Reply With QuoteSign in to read full story, FUCK THAT!!!Originally Posted by slimtim
Sign in to read full story, FUCK THAT!!!
That, though, doesn’t mean it might never have happened... because it almost did. More than once.
I first came to the attention of the Ibrox scouts when I hit 60 goals in one season for Neilston Victoria Juniors.
I had heard some talk that Rangers might be interested but rarely gave it a second thought.
Rangers’ chief scout at that time was a guy called Jimmy Smith and I knew he had watched me in a good few games.
In fact, he turned up at six Neilston matches on the trot to run the rule over me, so he was obviously trying to make a judgment of one kind or another.
I remember the games and I did pretty well in them. Eventually I was told they wouldn’t be following up their interest in the boy Deans. The reason? He’s too wee to be a professional footballer.
I was well hacked off. This was a time of Jimmy Johnstone and Rangers’ winger Willie Henderson and I don’t remember anyone slagging them off because they weren’t six foot two with eyes of blue.
And if you score 60 goals in a season – a good few of them with the head, remember – I think a lack of height has nothing to do with things.
The fact that Motherwell manager Bobby Howitt – and later Jock Stein – had faith in my five foot seven inch frame says it all really.
About a year after Smithie’s snub, Motherwell reserves took on Rangers’ second string in a match at Fir Park. Standing behind the dugout was Jimmy and beside him was Rangers manager Scot Symon.
I played a blinder and grabbed a couple of goals. The story I heard later from Bobby was that Symon had been hugely impressed with me that night. He glanced down at the team sheet to name-check me and then turned to Jimmy with a puzzled look on his face and said: “Is that the boy Deans from Neilston? Didn’t we take a look at him? Why didn’t we take him on, he looks good to me?”
Sheepishly, Jimmy had to admit I was the same player he’d given the thumbs down to several months earlier.
Three years later, in 1969, I was again linked with Rangers. By this time, I had three full seasons under my belt at Motherwell and had been doing okay in a team that could be brilliant one week and awful the next.
Davie White, who had taken over the Ibrox hot seat from Symon in 1967, had made no secret of the fact that he was on the lookout for a new striker... and he had money to burn.
Motherwell chairman Willie Millar put me in the picture that Rangers were interested.
Then out of the blue Rangers forked out what was then the astronomical and Scottish-record fee of £100,000 to take Colin Stein from Hibs to Ibrox.
For me, that was the end of the matter. But I later learned Rangers’ decision to sound the retreat, where I was concerned, had nothing to do with football.
This time around, someone had gone as far as to carry out background checks and discovered my mum was a Catholic.
And in those days, that was reason enough to scrawl a big ‘X’ through your file. Case closed.
Isn’t that garbage? My mum might have been born a Catholic, but we all went to church most Sundays, I went to a Protestant school and I had been in the Boys’ Brigade.
I was probably as much Protestant as all the guys already at Rangers.
Let’s be clear about this...we’re not talking about a Maurice Johnston moment here. I wouldn’t have been crossing any so-called sectarian divide.
And let me tell you something else, no one would have been more proud than my mum if I had signed for Rangers.
Growing up, religion was never an issue in our house. I hated the stench of sectarianism then and I hate it just as much today. But it cuts both ways, doesn’t it?
I’ve lost count of the number of books that assumed I was a Rangers fan growing up just because I went to a Protestant school. I didn’t follow Rangers at all.
Coming from Linwood, I was a St Mirren fan and if people don’t believe me, that’s tough. I hadn’t even set foot inside Ibrox until I played there for Motherwell in 1967.
However, I would have had no problem whatsoever in signing for Rangers. They were a big club with some fantastic players like John Greig, big Ron McKinnon, Willie Henderson, Colin Jackson and, of course, Jim Baxter in the twilight of his career.
Curiously, I never scored for Celtic against Rangers. The nearest I came was one strike that was given as an own goal. In another game, John Greig handled a shot on the line for a penalty. Thanks, Greigy.
But I have no reason at all to complain about the way it worked out. I’m a Celtic man through and through and joined a wonderful club with the best fans in the world.
However, 132 goals later, I think I’m entitled to stick my tongue out and say Rangers’ loss was Celtic’s gain.
I stopped reading when they said someone done background checks on him and found out his mother was a catholic!!
FFS Football should not be about religion but between Rangers and Celtic thats all it comes down to and its fucking stupid, does anyone actually care about the football or is it about the religion?
i know what you mean mate. but that is the way rangers have been from day one,
i worked with guys who smashed TV remote controls when they signed mo Johnston.
I guess this is gonna be yet ANOTHER! Old Firm slag off match then? yawn..
IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE A BIT OF BANTER, THEN BUILD A BRIDGE & GET THE FUCK OVER IT!
well you do know that this thread will get a
shit reply from you know who. don't you
Of course it will, its bait isnt it.
IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE A BIT OF BANTER, THEN BUILD A BRIDGE & GET THE FUCK OVER IT!
well i did not intend it that way.
Thinly weiled attempt at trying to make Rangers look bad. Celtic offended since 1888.
Posting Permissions
