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http://i66.tinypic.com/351zg5j.jpg[/IMG] On the 16th February 1935 Rangers legend Tom Vallance died at the family home at 83 Pitt Street Glasgow aged 78. Tom is buried in Hillfoot Cemetery in Bearsden and his funeral was attended by Mr. Struth, Chairman James Bowie and his old team-mate James McIntyre who both took a cord. Incredibly, players from the Vale of Leven team whom Tom had faced 60 years earlier in 1877 were also in attendance. That will give you an indication as to how highly regarded Tom Vallance was. Tom’s gravestone, as part of the Restoration of Rangers Graves project, will be re-lettered in the spring of this year. Tom was paid the ultimate accolade by the Club in May 1898 when he was made a life member of the Rangers. In 2012 we had Tom put on to canvas by way of a painting by artist Helen Runciman which was unveiled at Ibrox Stadium at the end of our Founders Trail. Tom Vallance took his rightful place at the top of the Marble Staircase alongside his friends and fellow Founders. Some facts on Tom Vallance: Tom had an incredible 60 year association with the Club. He was a master oarsman, a champion athlete (he set a Scottish long jump record of over 21 feet), he studied at the Glasgow School of Art, had paintings accepted by the Royal Scottish Academy and was Rangers Club Captain and President for many years. While President of the Club it was not uncommon to find Tom Vallance working the turnstiles on match day at First Ibrox. In 1890 he owned the Club Restaurant at 22 Paisley Road Toll which today is the Viceroy Bar. We have recorded details of Tom Vallance being present at the ceremony held on 1st January 1929 which saw the opening of the Main Stand at Ibrox and also at a Dinner held in the old St.Enoch’s Hotel after a Rangers match in 1933, he was also a guest of the Club that year for the New Year’s day game against Celtic. So, the lad who was present at Fleshers Haugh in 1872 was still attending Ibrox some 60 years later where the Club that he’d helped form and nurture were now playing in front of crowds touching 100,000. Today we remember Tom Vallance. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/to

Even so, C1872 should not spending a 4 figure sum on hospitality, even if it's coming out of their 5% admin costs. The rationale that it was part of the initial proposal doesn't wash. It's not been specifically voted on. I'd prefer that the cash went towards buying shares or improving disabled facilities or similar. As for emailing your concerns, I'm still waiting for a response to the last email I sent them.

By the looks of it we should have had a DoF long ago.

I'm the optimistic one but I also agree with Gonzo. Celtic are the benchmark. We've shown that we are catching them and that is cause for optimism in itself, but to really get excited we have to show we can beat them. I think we're still a season away from that at the moment. what does excite me though is that we are building a really solid squad that should be able to compete with the best of the rest in the SPL now. The days of us having to sign 8/9 new players and then get them to gel should be over. It's more of a case of adding a few players to strengthen the first team. That's cause for celebration in my eyes because it's night and day to where we were over the past few years. So, you can see I'm optimistic about the future, but not yet as excited as I'd like to be. If we beat them in our next game though I might just let myself get quite excited.

I'm staggered that anyone wouldn't want Steven Davis to sign. Not only should we sign him we should make him captain and offer him a coaching role with the youths. Davis captained a country of 1.8 million people (40% of who won't play for them) to the second round of the Euros, he's got 100 caps and has played his entire career in the Scottish or English top flight. He's 33, not 103, he's easily got another 3 years at our level in him. I read people saying we've got too many 'old' players! Miller, Kranjcar and Alves are veterans, but I suspect at least two of them will leave in the summer, Wallace and Dorrans are 30, Martin is 32 but only on loan. Everyone else in our squad is in their teens or 20s, we've got a need to add some experience. Davis is one of these players fans rarely appreciate. He's the quiet, thoughtful, worker building moves, offering angles, making space and covering others, he's essential to every good side. It's telling that the only manager who didn't want Davis was Martin O'Neill, a manager for who a midfield was something to kick the ball over and to take set-pieces. Davis would be a wonderful signing, a guy who knows what it takes to win leagues and cups and pull on the light blue jersey.

Work hard, perform on the pitch, get rewarded. Great stuff.

Good contract management is essential if you want to leave the potential to maximise financial benefits come the time players leave. With this in mind, the deals for Tav and this potential deal for Windass are important. Looks to be some joined up thinking coming from the football operation.

Rather we tried to sign Sean Goss on a permanent deal than Steve Davis

Yes and yes. McCrorie was on loan at both Ayr Utd and Dumbarton and Aidan Wilson is currently at Dumbarton, also on an emergency loan too. Hopefully both can come back and push for starting slots the way McCrorie did - both have the talent to do so.

