Past time to get rid of Ranger
Newcastle have employed a lot of 'interesting characters' over the years but I doubt any of them can match Nile Ranger for frequency of offence.
Ranger, now 21, was brought to Newcastle by Dennis Wise as a 17-year-old. North London-born Ranger played for Southampton as a schoolboy, but was released over his bad behaviour — getting two written warnings and being caught with a first-team kit he wanted to give to friends. He was then sentenced to spend time in a youth offenders institute for his part in an armed street robbery. At the time all parties felt that Ranger would benefit from a move north, out of the environment that had helped him into trouble.
Ranger's early days on Tyneside were fairly quiet. He made his first-team debut in October 2010 having managed to keep his nose clean.
The next year was not a great one for Nile off the pitch. Or should I say it was not a great year for some of the people who encountered Nile.
May 2011: Ranger was pictured in the national press posing with a gun. It was a replica and later handed into police, but this is not the sort of thing you want associated with your football club.
August 2011: Ranger was arrested after a man was left unconscious with a broken jaw. Ranger was found not guilty in October 2012 when it was proven in court that he acted in self-defence after being aggressively approached and racially abused. The same evening also left him with a 12-month conditional discharge for "two counts of assault by beating against two police officers" -- the officers who apprehended him after the earlier incident.
September 2011: Ranger was arrested for drink driving. He admitted guilt, was banned for 12 months and fined £3,300.
October 2011: While on bail for drink driving he was arrested for drunk and disorderly after an incident in Newcastle after a night out less than 48 hours before a game against Stoke City. He was fined by the courts again.
Ranger managed to last a few months before his next controversial incident.
March 2012: Fined £6,000 by the FA for tweeting a homophobic comment. Not the last time Twitter would lead him to trouble. He was also arrested that same month -- this time for breaching bail conditions which banned him from Newcastle city centre.
September 2012: In the national news again. He kicked a woman's front door in in Enfield, North London. In court his defence was that he believed the lady was going to be kidnapped and charges were dropped.
October 2012: Alan Pardew banned him from first -team training because Ranger was late every day. Pardew said he wouldn't be allowed back until he made it on time every day for six weeks. Pardew doubted that he'd manage it, but we can assume he did since he has been back in the first-team squad.
This week Ranger decided to turn on the fans. A section of the crowd booed Pardew's tactical alterations in the disastrous 2-1 home defeat to Reading on Saturday, Reading's first away win of the season. Ranger decided that he was the ideal man to confront the fans on this, what with him being so popular and deserving of the 'Shop Steward' role. Unfortunately he thought the boos were aimed at the players (it was incredibly obvious they weren't.)
Here are the tweets:
Saturday: "Certain fans need to not come and support this team.... Coming out to BOOO us.. Stay at home.. Don't need ur BOO's.. SAY NO MORE!!!!"
He quickly followed that up with: "Last thing from me.... To all the fans. U are not forced to buy season tickets.. Or pay our wages.. Please remember that.."
I bet Mike Ashley is delighted by that advice.
On Sunday night he posted a tweet offering to meet any fan who had a problem with him, in Nando's (obviously). He deleted that tweet after a furious reaction. Men around the North East were seriously hoping for the chance to take Ranger up on his offer and the ending could have been very nasty indeed. These tweets got to even the most regular guys. This type of reaction was summed up brilliantly in the Newcastle fanzine 'The Mag'.
That wasn't the end of the idiotic Ranger tweet-a-thon:
Wednesday: "Fans am sorry for what I said!was just a bit upset you were booing the lads. But as it says in the Bible you should forgive thy neighbour"
Thanks for your forgiveness Nile! Only it wasn't Nile, allegedly:
"My friend took my phone and sent that message.... Sorry!"
Is he worth all of this? No. No player is - 30 goals a season or the paltry two goals in 51 appearances Ranger has provided. There shouldn't be an acceptance based on a players ability.
Ranger had promise. The most obvious example of this came when he was introduced as a substitute against Liverpool in the 3-1 win at St James' Park in December 2011 - it was 1-1 when he took the field and he contributed significantly. What a waste. But then he likes to go out before games - a good friend of mine was talking to him in a bar on New Year's Eve night. Ranger was involved in the loss to Everton less than 24 hours later.
No thanks. Get rid.
Twitter: @MarcSDuffy
To comment, you must be a registered user. Please Sign In or Register