The Signing of Maurice Johnston

Pre internet days and I ws flying between Singapore and Hong Kong etc up with a Rangers supporter that evening (lunchtime UK)who told me we had signed him
Thought it was a great signing. Got a monkey off our back. Him and Ally could clearly form a partnership and he was a very good player. But it absolutely ended them and I think it was at least 2 or 3 seasons before they could get it together again
 
I heard the news on radio at work,a tim i worked with went straight home sick, honestly. The shock wasnt because we had signed a catholic ex Celtic player, it was because Mo was the equivillent of signing Neil Lennon or Scott Brown in the most hated Celtic player stakes. With more talent obviously. I detested him at Celtic. Grew to love him at Rangers but i was utterly shocked we had signed him
 
Not at the time because he had played for them (see stuart Munro).
Nothing to do with his religion (but that did break an old rule that needed broken).

At the piggery he missed a few chances against them.
Then he scored the last minute winner against them.

All in all a good signing as their hatred shone through.
Even to this day the bitterness with them to him is strong((still getting death threats).
 
2 days before I got married so I remember it well.

I was walking through Princess Mall in East Kilbride early afternoon and saw the Granada TV Rentals window had a dozen televisions with coverage of the press conference. A real textbook JFK moment. I quickly jumped into RS McColls and picked up the early editions of the Evening Times to get the story.

Brilliant GIRUY moment and remember being delighted. Thought he did well for us and their reaction was unreal.
 
Wasn't alive sadly but I've been utterly fascinated with the Mojo story for years.

It wrecked them on and off the park for years.
I remember being in the Wee Rangers Club when Maurice Johnston picked up a supporter’s club player of the year award.
A real surreal moment :D
 
I was 13 at the time and my old man was working abroad so I had gone to visit him for the summer. It wasn't possible to get a scottish newspaper so I had no idea it had happened until I got back to Scotland, late summer. When I saw him in the rangers strip I thought it was some kind of stunt.

Being 13 it didn't bother me that he had played for the tims. During the souness era anything seemed possible and we had signed some unbelievable players, so to me this was just another top player joining us.

I don't think it really bothered my old man either. We had moved away from Glasgow when I was 2 and he wasn't in the least bit interested in the religious stuff.
 
I don't drink.
You think he's a roman Catholic.
I think he was a shagger (I know his daughter socially who was the result of a 5 minute experience in an airport with a Air hostess, Cheryl).

He's not a roman Catholic
That doesn't prove anything. You can still be religious and commit a sin. Forgiveness is part of religion.
 
I heard the news on radio at work,a tim i worked with went straight home sick, honestly. The shock wasnt because we had signed a catholic ex Celtic player, it was because Mo was the equivillent of signing Neil Lennon or Scott Brown in the most hated Celtic player stakes. With more talent obviously. I detested him at Celtic. Grew to love him at Rangers but i was utterly shocked we had signed him
The Neil Lennon / Scott Brown point you make is something I'd not thought of before and it's great context to help those who weren't around to understand the magnitude of the signing. As for where I was when I heard - I was in my mate's car listening to Radio Clyde whilst driving along London Road to the garage where he got it MOTd. I looked to my left and there was the piggery!
 
The biggest F**k You moment in my time watching football.

As many have said, the improvement to our team was great, the humiliation of them was priceless.

They're still beelin' to this day.
 
Wasn't alive sadly but I've been utterly fascinated with the Mojo story for years.

It wrecked them on and off the park for years.
There’s two sides to it.

On one, Rangers got a player who fitted into the team on the park well, and contrary to what the media peddle was popular in the dressing room - he knew most of the players from Scotland duty already.
Johnston had grown up a lot in a couple of years in France, as a man and a footballer.
I did feel that by the early part of 1991 he has lost his fire for it at Rangers, and Graeme Souness leaving really just left it as a matter of time before Johnston followed him out the door.

The other side of it…. I’ve never known a transfer to utterly crush the spirit of another club and it’s supporters like that.
Celtic couldn’t believe that their “play for the jersey” mantra was in tatters, they couldn’t believe that one of their own would come to Rangers of all places, they couldn’t believe that our support largely took to him immediately, they couldn’t believe that he worked his bollocks off and was respected for it.
They beat up his old man & petrol bombed his house in Edinburgh. They threatened to boycott a charity match played over a decade later because Johnston was due to play a half for each team.

