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It is mad how we've had certain groups of people thrive at Ibrox. Be that Croats, British Caribbean or more recently Nigerian. Maybe you're right, our club just does suit some more than others inexplicably. Or not?

My poorly made point was more about their ability to 'fit in' rather than what nationality they see themselves having. Bassey and Aribo were raised in the UK, so moving to Glasgow isn't as big a culture shock as if they'd been raised in Lagos. Likewise moving to Glasgow if you were raised in Belgium or Germany isn't as challenging as if you were from Malawi I'd guess. All that said I read an article recently about Jadon Sancho and his failure to blossom at Man Utd. The point the author was making was that because he was from south London he wasn't given the support and help he would have been given had he been from another country. He seemed to be suggesting south London is different enough from Manchester to warrant this. Man Utd expected a young English guy to settle fairly easily. Dortmund on the other hand had put every possible thing in place to help a young player settle in a new country and environment and so Sancho did really well there. This theory conveniently overlooked the fact Sancho had lived in Manchester previously when he was at Man City. Roy Keane speaks surprisingly well on this. As a player he was dismissive of some of Man Utd's signings 'struggling to settle' and this affecting their performance. He gave some of them a really hard time about it too. He'd moved to England as a young man and had settled easily enough. He recalled losing it with Sebastian Veron, who blamed his form on living in a hotel and his wife and family not settling in England. Then when Keane joined Celtic his family stayed in Manchester and he moved into a hotel somewhere in Glasgow. He's go back to Manchester for a couple of days after games and then return to Glasgow for the rest of the week. He admitted he was miserable. He hated living in a hotel, he missed his family and friends and that it did affect his form. Jim Bett's wife couldn't settle in Glasgow so he left Rangers, but she was able to settle in Aberdeen without a problem. Go figure that out. Anyway, in my experience Declan and Aiden from Coatbridge would find Govan just too big a jump, some cultural gaps are just too huge to bridge.

It's becoming like the SPFL it's a race for second place

Aye but Declan and Aiden from Coatbridge are Irish, despite their parents and themselves all being born in Scotland. Confused.com

Apologies if I was a bit broad with my terminology. The point I was making generally was that African footballers have done well in the UK for years - and by African I generally mean Southern and Western. Or like @JohnMc has pointed out, lads from Europe who have African heritage. I'd much rather us target the market in those areas than Asia tbh. Try and forge a relationship with Orlando Pirates whilst striking this deal. We've just seen the academy director job linked with someone who setup a successful academy in Ghana, hopefully thats an indicator.

Feyenoord watching him supposedly

I'm glad Lammers is doing well, as it makes it more likely we'll sell for a similar fee to the one we paid for him.

Lammers has done it again 9 goals in 17 appearances if I’m not mistaken

... and there it comes down to a missed chance in the OF game last week that we end up without the league title. Quite frustrating. Obviously, the hybris over there has also infested their women's team, going by their manageress' comments. They essentially scraped through due to us missing a couple of chances and dropping a couple of points of late in the season - as unexpected as unnecessary.

Thank heavens that this is no transfer thread ... 🤣 Rangers are likely to hold talks with Oscar Cortes about turning the winger's loan deal from Lens into a permanent transfer, despite the Colombian missing the end of the season through injury. (Football Insider), external Rangers have been given hope in their pursuit of Brazilian full back Jefte, with APOEL Nicosia yet to agree personal terms on a permanent transfer from Fluminense. (Scottish Sun) Of all the transfer links to Rangers heading into the summer, Jose Cordoba has always appeared the closest to completion. The Panamanian centre-back, 22, has impressed during a three-and-a-half year stint with Bulgarian side Levski Sofia and there have been links to Rangers stretching back to the turn of the year. Journalists in Panama pointed towards Rangers interest, with the Ibrox side said to be facing competition from France, Turkey and Belgium. But amid reports the Gers are in ‘advanced talks’ with Jose Cordoba – and claims the club gave the centre-back the Ibrox treatment against Kilmarnock – this link looks increasingly concrete. And now the latest coming out of Bulgaria has suggested that Rangers are closing in on a deal for Jose Cordoba and are even ready to pay over the odds to get him into Ibrox. Rangers to pay ‘more money’ for Cordoba According to Bulgarian publication Blitz, Rangers and Levski Sofia are in ‘final negotiations’ over the transfer. Citing information they’ve sourced from Panama, the report claims that Jose Cordoba has a pre-agreement to join Rangers with the two clubs now thrashing out the particulars of the move. Harry Souttar is one name which scarcely goes a transfer window without being linked to Rangers. The boyhood bluenose, 25, was reportedly an Ibrox transfer target at the beginning of last season with all the sounds around Harry Souttar heading into deadline day. The brother of Rangers centre-half John Souttar, something tells us that the chatter around a move to Ibrox isn’t going to go away for the big Australian international. And now, as if to add fuel to the fire ahead of the summer, Souttar has been spotted in a Rangers jersey after Leicester City earned promotion to the Premier League. Rangers-linked South Africa talent Relebohile Mofokeng is a man in demand. The 19-year-old Orlando Pirates winger is having quite the season in the Rainbow Nation and as a result is turning heads everywhere from Glasgow to Cairo. Having recently had his talents compared to Andres Iniesta, South Afrian World Cup hero Siphiwe Tshabalala claims Mofokeng has ‘great potential’ to become South African football’s biggest export and tipped the midfielder-turned-winger to have a ‘great future’ in the national team.

1966 revisited. Second favourites but a classy right back did the trick with a thunderbolt. Can it happen again?

The manager needs a win here. It will keep his critics quiet long enough to let him do what is required.

This is great. Really cuts through all of the c***.

Imminent lounge thread.

Is London an ethnicity?

As we will both get the correct result, there are only six points for the taking so the best I can hope for is to equal BD's points total. Death or Glory!

South Africa, alone, has eleven official languages. Xhosa is my favourite - nothing like sitting in a taxi (small buses over there) and the person next to you starts making clicking noises.

The world is a far smaller place these days so players from anywhere tend to settle quicker. Facetime etc keeps players more connected with loved ones and home. There has also been much more immigration than 20 years ago so there tends to be existing communities of people players can align with. Morelos had some Colombian community here he integrated with. The Cifu situation was slightly different as his issue was the one thing that will never change, our rotten climate.

African isn't an ethnicity, it's a continent with hundreds of different ethnicities. Egyptians are Africans, Somalis are Africans and Namibians are Africans and they have almost nothing in common with each other. Your point is interesting. Aribo and Bassey are Londoners, both were raised there, Aribo was born there and Bassey moved there as a young child. They are Nigerian by heritage, but are basically English. Balogun is German. Again, Nigerian by heritage, but born and raised in Berlin. Dessers is Belgian, again Nigerian by heritage, but European in every other sense. Sakala was raised in Africa, Diomande was too. They'd be better gauges of how 'African' players can settle and adapt to life and football in Scotland. Culturally a number of African countries are anglophile and you'd imagine that gives the players a better chance of adapting. If they can speak English for a start, if they're from a Christian background, but that isn't definite. Sakala spoke English, came from Malawi which has a strong British influence, he seemed to settle quite well. Diomande, I assume, is Muslim, and was born in the Ivory coast, where French is the main language. However he spent a lot of time in Ghana, where English is widely spoken. I guess it will come down to the individuals more than anything else. How mentally strong they are, what kind of family structure they have around them, how well they play too.

Gonzo79 did say she was his ex-wife, so not necessarily so......😉😀

So you actually have met a nice South African? 😉