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Diddums. Stop playing the victim. Managers leave--with their backroom staff--all the time. We'll be fine. Quite frankly, I think we'll be better off, because we've been p*sh this season. If we were still plodding along the way we've been going, we would have been in trouble after December - and everyone would be calling for SG and his backroom staff to go. If something comes out that paints it in a different light, I'll put my hands up. Until then, it's conspiracy nonsense. It seems to be coming from those that least wanted him to go. They've gone a full 180. I agree with the last point: I too don't care what happens to him now. I'm grateful for what he's done, and now he's moved on. It was always going to happen. My focus is on my club.

I don't get why fans what to focus on and expand so much energy on someone they think is a "snake" / "rat" instead of focussing on what remains. What remains is far more important than what has departed. What remains has been here for 150 years and will be around for another 150 years. What remains is one of the biggest and best institutions in world football. What remains is a club who prosper from adversity. What remains deserves our undivided focus, attention and energy. Those who have left don't.

Great post. We are Rangers. No player or manager matters in comparison.

In that, or similar, instance, the Club would be in control of the situation, and, one would like to think, making decisions in the best interests of the Club; that is a very different scenario from that of Mr Gerrard sneakily and surreptitiously engineering a departure for him and all his staff, leaving the Club in a hole, the depth of which has yet to be established. It has little to do, ultimately, with 'loyalty', but very much to do with the impact on the Club of the manager's underhand machinations. He buggered off, sharpish, very sharpish, indeed, and left the Club with a series of problems; but, och, these things happen, he is a great guy, he delivered 55, and we should be forever grateful to him. Not for me; and remember, before we get all misty eyed, he was paid to deliver the League Title: it was his job.

Let's just imagine for a moment that Gerrard stayed. Come the new Year OF match, Celtic are only two points behind. They win the match to go top. Cue hysteria for sacking the manager from the same quarters which are currently decrying the lack of loyalty. This is exactly what would have happened but I doubt whether the people screaming for the sack would describe themselves as snakes

Sad to see so much hatred directed to Steven Gerrard by our so called loyal fans the only thing hatred destroys is yourselves. For goodness sake grow up .

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I schooled with Lulu's sister, Edwina and the family are solid. I watched a two hour documentary 20 years past, Jools Holland was hosting a take on early British Blues. We are talking early sixties, on the cusp of the Beatles. Contributors were Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Chris Farlowe, Mick Fleetwood, Al Green .... etc. They talked about the the best interpreters and players. It was agreed the Female contribution was on the light side, obvious exceptions being Dusty Springfield, Kiki Dee, Elkie Brooks, ..... Anyways, the Toms, Vans, Als ..... all agreed the one that could do it live was Lulu, check out her interpretation of , 'To Sir with Love'. Lulu opened the Edmiston Club, the Club should invite her back to open the new Edmiston when opened. A night of Blues with Lulu -sounds good and most appropriate.

I don't see that being frustrated about Gerrard leaving and stripping the club almost all backroom staff means that you're playing the victim. When do Rangers managers voluntarily leave with their backroom staff? We're top of the league, still with a great chance of getting out the European group stage and our next game is a SF, and yet we've been "pish" and if we carried on like we have been everyone would be calling for Gerrard to go? Who is coming up with conspiracy nonsense? If you feel that we are better off with Gerrard leaving, why weren't you calling for his sacking?

That's all we can do! let's hope Vanbronckhorst gets the job, and quick, he needs hit the ground running, on Monday morning!!

Gerrard isn't a snake or a rat - he's a Scouser, who has acted in his own interests. He's gone. Let's get on with winning the league.

Agreed but experience can be somewhat overrated in some cases. Especially if their most recent "experience" is generally mediocre. For example, Scotland recently got Alex McLeish in due to his "experience". Most of the good things that McLeish created happened about 13/14 years ago. Everything after that was negative and riddled with over fussy and reactionary football. Let's not forget SG had no experience whatsoever and in one season gave us an identity. Was it perfect? No. But it was a far cry from the Tims skelping us by 4/5 goals and getting beat by some no marks for Luxembourg.

That third bullet point is the highlight of my day.

Great! £20 Million, Stevie boy!

That's exactly what we need. If the new manager sees Rangers as a stepping stone to bigger things then he can only gravitate to those higher levels by being a success. We're not going to get a manager who is here to build a dynasty. Those days are gone. The only people that should be building dynasties are the current custodians of Rangers by always appointing a manager with a progressive vision that cements and builds upon the overall identity of our play.

He was always gonna take his backroom staff with him, wasn't a surprise they all left with him. And left us in a worse state than China? Come on......

You are booked into the dressing room for 3pm next Sunday @CammyF - well said Sir

I love how how he points to his ears towards the tartan Muppets. One of our own

Fair point - make that three then.

Wish he would. How is he even still in the squad when Middleton (who played well for the U21s last night) can't seem to get a look in?

Nothing more than lazy journalism - we heard the same when Rodgers left for LCFC.

