Rangers, Celtic and my brother Alan | OneFootball

On the 27th of March, I lost one of my brothers. Alan was 43 when he passed away. It has not been an easy time for my family or me, obviously. My main concern has been my mum and dad. No parent should have to endure the agony of losing a child.

It hits you like a lightning bolt when something so sad and painful happens. Alan stayed only about a hundred yards away from me, and I’d see him several times a day when he was walking his dog. Halo, his dog (his pride and joy), has gone to live with my youngest brother, we run the family business together, and we’re very close.

I’m the oldest of the four siblings; Alan was the second youngest. The second oldest is struggling too; we all are. Family is what holds us all together; our concern is for our parents, and due to that, football has taken a back seat in terms of importance of late. We’ll miss him terribly—all of us. My kids, his other nephews and nieces, we are all coming to terms with our loss.

He liked football but wasn’t crazy about it. He would wind me up during our banter years, knowing full well it would make me lose it and defend Rangers at any cost to my dignity.

That makes me laugh when I look back. He could get to me as only a brother can. Knowing what to say, knowing how far to go, then saying he was away to walk the dog in the understanding that he had got under my skin just enough to leave me simmering but not enough for me to lose it.

He loved that I was in my element now. He had come in one night and was watching highlight videos on YouTube with me, incredibly impressed by some of Rangers play, the quality of the goals, the flair of Ryan Kent.

In the end, my young brother (we just called each other bro all the time) was delighted for me. He knew what I’d endured over the last decade. He knew I’d dug around years back and concluded that what happened in 2012 to Rangers was political.

All my brothers knew that. None of them was much into football, but they knew the importance of what was going on in Scotland. They helped me; they’re all smart men, intelligent men that could read between the lines, and they all realised what happened to my club didn’t have to happen back then.

To see us now, to see me now, was a great joy to Alan. He was genuinely happy for me and knew how much this title, this season meant to me. I talked to him the day he died, only a few hours before he passed. Our last words to each other were “love you bro”, and I’ve taken some solace and comfort in that. Knowing him, I’m certain he’d have been the same.

My dad gave me his football scarf. My dad hates football, but he knew both of us were interested, so he went out of his way to go down to Alan’s house and pick it up before anyone else could take it.

Family. That’s what family do for each other. In times of distress, family look out for each other.

That’s where I’d like to thank everyone on Twitter that passed on their condolences to my family and me. There was thousands of kind, comforting messages from Rangers fans, plenty from Celtic fans too. I would like to thank each and every one of you for that. It meant more than I could ever explain to you all, but it was important to me.

It’s only football you see. It’s a game, we’re all passionate about it, and it boils over, particularly on social media where there’s crackpots aplenty. Too many have a hatred of a football club that eventually runs through their veins and weeps out onto social media where their hatred of a team sees them hate individuals they’ve never met and never will meet.

I don’t like Celtic. I never have. I hope they lose week in week out for all eternity, truth be known. It doesn’t mean I hate Celtic supporters. I don’t know them, and they’re entitled to be wrong regarding the team they follow.

As a Rangers fan, as part of the Rangers family, I’m so proud of our team for what they’ve achieved this season. To win the league at the beginning of March, go through (so far) our league campaign unbeaten, and only lose three games all season is something we should be incredibly proud of.

It wouldn’t have mattered a jot what the other lot did; they wouldn’t have kept up. The Old Firm games proved that. Five games, won four, drew one. An aggregate score of 10-2.

Miles and Miles behind. That’s despite spending twice the amount on transfers compared to Rangers and telling us all the summer transfer window that the transfers were the best they’d ever seen.

The indignation shown by Celtic fans this season has been a source of huge hilarity to the Rangers support. The denial has been devastatingly funny. No matter what, they simply refuse to give Rangers credit for anything.

