In what we suspect will be among our last ditties on departed Fabio Silva, we have to laugh at the Daily Record managing to bring the former Rangers striker’s religion into it, as some kind of weird stick to beat Rangers with.
Silva’s father has been vividly wheeled out by Scotland’s gutter press, and he’s (understandably) defending his son in face of what was a truly dismal loan at Ibrox, but it’s the way the Record managed to get Silva’s religion into the story which is so incredibly pathetic and deeply disappointing, but wholly predictable, that really shows so many of the problems of the West of Scotland.
Jorge Silva said:
“At the beginning, Fabio had the opportunity to choose other clubs, even in Scotland. Could he have gone to Celtic? Yes, he could have gone there. Many people told him to go there because the way they play is maybe closer to Fabio’s abilities. But he chose Rangers. People spoke to us about his religion because he’s a Catholic but Fabio doesn’t show that to everyone. Even so, he told me as his father that he just wanted to play for Rangers.”
Absolutely, literally ridiculous that not only would this be a ‘topic’ but that the Record would try to create nonsense by publishing that.
Not a soul in Rangers’ support ever had a single gripe with what religion the boy is, Rangers have made good strides from the darker days of decades past and now if you’re good enough, to quote Jim Oliver of Partick Thistle in 1995, then it doesn’t matter if “you’re an Asian, an Eskimo or a one-eyed black lesbian saxophone player” – you’re in.
His religion wouldn’t even have entered a single Rangers fan’s head, only how good he was, but our vile press manage to find a way to include it as some way to attack the club.
Until this quote, we can honestly say at Ibrox Noise, we’d never even considered his faith. We still don’t. It’s of no interest what he believes, that’s his business.
What was of relevance was how well he played, and boy was he bad.
We’re glad he’s away, and that’s only down to his ability, or lack of. Nothing else.