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The point of the article isn't that VAR is some sort of silver bullet but that because English is now championing it and directly linking Celtic to paying for it, like the CO position, it will be a controlled role decided by Lawwell and his SFA lackies. Don't be surprised to see him and Celtic ride to the rescue of Scottish football by offering to pay for VAR, applying pressure on other clubs at the same time. Then we'll have a Lunny, McLennan and Whyte type run of Celtic-friendly former officials deciding how to implement it and backed by a media already sympathetic to Celtic's plight. Remember BT Sport offered to provide the infrastructure the other month and we know already they pick and choose what kind of things they highlight with a panel that's hardly Rangers friendly. In fact one of their employees likes to refer to our young striker as Buffao Brains without censure. OK, BT might not have the rights going forward but most of the people working on these channels are freelance so will quickly jump ship to Sky or the BBC as soon as the deal changes. Rick's article is a timely reminder of the politics involved. One I'd hope Rangers are a step ahead of all of us...

How growing up in poverty turned Alfredo Morelos into ‘El Bufalo’ As a youngster he would often help his father sell fruit out of a wheelbarrow By Craig Williams 18:12, 8 JAN 2019 Features Alfredo Morelos celebrates after scoring against Hearts in October (Image: Getty) Few players have lit up Ibrox, and the Scottish Premiership, as much as the young Colombian striker who joined Rangers from HJK Helsinki. A player who, as a reward for his efforts, made the step up to his national side with a debut appearance in September in replacing Radamel Falcao in a friendly against Venezuela. Morelos celebrates with midfielder Yimmi Chara during a friendly match between Columbia and Venezuela in Miami in September (Image: Getty) Known for his battling qualities and sharp scent of goal, Alfredo Morelos's arrival in Scotland and his first international cap is the culmination of a journey that has taken him from the most humble of origins to filling the back pages of newspapers both here and in his native Colombia. Read More How one of the true Barcelona greats developed an 'amor' for Livingston As the son of a fruit salesman father and housewife mother, Morelos grew up in the rough Botaven area of Cereté, a town of around 60,000 in Northern Colombia - the fourth poorest region in the whole country and one with an economy geared towards agriculture and cattle-farming. If the young Alfredo wasn’t at school, he was helping his dad with his small enterprise helping him to sell fruit from his wheelbarrow or out kicking a ball around on the local streets. As a five year old he joined up with the local footballing side Fumigadores de Cereté, after his father had asked the team’s coach while passing by the local pitch if he could bring his son to training. Morelos prior to a league match against Hamilton in October (Image: Getty) Although his parents were unable to pay the monthly costs for him to take part in training, his then manager Vicente 'Chente' Fernández, surprised at the ability young Morelos had, took him under his wing and offered to pay for his footballing education. "I saw his talent, his quality and I got him in on a scholarship. Alfredo started playing as a midfielder, he knew what to do with the ball, but he was so good that I decided to send him further forward", Fernandez told Colombian newspaper El Espectador back in February. Read More 10 players deserving of a statue outside Hampden Park Such was Alfredo’s situation that his family weren’t able to pay to take part in tournaments or even buy him the necessary clothes he needed to play football. But so sure of his talent, and the possibility that he would turn into a decent player, the coaching staff assumed the cost for his boots, strips and shin guards. As a teenager, his eye for goal and performances for his local side saw him turn out for his regional team, and with that, he caught the eye of professional side Independiente Medellín (who sent scouts up to watch him), who were based in the city of Medellin some 180 miles south of Cereté. Independiente Medellín's stadium, Atanasio Girardot Sports Complex, where Morelos played between 2014 and 2016 (Image: facebook/DIM) Back in September, Pablo Orozco, president of the Liga de Córdoba (who has known Morelos since a young age) told Gol Caracol TV in Colombia: "He came from a humble neighborhood. He was silent, but hit the ground running. “Alfredo was an innate leader, and more than that, a good boy, who with his nobility went far and that is why Independiente Medellín took the step". Moving down to Medellin as a 15 year old to form part of their youth set up in 2013, even in the big city and on a major club’s books his economic problems remained. 'El Bufalo' himself has noted in interviews how he often didn’t have the money to take the bus to training, and would walk the 90 minutes there and back. Read More 11 world class players who faced off against non Old Firm sides in Europe But that didn’t stop him digging in and gaining himself a spot within the first team at 16, where he made his debut in July of 2014, while also forming part of Colombia’s Under 17 and Under 20’s squad (competing in the Under 20 World Cup in New Zealand in 2015). Morelos in action for Colombia during a South American U-20 football match in 2015 (Image: Getty) The sacrifices he made to pursue his dream of playing at the highest level, and for his national side, saw him make the risky decision to try and find his feet in Europe after falling out of favour with Independiente Medellín. A risk that has paid off with his move to Helsinki and subsequent arrival to Ibrox in June of 2017. https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/features/long-reads/how-growing-up-poverty-shaped-15569609

