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Ouch, @Sutton_blows_goats. That's the most esoteric burn I've ever read. "It gets amortised"!

I can't believe I forgot my favourite moment of Rangers goalkeeping, now the thread can close!

Superb analysis, John. I saw Brown but I really only know him by reputation. George Niven was excellent and Billy Ritchie even better, the epitome of reliability with superb anticipation and positional sense. I can’t remember Ritchie having to fly about the goal performing miracle saves nor can I remember him losing daft goals. He must have done, I suppose. I really liked Chris Woods. I hoped he would stay for a while because I didn’t think he could be bettered. Peter McCloy is often ridiculed but his record speaks for itself. Playing for Motherwell against the Hibs he made the best save I ever saw, equal to Gordon Banks’ effort. Goram and McGregor, both performers of miracles over and over again every one of them seeming more impossible than the previous. So it has to be either of these two or Ritchie. I see the professional goalkeeper among us has gone unhesitatingly for Goram. Only a fool would fail to agree with that choice. OK. It’s Billy Ritchie.

Regency bias is always present in these discussions. Andy Goram played 181 games for Rangers and for those of us lucky to have seen him he literally won matches for us, Leeds away and numerous Celtic matches come to mind. While the perfect keeper for that time, I doubt Goram would be our number one now, his kicking wasn't his strength, but his agility, reflexes and ability to get inside opposing players and managers heads was unrivalled. Stefan Klos played 254 times for Rangers, a wonderful return for a player who looked after himself and studied the game. Like Goram he wasn't strong with his passing but his ability to pull off saves was equal to Goram's in my opinion. Klos lacked the personality of Goram, he was quieter and didn't have the rapport with the support that Goram did. But 'der goalie' was an incredible Rangers keeper. Bobby Brown spent the 7 seasons before joining Rangers fighting in the 2nd world war. Training to be a PE teacher and playing with Queens Park he joined up along with 5 of his fellow students. He was the only one of them to return. Brown played for Rangers 211 times, a period when Scottish football was genuinely competitive. Bill Struth chose Brown as his first choice for 8 seasons, Brown then remained as an understudy to George Niven for a further 2 years. George Niven himself made 221 appearances for Rangers, holding the number 1 spot for nearly a decade. He holds the unusual distinction of being the Scot with the most appearances for Rangers to have never gone on and played for his country. His successor was Billy Ritchie, who some on the forum might have seen play. He made 207 appearances for Rangers, including a European final. Where regency bias is a negative is with Allan McGregor. I think McGregor is our all time best goalkeeper. I didn't see Niven, Brown or Ritchie play, but I did see Goram, Klos and McGregor and the latter edges it for me. I suspect many of our memories are clouded by last season, a season to far for McGregor. But McGregor made 346 appearances for Rangers and pulled off the two best saves I've ever watched, against Bremen and Slavia. McGregor combined agility and instinctive reflexes with a commanding presence and a will to win that helped transform our dressing room into league winners. These things are subjective, but for me Allan McGregor shades it, but there's some competition for his place.

He seems to be well thought of as a coach, has previous experience of coaching in Belgium and knows the Scottish league well, he's hardly a controversial appointment. I have an admiration for someone who can face their self destructive behaviour, deal with it and then remain sober for 25 years. I'd be concerned if Rae was being appointed manager, but as part of a coaching team under Clement I think his place makes sense. Clement doesn't come across as someone who suffers fools or is swayed by sentiment. I expect he'll remove Rae if he doesn't feel he's contributing what he needs. Whatever happens speaking about him with a little respect costs nothing.

As it's the international break, I thought we could partake in a little exercise doing the rounds on social media. Every day for 11 days (11 days, 11 players) we'll pick the best all-time Rangers player for each position. The most voted/mentioned player gets added to the lineup. Day 1: Goalkeeper. Who is the best all-time Rangers 'keeper? [LCF - Day 10] - [RCF - Day 11] [LW - Day 6] - [LCM - Day 7] - [RCM - Day 8] - [RW - Day 9] [LB - Day 2] - [LCB - Day 3] - [RCB - Day 4] - [RB - Day 5] [GK - Day 1]

He did have a rather shaky start but in the scheme of things it was really quite brief and hardly impacts on his worth as a Rangers keeper.

too finance for me mate I’m out 😂

Yeah, but that gets amortised over the period of their contracts and it's a different line in the accounts. It's comparing cashflow with profit.

We qualified for the Champions League and made a £23.6m profit on player trading and still managed to make a loss before tax of £3.1m. A £9.2m increase in staff costs. Legal costs and resolution of contractual settlements of £1.33m. Obviously we don't have a split between the two but we only had a provision of £425K in the previous year's account. £13m of loans from the directors are helping, but while they're not great in themselves, the next few years could be problematic if we can't maintain a £10m+ player trading profit.

On the same note Bobby Shearer taking over from the injured Billy Ritchie at Tynecastle after about eleven minutes, no subs of course. He conceded a goal in the second half but the Famous scored three. What a game, what a night in the days when the Hearts had taken over from the Hibs as Rangers’ main challengers

McGregor won more trophies than Goram. Just sayin'...

