Fryers told to earn Spurs place

Fryers told to earn Spurs place

Published Jan. 9, 2013 6:15 a.m. ET

Rangers' director of communications says the proposed restructuring of Scottish football is an "abomination".

Rangers were forced to relaunch the club in Scotland's third tier this season after being found guilty of financial irregularities.

The proposals, which would see a new 12-12-18 structure and a merger between the SPL and SFL, have still be cleared by the clubs with a vote expected this month.

It is not clear yet how the proposals, if implemented, would affect Rangers.

ADVERTISEMENT

But their director of communications, James Traynor, writing on the club's website, says the proposals would effectively render this season irrelevant and accused Scotland footballing powerbrokers in the SPL and SFL of hypocrisy.

"This abomination will now be pulled and stretched by selected members of the SPL and SFL in a desperate attempt to make it more presentable... 12-12-18. It's ridiculous, especially when you remember the two 12s will fragment into three eights," Traynor wrote.

"Yet this time supporters will just have to buy into it. Whatever happened to that new and bold notion that fans were all important?

"It isn't that long ago clubs, particularly those in the top flight, were solemnly insisting that ignoring the views of fans would be akin to financial suicide.

"Remember? It was when the game was wrestling with the problem of what to do with Rangers.

"All the clubs were squealing that the wishes of fans had to be granted. If you swallowed any of that bilge you probably also believed in sporting integrity. Of course it was all nonsense. Sporting integrity was a cloak of convenience, albeit a rather thin, practically transparent one, behind which club leaders huddled together to come up with sanctions.

"The sheer hypocrisy of what is happening within Hampden's corridors of power right now will be lost on them but let's not pretend sporting integrity or the wishes of supporters really are important to all those clubs pushing for this change.

"If they were listening to fans they wouldn't be sticking with a top division of 12, and if there was any integrity there would be no rush to bring in changes for the start of next season.

"If, as seems likely, the structure is altered for 2013-14 supporters won't get what they've already paid for, especially those following teams striving for promotion. Actually this entire season will be rendered meaningless.

"Sporting integrity won't merely be compromised, it'll be crushed but this is what happens when desperation slips in and throttles reason."

Fryers helped Spurs' development squad to a 4-0 win over Charlton on Tuesday, having completed a switch from Standard Liege to White Hart Lane in a move that angered Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

The 19-year-old had been on trial with Tottenham in the summer but joined the Belgian side after Spurs failed to reach an agreement with United.

Tim Sherwood, Tottenham's head of football development, watched Fryers in action today and he believes the defender has a promising future.

"Zeki is fully aware that he's a long way away from being ready for Tottenham Hotspur's first team," Sherwood told the club's website.

"The plan is for him to come in and work hard with the development squad to get to a level - no guarantees - where he could perhaps play for our first team."

Ferguson accused Tottenham of "blatant manipulation of the situation" after Fryers' move was announced and he asked the Premier League to look into it.

Sherwood explained the situation from Tottenham's perspective.

"We had the opportunity to bring him in and take a look at him in the summer," he said.

"We took a mixture of youth and development players to Portugal and took him out with us, basically gave him a trial. We liked what we saw, we knew there was something there.

"He showed potential, a lot of tools there that could make him a player. We played a couple of friendlies and he was definitely of interest to us.

"We were unable to agree a deal on the terms Manchester United were asking and he ended up signing for Standard Liege.

"Our scouts watched him on a couple of occasions. Standard Liege changed their manager in November and the new manager by all accounts didn't fancy him and he then became a little disillusioned and homesick.

"The next thing we knew his representatives called us, along with, as I understand, a number of other clubs, to see if there was any interest in bringing him back."

share