I know this is a little off topic.... but Celtic have made 3 signings as well and, to be quite honest, none of them bother me. Rangers needed more firepower up front and increased creativity. Defoe should definitely offer the former and Davis should offer the latter. We also have secured 2 very decent young players for next season too (good to see us looking to the future). Whilst across the city they have added two strikers (Bayo and Weah) and a winger (Burke). With Burke I don't see how they need him - they already have decent wingers. And with both Bayo & Weah they will be vying to replace the 9 million pound man, Odouard. Bringing in new guys may have strengthened them squad wise but I am not convinced that they have strengthened their starting XI. I think their issues are greater in both defence and midfield. Boyata (CB) is pish, Lustig & Ralston (RB) are pish, and then in midfield they have Ntcham who seems to have downed tools and Brown who is visibly slowing down. Thus far, and admittedly it is early in the window, we look to have strengthened our starting XI and improved in the areas that we all felt needed strengthening - whereas Celtic don't, to me at least, seem to have strengthened their starting XI or in areas that they really needed the strengthening.

How Rangers star Andy Halliday went from Azerbaijan wilderness to derby glory Rangers season ticket holder Gordon Smith charts Andy Halliday's road to redemption at Ibrox. by Gordon Smith 20:42, 4 Jan 2019Updated09:48, 9 Jan 2019 Dundee, Hamilton, Azerbaijan and back again. It is safe to say that when Andy Halliday signed for Rangers back in July 2015, he couldn’t possibly have envisaged the series of trials and tribulations waiting for him over the next three and a half seasons. Full article here: https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/spfl/scottish-premiership/how-rangers-star-andy-halliday-15632970.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Not on your life I would rather listen to the wife

I'm not accepting that, Morelos put in some illegal challenges, and should've been sent off early on in the match . I'll take it to appeal if i have to .

Halliday deserves a lot of credit for the way he has went about his business this season. So does Steven Gerrard for the way he has managed Halliday and got such a response.

I agree but I’ve given up on that already. Might be silly but Davis has been given the number 10 jersey and I think if we had someone lined up for that role we’d have saved it. There have been no serious links and just looking at the centre midfield numbers I think we’re going to be going with Arfield in the attacking mid position with Davis expected to be more creative behind him than Coulibaly/McCrorie. Same goes for Kamara if he comes in.

Morelos knew what he was doing both times. The one on brown would be a soft yellow. The one on ralston is a yellow. Beaton lets all sorts go for all teams and thats what makes him the best ref we have. Games are better under him. The press and celtc are embarasing themselves now. Only real mistake beaton made was not giving us a pen. Even that was an understandable miss.

We have enough wingers. I'd rather we brought Kamara in this month and continued to look for a creative midfielder.

What this shows, more than anything, is just how vastly improved our squad strength in depth has become in such a short space of time. It simply cannot be ignored the pretty remarkable job that Mark Allen, Steven Gerrard and the Board have done in such a short space of time.

Would make for an interesting training game . Foderingham Flanagan -Katic - Wallace Candeias - Halliday - McCrory - Coulibaly -Middleton Lafferty - Grezda

Former footballer George Weah will be the 6th freemason to be elected President of Liberia in the history of the country. http://233livenews.com/2017/12/30/george-weah-is-the-6th-freemason-to-be-elected-as-liberian-president-photo/

When up against tight compact defences we have to find ways of breaking them down. Unless you have a Gazza level of Number 10 (not going to happen), I think playing 2 up top has to figure high up in possible solutions.

would be a bold move to leave Kent out since he has been one of our best players. I can maybe see a 4-4-2 diamond maybe

The 3-5-2 option looks good on paper McGregor McAuley - Goldson - Worrall Tav - Davis - Jack - Arfield - Barisic Defoe - Morelos

That photo only goes to prove that Morelos was totally looking at the ball and putting his foot where he thought the ball was coming. Never a red card in a million years.

No it wasn't. He barely put a foot right after coming back from injury and clearly had taken a massive crisis of confidence. He doesn't deserve to play if he is more at risk of costing us points than others - we keep this whole "play our own and not a loanee" has the potential to derail a title challenge if our own player isn't up to it or is out of form - or at least more out of form than the loanee. I'll happily let SG decide who is playing well enough to pick up 3 points and look to win the title.

He's an absolute credit to his family ad his club. His rehabilitation has been one of the true highlights of the season so far.

The Hamilton away game was his only poor performance. The lad deserves a chance, particularly as he's our player and not a loanee.

Regardless of the strides we have made, I personally feel that CL group stages are absolutely MILES off. Better to temper your enthusiasm for them because Scottish teams will continue to struggle more and more to make the CL group stages.