I wonder if, over time, McGregor will come to shade Goram in these discussions?

..... and what a captain.

I almost chose Ritchie too but decided I probably didn't actually see enough of him to make a proper decision.

* Gets written off over a number of years 🤷‍♂️😂

Goram wasn't just the best Rangers keeper but the best I personally saw in any team. Some of Goram's performances still trouble me greatly. He did some things that should have been impossible, most of them on a cold Tuesday evening in February at Pittodrie in 1993.

There were only two?

Even more surprising... nobody has mentioned Andy Goram!

Not sure why there’s a tortoise but I’m no financial expert

Sounds like a euphemism. What are you trying to say?

Looking through my above list, I note we signed three(including Peter McCloy) of our mainstay Keepers over a thirty year period from the mighty claret and amber. I am not attempting to veer off topic but I have a story from my time in the early 70s at Fir Park Boys Club. I arrived in 1971 to play in the under 15s and Peter McCloy's replacement was a 19 year old Keith MacRae. When we trained on Tuesday and Thursday evenings under the guidance of Joe Wark and Northern Irish international, Sammy Campbell. Regularly, an all in black clad MacRae would join in as an outfield player. He was a fine sweeper and had already made a couple of appearances for Motherwell as a right back. Keith's nickname was, 'Yashin' after the similarly all black Russian goalie. The 'Well received a bid of £100,000 from Manchester City for the then 21 year old and off he went to Maine Road to succeed Joe Corrigan. It was considered an unbelievable sum for a keeper back in those days. Considering Motherwell had experienced a decade of McCloy and MacRae, it was also unbelievable that their replacement was ra Sellik's clusterfcuk, John Fallon.

I'll see your Bonni Ginzburg and raise you Charbonier, Niemi and Dibble. 🙂

There are a number of Keepers I witnessed playing for Rangers that have so far received no mention, from memory: Norrie Martin - Billy Ritchie's understudy for a dozen years, made 115 appearances but unfortunate with injuries. Eric Sorensen - One of Hal Stewart's Scandinavian imports. We bought him from Morton in 1967 for £25,000 and he returned to Greenock in 1970. Gerry Neef - A fine German keeper signed by Davie White. He played in our League Cup final success(big DJ's headed goal) in 1970. 48 appearances but most folks remember he had been both a Binman and a Polis in his native Hausham. Jim Stewart - Came to us from Middlesborough and made 55 appearances over four seasons. Returned to Rangers a couple of times in coaching roles. Nicky Walker - Arrived from Motherwell and appeared in 75 games. He won a couple of League Cups. Currently, a Director of the family shortbread firm, 'Walkers'. Bonni Ginzburg - Israeli international signed by Souness, made four appearances. Ally Maxwell - Another stopper from the 'Well, signed as Goram's back up for four seasons. He made 53 appearances, winning the League Cup against Hibs in 1993. I will allow other Gernetters to bring us up to date on those that wore the gloves?

In 2 years time. Better late than never.

A wild bull of a ‘keeper if I remember right or was it just a myth?

It should be in the rule book grass pitches only all others need not apply

We’ve been blessed with great keepers so what’s it based on games played or shut outs I don’t have those figures. Dawson , Goram , Ritchie, Kloss , ,Brown or McCloy Think big Peter played the most helped us win a European trophy so he’s my number one

Also at the core of some fabulous European victories.

Klos is my favourite keeper of ours, but Goram was more of a match winner if that makes sense?. Also, Klos never really had a great record against the rheptiles, but then a keeper is only as good as the 10 guys in front of him.

I disagree. Goram was very good with the ball at his feet.

The Goalie. Best in the world for a couple of years. I can't think of another Rangers player who we could claim that about during my time watching the Gers.

Goram, but McGregor was robbed of it by the 2012 debacle. He would have been our #1 for 15 years and gone down in history as the best ever for us.

Goram. Thread closed. 🙂

"Naive Celtic need to learn from the masters of the dark arts". Above is the headline from today's Herald. There is a struggle to come to terms with Tuesday evening's Champions League skelping in Madrid. The Journo penning the piece is Graeme McGarry, the Herald's current Senior Sports Writer; recently before his designation was, Senior Celtic Writer. Graeme is a growing group of obsessive scarred Journos attending weekly self help meetings. However the group hugs(should that be Huddle) are not enough, you have to write Sellik View pysh to attain a tad more comfort. Anyways, below are the first two paragraphs, any further exposure will have you searching for your own self help groupings. "If you are going to get a lesson in the dark arts of football, then you may as well get it from the masters. Atletico Madrid's jaw dropping Estadio Municipal could well be the Harvard of football's dirty tricks, and how to deploy them while testing the boundaries of the rulebook. Certainly, there was more than a whiff of orchestration about the way the entire Atletico bench sprung up in unison when Celtic winger, Daizen Maeda went in late to a challenge with their defender, Mario Hermoso, and how they then crowded referee, Ivan Kruzliak to keep the pressure on him as he reviewed the incident on the VAR screen". Graeme let me remind you of the final result : Atletico 6(SIX) Sellik 0. The only dark arts are allowing Kevin McKenna to whisper whilst he sticks his tongue in your ear.