Tom English has sent a surprising warning to Ibrox fans ahead of the new season.
At the start of April all was rosy in the Garden of Clement as the BBC Scotland reporter prepared for the arrival of the SPFL title at Ibrox to conclude the coronation.
Three matches changed the landscape as the serial losers took two points from Celtic and Dundee to leave the Sports Department at BBC Scotland staring at a familiar script.
Once Celtic have been presented with their trophies in May the focus quickly switches to the Close Season Cup and the Transfer Window Trophy, two items that have been stored at Ibrox since Mark Warburton brought his Magic Hat north of the border led by Joey Barton and Nicky Kranjcar.
English andhis fellow cheerleaders at BBC Scotland are at the forefront of the hype, last year the egg-chasing expert went way over the top on a podcast aimed at an Irish audience as he slaughtered all things Brendan Rodgers- taking BBC Scotland off the invite list to Celtic’s pre-match media conferences.
This year feels different, the usual optimism among bears is absent, even they can see that a Brazilian playing in Cprus won’t be joining Real Madrid next summer, if Clinton Nsiala really was the next Maldini or Baresi he wouldn’t be taking training tips from John Souttar, Leon Balogun and Ben Davies.
Realism is in danger of breaking out with English painting a bleak picture on a BC podcast of how the season is shaping up for the 2012 Tribute Act founded by Charles Green.
9 minutes into the podcast English is asked about angry bears wanting to see quality signed to give Celtic a challenge, English replied:
It is going to be highly debateable if they are going to see that quality, or as much quality as they want to see because Rangers don’t have the money for it.
I spoke to somebody at Rangers recently and look, they were saying that they cannot go toe to toe financially with Celtic. They just can’t do it, it doesn’t make any fiscal sense and they could get themselves into a world of trouble again if they do that.
Celtic have huge financial advantages over Rangers. Rangers have to build a model that is self sufficient. They can’t continue to operate on soft loans from supportive directors.
They just need a Player Trading Model, something like Celtic at their best do and they haven’t had that. They’ve had bits and pieces here and there over recent seasons and they need a lot more of that.
I think Rangers are at a very interesting point right now. The Board, or certain members of the Board are thinking that they cannot spend money that they don’t really have any more.
Philippe Clement is not going to be happy with that and he has voiced his opinions on this recently.
The fans aren’t going to like it if they don’t try to splash the cash to try to give themselves a better chance of catching Celtic.
There’s an awful lot of moving parts to this, the Ibrox debacle as well is part of this. I think that this is going to be a very very tricky period, it could go quite a long time in this vein for Rangers.
They don’t really have the money to go- if Celtic sign a player for £5/6/7m are Rangers supposed to … I just don’t think that they can play that game any more.
Strangely as recently as April 6 English could see only glory days ahead, in a state of giddy excitement he informed BBC readers:
Under Philippe Clement, Rangers have dropped only eight points in 22 games. Expecting them to drop five or six in what would be six remaining games is a bit of a stretch.
Clement has won 19 of 22 league games since becoming manager in October. A victory on Sunday would mean that, in the entire history of the Ibrox club, only Bill Struth (21) and David White (22) will have won 20 league games in fewer matches.
They’re seven points better off in 2024 than Celtic. In Clement, we are seeing the kind of sure touch that has been, for so long, the exclusive preserve of the manager from across town.
In his short time, Clement has shown the restorative powers of Ange Postecoglou when he took over after the 10-in-a-row-that-never-was and the feelgood energy of Rodgers in his first coming, after the flatlining of Ronny Deila’s final season.
The Belgian has brought hope when it was previously thin on the ground. He has revived players who were looking tired and added vitality with some astute new signings.
English has demonstrated over 30 years that he has no contacts in Scottish football outside of Gorgie Road where he earned the respect and trust of a former owner.
When he talks about ‘talking to somebody at Rangers’ it is actually piecing things together from Twitter and message boards rather than a real life conversation.
Normally a far more upbeat preview can be given on BBC Scotland, prompted by Kenny Macintyre, Jane Lewis, Steven Thompson, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds, Kenny Miller and the usual suspects.
If English is this downbeat a fortnight before the season starts it is truly worrying times for all bears but another prospect signing or two should perk them up as they dream of breaking Celtic’s domination- and a seat back in the Ibrox media room.
The really interesting thing to take from this email, is the collaboration in fabricating a narrative to get a point across.
It’s all staged.“Tom English has said he’ll have a pop at Paul Murray… Scotsman used his comments on the back page with our responses ie. irrelevant.” pic.twitter.com/UQz9KDfDZQ
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) August 20, 2019
What this CLOWN knows about Fitbaw u cd write on the bak ae a stamp! Just ANOTHER Arselicking Sevco Cheerleader!! Amazing how QUICKLY they’ve turned on the King’s 11 Lol!
Well they are actually going toe to toe with celtic.. They have spent more than our club at this point. Celtic finances? What a joke
A speckie hairy FUD.
Oh dear some serious COMEDY GOLD on the daily sevco today,some mad woman called Abbie Meehan has put her name to written article with the headline Whittaker and Shankland sign as 2 high earners agree exits-sevco’s dream transfer window.
Have a read and then you sit a pish yourself laughing.
Your talking about £7 million at least for Whittaker and £5 million for Shankland. The same paper has another headline that sevco are after £12 rated Burnley striker,what fuckin planet are these people living on.
They don’t have twobob to their,constantly pissing in the wind,having to rent a stadium out because they can’t cover the costs of repairs needing to done to their own stadium,but £24 million is available for 3 players.
They James Hunts at the daily sevco should be sacked,if ever there was BIG DONALD FAKE NEWS stories then the daily sevco is the best for shoving that out there.
The thing is there are klan members so DENSE out there they will believe it.
The truth has landed. New club fans will have to steel themselves and gird their irons before they’re seen beaming again. Not enough metal to make a biscuit tin.
That email pic in this article tells you everything you need to know about this guy
I wonder how much he’s getting paid a year
Another one who should be chased
English is no better than Jackson, Spiers and the rest.
However, it’s what he doesn’t specifically write which is telling:
[English]
“…They don’t really have the money to go – if Celtic sign a player for £5/6/7m are Rangers supposed to … I just don’t think that they can play that game any more…”
Is English unintentionally messaging the sevco support that things are indeed falling
apart at ibrox – both figuratively and literally? 🙂
The ibrox club can’t “play that game any more”,
i.e. it simply can’t pretend it is something which it isn’t, anymore.
Other than that, he’s just stating the obvious,
to every other non-sevco supporter – and who’ve known for several years now.
Tommy, face it. Rangers died!
tom the Gom , ” Gom in Irish means a fool ” has little if any support from the Irish , matter of fact he is a hun cokr sucking dribbling eejit !!
whats very important for us all to remember is the dropping of points by sevco in the 3 games where they never got the traditional penalty or having an opposition player sent off , never mention all the other decisions given in their favour by the whelsks , cheaton and co all season long , the classic example is that cheaton guy , gives 3 points to sevco against hearts in oct and gives it back to hearts against celtic , thats a right 2 fingers to us celtic fans , that all changed when B R called the cheaton out , i reckon the no surrunder’s will have a smaller follow follow than their cheap skate cousins in edinburgh at next seasons end !!! chortle !!! Ah yes chortle !!