It was because he turned in performances my granny would have been ashamed of. He was given every chance, started well but couldn't or wouldn't sustain it.

My only change would be Katic for Worrall; simply cannot understand why he slipped down the pecking order, unless it is because of injury.

Yahoos still obsessed with Rangers transfer dealing and accounts, obviously going bust any day now. Someone has to ask "where the money is coming from??" I’m sure the takeover panel will will have something to say soon enough. ? I'm entirely ignorant as to why someone has to ask about the financing of our transfer deals and puzzled as to what a takeover panel has to with it but then i'm pretty much entirely baffled by their obsession with another team that allegedly doesn't even have a history.

Killie are now regretting not taking the offer of cash when it was there due to the bitterness and hatred of us on behalf of St Pats. They are trying to get some dosh from us taking him now. Fuck them, give them nothing, we can wait till the summer.

Lets see how it all works out for the poor fellow.

I would too - indeed, was going to say I would prefer him to stay at Killie as he could be a threat against other teams which may help us... and there is also the chance Clarke wouldn't play him against Rangers for obvious reasons. Either way, their SLO being petulant doesn't help Killie at all - more likely to disillusion the player. I just read on Twitter that the CLO wants rid of him in January but not to Rangers. How daft does someone need to be given he has already signed a pre-contract agreement ???

Agree. I thought Beaton handled the game well. He wasn't over fussy and let the game flow IMO

It isn't defensive dB - Tav and Barisic would offer cover at the back but would be expected to get forward to offer attacking alternatives, more often than offering defensive cover I suspect as we would, likely, have the majority of possession. In essence we would have Tav, Davis, Arfield, Barisic, Defoe & Morelos all playing in attacking positions.

In their respective camps, Morelos is probably the same as we were with e.g. van Hoojidonk or Larsson. Fine strikers, but having their "flaws and antics", which make you loath them that bit more than usual. In any case, Morelos gets far more ridiculous yellows and even reds than anyone I have ever seen donning our colours, including Ian Black. It is time that someone said that openly and in a respectful manner.

The management team now have more to think about wrt formation as better players make certain options more attractive on paper. Different options are good to have and they'll be working/drilling/looking at things now. 4-3-3 may well remain the the prominent system but I'll be surprised if two up top doesn't feature more heavily than the first 2/3rds of the season. ----------------- Morelos stat: His next league goal will be his 55th senior league goal (HJK & Rangers) Good going for a 22 year old playing over 8,000 Kilometres from home.

A fit Kent will get his fair share of gametime and if he's playing well, he'll almost certainly start most games. Coming out of this window, our bench will certainly be stronger. McCrorie is a player I'd like to see further develop but just as he was getting back in, his gametime may be limited again. I guess It's up to him to up his game again.

I don’t like the formation in general but it certainly fits our squad well now. All 2 up front options need to be looked at because a fully fit Defoe should be starting ahead of Candeias, Coulibaly, McCrorie etc.

VAR doesn't deal with our media. Do you have a system that could stop Michael Stewart going-on about the Morelos rescinded red card in August of last year ?

In the case of Defoe though i was always keen to have him I just didn’t expect it to ever become a reality. I think we can be confident it would never have happened if not for our manager. Just one more benefit of having Stevie G.

