After an international fortnight which at times felt longer, Rangers didn’t even have to kick a ball until the usual suspects and a leading charity were hounding the club for, well, releasing a new jersey.
Prior to the break, these high-pitched voices were railing about Ryan Porteous’ red card in the win over Hibs and before the match with Hearts even kicked off, Rangers were once again being attacked.
This time, the club’s choice of song for the release of their special fourth kit and Gallant Pioneers 150th anniversary jersey saw a co-ordinated attack from individuals with the backbone and integrity of wet newspaper.
The issue surrounded the use of Four Lads Had a Dream, the iconic chant which celebrates the club’s origins in 1872 and its four founding fathers.
Rangers fans have sung the song for the best part of a decade and there is absolutely nothing offensive about it, unless you irrationally find all-things Rangers offensive.
Don’t be fooled; there’s a growing swell of useful idiots who do and there is genuinely no point ever conversing with them on the subject.
Rangers can never do enough for these people, so do yourself a favour and stop trying.
Four Lads Had a Dream sang loud and proud by Rangers fans
The specially commissioned orchestral version of the song – which uses the melody of Sloop John B by the Beach Boys – was even more relevant given the backdrop of the shirt.
Rangers have released four kits, each adorning the name of one of the founding fathers, with the final all-white kit a throwback to a picture of the first-ever Rangers team, even if they never played in it.
It all makes perfect sense.
And yet, thanks to the magic of Twitter and the delusional intensity of the Old Firm footballing rivalry, things exploded this week when people started suggesting the track was actually supposed to be the banned “Famine Song” which goes to a similar melody.
People deliberately took the track out of context in order to manufacture offence because – as earlier explained – they have some kind of moral outrage regarding Rangers.
That’s it. It’s transparent and no right-thinking Rangers fan should ever take these cranks seriously.
In taking things out of context, they also water down the seriousness of actual sectarianism and create unnecessary friction based on their own private agendas.
Charity must apologise after woeful error of Rangers judgement
But where things got dangerous was with the involvement of apparently neutral and progressive anti-sectarianism charity Nil by Mouth.
This group also decided to actively take the situation out of context and – in a remarkable and quite disgraceful turn of events – manufacture outrage which wasn’t really there over the kit release.
This group have now completely and utterly sullied their reputation amongst the Rangers support and their credibility is shot to pieces. Fans will never take anything they say seriously.
Unless – and we won’t hold our breath – the people behind this group publicly apologise to Rangers and retract their nonsense comments inspired by the pressure of bigots.
Nil by Mouth have, in a matter of Tweets, completely destroyed their relationship with Gers fans. Rangers fan groups, personalities and we imagine, the club themselves, will not be in a hurry to work with them in the future.
For a charity set up to challenge issues of sectarianism, their desperation and misplaced anger has not only fabricated the problems they are seeking to resolve, but it’s alienated the Rangers support.
There’s a pretty tragic irony to the entire thing.
It’s over to them – they need to swallow their pride, retract the comments, and send out an apology if they have any interest in salvaging their reputation and credibility amongst the Ibrox fans let down by this woeful misjudgement.
Rangers and the club’s fans have not let up since the disgraceful campaign against the club as Four Lads Had a Dream was belted out across Ibrox this weekend.
