In probably the biggest shock transfer of the season – well, since Double H went to Ipshit anyway – Marcus Gayle is now a Glasgow Rangers player. For the princely sum of £1m no less. A shot from the dark obviously, but not a reason to slit your wrists IMO. Forget why he’s gone there, it’s obviously Dick Advocaat gone mad, but Gayle was considered one of the much vaunted “Famous Five” of players to be sold as and when a suitable opportunity arose. And this was such an opportunity.
So, am I going to give him a rapturous sendoff like others are doing? Not really. Firstly, if we’re being totally honest, Gayle has been pretty crap for about the last couple of seasons. He – like many others – are basing his legendary status on a few good games in 1996/97. Since then he’s been nothing special. Even before then, he wasn’t really the major cog in the wheel. Yeah, he played a lot, but then so did people like Alan Reeves.
So why am I so bitter?
Two reasons : one, although he publically denied it all, including to the face (practically speaking) of W&WW’s JZ, I was hearing stories of his discontentment as far back as Burnley away this season. That’s as far back as August, and when you read in tabloids about how unhappy Gayle is at being on the bench, you do start to wonder. Secondly, there is a little thing called “loyalty” here. Witness the hand-clapping and shirt kissing against Stockport. Wonderful, you may think, and it shows he cares about WFC. So why then did he slag our crowds off the very minute he joined Rangers? Needless to say, it was a cheapshot, though given the fact he was a stalwart of the OGEM era I shouldn’t really be surprised at all. No bouquets here I’m afraid, I’m just happy that the wage bill has been lightened further.
One other thing, given his penchant for strange religious habits and somewhat obsessive nature towards the Good Lord [sic], isn’t Glasgow Rangers such an apt club for him? And no, that comment has nothing to do with the fact I support Celtic.
Oh, and I promise to get the archive done ASAP. Honest – I’ve got something like 80 pages of H&S stuff to sort out….