Prince Bluster or Baron Blowhard? Ten days after Rangers 1-0 victory over ra Sellik. Immediately after the game's completion, BBC Radio Scotland had an emotional Pat Bonner lamenting ra Sellik's summer transfer activity. We should remember that the green'n'grey hooped horrors spent £9 million on Edouard. Pat lapsed into utilising the word, 'we' when ranting about the lack of support given to Rodgers by Peter Lawwell. He criticised the CEO further by quoting his reported £1.1 million annual salary with added £2.3 million bonus. The rant finished with, "and why we've spent £2.6 million on disco lights"? At this point, Tom English joined in with similar emotional gusto. Apparently, ra Sellik received their just desserts. In total, there were four hours of broadcasting time after the final whistle, and everyone was in agreement. Rangers deserved their victory, the only question was the margin of victory the performance merited? Next day, a couple of hours was spent by Jeff Webster, Billy Dodds, Tom English, and Hugh MacDonald discussing the previous day's games. Again, nothing was mentioned reference refereeing. Current Sellik season ticket holder, Graham Spiers took to social media to tell his fellow Yahoos that their John Beaton conspiracy theories would not wash. The average rating for Beaton in various newspapers was between 7 and 8. On the Sunday evening, Sportscene carried the first highlights, emphasising three incidents involving Alfredo Morelos. Dandy Don, Liam McLeod mentioned all three during commentary, quite a departune from his previous day's radio commentary, the emphasis then being on Rangers good fortune at a clearly deflected goal. Another Dandy and host of Sportscene, Jonathon Sutherland primed both Michael Stewart and Steven Thomson in their post match analysis with, "here's a thing". The thing being those three incidents, again. Alfredo was lucky was the concensus. Michael Stewart felt it would be hard to defend the Columbian if he had been red carded for booting Broonaldo in the baws. I will let retired English Referee, Dermot Gallagher do the defending, he pointed out that Morelos had his eyes on the ball, whilst raising his foot in an attempt to kick the ball over his head. Brown's leap takes himself to the right and out of Alfredo's eye line. Gallagher says no caution. In fact, Dermot Gallagher would have cautioned Morelos once, for his treading on Ralston. A wee aside for the plethora of Dandies, they failed to amplify Shinnies blatant dive for their second penalty against ra Sellik earlier in the week. Further, Sutherland opening the week before show with Rangers supporters invading the Perth pitch, what about his fellow Dandies doing likewise after Aberdeen's second goal and game clincher at Livingston? Proxy sauce for the ram, and not the ewe? The eruption was Christmas Eve, constant reshowing of the incidents, greater amplification, and a few more statements got things moving by PQ. The result and performance had been conscrued, the emphasis was the referee's performance. Eventually, ra Sellik make a statement; Peter has got to earn his combined £3.4 million remuneration this year. They all fall into revisionist line, Tom, Graham, Michael, DrStu' , ............... et al. DrStu' aware of his bread buttering, shouts again and again about Beaton socialising in the Crown Bar, Bellshill. Your right DrStu'; it's NOT Al Challtanin, your favourite fish restaurant in Calton Close. You know the one you have broadcast endorsements for on numerous occasions? I am sure the fact it's ten yards away from the front door of the Squirrel Bar(current gang hut HQ for the Green Brigade) allows YOU to dine in peace? Tom does a Worzel Gummage, he takes off his Prince Bluster head, he has whipped the baying crowd into the required frenzy. Today, he is Baron Blowhard. Referees being threatened and given police escorts to games is beyond the pale. "It damages the Scottish game". Those threatening referees, "are not fully formed human beings". Tom is the Chief Sports Writer for BBC Scotland. It's like Tom's take on those hanging effigies at Sellik Park. Two life size effigies hanging from their necks, one replete in Rangers scarf, the other in orange collarette, twisted in the breeze for eighty minutes underneath the north stand. Tom screamed, "we're talking about effigies today in the twenty-first century"; then, proceeded to condemn the wrecking of the toilets in the away end by Rangers supporters. He quoted the £30,000 of damage, knowing a long standing agreement is in place for the cost of damage to be met by the away club. What's the damage to the Scottish game of strange fruit twisting in the breeze, we won't know because the blowhard is too uncomfortable to talk about it. Tom realises it, yabbering on about cracked ceramics is his safety valve. Actively creating a situation where a ref' has been threatened and is the recipient of police protection is also too uncomfortable, Tom becomes the sole arbiter of the image of the Scottish game. Tom doesn't think Beaton should explain himself openly to Sellik, he is now good cop to Peter's bad cop. Tom won't talk about the refs' strike of ten years ago, Peter has told him not to. Tom has been blowing the bugle on Peter's behalf, for those of us listening, he sounds more like a trumpet.

Let's cut to the chase here. The last time the refs went on strike came directly after a loaded statement from the Celtic Chairman of the time, Dr Death himself, John Reid. Celtic were under pressure and on the brink of losing the league title. Rangers disappear from the top flight and title races for 7 years and surprise, surprise we don't hear a pip from high horse riders Celtic. Not a mention of refs missing Broonie's elbows and tackles. Not a mention of why Craig Gordon escaped with only yellow cards for 2 last man violent assaults. Not a mention of the dodgy offside goals. All honest decisions and mistakes of course... Oh but wait, cut to the present day and Celtic have lost their first OF game in years. They were played off the park. They are neck and neck with big bad Rangers. Their board isn't spending the millions they have shouted about for the last 5/6 years. How can this be happening? What can ra Sellik do? Resort to type of course. They dust down the same file "Never defeated, always cheated" and use it as smokescreen to dupe their fans and the lapdogs in the media.

It's an excellent read from @Rick Roberts and best viewed on our main site due to links contained within it: https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/987-old-firm-media-embarrassment-and-var-control

I think there was some tentative interest but Nicky Clark has shown us that Rangers fans scoring lots of goals in lower leagues doesn't guarantee anything if they sign for us. Retaining Hardie may be the better option as he's scored goals in both the Championship and the Premiership.

Sorry but not in a million years is Jordan Jones a better player than Jamie Murphy.

Erzurumspor are believed to have accepted a bid in the region of £1m to take Rangers misfit Carlos Pena...