From what they've said, it was part of the amalgamation vote, so something like that's not going to be focused on. It doesn't mean it can't be revisited now. I've done my time on one of the predecessors of C1872 so I feel comfortable in giving a level of scrutiny in respect of a 4 figure sum. If it's that irrelevant, why did they issue a statement on it? I don't have a problem with them allocating a % to admin costs and also carrying on the RST's (I think) initiative to give Erskine some tickets is also a worthy cause, but spending cash on hospitality isn't a good use of limited funds. We'll never reach the heights we want if we waste cash on relatively frivolous areas.

I'm clearly in the minority here. If he's a free transfer and doesn't cost valuable resources, then fair enough but this is not (IMO) how we should be building up to a challenge for the league. He will be very unlikely to be able to perform in midfield beyond his current age. I understand the game is not as technical in Scotland, but it is just as quick and if his legs go he won't be able to perform every week. If we want to compete with Celtic we need players who are able to match the skill and work rate in every game. Davis would just use up valuable game time for our other younger players that we need to develop for the longer term challenge. I suspect Southampton's stats are showing that he can't keep up with the pace and hence why he's not playing as much. It's just a natural thing to happen for a midfielder. Of all the positions, it's the one which is affected most by age, and in particular the loss of speed and stamina. I always liked Davis and thought he's been terrific for Southampton, but I'm not convinced he's what we need now, for many of the same reasons as Naismith.

I'm all for questioning these organisations - especially if their communication record is poor or, as their critics suggest, value for money in terms of projects or PR is worthy of debate. However, I do think there's a way to go about it and some people (not necessarily Snags) are clearly less than constructive in their approach. To be perfectly honest though I've seen faults on both sides of these kind of debates (and you can see this again over the last few days with respect to this). I find this behaviour a complete turn off and I don't think my interest in Club1872 or fan representation has ever been lower as a result. I still believe in the concept and I do think Club1872 usually try to do the right thing (rather than the inferred dishonesty from some) but the overall uncertainty created by their various information vacuums is hardly conductive to successful campaigns.

I've just posted a new thread that could be adapted quite quickly into a preview if needed.

https://rangers.co.uk/news/galleries/hamilton-training-gallery-5/

And the fact that Murty is having a say in next season's squad scares the shit out of me.

Davis would improve the team. If he's available on a free then it seems like a no brainer.

The zoomers and malcontents spreading these rumours were so desperate for them or their pals to get a blazer and a seat at the top table that, no matter what statements are made by c1872 they'll continue in their actions. I've no doubt that had some of them been successful in the elections, the rumours they spead are exactly how they themselves would have acted. They should be positively identified, confronted, and shunned by every right thinking Rangers fan.

Theres not a support in the world who is entirely satisfied with the state of their team, in general that is. For example many Man City fans are talking up the quadrouple but that has raised doubts and theres a feeling is a lot of those quarters that Barca and Real Madrid are too strong. Real Madrid fans are already worried about Zidane. Pessimism, or at least tempered optimism is part of being a football supporter. Especially when you’ve gone through what we’ve gone through. I understand the fact that some are reluctant to get too carried away. Personally im in the tempered optimism camp. The top 4 in the league are exactly the same in terms of form in the past 5 games, three wins, a draw and a defeat, but i think we had a good transfer window so that bodes well, when the new gyus start to gel, things could start to motor for us. meanwhile i still think they are on the slide. And um notvworried at all about Aberdeen and Hibs. They will revert to type soon enough. Too arrogant? Or honest?

Aiden Wilson is there as well I think?

With so much focus on his age it's easy to forget this is someone who's played 21 games this season in the best league in the world (and 2 in the cup), 90 minutes in most of those, let's not exaggerate. If he's managing that at 33 it's reasonable to assume he can perform at a high level in Scotland for another couple of years. My concern is his position. We are pretty overloaded in there already really. Docherty, Jack and Dorrans all expect to be playing every game, not to mention McCrorie who many think should stay in midfield. James MacArthur is surely an optimistic target on a bosman for the summer too. As I've said I'd prefer to treat signings as investments, but imagine getting Davis for a nominal fee and McArthur and Arfield on bosmans in the summer, with Kranjcar, Miller, Halliday and Pena leaving.

I laughed at this. You are of course right, but never underestimate how difficult it is to get a team of professionals doing what they're supposed to be doing. A lifetime in business taught me that. Very often the issue is a political one where some members of the team are either unclear of the scope of their responsibilities, or where they want to interfere in someone else's business. The sense I get I see that Mark Allen and Murty work well together. That makes everything else so much easier.

