All Activity

At least we've established that Alex Ferguson was a liar. 😀

I don't think I am. Rangers don't accept failure. We've fired 3 full time managers since our last title win, that's the opposite of accepting failure, it's literally not accepting it. Our squad has two players left from the squad that played in the Europa League final (Tav and Leon King), again this is the exact opposite of accepting failure. We've changed managers, coaches, tactics, styles and players without success. There isn't an acceptance of failure at Rangers, from the support to the manager to the players. That doesn't mean we won't fail, clearly. I've reservations about our owners however creating a new 'culture' at the club, for me, makes perfect sense. The previous culture wasn't working. When Martin speaks about players 'adding culturally' he's talking about how they'll fit, their personality, are they open to his ideas and how the directors see the club. Harking back to Man Utd under Ferguson. Ferguson created a siege mentality, that somehow the authorities favoured Liverpool and the London clubs over Man Utd. This was of course bullshit. Ferguson needed players who would buy this though, who'd believe it as true and use it to motivate themselves. Ferguson recognised that some players, mainly experienced players who had been at other english sides would recognise this as the nonsense it was. Whereas young players and players from outside England would accept it as true because he told them it. Culturally he needed players who would be open to this. So much of top flight sport is psychological. Culture feeds into that, creates the environment where players can become a team that can win the title.

Or we could stop looking at ex-Rangers players. Max Aarons looks to be joining - I doubt we'll bring in another RB, particularly with Tav sticking around.

Everton are bringing in a new right back maybe we should ask about Patterson maybe even a Loan

So..we signed decent players? You do a disservice to Chris Woods, England Goalkeeper, Terry Butcher England Captain, Colin West England international, Jimmy Nichols Northern Ireland international, formerly of Man United, Graham Roberts England International. Souness basically added the England national team including it's captain, and dragged the standards up. What I've said throughout this discussion, you build the team in the image you want, you don't sign players and impose that image on them.

So a lot boils down to the manager. I don't think it's just me - I haven't watched one second of a Russell Martin interview. He looks beige, culturally speaking.

Chris Woods had won a 2nd division title at Norwich. Terry Butcher was in the Ipswich side that won a UEFA Cup five years before he joined Rangers. Colin West hadn't won anything, Jimmy Nicholl won an FA Cup 10 years earlier. We weren't signing guys who were used to winning the league, none of main signings had won a title in their careers before joining us. The existing Rangers squad had players who had won cups before, so Souness didn't add "winners", he changed the mentality of the players he signed and the players he inherited. This is why culture is important, get it right and it can make ordinary players good and good players great.

No, he worked in Hillington for a well known company. That well known I’ve forgot what it was called😂. Remington Rand who made typewriters, in Hillingdon Estate.

His ego is massive. I, too, declare my desire to sign for Barcelona.

Yeah, that's fair, he was an apprentice toolmaker, his father was a shipbuilder.

Rashford wants to go to Barcelona I don't think he's good enough for them

I see Everton are bringing in a new right back maybe we should be sounding them out about the availability of Patterson as a signing even a Loan.

I thought he led an apprentices' strike? Was that not in a shipyard?

“Ferguson recognised this, he was a Clydeside shipbuilder.” SAF never worked in a shipyard.

I well remember that season too. I was living in Coventry at that time and used to travel up and back on a Saturday to Ibrox. There was a British Rail special ticket for £10 only available on Saturdays. Though I did not know we were paying lower wages than Aberdeen.

So we signed decent players? You've said a lot, but it basically breaks down to Souness added winners to drag the standards up.

100% Gonzo.

I think you are missing the context of how it has been used by Martin and the new owners. Basically, we need to replace the acceptance of failure in the squad - everyone is aware of that.

Words delivered in the most simplistic of forms are often the most beautiful.

Doesn’t matter if it think they are busy are not, only the outcomes matter. As we stand right now only Cameron has been added to the squad. We have a long, long way to go to be competitive from here. From the outside looking in I’d feel far more comfortable had I seen more progress. There is still time, but it will pass very quickly. As with any deadline it will be here before they know it.

I suspect a few on here are too young to remember season 1984/85. We finished 5th that season, in a 10 team division. Our points tally was closer to Clydebank, who finished bottom, than to Celtic's who won the league. This was the 9th season since Rangers had last troubled the engraver of the league trophy. Davie Cooper, the only truly great player at the club at that time had publicly made his dismay with how things were known. Not everyone in our support was happy with him for that either. The culture at the club was not good. It was penny pinching for a start. The club was paying lower salaries than Aberdeen were for example. it was also old fashioned, too many people were clinging to the old days. Wallace had been a brilliant manager in 70s, but by the mid-80s his style was no longer working. Younger managers with 'modern styles' had turned Rangers down when approached. After a boardroom coup David Holmes was appointed to run the club and he instantly saw the cultural issues the club had and set about changing them. The biggest change he made was replacing Wallace with Souness and Walter Smith. This transformed the culture at the club. Souness was very public about this. For example at the time Rangers had a ban on players having a moustache. This might seem curious, irrelevant even, but it's an example of a club culture that was suffocated by history, of people harking back to 'the good old days' and refusing to accept that times change and of you don't change with them you get left behind. There is no doubt that we had a signing policy then too, Souness very quickly made it known he would not be following that either. Culturally this was a big deal for a percentage of our support. What Holmes and Souness realised was that the culture at the club was not set up to win titles, there were issues both on and off the pitch that needed addressed. What's interesting about this culture change, on the pitch at least, is Souness and Smith won the league the following season with a squad largely made up of the players who had struggled to finish fifth the season before. We signed Terry Butcher, Chris Woods, Jimmy Nichol, Colin West and of course Souness himself. Graeme Roberts joined later in the season, but players like McCoist, Davie Cooper, Derek Ferguson, Stuart Munro, Ted McMinn, Ian Durrant, Bobby Fleck and Dave McPherson were the core of that team. Changing the culture of the club meant that players, many of who had been written off the previous season, developed the right mentality. When Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester Utd the club a drinking culture. This wasn't seen as a negative, believe it or not, players socialising together was seen as good for team spirit. Players being able to drink heavily and still make training and play matches was a culture that I was familiar with in the printing industry in the 1980s. Big boozers who still made their work was a badge of honour, there was a strange cultural approval for men like that. Ferguson recognised this, he was a Clydeside shipbuilder, this was not an alien culture to him, but he'd come across it at Aberdeen when he first went there and knew he needed to eradicate it. At Aberdeen it had been players like Joe Harper and Jimmy Bone who led it, seasoned pros who'd had successful careers and who were influential in the dressing room. At Man Utd it was Paul McGrath, Norman Whiteside and Bryan Robson. McGrath and Whiteside were sold and Robson was warned he could change his ways and remain club captain or he could leave too. The rest is history. The word culture isn't a new word, it's not some vegan, snowflake corporate talk as some seem to think, it's absolutely core to running of the club. I'm heartened that those in charge of the club recognise this and want to change it. Whether they can and will is a different discussion, but if we want a winning team then things need to change at Rangers, we should welcome this.

Ever considered a career in debating? Quite the wordsmith.

I always thought Parkhead the safest ground in Scotland easy to get in and out at full time

I don't think anyone is disputing that its up to these guys to deliver. And I don't think it excuses. Do you genuinely think they are sitting around doing nothing and are not aware of what's required?