How I Dug Up This Messy Football History
So last Tuesday night, I’m scrolling Twitter when this Rangers fan’s tweet pops up screaming about “Spanish bullies” stealing some cup back in 1956. Got me thinking – what’s the REAL beef between Athletic Bilbao and Rangers anyway? Figured I’d piece together their whole story. Big mistake.
Started simple – googled “Athletic Rangers rivalry”. Boom, first damn page shows me three different “first meeting” years: 1922, 1927, and 1930. All from “reputable” sites. My coffee went cold real fast trying to untangle that spaghetti.
Hit the local library next day. Found two dusty football encyclopedias with conflicting player names. One book called Rangers’ 1960s striker “Willie Henderson”, the other insisted “William Henderson-Scott”. Same bloody photo though. Librarian side-eyed me when I threw my hands up.
The real chaos started with Basque names. My notes looked like toddler scribbles:
- Spanish sources called the manager “Javier Clemente”
- Scottish forums screamed it’s “Xabier Klemente”
- BBC archives used “Javier” AND “Xabier” in same damn article
Trawled fan forums deeper than any sane person should. Found gold though – some Glaswegian grandad posted hand-written notes from his da’ who saw the 1930 friendly. Rangers players got pelted with oranges during a corner kick. Never made the history books.
Nearly quit Wednesday night when UEFA stats conflicted with club records. Their official sites can’t even agree on 1980s yellow card counts. Ended up creating this messy-ass spreadsheet:
- Red = UEFA numbers
- Blue = Rangers archive
- Green = Athletic statements
Looked like a clown vomited on Excel.
Why’d I bother? Backstory’s stupid actually. Got fired from my barista job last year. Manager screamed when I mixed up Scottish and Spanish customers’ orders. Figured learning this history would… make it make sense? Still clueless. But hey – at least my timeline’s finished. Mostly.
Final conclusion? Clubs themselves probably forgot half this drama. Basque fans swear Rangers parked the bus in ‘66 UEFA tie. Rangers supporters claim Athletic faked injuries in ‘79. Everyone’s lying or misremembering. Perfect football rivalry.
