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Yeah; all bets are off...

I do find it a bit odd that we still aren't selling things like Rangers mouse mats, rubber ducks, wall clocks etc. It's easy money.

I don't know if he was a driving force brokering the Australian insanity, but I do know his response to the fans reaction demonstrated how out of touch he is with the grass roots of the club. Our retail is still miles behind where it should be. Have a look at our online shop, then compare us to Hamburg. Visit any of our shops, they are Castore outlets not RFC. The catering at the concessions has been dire for years, an under exploited revenue stream, and the change of provider sadly looks like an opportunity missed. Is Bisgrove doing a good job? Well, its very difficult to improve a brand and increase sales and revenue in a competitive environment, however when you have a customer base that are completely captive, will not defect to a rival brand and will often forgive poor service and product due to blind loyalty, then the task should become much easier.

So basically all the strikes have been specifically planned to coincide with our home games. Smells dodgy. I hope they get F all. If you don’t like the pay and conditions, quit and see if you can find a better job out in the real world of the private sector.

Can't believe Chelsea have extended Gilmour's contract and then dumped him in the Development squad. Tuchel is a fanny.

Got an emergency call this morning--"Dad could you take Arran(grandson) over to Ibrox as he has tickets for training session?. Needles to say was out of door in minutes to collect him and seeing look on his face when we got there---priceless. Wished someone could have seen look on MY FACE on seeing Alfie hit back of net probably even more priceless.

Has he signed, or is he still in Transit?

Been in Ibiza for 2 weeks watching the transfer thread on FF. Been Hilarious and fun. Started off with Sack Wilson what's going on no activity and finished up with Fuck sake we are spending too much but Wilson is a god.

Gilmour wouldn't present any value to us. wouldn't improve us as a loan and would be far to expensive compared to what he would bring as a buy.

Looks like a young Sasa Papac. Here is hoping he can at least do as well as SP.

Rıdvan Yılmaz has already become the darling of Rangers fans because of the abbreviation BJK

An enjoyable sight from Ibrox today....

Fair enough, but others were moaning about adverts on shirts not me. I suspect the majority of those offended by the nature of our sponsors wouldn't buy a top anyway. Partnerships and sponsorships may very well be flourishing under Bisgrove, I have no idea if they could be better, or if he's maximising to the utmost. Its the other retail areas that both affect and concern me. A recent example, @forlanssisterand I visited the Rangers store in Belfast, now I'm always up for buying memorabilia and club related merchandise, but I walked out empty handed. There was nothing to be purchased save sports gear, sized and designed for a much younger and athletic version of Gaspard. As I mentioned, HSV are a great example of football club retail, superb range, reasonable prices and efficient service.

I think he picked up a knock, pretty sure I remember GVB referring to it in an interview

It is one thing some saying that James Bisgrove/Rangers commerce..... is doing an excellent job. How important to fans, is that part of the excellence would appear to be making deals that end up treating the support like shit. From merchandise to catering and a whole load of stuff in between. Promised improvements rarely materialise. Football supporters and their loyalty have generally been taken advantage, ie. it is obviously not exclusive to Rangers. Nor is say, relatively poor catering anything new. But the improvement in the commercial for the club is partly down to squeezing the support with as little as possible in return. The creation of MyGers seemed to me like a dubious scheme to eliminate the thought process in the pursuit of sales accross the board. It is a competitive world,... but it is one thing offering a degree of value and another, when it is so often ripping the pish. If that is just business, are the support just clients? Is it that the majority of the support understand the financial need of the club and are happy, or at least accept the situation ? Should the club start giving a little bit back in terms of value and better service, etc?

Speed is nice...but it breaks a lot.

He looks like Halliday wearing a wig 🙂

Don’t like it at all, diagonal split red and white not for me. Plus the advertising especially on the sleeve is too much.

Rıdvan Yılmaz Transfers to Rangers FC Beşiktaş Futbol A.Ş. reported to KAP that an agreement has been reached with Rangers FC club for the definitive transfer of our professional football player Rıdvan Yılmaz. The statement sent from Beşiktaş Futbol Yatirimlari Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. to the Public Disclosure Platform is as follows: “About the final transfer of our professional football player Rıdvan Yılmaz to Rangers FC Club; It has been agreed that a guarantee fee of 4,000,000 Euros, a contingent fee of 2,250,000 Euros, and 20% of the net transfer income will be paid to our Company in the event that the player is leased to another club while his contract with Rangers FC is still in effect.” https://bjk.com.tr/tr/haber/84136/ridvan-yilmaz-rangers-fcye-transfer-oldu.html Not a bad deal I think..

Good news. Time to forget about all of the rubbish and get on with the football.