Mo Johnston broke them in ways that nobody else could have.

After a long time of carefully positioning Rangers as being the problem, the media equally couldn’t believe that a Catholic had signed for Rangers - they labelled him as a mercenary, that he had shafted Celtic etc.
After years of telling us that the “first” Catholic to sign for Rangers would be a brave man, they derided Johnston for making the move.

I had Celtic fans at the time and since spending time telling me loads of reasons that I “must have hated him” for.
It send them pottys when you tell them that he was a cracking player and we had him in his prime.

They are still in denial about it. For old times sakes I might even throw it into conversation with my old man just to see the wild eyes appear B-D
 
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I remember a lot of gnashing of teeth and threats of never returning to Ibrox, not sure how many stuck to that threat, but personally I remember not giving a %^*& as he was a player and as others have said , it was a joyous girfuy to them...which is nice.
 
19 at the time, and my feeling was one of utter and total disbelief.
I could not really move on from being in shock in July until he scored a late winner in November.
A hard working, great player for us.
As others have stated on this thread, it burns fans of rasellik to this day.
I also believe that the media, politicians and society in Scotland have let them off the hook with regard to their attitude to the signing of MJ.
All the moral grandstanding about religion, fan behaviour, bigotry and intolerance was shown for what it was, a sham.
Not just fans of them, but it really upset all the fans of the numerous tuppence ha'penny clubs in Scotland.
They now had the ability to point their grubby fingers at Rangers removed.
As an example, I watched a BBC programme years later , one of the rent a quotes being interviewed was Ernie Walker, President of the SFA at the time of MJ joining us.
He was fuming, stating the signing was nothing to do with football, but was more about "rubbing celtic's noses in it".
Rangers had signed an excellent, international forward, but he was unhappy because he would not have the religion stick to poke Rangers with when he was at SFA meetings, his golf club or at Murrayfield with his rugby club pals.
 
Hated him before he signed had a few wee words with him when came Melbourne. When signed was raging. Remember my wee mum saying remember
the clubs bigger than any player. Remember him spitting on Stuart munro when he got sent off and blessin himself.
still supported the Gers and him when he played to be fair gave 100% but still don’t like him.
 
In an earlier reply to this post, I mentioned the Ten Days that shook Rangers book, which I read from cover to cover.

In the bookshop, I skimmed through the Ten Days that shook Celtic book, and I offer the following two observations (remember it was published over 15 years ago).

The word RANGERS seemed to be mentioned in their book than our's - just confirmation of their obsession with us IMHO.

Although there were chapters about various catastrophies for their club, like getting knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Arthurlie, there were two events which they just couldn't handle at all, and they kept on referencing them. One was Helicopter Sunday, and other was our signing Maurice Johnston.
Those two incidents destroyed their psychological wellbeing.They have never had one giruy thing even remotely close never mind two in the last 40 years
 
I’m sure it was cardinal winning who said that although Rangers had signed a Catholic, he was the wrong sort of Catholic.

Brian Wilson was another high profile individual who had to caveat the signing rather than simply accept it.
 
he wasnt hated because he was a catholic

he was hated because he was THAT catholic hence the shock of signing him

although did score vital goals
 
I liked it but i was very young at the time and couldnt really care or understand much about the signing stuff, to me whatever Souness wanted to do was fine he was the the man he was fkin magic (when GS came on stv news you shout shut up at everyone let the man speak) this was a good player Allys mate and the team will benefit. We had to sign catholic players if we wanted to do well in europe and by signing Mo it hurt them i have never seen grown men in such agony. It was funny i got on quite well with quite a lot tims back then and remember saying to them wait till he scores in an old firm game.

Many will disagree i suppose i thought it was clever as after that signing the press could say linked with a catholic player and everyone said so what ? done.

Id say a lot of fans were maybe not so sure with him signing his attitude was brilliant from the start and he scored plenty of vital games and won them over... some would just support the team while saying they didnt want him which was fair enough. One thing i will never forget when he scored at Ibrox in the last couple of minutes the guy next to me in the Copland never moved he just sat there while the place went crazy, then stood up and left.

