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Thats absolutely remarkable given this pandemic, furlough and employment uncertainty - we most definitely ARE the most LOYAL fans around

At £10 million you’re AT LEAST 50% off his real value. I personally wouldn’t even sell him for the £20 million. He’s absolutely vital to our potential for success this season. £8 million IS decent profit but we need to stop this notion of “decent profit” and look at a player’s true value. He’s been not only the best full back in our league but a top performer in the Europa for the last two seasons. When Man City are paying something like £50 million for Mendy then we shouldn’t be accepting anything less than half that for Barišić, IMO

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I think this is the main reason he has been frozen out, Gerrard likes a certain type of player to play in his system. It would be easier to understand if he'd been on the fringe but he has been totally frozen out. It feels pointless debating Middleton because it's clear as day he has no future here, but he still gets a bad rap so I've been baited by the speed merchant label so I'm going to defend him one more time. He has shown time and time again he has a lot more than just pace to his game. We only saw glimpses of him in all honestly, but here are some examples. He is a very good crosser, his corners were consistently pinpoint. Do people not realise the technique involved in that? Far more consistent than Tavernier or Kent. His in-game crossing was very good too. One example that people will remember is his 90th minute assist for Morelos to clinch the game at St Johnstone. An excellent cross, and it was something he did often, not a one off. How often have we seen any of our attacking midfielders put a cross like that on Morelos's head in the 6 yard box? I can pretty confidently say almost never, they just don't do it and sometimes you need a conventional, quality cross instead of running into traffic over and over again. He showed at Villareal with a well weighted through ball to Barisic that he has the vision to play a good through ball. That was a "secondary assist" but he got praise for it at the time. He also consistently showed that he is actually a very good finisher and one of the best at shooting from range that we have. His finish at home against Motherwell was excellent and it was at the end of the box and even on his weak foot. For someone so one footed he has done something I don't think anyone in our current team has done (bar Morelos once at Aberdeen), score from outside the box on his weak foot. Surely most people have seen his rocket against Celtic youths in the final too. I don't think anyone in our current team is capable of scoring from 30-35 yards with that kind of power. He had another excellent finish from the edge of the box in that game too. I am not saying he should be starting, that ship has sailed, but he has been under-utilised and consistently underrated by some of our fans and I think he will go on to have a good career somewhere else.

It is a shame Hollicom appear to have departed ra Stade de Gadd. I understand when ra Sellik play the next Europa Cup game at home, and have no issues; it will be a club record. Three home games in a row without a UEFA fine. A club record a long time in the making and Hollicom won't be there to trumpet it.

Barisic is one of the best players at the club and a regular in the Croatian side. I'd be hoping for more than £15m for him, particularly from an EPL club.

Women*

My advice to young Greg would be to stick at it & let’s see what happens. Unfortunately I think his opportunity at Rangers came along too early in his career for him

