The SPL thread

McLean was offered the chance to manage Rangers (whom he had supported as boy) in the early eighties. He also really wanted the job.

Everything went well in the discussions between Rangers and Mclean until the latter made it crystal clear that in the event he became Rangers manager one thing had to change. McLean demanded that the "nae cafflicks" tradition (then rigidly enforced at Ibrox) must be abolished.

Rangers immediately abandoned the talks with McLean. He lost his chance of getting his dream job but he came out of the whole thing pretty well.

The son of the Roma president admitted an attempt to bribe the French referee.  There is no evidence that he accepted it.  Michel Vautrot was a highly respected referee at the time.

Bribing referees was not unusual at the time.  Anderlecht were punished by UEFA for bribing a referee in 1984.  Eoin Hand and Mickey Walsh were convinced Raul Nazare was bribed for our game in Brussels in 1981.  Suffice to say even if Tony was handed the whistle for Saturday's Old Firm game Brussels 81 would remain the most badly refereed game in history.  

I haven't watched the Roma game in years so couldn't pass judgement on it.  Great comebacks were more common in those days in any case.  Home advantage did count for a bit more with huge noisy passionate crowds making a difference.  I recall Roma being victims of an an amazing comeback a few years before when Carl Zeiss Jena overturned a 3-0 first leg defeat with a 4-0 win in Jena.