For all the talk about bears not going back i didnt know anyone that chucked it.
 
If you read the book, Ten Days that shook Rangers, there is anvexcellent chapter all about it.

I was at Parkhead for his Old Firm debut, in a blue jersey, and I have never ( and I am now 66) witnessed the level of hatred unleashed upon any player like I saw and heard from the home support that day.

I also knew the guy that ran the Ticket Office then, who told me that the number of season tickets returned because of his signing was precisely two! The widespread outrage by Rangers supporters was the message the media wanted to portray, not the reality.

It was, however, an absolute dagger to the heart of the Celtic support.

Personally, I thought he was a great signing for us (and NOT our first RC player of the 80's) and his workrate that first season for us was second to none.

This.

My sentiments exactly. I was at the tattiedrome for his first match against them and was in the main stand when we still got a section of it.
The abuse he took I can honestly say I've never seen such venom to an individual on a football pitch. In all honesty it was probably a good thing that he missed the 2 chances in the second half as I think the unwashed may have taken to the park!! Think what they were like when we won the league there and double it
 
The other thing I remember was that The Sun had the news plastered all over it but no other paper had the story therefore I didn’t believe it.
I think that’s where the sarcastic line- “ oh it’s in the Sun it must be true!” originated from.
I finished delivering my papers and went home only to see it as tbd main item on the morning news.
I woke my Dad up- who was night shift- to tell him.
Let’s just say he wasn’t best pleased to be woken up or what I was telling him! :eek::D
 
For anyone not around at that time take it from me, that stroke cut them so deep. The many comments on here regards the lasting damage it did them are spot on, believe that.
 
In the days of no social media or 24 hour Sports News Channels i am sure it was the Sun that broke the story.
 
One of those events in my life that I remember exactly where i was when it happened.

I was a dumptruck driver at the time and i was working at Bannerbank Quarry up above East Kilbride.

We had to sign in at the weigh bridge in the morning (roughly 6.45am) and the weigh bridge guy knew i was a Rangers man and said something like "i see Maurice Johnston is signing for Rangers today” “f**k off” was my reply and he said its on the main bbc news go and see for yourself, they had a telly in their canteen and sure enough there it was on bbc breakfast time

I was shocked but the get it right up you of the signing soon kicked in

I was at the game v Airdrie where he made his debut and it was a weird atmosphere

The biggest thing was that he was a bloody great wee player

Couldn't get a ticket for the game at Ibrox when he scored the very late winner and ended up watching it on teletext in Scottish Power window on Sauchiehall St with loads of other Bears and a few of them.
 
Still remember my dad telling me we had signed him and me not believing him. I was 8/9 years old at the time.
 
I was 8 and my dad was working down in Manchester. He phoned the house that night as he said his colleagues were winding him up about singing Johnston. When my mum told him it was on the news he thought she was in on it.

It wasn’t til he got home two days later and saw the papers he believed it.

My biggest memory of it was the next day playing football at a pal’s house and his dad, who had no interest in football and had never mentioned it once to me when I’d been round there, came out to the garden and started talking about it. It was a football story that became the biggest news story at the time.
 
Your 2nd post on this thread opened with “he wasn’t just a catholic, he was a Roman Catholic”. Now you’re saying of him and his like “so are they catholics then?”. No offence, but you’re in danger of disappearing up your own arse here.
Apologies


I meant that was the general perception at the time
 
When you say walked into the pub as the news broke do you mean in the afternoon after the story was in the Sun that morning?

At the time I delivered newspapers in the mornings and I don't remember any breaking news the night before until I walked into the newspaper shop at 6am on that morning and seen the Sun exclusive about him signing,something the paper and Keith Jackson are not slow of reminding us of more than a few times since.
I couldn't believe the headline and went straight home to wake the old man up to show him the paper before I did my paper round.

Personally I loved the fact we had signed him for equally the fact i knew it would have sickened them and that he was a quality player.
My old man wasn't that convinced by it,I was kind of agreeing with him after he missed those two sitters in the space of a minute or so v them at parkhead :)
However he did more than make up for it by scoring in the last minute in the first old firm game I went to!
It would have been mid afternoon on the day the papers ran it. I was playing golf in the morning and never seen the papers.
 