That’s the way it is, I suppose, but in the last few weeks, while there’s been an empty hole in my life, I’ve sat back and taken stock of it all. Rangers have the opportunity to reign for a few years here. The infrastructure is in place from top to bottom at the club. Financial worries are a thing of the past. So much so that new investors are piling money in, much to the chagrin of some bitter old soaks in the Sevco blogosphere.

When will they learn? When will their readers learn? Day in day out, they still talk about Rangers precarious financial position. I mean, jeez.. even Andy Walker of Sky Sports said as such and got himself a ban from Ibrox for coming out with it live on Sky Sports News.

That’s the power of the Internet, isn’t it? Read some of this nonsense often enough, and it becomes fact. Only it isn’t fact; it’s bullsh*t.

I mean, how can Rangers financial position be precarious when they’re in the process of building New Edmiston House, winning the league, selling out season tickets, successful in Europe and have assets in their squad of players that would go for eight figures? Several players that would go for eight figures, by the way.

It’s because those so bitter and those so full of hate want it to be so. If only they’d actually bother to take a proper look or listen to those that actually know. They won’t, it doesn’t suit them, but since my brother’s passing, I’ve found myself getting pretty angry with these people.

Life is too short and way too precarious to concern myself too much, but the hatred they have that makes them go out of their way to make up lies simply because they want it to be true is unhealthy. In my opinion, they really should take stock of what they do.

They’re ridiculed, mocked and laughed at by Rangers fans. They have this twisted opinion of us that they believe we sit in our Orange Order regalia with several Union Jacks on the wall, hate all Catholics (despite most of our players being so) singing The Billy Boys twenty-four/seven while before we go to bed at night we all sing God Save The Queen.

I have news for them, life or reality isn’t like that; it’s their confused minds, their anger and hatred that stereotypes us. Not the other way round; it’s in their heads, not ours.

Frankly, over the last decade, we’ve had enough to contend with just supporting our team and our club to care what they think but now, as league champions, we can have a right good laugh at them all.

This continual attempt to damage the Rangers brand isn’t working. Hence why clowns like Walker are banned. Stewart banned, Daily Record and others banned. Keep them out, Rangers. The more they try, the more we can laugh at them.

Celtic are the club about to play catch-up. Their finances are in a worse state than Rangers. They have a new manager to find. A new CEO who just loves austerity measures I hear, a new Director of Football to employ, a recruitment officer who knows what he’s actually doing needs to be put in place, and that’s before you even begin to look at replacing anything up to fourteen or fifteen players.

They really ought to stop writing about Rangers; it’s not the Celtic board that took their eye off the ball. It was the Celtic support who believes this mantra spewed from their fan media that Rangers are nothing, miles behind Celtic, don’t have a decent manager and have no players that would get into the Celtic squad.

As I wrote earlier, I have an intense dislike of Celtic football club; I hope they get everything they deserve for their arrogance and complacency. Their fans are their biggest problem right now.

The expectation levels have been raised so high that they failed to see Rangers were a good side last season, so this season must’ve come as one helluva shock to them.

They say they aren’t self entitled, but they really are. To believe for so long that Rangers were never going to catch them proves that. Rangers are, and despite that last decade of misery, the most successful football club in Scotland. They would do well to remember that instead of wrapping their inferiority up in a superiority complex blanket.

Their self doubt is evident; all you have to do is take a quick ten minutes listening to any fan podcast from them to hear it. Their voices are trembling, constantly. They have no idea how to handle this at all.

I want to see Rangers go from strength to strength on and off the park. I’m supremely confident they will do just that as all of those things missing on the other side of the city are in place and have been for a while.

Men like James Bisgrove and Ross Wilson have been key to our strategy over the last year or two, along with the rest of the Rangers board and investors; Rangers are in very, very safe hands.

On March 27th, when I told my brother I loved him for the last time, I know he was happy for me and proud of me. He watched the time, effort and enthusiasm I had for Rangers and winning this title (for me) is dedicated to him. He was genuinely delighted that we’d come through this, and we’re on the other side.

I’ll miss you bro. Every single day of my life, I’ll love you and miss you.