I think so. Souness? Advocaat resigned, but he 'went upstairs'. Didn't McLeish have to bring his own backroom staff in, like Watson? I can't recall, though. PLG? Warburton did, taking the best in the business. But I didn't say Rangers managers leave with the backroom staff, but managers generally. Managers have their own backroom staff nowadays, so I don't think we should be so hurt about that aspect of it. I agree it leaves us in the lurch a wee bit, but like I said, Managers have their own team nowadays, so I suspect if they remained in place they'd be replaced with the new manager's team anyway, and have to be paid off. I believe if we carried on the way we've been playing, we would have dropped a lot of points over December, yes. That's not conspiracy, merely speculation and projection. I was hopeful he could turn our form around. I've been quite clear that I've been disappointed and bored with our performances this season; I've posted such a few times.

That's not what I said.

No club will be looking at Jack based on his injury record alone.

It broke my heart ?‍♂️?‍♂️????

I didn't say you did. His leaving doesn't impact the club any more or less than the last manager who left during a season, or the one before him, or the ones before that. He isn't the first and won't be the last Rangers manager to leave during a season. They leave with us top of league, in cup semi-final and with a great opportunity to qualify from our EL Group. We have the best squad of players we've had in years. Football managers come and go and we as a club should have all scenarios covered and to be fair, it looks like we have had plans in place for this eventuality. One candidate already interviewed (this morning) and two other candidates to interview over the weekend. Day or two evaluate the interviews and the candidates and replacement in place early next week.

Kamara and Kent only players I can see SG comimg back for. He might take Goldson as backup but he's shopping in a different supermarket now.

Gerrard has left us sneakily, and in the shit, and for that he deserves as much opprobrium as we can throw at him. Whatever happens, if there is a benefit, it will be nothing to do with Gerrard; it would be Old Dame Fortune playing us right, as much as anything else. If people, later in the hypothetical season would call for his dismissal, then the Club would have to make a decision, in its own interests, and would be able to control, substantially, any process of removal and replacement. That is not the case when, as now, the manager and all his staff up sticks and move, rather suddenly. Note too, that the urgency required, given that there is no one left to run the team, puts the Club in a rather weak negotiating position. It's at least arguable that it is not able to control the process as it would wish. It has nothing to do with 'loyalty', and I don't care about Gerrard's reasons, it is about the potential impact the sudden departures will have on the squad, and on the rest of this rather important season. I see no reason to wish him well, rather the opposite.

That's all we're ever going to get in this shitty set up.

The last thing we need is another stepping stone manager.

Delete!

Wow that’s a depressing list. Hopefully we are looking at some options the press hasn’t got wind of.

Fair enough Mikey, but how’s about having a word with your employer and encourage them to stop short-changing us with the pittance you pay for the TV rights.

If the players aren't professional enough to continue to improve without SG, that's on them not SG. Managers come and go every day of the week. Loyalty is no longer a word associated with football unfortunately. Why focus on the negatives or why focus on someone who has left? Why not focus on what is in front of us? Depending on who we hire, it may turn out to be an upgrade - if rather focus on this rather than wasting what little energy I have on someone who has left (no matter the circumstance of their departure).

Don't be so wet. He has just ripped the piss out of the Club in organising his move, he has left it in a very deep hole with a stuttering and confused group of players, with no one -at all- to take charge, with very important games on the horizon. Thus we now have a Board having to replace an entire coaching team, in very short order, and with those replacements having to hit the ground running, and running hard. I don't care about his reasons. I care only about the impact of his decisions on the Club, and I fear that he may have fucked it royally, at least as far as this critical season is concerned. Forgive me if I don't wish him God speed and good luck.

Against a backcloth of a team that has seemed stale and poorly motivated for some time, comes the resignation of Steven Gerrard and his entire backroom staff. We are expected to believe that these people were all approached, negotiated personal terms and concluded contracts in the short time between Dean Smith being sacked on Sunday and Aston Villa revealing their new management team 4 days later. Much more likely, this group had been approached well before Dean Smith was sacked and it was merely a matter of allowing a decent few days to pass before making the announcement. We all know this is almost certainly the case. However, it raises another question. Were Gerrard and his staff entertaining previous approaches from other clubs while still in place at Rangers and could that to some extent explain or have contributed to the decline we've all seen on the park these last 3 months? Was it known among the players that the management team wanted out? Conspiracy theory or plausible possibility? One thing seems sure, their move to Aston Villa was a little too smooth and seamless to naively believe it came out of the blue and, if that's the case, then Gerrard and his staff have indeed shown enormous and unforgivable disrespect to a club that only ever treated them well.

He came to get his first job and build his reputation. He's done that. He's done a wonderful job. But it's clear he wants the Liverpool job eventually, and he'll not be able to go from us to that job. He needs another step. I hate to break it to you but we can't compete with (a) Villa, who spent £250M over the last season or two, or (b) the PL, the richest league in the world.