Sorry, Bluedell - I've been shi**in' oot and letting others defend me on this one rather than back myself like Oor Brandon backs himself to score every time he has sight of goal (aherm). Aye, what everyone else said, really. I absolutely didn't miss that strange wee u-bend of a run he made, when it seemed easy to make himself a square pass inside for Kent. And, if I had missed it, Andy Walker was there to gleefully point out the possible gutlessness of it all for me. I also couldn't fail to miss BB, erm, not failing to miss, much earlier in the same half, when in on goal from the inside-left angle. Mind, when he sklaffed it into the side-netting? (BTW, on TV replays without the crowd noise, is it Barker shouting "C*NT!" you can hear straight after?) I'm not for one second saying Brandon's proved he's a proper player or that I, like most, don't want him dumped for Aribo as soon as Jo's fit. I just don't think he was alone in missing easy scoring chances on Saturday, or in making bad choices in and around the box when we seemed certain to score. I'm not seriously saying anything is decided one way or the other about anyone, really (except Gerrard. He da Man. That's safe). I'm just taking the positives from Saturday, not for the sake of it, but for as objective a look at how we're coming along as I can manage. It mostly looked to me like, as others on this thread are saying more concisely than I can manage, Brandon was having to slow his run to stay onside. And I think he could also see Ryan Kent was more interested in shooting than squaring. Furthermore, while BB should have easily been able to get away from it, we can't completely discount Hamilton's attempts at last-ditch marking in this incident. But I get your drift. I do indeed think there is a chance that, by that point of the game, Brandon Barker didn't want to make himself available for a clear shot on goal. His confidence may have been so low from previous misses in this match - exacerbated by the knowledge he's not changing the minds of the army of Rangers fans who've written him off - that he just chucked it, was hiding, sh*t it, etc. If he ain't doing the business in some way, he'll be ditched soon enough. I like the argument in this thread about his two-footedness being what Beale, Stevie G & Co want for their anti-wingers system. But the way our goals came about at New Douglas Park (yeah, take that FOYS - I ain't no sell-out!) - sheer overwhelming pressure creating unbearable confusion for Accies - needed all hands on deck in the first twenty. Barker was part of that. He contributed. And the fact he kept running, kept trying, is part of the reason Accies only had one period of anything approaching pressure in the entire game. It's only Accies away. It was only 2-0. But Brandon did no more or less than anyone else to win those three points or fail to win them more easily. I don't think his head-down, shoulders-slumped style helps him win admirers on the few occasions he is doing stuff correctly. And I do think he looks like he's too hard on himself, maybe needs to chill a bit. But on Saturday he did more right than wrong, didn't do any more wrong than anyone else and, well, if he was hiding he wouldn't have attempted to take that ball past the last Accies man who brought him down for the sending off which, if you can't score a third, is the next best way to seal the game. Coz, had the Accies captain not fouled him, Brandon would have had the entire Accies half to himself and I know for a fact he would have waltzed it up the pitch, stopped at the 18 yard line to tell the Accies keeper to "come get it", spun round, stood on the ball, and did the old Kancheskis "Where are ye mateys?" to the trailing Accies defence and then megged the keeper wi a back-heel before running round him to stop it on the line then stoop to head it in. FACT! [Aye, aye - i know Glen Middleton would have stood on the ball before he spun but I'm noh getting into that again ... no way ... I'm pretending to be man-marked ...]

No doubt the fans in attendance will have been hand picked.

Not at all, I came on to post it but you had already done it

Middleton's lack of appearances is in your post - he is a winger and we dont play with wingers. Jones was also told to adapt and be able to play inside more often, or narrower, and he is struggling to adapt his play to suit, hence his lack of gametime. Us playing with natural wingers is fairly pointless when there is no space to get to the byeline where they are most effective. The way we are playing just now with fluidity across that front 3 and the fullbacks offering the width is, IMHO, the best way to combat park the bus tactics.

Just one reason why that team was the best I've seen and was possibly the best Rangers team of all time. Certainly, no Rangers side assembled since the early 1960's has been better.

It's like you say, Gerrard wants his forward players to be two-footed and able to interchange right across the final third. Kent, Barker and Hagi are two footed so the best current options for this. Jones and Middleton are more traditional wingers so have perhaps struggled more to adapt/impress in training. Someone like Stewart is another good option but he's quite left-sided and lacks the pace of the other current first choices.

Snatched from FF: A czech news outlet iz.sport are linking us with a move for Patrik Hrosovsky we were linked with him earlier on in the window he's probably the best midfielder we've been linked with imo. He's played with hagi at gent we want the loan to buy option while they want us to but him straight away for 3.5 million

IIRC, I think Gerrard has said that he doesn't want many/any players going on loan this season unless it's with a view to a permanent deal. Middleton has shown flashes of being a good player but, for whatever reason, has fallen down the pecking order. As such, I'd imagine the manager wants a Murphy/McCrorie type deal for him to help finance a new first choice attacking midfielder. Same may well go for Jones and Stewart.

£8m for Barasic is a joke. We’re talking about a player who’s one of the first names on the team sheet for the 2018 WC runners up

It definitely needed freshening up, and brought up to date. Thompson, Nicholas and possibly Le Tissier had outstayed their welcome. They're just not relevant anymore. Are they being replaced by Micah Richards? I'd say that's a definite upgrade. I don't agree with positive discrimination but if people are getting there because they're doing their job to a high quality (and they're better than those that they're replacing) then what's the problem?

Another Board has an excellent article in three parts on Ralphie Brand. The author provides this for the 1960-61 season: ”The Front Five scored 130 Goals between them.Scott (22), McMillan (15), Millar (26), Brand (44), Wilson (23)” Phenomenal.

