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He's 30 league games away from becoming one!

Ojo gives us pace upfront which Stewart and Arfield don't have. We would be a lot easier to play against in Europe if we didn't play him and it would allow their full backs to press further up the park. Ojo may not be brilliant, but the same comments were being made about Kent early last season. He needs confidence and the backing of the fans.

How many of us truly believed this would be the season we might break the Celtic title stranglehold? I thought it was a possibility but then I always think that at the outset. Celtic started the season bookies favourites by a long way and still are bookies favourites but not by a long way anymore. I think they started the season around 1/8 while we were out around 5/1 or so but currently that stands at Celtic 8/11 with Rangers at 11/8 followed by Aberdeen at 250/1. Betting without Celtic Rangers 0/1 which I don't even know what that means Aberdeen 22/1 We currently have Jack, Aribo, and Kent all out injured but probably not long term with long term injury victim Murphy just coming back into the picture. This team the yahoo blip aside is more often than not looking formidable at home while grinding out wins away. And while it might be said the average SPL opposition isn't so impressive even Feyenoord looked out of their depth during an impressive first half Rangers performance at Ibrox where Feyenoord could easily have went in 3 or 4 down at halftime. We also have what we thought would be 'fringe' players like Greg Stewart beginning to turn in impressive performances even before our injured first picks return. While we were all unimpressed by the narrow win league cup win over Livi on their plastic today Celtic went there and came away with nothing which puts a little perspective on that result. I get the feeling this team still hasn't even peaked with the possibility that they will become even more impressive over the weeks and months ahead. Looking all over the pitch the strength in depth was illustrated once again with a start for Edmundson who really looks like a player who can scale the heights. We're more than well covered in the centre of defence while the riches in midfield options is almost embarrassing and that's even before mentioning the top class goalie standing behind them. And all that with what appears to be the two best strikers in Scotland. Jermain Defoe currently scoring a league goal every 39 minutes and two 5-0 league wins on the trot. If this were the yahoos all the talk would be about how awesome and unbeatable they are. It's all extremely promising provided we can maintain consistency which has been an issue over the past few years but this time I just don't see that being the issue it has been in recent seasons. With eight games gone we stand 2 points clear at the top with a GD 6 ahead of the nearest contender. In fact the only other contender. Not too shabby for an under 18's coach. Is it Graeme Spiers?

I'm beginning to suspect that we are committed to playing Ojo. I hope not but it's looking a lot like the Zalalem situation. Ojo may not be quite as useless as him but it's still a situation that a club like Rangers should never be in.

So good to go into this break top of the league and with 7 wins from 8 games. A word of warning though, we have had 5 home games and 3 away and Celtic have had 3 home and 5 away. The league winner this season will be the team who manages to drop the least points away and/or the team who outperforms the other in Old Firm matches. Home games have been training matches for both sides but 2 of our 3 away games have been really tough games with 1 goal separating the sides. Only 4 of our next 11 league games will be at home. The opposite for Celtic, only 4 away games in their next 11. So we can not get carried away. We are only 2 points ahead so we need to prove we can avoid dropping points away from home. This is going to be a huge challenge considering we are going into a lot of those away games 3 days after European matches. We're going to Livingston after Porto at home, Tynecastle after Rotterdam, Motherwell at home after Porto away and Fir Park after Young Boys at home. A massive test but one I'm cautiously optimistic about for a change. We have great depth in this team and I think we have every reason to hope that Celtic will drop some more points too. I've been particularly pleased to see Stewart get his chance, I was very surprised he wasn't getting a chance because he's the kind of player we've really been missing and our fans are finally seeing that now. Edmundson is another one who was finally given his chance, I really really like him and for me he is your ideal centre back for home games because his possession play and distribution is far better than all the rest. Defoe I've spoken of before as our most underrated player, I still prefer him to Morelos (sorry). What an amazing player to be able to bring in to give Morelos a rest. And I think we can expect Morelos to perform better than last season now that we can rest him, not to mention the impact Defoe will be having on him. Could this even be contributing to his better discipline? Less pressure and stress knowing he's practically got the weekend off sometimes, he must be able to relax a lot more than when he was playing 90 every game and if he didn't score Rangers didn't score (very often).

I can't remember when we had 4 centre backs as good as we do now all with different attributes and styles who will all play a massive part this season, yet some fans still need to slate the same player/s after a mistake or bad game. Can't we just enjoy what we have rather than find the negative in certain player/s!!

