Mischievous Celtic fanatic claims Rangers boast has him needing SURGERY as merciless Hotline seizes on Treble yell

Suddenly the arguments over a handball, a penalty and an offside could hardly seem more insignificant after the football world was rocked by the death of the great Franz Beckenbauer. Der Kaiser’s passing at the age of 78 on Monday brought plenty of perspective to a Hotline badly in need of cooling off.

Jim McCready had a lovely tale about the German legend to start us off. He emailed: “I played keepie-uppie with Der Kaiser in 1972 in a local park in Kirklandneuk. Bayern were playing Rangers April '72 and the Germans stayed in the Normandy hotel close to our houses. The Hoenes brothers, Sepp Maier and Beckenbauer came into our park for a walk and I played a kickabout with them. They were all very nice to us and I got to play keepie uppie with the world legend.”

Neil Renton, Leith, said: “The passing of Franz Beckenbauer is a massive loss to the game. He was both an outstanding player and manager. By reinventing himself as a sweeper he changed football.” And Davie Kirkpatrick, Glasgow, added: “First Maradona, then Pele and now Beckenbauer. I’m 75 and the three greatest players of my lifetime have now all passed away. Der Kaiser would have had no problem playing in the modern game. In many ways he invented it.”

Back to bickering over the domestic game now and Kirk Broadfoot’s claim that Rangers should be targeting the Treble brought scorn from Celtic fans – while Gary McAllister’s admission he can’t see the Hoops dropping points saw him in the firing line with Gers punters. Eddie Easson, Ballingry, said: “I will go to hospital later to get an operation to take the smile of my face after reading Kirk Broadfoot’s article. Clement to win treble and get to a Euro final, he’s having a laugh surely. They can’t even beat their