After the Scottish Cup shenanigans at the weekend, attention turns back to the Champions League.
Celtic host the mighty Bayern Munich in the playoff round, but the consensus is that this is as far as Brendan Rodgers’ team is likely to go in this competition. However, after UEFA opted not to slap the Hoops with an away fan ban despite their pyro party in Birmingham and Daizen Maeda having his suspension cut, freeing him up to take on Harry Kane and his freunde, another Hotline conspiracy theory has taken hold.
Douglas Moyes emailed: “I see Peter Lawwell has once again used his UEFA to assist Celtic in their hope for European success. The fans ban that has been hanging over the club like the Sword of Damocles for a season now and still they escape a ban. And now Daizen Maeda has a violent conduct charge reduced. I wonder how that could have happened? And not so long ago Lawwell had the cheek to talk of Sporting Integrity. Oh really Peter have a wee look in the mirror.”
Gary Stevenson, Newtonhill,added: “Strange to see that UEFA have followed the SFA’s lead in going easy on Celtic. Somehow the fans who should be banned are excused, the player Maeda who should be banned gets his ban reduced.
“Perhaps UEFA can further help Celtic by reducing the size of their goals for both matches against Bayern? If Bayern need advice on how to beat Celtic they can always phone 11th placed Bundesliga side Borrusia Dortmund who scraped a 7-1 win only a few months ago.
Rangers need all the help they can get at the moment, and Stuart McLeod, Stepps, will even take some from their rivals this evening. He admitted: “Celtic fans on the Hotline insisting Rangers fans will all be glued to the Celtic result so we can scoff it they lose. I hate to inform him most Rangers fans couldn’t care less how their results go we have much bigger issues on our own doorstep. In fact a Celtic win helps the coefficient and believe me this Rangers team will need all the help they can get for European qualification next season.
Tommy Murray, Greenock, isn’t laying the blame at Clement’s door, he emailed: “I don’t blame Clement for our cup exit, I blame the players, he fielded a full strength team and they failed to deliver, sacking managers is not what we need, Rangers’ problems are more deep rooted, they started when they were demoted to the second division by the other clubs who saw pound signs as they were going to get at least two home games against us.
“During that period of climbing up the leagues Celtic were hovering up vast sums of money without much outlay as there was no real competition to worry about. We also had bad management in the likes of Whyte and Green who basically plundered the club and walked away, unless we get a wealthy investor this will be a way of life for us forever more, I would rather see us shut up shop and walk away than continue on in this manner.
John J Scott, Port Glasgow, said: “Giovanni van Bronkhorst won one trophy from let’s say five contested. Clement has one one from six “contested” yet many Rangers fans are calling for the return of “Stevie G” whose record is one trophy from TWELVE contested. I guess the Ibrox gift shop has now sold out of rose coloured spectacles!”
Alan McGrotty, Kirkintilloch, has urged fans to vote with their feet and has a preferred candidate to replace Clement. He emailed: The silence from Ibrox feels like a message from the new hierarchy that the current situation is to be tolerated. They’re deluded and although many Rangers supporters pride themselves on loyalty they would be more than entitled not to turn up for the remaining league games and see what the board and sponsors think about that with reduced income in catering and retail.
“In recent years Gers constantly ignore obvious improvements the most recent one being bring Katic back who wanted to come back and is now shining at Portsmouth instead. No doubt they’ll do the same if big Phil is moved on and bring in someone else who doesn’t get it instead of a more obvious choice like David Healey for instance who’s now won five titles with Linfield. Wake up..”