“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” –Oscar Wilde.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Nothing truer could be said about the Rangers support. After everything that the Rangers supporters have been through it would be hard not to feel bitter. Rather than suck on a lemon and taste the bitter after taste of the corrupt SPL/SFA, the Rangers support has embraced the prospect of a fresh beginning. The easy option would be to walk away. This is not the Rangers way. Rangers do not play the victim card.
The history of sport is strewn with disillusionment. With people who have thrown in the towel. This can never be said about the Rangers support. After administration, liquidation of the business that controlled Rangers and a kick start in the third division, the future for Rangers looks bright. The name of Rangers has been dragged though the gutter by the enemies of the club. Still with forty thousand season tickets sold for the third division a new world record, and an attendance that in one game out numbers the whole combined body count of the SPL, it is Rangers who interest the public. The SPL has flat lined – it is dead and no amount of artificial respiration from SKY or ESPN will breathe life back into it.
A more mature Ranger’s support has emerged. A support that recognises the importance of self-reliance. Rangers exist because there is a need for them. It is cultural, it is historic, and it is communal.
The coming together of the Rangers support is iconic in its symbolism and defiance, in that the more the enemies of the club try to destroy it, the stronger the club has become. Rangers as a support have found ways to keep both the individual and the majority’s morale high. They have found a way to motivate themselves using self-confidence, hope and strength, not fear, hate and bitterness. The Rangers supporters as individuals have changed their attitudes, and this has caused a chain reaction amongst the support to move forward and embrace change.
There is now a greater willingness to defend the club from its enemies. There is now a closer bond of shared experience between the supporters. They have learned a valuable life lesson about how much we need to stick together. Keeping this bond will not be easy, but it is probably the most important foundation in the creation of stronger, healthier Rangers that can withstand the challenges that the future brings.
For the supporters of the club the future is what you make of it.
Yes Rangers may have been in the gutter but we are looking up at the stars.
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