Rangers make UEFA cup final

Rangers have made it to the UEFA cup final after a penalty shoot out victory over Italian team Fiorentina in Florence.

Although Walter Smith was missing key players like Allan McGregor, De Marcus Beasley, Charlie Adam and Steven Smith and had to play half fit players Davie Weir, Steve Davies and Brahim Hemdani and Daniel Cousin being stupidly sent off in extra time Rangers managed to withstand an Italian onslaught and hold out to send Rangers to thier first Euro final for 30+ years.

It would appear that Manchester will have to brace itself for a blue invasion in 13 days with some people reckoning 90,000 Rangers fans will pack the stadium, clubs and bars to watch the final. The final also has some extra spice as Rangers will play Zenith St Petersburg managed by former Rangers Manager Dick Advocaat and who also have former Rangers hero turned Villian Fernando Ricksen amongst thier ranks. With favourites such as Bayern Munich, PSV and Fiorentina all elimanted most experts belive it may be the most opn UEFA cupo final for many years.

And with Man U and Chelsea both competing in the champions league final the chances of a battle of Britain in the European super cup next season are high

Will Beasley be fit for the final? Several times I saw openings where Fiorentina were flat at the back and a speedy run was exactly what was needed. Especially in extra time when they looked tired

Well Beasley is apparently back in training which is a good thing for the club but I would doubt he will be fit enough to take part in the final and due to the nature of his injury the Rangers medical staff will not rush him into any game. It's more than likely Charlie Adam will probably play in the wide attacking position and they will use Novo ( wide right) and Darchville ( centre forward) to provide a pacy attack

I have to say that SFA and SPL are a disgarce and seem to be intent on costing Rangers either the UEFA cup or the Scottish league title secretly I think they would be happy if both happend. Wheras Zenith have a clear week to prepare Rangers will have played Hibs away, Dundee united home and Motherwell home in the week leading to the the UEFA cup final all in all the club will have to play 7 games in 17 days including 2 cup finals. David Murray the owner of Rangers says other countries would find ths laughable and he's right.
The fallout has already began though Rangers supporter clubs are planning to boycott certain away games next season leaving clubs short of much needed cah these fans bring and there is even talk of a protest in the next few days.
The club itself has remained silent on any action they are taking but rumours suggest that should the players win the UEFA cup they will say they won it for Rangers as opposed to Scotland, there are also rumours that should the club win the league they will either refuse Lex Gold ( chairman of the SPL) access to the stadoium thus preventing him making the trophy prsentation which knowing Lex Gold would not go down well and ther is even tallkmof the club meeting minimum requiremnt next season i.e no interviews, no PR stunts for the SFA and definilty no use of Murray Park should the national team make a request. Even respected managers such as Alex Ferguson, Dick Advocaat and even Jose Mourinho have come out and said the SFA and SPL descion is unfair.

All this raises 2 question 1. will the SPL and SFA ever become competent and 2. Mourinho must be a desperate man if he has taken an interest in Scottish football.

Answers

1 Never give up hope

2 He has nothing better to do

It has always been my belief that when scheduling a season allowances should be made for European competition. If the season needs to be started a week earlier, so be it. If a match needs to be played during the winter break, so be it. If there is a lull toward the end of the season because all the teams got knocked out early, maybe watching it on tv will inspire them to do better next year .

If you go into the season assuming nobody will make it to the final, you will be sabotaging any that do. After all, it is in the best interest of the league for whatever team that advances to do well

Theres a rant here coming up but it's important well important to me at least.

What happend in Manchester on Thursday was deplorable theres no getting around it and the fans who were fighting were totally in the wrong and if they are Rangers fans they have disgarced the club and the country.

However there is an awful lot of this story that is really annoying me and I need to get it off my chest.

Firstly from what I have heard it was a few hundred ( if that) fans that were rioting compared 200,000 fans that were in the city yet if you listen to some of the media you might think that all 200,000 were rioting.

As far as I know only two people have admitted this was the minority, the English media have for ther most part ignored that yet when English fans were tearing Marsielle to bits or launching street furniture at riot cops in Belgium or trying to start a punch up with Germans at the last world cup the priorty then was to point out this was the mindless minority but when it comes to Scottish fans we all get tarred with the same brush and that is not fair.
Before Wednesday night Rangers had not had one single arrest either at home or away in the Champions league or the UEFA cup but that has been ignored, during the last Euro 2008 campaign Scotland had less than 10 arrests, the Scotland fans were the first and I think only fans to have been awarded the fair play trophy, looking at those facts you could say that we are talking an isolated incident by a mindless minority yet the English media are trying to make out this is common place with 1 idiot proclaiming riots like this are the norm every week in Scotland, in my time watching football and going to games I have seen 2 riots both were planned and led by Milwall casuals funny how they were swept under the carpet not just by the media but by Scotland yards anti hooligan branch.

It's not just the media though, yes we should blame the fans but what about the shops that opened at 7.00am and had cheap booze offers and sold to clearly drunk fans ( something your not meant to do), Manchester council for allowing alcohol to be consumed in public or the wholly inadequate security at the fan zones ( that were way to small) what about UEFA who picked a city that wasn't big enough and a stadium that wasn't big enough what if this had been Rangers V Bayern or Everton the city would have collapsed.

Also another story I have heard that I bet nobody outside Scotland has mentioned, when we left the stadium there was trouble on the streets and when I aksed a guy what had happend he said that Man Utd fans were fighting Rangers fans, apparently the ring leaders were not wearing Rangers colours and not one of them were speaking with Scottish accents but with Irish and Manchester accents, the police won't even look into that allegation the media have ignored it to.

The point I am making is that those whoe were fighting for whatevere reason were wrong and should be punished but comparing a whole nation of fans to a few hundred is wrong, also while wer rightly blaming the morons maybe other groups should be looking at themselves and seeing if the situation and even could have been planned and handled better.