It’s odds on to be banned

Whilst I understand that they pump millions into game. Having to explain to my 7yr old what 32 red is/means I s not great. Also seeing teenagers knocking around with them on is not a great sight! Although it would never happen, it would be great if we be could of had the "team talk" or"biowave" sponsor as a choice.

After such a protracted and expensive struggle to get retail/merchandise back from Mr.MASH. It certainly isn't being fully taken advantage of and supporter goodwill to the Castore approach is understandably low. Entirely predictable I think a decision was taken to add incentives (mygers) to the "blind loyalty" just to make sure there would be a continued / higher level of take-up/sales over many different revenue streams. Ie. In many areas of 'service', rhetoric and lip service is as far as they actually intend to go. As for Bisgrove, if he is hitting his targets, the targets aren't interested in what the supporter thinks.

Lowry is out for several more weeks apparently.

Is anyone else having trouble with this? Very frequently (most of the time) when I click on a thread I'm hit with the "Something went wrong. Please try again." page. Refreshing the page usually takes me to the posts. Seems to be linked to there being new posts to view. I'm having the same issue on a windows computer and my android phone.

Probably a temporary server issue. We'll monitor and refer to hosts if it persists...

Yes - I've been getting this, this morning:

I've made a PL fantasy league for anyone interested. It's a good bit of fun, and it makes the PL season more interesting. Here's the link to get involved: https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/1wxjge League Code: 1wxjge

Fully expecting him to vanish for 6 months and appear after the world cup break built like hulk hogan.

Perhaps, however i don't think there is much associated service to be provided with the partnerships we have with the likes of BOXT, 32 red or black rooster. The catering deal and merchandising - 100% service based but should have a dedicated head of service along with matchday tickets and hospitality.

Any word on Lowry? I was disappointed not to see him involved during pre-season.

Some aspects of the customer service provided by the club are undoubtedly poor. They don't seem to pay much attention to the complaints received (probably due to staffing issues and the whole captive market thing), so the only way to make them sit up and take note is to vote with your feet and buy your food/merchandise elsewhere.

Depends what his remit is. His focus (IMO) seems to be revenue in and not service based. In terms of the first part he is doing ok. Its a long term nut to crack to get us where we need to be commercially, and our exposure last season should make his job easier and revenue capability much higher. But your points of the shop and food stalls are very valid. Whoever is in charge of this stuff needs to get on it. There is only so long people will give good grace to the club around these areas. We understand the current board inherited a basket case of a club and it takes time to transition to a well oiled machine. But it would be nice to see signs of that transition taking place.

I buy at least one top each season not for the sponsors name on front but because the club earns some much needed cash from the sale.

Maybe just me but I won't wear tops with Nike/Adidas or any other multi national company splashed over the front. They do not pay me to give them free advertising and considering if you have bought the top actually paid them to advertise their stuff. I may be in a different zone to others but this is my feelings.

Can’t argue with that although I do like my ‘keepers to be shot stoppers first and foremost. It sort of fits with the job description. McGregor’s problem is that his command of the box, never his strongest suit, is diminishing leading to errors and goals so McLaughlin it should be.

The challenge for Rangers is so different from what the likes of Spurs face. They get handed £130m every year for doing nothing, we get a tiny fraction of that. They buy players for tens of £millions and pay them salaries our players can only dream of. Season after season they don't have to win anything but we if go 3 games without winning there's hell to pay. Yet we win trophies and conjure up astonishing European results when they don't. It's not hard to make a case for Rangers being a far, far bigger and better club than Spurs, West Ham, etc. What we achieved these last couple of seasons is outstanding and we should bear that in mind when criticising our players or performances.

IMO, Spurs will finish 3rd this season and will give the top 2 in England a run for their money. Conte is a top coach and he has some truly world class players. I watched Spurs do the same thing to Liverpool last season at Anfield so losing 2-1 to a quality side carries no shame. They are probably the best team we'll play all season (depending on CL qualification)

