Rangers and the so-called ‘Happy Clapper’ supporter | OneFootball

It’s about time we tackled the topic of the Rangers fan ‘Happy Clapper’, which is a slightly derogatory term given to those supporters these days who arguably blindly follow on and demands everyone back the manager.

Essentially, it’s the eternal optimist, who believes in unconditional affection and support for the team, the players and the manager (to an extent) and dismisses all concerns outright with the notion that the club needs fans’ backing.

These amount for about 75% of Rangers supporters at the moment, after an Ibrox Noise poll recently confirmed that number of voters backed and trusted Philippe Clement.

As you, the reader, may have noticed, Ibrox Noise is not among that 75%, and our community is a touch more sceptical.

We are in no way dismissing this fan – there is nothing wrong with just giving your support to the team and manager, and that be that. A football fan is an emotional thing, living the highs and lows of football success and failure, and lord knows Rangers are a rollercoaster these days, so we’re not judging that fan.

But we do feel that fan judges us, and those others like us, those who are a lot more sceptical, dubious and critical, and demands silence from us.

Ibrox Noise will never silence any voice, as long as they are civil, not insulting, and not abusive. It is important to us that all Rangers fans are heard even if we fundamentally disagree with a view, but the ‘more optimistic’ fan just dismisses any criticism with borderline censorship.

We’re not keen on that.

We have our concerns, and we will raise them, even if a supporter or two wants us silenced and to just ‘support the team ffs’.

It’s a bit of a cop-out to us, and ignores genuine problems at Rangers, in favour of blindly accepting what ‘is’ and just chanting WATP.

We will never silence those who do that, the so-called ‘Happy Clappers’, and we think Rangers would be a better place in general if all voices were allowed to be heard and not shouted down.