's been wrongly bad mouthed in england because he's fighting a case against the notts forest owners regarding this.The wee man is certainly not a yes man!!

  6. Agreed, a bit of a witch hunt, we took a punt on barton and it failed, end of. when barton was tweeting his p1sh about brown which one of use didnt buy into it and have a laugh? we dont need an apology we need answers. have have the vast majority of the 12 signs been a failure or average at best? why the 5 months spent on the Eustace debacle? Why did Mackay continue to get a game when he was poor and we had the likes of MOH and Forrester overlooked AFTER the manager had already said the only guys that will play are the guys who perform? the questions go on and on and we deserve at least some level an answer.

  7. I think it shows good metal by warbs and our club to ensure the player is not bigger than the club. Barton was a punt, he could have either been a fantastic asset and player or he wouldnt be able to handle being a Rangers player and all the responsibilties that comes with it. Like a lot of players coming to Scotland, they totally underestimate our game and think they can just turn up and shine without working hard. Barton got a shock of the pace of our game and struggled. We dont know whats happened in the training ground. We dont know what player and club have said to each other. All we know is the punt didnt work and he is now gone, freeing up wages for a better player. As for Warbuton, give him a break for goodness sake, judge him at the end of the season. Our results are down to poor finishing and defensive errors, get rid of Kiernan and we will save goals immediately!! January window needs a lethal striker and 2 centre halves. I settled for second place at the start of the season and we are still on course for that. Our players need time to knit together, other teams players have been togother for seasons, so give us time guys and stop pressing the panic button. As for McInnes and Davies,,get a grip of yourselves, Rangers job is far to big for them, they would be disastrous for our club, stick with Warbs just now at least till the end of the season.

  8. This situation is all down to Warburton. His signings have been shocking whether through buying them when injured or signings who are well past. Barton as well as Waghorn who now wants away along with the disappearance of Forrester tells me the players have lost faith in him. He is a dead duck manager.

  9. Well i for one am very surprised… a positive article about Rangers in an Ibrox noise article?…..well done ge…oh ! sorry my mistake its just the usual, standard,negative approach. This website to me is the like the boy who cried wolf; you have so many negative articles that even the ones with merit just get mopped up with the rest. Change the tune please and act like a publication not written by the most negative element of our support.

    • Hi Alan

      This site was filled with positivity both last season and this summer. There was much to praise.

      Nothing on the pitch has merited the continuation of that this season and to be positive all the time about what we can evidently see would be to deceive our readers.

      When we are positive we get accused of being Level 5. When negative, your kind of response.

      We just call it as we see it. If that is to readers' distaste, they are welcome to go elsewhere for views they prefer.

    • I don't think you can ever be accused of Level 5 thinking ! we are in third place, 1 point off second and even though our performances haven't been the best we are going to finish 2nd place and get into Europe… from there we can kick on, we need to support the team and style of football as it's the way forward, we just need to get better players to execute this brand of football.

  10. More likely a boardroom purchase ! I feel warburton will be seething at having no budget , meaning we had no cash to buy a decent centre half and instead of all the early signings Warburton wanted, we were left with last minute buys ! Along with certain signings foisted on him , board signings that were clearly aimed at getting fans to say wow look Barton , he was great with Burnley he will do us a right turn ! I was one of them ! Except on reflection it is clear to the average fan Barton does not fit into Warburton's style of football and I personally feel he may not have wanted him in the first place.

    Starting to think many pushing all the blame on the manager to deflect from a board that has failed to live up to it's pre takeover promises and as much good as the board have done, spending money and putting a bit of bunting up is literally papering over the cracks , still no direct investment or a listing and resolutions at an AGM that could dilute shareholdings , if they pass.

    Starting to think this is just an exercise to get the gaffer the sack and deflect from the boards failings ! The alternatives are 1 ? Not good enough . 2 / They will also suffer the same problems of lack of a budget to compete !

