Government eyes aside, perhaps those most satisfied with the messages – unambiguous and front and centre – that came out of Rangers yesterday afternoon were the quieter members who make up the Ibrox support. The ones who adhered to the government guidance last weekend, who cracked open a beer at home, WhatsApp’d their mates from the sofa and tried to savour a moment that was a long time coming.
The unedifying, and that’s being kind, nature of what followed in the streets of Glasgow last Sunday would have made more than a few of them squirm uncomfortably. As day turned to night and George Square was taken over there would have been a significant number of Ibrox season ticket holders cringing at the scenes that were played out through social media channels as their club headlined national news. And not for the reason they would have wanted.
If there was no formal apology that came forth on the back of the scenes last weekend then it was there in kind yesterday in tact as Rangers captain James Tavernier and then Steven Gerrard offered clear and vocal instruction for supporters to stay well away from Celtic Park next weekend. Given the question marks that have hung over the game going ahead there could have been no sitting on the fence with regards to amplifying the stay-at-home message that has been the global story of the last 12 months.
The only question mark over yesterday’s announcements was the absence of them last weekend. Ahead of the games that gave Rangers the title there was an utterance from Gerrard about sticking to the guidelines and while there was a role for the Rangers manager to play, the real message had to be enforced by the club, as they have done this weekend.
There was no real surprise last weekend as Rangers confirmed what has been inevitable for some months. What was a surprise, though, was that as they clinched the title and smoke came off the laptops of the hard-working social media team, that in the avalanche of tweets – more than 70 in total from 2pm onwards last Sunday – that not one beseeched their support to stay at home.
Since going into administration in 2012 and then going through the ignominy of liquidation there has been a siege mentality about Rangers. There remains a running narrative that it was a collaboration of clubs across Scotland that consigned them to their Third Division fate and necessitated The Journey. So often the financial mismanagement and financial misdemeanours have been seen as secondary rather than integral to what occurred at the club a decade ago.
Last Sunday’s celebrations were as much about avenging the rest of Scottish football as it was rejoicing. That the club ought to have done more to avoid the scenes that played out in the city has been acknowledged by yesterday’s calls that appealed clearly for common sense.
There was an argument that any such appeals would have fallen on deaf ears last weekend. There will always be supporters for whom this will be true, those who will ignore pleas for decent behaviour, but the fact remains that there was an onus on the club to lead on this particular front.
Players hanging out of dressing room windows and lost in the moment is understandable in the heat and emotion of a much-anticipated title win but there was a duty of care from the club to encourage a dispersion of the gathering.
Police Scotland, too, were not beyond reproach last weekend. They will struggle to extricate themselves from the narrative that they facilitated what followed on Sunday evening when, in the midst of a global pandemic, they accompanied a throng of supporters from Ibrox all the way into the middle of Glasgow city centre. If the sporadic social media pictures that emerged of cop selfies and fist-pumps all felt very Trumpian that was heightened when the idea was mooted that the damaged memorial benches – one of which offered remembrance for a 10-year-old child – ought not to have been there.
The sensible and necessary calls that came out of Rangers were not the only ones yesterday. The clarification that Walter Smith is seriously ill in hospital served as an illustration that it is possible in Glasgow, despite the polemic that exists and seems to have been heightened in recent years, that a quiet respect from both sides can be achieved when the nonsense is stripped back. In a week where the opportunity for gleeful triumphalism exists the reminder that small acts of humility can go a long way ought to be kept in mind.
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