In a review of the decade about to end, someone at the Daily Record has completed the task of compiling Scottish football’s most momentous moments.
Strange events like Alex Ferguson retiring and the emergence of Andy Robertson are chronicled as they dodge around the single event that dominated the decade. LIQUIDATION.
Other events such as Kilmarnock and Aberdeen winning the League Cup are documented, in 2014 we are reminded that Herts avoided bankruptcy before we reach The Banter Years which apparently ended in 2018!
According to the Record:
It’s surely inarguable that the biggest event of the decade was Rangers going into liquidation in 2012. After being refused entry to the SPL the Gers went all the way down to the fourth tier and began a long climb back to the top.
What followed is referred to, even by Rangers fans, as ‘The Banter Years’.
Historians will debate when precisely this era began – was it losing 1-0 at home to Kilmarnock on the day after administration was announced? The rejection of Rangers’ SPL application? The ball getting stuck on top of the Glebe Park hedge against Brechin in the Ramsden’s Cup?
If we take the appointment of Steven Gerrard as an end point, there was enough banter crammed into those six years to last a lifetime.
Here are just a few from the archives:
- Francisco Sandaza being sacked after falling for a prank phone call from a taxi driver
- Losing to Raith Rovers in the Ramsden’s Cup final
- “same old Alloa always cheating”
- The Winter of Discount Tent – AKA when the AGM was held in a gazebo on the Ibrox pitch
- A 6-1 play-off defeat to Motherwell
- Losing to Hibs in the Scottish Cup final
- Joey Barton
- Losing 2-0 away to Luxembourg’s part-timers Progres Niederkorn
- The ‘concomitant’ statement
- Missing out on second place on the final day of the 2017-18 season with a 5-5 draw at Hibs
Dozens of incidents are missing from that edited version of The Banter Years, anytime a meaningful effort is made to compile the highlights new episodes are recalled.
Who could forget Kevin Kyle and Ian Black, Ally McCoist going on gardening leave, Virgil van Dijk brushing aside Nicky Law, winning the Champions League at Firhill, Graeme Murty eating his anorak and handstands, Andy Halliday/Jason Holt/ Nico Kranjcar/Greg Docherty/Jordan Rossiter coming to sort out Scott Brown and the Pedro Years with dogs barking at caravans/ signing Bruno Alves, Carlos Pena and Eduardo Herrera.
The appointments of Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard are given equal coverage while Celtic’s Treble Treble success is overlooked.
With the Sports Direct ruling expected on January 17 and the Craig Whyte Story on February 14 it looks like the Banter Years have got plenty of tales left to tell.