    • Garner was the last signing at 1.8 million, after all the midfield and attackers he spent the money on yet another striker for a position that was already well filled. There was no urgency for the 1 position that we were clearly lacking in, Senderos was a panic by because Lescott (yes Joleon Lescott) knocked us back (thanks F***)

    • Warburton alone is responsible for the signings. The board sanctioned a£1.8 million buy in Garner and allowed Warburton to pursue other targets of which we have paid way over the odds on wages for what we have in return.

    • I just don't buy it , its plain that Barton could not fit into the gaffers system and to old to learn to do so IMO. Plus the gaffers history shows us he prefers the younger hungrier player and he also wanted early signings and again, is it lack of proper funds that caused the panic buys.

      I have no doubt the gaffer has made mistakes but the board are not blameless and have not kept there promises ! I would rather the board never said we will need to overspend for a while until in Europe. But they didn't and subsequently have not kept that promise as well as others !

      Again if people think McInnes or Davies are the answer they are sadly deluded !

  11. Warburton has shown his inexperience this season in Signings tactics and how to act as a Rangers manager his post match comments (if he turns up) seem to be pre recorded as if you pull a cord out his back its getting boring and ridiculous As for Barton we did have High Hopes but he was a victim of his own mouth slagging off Broon and then losing 5-1 ripped out any passion he had left and he fell into the biggest cream puff in mankind's history throwing his toys out his £300.000 pram Fact is he and like most other folk in England Underestimate how competitive our shite League actually is within our own walls he will cower back to England appear on a few chat shows slag us off blame us then hopefully disappear for good .

  12. Joey Barton was included in the English Championship's team of the year last season after starring in a Burnley side that won the league. That's why we signed him. The fact is, the vast majority of fans, the management team and Barton himself thought it would work. It hasn't. That unfortunately happens sometimes. But he's far from the 'stupidest' signing of all time. We don't have to look back far for signings that were far more idiotic than a player who, as I mentioned, was a star player in England just weeks before signing-on at Ibrox. I give you: Marius Zaliukas, Seb Faure, Nicky Clark, James Beattie, Egil Ostenstad, Dariusz Adamczuk, Francisco Sandaza, Francis Jeffers, Federico Nieto… Need I go on? All absolute garbage for Rangers. Every time they played they reduced the quality of their particular Rangers team. Should the club apologise for those signings as well? And have you forgotten that Sandaza was smtgick enough to tell a prank called that he wanted a move out of Ibrox. Was that not a bigger embarrassment than anything Barton did? The fact is Barton, when he played, was solid enough. Didn't do anything spectacular and brought a lot of unnecessary pressure upon himself with his comments but we were all prepared to go along with it because we all knew – and still know – that he's a very talented player and I have no doubt he'd have shown that if the bust-up hadn't happened. To say the club should apologise for signing a player of his undoubted quality, a player who just won a place on the team of the year in one of Europe's toughest leagues and a player known worldwide, is absolutely ridiculous.

    A comment also for those replacing Warburton with Billy Davies, Derek McInnes and Tommy Wright. Ffs seriously?

    We've come up from the Scottish Championship and while we're miles behind Celtic, we're well in the race for second place. It's not where we want to be but it's not always going to be like this. People should remember the state the team was in when Warburton was appointed. We finished THIRD IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP and took a scudding off a dreadful Motherwell team in the playoff. A year later Warburton won us the Championship playing a more easy-on-the-eye style, he masterminded the biggest upset in Old Firm history and we went to the Scottish Cup final.

    Those who doubt him should remember he's still relatively new to management.

