Rangers striker Kemar Roofe has been in the news recently for what he said on Tuesday’s presser. The line that has gained the most coverage has been the comments about how boring Rangers are, and how the fans were right to boo the team off at the end of the 90 v Motherwell, despite a win.
Let’s review what Roofe said:
“That’s true. But I suppose they are booing because they are probably bored, unfortunately. Trust me. We are not trying to play boring football. We don’t want that to happen. But we also have to take responsibility and entertain them a little bit more and play attractive football for them so they don’t boo us and they aren’t bored. Every game, there’s a demand to play with style. Every game, there’s a demand to look good, to please the fans and to entertain the fans. Yes football is a results driven business. But it’s also an entertainment business. That’s why fans come to watch a game – to be entertained. I’m the same when I watch football. If the game’s boring, I’ll probably turn the TV off and do something else. It’s natural.”
The reason this has drawn praise from fans is that Roofe is showing a smart knack of canny media delivery here while also sounding like a fan himself – getting that unique balance between media person who has to be careful (think Rupert Everett) and fan who just says what they think.
And by relating himself as a fan TO the fans, saying something we all identify with such dumping a boring match of football, it means the supporters take him so much more seriously.
Contrast that with James Tavernier’s repeated b******* about being ‘disappointed’ or ‘it isn’t good enough’ and he just sounds like an egotist who is better than the fans and who is disappointed with the players around him, as if he isn’t responsible for any of it and he feels personally let down.
While Roofe doesn’t shy away from the reality – he knows it’s rubbish, but while telling us that’s not the goal, he’s admitting it’s what’s happening, and the fans are right to react to it, because he does the same thing himself.
See, he doesn’t even say ‘I would do the same thing’, he said ‘I do the same thing’ – one of these tries to sympathise with the supporters, the others actually explains he is one and does the same.
Tavernier lost his legacy a long time ago – he’s become deeply unpopular with swathes of the support and is part of the malaise, as Ibrox Noise’s Ross talked about earlier.
But Roofe shows there’s still a few decent sorts left in the squad who fans can maybe trust a bit.
Pity it’s just not showing on the pitch.