Post lifted from FF: Thirteen years now I’ve been following Turkish football as an Ankaragücü fan. In that time I’ve seen some talented players coming though especially of late with the likes of Yusuf Yazici who Trabzonspor sold to Lille for £15 Million, Abdulkadir Omer also from Trabzonspor who is arguably more talented but had injury problems, Altay Bayindr from Ankaragücü who is now with Fenerbahce and worth over £20 million, and the best of them all Arda Gurler who is one of the best young players I’ve ever seen. He was playing with Fenerbahce last season aged only 16. Ridvan Yilmaz has the potential to be a top player, I would say only Arda has a higher ceiling. When I first saw him play I thought he was a midfielder because he played so high up the pitch and was so comfortable on the ball. He can also finish when he gets into the box as he is very calm and confident and doesn’t just blast the ball hoping for the best. People have questioned his height, but to be honest it’s never something I’ve noticed on the pitch because it’s not something that has been an area of weakness and he is very competitive. The way Geo sets the team up especially at home Ridvan is the perfect player to play at Left back. With the amount of possession we have Ridvan rarely gives the ball away, can pick a pass and his link up play with Kent should be very entertaining. If we ever went with 3 at the back he can play in that 5 on the left hand side as Besiktas played with 3 at the back. In the games I’ve saw him his crossing has been good too, but I know some of the Besiktas fans I spoke with said it’s an area he is working on and has been improving as it can be inconsistent. Defensively too he has a good football brain and although it’s an area of improvement he still has been playing at a consistent level on that side of the pitch. The Turkish League isn’t as physical as the SPL but it’s not far off especially in the derby matches where it can be pretty intense. He should be able to adapt to that but it will take a bit of time. Something I think Rangers have done very well with in recent years is signing likeable players with good characters that adds to the dressing room togetherness. Ridvan is a very nice young guy with a lot of integrity. He gives his parents his salary and takes pocket money for himself, he grew up a Besiktas fan and has been with them since he was a child. He told Besiktas he wanted to leave just now in order to allow them to receive a good transfer fee and tonight he gave an interview with the media where he had tears speaking about saying goodbye to the club he loved. I think most of use could relate to that if we ever played with Rangers and the day came where we were moving on (they would have to force me out lol). Turkish football is notorious for not giving opportunities to young players and a lot of youngsters aged 20-23 have hardly played any games. The Istanbul teams are even worse, but the financial climate has saw all of them starting to bring more players though. The fact that Ridvan broke into Besiktas team at 18 speaks volumes, and even more impressive is that he broke into national team at 20. You don’t tend to get players at that age playing regularly in Turkey. There will still be areas of growth for Ridvan and he will need time to come in and get used to a new culture, style of football, language etc, but he has come from another club where the fans demand success and draws aren’t good enough. He will be used to the pressure and atmosphere and I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on. You also have to consider he has been impressive playing in Besiktas teams who aren’t at the level they used to be. Turkey has a lot of talent coming through and hopefully we look at the market in the future. I’ve recommended 2 young players to Ross Wilson and Ross Mulholland who are aged 16-17 and have big futures. Whether they look at them is up to them, it looks like their scouting strategy is getting better and we are in a good place. And I say that as someone who has questioned some of the transfer decisions in the past, maybe it was a case of working in an extremely difficult market with no money. Roll on the new season and hopefully Ridvan and the team have a successful one!

Excellent PR exercise. We need to be doing as much of these profile-raising exercises as we can muster.

Ross Wilson has done a fantastic job this window both in selling and buying. However, if we could shift Roofe, Simpson, Middleton, Kelly etc for even nominal fees then we could claim he's had a blinder 😉

I don’t mind it on the 3rd strip, and it doesn’t seem too bad on the away, but it’s awful on the home for me.

Club 1872 Statement on BBC Scotland Dear Contributor, Club 1872 notes today’s announcement by BBC Scotland that they have reached agreement with Rangers to resume coverage for the 2022/23 season, following a period where they refused to adequately cover Rangers games. Whilst cautiously welcoming this development, we note that BBC Scotland has not in fact acknowledged the inherent bias in much of their coverage of the club over the past decade. They have chosen instead to restate the apologies they have already made - the majority of which had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, out of their senior management following detailed complaints from Club 1872 and hundreds of individual Rangers supporters. This climb down by BBC Scotland is a victory for all those supporters, and we thank those supporters for their considerable time and effort, but it does not address the core problem. Without a wholesale change in the culture at BBC Scotland, which does not appear to have taken place, it remains to be seen whether they are able to ensure pundits like Michael Stewart adhere to BBC editorial standards despite multiple breaches involving Rangers in the past. In the meantime, we are pleased that Rangers supporters will once again have access to the coverage that their licence fee pays for. The quality and fairness of that coverage will now be the focus over the coming months.

That may be as close to a contrite apology (and confession of being in the wrong) as you will get from the BBC. I remain of the opinion that talk is cheap, and that BBC Sports Scotland is a department which should be redd out completely, top to bottom, stem to stern. If this doesn't happen, then I anticipate much mealy-mouthed snidery from the usual suspects, much as before, but not so blatant. Of course, no doubt these people will be "ragin'", which is a Good Thing, of itself, and fulminating among themselves about how they will subvert what may at least indicate a new editorial policy. It is, of course, not over, until it is over.