    He's an intelligent guy. He will learn from the Barton saga, he'all learn from the fact he's made two or three other signings that haven't worked. If he doesn't learn, he'll be sacked. But while he's here just get behind him and help get the team into Europe. Once we're there then we can hopefully attract better quality players – then we can start thinking about pulling away from Aberdeen and Hearts and looking toppling Celtic. It won't be this season, it might not be next season but I'd expect Rangers to be properly competing with Celtic in the 2018/19 season. Right now should be about getting into Europe, next season we should be closer to Celtic and well in front of the real diddy clubs like Aberdeen etc, and the season after we should be making a real push for the title.

    It might not be what fellow fans want to read or hear but I don't think I'm that far away from the objectives and the timetable which the board will expect the management team to achieve. Success takes time and persistence. Stick with the manager and the players. We'all get to where we want to be sooner

  13. I think most of you guys need a major reality check, do you forget where we were 3/4 years ago and the financial state we are still in, we got our club back from the conmen and that was a miracle itself.

    We need to be patient and give MW and the board a chance and stop panicking every time something goes wrong, real Gers fans are in it for the long hall and know that if we continue to give the club the backing they deserve success will come.

    Get real guys and back your club…….

  14. T.Bear,are you honestly telling me that billy davies is not a good manager?Because if you are then your seriously lacking in football knowledge.He's a terrific manager/coach!!Check out his record for yourself.He has the ability and character to manage glasgow rangers with ease my friend.I also must reiterate that I rate and back,to the hilt,our current manager mark warburton!!But 2 words to you mate if you seriously DON'T rate billy davies."BEHAVE YOURSELF"!!!!

    • Robert, what has Billy Davies' record been like in the last 6 years? Last time I heard his name he was interviewing with St Mirren. What makes him suitable to being the Rangers manager?

  15. Ibrox noise you are having a laugh with this blog , you are getting more dramatic by the week, we are owed an apology by rangers wtf ?? One bad signing doesn't make a bad manager ?? , please answer me this what do you expect of rangers this season

    • You're absolutely right, one bad signing doesn't make a bad manager.

      This entry doesn't claim otherwise.

      What DID I expect of Rangers when we spent £3M on players and signed Kranjcar, Barton, Senderos, Garner and Rossiter? At that point my previous hopes of a top four finish changed to top two, and on the second highest budget in Scotland you think that is an unfair expectation?

      You didn't think a Rangers team with Lee Wallace, Lee Hodson, Senderos, Wilson, Barton, Rossiter, Kranjcar, Garner, O'Halloran and McKay was a decent shout for 'best of the rest'?

      It's all gone very, very wrong and now I simply don't know what to expect.

    • You expected Rangers to finish 2nd?
      You may well be proved right.
      In fact, there's a very good chance that you will be proved correct.

  16. If half of the players had Bartons fighting spirit we wouldnt be in the mess we are in, the team full of greedy lightweights quite happy to pick a wage up or nothing, bunch of Nancy boys

  17. I'm totally disillusioned with Warburton but I'd hate to see him replaced with Billy Davies, the man has a very bad case of small man syndrome and could start a fight in an empty room! He doesn't have the dignity necessary to be manager of a great institution like Rangers. Allardyce or McCall are the outstanding candidates IMO.

  18. This one is a bit ott guys the reason for the Barton signing and probly all bt windass crooks and rossiter was were skint therefore have no option bt to take a punt on freed out of contract players ,now a punt is a gamble and rangers have been doing this kind of business since 2010 ,boca,goyan and Davie weir are examples where it worked a treat bt more often than not it blows up in your face and Barton a example of nuclear explosion bt hardly shameful or stupid ,id say embarrassingly necessary bt only until the brass realise we will not top Celtic on a shoestring ,and that is probably why warbs was recruited in first place ,so ? Will be if they decided spend do they let him do it or bring in the big guns

  19. IBROXNOISE: by reading and replying to some of these posts you must now realise that your negativity has been wearing thin. We were totally fucked a few years ago with every bastard wishing us the worst. We are not realistically going to win this league but if we can get into Europe it's a springboard for next season. No one needs to apologise. Let's move on and get fully behind the team and the manager.

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