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Theres only one Ken Foggo

Reflections on Rangers' Holt bid

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Following City''s rejection of Rangers'' bid for Grant Holt yesterday, it is interesting to reflect on how times have changed regarding the relative stature of Norwich and Rangers in the last 25 years or so.

Over a five year period between 1986 and 1991 City lost no fewer than three star players who all joined the Gers. Chris Woods in 1986, Kevin Drinkell in 1988, and most sickeningly of all, Dale Gordon in 1991 all went to Ibrox. At the time, as soon as it became known that Rangers were interested in those players it became depressingly inevitable that they would leave. Rangers really were a massive club at that time, regularly signing big name players from south of the border and doing reasonably well in European competition. By contrast, City were relative minnows, often playing in front of less than 15,000 spectators even at home, so it was little wonder that a move to Rangers would have held such appeal at the time.

Look at the difference now. Rangers never last beyond the early stages in Europe, play in a devalued Scottish League, and are reduced to bargain basement signings from the continent or the Championship while Norwich now play in front of 25,000 every week in the Premier League. Finally after all those years it has become conceivable that some players would actually prefer to play for us - unthinkable at one time. As soon as I heard that Gers were interested in signing Holt I was confident he would stay - this would never have been the case in 1991.

It just goes to show how far Norwich have progressed, and how much British football has changed over the years.

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Funny i was thinking exactly the same thing yesterday. Just proves how

massive the premiership has become as it consumes everything around it.. And how low the scottish league has fallen.

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You would expect the Old Firm to start clamouring for a place in the Premier League again before too long.

There is nowhere for them to go and nothing left for them to achieve in Scottish football. Would their departure lead, as some have said, to the near extinction of Scottish football? I don''t think so, I think it would thrive, on a smaller and modest scale yes, but interest would be there and the fact that competition would be a lot more open would precipitate that.

Will they ever join the EPL? No. They would have to join at Conference level or lower and work their way up. Which would probably finish them off financially.

Plus you have the Scottish FA worrying about them losing their FIFA status if any Scottish player plays for GB in the Olympics-have they thought just how much worse it would appear if two of their clubs ''defected'' to an English league?

Should they join an English league, any English league? No.

I would think that Salmond''s plans will not give them much cause for long term hope anyway, even Devo Lite or whatever it is would see two powerful Glaswegian sporting powers plying their trade and half of their fixtures in England as anathema to the new Scottish Govt if that comes off-they''d strongly oppose it.

The much talked about Atlantic League would seem their best option-leading clubs from Scotland, Holland, Denmark, Belgium etc. Could see that working.

Times have changed as the OP said. For the better-well, for us, definitely.

 

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Funnily enough, I was talking to a Scots born( Hearts supporter) neighbour of mine about this very subject last week. The period in the late 80''s when Rangers started buying English players (wasn''t Terry Butcher the first ?) was pretty short-lived in truth, but he saw it as a massive missed opportunity for Scottish football, and one from which they''ve never really recovered. As you say, the EPL got going soon after, and the rest is history.

 

I do wonder how serious this bid for Holt really was . I suppose without being behind the scenes, we''ll never know, and I know Holt is not a "big name" player outside East Anglia. But how many top EPL English players have been transferred to Scottish Clubs in the last 10 yrs ?  A few who have basically ended their careers in the EPL, and fancy a crack with Rangers or Celtic rather than dropping down to the Champ or Lge One . But players at the peak of their Premier League prowess ? I''m struggling to think of one .

 

I remember looking in the results section of a Sunday paper recently whilst on a flight, and idly noticing that the crowd at Ibrox was more than the WHOLE of the rest of Scottish league put together. I guess that''s where the problem really lies.

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Things are worse for Rangers than you think. HMRC has taken them to court over a claimed unpaid tax bill of 49 million quid , and others are awaiting payment. If they lose the case they will be up effluent creek in a barbed wire canoe , minus paddles.

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[quote user="yellow blood"]I heard that the bid for Grant was a derisory £500,000.[/quote]

 

As I said in my last post...I wonder how serious this bid for Holt really was ......

