A bird table on the terracing. No one ever said football had to make sense. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

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Publication on July 20th: Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football.

The book that re-writes the Arsenal story.

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By Tony Attwood

I’ve just finished reading the autobiography of Wally Barnes – Arsenal’s post war hero, and captain of Wales.   There’s a review of the book on the Arsenal History blog.

I mention that fact here because something in that book rang a bell with me when read about Allan McGregor, the Rangers player, joining others in leaving the bankrupt club.

What struck me as similar between the two stories was that Wally Barnes seems to have stumbled into pro football by accident, and kept on having “greatness thrust upon him” as 12th Night would have it.

Mr McGregor, and indeed the whole of Rangers don’t seem to be suffering from a surfeit of greatness at this moment (although I believe McGregor has like Wally Barnes, served his country with distinction), but they do seem to be rather accidental in their progress too.

McGregor has signed for Besiktas, leaving a Rangers team that is currently without a league to play in and is certainly banned from Europe for a while.  Rangers are seeking to block the registrations of their players (more on that in a moment) but what interested me first was the fact that McGregor (and Steven Davis) are both heading for Besiktas – who qualified for the Europa League at the end of last season.

Unfortunately, due to “financial problems” (mere details of course including non-payment of salaries and taxes) Uefa has refused Besiktas entry into the Europa this year and the next two times they qualify.

One wonders at this as a career move.  From Rangers (bankrupt, banned from Europe) to Besiktas (“financial problems” and a similar banning order).  Is that a career move?

But now here’s the other twist.  When Charles Green purchased Rangers his payment of £5.5million included £2.75m payment to purchase the registrations of the club’s players.

This is something that happens quite often – and indeed there are regulations controlling it.  Employees’ terms and conditions of employment are protected when a company is transferred from one owner to another.

Except that normally in such arrangements the new employer has to show that he/she is offering employment in the same standards and terms as the old employer.  That is the salary has to be the same, and the job has to be the same.  So you can’t take the previous MD of the operation and ask him/her to be a telephone receptionist.

For Rangers the problem is that their players were employed as players by a club that was in the SPL, whereas now it is possible that the club will be in Division III.  I am not a lawyer, but if I was a player instructing a lawyer in this matter, that would be my first point.  Terms and conditions are not the same three leagues lower down, where the average crowd per match is under 1000.

The new owners of Rangers have apparently sent faxes letters to every club in the UK warning them off buying their players for nothing.  Despite this  Everton, Southampton and Stoke have all signed ex-Rangers players.

The issue is, of course, severe for Rangers, because if they have no players at all, they are going to struggle to put out a team quickly.  They will also have to buy in players and if they are playing in the Third Division, then this will not be that much fun for those players.

Not that Wally Barnes had a problem like this – he simply walked into the manager’s office at Southampton one day to be told “you are going to Arsenal”, which even in war-time Britain was probably a nicer suggestion than “your going to Besiktas”.  Although I am of course biased in this regard.  (Because of my religious views I would not be allowed to write a blog in Turkey, so I tend not to hold that country in the highest regard – but it is just a personal thing).

But back with Rangers for a final moment.  One of the things that keeps cropping up is that if Rangers are not in the first division then the broadcasters will cancel their agreement to show matches live on TV.   But I have seen repeated comments from those who signed the agreement to the effect that there is no get-out clause in the TV contract.

If that is so, and Rangers do go into the third division, the obvious solution is for a TV company to sign up that league for TV matches one season.   Queens Park v Rangers would still be quite an interesting local derby, after all.

As a final thought, I recall that when my old pal Roger went on a tour of Scottish football grounds he found one in which there was a bird table on the terracing. I can’t remember which club it was, and don’t know if the bird table is still there, but if it is, I do hope they don’t get forced to take it down if the club plays Rangers this season.

If you have seen a bird table on the terracing of a Scottish club, could you let me know the details?

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