Let's not get too carried away. It is no more than the Club operating with a degree of professionalism, which we are -have been for some considerable time- unaccustomed to seeing. Appalling, and not in any way amusing, to think that a few blokes doing their jobs properly is such a refreshing change.

Spot on. Although the main quality we required wasn't just better management skills ... but leadership in specifically football operations. The old saying is that the difference between managers and leaders is that managers endeavour to do things right whereas leaders strive to do the right things. You need both of course for optimum performance but leadership should always be out in front. It seems Mark Allen has brought that to the table at last.

This should be in Rangers Chat mate?

I'm glad you used Brown as an example, because he proves the point about midfielders. I think he's looking a shell of the player he was and I'd expect him to continue to deteriorate quickly next season. Do you really think that Southampton would 'prefer other players' if he was still as fast, sharp,and strong? I doubt it. I agree however that it would be good to get Nico off the wage bill, but why settle for replacing him with another older player? I don't think we're disagreeing too much. I think we agree that he is towards the end of his career and that he is now likely to deteriorate. All we are disagreeing about is how long he'd be able to perform for us in the SPL. I don think think we would get more than a year, which to me would be a valuable time to improve a younger player. Its these same decisions that negatively affected us coming up through the leagues. We need to stop being a retirement home and start developing value in our players for the longer term good of the club. A year of game time is valuable and we need to give it to someone who can generate value and offer more of a longer term return on investment.

People are putting their hard earned into the organisation and some of it's being spent on entertaining members. Is a 4 figure sum really an amount that we can shrug off? Maybe you think it's a small amount but to me, it's a big amount for a supporter organisation.

Sounds like you've already started stewarty

Scott Brown is still doing well enough at Celtic and he is only 6 months younger than Davis. Davis appears to be one of those players who has the physical capabilities to continue playing for a few years yet. His physical nature isn't sliding at Southampton, they are just preferring other players to him presently. The majority of us talk about not being able to take a gamble - I don't think that Davis would be a gamble for us in the slightest - you know exactly what you get with him and he always gives everything. Brown certainly wouldn't have any easy games playing against Davis. If we could get Niko off the books (sad to say but he is done) then Davis would be an improvement but at no additional cost (probably).

This is great news. I just hope he sees this as having the opportunity to develop into a fantastic player with our club, rather than reward for already having made it. I'm never sure if Windass appreciates the standard of player we have been used to in the past, and that he's nowhere near that yet. He has a great opportunity and support at the club to make him an excellent player, but it's up to him to step up now and develop into the player we hope he can be.

Agreed. Now time to decide whether to stick or twist on Morelos. The guy is clearly going so now it's a case of when to maximising what we get for the player whilst minimising the negative affect on the team. In that sense, holding off to the summer seems the best option but there's no doubt it's also a risky one.

Oh stop it, Captain Sensible. If we give Hamilton a proper scudding on Sunday then I'm on the bevvy till 55.

Yeah, one or other would be good but I guess it depends on where we are in August. Still in the Europa League may give us a bit more fiscal flexibility.

Comes down to his physical state. Kranjcar is a great player but hasn't any legs left.

Good to see big Bruno back training though I doubt either him or Wallace will be risked on the plastic this Sunday. As much as Bates has done very well, I like the idea of an Alves and Martin partnership where they can play on their more natural sides of centre. Both are good on the ball and provide a physical strength with a lack of pace perhaps the only drawback. Alves will certainly be desperate to get into the team so should be a good battle between him and Bates over the rest of the season.

It really depresses me when I see fading players like Davis or Miller getting handed new contracts. They did us a turn and for that I thank them. But they have no sell on value. We'd be paying top dollar for "experience" and nothing else . Neither of them at their current age will win us a league title or make a difference in Europe. When they finally hang up their boots a space is perceived to be left. When we went to the bottom division we should have signed 30 youths aged 16 and stuck with them. One or two diamonds would have been turned up with the correct coaching.

Our (Rangers supporters) ability to argue amongst ourselves is mind-bogglingly endless. How about we all stick together and have a go at the real f*cking enemy!?

I think the best bit about this is that it shows to other players that staying with us can help you develop your career, earn better deals and put yourself in the showroom for even bigger money moves further down the line. In some respects, a EPL team coming in and paying a chunky fee could be the best thing that could happen in the next year or so. That will hopefully encourage other players to come to us.