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500k? Are they taking the p*ss?! I can only assume that is wrong?I agree with most of the above in that Scottish football can no longer attract the best players, therefore Holty was never going to consider a move seriously. In fact I would have bet my house on him staying.

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[quote user="Eric Pickles Pie Supplier"]

[quote user="yellow blood"]I heard that the bid for Grant was a derisory £500,000.[/quote]

 

As I said in my last post...I wonder how serious this bid for Holt really was ......

[/quote]A bid is a bid, but £0.5m I doubt it was that low.

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Earlier today I read on the Daily Express site that Holt wants to go to Rangers and will seek to do so in the summer. The article lost all it''s credibility for me when it claimed Holt was frustrated at first team opportunities. He has played as much as others.

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I heard £3 million from somewhere but I honestly would have only come to the table to discuss anything for about £6 million. I know that sounds stupid given that Jelavic went for £5.5 million I think that kind of figure would only just about start to tell the story of how important he is to us as a leader

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[quote user="The Jewish Cowboy"][quote user="Eric Pickles Pie Supplier"]

[quote user="yellow blood"]I heard that the bid for Grant was a derisory £500,000.[/quote]

 

As I said in my last post...I wonder how serious this bid for Holt really was ......

[/quote]

A bid is a bid, but £0.5m I doubt it was that low.
[/quote]

 

Well, OK , JC, fair enough. Equally , you could go into the Estate Agents on Bank Plain and put a cheeky bid of £100k for that nice  refurbished 6 bedder with 5 acres of garden and Wroxham Broads frontage.

 

But you wouldn''t expect it to be taken seriously, would you ?

 

With Rangers'' current financial woes, I''d not be at all surprised if the basic bid was less than 1 mill , hoping against hope that it might just turn Holty''s head. But I don''t suppose they though Mc Nally would take it all that seriously.

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I suspect the ''bid'' for Holt was no more than an attempt by Rangers to placate their permanently innebriated followers that they were still a ''major player'' and that the sale of Jelavic was not a required fire sale.As to the porridge guzzlers playing in the PL then I doubt many City fans would relish the prospect of having to a make a 14 hour round trip to Jockland. Carlisle was bad enough.

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[quote user="City1st"]I suspect the ''bid'' for Holt was no more than an attempt by Rangers to placate their permanently innebriated followers that they were still a ''major player'' and that the sale of Jelavic was not a required fire sale.

As to the porridge guzzlers playing in the PL then I doubt many City fans would relish the prospect of having to a make a 14 hour round trip to Jockland. Carlisle was bad enough.


[/quote]

 

I assume it''s safe to say that you are not a big fan of all things Caledonian, then CF ?........

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Big club playing most weeks against League 1/lower Championship club standard teams!

 

Holts never going to get it any better than what hes got it with us at present!

 

Why would we want to sell one of our main players, a player whos decent replacement would cost at least £2M without any guarantee of getting the right player!

 

We''re a bigger club than what we were when we sold guys like Woods, Drinkell and Gordon to Rangers 20+ years ago!

 

Those were my thoughts on it!

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[quote user="City1st"]I suspect the ''bid'' for Holt was no more than an attempt by Rangers to placate their permanently innebriated followers that they were still a ''major player'' and that the sale of Jelavic was not a required fire sale.

As to the porridge guzzlers playing in the PL then I doubt many City fans would relish the prospect of having to a make a 14 hour round trip to Jockland. Carlisle was bad enough.


[/quote]

 

At the moment, Carlisle is my nearest league club.   Went there once just to see what it was like........................haven''t been back.     Friendly people, but not a great football atomosphere.  Chief chant seems to be -  gooooooo-onnnnnnnnnn! (translated into Norfolk would be gooooooo-onnnnnnnnn!) and not alot else.    

 

Wonder if Holty would ever go back to his home town club............he is something of a legend up there too, by all accounts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[quote user="Arthur Boreham-Stiffe"]Things are worse for Rangers than you think. HMRC has taken them to court over a claimed unpaid tax bill of 49 million quid , and others are awaiting payment. If they lose the case they will be up effluent creek in a barbed wire canoe , minus paddles.[/quote]

This. They''re possibly facing administration before the end of the season. Liquidation if the tax case goes against them.

It may be a long time before they will be poaching Norwich players again

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