He did do us a real turn with that miss.

That sound you hear is a "NAW" from me.

Show aff!

The only player i would have stood up against Messi would have been Puskas

That's my view too. Admittedly I haven't seen much of Middleton for a while but in his brief appearances he's impressed me slightly more than Barker.

I like Borna and he's developed into a more influential player over the last 12 months, but I wouldn't be totally opposed to selling him. He's had a funny career. He had a 'big' move from Osijek to Zagreb earlier in his career and it didn't work out for him, he barely played for them. He stepped back to his home town club, Osijek, again and caught our eye in the matches against us in Europe. He looked really good and I was delighted when we bought him. But he struggled to make an impression at first, perhaps the change of country, language and culture coupled with injuries but it was really last season before he became a first choice. It wasn't that long ago people were suggesting Flanagan or even Halliday start before him. £8 million is a decent profit on him too, he's 27 and in his prime so if we could get £10 million to be honest I'd take it. Surely we can find another left back good enough for the SPFL for a quarter of that.

Correct. Last year top Serie A sides were interested and, I assume, still will be. £8m is nowhere near his value.

Yeah...that is the truth right there. BB has serious skills.

I'll have a guess here, there has been no offer for him!.............................yet!

Leeds will have a budget and when you try to buy a player, you start with low bids. Once a player's head is turned, that's half the battle. Leeds Utd now play in a league watched by people all over the world. Borna Barisic plays in a league no one outside Scotland cares about.

IMHO, yes really. I thin Messi does things with a ball that Ronaldo can only dream about. Huge respect for Ronaldo, but think Messi is the better player. Ronaldo has lifted Portugal for sure but it isnt like he has a poor supporting cast. Messi is unfortunate that his Argentinian colleagues for the past decade have only been world class in the attacking areas and been poor defensively and even in midfield. These things are always subjective but Messi sees things others, even world class players, just don't see. For me it is indicative that when ex-players are asked that age old "Messi or Ronaldo?" question that almost invariably the response is Messi. I even think Messi is better than Maradona (sorry Uilleam) but I do still remember Maradona single-handedly taking a poor Argentina team to the World Cup - and they may have won it in 1994 again as a poor team had he not been banned for shoving the Columbian marching powder up his nose. Maradona may have been even better had he been afforded the protection that today's players get. Still think Messi is the best ever - as I said though, very subjective.

You are among friends, J-J, so do tell: what member of Brandon Barker's family are you shagging?

Not just a problem if coming into contact as you say but with so many players nowadays flying anywhere/everywhere a bigger risk is the coming into contact with airline passengers IMO.

You'll have to ask @Fat Eck the man himself... To be fair, in such situations, it's not all about sprinting but trying to ensure you're in the right position for when the cross comes. In that situation it looked like Barker wasn't trying but I think he was just trying to stay out of the line of the defender by remaining slightly deeper instead of running past his line into an offside position. Generally, I find it difficult to defend Barker as he's making too many elementary errors: his first touch when put clear in the first half was awful whilst his finish (after a better first touch that time) was poor when he hit the side-netting in the second. However, aside from those, I thought he played OK and helped create space for others by taking up some good positions. It's worth remembering that Kent was inconsistent previously and is only really delivering as well as he can now. In that respect, I'd argue it's worth persevering with Barker for another few matches, instead of rotating him back out for a Jones or a Stewart. However, with Itten and Aribo likely to be fit again after the break and, perhaps another attacking player brought in, I think Barker will be back out of the team.

There was a time when I really enjoyed those Soccer Saturday guys, but I must admit I have it on mute nowadays. I can't be arsed with them. All of them are idiots - Nicholas especially. Their opinions on the game are dated. Sometimes you need a change. The MNF change, from Keys and Gray to Neville and Carragher was brilliant. Although, the names being thrown about don't fill me with confidence. Clinton Morrison is an idiot, who barely speaks English. Sue Smith is just blah.

Just in case it needs to be underlined how big a fuck up this is by them (and I don't really think it does)... Scotland are the highest ranked country to no longer have representation in the 20/21 Champions League (and the only country in the top 21 to be out). Hungary are the lowest ranked country still to have a team in CL qualifying. https://www.football-coefficient.eu/