Twenty-five years ago, most juicy Glasgow gossip was published in the Herald, under the auspices of, Tom Shields Diary'. Those days, Tom Shields himself was still playing with a straight bat. His second decade, he became both a professional Yahoo and Catalan. When he left the Herald, he spent five years as a Sellik View columnist, under the moniker, "Tim Shields Diary'. Anyways, it's January and he has a lengthy piece on the actions of a young cub reporter at BBC Scotland. This is when Beeb Scotland was based at Hamilton Drive in Glasgow's west end. There were a dozen restaurants in and around Great Western Road, all selling Table D'hote menus at a penny under the Beeb's expenses limit. The Beeb Scotland football department had all gone out for Christmas lunch in late December in one of the aforementioned brasseries. Rob McLean had been charged with collecting the weekly fivers from thirty-odd colleagues and was as such, responsible for settling the bill after a particular boozy, several hour affair. Shields lived in Hillhead and the restaurant proprietor let him know the details, particularly the bit where he was owed well over a grand. According to the Diary, McLean was back in, begging to be allowed to pay the bill over a period of several weeks. To think, Rob was adept at handing out sneering penny lectures to Rangers supporters on financial integrity?

Tynecastle is massive. They'll play before us too so we will likely be going in behind again

I thought Barasic, Kamara, and Stewart were very good. Hard to best Defoe, though, getting a hat-trick. Frankie's ratings in full here:

Horrible party, horrible leader, horrible objectives.

Funny if I was doing something like that I would prefer to do it from scratch.

People only judge players when they are on the ball. They don't(including me) see the work off the ball and the room they are creating for others.

If Ojo had netted the ball just before HT against Young Boys then we would have had a much easier 2nd half. Coming out 2-0 up makes a massive difference.

I don't I hope we have a good lead by xmas. They may splash the cash if we stay just in front of them.

He told me. And anyone else that listened to his post match interview, “cameo role”.?

Sir more appropriately ?

I doubt it's a contractual requirement, however I definitely believe there will be pressure as there was with Ejaria and Kent. After all it's about maintaining the potential pipeline of future Liverpool loanees too. He's started every league game except St Mirren when he was injured. We've obviously had injury problems but I would prefer we played Arfield and Stewart more often tbh. Ojo has a role to play but it's clear to see he's struggling a bit, he looks every part the young academy player far too often.

Incidentally, I watched ‘the theory of everything’ about Stephen Hawking last night. Quite inspirational, and Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of the scientist was well worthy of his Oscar. Felicity Jones was great as his wife as well. Well worth a watch!

Family reasons, and to pursue other options. Wilson was approached prior to Allen's appointment, but turned us down saying it wasn't the right time. I think he wanted the system in place, rather than building it himself. Allen was able and willing to build the structure.

A delightful day all in all. Delighted to see Big George get a start & look so commanding. Delighted we clocked up another clean sheet - a real thing for me ? Delighted for Defoe & his incredible hatrick. Delighted for Borna, another majestic performance capped of by yet another majestic free kick. Delighted to be sitting top of the league.

Great response after the Celtic defeat, a huge morale buster. I fancied Livi to get a draw but a win was a boost. Can you believe there is scum everywhere, when I cheered Livi second goal in the bar a celtic fan from yorkshire threw a beer mat at me! Obviously that was last thing he done that day messing with a finely tuned machine like me lol and he paid for my next few drinks.

Scott wins this week, a cyber pint and a swift nip on the side for you! Gribz 6 Scott 18 Compo 16 Cant beat international week eh!

Bring in VAR. it’s not perfect but can only benefit us.

SG to also play a bit for Rangers.

That would require her to have objectivity and integrity, when it's clear that the SNP will twist any fact to suit their independence agenda. We could revise our entire songbook and not wave a single union jack flag but we would still be the enemy. Vote them out.

As the usual suspects of Morelos and Jack weren't playing (apart from Alfie's cameo) it has to be Davis. He popped up everywhere and was class.

Basically Celtic have been mugged twice away from home after Europa League ties. While that's welcome and we have taken full advantage, we will face the same challenge soon and we had better be up for it. We lost silly points in November-December last season and as long as we stay consistent and don't give them any encouragement I think we have a chance.

Tav hasn't had many bad games in all the time he has been at Rangers tbh!.

Hows shite were we in the last twenty minutes though Brilliant day that started about 12:25 - thanks Mr Christie - we shall not be moved Found out yesterday I got tickets for Tyny too first away tickets of the season from the ballots

Steve Davis for me. He was imperious in midfield - part of everything we did.

What a win for the Wolves. 0-2. Coupon buster.

I would actually argue his transfers have been pretty good -- although you could question the outlay, and an inability to replace core players, which has only been an issue recently, IMO -- whereas it's his managerial appointments that have been less than adequate. I liked, and still do like, Claude Puel, but I think he suffered from comparisons to Koeman and Pochetinno, which were outstanding appointments. I could see the reasoning behind Hughes, but it didn't work out -- it maybe should have been a short-term appointment, to avoid relegation, which he did, and then get someone else in. I do think Hasenhuttl was a very good appointment, though. Your last point is spot on, IMO: I think having someone to implement the latest working methods and technology, building on from the basic structure that Allen implemented is absolutely key. I'm drooling at the thought of our very own 'black box'... !!