IIRC He was paraded by them with the scarf above his head because McBungle wanted to boost their mob. He was at the SPFA dinner at their table on the Sunday evening and there were rumours of a few problems with the deal.
He signed for us after Souness stepped in and gave him a much better deal.
I really didn’t like him but as a supporter accepted that Souness was the Boss and eventually MJ won me over with his fantastic commitment to our club. He was some player
 
Great player, great signing and got it RFUT Tims, totally destroyed them, which was magnificent.

I went straight out and bought a Gers top with Johnston 10 on the back. Really noised a few of them up that summer :))
 
True story apparently.
Keith Jackson was a 16 year old working in the Sun. He was going out with a young girl from Newton Mearns, her father was an insurance broker. Keef saw a fax from Rangers, asking for cost of insuring Maurice Johnston. Went into work, told his boss what he'd seen. Sun phoned Rangers, Rangers said they would phone back in 30 minutes. Souness and Murray confirmed story was true, Sun got the exclusive.
 
IIRC He was paraded by them with the scarf above his head because McBungle wanted to boost their mob. He was at the SPFA dinner at their table on the Sunday evening and there were rumours of a few problems with the deal.
He signed for us after Souness stepped in and gave him a much better deal.
I really didn’t like him but as a supporter accepted that Souness was the Boss and eventually MJ won me over with his fantastic commitment to our club. He was some player
Thankfully you didn't push the ''he was pictured with a Sellik top then signed a few days later for us line. In reality there were around 8 weeks between the 2 incidents.
 
I wasn't alive when Rangers signed Maurice Johnston, through modern eyes it still feels like a significant moment in our history but I don't think anyone who wasn't there can really grasp the feelings of shock that came with it.

To cut a long story short I'm working on something and looking to hear thoughts from people who were around at the time, were you happy with the signing? Did the GIRUY factor outweigh everything else? How did you and those around you react? etc

Cheers in advance.
I was on my first honeymoon in Acapulco, when he scored against them. It was all over the Mexican news. I couldn't watch it enough. Helicopter Sunday moment!
 
The amount of crap spouted about that signing is incredible, the media used to print he was the first Catholic to ever sign for Rangers, he wasn't even the first Catholic in training on his first day, John Spencer was already there.

For decades the media ran with the "first Catholic" line in print and then on the Internet, even though they admitted to people in person, letters and emails that they knew it was bullshit.
 
Can’t totally remember but one or 2 things stick in my mind even though I was 11. I remember the RC phone in and it was rumoured that his move to back to Celtic had broken down and they had paraded him without him actually signing a contract. A bear phoned in (a bit pissed I think) and asked the panel, including that wanker Gerry Mcnee if Rangers should sign him instead. Mcnee told him not to be stupid and Rangers would never sign a high profile Catholic and definitely not Maurice Johnston. 1 week later :)) he signed. Also remember him being hit with a pie from the bheggars at Ibrox. Once he scored that goal against them at Ibrox he was universally accepted by us.
 
I was in full torment mode. Was working on a trawler in Stornoway at the time. 2 of the crew raging papes from Barra. Telling me how Mo was going to stuff us. Then the tables turned Mo was paraded on lunchtime news, pissed myself laughing at the clown nearly greetin cursing me the orange bassa that I was told I was. Told him to grow up and stop greeting and yir fekin beads are getting hoisted over the side.
What was the name of the trawler?
 
we had gone down to Liverpool on the Sunday afternoon in preparation for walking on the 12th that week, so we obviously didn't see the Scottish papers on the Monday morning, we were out in the city centre and nipped into the crown bar on lime st for a lunchtime pint,the barman on hearing our accent enquired on our footballing affiliations,and when we said we were bears,he said "what do you think of the news then" what news was our reply, he then proceeded to tell us it had been on the news on radio merseyside that morning, at first we thought it was a wind up, but just as we got served our pints the news came on the radio, and we heard it for ourselves,it was a totally surreal moment,of course when we got back up to my mates ma"s house she said the phone had been ringing all morning with people from up here phoning to tell us what had happened
 
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