“You’re not a real Rangers fan”

We got a bit of flak yesterday for an article pointing out a suspicious mark on Graeme Murty’s face – a mark which, incidentally, appeared only a few days after allegations of two players physically attacking him came to light.

Some of the responses called us all sorts for daring to point this mark out, as if the mark didn’t exist – in fact, the desperation from some fans to borderline sweep sweep with regards any trouble at our club is very much behaviour we cannot abide by.

A big accusation we got was ‘sh*t stirring’, which we find rich in many respects because we are only bringing to light the same flaws the Union Bears did yesterday with their silent protest.

Two different banners for each half, both rightly castigating both the product on the pitch and the conduct off it. Were these protests also ‘sh*t stirring’? Was ‘sack the board’ in 2014 ‘sh*t stirring’?

We might not agree with everything about the UB, but they certainly aren’t taking the nonsense that other fans appear to be doing – and worse, defending it.

We consider ourselves old school Rangers fans, who expect the best from our team and won’t settle for second as long as we are around.

It’s why we are struggle to reconcile with this new age of Rangers supporter, the supporter who seems ready to smear anyone pointing out the negative while pretty much ignoring the positive.

The only way we get back to the top is by calling the negative and building on the positive. By finding the good things and highlighting the bad things. Find the good things and increase and optimise them. Highlight the bad things and bin them.

Unfortunately whenever anyone, not just us, points out the negatives, they immediately gets lambasted with every name under the sun and accused of not being a true fan.

Define ‘true fan’ then? Someone who says nothing critical and just yells ‘mon the Rangers’ regardless of what they see? We’re struggling to fathom what the hell a ‘true fan’ is these days.

If it’s about financially supporting, then every one of us has put hundreds or thousands into the club over the year. Quite honestly, anyone who likes Rangers and buys even one Rangers shirt their entire life is a supporter by the strictest definition of that way of thinking.

The point? We’re all supporters. We just have different ways of expressing it.

Some criticise. Some get overjoyed at the slightest thing. Some get excited and disappointed in equal measure.

But at the end of the day we’re all supporters. And absolutely no one has the right to tell anyone else they’re not.

We can’t reconcile with the type of fan who accepts second place, but we wouldn’t dream of suggesting they’re not a fan. They’re just a fan we can’t identify with.

We don’t expect all of you to identify with us either, but the lack of respect for anyone who thinks differently but wants the same thing really is rather disturbing.